Posts Tagged ‘carlos’
Friday, December 31st, 2010
So here’s my list of The Ten Best Movies of 2010, plus Honorable Mentions and a separate list of documentaries. I know it’s customary at this time to write about how awful a year it was, and how I had to struggle to find ten movies worthy of recognition, and how Hollywood is so bankrupt artistically and so bereft intellectually that the mere act of compiling a ten best list has become supremely dubious and morally questionable. But actually, I thought the moves were one of the few good things about 2010. (They’re certainly better than the last election.) And if you couldn’t find ten good ones, you weren’t trying.
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Tags: 127 Hours, Alice in Wonderland, Another Year, Biutiful, boxing gym, carlos, Casino Jack and the United States of Money, Flipped, Inception, Inside Job Exit Through the Gift Shop, Lebanon, Oceans, Restrepo, Shutter Island, Sweetgrass, The Illusionist, The King's Speech, The Millenium Triology, The Red Riding Trilogy, The Social Network, Toy Story 3, True Grit, unstoppable, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, White Material, Wild Grass
Posted in Columns, MCN Originals, Movie City News, Wilmington | 1 Comment »
Sunday, October 17th, 2010
Jack’use!
Jackass 3D was better than all right with an estimated $49.3 million that easily ranked it at the top of the weekend movie going charts. Another freshman, the seasoned action-comedy Red, ranked second with $21.9 million. The session’s third national debut in medium-wide release was the inspirational N Secure with an OK $133,000 bow.
Among niche and regional bows the polemical documentary I Want Your Money failed to bring out the vote with a $236,000 tally from 537 screens. Telegu-language Brindaavanam rang up an impressive $10,320 average from 20 venues while Bollywood entry Aakrosh was a washout with a $46,400 gross from 24 screens.
Among the week’s exclusive newbies the clear favorite was Hereafter with a $37,380 per screen from six early peeks. There were also impressive openings for the three-hour plus portrait of a terrorist Carlos of $33,700 from single dates in Manhattan and Montreal and a sturdy $101,000 gross for the ripped from the headlines Conviction at 11 cells.
Overall weekend box office revenues topped $130 million for a sizeable 42% boost from seven days back. However, it fell 4% below last year’s tally and the 2010 box office has shrunk to just 2% better than the prior year’s gross for the same period.
Industry trackers had pegged the stereoscopic version of Jackass at roughly $30 million prior to its opening. But they obviously were deaf to bygone wag Henry Mencken’s observation that “no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.” The recently under-served young male audience were eager to don Polaroid glasses and see the aging stars of the reality skein making fools of themselves and others up close and personal.
Pundits also undervalued Red with early estimates in a $15 million to $18 million range. The single joke premise of over the hill spies conscripted back into service (more intentionally mawkish than The Expendables) skewed older but obviously had some appeal for a younger crowd in search of something marginally less mind numbing that required optical gimmicks.
The glacial expansion of Waiting for “Superman” continued to display stamina but it’s clear that Never Let Me Go has peaked and that the rapid expansion of Nowhere Boy left the early years of John Lennon stranded outside the Cavern Club. Stone was experiencing a better than expected hold as it increased its exposure from six to 41 venues.
The frame’s two award contenders – Hereafter and Conviction – constructed solid foundations for their platform bids. Still the early signs suggest a better than anticipated commercial run for the former with the latter yarn requiring a lot of TLC to reach a wider audience.
Among holdovers the second lap for Secretariat showed signs that audiences were discovering the heartfelt saga and The Social Network continues to be propped up by award buzz rather than Facebook fascination.
__________________________________________________
Weekend Estimates – October 15-17, 2010
| Title |
Distributor |
Gross (average) |
% change * |
Theaters |
Cume |
| Jackass 3D |
Par |
49.3 (16,010) |
New |
3081 |
49.3 |
| Red |
Summit |
21.9 (6,740) |
New |
3255 |
21.8 |
| The Social Network |
Sony |
10.8 (3,910) |
-30% |
2771 |
63 |
| Secretariat |
BV |
9.4 (3,070) |
-26% |
3072 |
27.4 |
| Life As We Know It |
WB |
9.2 (2,910) |
-37% |
3150 |
28.8 |
| Legend of the Guardians |
WB |
4.2 (1,670) |
-39% |
2502 |
46 |
| The Town |
WB |
4.0 (1,700) |
-37% |
2368 |
80.6 |
| My Soul to Take |
Uni/Alliance |
3.1 (1,240) |
-54% |
2529 |
11.9 |
| Easy A |
Sony |
2.6 (1,140) |
-39% |
2314 |
52.3 |
| Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps |
Fox |
2.3 (1,110) |
-50% |
2045 |
47.8 |
| N Secure |
FreeStyle |
1.3 (2,730) |
New |
486 |
1.3 |
| It’s Kind of a Funny Story |
Focus |
1.3 (1,660) |
-38% |
757 |
4 |
| You Again |
BV |
1.2 (750) |
-53% |
1588 |
22.7 |
| Case 39 |
Par Vantage |
1.2 (840) |
-56% |
1406 |
11.9 |
| Devil |
Uni |
1.0 (1,100) |
-46% |
891 |
31.6 |
| Let Me In |
Overture |
.83 (690) |
-66% |
1211 |
11.1 |
| Alpha and Omega |
Lions Gate |
.81 (840) |
-46% |
969 |
22.6 |
| Waiting for “Superman” |
Par Vantage |
.74 (4,060) |
17% |
182 |
2.5 |
| Toy Story 3 |
BV |
.52 (1,480) |
-6% |
350 |
412.8 |
| Inception |
WB |
.35 (1,180) |
-29% |
297 |
289.7 |
| Resident Evil: Afterlife |
Sony/Alliance |
.34 (780) |
-73% |
438 |
59.7 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) |
|
$125.70 |
|
|
|
| % Change (Last Year) |
|
-4% |
|
|
|
| % Change (Last Week) |
|
42% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Also debuting/expanding |
|
|
|
|
|
| Nowhere Boy |
Weinstein Co. |
.33 (1,550) |
554% |
215 |
0.41 |
| Never Let Me Go |
Searchlight |
.32 (1,390) |
-7% |
232 |
1.65 |
| You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger |
Sony Classics |
.27 (2,440) |
1% |
112 |
1.26 |
| I Want Your Money |
FreeStyle |
.24 (440) |
|
537 |
0.24 |
| Stone |
Overture |
.23 (5,780) |
199% |
41 |
0.34 |
| Hereafter |
WB |
.22 (37,380) |
|
6 |
0.22 |
| Brindaavanam |
Blue Sky |
.21 (10,320) |
|
20 |
0.21 |
| Buried |
Lions Gate |
.13 (1,270) |
-41% |
103 |
0.76 |
| Conviction |
Fox Searchlight |
.10 (9,200) |
|
11 |
0.1 |
| Aakrosh |
Eros |
46,400 (1,930) |
|
24 |
0.05 |
| Carlos |
IFC |
33,700 (16,850) |
|
1 |
0.03 |
| Knockout |
Eros |
18,100 (700) |
|
26 |
0.02 |
| A Better Tomorrow |
CJ Entertainment |
5,800 (5,800) |
|
1 |
0.01 |
| Down Terrace |
Magnolia |
2,900 (1,450) |
|
2 |
0.01 |
| Samson and Delilah |
Ipix |
2,300 (1,150) |
|
2 |
0.01 |
Domestic Market Share – January 1 – October 14, 2010
| Distributor (releases) |
Gross |
Market Share |
| Warner Bros. (24) |
1380.1 |
16.40% |
| Fox (16) |
1284.6 |
15.30% |
| Paramount (14) |
1242.3 |
14.80% |
| Buena Vista (15) |
1129.6 |
13.40% |
| Sony (23) |
1111.7 |
13.20% |
| Universal (17) |
765.4 |
9.10% |
| Summit (9) |
425.1 |
5.10% |
| Lionsgate (12) |
410.1 |
4.90% |
| Overture (7) |
78.2 |
0.90% |
| Fox Searchlight (5) |
72.1 |
0.90% |
| Focus (7) |
71.4 |
0.90% |
| Weinstein Co. (7) |
61.1 |
0.70% |
| Sony Classics (20) |
52.9 |
0.60% |
| MGM (1) |
50.4 |
0.60% |
| CBS (2) |
50 |
0.60% |
| Other * (266) |
222.3 |
2.60% |
|
8407.3 |
100.00% |
| * none greater than .04% |
Tags: A Better Tomorrow, Aakrosh, Alpha and Omega, Brindaavanam, Buried, carlos, Case 39, Conviction, Devil, down terrace, Easy A, Hereafter, I Want Your Money, Inception, It's Kind Of A Funny Story, jackass 3-d, Jackass 3D, Knockout, Legend of the Guardians, Let Me In, Life As We Know It, My Soul To Take, N Secure, Never Let Me Go, Nowhere Boy, Red, Resident Evil: Afterlife, samson and delilah, Secretariat, Stone, The Social Network, The Town, Toy Story 3, Waiting For 'Superman', Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Walt Street: Money Never Sleeps, You Again, You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger
Posted in MCN Originals, MCN Weekend, Movie City News, The Weekend Report | 1 Comment »
Saturday, October 16th, 2010
Jackass 3D|20.4|3081|New|20.4
Red|8 |3255|New|8
The Social Network|3.3|2868|-31%|55.4
Life As We Know It|3|3150|-42%|22.7
Secretariat|2.9|3072|-29%|20.9
The Town|1.2|2368|-34%|77.7
Legend of the Guardians|1|2502|-42%|42.8
My Soul to Take|1|2529|-63%|9.7
Easy A|0.8|2314|-38%|50.5
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps|0.7|2045|-49%|46.3
Also Debuting
N Secure|0.42|486||0.42
I Want Your Money|83,400|537||83,400
Brindaavanam|59,300|20||59,300
Hereafter|57,900|6||57,900
Conviction|29,100|11||29,100
Aakrosh|12,300|24||12,300
Carlos|6,900|1||6,900
Knockout|4,800|6||4,800
Vision|3,900|2||3,900
A Better Tomorrow|1,900|1||1,900
||||
*in millions|||
Tags: carlos, Conviction, Easy A, Hereafter, Jackass 3D, Legend of the Guardians, Life As We Know It, My Soul to Tak, Red, Secretariat, The Social Network, The Town, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
Posted in Friday Box Office Estimates, MCN Originals, MCN Weekend, Movie City News | Comments Off on Friday Estimates – October 16
Friday, October 15th, 2010
Cinema: son + lumiere. From Glenn Kenny‘s “The Terrorist Has All The Best Tunes“: “The music is mostly tensile, edgy, guitar-based punk or “alternative” rock. It’s appropriate to the action, yes, creating a particular kind of trebly tension that’s like a more “New Wave” version of the feeling created by Scorsese’s classic-rock-with-cocaine sequence near the end of Goodfellas. But the temporal evocations the music carries are just as significant to making its themes felt.” Kenny leads with this citation of Manohla Dargis‘s knowing notice on Carlos: “Just as startling is the thrum of electric guitars revving up in the 1981 song “Dreams Never End,” by the postpunk band New Order, which accompanies Carlos as he throws the bomb and hurries away. The music feels dangerously off-putting at first because it’s unclear if Mr. Assayas is trying to sex up the violence, its perpetrator, both or neither. But as the guitars carry over into the next scene—a seemingly unremarkable yet crucial pause in the action in which Carlos listens to a report about the bombing and then clutches his genitals while gazing in a mirror—the music feels a lot less like an empty device, one used simply to pump the story, and more like the soundtrack you might expect to be playing inside the head of a world-class self-mythologizer like this one.” [A video with a live version of the song is below; both articles zing to its accompaniment.]
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Tags: carlos
Posted in MCN Blogs, Movie City Indie | Comments Off on The Sound of CARLOS
Thursday, September 23rd, 2010
Paging Sidney Lumet… Sidney Lumet to the courtesy phone, please.
Tags: carlos
Posted in MCN Blogs, Movie City Indie | Comments Off on Postering CARLOS
It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
