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Box Office Recap: ‘Snow White’ Crowned Queen of the Box Office

June 3, 2012 /

Universal Pictures has needed a win for a while now. Following the disappointing flops of “Battleship” and “The Five-Year Engagement,” the studio had a lot riding on its newest release, “Snow White and the Huntsman,” especially considering the film’s $170 million production costs.

Luckily for Universal, “Snow White” grabbed a better-than-expected $56 million in its first weekend, placing it on top of the domestic box office charts. The film’s success was a great surprise given the multitude of concerns surrounding it. Many worried it would only pique the interest of young females, but with such a high budget the film could hardly afford to attract such skewed demographics.

In the end, such concerns seem unfounded as 52 percent of the audience was over 30 and a relatively low 53 percent was female. Similar fears about the film’s ability to compete with well-established franchises were likewise assuaged. Despite being director Rupert Sanders’ first feature film and its non-sequel status, “Snow White” made more than “Men in Black 3” did in its first week. But every time you get to thinking Hollywood’s fascination with the idea that sequels are sure bets might be over you read information like this: a sequel to “Snow White and the Huntsman” is alreadyin active development.

The domestic box office remained largely static behind the number one spot as “Men in Black 3,” “The Avengers,” “Battleship,” and “The Dictator” each took a step back but remained in the same order. The $29.3 million made by “Men in Black 3” this weekend seems particularly strong when it’s considered that its 10-day total of $112.3 million is only slightly behind the $115.6 million “Men in Black 2” made over the same period.

Meanwhile, there was some shuffling around behind the top five, as “Chernobyl Diaries” fell to the ninth spot while “Dark Shadows” and “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” which were in sixth and eighth place last weekend, respectively, switched positions. The feel-good “Hotel” has risen every week as it appears in more and more theaters.

At the specialty box office, Wes Anderson’s “Moonrise Kingdom” had continued success in it second week. The film grossed $848,681 despite being shown in just 16 theaters, giving it an impressive per-location average of $53,043 and raising its cumulative domestic gross to $1.7 million.

Lastly, “The Hunger Games” finally slipped out of the top 10 in its eleventh week. The film took in $1.5 million, placing it just behind the $1.8 million made by “For Greater Glory” in its first week.

Here are the results for this weekend’s top 10 at the box office:

Title/Weeks in release/Theater count, Studio/Three-day weekend total/Cume
1. Snow White and the Huntsman, 1/3,773, Universal, $56.255 million.
2. Men in Black 3, 2/4,248, Sony, $29,3 million, $112.3 million.
3. The Avengers, 5/3,670, Disney/Marvel Studios, $20.273 million, $552.737 million.
4. Battleship, 3/3,144, Universal/Hasbro, $4.81 million, $55.123 million.
5. The Dictator, 3/2,649, Paramount, $4.725 million, $50.835 million.
6. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, 5/1,294, Fox Searchlight, $4.6 million, $25.497 million.
7.What to Expect When You’re Expecting, 3/2,907, $4.43 million, $30.723 million
8. Dark Shadows, 4/3,002, Warner Bros., $3.86 million, $70.834 million.
9. Chernobyl Diaries, 2/2,433, Warner Bros., $3.045 million, 14.416.
10. For Greater Glory, 1/757, Arc Entertainment, $1.8 million.

Movies

Hidden Netflix Gems – Series 7: The Contenders

June 2, 2012 /

Spoofs of reality television have become almost as ubiquitous as reality television itself these days, and fake documentary films are certainly not in short supply, but writer-director Daniel Minahan‘s 2001 dark comedic thriller Series 7: The Contenders is one of the best of both. Released before the rise of Arrested Development star Will Arnett, who provides the voice-over of the film’s fictional reality show, Series 7 benefits from its largely unknown cast in that, as unlikely as its central premise is, it often feels all too real. The film is wickedly funny, but simultaneously disturbing in its depiction of the ruthlessness of human nature, especially when a great deal of money or fame is involved.

Series 7 concerns the familiar idea of a game in which human beings hunt each other for sport. Beginning with Richard Connell’s 1924 story, The Most Dangerous Game, this concept has gone through a number of incarnations, most recently in the Japanese cult favorite Battle Royale and the immensely popular The Hunger Games. What sets Series 7 apart most of all is its relentless dark humor; for example, after blowing away a fellow competitor in a convenience store, the film’s protagonist, Dawn (Brooke Smith, best known as Buffalo Bill’s captive, Catherine Martin, in The Silence of the Lambs), calmly asks the clerk, “Hey, you got any bean dip?”

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Box Office Preview: Nothing to See Here

May 31, 2012 /

Snow White and the Huntsman

Who throws a cupcake, honestly? On a similar note, who would think combining Snow White with high fantasy and action/adventure is a good idea, honestly? Why, Universal Pictures, that’s who. We’ve got them to thank for the atrocious “Snow White and the Huntsman.” Coming soon to a theater near you!

I just can’t wrap my head around it, it seems like they’re actually trying to make a terrible movie. What separates good fantasy, stuff like “Game of Thrones” or “Lord of the Rings,” from the alarmingly awful majority of the genre is the subversion of cliches like the ultimate battle of good versus evil. When it comes to “Game of Thrones,” believe me, I should know. Especially given how much of my life I spend writing about it. Yet the tagline for “Snow White” is “Evil meets Destiny,” it’s right there in the trailer. I feel I should add this isn’t just me being grumpy either, the film’s at a 46 percent on the Tomatometer.

The movie’s about… Come on, what do you think it’s about? It’s Kristen Stewart as Snow White and Charlize Theron as the queen. Old queenie gets her panties in a bunch when her talking mirror tells her Snow White may one day be the fairest of them all.

The only difference between this and the Disney version is the queen sends a Huntsman (played by Chris Hemsworth) to capture Snow White. Seriously Hemsworth, if I wasn’t still feeling my “Avengers” contact high I might not be able to forgive you for this. Oh, and there’s battles and actiony stuff too, which always makes for a better film. Just ask “Battleship.”

Piranha 3DD

I didn’t think it was possible for me to be less excited about a movie than “Snow White and the Huntsman.” Then I watched the trailer for “Piranha 3DD.” I think I may have strained whatever muscles are responsible for dry heaving. Did you know the extra “D” in the title is meant to indicate this a sequel? Because I didn’t. I suppose it’s also a boob joke. Don’t blame the messenger, this is high-brow stuff folks. Summing this one up on my own might induce actual vomitus. To spare myself the trouble I’ll let the three of you interested peruse the official synopsis:

After the terror unleashed on Lake Victoria in Piranha 3D, the pre-historic school of blood thirsty piranhas are back. This time, no one is safe from the flesh eating fish as they sink their razor sharp teeth into the visitors of summer’s best attraction, The Big Wet Water Park.

Just copy and pasting that hurt. Anyway, “Piranha 3DD” stars a bunch of young no names, along with people like Ving Rhames, David Hasselhoff, and Gary Busey. To this I say fine, get your money while there’s money to be got. But then I read that Christopher Lloyd is in the picture and my face looked something like this. That’s right, the man who played Doc Brown in “Back to the Future” and Taber in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is dragging his name through the mud with this garbage. Alright, in his defense the original’s been certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. But “Pirahna 3DD’s” rating on the Tomatometer stands at a measly 12 percent.

Avoid this film like the plague, or, you know, a pre-historic school of blood thirsty piranhas.

Battlefield America

Did I say I was unexcited about “Pirahna 3DD” because “Battlefield America” has brought me to depths of disinterest I never thought possible. The synopsis calls it “A steady look at the underbelly of the youth battle dance culture in Long Beach, California.” The underbelly of youth dance culture? Seriously? Even if that didn’t sound ridiculous how many dance off movies can there possibly be? And now we’ve got to involve children?

Apparently “Battlefield America” is director Chris Stokes’ follow-up to 2004’s “You Got Served.” Since when do movies as universally disliked as “You Got Served” (16 on the Tomatometer) get follow-ups? Well, for a while now. I suppose a better question is why these movies get follow-ups, sequels, or anything of the sort. Well, money. Always money.

Please don’t make me talk about this movie anymore, it’s killing me. If you’re going to the theater this weekend see “The Avengers” or “Men in Black III.” Better yet, see Wes Anderson’s “Moonrise Kingdom” if you have the opportunity. Please don’t waste your time or money on these new releases.

Movies

Box Office Recap: ‘Men in Black’ Takes the Top Spot

May 27, 2012 /


“Men in Black 3” raked in $55 million this weekend, which was enough to finally knock that other movie out of the top spot. What was it called? I think it had superheroes. Wait a minute. I think I’ve been neuralyzed!

Members of the staff who avoided having their memories wiped are informing me that the superhero movie I was referring to is called “The Avengers.” Apparently it broke a whole bunch of records, which I have no memory of, but the domestic box office now has a new reigning champ.

In spite of its victory this weekend, “Men in Black” has a long row to hoe if it expects to make a profit. Fifty-five million might have been enough to knock off “The Avengers,” but Sony Pictures was no doubt hoping for a better showing given the film’s $230 million budget.

“Battleship” and “Dark Shadows,” which came in third and sixth place, respectively, face similar problems. The based-on-a-board-game “Battleship” (yes, you read that correctly) took in just $10.8 million in it second week. That brings its cumulative gross to $44.3 million, a paltry sum compared to its $209 million budget. Likewise, “Dark Shadows” made just $7.5 million it its third week, bringing its cumulative total to nearly $63 million, which isn’t much when juxtaposed with its $150 million budget.

Fourth and seventh place finishers “The Dictator” and “What to Expect when You’re Expecting” continued to disappoint, making $9.6 and $7.1 million, respectively. “Chernobyl Diaries,” on the other hand, got to disappoint for the very first time. The low-budget horror flick written by Oren Peli, who wrote and directed “Paranormal Activity” brought in $8 million. That’s only slightly below the $9.4 million projected by the studio. But more importantly the film disappointed because of its abysmal D+ CinemaScore.

Perhaps to counteract all these big-budget flops, a couple of films with lower budgets and more limited releases offered a few feel good stories this weekend. “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” is being played in more and more theaters every week, increasing its count by 879 to 1,233 theaters and making $6.3 million in the process.

Meanwhile, Wes Anderson’s “Moonrise Kingdom” is making waves at the specialty box office after opening the Cannes Film Festival earlier in the month. Despite being shown at just four theaters nationwide, the film made over half a million dollars, giving it a record-breaking per-theater average of $127,250, which is both the highest in 2012 and the highest ever for a film released in four theaters.

Here are the results for this weekend’s top 10 at the box office:

Title/Weeks in release/Theater count, Studio/Three-day weekend total/Cume
1. Men in Black 3, 1/4,248, Sony, $55 million.
2. The Avengers, 4/3,918, Disney/Marvel Studios, $37 million, $513.7 million.
3. Battleship, 2/3,702, Universal/Hasbro, $10.8 million, $44.3 million.
4. The Dictator, 2/3,014, Paramount, $9.6 million, $41.4 million.
5. Chernobyl Diaries, 1/2,433, Warner Bros., $8 million.
6. Dark Shadows, 3/3,404, Warner Bros., $7.5 million, $63 million.
7.What to Expect When You’re Expecting, 2/3,021, $7.1 million, $22.2 million
8. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, 4/1,233, Fox Searchlight, $6.3 million, $16.5 million.
9. The Hunger Games, 10/1,421, Lionsgate, $2.7 million, $395.2 million.
10. Think Like a Man, 6/786, Sony, $1.4 million, $88.3 million.

Movies

Hidden Netflix Gems – Ladybug Ladybug

May 26, 2012 /

Frank Perry’s Ladybug Ladybug feels dated in many ways, and not just because it is in black & white; it is a quintessential Cold War paranoia movie, from the era of Sidney Lumet’s Fail-Safe and Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, the only film of its era to make the threat of nuclear annihilation the subject of comedy. While those films are revered to this day, Ladybug Ladybug has fallen unfairly by the wayside, though its unique approach and hypnotic style are definitely worthy of viewing by a modern audience.

Written by Perry’s wife and frequent collaborator, Eleanor Perry, from a story by Lois Dickert, Ladybug Ladybug‘s title comes from the children’s rhyme, “Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home / Your house is on fire and your children are gone.” Based on a real incident, the film examines the course of events following a nuclear attack alarm at a small town elementary school. The alarm is a “code yellow,” which translates to “nuclear attack imminent within an hour.” After some panicked deliberation, the school’s principal, Mr. Calkins (William Daniels), decides to heed the alarm and send the children home. After this, the film follows one particular group of children as they are escorted home along a country road by a teacher, Mrs. Andrews (Nancy Marchand, best known as Tony’s vindictive mother, Livia, on The Sopranos).

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Movie Dramas, Movie DVDs, Movies

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