'The Rite' finds disciples and audiences crown 'The King's Speech'

By Sarah Sluis

Exorcism-themed The Rite led the box office this weekend with $15 million. More a thriller than a horror movie, the film lured a slightly older audience, and attracted both genders equally. Back in August, The Last Exorcism opened to $24 million, so this movie did well considering its inferior January timeslot.

Action-fueled The Mechanic tied with The Green Hornet, earning $11.5 million. Distributor CBS Films has been struggling to get some hits. This film will be their second-highest opening weekend after The Back-Up Plan.

In the wake of its twelve Oscar nominations, Weinstein Co. release The King's Speech launched an expansion that led to a 40% increase from last week and $11.1 million. Compared to other nominees, this story of friendship between a stuttering king and his speech therapist held back from pursuing a quick expansion. In terms of cumulative gross, it's still behind The Social Network, True Grit, and Black Swan, but it's approaching the total of The Fighter, which is currently at $78 million after eight weeks, compared to The King's Speech's $72 million in ten weeks. New York Times columnist David Carr recently wrote an article talking about Harvey Weinstein's comeback, comparing him to Jason rising from the dead in Friday the 13th. The King's Speech performance, both at the box office and awards shows (it recently won the DGA award for Best Feature Directing and the SAG award for Best Ensemble), is a big win for a distributor that was near bankruptcy a year ago.

127 Hours also launched an expansion in the wake of Oscar nominations, adding another $2 million to the film's coffers. Even as most of the nominated films dropped theatres, True Grit rose 4% to $7.6 million, and The Fighter dipped just 2.6% to $4 million. Black Swan glided down 33% to $5.1 million. Blue Valentine, farther down the list, rose 33% to bring in $1.1 million.

Hispanic-targeted romantic comedy From Prada to Nada opened outside of the top ten with $1.1 million, but its per-screen average of $4,300 bested half of the releases in the top ten.

This Friday, the Super Bowl's not getting in the way of male-targeted releases. Sanctum 3D will enter the fray, hoping to get the adrenaline-fueled crowd before the big Sunday football game. Targeting teen females not interested by the game, The Roommate, starring "Gossip Girl's" Leighton Meester, will also hit theatres.

'Rite' and 'Mechanic' compete against specialty pics flush with Oscar nods

By Sarah Sluis

The action thriller The Mechanic (2,703 theatres) sounds like typical late-January B-movie fare, but critic Maitland McDonagh begs to differ. The "sleek, brutally succinct thriller" comes along with an "emotional pitch [that] lies somewhere between those of King Lear and a Roadrunner cartoon, which doesn't sound like much until you stop to seriously consider the range of most mainstream action movies." Jason Statham also turns in a praise-worthy performance, projecting an "elusive warmth."

Marketed as a horror movie, The Rite (2,985 theatres) should draw in plenty of young females. McDonagh, however, feels that the exorcism movie does not fall within the genre, and "anyone who buys in expecting levitation, demonic apparitions and sundry other gross-out clichs will be disappointed." It's really about "the power of faith," told through "the relationship between a cynical seminarian and [an] unorthodox but devout exorcist." Warner Bros. has apparently been marketing this movie heavily to Hispanic viewers, many of whom are Catholic, and avid moviegoers to boot.

In the wake of the Oscar nominations, The King's Speech will up its screen count to 2,553 theatres, an addition of over 800 theatres. Studio head Harvey Weinstein has also reportedly talked about recutting the film to remove the F-word, and thus secure a PG-13 or PG rating. 127 Hours, which received nods for Best Picture and Best Actor for James Franco, is expanding to 916 locations. Franco is not only a nominee for Best Actor, but he's also doubling as one of the Oscar hosts, a nice increase in exposure for the movie.

Biutiful (57 theatres) reach more ticketbuyers this week, sure to benefit from its two Oscar nominations, one for Best Foreign Language Film and another for its star, Javier Bardem. While critic David Noh wasn't the biggest fan of the movie, he praised the "wearily weathered and better than ever" Bardem, who "proves the very heart and soul of this film."

The Sense and Sensibility-inspired From Prada to Nada (256 theatres) follows two wealthy young women who move in with their aunt after misfortune befalls their family. The romantic comedy is an attempt to woo the Latino market, which is a strong consumer of movies, especially in their first week. While few reviews are on the scene, the first-week receipts should predict whether this movie is among the likes of Prada, or nada.

On Monday, we'll return to analyze which Oscar-nominated films saw the biggest bumps over the weekend, and if The Rite and The Mechanic were able to pull in their respective audiences (apparently the Statham pic is tracking extremely well with older males).

'Megamind' goes up against 'Due Date,' 'For Colored Girls'

By Sarah Sluis

Following two weeks of horror movies tailored to fright-seeking audiences, three diverse films enter the pack, setting the stage for the busy end-of-year season at the box office.

DreamWorks Animation releases its third animated film of the year, Megamind, to 3,954 theatres, including almost two hundred IMAX locations. "There's something for everyone in this redemption tale, romantic comedy and affectionate tribute to pop-cultural tropes," critic Frank Lovece enthused. The family comedy's broad appeal should lead to an opening weekend of around $50 million, more than the studio's How to Train Your Dragon but less than Shrek Forever After.

Audiences looking to repeat the laughs of The Hangover may end up with just a headache when they catch Due Date (3,355 theatres), the Zach Galifianakis/Robert Downey Jr. road trip comedy directed by The Hangover's Todd Phillips. "Due Date, with its bickering, abrasive cross-country travelers, runs out of gas well before the blessed event finally arrives," critic Kevin Lally complains, noting that the "so-called comic situations are more vicious and unpleasant than funny." Despite the tepid reviews, the comedy's connections to The Hangover should entice viewers, giving it an opening in the neighborhood of $30 million.

Tyler Perry fans will see the director take on a more serious tone in For Colored Girls (2,127 theatres), an adaptation of a 1970s black feminist play. According to critic David Noh, Perry "turned the play into the weepiest, Oprah-ready soap-fest imaginable," and his "tin ear for dialogue" only makes the "overwrought" moments worse. An ensemble cast of black women, including Janet Jackson, Whoopi Goldberg and Thandie Newton, should draw audiences, as will Perry's name, but any Oscar hopes for this film appear to be slim.

The true-life story of Valerie Plame Wilson, whose identity as a spy was revealed in a game of political hardball, is revealed in Fair Game (46 theatres). Naomi Watts pays Plame, and Sean Penn her husband. According to critic Daniel Eagan, the drama "faces an uphill battle at the box office," and once it gets into the fallout of the incident, "the filmmakers don't give viewers much of a chance to make up their own minds about what happened."

The prolific documentarian Alex Gibney strikes again with Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer (2 theatres), which Eagan dubbed "a must for political junkies." Releasing only in New York, the profile of the state's former governor should drum up heavy business.

The Australian Western Red Hill stars Ryan Kwanten ("True Blood") and will make its debut in 5 theatres. "Strong performances and taut direction," according to critic Maitland McDonagh, make the movie "never less than watchable," and offers audiences "the appeal of familiar genre conventions with a twist.

Word on the street is that Academy voters seeing screenings of 127 Hours have fainted�a claim that brings to mind the horror movies of yesteryear. Opening in 4 theatres, James Franco stars in a "virtual one-man show," according to Lally, playing real-life hiker Aron Ralston, an adventurous outdoorsman who survived being trapped under a rock by cutting off his own arm. Director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) turns "a most unpleasant predicament into a brisk, visually exciting and�dare we say it?�entertaining movie experience."

This week's films represent the next couple of months to come�plenty of crowd-pleasing material along with awards-seeking films.

Next week, look for coverage of the Amazon Film Festival, as I report from Manaus, Brazil.

Movie '127 Hours' will have no dialogue for one hour

By Sarah Sluis

In a flash of genius, I thought I had finally figured out how they are going to make a movie about the guy that was trapped under a boulder for five days and survived by cutting off his arm. Flashbacks. Slumdog Millionaire-style flashbacks.

Those of you who have seen that Oscar-winning smash Slumdog Millionaire last year may remember that the entire story is composed of flashbacks motivated by a police interrogation with the young male protagonist. Detained by inspectors after winning "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?," he summons a different memory with each question they ask. The screenwriters, Simon Beaufoy and Danny Boyle (the latter directing), will reprise these roles for their new movie, entitled 127 Hours. And flashbacks seem like a perfect strategy to dramatize a man who is literally trapped in one place for five days.

But it appears Beaufoy and Boyle are going in a different direction. There is apparently no dialogue for the first hour. Like Cast Away, without the volleyball. What!?

Well, if there's one person who can pull it off, it would have to be James Franco, who was just announced as the lead today. First off, he looks similar to Aron Ralston, the mountaineer who inspired the story. The actor has spent some time at Columbia and guest starring on "General Hospital," (which he called a "performance art" experiment), an unusual combination that gives him an aura of intellectualism which could work for such a role. Fear not, it will probably hit theatres later this year, with production starting in March.