'Oz,' 'The Call' and 'Spring Breakers' stand out in mixed weekend

In a surprise reversal, underdog The Call outperformed The Incredible Burt Wonderstone this weekend. The Call was expected to finish in the low teens, but instead placed second with $17.1 million. The Halle Berry/Abigail Breslin thriller played a bit like a female Taken. 61% of attendees
were female, and more than half were over 30. It probably won't come anywhere near the Liam Neeson-led kidnapping film's total, but in a market that has been dominated by R-rated thrillers with male leads, a female-led suspenser was a breath of fresh air.

Despite the presence of Steve Carell and Jim Carrey, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone fell flat, opening to $10.3 million. It's hard to tell exactly why this comedy didn't resonate with audiences, but it's worth noting that Carell appeared to play
against type. His over-the-top blond bouffant hairdo made him seem like a cocky magician, when Carell normally plays shy, nervous hangdog types. Could that explain the tepid reception?

Above the new releases, Oz the Great and Powerful enjoyed a second week at the top. A dip of just 46% made for a total of $42.2 million. The CG-heavy fantasy could earn $250 million domestically at this pace.

Former Disney stars in bikinis + James Franco with cornrows and a grille turned out to be a magic formula for Spring Breakers. While debuting in just 3 locations, it racked up a $90,000 per-screen average. These stunning figures are usually reserved for the first week of arthouse-to-mainstream successes like Lincoln ($85,000
per-screen debut weekend) or Zero Dark Thirty ($83,000 per screen opening weekend).  Next week, Spring Breakers will expand to over 1,000 locations, and theatres should be ready for young crowds that may mimic those showing up to MTV's spring break.

A24, the distributor behind Spring Breakers, debuted another release the same weekend. Ginger & Rosa, a coming-of-age tale starring Alice Englert and Elle Fanning, averaged $15,000 per screen in 3 locations. Though considerably less than Spring Breakers, the per-screen average is in the "healthy shot of success" range.

This Friday, Tina Fey plays an uptight admissions officer in Admission, The Croods adds family entertainment to the mix, and the fate of the President is in the balance in Olympus Has Fallen.

 

'Oz the Great and Powerful' casts spell over box office

Oz the Great and Powerful posted the highest opening weekend of 2013 with $80.2 million. Overseas, it earned nearly as much, $70 million. While the fantasy didn't capture the lightning in a bottle that was Disney's 2010 offering, Alice in Wonderland, Oz performed much better than the studio's March offering last year, the expensive flop John Carter. Disney was able to corral both
families and couples for the tentpole. 43% of attendees were couples, and 41% were families. That continues the trend of trying to expand the audience for G-rated or PG-rated films that are considered of a particularly high quality (e.g. Pixar) or effects-laden.

Faced with its better-reviewed competition, Jack the Giant Slayer did a nosedive to $10 million, a 63% drop from the previous week. With that poor hold, this $200+ million movie will end up with $60 million or so domestically, a big writedown for Warner Bros.

This weekend also brought bad news for Dead Man Down, which opened to $5.3 million.

Someone decided that adult-aimed R-rated action thrillers were a slam dunk at the box office, because all of a sudden there's tons of them, and they're all tanking. Dead Man Down joins other 2013 R-rated action misfires Bullet to the Head ($4.55 million opening), The Last Stand ($6.3 million), and Parker ($7 million). Ouch.

There was good news for some older releases with staying power. Identity Thief moved down to third place for the first time since its opening five weeks ago. With another $6.3 million and a $116 million total to date, the feature is a certified comedy success. The Nicholas Sparks romance Safe Haven has also shown strong staying power, doubling its $30 million opening with a $62 million gross to date. This
weekend, it earned $3.8 million while posting just a 39% drop for the second week in a row, indicating that it will hang out in the top ten--and definitely the top twenty--for some time.

Emperor had a respectable debut in limited release, topping $1 million with a $4,000 per-screen average. It may have been a respite for adult males who were sick of all the action films dominating the box office.

Somebody Up There Likes Me posted the best debut for a specialty release. On one screen, it earned $38,500, and it has some good reviews (like this one) to back up its strong box-office performance.

This Friday, Steve Carell and Jim Carrey play battling magicians in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, and Halle Berry stars as a 911 operator in the thriller The Call.

'Oz the Great and Powerful' points families towards the Yellow Brick Road

With the might of Disney and the appeal of The Wizard of Oz in its favor, Oz the Great and Powerful (3,912 theatres) will attempt to at least triple the opening of last week's fairytale flop, Jack the Giant Slayer. The special effects go well beyond the original's famous transition from black-and-white to color, and that's one reason this spin  on L. Frank Baum's Oz series "fails to
capture the heartwarming spirit of the original," critic Kevin Lally assesses. "To
paraphrase the Tin Man: If it only had more heart…" James Franco gives an "uninspired lead performance" as the Wizard, while Mila Kunis, Michelle Williams, and Rachel Weisz give passable performances as three witches. Families will be the primary audience for the PG-rated work, but I wouldn't be surprised if the material is too intense for many younger viewers. A girl about 10 years old sat next to me at the press screening, and spent many of the intense moments wincing at the screen and covering her ears. At least during opening weekend, it's unlikely that will stop the feature from approaching $100 million.

Early 2013 has been filled with R-rated action films and thrillers. Dead Man Down (2,188 theatres) jumps right into this crowded arena, and it's unlikely to accrue more than $10 million or so. The Danish director of the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Niels Arden Oplev, teams up
with his star in that movie, Noomi Rapace, for a New York City-set "vengeance-driven,
neo-noir crime thriller." Colin Farrell plays a criminal in part of an organized crime empire who secretly plots revenge for the murder of his wife and son. He gets a way to achieve his goals when he meets a woman scarred from a car accident (Rapace). In addition to releasing in a market saturated with R-rated releases, FilmDistrict has only lightly marketed the feature, further limiting its box-office prospects.

Tommy Lee Jones plays General Douglas MacArthur, who is trying to restore order in Japan after WWII in Emperor (260 theatres). The question is whether Emperor Hirohito (Takataro Kataoka) should be tried as a war criminal or left be. Jones "captures the general's pomp and
swagger without diminishing his real insights and
accomplishments.," FJI critic Daniel Eagan praises. However, despite bright spots like these, it's mainly an "underachieving drama" that's "too low-key and
simplistic." That extends to depictions of an interracial romance and "a
surprisingly superficial and condescending attitude toward the
Japanese in general." Doesn't sound like this one will do big business in Japan.

On Monday, we'll see if Oz the Great and Powerful can bring the first quarter of the 2013 box office back on track, and if Dead Man Down and Emperor can make an impact with their more limited resources.

Michelle Williams to play Glinda in 'Oz, the Great and Powerful'

By Sarah Sluis

2010's uber-successful Alice in Wonderland created a fairy tale frenzy among the movie studios. The surest sign that there's a bubble is the two rival Snow White adaptations (Relativity's The Brothers Grimm: Snow White and Universal's Snow White and the Huntsman), which are both set to release in 2012. Disney, which released Alice in Wonderland, is also seeking to replicate its success with Oz, the Great and Powerful. The film will take the characters in the Wizard of Oz in an entirely new direction. Glinda, the Good Witch, teams up with a snake-oil salesman (sounds kind of like the Great Oz to me) and battles her two evil sisters for control of the kingdom. Michelle Williams has just been cast as Glinda, which is as perfect a choice as I can imagine. James Franco is the snake oil salesman, and Rachel Weisz and Mila Kunis are the raven-haired evil sisters. Variety reveals that the movie could hit theatres as soon as fall 2012, which would sandwich the movie in between the two Snow White adaptations.

While Oz has an all-star cast of Oscar nominees, winners, and those that have appeared in Oscar-nominated films, the crew has a more variable pedigree. David Lindsay-Abaire may be a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, but he's still in the doghouse after writing Inkheart, one of the worst children's movies I've seen. The other credited writer, Mitchell Kapner, has very few writing credits but counts the successful mob comedy The Whole Nine Yards among his credits. The biggest signal of success on this project is Sam Raimi. He left the latest Spider-Man sequel in frustration, so this project should have his full attention and devotion.

I'm curious if the movie will be rated PG-13, like Spider-Man, or PG, like Alice in Wonderland. Despite its family-friendly rating, Alice drew many adults, in part because it came from director Tim Burton, who is known for his darker perspective. Fractured fairy tales are one way to convince adults to revisit familiar stories of their childhood. And when the next generation grows up, Hollywood may innovate by going back to classic fairy tales.

Directors play musical chairs with 'Oz,' 'Another Love Story'

By Sarah Sluis

Today there's only a couple of updates on productions, which makes it that much odder that the two stories are connected.

Sam Raimi is in talks to direct Disney's Oz, The Great and Powerful, a prequel to The Wizard of Oz. A few months ago, he exited his directing responsibilities for Spider-Man 4 due to creative differences. Marc Webb of (500) Days of Summer took his seat in the director's chair, apparently abandoning his directing role for the remake of the Danish thriller Just Another Love Story. With that spot vacated, Oren Uziel, a screenwriter, picked up the directing spot. That's Hollywood musical chairs for you.

The reboot of Oz via Oz, The Great and Powerful fits into Disney's stated mission to pursue big movies that can stand up to extensive merchandising, theme park placement, spin-offs, and all the other brand extensions at which Disney excels. However, the project is unique because it's both pre-sold, since most people have seen The Wizard of Oz, and totally original. Even though the author of The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum, wrote multiple books set in the Oz world, the script appears to use the film version as a reference point, and not the books. The story follows a circus wrangler who is transported via tornado to Oz, where everyone mistakes him for a wizard. The circus wrangler character sounds a little too much like a Dorothy replacement (the tornado, everyone mistaking Dorothy for a witch), but at least they didn't try to recast Judy Garland.

As for Just Another Love Story, the Danish original version landed a 74% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The film noir plot follows a man who brings an injured woman to a hospital, where her family mistakes him for her boyfriend. The real boyfriend turns out to be abusive, and hunts down the imposter. Our review mentioned problems with the casting of the girlfriend, but otherwise found the movie strong. When Marc Webb was attached to the project, I imagined he would be able to do interesting things with the time frame, due to his experience working on (500) Days of Summer, but director Oren Uziel, without any directing credits, will be more of an open book.

And just think, it all might have turned out differently if Raimi hadn't left Spider-Man 4. How's that for a movie plot?