‘The Lego Movie’ enjoys awesome debut

The Lego Movie successfully built upon the popularity of the Lego toy brand to earn $69 million over the weekend, a stellar debut, and notable for this time of year. The film’s haul is the second highest for the month of February, just behind The Passion of the Christ, which raked in $83.8 million in 2004. The comedy from the team behind the acclaimed Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs stacks up favorably against other animated original movies – those that are neither prequels nor sequels – as well. Fellow fiscal over-achievers include Up ($68.1 million), The Incredibles ($70.5 million) and reigning champion The Simpsons Movie ($74 million). In terms of a demographic breakdown, the kids flick found broad appeal among older viewers: 59% of attendees were over the age of 18 and were, unsurprisingly, majority male (55%). With strong reviews fueling positive word-of-mouth, The Lego Movie will likely enjoy a healthy theatrical life, one which may boast a cume of around $200 million by the time it has run its course.

As expected, The Monuments Men clocked in at No. 2 this weekend, with returns that were a little higher than predicted. George Clooney in fact enjoyed his most successful opening yet as a director: The Monuments Men earned $22.7 million. That’s even better than Oscar-winner Argo’s debut ($19.5 million) and places the film in good company alongside contemporary Captain Phillips ($25.7 million). However, the movie’s viewers – most of who were over the age of 35 (75%) – only gave Men a B+ Cinemascore grade, and reviews continue to be unfavorable, with the movie tracking 33% rotten on Rotten Tomatoes. Both these factors portend a steep dropoff this coming weekend, though it’s just as likely the movie’s megawatt cast will continue to draw a steady stream of curious viewers for a little while longer.

Ride Along’s comedic chops have and continue to lure audiences week after week. The film dropped just 22 percent to land the No. 3 spot at the box office, grossing $9.4 million. This weekend’s earnings have bumped Ride Along’s cume to $105.2 million, making it the first 2014 release to pass the $100 million mark.

Experiencing a similar slight downturn of only 23%, Frozen added another $6.9 million to its ridiculous total that now stands at $368.7 million. There’s really not much else to say about the animated hit, other than to reiterate widespread delight that the power of the Disney princess has been reinvigorated.

Female audiences were less enthused by the latest vampire offering, Vampire Academy, a disappointing showing from the once dependable director Mark Waters (Mean Girls, Freaky Friday). As predicted, amid poor reviews, a weak marketing campaign and general blood-sucker fatigue, Academy bombed with $4.1 million. Although a new release, the film did not manage to crack the weekend’s top 5. Instead, the No. 5 slot went to That Awkward Moment, which surprised some pundits with its steady hold. The Zac Efron vehicle eased 37% to gross $5.5 million. Both films target young women, though only one, it seems, is appealing enough for the demographic to really sink its teeth into.

Black List reveals best of 2013's unproduced

Earlier today The Black List unveiled its top picks for the year’s best unproduced screenplays. Holland, Michigan by Andrew Sodroski earned the most number of votes out of a pack that includes such enticingly titled projects as Randle is Benign, The Shark Is Not Working, Time & Temperature, The Boy and His Tiger, and the we’re-pretty-sure-we-know-what-this-is-about (and-we’re-excited-for-it) A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.

Since 2005 The Black List, founded by Franklin Leonard and Dino Sijamic, has compiled an annual roster of screenplays that is meant to represent the best of the industry’s exponential pile of unproduced works. The organization tends to be spot on. Of the past five Best Picture winners, three were made from Black-Listed scripts: Argo, Slumdog Millionaire, and The King’s Speech. Juno, The Social Network, The Descendants, and Django Unchained all won the Oscar for Best Screenplay, and were all once listed on The Black List.

The upcoming Fathers and Daughters, starring Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfried and “Breaking Bad’s” Aaron Paul, was a Black List selection from 2012, as was the Hillary Clinton biopic, Rodham, currently in development at Lionsgate.

See if you can spot 2015’s Best Picture winner out of this year’s group of 72 (listed in no particular order) below:

MISSISSIPPI MUD by Elijah Bynum

PATIENT Z by Michael Le

MAKE A WISH by Zach Frankel

RANDLE IS BENIGN by Damien Ober

A MONSTER CALLS by Patrick Ness

QUEEN OF HEARTS by Stephanie Shannon

HOLLAND, MICHIGAN by Andrew Sodroski

HOT SUMMER NIGHTS by Elijah Bynum

DUDE by Oliva Milch

PAN by Jason Fuchs

SUPERBRAT by Eric Slovin & Leo Allen

SEED by Christina Hodson

CAKE by Patrick Tobin

DIABLO RUN by Shea Mirzai and Evan Mirzai

SEA OF TREES by Chris Sparling

FRISCO by Simon Stephenson

WHERE ANGELS DIE by Alexander Felix

SUGAR IN MY VEINS by Barbara Stepansky

SECTION 6 by Aaron Berg

LAST MINUTE MAIDS by Leo Nicholas

BROKEN COVE by Declan O'Dwyer

TIME & TEMPERATURE by Nick Santora

POX AMERICANA by Frank John Hughes

THE FIXER by Bill Kennedy

HALF HEARD IN STILLNESS by David Weil

THE LINE by Sang Kyu Kim

BEAST by Zach Dean

THE REMAINS by Meaghan Oppenheimer

TCHAIKOVSKY'S REQUIEM by Jonathan Stokes

AMERICAN SNIPER by Jason Dean Hall

THE POLITICIAN by Matthew Bass and Theodore Bressman

BEAUTY QUEEN by Annie Neal

REMINISCENCE by Lisa Joy Nolan

FREE BYRD by Jon Boyer

DIG by Adam Barker

MAN OF SORROW by Neville Kiser

THE GOLDEN RECORD by Aaron Kandell and Jordan Kandell

NICHOLAS by Leo Sardarian

FROM HERE TO ALBION by Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirivani

1969: A SPACE ODYSSEY OR HOW KUBRICK LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LAND ON THE MOON by Stephany Folsom

CLARITY by Ryan Belenzon and Jeffrey Gelber

ELSEWHERE by Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis

THE KILLING FLOOR by Bac Delorme and Stephen Clarke

REVELATION by Hernany Perla

THE CROWN by Max Hurwitz

THE CIVILIAN by Rachel Long & Brian Pittman

AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE by Richard Naing and Ian Goldberg

THE SHARK IS NOT WORKING by Richard Cordiner

THE INDEPENDENT by Evan Parter

FAULTS by Riley Stearns

THE SPECIAL PROGRAM by Debora Cahn

I'M PROUD OF YOU by Noah Harpster and Micah Fitzerman-Blue

SOVEREIGN by Geoff Tock and Greg Weidman

DOGFIGHT by Nicole Riegel

INK AND BONE by Zak Olkewicz

A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD by Alexis C Jolly

GAY KID AND FAT CHICK by Bo Burnham

BURY THE LEAD by Justin Kremer

EXTINCTION by Spenser Cohen

SPOTLIGHT by Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy

THE MAYOR OF SHARK CITY by Nick Creature and Michael Sweeney

THE END OF THE TOUR by Donald Margulies

FULLY WRECKED by Jake Morse & Scott Wolman

PURE O by Kate Trefry

CAPSULE by Ian Shorr

SHOVEL BUDDIES by Jason Mark Hellerman

BURN SITE by Doug Simon

THE COMPANY MAN by Andrew Cypiot

SWEETHEART by Jack Stanley

INQUEST by Josh Simon

THE BOY AND HIS TIGER by Dan Dollar

LINE OF DUTY by Cory Miller

'Argo' triumphs again at 2013 Oscars

As soon as Argo won the Oscar for Film Editing, it seemed inevitable that the 1970s CIA thriller would also win Best Picture. Forget about the fact that Ben Affleck wasn't nominated for Best Director.  He had already won the DGA award that heralds a Best Picture award, and if there's any other Oscar night award that predicts Best Picture, it's the one for editing.

In a year with so many good films, it was nice to see that most of the nominees went home with Oscars. The biggest winner of the night was Life of Pi with four wins, but Argo and Les Miserables followed with three, and Lincoln and Django Unchained each grabbed two awards. Silver Linings
Playbook scored with one major award, Jennifer Lawrence for Best Actress. Zero Dark Thirty was the only real loser of the bunch, with just one (a tie, even!) for Sound Editing. That movie deserved more--it was better than The Hurt Locker, which scooped up six Oscars, compared to ZDT's solo win. But in such a strong field of players, the awards were divided evenly, instead of the "sweeps" by one film that have dominated the Oscars in recent years.

There were a few surprises in the wins. Although I loved Christoph Waltz's performance in Django Unchained, the role was quite similar to the one that previously won him an Oscar, in Inglourious Basterds. I also think that his role was central enough that it barely skated into the "supporting" category.

In the Animated Feature category, it was Disney Pixar vs. Disney, and a bit surprising that Pixar's Brave won over Wreck-It Ralph, which had been favored to win. This was a weak year for the animated category. In years past, the top two animated films were better than all the nominees this year.

Jennifer Lawrence and Jessica Chastain both won "Best Actress" awards at the Golden Globes, but only one could win at the Oscars. Although I favored Chastain, both for the quality of the role she played, and the fact that she has a bit of seniority over Lawrence, Lawrence could not have been a
more---well, not graceful, but grateful winner. Her speeches, both in front of the mike and backstage, felt so natural and effusive and funny that it was hard not to root for the star. In contrast, Anne Hathaway's "It came true" speech fell flat among many Twitter couch pundits. She was in the difficult position of being heavily favored for the win and her speech came off sounding rehearsed and fake--all the more inexcusable because she was accepting the award for Best Supporting Actress. I think her team was looking for an "Oscar moment" that just didn't quite register.

Argo was a strong, crowd-pleasing choice for Best Picture, but I wonder if some of the other eight nominees may age better than that film. Argo's victorious look at U.S. history was certainly more palatable than Zero Dark Thirty's version, but it has its own flaws. How Argo got away with its inaccuracies and dramatizations while ZDT was slammed for them remains a mystery. If anything, it shows that Argo benefited from historical distance while ZDT hurt from covering a topic that still pushes many political and moral buttons.

Now that the onslaught of awards season has come to a close, movie lovers will face the long drought before the next crop of awards contenders is ready. But in the meantime, there's plenty of spring and summer tentpoles (and some hopeful indies) that go very well with a side of popcorn.

Projections for Sunday's Oscar ceremony

After months of speculation, the Oscars will finally be awarded on Sunday. So before you print out your Oscar ballot and mark your choices, take a look at Screener's picks and talking points for the leading categories..

Best Supporting Actress
Anne Hathaway for Les
Misérables. There is zero chance of an upset here.

Best Actress
My vote is for Jessica Chastain. This is the best chance for Zero Dark Thirty to get recognition.
Kathryn Bigelow didn't get a directing nomination, and Mark Boal will face competition from Django Unchained and Amour in the Original Screenplay category. That being said, those that favor Silver Linings Playbook may want to reward star Jennifer Lawrence in this prominent category. If voters split on that category, Emmanuelle Riva may win for Amour. The movie on aging was a favorite with the older demographic that belongs to the Academy. Riva is already the oldest nominee in the category, ever, and if she won she would be the oldest winner. If there's one thing the Academy loves, it's firsts.

Best Picture (and Best Director)
What will win: I'm betting on Argo. Ben Affleck won the Directors Guild Award, which traditionally predicts the Oscar winner for Best Picture and Best Director. The catch is that Affleck didn't even receive a nomination for Best Director at the Oscars, and Best Director and Best Picture almost always go together. My predicted split: Argo for Best Picture and Steven Spielberg for Lincoln. Argo is also the lead in the Adapted Screenplay category, though, again, it's a tough race, and both Lincoln and Silver Linings Playbook have people batting in their corner.

Best Actor
Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln. Chastain was pretty much a lone wolf in Zero Dark Thirty, but Day-Lewis had lots of help from Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones, who were also nominated for their performances. But that doesn't change the fact that Day-Lewis' performance is critical to the success of Lincoln. Great actor, great part = Oscar.

Best Supporting Actor
Some are leaning towards Philip Seymour Hoffman for The Master in this category. Although I can't vouch for that performance (one of the few I missed), it has gravitas, which is something the Academy tends to like. Robert De Niro's performance as a bookie father (who cries!) in Silver Linings Playbook is also a frontrunner. Personally, I think Tommy Lee Jones' chuckle-inducing performance as Thaddeus Stevens has been woefully unheralded among the press. He provided some much-needed comic relief in a sometimes dour historical account. Seeing this social liberal compromise in order to pass the amendment was an emotional and intellectual highlight of Lincoln, and Jones is my underdog favorite.

With tight races among great films, this should make for one of the most exciting ceremonies in recent memory. There will also likely be more viewers watching. This year, seven out of the nine nominees for Best Picture have earned over $100 million, which has helped build interest compared to years dominated by micro-indies. And did we mention that Seth MacFarlane is hosting?

 

Another Academy Awards predictor joins the fray, 'Social Oscars'

The second site to try to "Nate Silver"
the Oscars is Social
Oscars. Back in mid-January, Screener reported on Farsite Forecast, which doles out each
nominee's percentage chance at winning the Oscars. Social Oscars, which social
media monitoring company Brandwatch created, takes a different route. The
company's interactive infographic compares which movies the critics think will
win to the ones that the public thinks will win. Surprisingly, the critics and
public are pretty much in agreement for most of the categories. There's rarely
more than a couple percentage points in

differences between the two, which may
not be even statistically significant since they don't mention the sample size.
However, some of their findings do back up the anecdotal feelings about races
in various categories.

In the Best Picture race, for example, more
critics (12%) are excited about Zero Dark Thirty than members of the
public (7%). Life of Pi's sentimentality played better with the public
(12%) than critics (9%). Argo has recently become the frontrunner for
Best Picture, unseating the early momentum of Zero Dark Thirty and the
solid, blue-chip choice of Steven Spielberg's Lincoln. If Argo
wins, the Social Oscars will have correctly picked the winner, since 23% of the
public and 19% of critics have voted this as their favorite.

The Social Oscars is a fun tool, but it overlooks
one big fact. Who wins the Oscars usually has only a loose correlation with the
popular and critical choices. For every winner like The King's Speech,
which was the 2010 victor and supported by both critics and audiences,
there's a movie that critics were rooting for but the public did not see in
theatres in big numbers (that describes 2011 winner The Artist or 2009
winner The Hurt Locker), or a popular favorite that's just good enough
or has some kind of special hook that convinces the Academy that it deserves
recognition (Gladiator, Titanic, Forrest Gump). The Oscars can
sometimes be an exercise in game theory (see 2001 Best Picture winner A
Beautiful Mind for a brush-up on that). Many critics distinguish between
the movies they like best and the movie that they think they will win,
sometimes developing subcategories like a movie they campaign for and want to
win, even while acknowledging another movie probably has a better shot. A
regular Joe may count nominee Django Unchained as the most enjoyable
picture of the year but feel that Argo is the better choice for a Best
Picture winner. The Social Oscars' infographic is an interesting tool to gauge
the relative popularity of the Best Picture choices, for example, but critical
and popular reaction are just one piece of the pie when it comes to the Oscars.

Sarah Sluis' Top Ten Movies of 2012

2012 has been a great year for big Hollywood films. In 2009, 2010 and 2011, my top ten lists were stocked with underdogs and the kind of specialty fare that only sometimes made it big at the box office. This year, most of the "specialty" releases I selected are destined for expansion and great play in theatres, so I'm a little light on the underdogs. The list reflects only the movies I saw in theatres this year: 70, a number many critics could easily double. In no particular order, here are my top ten:

1. Zero Dark Thirty. The biggest surprise for me was that the film's protagonist, Maya, was female, "a woman clothed, like Athena, in willful strength and intellectual armor," as described by The New Yorker's David Denby. She's the kind of female protagonist you don't realize is rare until you see her up on the screen. Beyond Maya (played expertly by Jessica Chastain), director Kathryn Bigelow lays out an incredibly detailed account of the years leading up to Bin Laden's death that feels real, immediate, and important. It's a cinematic (and partly fictional) version of reading The 9/11 Comission Report.

2. Next to Maya, Gina Carano was the second most awesome female protagonist of the year in Haywire. The lean spy actioner had some of the most riveting, realistic fighting I've ever seen. Like Zero Dark Thirty, there's a lot that director Steven Soderbergh didn't bother to explain. I like a story where a filmmaker or actor has the courage or confidence not to show something, and this movie was one of them.

3. Flight showed little restraint. The final minutes added a moralizing touch that felt old-fashioned and uncomfortable. Like the car crash scene in Adaptation, Flight has one of the best action sequences ever appearing in a drama. It stays with you for the rest of the film. Another great movie about alcoholism that didn't quite make the list, Smashed, is an interesting companion piece: substitute a plane crash for a faked pregnancy and you end up with a quite similar character arc.

4. Argo was so much fun to watch. Even though I had read the magazine article that was the source material and knew the end plane sequence didn't really happen, it managed to combine real drama with comedy in a way that so few others have. I think this is why audiences finally returned to the "box-office poison" of Middle East-set features. This one had you clapping and gasping in suspense, but it also had great laughs and didn't take itself too seriously.

5. The documentary Searching for Sugar Man centered on folk musician Rodriguez, a man so befuddling and enigmatic it was hard to wrap your mind around him. But that's why I like documentaries: They can offer character portraits that would never work in fiction films, because audiences would find them too frustrating. Some key would need to be provided to the audience to unlock his or her motivations. But we never get one for Rodriguez, whose life as both a star and an aesthete becomes a koan on character and fame for the audience to meditate on. In one forest, Rodriguez's music fell on deaf ears. In another (South Africa), it became a symbol of cultural revolution.

6. Les Misérables promises to shake up the way musicals are filmed for the screen. The live recordings of the actors strip away the distance that always seems to crop up in musicals. Sure, Les Misérables is one of my favorite musicals, but that only raises expectations. Mine were met, and then some.

7. Beasts of the Southern Wild may also change the world of indie film. I'd rather have a crop of indie imitators try to tackle a project like this than sit through another Mumblecore, but given the immense resolve required of those who soldiered through the bayou-set production, I doubt there will be too many. Beasts opened up dialogue about New Orleans and Katrina and made the experience of seeing a movie feel new again. For that, it gets a spot in the top ten.

8. I'm still not quite sure what to think about Django Unchained. I admire director Quentin Tarantino for traversing into the quicksand territory that is race relations and America's history of slavery. So far, people have only taken issue with small things, like the use of the N-word. Surely more thoughtful cultural critiques are to come. What I remember most about Django is its use of guided awe. Django (Jamie Foxx) rides into town on a horse, prompting head-turning stares from every person in town. A black person on a horse? Tarantino draws attentions to anachronisms, but the emotions of hatred and revenge never feel far removed from the present.

9. I don't ever want to see The Impossible again, but its account of a family torn apart by the tsunami in Thailand was harrowing and intimate. It was essentially a two-hour ordeal of getting choked up and holding back tears. Those in search of an emotional ravaging need to look no further.

10. Everyone seems to be hating The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey but I thought it was a nice solid Hobbit meal. Suddenly, Lord of the Rings made sense to me. With fewer deaths and a lighter tone, this is the kind of fantasy adventure that would have been a great kickoff to the film series. The Harry Potter books started off light and got darker and darker, and the same holds true for The Hobbit. This one was actually still close to the Prisoners of Azkaban-level in terms of darkness, but the movie makes my list just because it's such a relief to finally get a series I never really latched onto.

 

'Argo' leads in soft weekend for new releases

Argo may not have opened at number one, but in its third weekend, it finally rose to the top. Despite four new wide releases, it was the Ben Affleck-directed and led thriller that grabbed the first-place position with a $12.3 million finish. Although Argo's 25% drop was larger than last week's 15% dip, that's still an extremely strong hold. By next week, the movie should be tracking ahead of Affleck's previous picture, The Town, which opened higher but had larger week-to-week

falls.

Cloud Atlas led the group of new releases, finishing with $9.4 million, right below Hotel Transylvania's $9.5 million. The literary adaptation reportedly cost over $100 million, so that part doesn't bode well for the career trajectory of the Wachowski siblings, who directed the picture along with Tom Tykwer. It's possible the actual total could be even lower, since many NYC theatres shut down in early evening, when public transit in the city also ground to a halt in preparation for the storm. This appeared to be a film choice for an older, arthouse-leaning crowd. 77% of ticket-buyers were over the age of 25. 12% of the totals came from IMAX screens, indicating this was an "event" film for certain fans.

The horror sequel Silent Hill: Revelation 3D opened to $8 million. The original opened to $20 million in 2006, indicating that this adaptation of a video game franchise has lost almost all momentum. Any plans for a Silent Hill 3 are likely dead and buried.

The teen comedy Fun Size failed to ignite, and barely squeaked into the top ten with just $4
million. Teen girls, likely fans of "iCarly" star Victoria Justice, did show up: 67% of attendees were female and 73% under the age of 25. But not enough of them showed up, so the opening ended up below even other Nickelodeon-produced flops like Hey Arnold! The Movie, which had a similarly lackluster opening of $5.7 million back in 2002.

Chasing Mavericks had an extremely disappointing debut of just $2.2 million, giving it a thirteenth-place finish. Why release a surfing movie in the fall? Spring or summer would be a better choice for the release, just the time of year when people are anticipating or enjoying beach vacations. It's also the second bomb for a Fox/Walden Media release. Won't Back Down recently debuted to a figure almost as low, $2.6 million.

The specialty front was also quiet. The Loneliest Planet opened to a $10,000 per screen average at two locations. On Rotten Tomatoes, critics liked it, giving it a 76% positive rating. Rotten Tomatoes users were less happy, with only 46% coming out in favor of the tale of a couple's relationship, which is tested while traveling in the remote Caucasus mountains. That indicates the feature may not do as well in coming weeks. Compare that to The Sessions. In its second week, the heartwarming romance-drama went from four to twenty screens and reaped the rewards. The $11,000 per-screen average was the highest of any release this weekend, and gave the John Hawkes-led picture a total of $231,000. The ratings on Rotten Tomatoes show the difference: the 96% positive critics ratings are matched by an 86% positive audience rating.

This Friday, the CG-animated Wreck-It Ralph will likely steal the thunder from kid-friendly competitor Hotel Transylvania. The well-reviewed Flight will also open in theatres along with The Man with the Iron Fists.

'Argo' should stay ahead of four new wide releases

Four new wide releases are hitting theatres this weekend, but none are expected to surpass the $4-12 million range. That means that Argo has a good chance of spending a second week at number one. Last week, the '70s suspenser based on the Iranian hostage crisis dipped just 15%, a record hold for a wide action release. A similar hold would put the movie around $13 million, slightly ahead of projections for the four new wide releases.

Cloud Atlas (2,008 theatres) has been billing itself as a cineaste's film, a must-see for those who admire the work of the directors, the Wachowski siblings and Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run).
The "incredibly ambitious undertaking," as described by critic Maitland McDonagh, may have trouble recruiting mainstream audiences, with
its six separate storylines interweaving over 172 minutes.. But the "consistently entertaining
and surprisingly effective" movie is "the shortest three hours
most moviegoers will ever spend in a theatre…and that's no small
recommendation," McDonagh assesses, though she notes that in tying together so many disparate storylines, the filmmakers must go for the lowest common denominator, "greeting-card platitudes rather than genuinely provocative
notions," along the lines of "we are all connected" and "no man is an island." The hard sell of a movie may end up with less than $10 million.

Looking for a throwback to the teen comedies of my youth, I checked out Fun Size (3,014 theatres). The rather obvious movie is also genuinely funny, with some slapstick moments and goofy cariactures (eccentric hippie lesbian parents) that connect. There are also plenty of slo-mo
moments of the hunky teen boy driving his car away while the crushed look on. It is a teen comedy, after all. The Nickelodeon-produced movie, which is full of TV stars young (Victoria Justice of "iCarly") and old (Chelsea Handler of "Chelsea Lately"), is also directed by "The OC"'s Josh Schwartz. The teen comedy is also projected to hit around the $10 million mark.

Silent Hill: Revelation 3D (2,933 theatres) should top $10 million, in part because horror-tinged releases tend to perform best their first weekend. Early Rotten Tomatoes reviews
have 20% of critics liking the horror sequel and 86% of audiences
voting it "fresh." However, the popularity of the video game franchise
the series is based on has waned in recent years, which could spell
trouble for the movie's performance at the box office.

Fans of the great surf movies like Riding Giants and The Endless Summer will be in store for more great surfing shots in Chasing Mavericks (2,002 theatres), a fictional film based on the story of a real surfer who tackled Mavericks, those formidable waves off the coast of California. The "true stars of the film are the waves themselves, awesome liquid mountains that rear up magnificently
and resoundingly crash, thrillingly recorded by the sensational cinematography of Oliver Euclid and Bill Pope," critic David Noh notes. But that's all they'll get, thanks to the "unmitigated corn of a hopelessly mawkish screenplay." The question is whether one would be better off watching YouTube surf videos instead of sitting through a bad story.

Also opening this week is the well-reviewed The Loneliest Planet (2 theatres), "a nuanced story about a couple’s wilderness hiking trip through the Caucasus Mountains" shot with "accomplished simplicity," according to our critic Maria Garcia. The remake of Nicholas Winding Refn's Pusher (15 theatres) also opens. According to THR's Deborah Young, the crime movie "struggles to rise above standard drug
dealer/gangster fare and succeeds, but only in part," a lukewarm endorsement.

On Monday, we'll see where the four new wide releases settled in the top ten, and if Argo was able to keep its spot at number one.

In adult-driven weekend, 'Argo' places second to 'Taken 2'

For the second weekend in a row, Taken 2 finished first. Even though the Liam Neeson-led kidnapping thriller dropped 55% from the previous weekend, its $22.5 million total was still $2 million more than the second-place finisher, Argo. With $86 million earned to date, Taken 2 is seriously outpacing its predecessor. Taken had only earned $53 million by its second week, but it did have very low week-over-week drops that helped make it a sleeper hit.

Ben Affleck's writing/directing/starring effort, Argo placed second with $20.1 million. Affleck's last movie, The Town, opened slightly higher, at $23 million, and ended up earning four times its

Ben Affleck in 'Argo'

opening weekend. Argo, with an "A+" CinemaScore in exit polls, could easily surpass that figure, earning five or six times its opening weekend, especially if the positive word-of-mouth is complemented by recognition come awards season. 74% of viewers were over the age of 35. My parents, who were in their late twenties during the Iranian hostage crisis depicted in the film, reported the '70s costumes, big glasses, and old news footage helped bring that time of their life back in vivid (and suspenseful) detail.

 

The horror flick Sinister did solid business with an $18.2 million total. Younger audiences turned out for the scares, with a fairly even male/female split. Although that's right around the same amount as slow-burn horror sensation

Kevin James in 'Here Comes the Boom'

Insidious, it's more likely that Sinister will get steamrolled by Paranormal Activity 4 next weekend.

 

Here Comes the Boom had a disappointing opening weekend of just $12 million. That's far below star Kevin James' other openings, including the $31 million opening weekend of Paul Blart: Mall Cop and the $20 million for The Zookeeper.
There's a chance this movie could turn around. Family-driven titles
tend to stick around for a while, and this one earned an "A" CinemaScore rating from viewers.

Seven Psychopaths had a disappointing weekend, with a nationwide release that yielded just $4.2 million. That's the worst wide opening ever for CBS Films, which already has a bad track record with a number of films that have opened below $10 million. Despite its poor showing, audiences liked the movie. The majority of viewers were male, and 71% of the audience was over 25.

'Seven Psychopaths'

Younger viewers (18-34), though, were most enamored with the black comedy about crime, giving it an "A-" rating that exceeded the overall average of "B+."

 

The Perks of Being a Wallflower added 500 theatres for 726 total. The Emma Watson-led comedy about outsider teens added $2.1 million to its total thanks to the expansion, a 36% increase from the previous week.

Higher up on the chart, Pitch Perfect posted a strong hold, dipping just 37% to earn $9.3 million. With $36 million to date, the a capella comedy has already made back two times its budget. Sounds like  a success for Universal.

 Despite added attention thanks to conservative-driven movies in the marketplace, Atlas Shrugged: Part II performed on par with its predecessor. Part I opened to $1.6 million last April, while Part II debuted to $1.7 million. What's worse is that the follow-up opened in three times as many theatres, meaning every location's theatres were one-third as full, and distribution costs were higher.

On the heels of a "60 Minutes" story about the doc last Sunday, Searching for Sugar Man soared 135% from the previous week for a total of $203,000, its highest weekend in a three-month run. The doc about a musician who becomes a hit in an apartheid-era South Africa and never knows it also expanded from 38 to 157 locations.

This Friday, Paranormal Activity 4 will jump on the pre-Halloween horror bandwagon, and Tyler Perry will play a smart action hero in Alex Cross. Well-reviewed The Sessions will open small with an eye towards gathering accolades come awards season.

'Argo' vies against 'Taken 2' for adult males in busiest fall weekend yet

Argo (3,232 theatres)
became a serious awards contender after its great critical reception at
the Toronto Film Festival. Now it has to prove its worth to a nationwide audience. Ben Affleck stars in his third directing
effort, and this is"most accomplished work yet," reports critic Kevin
Lally. The real-life adaptation centers on the CIA's plan to rescue six
Americans who escape from the Iranian
takeover of the embassy in 1979
but remain trapped in the country. Great direction and writing mean
audiences are in for "a true nail-biter, even if you
already know the outcome." Since Taken 2
overperformed last weekend, earning a stunning $50 million, even a 50%
drop would put the suspense-actioner at $25 million. That's a high
target for Argo to beat, so the movies may end up neck and neck for the first-place finish.

Beating the Halloween rush for R-rated horror, Sinister (2,527 theatres)
centers on a typically ill-advised move to a haunted house. A crime
writer decides to move into a dwelling that was the site of a murder. Home
movies upstairs give him clues about the past that could end up killing
his family too. The "genuinely creepy" movie "doesn't break any new
ground, but it works
haunted-house conventions with considerable skill and admirable
conviction," according to critic Maitland McDonagh. The fact that there
hasn't been an adult scary movie for a while should mean
this scary movie will
end up close to $20 million.

The PG-rated Kevin James comedy Here Comes the Boom (3,014 theatres)
should receive strong support from the Heartland, but that may not be
enough to bring the opening above the teen million range. James' brand
of silly comedy generally doesn't receive strong critical support (Boom is currently at just 43% positive on Rotten Tomatoes), but our critic David
Noh crowned the movie "a
winner in terms of entertainment and crowd-pleasing satisfaction." Sure,
the tale of a teacher who moonlights as an MMA fighter in order to save
the school's music program is "predictable," but the "heartwarming" parts
balance it out.

Word-of-mouth about writer/director Martin McDonagh's In Bruges, which had a very under-the-radar release in 2008, should help Seven Psychopaths (1,480 theatres) 
improve on the
first crime comedy's box-office performance. The only problem is
that the older males who are showing the most interest in this option
also have Argo and Taken 2 on their to-see list, so Seven Psychopaths
may be the loser in this crowded weekend. Lally praises the
"alternately hilarious and horrifying
comedy," but warns that the "extreme approach to black comedy
won’t be for everyone." Somewhere between $7-10 million is in store for
the violent feature, which should have strong playability in weeks
to come.

The first Atlas Shrugged movie tanked in 2011 with just $4.6 million on a reported $20 million budget. That didn't stop the production of Atlas Shrugged: Part II (1,012 theatres), which will open even wider than the first one. Trailers for the allegorical work played before the successful conservative doc 2016: Obama's America and the Christian-leaning Last Ounce of Courage,
so the movie should have high awareness among the target demographic. An
opening of over $5 million will make this adaptation of the book by Ayn
Rand a success.

On Monday, we'll chart how all the new releases fared in this movie-saturated fall weekend.

Telluride Film Festival brings early reviews of 'Argo,' 'Hyde Park on Hudson'

Known as the festival for film lovers, the small Telluride Film
Festival, which took place over Labor Day weekend, included screenings
of Argo and Hyde Park of Hudson, two high-profile movies set to release later this year. Hyde Park is clearly Oscar bait, while Argo has been flying under the radar. Expectations appear to have helped Argo (they were low to begin with) and hurt Hyde Park on Hudson. Here are some of the critical responses coming out of the festival.

Argo: On its way up. Sure, Ben Affleck won a screenwriting Oscar for Good Will Hunting, but he's done mostly mainstream commercial work as an
actor since then. But he also won
praise as a director with 2010's The Town and has an acting role in
Terrence Malick's To the Wonder. His
third directing effort, Argo,
a fact-based thriller about the Iran hostage crisis, should do well at
the box office when it opens wide on October 12. However, it's now also
being talked about as a serious Oscar contender.  A surprise pick at
Telluride, Anne Thompson of Indiewire declares that "multiple Oscar nominations are in order as this movie surges to the top of the current Oscar contenders list." THR lauds the "crackerjack political thriller," and praises the "confidence and finesse" of Affleck's directing.

Holding position: Hyde Park on Hudson. A personal story of a historical figure, FDR, Hyde Park on Hudson appears to be taking a note from The King's Speech,
2010's success story. However, early notices indicate it doesn't rise
to
the heights of the Oscar winner. Jeff Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere
was rather dismissive of the "well-finessed historical parlor piece." Eric Kohn of Indiewire manages expectations,
deciding that the historical pic has "enough momentum to keep its lead
actors (including Laura Linney as the president's temporary love
interest) in the awards race." From a commerical perspective, THR pegs it
as a "refined treat that nonetheless will appeal to a wide audience." 
Maybe the Focus release, which opens on December 7, will be more like The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a box-office hit that will likely be recognized at the Oscars, but not overwhelmingly. Surely Hyde Park on Hudson
will gather more nominations than that movie, but the FDR-centered love
story may be too reminiscent of its more successful predecessor, The King's Speech, to come close to the 2010 film's success.

 

 

 

 

Trailer for 'Argo' promises a smart, action-filled spy thriller

File Argo under "so crazy, it has to be real." The trailer for the audacious spy picture just released, and it looks like star/director Ben Affleck will be able to top what he did in The Town.

Set in 1979, Affleck plays Tony Mendez, a CIA employee whose division specializes in doctoring fake identities, credentials, and all sorts of creative wizardry. When Iranian revolutionaries took embassy employees hostage that November, six managed to escape, eventually hiding out in the Canadian embassy. Mendez came up with a crazy idea--have the six people pass as members of a film crew scouting a project. An actual sci-fi script, titled Argo, was found, a production office set up, and ads announcing production were placed in The Hollywood Reporter. The ruse worked, and the recently declassified story became the subject of a thrilling 2007 "Wired" story, "How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran."

Compared to what actually happened, it appears that Argo raises the stakes. "Wired" describes the passengers calmly boarding the plane without detection. The trailer shows soldiers running through the airport in hot pursuit, and vehicles chasing after a plane as it lifts off the runway. Talk about giving away the ending.

Argo comes off as a real-life Ocean's Eleven or Catch Me If You Can. It's also reminiscent of previous projects from producers George Clooney and Grant Heslov, who favor wacky situations involving politics, spies, and the Middle East (epitomized by The Men Who Stare at Goats).

The trailer emphasizes the larger-than-life personalities of Hollywood producers, but there's a lot of material from the "Wired" article that's just as entertaining. Iranian government officials (successfully) hired carpet weavers to reassemble shredded documents from the embassy. Mendez's group, the Office of Technical Service, succeeded by pulling off tricks like putting microphones on cats. He also had contacts in Hollywood--most likely to help with unusual makeup or forgery--that helped him come up with the idea in the first place.

The Warner Bros. project looks like first-rate entertainment, full of American ingenuity and scored to Aerosmith's "Dream On." It seems like the perfect popcorn movie, but viewers will have to wait for this one until October 12.