'Conjuring' will levitate over 'Turbo,' 'R.I.P.D.,' 'RED 2'

In this busy weekend, four new releases will attempt to woo audiences. Turbo (3,806 theatres) jump-started the weekend by opening on Wednesday, earning $5.5 million. That's just an okay debut for the animated feature, which should earn another $25 million or so in the Friday to Sunday period. The "broad, cheerful cartoon" about a snail that wants nothing more than to be fast
"is more affable
than ambitious, which might make it less-than-essential viewing for
families suffering animation fatigue," predicts our critic Daniel Eagan. Despicable Me 2 and Monsters University have more marketing muscle and buzz behind them, and their Rotten Tomatoes averages are both over 10% higher than Turbo's current 66% Fresh rating. With its mid-July release, Turbo may be overshadowed by these early, strong animated offerings. Plus, Planes will offer even more competition in coming weeks in a very crowded summer for family films.

Sometimes, it's the low-budget movies that earn the most at the box office. That's likely to be the case with The Conjuring (2,903 theatres), which has TV ads that make the release look truly frightening. Supernatural horror movies have been doing particularly well at the box office, and this haunted house movie has yet another thing going for it: verisimilitude. Ads have shown interviews with adults who are supposedly speaking out about their experience for the first time in 30 years, and that original documentary spin will give it that extra boost that helped out Paranormal Activity and, of course, the original is-this-real horror film, The Blair Witch Project. This project, which likely cost just $15 million, should open at least twice at high.

On the other end of the spectrum, R.I.P.D. (2,852 theatres) may have cost upwards of $130 million, but it's been plagued by negative buzz, and its opening may be its grave: under $10 million. Eagan says the story of undead cops protecting the world from evil spirits isn't an "epic disaster," but that doesn't mean it's good either: it "strains to
duplicate the flair and chemistry that flowed so effortlessly from
the MIB franchise."

The cheerfully fun gang of aging spies is back in RED 2 (3,016 theatres). "With this sequel, more-is-more works—every over-the-top moment of
it," says our critic Michael Sauter. The original opened to $20 million, and the sequel should debut at least as high, and have strong subsequent weekends as the grey-topped crowd likely to turn out for this action feature doesn't rush to theatres opening weekend.

Besides four wide releases, there are two notable specialty features. Kristen Wiig stars in Girl Most Likely (353 theatres), but this comedy "shoulda been way funnier, given the talent involved," according to our critic David Noh. The feature will likely go as far as Wiig's name will take it. Ryan Gosling reteams with his Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn for Only God Forgives, but don't expect this movie to be an arthouse favorite. It has great music and visuals, but Gosling acts flatly, and there's no narrative to speak of. This indie drama will draw some interest and also fade out quickly.

On Monday, we'll chart the winners and losers in this busy, mid-summer weekend.

 

'Only God Forgives' and 'Nebraska' have mixed receptions at Cannes

Two movies with U.S. theatrical releases later this year are receiving mixed reviews from Cannes. At the festival, writer/director Alexander Payne's Nebraska elicited some tepid reactions. The Drive
follow-up from Ryan Gosling and director Nicolas Winding Refn, Only God Forgives, was booed by at least some members of the audience.

Paramount Vantage has given Payne's Nebraska a November 22 release date, right in the heart of awards season. Based on the screening, THR predicts the distributor "should be able to ride accolades for this very fine Cannes competition entry to respectable specialized returns in fall release." Not everyone was impressed, though. Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeff Wells called the movie a "a double. Maybe even a single" in a tweet, dubbing it a "minor Payne." "Thompson on Hollywood" also called the film "wistful but slight." But both Variety and THR gave generally positive notes. They may have been looking over each other's shoulder, because both made separate references comparing parts of the father-son road trip to The Last Picture Show and the movies of Preston Sturges. The black-and-white drama stars Bruce Dern and Will Forte as father and son, and a cast of relative unknowns reportedly fills out the supporting characters nicely.

The violence in Only God Forgives may have been the biggest turnoff to Cannes audiences. Variety's Justin Chang noted that "early rumors that Only God Forgives had been slotted in competition at the producers’ insistence" seemed confirmed by the movie's poor showing, while also conjecturing that "it would no doubt have been greeted with less hostility" in the "Midnight Screenings or the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar." New York's "Vulture" blog observed that most of the negative reactions had to do with the "ultra-violence," while joining a chorus of other critics hailing Kristin Scott Thomas' performance as Gosling's character's mother. Only God Forgives comes out July 19th through Radius/Weinstein Co, which should cover both Winding Refn cinephiles and violence-hungry VOD audiences. THR, for one, predicts the feature "will not disappoint devotees of the Nicolas Winding Refn church of fetishistic hyper-violence."

For more out of Cannes, check our posts by J. Sperling Reich on Screener.

 

Get your Ryan Gosling fix with the red-band trailer for 'Only God Forgives'

It's safe to say that if you didn't like Drive, you won't like Only God Forgives. Director Nicolas Winding Refn reteams with Ryan Gosling for the crime thriller, and from the looks of the red-band trailer, there will be plenty of violence. This time, though, Gosling doesn't play a sympathetic figure, but a psychopath whose abnormalities were apparent in the womb. In a voiceover, his mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) says doctors "told me to terminate," but I'm pretty sure there's no test for gun-toting psychopaths yet.

Drive had look-at-me cinematography and thrilling car chases. The color saturation in Only God Forgives looks even more over the top, with entire scenes shown in shades of bright red or deep neon blue. Refn set the feature in Bangkok, Thailand, and he's clearly drawing from the aesthetics of East Asian films. That's just one reason the movie will be a must-see among cinephiles.

What's unclear is whether Gosling's followers will appreciate the star in a movie that's not Crazy, Stupid, Love. Gosling is clearly wary of being a matinee idol, taking dark roles in films like Half Nelson, Lars and the Real Girl, Blue Valentine, The Place Beyond the Pines, Drive, and now Only God Forgives. But that doesn't mean his diehard fans wish he'd just cave and star in another movie like The Notebook. In fact, the closest they're likely to get to that is the auteur project from Terence Malick that features a love triangle set in Austin, Texas. I imagine that romance will be far less accessible than the one in The Notebook.

The Weinsten Co. is releasing Only God Forgives through their Radius banner, which emphasizes VOD and simultaneous theatrical/alternative releases. It's likely they'll roll out the feature later in 2013.