'Act of Valor' shines during Academy Awards weekend

As expected, The Artist landed the Best Picture Oscar this Sunday at the Academy Awards. The silent era-set tale has earned $31.8 million to date. In comparison, the middling war-action picture Act of Valor attracted more moviegoers than expected and earned $24.7 million, an amount it took The Artist three months to reach. Act of Valor's primarily male audience gave the war flick its version of a statuette--an "A" exit rating.

The disparity between art films beloved by critics and the Academy and commercial films is once again in full relief. In 2009 and 2010, the first years allowing ten Best Picture nominees (since 1943), half the movies had earned $100 million--and still others were close to that figure. This year, only The Help has topped $100 million, with $169 million in total. The next runner-up is War Horse, with a mere $79 million.

Of course, there's still time for some movies to make more money. The Artist will expand into 2,000 theatres this weekend. Still, expectations should be modest. Last year, The King's Speech had the most momentum after its nomination. It earned only 15% of its total after it actually won. Part of the reason the Academy expanded the number of Best Picture nominees was to include a mix of art films and those that performed well at the box office. It was hoped that very little and very big films might be included more frequently. This past year had no Inception, no Avatar, no The Blind Side. Without a blockbuster or crossover success in the running, the awards don't have as much appeal to general audiences. No wonder I heard many people--casual and more serious moviegoers--complain about the irrelevance of this year's Oscars. Although the ceremony included many people from more recognizable movies--like the cast of Bridesmaids, who presented awards--the awards themselves honored movies many people didn't and/or won't see. It's too bad there wasn't a well-regarded action picture in the running. True to the Academy's safe choices, an edgy movie like Drive can only get into the contest with a roundabout nomination, like its nod in Sound Editing.

Perhaps due in part to the lower-profile Oscar ceremony, box office as a whole was up from last year. After Act of Valor, Tyler Perry's Good Deeds suffered from the absence of Madea and brought in just $16 million. Down in eighth and ninth place, Wanderlust and Gone did even worse. The Paul Rudd/Jennifer Aniston comedy tallied up just $6.6 million, despite a 60% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It may fall under the "rent it" category for many viewers.  Gone likewise didn't connect with audiences, which gave it just a C+ in exit polls. The Amanda Seyfried kidnapping thriller finished with just $5 million.

A number of Oscar nominees posted gains this weekend. Best Foreign Language Film winner A Separation went up 36% to earn $423,000. Foreign Language nominee In Darkness received a 10% boost, grossing $91,000. Bullhead, which was nominated in the same category, posted a 28% gain for a total of $41,000. My Week with Marilyn expanded slightly and posted a 58% gain to $313,000. The Artist, which earned five wins, went up 23% to $3 million.

This Friday, Oscar winner The Artist will go big in an attempt to capitalize on its win. It will be joined by Dr. Seuss adaptation The Lorax and the one-crazy-party teen comedy Project X.

'Act of Valor' aims its sights at first place

FJI critic Daniel Eagan opens his review of Act of Valor (3,039 theatres) by calling it a "feature-length recruiting ad masquerading as a movie." In fact, the movie did start out as a recruiting tool. It's widely expected that this military picture with a multicultural cast will play strongly in the heartland. It's also been advertised widely among those in the military. I saw some New York City firefighters show up to a screening (They parked their work vehicle right in front. Jealous.). Still, learning that the movie began as a recruitment tool reminded me of the protests over the military's use of video game centers to recruit soldiers. Eagan himself sees a similarity between the two, finding the war pic "works best if you think of it as a prototype for a shooter video game." An opening weekend in the teen millions and perhaps above $20 million is expected for the "ugly action outing."

Tyler Perry is one of the most prolific and profitable multi-hyphenates out there. Tyler Perry's Good Deeds (2,132 theatres) is his latest. It focuses on a businessman who helps out a cleaning woman, only to fall for her, even though he already has a fiancée. Fewer viewers than normal rate this Perry picture as a must-see, so it may underperform. Perry's films without his Madea character tend to earn less money, and competition from Denzel Washington starrer Safe House could siphon away some of the black audience. It should finish behind Act of Valor with a teen-million sum.

Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston play a high-strung couple who end up in a hippie commune in Wanderlust (2,001 theatres). The comedy isn't expected to top $10 million. Still, about half of critics have given the movie a positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, our David Noh among them. The "genially satiric take on yuppies thrown into the scarily holistic, vegan universe is determined to give the audience a good time and largely delivers," he declares.

Summit is betting teen girls will turn out to see Amanda Seyfried in Gone (2,186 theatres). She plays a young woman whose sister is kidnapped. She suspects her sister has been taken by the same serial killer who attacked her years earlier. Like Wanderlust, the thriller will probably struggle to reach $10 million.

The Oscars are on Sunday, so films like The Descendants and The Artist may see a pre-ceremony boost. Still, the biggest rises will probably occur after the statues are handed out. On Monday I'll recap this weekend's winners and losers.

Miley Cyrus eyes a 'Twilight'-like role in 'Wake'

By Sarah Sluis

Miley Cyrus has already gone from being a tween superstar to a household name among all ages. Now she's doing something harder: aging up and into more mature roles. Cyrus may star in Wake, the first in a series of young adult novels about a girl who gets caught up in other people's dreams. It sounds like her character

has a similar talent to Leonardo DiCaprio in this summer's Inception, but her gift is more supernatural and less sci-fi. Because the book has horror and suspense elements, the tone will be edgier without being sexier. She's gotten a lot of heat lately for provocative performances at recent concerts, but the seventeen-year-old's first non-Hannah Montana feature was comparatively tame. She played the lead in The Last Song, a Nicholas Sparks adaptation that was written especially for her and thus certified to be Cyrus family-friendly.

Wake is the first in a series that now encompasses three books, the latter two entitled Fade and Gone. The girl, Janie, has the ability to go inside other people's dreams if they are physically near her. She also discovers that she can direct their dreams, turning the fears expressed in nightmares into something more manageable. She can give people closure. She drops in on the dream of a burnout named Cabel, and discovers that there's a lot more there than meets the eye--he becomes her boyfriend and later her sidekick as she tries to figure out who dreamed one horrible dream she cannot forget. The movie will be distributed by Paramount and MTV Films (which passed on Twilight) is developing the project. Christopher Landon (Disturbia) will write the script, and whether or not Cyrus gets on board will depend on the quality of the script.

So kudos to Miley. The project's supernatural overtones put it in the trendy Twilight territory without being directly vampire-related.Also, although the heroine has a boyfriend, it's not a romance, so Cyrus isn't going the rom-com route--thank goodness. She's still stuck in a hard game, and there's plenty of popular young actresses popular in the tabloids but unable to make the switch to adult roles. Lindsay Lohan crashed and burned her way out of Disney movies, and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have more success now with fashion than they do on movie sets. Cyrus has never appealed to me--she has a kind of awkward demeanor that's inconsistent with being a movie star without being charming in its own way. While she has hordes of young fans, it's possible that her grown-up fans may want to cast her off instead of growing up with her. Just one more note to Miley about her image: stop slouching!