Posts Tagged ‘hop’

The Weekend Report — May 1

Sunday, May 1st, 2011

Weekend Estimates: April 29-May 1, 2011

Title Distributor Gross (average) % chng Theaters Cume
Fast Five Uni 83.1 (22,810) NEW 3644 83.1
Rio Fox 14.5 (3,900) -45% 3707 103.7
Madea’s Big Happy Family Lionsgate 10.0 (4,370) -60% 2288 41
Water for Elephants Fox 9.2 (3,270) -45% 2820 32.4
Prom BV 4.8 (1,770) NEW 2730 4.8
Hoodwinked Too! Weinstein Co. 4.1 (1,650) NEW 2505 4.1
Soul Surfer Sony 3.3 (1,650) -39% 2010 33.8
Insidious Film District 5.3 (2,530) -21% 1584 45.62
Hop Uni 2.5 (790) -79% 3176 105.2
Source Code Summit 2.5 (1,530) -51% 1645 48.9
African Cats BV 2.3 (1,900) -61% 1224 10.6
Scream 4 Weinstein Co. 2.2 (1,000) -68% 2221 35.5
Hanna Focus 2.2 (1,410) -58% 1564 35.9
Limitless Relativity 1.1 (1,300) -59% 838 76.1
The Conspirator Roadside Attractions 1.0 (1,480) -53% 691 8.7
Arthur WB 1.0 (810) -75% 1251 31.7
The Lincoln Lawyer Lionsgate .85 (1,180) -53% 719 54.9
Dylan Dog: Dead of Night FreeStyle .74 (850) 875 0.74
Win Win Fox Searchlight .67 (2,220) -40% 302 7.6
Your Highness Uni .61 (1,520) -84% 402 21.1
Jane Eyre Focus .52 (1,770) -30% 294 8.7
The Adjustment Bureau Uni .51 (1,840) 106% 277 61.7
Atlas Shrugged: Part 1 Rocky Mountain .41 (1,110) -53% 371 3.9
Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) $150.50
% Change (Last Year) 54%
% Change (Last Week) 15%
Also debuting/expanding
Cave of Forgotten Dreams IFC .14 (27,440) 5 0.14
The Greatest Movie Ever Sold Sony Classics 95,600 (2,660) -19% 36 0.25
In a Better World Sony Classics 76,700 (1,870) 5% 41 0.4
Incendies Sony Classics 69,800 (6,980) 38% 10 0.14
Nenu Naa Rakshasi Great India 45,300 (2,660) 17 0.05
13 Assassins Magnolia 40,100 (10,020) 4 0.04
Chalo Dilli Eros 38,400 (1,370) 28 0.04
Exporting Raymond IDP 35,200 (2,710) 13 0.04
Vaanam Big Cinemas 26,600 (2,960) 9 0.03
The Robber Kino 14,100 (2,8200 5 0.01
Sympathy for Delicious Maya 8,600 (4,300) 2 0.01
Lebanon, Pa. Truly Indie 7,300 (3,650) 2 0.01
That’s What I Am IDP 6,600 (6600 10 0.01
Earthwork Shadow 3,200 (3,200) 1 0.01
The Arbor Strand 1,600 (1,600) 1 0.01

Domestic Market Share: January 1 – April 21, 2011

Distributor (releases) Gross Market Share
Paramount (9) 418.5 15.20%
Sony (11) 403.7 14.70%
Universal (9) 354.7 12.90%
Warner Bros. (16) 314.1 11.40%
Buena Vista (7) 263.5 9.60%
Fox (8) 235.4 8.60%
Weinstein co. (5) 165.9 6.10%
Relativity (4) 105.9 3.90%
Fox Searchlight (5) 87.9 3.20%
Lionsgate (80 85.3 3.10%
Focus (4) 60.7 2.20%
CBS (3) 57.2 2.10%
Summit (4) 57.1 2.10%
FilmDistrict (1) 44 1.60%
eOne/Seville (10) 15.3 0.60%
Roadside Attractions (6) 13.7 0.50%
Sony Classics (8) 13.6 0.50%
Other * (109) 47.1 1.70%
2743.6 100.00%
* none greater than 0.4%

Box Office Hell — April 22

Saturday, April 23rd, 2011

Our Players|Coming Soon|Box Office Prophets|Box Office Guru|EW|Box Office . com
Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family|33.3|31.3|34.0|32.0|n/a
Rio |25.5|23.8|25.0|26.0|n/a
Water for Elephants|14.2|15.6|14.0|16.0|n/a
Scream 4 |9.2|10.2|8.5|8.5|n/a
Hop|7.6|6.3|7.0|8.0|n/a
African Cats|6.3|7.6|7.0|7.0|n/a

Box Office Hell — April 15

Saturday, April 16th, 2011

Our Players|Coming Soon|Box Office Prophets|Box Office Guru|EW|Box Office . com
Rio|44.7|43.0|50.0|45.0|n/a
Scream 4 |40.4|25.0|13.0|38.0|n/a
Hop|11.0|13.2|11.5|11.0|n/a
Arthur |6.8|6.1|6.0|n/a|n/a
Soul Surfer|6.7|6.8|n/a|7.0|n/a
Hanna|6.5|8.0|6.5|8.0|n/a
The Conspirator|2.0|n/a|n/a|n/a|n/a

The Weekend Report: April 10, 2011

Sunday, April 10th, 2011

The Best That You Can Do is …

Audiences continued to Hop to it as the animated Easter eggs-travaganza topped weekend tickets sales with an eggs-timated $21.6 million. The film bounded well ahead of a quarter of new national releases that saw the remake of Arthur and the distaff thriller Hanna competing for the second slot with the former squeaking ahead by about 200k with a $12.5 million tally. The inspirational Soul Surfer bowed to $10.9 million and the tongue-in-cheek swashbuckler Your Highness swiped $9.5 million.

Among the new niche releases were the non-fiction nature study Born to Be Wild with $820,000 from 206 cages (194 in 3D) and the Mexican comedy No Eres Tu, Soy Yo that grossed $530,000 at 226 venues. Bollywood entry Thank You failed to revivify that sector with a $253,000 bow from 92 engagements.

Exclusives this weekend saw a couple of glimmers of hope including the minimalist western Meek’s Cut Off with $19,800 at two screens. Solo outings for docs Blank City on Manhattan’s early Punk scene and American: The Bill Hicks Story profiling the late comic genius respectively rang up $10,600 and $6,400 in ducats.

The frame’s overall tally generated roughly $118 million and slipped 5% behind last weekend’s biz. It was a slightly more severe 7% lag from 2010 when the second weekend of Clash of the Titans led with $26.6 million; edging out the $25.2 million gross for newcomer Date Night.

Hopes weren’t particularly high for any of the quartet of newcomers with Arthur given the best prospects that ranged from $12 million to $18 million. Your Highness was also overestimated with pundits pegging its bow somewhere between $11 million to $15 million. Conversely the mavens viewed Hanna’s topmost performance at $10 million with similar expectations for Soul Surfer that proved to be accurate.

Hanna’s strength largely came from unexpected response from males that composed slightly more than half of its audience. Soul Surfer drew a resounding 80% female crowd and was the only one of the four new films that had a majority under 25 demographic with 56%. Arthur was 64% older, Your Highness was 55% dominated by plus 25s and Hanna was at the high end with 69%.

The shift so far this year to an older set of ticket buyers has largely been cited as a reflection of weak product though one can hardly imagine what aspect of such films as Sucker Punch or Drive Angry could possibly draw a mature buyer to the multiplex. The industry mantra is that younger male avids will be back in force come May when the summer tentpole fun rides are unleashed.

What appears to have stumped the pundits is what exactly are these bulwarks of movie going doing during this apparent hiatus? No one appears to have done surveys that might indicate whether a trend exists or if there’s an absence of a conclusive shift to other activities. Regardless, no one believes this segment is staying at home and exercising their fast food options. So, clearly the new VoD initiatives are directed toward them and their involvement in the movie experience remains vital to the industry’s health and welfare.

Weekend (estimates)
April 8 – 10, 2011
Title Distributor Gross (avg) % chng Theaters Cume
Hop Uni 21.6 (5,980) -42% 3616 68.1
Arthur WB 12.5 (3,810) NEW 3276 12.5
Hanna Focus 12.3 (4,850) NEW 2535 12.3
Soul Surfer Sony 10.9 (4,910) NEW 2214 10.9
Insidious Film District 9.8 (4,060) -26% 2419 27.2
Your Highness Uni 9.5 (3,420) NEW 2769 9.5
Source Code Summit 9.0 (3,040) -39% 2971 28.6
Limitless Relativity 5.6 (2,130) -40% 2642 64.3
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules! Fox 4.9 (1,690) -52% 2881 45.5
The Lincoln Lawyer Lions Gate 4.4 (1,830) -35% 2420 46.3
Rango Par 2.3 (1,140) -49% 2007 117.5
Sucker Punch WB 2.1 (1,180) -66% 1755 33.9
Paul Uni 1.7 (1,040) -59% 1667 35.1
Battle: Los Angeles Sony 1.5 (1,090) -57% 1408 81.2
Jane Eyre Focus 1.2 (4,780) -3% 247 5.2
Win Win Fox Searchlight 1.2 (5,220) 4% 226 3.5
The Adjustment Bureau Uni .88 (1,120) -59% 783 60.1
Born to Be Wild WB .82 (3,980) NEW 206 0.82
The King’s Speech Weinstein Co. .55 (810) -52% 675 137.6
No Eres Tu, Soy Yo Lions Gate .53 (2340) NEW 226 0.53
Red Riding Hood WB .52 (670) -71% 777 36.7
Weekend Total
($500,000+ Films)
$113.80
% Change (Last Year) -7%
% Change (Last Week) -5%
Also debuting/expanding
Thank You UTV .25 (2,750) 92 0.25
Kill the Irishman Anchor Bay 91,600 (1,760) -19% 52 0.85
Miral Weinstein Co. 55,700 (1,920) -24% 29 0.25
In a Better World Sony Classics 48,600 (4,050) 47% 12 0.1
Meek’s Cut Off Osciloscope 19,800 (9,900) 2 0.02
Blank City FilmsWeLike 10,600 (10,600) 1 0.01
Meet Monica Velour Anchor Bay 7,300 (3,650) 2 0.01
Ceremony Magnolia 6,800 (2,270) 3 0.01
Henry’s Crime Moving Pictures 6,600 (3,300) 2 0.01
American: The Bill Hicks Story Variance 6,400 (6,400) 1 0.01
To Die Like a Man Strand 2,150 (2,150) 1 0.01
Domestic Market Share (Jan. 1 – April 7, 2011)
Distributor (releases) Gross Market Share
Paramount (9) 413.6 18.20%
Sony (10) 370.9 16.30%
Universal (8) 276.1 12.10%
Warner Bros. (14) 273.6 12.00%
Buena Vista (6) 255.2 11.20%
Weinstein Co. (4) 133.4 5.90%
Fox (6) 127.6 5.60%
Relativity (4) 90.5 4.00%
Fox Searchlight (4) 82.9 3.70%
CBS (3) 56.6 2.50%
Lions Gate (6) 47.5 2.10%
summit (4) 31.8 1.40%
Focus (3) 25.1 1.10%
FilmDistrict (1) 17.4 0.80%
eOne/Seville (7) 14.5 0.60%
Sony Classics (6) 12.3 0.50%
Other * (99) 44.3 2.00%
2273.3 100.00%
* none greater than 0.4%
Top Domestic Grossers *
(Jan. 1 – April 7, 2011)
Title Distributor Gross
The King’s Speech * Weinstein Co. 119,361,676
Rango Par 115,230,893
Just Go With It Sony 101,651,979
True Grit * Par 100,131,192
The Green Hornet Sony 98,588,503
Gnomeo and Juliet BV/eOne 97,075,887
Battle: Los Angeles Sony 79,700,377
Justin Bieber: Never Say Never Par 72,707,468
No Strings Attached Par 70,662,220
Black Swan * Fox Searchlight 65,964,914
Little Fockers * Uni 64,117,440
Unknown WB 62,821,544
The Adjustment Bureau Uni 59,231,700
Limitless Relativity 58,688,230
The Fighter * Par/Alliance 54,624,687
Tron: Legacy * BV 54,483,200
I Am Number 4 BV 53,949,381
The Dilemma Uni 48,800,147
Hop Uni 46,456,305
Hall Pass WB 44,034,990
* does not include 2010 box office

Weekend Estimates by Soul Klady

Sunday, April 10th, 2011

And this is why weekend-to-weekend looks so crappy. Last year on “this” weekend, there were $27m in openers. This weekend, $46m. But the weekend is still well behind last year because Sucker Punch was WB’s entry, not Clash of the Titans, and there was no DWA film (last year, it was a leggy Dragon) doing $25m in a third weekend while Hop, which is a success story (but a mild one), did $21m in Weekend Two. Those two holdovers and one $25m opener (Date Night) overpower nearly $20m in more opening firepower this year than last.

If you simply flipped last year’s WB entry for this year’s, “this year’s weekend” would be ahead of “last year’s weekend” by over $15 million. And if wishes were fishes… But you get the point, no? It’s about the movies, not the market. Until there is a much longer lasting set of data that involves a more muscular set of movies being off by similar amounts, I’m not taking any “slump” seriously. Of course, if you want to believe that somehow Clash of the Titans would have done half the business it did if it opened this year or that Sucker Punch would have done more than double what it’s doing opening last year, please, feel free to make the argument.

One genre that may be nearing its end in this cycle as an industry cash cow is the stoned comedy. Since the Superbad/Knocked Up back-to-back smashes, Team Apatow has racked up just one $100m movie (Step Brothers) in 8 attempts. And while Apatow had nothing to do with the two movies gently opening this weekend (Arthur/Your Highness), they are both bastard children of his camp. Like many niche genres in Hollywood, no reason that this one can’t go on. But costs have to be contained and then these are the kinds of legged-out doubles that studios can use to keep the balance sheet positive build library, an occasionally get a surprise big hit. But right now, they are a little expensive and aren’t delivering on the expectations that the studios have when greenlighting them. (Expectations from tracking come long after the horse is out of the barn.)

Hanna is a really nice opening for Focus. They picked up the film in most of the world (Sony has some territories), extending their relationship with Joe Wright, and this opening is better than any two weekends of Atonement domestic grosses combined. Given some strong word-of-mouth (and a soft market for good movies), it could even end up passing Atonement‘s $50m gross.

Bob Berney is back in business. Soul Surfer is a Sony release, but Film District marketed it for Sony, and the results are strong for what could well have been a much smaller feel-good film. And Insidious had a 26% hold, which is almost unheard of for any film in this front-loaded market, much less a horror film. This is one of this year’s real success stories already, likely heading to more than $50m domestic.

Source Code didn’t hold quite as well, but it does seem that we are in the first stretch of commercial movies this year that anyone is happy to recommend.

Box Office Hell — April 8

Friday, April 8th, 2011

Our Players|Coming Soon|Box Office Prophets|Box Office Guru|EW|Box Office . com
Hop|23.5|22.5|24.0|23.0|24.0
Arthur |15.3|18.1|13.0|18.0|17.0
Your Highness|12.4|13.3|11.0|15.0|11.5
Soul Surfer|10.0|10.1|10.0|n/a|10.5
Hanna|8.6|7.1|7.0|10.0|10.0

Hop Director On How The Movie Almost Didn’t Get Done

Friday, April 1st, 2011

Hop Director On How The Movie Almost Didn’t Get Done

Wilmington on Movies: Hop

Thursday, March 31st, 2011

Hop (One and a Half Stars)
U.S.: Tim Hill, 2011

Hop. Thud.

Animated features, which are sometimes ghetto-ized as “children’s movies,“ have been among the brighter spots on the big studio schedules of the last few years. But Hop has a script that, on the screen, plays just as crummy as any gore-besotted alien monster massacre, any crash-happy action thriller, or any addle-brained rom-com that comes rolling out of Shameless-Hackland. It’s a big glossy, laughless botch.

Listen, I love bunnies as much as the next guy — and, in this movie, one of the next guys is Hugh Hefner — but this is ridiculous. This cutesy-wootsie saga of Easter Bunny slackers, evil Easter Chicks, L. A. layabouts, rock n’roll bunny wannabes, and a revolution on Easter Island (land of the Easter Bunny in this movie) is an insult to the intelligence of the seven-year-olds who will be its most receptive audience.

For about five minutes at the start, the movie had me. I was momentarily dazzled by its spectacular candy factory opening, where the camera flies down to the truculent statue-heads of Easter Island, darts down a secret passageway and finally swoops along the conveyor belts and chocolate vats and candy thingumabobs where all Easter stuff is supposedly being made — all as smoothly as a series of Max Ophuls tracking shots in Tim Burton-land.

It even had me when it introduced the somewhat annoying lead human character, slothful slacker and Easter Bunny fan Fred O’Hare (played by the live James Marsden of Enchanted), whom we meet as a little boy (Django Marsh), enchanted when he catches a glimpse of the Easter Bunny dropping off baskets, and thereby developing a lifelong bunny fixation.

It sort of had me when screenwriters Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio and director Tim Hill drag on the lead cartoon characters: the Easter Bunny himself (voiced by Hugh Laurie, in a half-funny Brit snob routine), the Big Bunny’s rock ’n roll wannabe son, Spielbergishly named E.B. (Russell Brand), and the scheming, rebellious Easter Chick Carlos (Hank Azaria, with a burlesque Mexican accent).

And I still hadn’t wised up when E.B. decamped to Hollywood, where he hooks up with Fred, and starts pooping jellybeans and trying to come up with so-called humor (lame zingers and amazingly laugh-challenged wisecracks), and where the movie definitively revealed its true agenda: bad jokes and L. A. clichés, mixed with elaborate animation, TV meta trendiness and loud, bright icky-poo cutesy-wootsies.

By then, Hop had turned into the usual rancid Hollywood wish-fulfillment semi-satire. Icky. Poo. I hesitate to synopsize further, but here we go: Fred — on his way to a local mansion, where he was unwisely house-sitting, thanks to his all-too-indulgent sister Sam O‘Hare (Kaley Cuoco) — nearly runs over E.B. The wascally wabbit wannabe fakes an injury and gets himself an unwise invite to the mansion, and the guys are then free to pursue their dreams: E.B.’s of being a rock n’roll drum god, and Fred’s, I guess, of being an Easter Bunny, maybe even the Big Bun himself. And the movie’s dream of being a bunny Santa Clause 2 (another partly Cinco-Daurio written movie), with long ears and twitchy nose, festooned with jelly bean poop.

Oh, did I mention that there’s a big talent show, called “Hoff Knows Talent,” fronted by David Hasselhoff, parodying himself? (Not a stretch, maybe.) Or that Gary Cole and Elizabeth Perkins show up as Fred’s parents, who get things rolling by booting him out of the house? Or that Azaria does the voice for another Easter chick, dancin’ fool Phil? Or that Hefner himself does a cameo, but that Hef and Hoff  (in Hop) never meet? An unending stream of slick nonsense just keeps pooping and popping out of Hop, a movie that misfires about as often as Elmer Fudd’s wifle.

The actors are pretty well done in by their lines, so it’s hard to blame them. Working with material like this (one critic has said, and he’s right, that the best line in the movie is “’Coup d’etat’ is French for ‘coup d’etat‘”) must be like Henny Youngman trying to wring yocks out of a recipe for boiled turnips. But Azaria, just barely, manages to poke his head above the comedy rubble both as Carlos and also as dancing’ Phil, a feat that may qualify as comedy above and beyond the call of duty.

Recently, it’s seemed that Hollywood’s big feature cartoons, Pixar’s and all the rest, have been almost the only big studio movies to have solid, intelligent, clever, fit-for-adults scripts. Here’s the exception that, we hope, proves the rule: a certifiably lousy screenplay by two writers (Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio) who, just last year, had their names on a certifiably good one: Despicable Me. Was it them? Their new director, Tim Hill, honed his skills not only writing for “Spongebob Squarepants” and directing the Muppets (good) but directing Alvin and the Chipmunks and Garfield movies (not so good). Was it him? Was it just the fallacy of trying to stuff something for everyone in the same scrappy basket?

The movie, even if it cleans up for a while (lots of elementary schoolers with disposable parents and teens-to-twenties  with time on their hands) is just befuddlingly bad. It’s empty of wit or magic or even common ordinary cornball humor. Even though it’s set in Hollywood in the worlds of TV, show biz and rock n’ roll, Hop doesn’t even bother to get itself much of a good, snappy extended pop score, which might have redeemed the entire movie. As it is, one of the highlights is a recording session with E.B. and The Blind Boys of Alabama, which, however, the film keeps cutting into.

If you’re going to make a movie about the music world, why not have more music? But then again, if you’re going to make a comedy about the Easter Bunny, why not have a few laughs? Or a few more bunnies? Or a few good bunny jokes for Hef and the Hoff? Hop. Flop.

Box Office Hell — April 1

Thursday, March 31st, 2011

Our Players|Coming Soon|Box Office Prophets|Box Office Guru|EW|Box Office . com
Hop|25.8|n/a|24.0|28.0|23.0
Source Code |15.5|n/a|16.0|15.0|14.5
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules|11.5|n/a|13.0|12.0|11.3
Insidious|10.6|n/a|10.0|9.5|10.5
Limitless|10.0|n/a|11.0|10.5|10.2

Critics Roundup — April 1

Thursday, March 31st, 2011

Hop|||||Red
Insidious|||Yellow||Yellow
Source Code|Green||Green||Green
Certifiably Jonathan (LA) |||Red||
Con Artist (LA) |||Green||
Elephant in the Living Room (LA) |||Yellow||
In a Better World (LA) |Yellow||Yellow|Green|
Le Quattro Volte (NYC) |||Green||
Super (LA-NYC) |Yellow||Green|Green|
Two Gates of Sleep (NYC) |||Green||
Trust (limited)|Yellow||||Green