Welcome to the Rileys: Blu-ray
As yet another Sundance festival sails slowly into the sunset, swag bags stowed safely below deck, it’s worth recalling the large number of films that seemed destined for greatness in the rarified air of Park City, but lost traction at sea level. Can’t count that high, you say? For indie filmmakers fortunate enough to have their films included in the festival, reality tends to kick in once “ET” and “TMZ” no longer are interested in taking your picture and the lines on those contracts have gone unsigned.
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Posts Tagged ‘chain letter’
The DVD Wrap: Welcome to the Rileys, Conviction, No Tomorrow, A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop, Let Me In and more …
Tuesday, February 1st, 2011Tags: a Gun and a Noodle Shop, A Woman, Alice in Wonderland: 60th Anniversary Edition: Blu-ray, All About Eve, American Experience: Robert E. Lee, An Affair to Remember, Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2, Braving Iraq, chain letter, Conviction, History: Jefferson, Legion of the Final Exorcism, Let Me In, Nature: Revealing the Leopard: Blu-ray, Nature: Wolverine: Chasing the Phantom: Blu-ray, Never Let Me Go, No Tomorrow, Red Hill, Ronald Reagan: An American Journey, Still Bill, The Tillman Story, Tupac Uncensored and Uncut: The Lost Prison Tapes, Welcome to the Rileys, Which Way Home
Posted in Columns, Dretzka, DVD & Blue Ray, DVD Reviews, MCN Originals, MCN Weekend, Movie City News, Reviews | 1 Comment »
Friday Estimates
Saturday, October 2nd, 2010Interesting.
Basically, Sony is now hoping that The Social Network, which they have pushed about as hard as any drama has ever been pushed, does slightly better than The Town this weekend. $26.85m is the magic number to pass, as it is the number Ben Button opened to… and they want that across-the-board Oscar nominee to be their first point of reference. If things go well, about one of every 20 million Facebook users will have rushed out to see the film.
Back in the Land of Reality, this is an excellent opening for a drama with no box office stars. Aside from chick-flicky films like Dear John and Eat Pray Love, you don’t see $20m opening dramas these days.
That said, as this Social Network and Let Me In were both reminded this weekend, you gotta sell your goods and not get caught up in your own in-house excitement. Social Network sold itself to the media elite, smartly and with style. And as a result, they’re getting box office returns from that limited group. That could, as Sony hopes, still mean $100 million.
It’s really a different conversation than box office, but Sony should embrace and be fully pleased with this number for an Aaron Sorkin script… which means a specific slice of people who want to hear rapid-fired clever dialogue and not walk away with much more than that story being well told. They made the movie they set out to make… and then, I am afraid, got a little too caught up in their own belief that it was the second coming. There is a ton of talent on display in the film, but it is only as much as it is. And perspective gets lost.
The same need to sell what you have and not what you think you have is true for Let Me In, which is a much bigger mystery non-opening this weekend, as they chose to take a gentle, weird, very Euro movie and make it into a horror film with fancy arthouse edges. I don’t see the movies as the same at all, i believe that film can be reimagined (and think Fincher will take Dragon Tattoo miles further than the director of the series now on screen does), so I am fine with what Matt Reeves did. So the question is, why couldn’t Overture sell what Lionsgate or Screen Gems would have opened to 3x as much of a gross. (My first suspect would be TV spending and time for a strong pr rollout, but honestly, I have been so in TIFF mode for weeks that I don’t have a great idea of what the team left at Overture was able to get done, aside from fests and geek community hype.)
This opening neither puts Social Network behind some 8-ball with awards season or profitability, nor does it make it a smash success. It’s just box office. And awards are just awards. And really, what will live on forever is The Film. I am not as over the moon about Social Network as some. I think a lot of critics projected their personal issues with the web onto the movie. But It’s a damned good movie, especially from a major studio.
But I digress…
Nice holds again for The Town and Easy A.
Tags: anjaana anjaani, Case 39, chain letter, Devil, Douchebag, Easy A.Let Me In, Freakomomics, fubar 2, hatchet II, Le Poil de la bĂȘte, leaving, Legend of the Guardians, Resident Evil: Afterlife, Robot, StreetDance 3D, The Social Network, The Town, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, You Again
Posted in MCN Blogs, MCN Originals, Movie City News, The Hot Blog | 36 Comments »
Friday Estimates – October 2
Saturday, October 2nd, 2010The Social Network|8|2771||8
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps|3.3 |3565|-53%|29
The Town|3.1|2885|-38%|57.4
Legend of the Guardians|2.6|3575|-43%|21.8
Easy A|2.2|2974|-38%|37.7
Let Me In|1.9|2021||1.9
Case 39|1.8|2211||1.8
You Again|1.6|2548|-40%|12.5
Devil|1.1|2392|-48%|24.8
Resident Evil: Afterlife|0.75|2642|-44%|54.6
Also Debuting
Robot|0.4 5|89||0.45
Anjaana Anjaani|0.16|92||0.16
StreetDance 3D|0.12|144||0.12
Fubar 2|81,600|30||81,600
Chain Letter|37,800|401||37,800
Hatchet II|25,300|67||25,300
Le Poil de la bete|16,400|28||16,400
Freakonomics|9,300|17||9,300
Leaving|4,100|2||4,100
Douchebag|2,050|1||2,050
||||
*in millions|||
Tags: anjaana anjaani, Case 39, chain letter, Devil, Easy A, Freakonomics, hatchet II, Legend of the Guardians, Let Me In, Resident Evil: Afterlife, The Social Network, The Town, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, You Again
Posted in Friday Box Office Estimates, MCN Weekend | Comments Off on Friday Estimates – October 2