Viewers inundate theatres for ‘Noah’

Darren Aronofosky’s Noah has proven itself an unqualified success. Having bowed to $44 million domestically, Noah has already grossed more than Aronofsky’s first four films combined. It marks the most successful debut ever for a film in which Russell Crowe plays the lead role.

Noah’s audience was evenly split along gender lines, and skewed older: About 74 percent was over the age of 25. Though they showed up in droves, viewers did not leave feeling overly impressed with what they saw, awarding the film a fairly weak C CinemaScore grade. However, recent success The Wolf of Wall Street also earned the middling C and yet managed to hold well. Noah, of course, doesn’t have the advantage of that movie’s Oscar buzz, but it still has a good chance of reaping $110 million in total.

Last weekend’s champ Divergent clocked in at No. 2. The YA actioner dipped 52 percent, which is an impressive hold, considering The Hunger Games suffered a downturn of 62 percent its second weekend in theatres. Divergent added another $26.5 million to its cume that now stands at over $95 million.

Third and fourth place went to current family offerings Muppets Most Wanted and Mr. Peabody & Sherman, respectively. The former may have failed to match the debut of its predecessor when it opened last weekend, but it made up for that disappointment (somewhat) by out-earning The Muppets its second weekend out of the gate. Most Wanted grossed $11.4 million, while The Muppets earned a weaker $11.1 million over its sophomore outing in 2011. For its part, Mr. Peabody & Sherman wasn’t too far behind Kermit and company with a $9.4 million haul. The animated flick now stands at $94.9 million and is on track to cross $100 million within the next several days.

Surprise hit God’s Not Dead continued to chart a successful box-office course. The faith-based film earned $9.1 million to land the weekend’s No. 5 slot. The movie can now boast $22 million after 10 days in theatres.

The Grand Budapest Hotel is officially the highest-grossing movie ever for director Wes Anderson.  The film finally expanded wide this past weekend and earned $8.8 million. Hotel’s cume stands at an impressive $24.4 million, with more on the way following this weekend’s continued expansion.

In dismal seventh place, Sabotage bombed with just $5.3 million. That is the worst haul for a film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger in almost 30 years and is the actor’s third disappointment in a row. In other words, it might be time for Arnold to holster that gun.

Cesar Chavez raked in $3 million, which, although solid, yet fell short of expectation. The film will likely perform well on Monday, however, which is Cesar Chavez Day.

Finally, the weekend concluded on a considerable high note when Disney’s Frozen became the highest-grossing animated film of all time. The princess movie wrested the title from former record-holder Toy Story 3 when it opened strong in its final market, Japan. Where Toy Story 3 grossed $1.063 billion worldwide, Frozen has now earned $1.072 billion. Can it go on to beat The Dark Knight Rises ($1.084 billion)?

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

Anne Hathaway cast in 'Les Miserables'

By Sarah Sluis

I have a special fondness for the musical Les Misrables, which my high-school French teacher used to instruct us in the vagaries of the French language. Singing along with my fifteen-year-old classmates to Cosette's innocent rendition of "There is a Castle on a Cloud" in French ("Mon Prince est en Chemin")? Priceless. Universal Pictures has moved incredibly fast with its film adaptation of Les Misrables, casting the main roles shortly after announcing the project. The musical, based on Victor Hugo's 1862 novel, was first staged in London in 1985, so it's odd that the studio is now moving with so much speed. They've already set a release date: Dec. 7, 2012.

Anne Hathaway will play Fantine, a poor working-class woman whose condition is made worse by her chronic illness and her status as a single mom. She joins Russell Crowe, who will play Javert, the police inspector who makes the lives of Fantine and Jean Valjean miserable. Valjean, a criminal turned wealthy factory owner, will be played by Hugh Jackman. Most encouragingly, the production will be helmed by newly minted Oscar winner Tom Hooper. Last year, he received the Best Director award for the critical and commercial success The King's Speech.

The stage version of Les Misrables is sung all the way through. The question of how to blend the songs with dialogue (presumably spoken, not sung) will shape whether the movie ends up being a success or a failure. Musicals are no longer the pariahs they once were, but success is still something of a gamble. Who would have thought the poppy songs in Mamma Mia! would appear to effortlessly blend onscreen, leading to a global success? With its prestige December release date, Universal is undoubtedly hoping the movie will end up more like director Rob Marshall's adaptation of Chicago ($300+ million) and less like his adaptation of Nine ($50 million). Hooper has shown he can sensitively adapt history with The King's Speech and "John Adams," but will he be suited for a musical historical epic? In little more than a year we'll find out.

'Beverly Hills Chihuahua' engulfs 'Body of Lies'

By Sarah Sluis

As predicted, all four of the new releases made it into the top ten. Weakest link City of Ember ($3.2

million) just barely squeaked into the top ten, no doubt due
to the competition from competing family release and the number one film for the second week in a row,
Beverly Hills Chihuahua ($17.5 million).

Seemingly coming out of nowhere, this family film has benefited from two additional demographics: the Latino market, which sees movies at higher rates than Caucasians and African-Americans, and dog owners.  Not falling into any one of those categories myself, I only heard of this film weeks before its release--and then only through its utterly
befuddling trailer featuring no plot whatsoever, just a dog dance
revue.  However, in the grand tradition of Homeward Bound and
upcoming release Bolt, lost dog films are a surefire plot winner.

In a big hit to the star power of Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, and Ridley Scott, Body of Lies ($13.1 million) came in below Chihuahua and Quarantine ($14.2 million).  Both Quarantine and Body of Lies address government conspiracy.  Funny, the LAPD's cover-up of a secret
zombie infestation was a bigger draw than the lies, deceit, and
bluffing of the CIA.

Appaloosa ($3.34 million) and The Duchess ($3.32 million) have also successfully expanded from limited to wide release.  Both
premiered four weeks ago, but Appaloosa went into wide release a week earlier, making its cumulative gross of $10.8 million double The Duchess' $5.6 million total.

The Express opened to a modest $4.7 million, in line with expectations.  Returning release Eagle Eye came it at #4 with $11 million, bringing its cumulative total up to $70.5 million, a boon for an action film release outside of summer--will it be able to hit the $100 million mark before it's pulled from the theatres? 

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist ($6.5 million) finished at #5, below Eagle Eye, and included a $12.50 contribution from the ticket I bought to see this short and sweet film.  It's a must-see for anyone young and living in New York, filming in all the go-to places, which were even more recognizable to me than that other big New York-centric movie, Sex and the City.  One late night scene took place in the deli up the street from our office (which makes great sandwiches), and others took place in Arlene's Grocery, Mercury Lounge, the Hudson River Park, Papaya King, and Veselka.  One of the film's big "stars" is a yellow Yugo, which made me realize I had even walked by the set of the film months ago and marveled at the weird, beat-up car.

The last mention on the top ten is Nights of Rodanthe ($4.6 million), which has quietly racked up a substantial $32.3 million in three weeks by below-average drops in its audience, down 37% this week.  While falling out of the top ten, Fireproof only dropped 20% this week to $3.1 million, and has made $16.9 million on a $.5 million budget.

Next week brings another four wide releases, so look for the box office preview on Friday.

Full box office results available here.