Breaking Dawn's still #1

For the weekend of Nov. 30 - Dec. 2.

1.  Breaking Dawn Part 2 - $17.41 million ($254.59) - 3 wks (Sum) -60%
 . . . 4008 screens / $4344 per screen
2.  Skyfall - $17 ($246.03) - 4 wks (Sony) -52.1%
 . . . 3463 / $4909
3.  Lincoln - $13.51 ($83.7) - 4 wks (BV) -47.4%
 . . . 2018 / $6694
4.  Rise of the Guardians - $13.5 ($48.95) - 2 wks (DW) -43.2%
 . . . 3672 / $3676
5.  Life of Pi - $12 ($48.36) - 2 wks (Fox) -46.6%
 . . . 2928 / $4098
6.  Wreck-It-Ralph - $7.02 ($158.26) - 5 wks (BV) -57.6%
 . . . 3087 / $2274
7.  Killing Them Softly - $7 - 1 wk (Wein)
 . . . 2424 / $2888
8.  Red Dawn - $6.55 ($31.32) - 2 wks (FD) -54.1%
 . . . 2781 / $2355
9.  Flight - $4.54 ($81.53) - 5 wks (Par) -46.3%
 . . . 2603 / $1744
10. The Collection - $3.41 - 1 wk (LD)
 . . . 1403 / $2430
11. Silver Linings Playbook - $3.34 ($10.99) - 3 wks (Wein) -23.8%
 . . . 371 / $9005
12. Anna Karenina - $2.23 ($4.08) - 3 wks (Foc) +148.8%
 . . . 384 / $5807
13. Argo - $2.03 ($101) - 8 wks (WB) -47.6%
 . . . 1043 / $1942

The new releases were dead on arrival, while the holiday holdovers kept raking in the dough.

Breaking Dawn Part 2 is on track to be the most profitable in the Twilight series. It's passed the $700 million mark in worldwide gross.  Skyfall has passed $869 million worldwide and is now the highest-grossing Bond movie in franchise history (unless you adjust for inflation).

Lincoln should have been a tougher sell, but the Spielberg name combined with Oscar buzz for the movie and for Daniel Day-Lewis has kept it strong.

I don't know how you screw up marketing a Brad Pitt gangster movie but the Weinsteins found a way.  Killing Them Softly's a bad title opening on a bad weekend for new movies.

Breaking Dawn still #1, Skyfall #2

1.  Breaking Dawn Part 2 - $43.07 million ($226.95) - 2 wks (Sum) -69.5%
 . . . 4070 screens / $10,582 per screen
2.  Skyfall - $36 ($221.72) - 3 wks (Sony) -12.4%
 . . . 3526 / $10,210
3.  Lincoln - $25.02 ($62.18) - 3 wks (BV) +18.9%
 . . . 2018 / $12,398
4.  Rise of the Guardians - $24.03 ($32.61) - 1 wk (DW)
 . . . 3653 / $6577
5.  Life of Pi - $22 ($30.15) - 1 wk (Fox)
 . . . 2902 / $7581
6.  Wreck-It-Ralph - $16.76 ($149.51) - 4 wks (BV) -9.8%
 . . . 3259 / $5143
7.  Red Dawn - $14.6 ($22) - 1 wk (FD)
 . . . 2724 / $5360
8.  Flight - $8.6 ($74.88) - 4 wks (Par) -2.3%
 . . . 2638 / $3260
9.  Silver Linings Playbook - $4.62 ($6.45) - 2 wks (Wein) +943.6%
 . . . 367 / $12,597
10. Argo - $3.88 ($98.11) - 7 wks (WB) -4.2%
 . . . 1255 / $3088

Hollywood had a great weekend to make up for the sluggish fall.  Twilight and James Bond are both delivering, Steven Spielberg's back in $100+ million grossing territory after competing against himself last year with Tintin and War Horse, and movies like Wreck-It-Ralph, Flight and Argo are stretching their long legs.

Of the new releases, DreamWorks may actually be a bit disappointed in the opening for Rise of the Guardians. They'll be hoping for strong word-of-mouth and they'll be glad there's no more animated competition until the December 21 re-release of Monsters Inc. (in 3D!!!)  Life of Pi had good reviews, and it seems geared toward making its profits overseas.  Red Dawn did well for a movie that's been sitting on a shelf for three years.

Weekend Box Office - 11/18/12

1.  Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 - $141.3 million - 1 wk (Sum)
 . . . 4070 screens / $34,717 per screen
2.  Skyfall - $41.5 ($161.34) - 2 wks (Sony) -53%
 . . . 3505 / $11,840
3.  Lincoln - $21 ($22.42) - 2 wks (BV) +2124%
 . . . .1775 / $11,831
4.  Wreck-It-Ralph - $18.31 ($121.48) - 3 wks (BV) -44.5%
 . . . 3622 / $5056
5.  Flight - $8.62 ($61.34) - 3 wks (Par) -41.7%
 . . . 2612 / $3298
6.  Argo - $4.07 ($92.02) - 6 wks (WB) -38.5%
 . . . 2210 / $1842
7.  Taken 2 - $2.1 ($134.62) - 7 wks (Fox) -47.7%
 . . . 2063 / $1018
8.  Pitch Perfect - $1.26 ($62) - 8 wks (U) -51%
 . . . 1122 / $1123
9.  Here Comes the Boom - $1.21 ($41.02) - 6 wks (Sony) -52.4%
 . . . 1350 / $889
10. Jab Tak Hai Jaan - $1.2 ($1.9) - 1 wk (Yash)
 . . . 161 / $7580

The Twilight Saga is going to end as one of the most profitable in history.  It is to Summit what Lord of the Rings was to New Line.  Skyfall is also on pace to be the highest-grossing Bond movie yet.  Wreck-It-Ralph should do well over the Thanksgiving weekend, even with Rise of the Guardians opening.  Lincoln did well in its expansion.  Everyone's doing great in November!

Breaking Dawn part 1 - Movie Review

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Starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Kellen Lutz, Ashley Greene, Nikki Reed, Jackson Rathbone, Anna Kendrick, Maggie Grace, Sarah Clarke and Michael Sheen.
Directed by Bill Condon.


I really don't mind the Twilight movies. I find them enjoyable enough to see with my wife. But we're supposed to be building toward an epic showdown and this is easily, handily, by far the worst one in the series.

Let's start with the acting. Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner have not, to put it politely, improved. Lautner in particular reveals he doesn't really know how to act when he keep his shirt on the whole time. The supporting cast varies with their skills. Most of the Cullens are good at what they do, and Anna Kendrick's a good sport for still popping up, but the scenes with Lautner talking to his fellow werewolves is on part with something you'd see on Canadian TV.

Let's look now at some of the approaches to the story. Where I knew we were doomed was the third time that we're watching Bella brood and another folk-pop song starts playing. Other times the scene may have been suspenseful, but the soundtrack said mournful-melodrama.

There's also the problem with breaking up a book into two parts. The pacing for this is all wrong. Act 1 is the wedding and honeymoon, Act 2 is the pregnancy, and Act 3 is supposed to be a werewolf-vampire showdown that doesn't really pay off.

Maybe when Michael Sheen's vampires re-enter the scene in Breaking Dawn Part 2 it'll all make sense. But if Bill Condon's directing that one too, I have very little hope.

Wednesday's Box Office 11/23/11

For November 23.

1. Breaking Dawn - $12.5 million ($171.48) - 6 days
2. The Muppets - $6.6 - 1 day
3. Happy Feet Two - $2.92 ($28.32) - 6 days
4. Arthur Christmas - $2.4 - 1 day
5. Jack & Jill - $1.93 ($45.23) - 13 days
6. Immortals - $1.81 ($57.91) - 13 days
7. Hugo - $1.67 - 1 day
8. Puss in Boots - $1.64 ($126.62) - 27 days
9. J. Edgar - $.84 ($22.9) - 20 days

Breaking Dawn continues to rule them all. The Muppets has a decent opening and should do well throughout the weekend. In Hugo's defense, it's on one-third of the screens as Arthur Christmas, but it's still a disappointing showing for both.

Vampires Suck - DVD Review

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Starring Jenn Proske, Matt Lanter, Chris Riggi, Ken Jeong and Diedrich Bader.
Directed by Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer.

While I do rank Seltzer/Friedberg as being behind some of the decade's worst movies and killing the parody genre that Leslie Nielsen & David Zucker had mastered, allow me to damn them with faint praise in saying that this is probably their best movie to date.

I credit ripe source material - three Twilight movies - and the central performance of Jenn Proske, who nails all the twitchy, pensive notes of Kristen Stewart in Bella Swan mode.

Here Proske plays Becca Crane (get it?) in the town of Sporks (get it?) who instantly falls for the mysterious Edward Sullen (nudge nudge) while also not catching on to the crush held by Jacob White (poke poke, see what they did there?). The filmmakers get in references to True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, Paranormal Activity, Gossip Girl, etc., etc. Not spot-on jokes about them; just references. Friedberg/Seltzer still suffer from what made their other movies suck. Re-enacting or referencing something in recent pop-culture should be the end goal in a spoof. There needs to be attitude with it, a twist, a Reason for a Joke to Be. It should twist a cliche in a way that we didn't realize it was a cliche until they punched through it.

I feel like every time I see one of these, I need to teach them about humor. There are signs here and there that they get it. There were more than a few jokes I predicted right before they happened (I bet Edward's going to ride a segueway... and there it is.) Some of the gags work, or more appropriately, more gags work here than they did in any of their previous efforts. Someday they might be worthy of Scary Movie 5.

But can we please have a moratorium of using the song "It's Raining Men" as a punchline?

Twilight - Movie Review

My wife and I went to the Carmike-12 theater near us, as I have four passes I need to use before the end of the year. I was shocked our chosen title was not there, so we raced to the nearby, just-opened Cinemark-14, which had our chosen title on three screens. This was around 6:00, so I got tickets for the 7:30, and then we went out to eat.

It's not reserved so I wanted to make sure we were back by 7:10 to be in line for when seating started. Now this is when I learned that of the 14 screens, 7 of them only seat 112. That ain't big. Had I known that, I might have gone for a different showtime, to see it in one of the 207 or 293 seaters. So they'd already let people into our theater, and we wound up on the third row. Fifth row center is my favorite, but it was fine.

Previews:

FIRED UP - This formula comedy could have easily been made in 1984 starring Andrew McCarthy and Rob Morrow. Two buddies decide to got o cheerleading school to be amongst all the hot chicks. The two guys are Nicolas D'Agastino and Eric Christian Olsen. Not sure who D'Agastino is but Olsen played young Harry in Dumb & Dumberer. I think they're supposed to be college-age but Olsen looks like he's 30. Sexual hijinks ensue. Looks awful. Opens March 20.

BRIDE WARS - Best friends Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway have dreamed of their perfect wedding since they were little girls, at the Plaza. Then due to a scheduling mishap by Candice Bergen, they get booked on the same day. Each tries to sabotage the other's wedding so they can be the one who has it at the Plaza. Both actresses are doing the formula paycheck thing so they can keep doing their indie projects I'm sure. One scene has Hathaway in full bridal gear bursting on Hudson walking down the aisel with her father, and Hathaway tackles her. No thanks. Opens January 9.

CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC - Isla Fisher, who stole the show in Wedding Crashers, gets the starring role as a shopaholic who must now figure out how to be thrifty once all her cards are maxed out and she finds herself in mountains of debt. In these tought economic times, I don;t really feel like seeing a spoiled rich girl charm her way into getting all her debt paid off. Opens February 13.

DANCE FLICK - This parody movie from the Wayans actually made me laugh out loud a couple times. It's a send-up of Save the Last Dance, Step Up, How She Move, and their matriarch Flashdance, and unlike those Epic Movie yahoos, the Wayans have a plot in mind and clever twists on what they're satirizing. I look forward to renting it. Opens February 6.

PUSH - Heroes: The Movie. Chris Evans can move objects with his mind. Dakota Fanning can see the future. Djimon Hounsou is the big baddie who wants to exploit their abilities. It looks like junky, guilty-pleasure fun, with the potential to be terrible. Opens February 6.

VALKYRIE - Finally we get a genuinely promising movie. I've seen the preview a few times, and I'm already sold on seeing Tom Cruise, Ken Branagh, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, et al, plotting to kill Hitler for director Bryan Singer. This is Branagh's third time playing a Nazi that I can think of, but the first time he's one of the good ones. Opens December 26.

And then we got to our feature presentation.

TWILIGHT (***) - Starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli, Elisabeth Reaser, Nikki Reed, Taylor Lautner, Cam Gigandot and Sarah Chalke.
Directed by Catherine Hardwicke.

My advanced knowledge: I read the first 140 pages of the book, so I had an idea how the first act would go.

Twilight is The Notebook of 2008, a shamelessly schmaltzy romance that is nevertheless entertaining on its own merits. It success hinges on its leads, and I wouldn't say Kristen Stewart (Bella) and Robert Pattinson (Edward) equal Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling, but each inhabits their character with just the right amount of quirk and conviction.

17-year-old Bella has moved to Forks, Washington, the most overcast town in the continental US. Her dad is Chief o' Police of this little town, and she has moved here to free up her mother to travel with her new husband. It's a rare movie that shows the teen daughter genuinely getting along with her divorced parents and her new stepdad. Bella suffers new-girl-in-school syndrome, but she makes friends easy enough, except for one exception, the pale Edward Cullen, who acts like he despises her.

After a few days, Edward reintroduces himself, and they start to get along, but when Edward miraculously saves her from getting hit by a van, Bella's mind starts to swim. Who is this guy really?

Those expecting the sex and/or violence associated with recent vampire flicks will be disappointed. Most deaths appear off-screen or cut away right before the killer vampires strike, some of it due to budget and some to keep it in PG-13 bounds so as not to alienate its core audience. It's mainly a relationship melodrama, with two people getting to know each other, where one of them happens to be a vampire.

I look forward to seeing what the bigger-budgeted sequel will do, mostly because my wife enjoyed it so much. Guys, bring a date. Don't be the guy who sees Twilight by himself.