PGA's popcorn movie pick is 'Skyfall'

The Producers Guild of America announced its ten nominees for Best Picture, and it's a very inclusive list. Both of the indie darlings, Moonrise Kingdom and Beasts of the Southern Wild, were among the nominees. The much-accoladed Argo, Les Miserables, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook and Zero Dark Thirty (of course) made the list, and Life of Pi slipped in, probably because of its literary pedigree and great cinematography. Also in the mix is Django Unchained, the violent,
challenging film that is a little bit like this year's version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Finally, the PGA recognized Skyfall. This year there have been a couple other great popcorn movies: The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers. But in the end, it was the one that released latest in the year--and was freshest in voters' minds--that garnered a nomination. Of all the popcorn movies, this is the one that appealed most to adults, including older males, that likely represent a sizeable amount of the PGA's members.

The PGA awards are best known for being extremely accurate predictors of the Oscar Best Picture winner. This year there is a deep selection of great movies, and there's no clear frontrunner. The latest word in the blogosphere is that Lincoln has a lead, but I sincerely hope another of the ones on my top movie list, such as Zero Dark Thirty, Silver Linings, Argo, or Les Misérables gets recognized instead. While Zero Dark Thirty and Les Misérables are my two favorites from this year, I think Les Misérables will eventually encounter some blowback from the singing choice. Many trained musicians have commented on social networks that the vocals make them cringe--especially those from, no surprise, Russell Crowe playing Javert. However, even its detractors acknowledge it's still a must-see, but I wonder if that may affect the Academy's voters. Will the musicians in the bunch be happy to recognize a film that relies heavily on music, or will they not be able to get past how the actors sound to a trained ear? With just under two months before the Oscar ceremony, this year's race is one of the most exciting in recent years. 

 

Bond is back: 'Skyfall' makes a rare return to number one after three-week hiatus

Just like in Skyfall, Bond is back. After debuting in first place, Skyfall spent three weeks playing second fiddle to The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn--Part 2. Now that steeply declining franchise finale has dropped to third with $9.2 million. Skyfall, declining just 33% from last week, rose to first place with $11 million. That gives the Daniel Craig-led movie a total of $256
million in the U.S., plus another $656 million abroad for a total of $918 million. At this point, I bet Sony's counting its pennies and trying to see if it can top the $1 billion mark. The ten-figure mark aside, the movie is close to being the studio's most successful in five years. For a franchise release that was delayed for so many years thanks to MGM's bankruptcy, this is the best possible outcome. Maybe Hollywood can learn a lesson that spacing apart franchise titles and putting together a quality script can lead to a huge payoff.

After a poor debut and a 43% drop in its second weekend, Rise of the Guardians leveled its fall with a 20% slide to $10.5 million. The DreamWorks Animation title has been something of a disappointment, but the holiday-themed tale may be able to hold onto an audience through
Christmas. In two weeks, it will have the 3D re-release of Monsters Inc. to contend with, but that's about it in the family entertainment department.

Playing for Keeps, the only new wide release of the week, did just about as poorly as expected, debuting with a total of $6 million. Gerard Butler's career is now in critical mode, since he also appeared in the surfing flop Chasing Mavericks. He's already filmed his next role, in 2013's Olympus Has Fallen, so he really needs that movie to be a success to help revive his career.

End of Watch had a moderately successful re-expansion into over 1,000 theatres. The goal was to break $1 million, but the cop procedural finished with $733,000. Still, considering last week the movie earned just $22,000, the increase in theatre count added a nice chunk to the total.

Hyde Park on Hudson debuted to a $20,000 per-screen average in four locations in New
York and Los Angeles. With many awards-leaning pictures opening in the $50,000 to $70,000 per-screen range, that's not good. It looks like the story of a romance between FDR and his cousin will be passed over both by critics and by audiences.

Ed Burns' Fitzgerald Family Christmas put in a $3,400 per-screen average in four locations. Burns' Irish Catholic stories have a following, but it's unclear if they all showed up opening weekend or if the opening is a launching point to nice holiday run.

This Friday, one of the most anticipated movies of the year comes out. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will release in over 4,000 locations, with many theatres showing it in 3D and select locations previewing director Peter Jackson's high-frame-rate version.

'Breaking Dawn--Part 2' leads sluggish post-Thanksgiving weekend

The post-Thanksgiving weekend was pretty uneventful. No release crossed the $20 million mark. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn--Part 2 came the closest, falling another 60% to settle at $17.4 million. However, the top fourteen movies all earned over $1 million, a sign there are lots of quality movies in the marketplace, including some specialty releases that are gearing up.

Both new releases flopped. Killing Them Softly debuted to $7 million, under the $10 million figure many predicted. It also failed with audiences, who gave the movie a rare "F" rating in exit
polls. It's an especially a harsh blow for Brad Pitt, who both starred in the movie and produced through his Plan B productions. At least he has Angelina Jolie to go home to. The other new release, the hard-core horror movie The Collection, also had a soft opening, but at least this one was in line with expectations. The sequel (to a film few had heard of, The Collector) earned $3.4 million, squeaking into the last spot in the top ten.

Skyfall did drop by half, but that was enough for the James Bond movie to earn second place and $17 million, barely losing to Twilight. Steven Spielberg-directed Lincoln continued to hold strong, going down 47% to $13.5 million.

The Bollywood feature Talaash debuted to $1.9 million despite playing in just 172 locations.
That's $700,000 higher than the opening two weeks ago of another Bollywood movie, Jab Tak Hai Jaan. It looks like there is money to be made from the Indian diaspora right here in America.

In eleventh place, Silver Linings Playbook outshone its competitors by dipping just 23% for a total of $3.3 million. Right behind the Weinstein Co. release was Focus Features' Anna Karenina, which went up 148% to $2.2 million in an expansion to 384 theatres.

This Friday, the romantic comedy Playing For Keeps will attempt to charm audiences. Bill Murray plays FDR in Hyde Park on Hudson, and Weinstein Co. rolls the dice with the release of gambling picture Lay the Favorite.

 

'Skyfall' posts best James Bond opening ever

Skyfall handily beat its franchise predecessors to post the highest opening for a James Bond film ever. Pent-up demand from the four-year wait, along with great reviews, brought the movie to an $87.8 million weekend. That's $20 million more than Quantum of Solace, which opened in 2008
to $67 million. The crowd skewed male and older, indicating that Bond's core fanbase turned out. IMAX screens did well, contributing 15% to the weekend total. With an "A" CinemaScore rating, Skyfall will do well in coming weeks, especially because the only competition this Friday could not be more different: the final Twilight, which will draw predominantly younger females.

Flight suffered in its second weekend, droping 39% to $15.1 million. The Denzel Washington drama competed with the older males that also wanted to see Skyfall. Argo also dropped more than usual, posting a 34% dip to $6.7 million.

Lincoln opened in eleven theatres and was rewarded with the second-highest per-screen average for an opening over ten screens. The $81,800 per screen was right below the opening of Precious and above Moonlight Kingdom.  It was also enough for the Steven Spielberg-directed picture to
earn nearly a million dollars even with such a small release. The audience skewed unusually old for Hollywood, with 67% over the age of 35. Next week, Lincoln expands and the biopic may be able to coast on the momentum of the recent presidential election. Gathering support from the general populace, however, will be an uphill battle.

Among specialty releases, the foreign costume drama A Royal Affair had a strong opening, averaging $5,700 per screen in five locations. Startlet, which stars literary spawn Dree Hemingway, also performed fairly well, averaging $2,600 per screen in six locations.

This Friday, Bella and her vampire husband continue their romance in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2, the fourth and final film in the blockbuster series. Lincoln will expand into a small wide release. Awards hopefuls Anna Karenina and The Silver Linings Playbook will also make their debut in select theatres.

Bond lands in the U.S. with 'Skyfall'

When FJI critic Frank Lovece calls Skyfall (3,505 theatres) "the best Bond film since the ’60s. Period," you know it will be a success. 92% of Rotten Tomatoes critics have also given a thumbs-up to the latest installment in the franchise. The years of waiting while MGM sorted out its bankruptcy paid off, giving those involved more time to polish the script and bring the series back to what it
used to be. The twenty-third Bond film has already earned $321 million overseas, so it's virtually guaranteed that Skyfall will have similar results at home. This is a "must see" feature that draws in people who rarely attend their local theatre. Expectations are cautious, and some predict that the latest Bond may not exceed the $67 million opening of 2008's Quantum of Solace. However, even if Skyfall does not open that high--but I think it will--it's already pretty clear that Bond's capers are so compelling, word-of-mouth will make this a strong player in the weeks to come. Besides the always-compelling performances of Daniel Craig as Bond and Judi Dench as M, Javier Bardem is the best Bond villain I've ever encountered. I can't think of many other actors who can play Julia Robert's love interest in Eat Pray Love, and then turn around and be an utterly creepy villain, as he has previously done in No Country for Old Men. Maybe Bardem can pull a Heath Ledger and snag an Oscar nomination for his role as the villain.

As a counterpoint to Skyfall, Steven Spielberg-directed Lincoln begins a limited release in 11 theatres. Daniel Day-Lewis stars as the sixteenth president in what's more of a political
procedural, a "handsomely mounted civics lesson" that gives audiences a "snapshot of a turbulent point in American politics," as described by FJI critic Daniel Eagan. The historical biopic has a scene-stealing supporting character, Tommy Lee Jones as the quick-witted Thaddeus Stevens, a powerful Senate member whose belief in equality for all races is considered too extreme by most other lawmakers. Lincoln will likely open extremely high because of Spielberg's pedigree, so the real test will be next week, when the Civil War-set tale expands to 1,500 theatres and must seek approval from a more general audience.

Rounding out the specialty offerings is A Royal Affair, a Danish-language love triangle between the king, the queen, and the royal physician. Johnny Knoxville and Patton Oswalt star in Nature Calls, a "good-natured send-up of the Boy Scouts," according to THR's John DeFore. Detroit's fire epidemic is highlighted in the documentary Burn: One Year on the Front Lines of the Battle to Save Detroit, which is opening in NYC.

On Monday, we'll see just how high Skyfall soared, and if its adult competitors Argo and Flight suffered from the release of the action and martini-fueled tentpole.

'Skyfall' opens this Friday in the U.S., but it's already a smashing success abroad

James Bond is, of course, a British import, though the long-running character is on a last-name basis with most of America. The James Bond movies historically debut first in the U.K., but the latest, Skyfall, has already been open for two weeks around the world in almost every major market. That doesn't include the U.S., which won't show the movie until November 9, three weeks
after its October 24 release elsewhere. Is this going to be the new order? Will the U.S. now regularly follow other countries in releases?

The answer is both yes and no. One reason Skyfall opened in so many markets--over twenty--is because of national holidays. Many countries get All Saint's Day (Nov. 1) off, and studios like to time big releases to holidays where everyone is in search of entertainment. In Bond's homeland, the U.K., the movie has already earned $85 million and is on track to beat The Dark Knight Rises to become the highest-grossing movie of the year. That's a third of the foreign total. However, the Bond series has always been about international jaunts. Two countries that feature heavily into the plotline--China and Turkey--have yet to release the movie. China will be a big one. I personally was impressed with the aerial shots of Shanghai in Skyfall. I wouldn't be surprised if it makes many viewers add the country to their tourism wish list.

Hollywood is used to the U.S. market dictating the success of a release. When a movie performs much better abroad than domestically, it's seen as an outlier, an "overperformer." Sometimes, the movies that do best go for the lowest common denominator, making people resent the globalization of the box office. The Bond brand may, oddly enough, have a greater resemblance to Mamma Mia! or The Adventures of Tintin. All three are based on figures who are more popular abroad than in the U.S. If any movie is going to open big abroad before a U.S. release, it should be one like these three. When U.S. audiences check out Bond this weekend, they're unlikely to be resentful that people across the pond got to see the movie before them. They're more likely happy to know the movie is already a hit and their $12 movie ticket is not being wasted, but instead paying for what many are calling the best Bond movie since those in the 1960s.