The Weekend Report

The Hotel Transylvania Universe now owns the top two September openings of all time, which still makes HT2 only the fifth best animation opening of the year. But from the other perspective, it is the best Sony Animation opening ever, as they continue to inch their way into competition with the other major animation players. Nancy Meyers’ first non-December opening (The Intern) does… okay… ish, as the dry season for WB continues. And The Green Inferno delivers a career-low launch for Eli Roth. Everest added conventional screens to last weekend’s special format debut and grossed $13.1 million.

Friday Box Office Estimates

Hotel Transylvania 2 matches September expectations with a successful animated opening, up 20% from the original. The Intern, Nancy Meyers’ first non-December opening as a solo director, will be in line with her previous boutiques. And The Green Inferno brings the gore to 1540 screens and could bleed $4 million for the weekend.

Pride’s Friday 5: The Walk, Manglehorn, Results, A Brilliant Young Mind, Wenders On Wyeth

When Philippe Petit became Le Pétomane. Two new movies, two new Blu-rays, Wim Wenders capably describing a great painting.

The DVD Wrapup: Beresford, Saint Laurent, Techine, Red Road, Dennis Hopper and more

Edward Woodward, Bryan Brown and Lewis Fitz-Gerald are terrifically effective in their portrayal of the defendants, never overplaying the hands dealt their characters or wringing unwarranted sympathy for them out of viewers. Thompson, one of the most popular of all Australian actors, was awarded the Best Supporting Actor prize at the Cannes Film Festival for his portrayal of Thomas, whose frustration is palpable from the time his motion requesting more time to prepare his case is quashed. Beresford’s greatest achievement, however, was opening up Kenneth G. Ross’ play, “Breaker Morant: A Play in Two Acts,” as a way of putting the defendants’ actions into the larger context of a long, brutal and imperialistic war.

The Weekend Report

Hardly autumnal weekend moviegoing lit up with two national debuts. Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials bowed at the top of the charts to an estimated $30.2 million while gangster opus Black Mass arrived with $23.1 million. There was also good news for the platforming Everest peaking at $7.5 million but religious conversion drama Captive failed to inspire with a $1.4 million tally.

Friday Box Office Estimates

Maybe I’m a-Mazed that the Maze sequel opened to just 5% off the first of the series. Black Mass opens very similarly to Public Enemies (though that Depp gangster film opened on a Wednesday). You can bring the Universal box office mountain (and Brolin and Clarke) to Jake G, but Everest can’t bring in much more than a third of Southpaw‘s opening day number. And Paramount allows Captive (which seems more direct-to-EPIX than anything else) to escape… but almost no one notices.

23 Weeks To Oscar: The Less Things Change

An amazing thing happened at the festivals this last couple weeks…

Nothing.

Okay, perhaps nothing is an exaggeration.

But mostly, nothing.

The DVD Wrapup: Blind Chance, Furious 7, Monkey Kingdom, Borowczyk and more

Blind Chance: Criterion Collection: Blu-ray At the time of his death in 1996, at the far-too-young age of 54, Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski had become one of the most widely admired writer/directors on the planet. His name might not have meant much to mainstream audiences in Western Europe and United States, but, among critics and…

The Gronvall Report: Kim Novak on Being Kim Novak

Hollywood in the 1950s was both the right and wrong place and time for being Kim Novak. It was the right spot and moment for ingénue model Marilyn Pauline Novak to be groomed, promoted, and zealously protected by Columbia Pictures mogul Harry Cohn as his answer to 20th Century-Fox’s Marilyn Monroe. But by the time he died in 1958, the first tremors of America’s postwar youthquake rocked Hollywood, and the high-gloss, sophisticated adult pictures that Novak made under his aegis were fading away. Although in real life she was more comfortable in California’s counterculture, her professional roots were in the studio system, and her transition in the 1960s to a changing industry landscape was not smooth.

The Weekend Report

The Perfect Guy and The Visit may end the weekend neck-and-neck, with $26.3 million and $25.7 million, respectively.

Confessions Of A Film Festival Junkie

I’m compelled to say a few things about choice. And how it’s been raining in Toronto the entire weekend.

Friday Box Office Estimates

The Perfect Guy steps out to $9.2 million, with The Visit‘s rude Grandma right behind at $9.2 million. The War Room‘s slack-attack slackens at $2.2 with a $33.7 cume but only a 7% drop; A Walk in The Woods drops 35% for $1.4 million, a 35% drop and $16.7 million to date.

Confessions Of A Film Festival Junkie — TIFF40

It’s a tradition that my first TIFF pic is Cannes’ Palme d’or winner. Dheepan is unquestionably potent stuff, as one would expect from Jacques Audiard, whose filmography includes The Prophet and Rust and Bone.

Confessions Of A Film Festival Junkie – TIFF40

The Toronto International Film Festival evolved as a journey rather than a slog. Back when Clint Eastwood was a star, not an auteur, and Rocky and Star Wars were not yet on the horizon, there was the The Festival of Festivals, concocted by a trio of entrepreneurial hustlers in the city with the not-yet-proud nickname of “Hogtown.” The first event screened a couple of dozen films at the theater at Ontario Place.

The Weekend Report: Labor Day Weekend Estimates

War Room washed the feet of all comers, with $12.6 million estimated in the plate; Straight Outta Compton took second with $11 million. A Walk In The Woods ambled to a leafy $10.4 million.

The Weekend Report

War Room inspired and denied Straight Outta Compton a fourth week at the top of the charts as they respectively grossed $9.4 million and $8.8 million for the three-day portion of the Labor holiday. The grumpy old trampers of A Walk in the Woods weathered well in third with $8.1 million while Transporter Refueled ran on an only partially-filled tank with $7.1 million. The Mexican animated Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos proved unexpectedly potent with an eggcellent $3.5 million from 395 cocinas.

Friday Box-Office Estimates

Top four entries are unlikely end-of-summer, pre-holiday bedfellows in the $2.2-$2.4 million range: Besson sans Statham; the persistence of Christian mental martial arts; rollicking rap hagiography and classically grumpy geezers.

The DVD Wrapup: Boulevard, D Train, Gemma Bovary, Good Kill, Felt, Aquarius, Haven and more

Ever since Jack Black broke into the spotlight some 15 years ago in HBO’s “Tenacious D: The Complete Master Works,” High Fidelity and Shallow Hal, the likable musician/actor has worked feverishly to remain in its direct glare. At 5-foot-6, it hasn’t always been easy to remain visible, but, in Hollywood, being short isn’t always the liability it is in, say, the NBA.