'The Purge' doubles the opening of 'The Internship'

Thanks to savvy marketing that pulled in both horror fans and those who perfer lighter thrillers, The Purge landed on top with $36 million this weekend. Horror fans liked the idea of seeing a family fend off a violent attack in their home, while others were drawn in by the fact that a futuristic government has made this kind of behavior legal--at least for 12 hours a year. Back in 2002, Panic Room, another home invasion movie that also had more of a thriller than horror vibe, opened to $30 million. The picture performed well among Hispanic audiences, which accounted for a third of ticket sales, as well as women, who bought 56% of the tickets.

In contrast, Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn couldn't excite audiences about The Internship. The comedy opened in fourth place with $18.1 million--and it cost far more than the reported $3 million for The Purge. That $18 million total is half the opening of Wedding Crashers, and it's also not a good showing for Shawn Levy, whose directing credits include the $100+ million comedy Date Night. Many critics felt uneasy with the heavy Google tie-in, which came across more like an advertisement than a lampoon, and audiences may feel the same way. In coming weeks, word-of-mouth will make this one sink quickly or coast through a bit longer.

With major blockbusters releasing since the beginning of May, plenty of pictures put in strong holdover weekends, dropping just a third from the previous weekend. Fast & Furious 6 kept its decline to 43%, which still gave the car chase movie $19.7 million. Down 33% in its second weekend, Now You See Me closely tailed Fast & Furious, posting returns of $19.5 million. Further down the list, Epic, Star Trek Into Darkness, Iron Man 3 and The Great Gatsby all dropped in the mid-30% range. There were a couple of losers, though: After Earth plummeted 59% in its second weekend, while The Hangover Part III lost 55% of its audience.

Joss Whedon's foray into Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, averaged $36,000 per screen in five locations, for a total of $183,000. Next week, the low-budget adaptation, set in present day, will expand into a few hundred theatres. The documentary Dirty Wars, which reveals how the "Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) has been fighting a secret
war against terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan," had a strong debut, averaging $16,500 per screen in four theatres.

On Wednesday, the apocalyptic comedy This Is the End will hit theatres, followed by superman's return in Man of Steel on Friday.

'Star Trek Into Darkness' on its way to a $100 million weekend

Opening on Wednesday night in over 300 IMAX locations, Star Trek Into Darkness debuted to $3.3 million, similar to The Great Gatsby's early take for Thursday night screenings last week. Totals for Thursday haven't been tallied yet. Now playing in 3,868 theatres, the sci-fi sequel is expected to earn a weekend haul upwards of $100 million. One reason that the Wednesday night totals were so low was because Paramount only made the decision to release that evening last week--long after most fanboys would have made their Fandango purchases.

The 3D and IMAX feature has strong reviews, just like the 2009 original reboot. The 2009 Star Trek earned a 95% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and the sequel is running 87% positive. I felt both movies were equally good, and if anything, the lower ratings this time around are just due to people raising the benchmark about what they expect a J.J. Abrams-directed Star Trek movie to be. The stakes are personal this time around. "One major improvement of Into Darkness is
its more vivid villain," our critic Kevin Lally notes. Benedict Cumberbatch plays the adversary with "tremendously
imposing fierceness and icy elegance," making the movie not only a battle of brute force but of cerebral maneuvering.

Just like with Iron Man 3, no other wide release wanted to play second fiddle to Star Trek Into Darkness. Given the similarity between the two films, Iron Man 3 should experience a larger-than-average drop this weekend, while last week's The Great Gatsby should dip only in relation to its so-so word-of-mouth.

For indie-seeking audiences, director Noah Baumbach's latest may be in black-and-white, but it's already being considered his most accessible work to date. Greta Gerwig stars in Frances Ha (4 theatres), a counterpoint to "Girls" that should appeal to urban 20-somethings and cinephiles alike. In my review, I praised the "spot-on, exquisitely crafted portrait of a floundering 20-something," and this is one movie I'm definitely rooting for. Another indie of note is the "genre gem" Black Rock, "a thriller riff" that gets "the job of entertainment
done very well," according to our reviewer Doris Toumarkine. If the idea of innocent hikers being hunted by deranged army vets sounds fun to you, start standing in the ticket line.

On Monday, we'll see if Star Trek Into Darkness exceeded the $75 million opening of its 2009 predecessor, and if Frances Ha's unspooling suggests an indie success.

'Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters' to lead late-January releases

It's pretty unusual to have two wide releases open over the weekend with minimal advance reviews. If you want a sign that January is Hollywood's dumping ground, this is it.

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (3,372 theatres), which may have the best title since Snakes on a Plane, will likely come up first this weekend, with a projected weekend gross around $20 million. Originally scheduled to release last March, the pic will benefit slightly from increased
awareness of star Jeremy Renner. Since his breakout role in The Hurt Locker, he's appeared in The Avengers and The Bourne Legacy, making him more of a draw. Gemma Arterton plays Gretel in this tale, which posits that Hansel & Gretel grew up to seek vengeance (and collect bounty) on witches. If it sounds ridiculous, that's because Will Ferrell and Adam McKay are two of the producers, after which the idea starts to make more sense. "Lots of anachronisms and tongue-in-cheek
dialogue establish the spoofy nature of this violent venture. All
that’s missing is a genuine sense of wit," THR's Stephen Farber reports.

Movie 43 (2,023 theatres) also moved around release dates a number of times before settling for the January doldrums. The cast includes dozens of big names ranging from Seth MacFarlane to
Kate Winslet, with many pitching in on writing and directing. The spoof comedy should get close to $10 million, but could be hurt by the scattered impressions of what this comedy actually is.

Parker (2,224 theatres) is the sole new wide release that screened more than a day in advance for most critics. There may be a reason for that: our critic Daniel Eagan raves that the role of Parker, a character in Donald Westlake novels, "fits action star Jason Statham like a glove." The pacing is also top-notch. "The first hour has a propulsive energy that has
been sadly missing from recent thrillers," Eagan declares, and a lag afterwards is redeemed by a "climactic heist and showdown."
However good Statham is in his action movies, they've been opening below $10 million lately, and a similar debut is expected for Parker.

With so many good movies from December now expanding their release, allowing viewers from all over the country to finally catch them in their hometown, there isn't much new product. However, Music Box Films will release the documentary Happy People: A Year in the Taiga, which Werner Herzog re-edited and narrated from a Russian film, and then taking a co-directing credit for his work. I recommend the movie as "a welcome antidote for coddled city dwellers who need a reminder that humanity survived before Internet connections," although I don't care if you eventually see it on Netflix instead of in a movie theatre.

 On Monday, we'll see if any of the three new wide releases exceeded their modest projections, and if any Oscar contenders picked up steam from the box office.

Trailer report: 'In Time,' set in a world where money buys immortality

By Sarah Sluis

Now that there's talk of a double-dip recession, movies that touch on class differences and offer revenge fantasies will be perfectly poised to scoop up the people responding to the zeitgeist. Into this environment comes In Time (formerly titled I'm.Mortal and Now), positing a world in which the rich can live forever and the poor die young, to prevent overpopulation. Yes, now is indeed a great time for class antagonism. Andrew Niccol, the auteur behind the most emotinally resonant futurisic movies, Gattaca (writer/director) and The Truman Show (screenplay), writes and directs the futuristic sci-fi tale. Here's the trailer:

Five things to know about In Time

1. It's coming out in a not-so-good time slot, October 28. I can't explain why, since that weekend is usually reserved for horror films taking advantage of the pre-Halloween weekend. Then again, Niccol's movies have a history of being dumped. His best, Gattaca, played for just three weeks, yet it's among the finest sci-fi movies I've seen--watch New York Times movie critic A.O. Scott's revisiting of the film to learn more.

2. Casting! Vincent Kartheiser, who plays "Mad Men"'s Pete Campbell, plays a spoiled villain, a role we already know he's good at. After Justin Timberlake turned in an excellent performance in The Social Network, it's great to see him building his career further. Amanda Seyfried, who's mostly played charming, wields a gun in this flick, a welcome addition to her star image.

3. The creepy opening introduction. Seconds into the trailer, Kartheiser indicates three nearly identical 25-year-old women, introducing them as his wife, mother-in-law, and daughter. It hits just the right unsettling note I look for in my dystopias. And could it be a coincidence that the countdown clocks are located on the left forearm, the same place where the Nazis tattooed serial numbers on their Jewish prisoners?

4. Roger Deakins is the cinematographer. The recepient of the 2011 American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Lifetime Achievement Award, Deakins is known for his longtime work with the Coen Brothers and his mastery as a cinematographer. Gattaca also had a strong visual look, which In Time appears to continue.

5. Niccol as an auteur. As solid as The Truman Show and Gattaca are, I haven't seen Lord of War or S1mOne, which seemed like such a laughable concept--a virtual actress! That was one road I didn't want to go down. But then again, people just discovered that a new member of a Japanese pop band was created by a computer. She will "perform" in concerts via hologram. Could Niccol simply be ahead of his time? After all, The Truman Show released well before reality shows took over our televisions.

Niccol's work also has consistency from film to film, and repetition is one mark of an auteur. Gattaca and The Truman Show both use travel into the unknown space of the ocean as turning points for the characters and powerful metaphors. In Time (what I know from the trailer) and Gattaca both feature suicidal rich people who give what they had at birth to a scrappy poor person who can actually use the gifts. These stories feel personal, a rarity in Hollywood. Though the trailer features gun fights and car chases, which Niccol's previous movies have been light on, I hope his moving insights into futuristic societies shine through. I'll take that over Paranormal Activity 3 any day.