Interpreting the Golden Globe nominations

By Sarah Sluis

This year's Golden Globe nominations confirmed that The Artist will not be sidelined solely because it's a black-and-white silent. Indeed, I think the movie's antiquated format actually works in its favor. Audiences are delighted to find that they're not bored, but charmed. The Artist is very audience-accessible. It's also rife with the warm-fuzzies that Academy voters in particular love, making me think it will do similarly well once the Oscar nominations come out.

Two movies that have barely screened for critics failed to grab many nominations. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo only got two nominations, one for Rooney Mara in the Best Actress category, and one for Best Musical Score. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close scored a shocking zero nominations. Most critics (perhaps including the foreign press?) haven't seen the Dec. 28 release yet. Is it a stinker?

I liked seeing 50/50 grab a couple nominations. I thought the cancer drama-comedy starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen worked quite well. It doesn't have the lasting resonance I look for in an out-of-the-park movie, but it's rare that a low-budget comedy--marketed with lots of medical marijuana jokes--grabs the attention of critical movers-and-shakers.

The Help, too, has been long expected to make a strong showing in awards season, and its five nominations attest that this was one of the best movies an adult could have seen this summer. The historical drama was nominated in the drama category, despite its many lighter moments--enough to have placed it in the comedy section if that field was more of a lock. Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, and Jessica Chastain all earned acting nominations, with the latter two in the supporting category.

I think Young Adult deserved more than its single nomination for Charlize Theron as Best Actress. Maybe it could have earned more votes if the movie's heroine followed a path to redemption, instead of ending up the same. The Descendants, which also features a hero in a time with crisis, fared better. It earned five nominations, tying with The Help with the second-highest number.

In general, this year has been a inconclusive one for awards-seeking films. There is no single movie ending up with double-digit nominations--and I doubt there will be. There's a flip side to this, at least in critical roundups. I've been more interested in which small independent movies made "top" lists (like NY Times' and Slate's) and less interested in which of the mostly B+/A- mainstream movies ended up in the running. There are many films to check out this awards season, but no one film will generate all the noise. And that might be a good thing.

'Contagion' spreads among audiences, lands #1 spot

By Sarah Sluis

The infectious Contagion finished in first place at the box office with $23.1 million. The drama-thriller features an all-star ensemble cast, with each character offering a different perspective on a global epidemic. The Steven Soderbergh-directed tale performed evenly throughout the weekend, and with little competition on the horizon, it should perform well in coming weeks, though Rotten Tomatoes reports that audiences were cooler to the movie than critics, with just 69% liking the movie, compared to 82% of reviewers.

The Help experienced the biggest drop of its run, diving 40% from its outsized Labor Day weekend gross to a mere seven-figure sum, $8.6 million. With $137 million earned in just five weeks, the Civil Rights-era drama is one of this summer's biggest adult-centered successes.

Despite positive reviews, Warrior suffered a one-round knockout. The mixed martial arts film finished with just $5.6 million. 86% of critics and 94% of audiences liked the movie, according to Rotten Tomatoes, so it appears this movie didn't get a fair fight at the box office. Perhaps the movie will stage a comeback in coming weeks, but it may have been the victim of a grave marketing miscalculation by Lionsgate.

Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star finished outside the top ten with an embarrassing $1.4 million and fifteenth place finish. The story of an awkward teen boy who becomes a porn star didn't receive much marketing support and the concept is cringe-worthy. This movie will probably see a lot more action on the rental market.

This Friday will be fueled by Drive, a riveting noir-action starring Ryan Gosling. Working mothers can vent by watching I Don't Know How She Does It, and Straw Dogs promises to be a harrowing Southern thriller. Also, Disney will be re-releasing The Lion King in 3D during a time where there's little family fare at the box office.

'The Help' spends a third week shining at #1

By Sarah Sluis

This Labor Day weekend was so quiet, it had the lowest audience attendance in fifteen years, something that doesn't make exhibitors or studios happy. With little competition, The Help coasted right into first place with another $14.6 million, .5% more than the previous weekend. Including Labor Day, the light Southern drama racked up $19 million and currently has $123 million in the pot thanks to its strong holding power.

The Debt, which gave adults the high-quality fare that's been lacking at the summer box office, rightly landed in second place with a $12.5 million four-day total. Sound reviews and support from adult audiences should make the movie a popular choice in subsequent weeks. Last year, Focus released The American over Labor Day weekend, earning $16 million, so The Debt fell short of the benchmark set by that adult thriller.

With two exploitation-style horror movies battling it out over the weekend, neither one shone. Apollo 18, a "found footage" scary sci-fi movie set on the moon, landed at third with a $10.7 million four-daytotal. Shark Night 3D closely followed, with a $10.3 million weekend total. Even with added revenues from 3D screens, the movie still couldn't best Apollo 18.

On the specialty front, two pictures that attracted non-indie audiences shone. Seven Days in Utopia, a faith-based sports movie, averaged $2,900 per screen on 561 screens for a $1.9 million total. Saving Private Perez, an adventure/comedy that sends a Mexican drug lord on a mission to find his brother in Iraq, grabbed the Spanish-speaking audience with $5,000 per screen at 161 locations for an $830,000 total.

Audiences weren't so eager to join in on A Good Old-Fashioned Orgy, which flopped with $825 per screen on 143 screens. IFC's Love Crime, a French-language combination of Working Girl and Single White Female, fared better, with $10,500 per screen at five locations.

This Friday, director Steven Soderbergh's epidemic drama Contagion will open, joined by porn star comedy Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star and the fight movie Warrior.

Hurricane Irene pummels weekend box office

By Sarah Sluis

Hurricane Irene caused millions of dollars of damage. With an estimated 1,000 theatres closed because of the storm, this weekend's box office was no exception. Receipts were down 20-25% from 2010, meaning some $25 million was lost due to decreased attendance. Even in areas where theatres were open, many chose to hunker down for the whole weekend.

The Help held on to its first-place spot by dipping just 28% to $14.3 million. Strong support from areas outside the East Coast, like the South, Los Angeles, and Chicago, kept the movie from dropping significantly. The drama should cross the $100 million mark sometime this week.

Colombiana landed on top of the new releases with a seven-digit debut of $10.3 million. The revenge-action pic, starring Zoe Saldana, drew audiences from all four demographic quadrants. Women comprised 57% of the audience, and 65% of viewers were over the age of 25.

While horror movies normally open big, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark had a more modest debut, racking up $8.6 million. In fact, only two supernatural horror movies have opened lower in the past three years. FilmDistrict had a surprise hit earlier this year with horror movie Insidious, so perhaps the spry distributor can quickly help the film back on its feet.

New York City-set comedy Our Idiot Brother, which finished with $6.5 million, was especially hard-hit by Irene. The movie tested best among East Coast viewers, who couldn't turn out due to the weather. The movie's highest-grossing location, Manhattan's Union Square theatre, was closed Sunday due to the hurricane. Next week it will be hard work to pick up the mess and try to recoup the adult audience.

Vera Farmiga's religious drama Higher Ground released in three theatres, including two in Manhattan, for a per-screen average of $7,000. Studio execs estimated the pic would have averaged $15,000 per screen in better weather.

This Wednesday, The Debt will hit theatres. On Friday, the box office will kick off the long Labor Day weekend with sci-fi thriller Apollo 18 and the sharks-eat-teens flick Shark Night 3D.

'The Help' steps up to first place

By Sarah Sluis

In a late summer coup, The Help rose a spot to first place in its second week, taking home $20.4 million. The Civil Rights era drama with a touch of comedy lost just 21.4% of its audience. Earlier this summer, Bridesmaids managed the same feat, dipping just 20.4% its second outing. Other female-driven summer releases of years past, like Julie & Julia and Eat Pray Love, fell 35-50% their sophomore sessions, proving that a strong hold takes not only a female-driven audience but extraordinarily positive word-of-mouth. Though the end of the summer is approaching, The Help should continue to make waves at the box office. While New York and Los Angeles typically have the highest-grossing theatres in the nation, The Help has drawn support from theatres in Jackson, Mississippi, where the film is set, and Southern audiences in Memphis, Tennessee.

The four new releases this week couldn't summon audiences. The highest-grossing of the bunch, Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D, finished third with $12 million. As kids go back to school, Spy Kids won't be able to count on the high weekday grosses that made earlier youth-targeted pics so profitable. With poor reviews and box-office performance, this may be the end of the Spy Kids franchise.

Conan the Barbarian, considered one of the frontrunners, landed fourth with $10 million. Audiences over 25 were the main attendees of the movie, when really a younger audience would have sparked to the content. A lack of awareness of the first film probably turned off younger audiences, as well as the casting of Jason Momoa, a relative unknown.

Ending up a disappointing sixth, Fright Night debuted to just $7.9 million. Again, the majority of the audience was comprised of viewers over 25 who may have been aware of the first film, which came out in the 1980s. Critics liked the movie, but attendees weren't as excited. Those polled gave it a B- score overall.

The romantic, occasionally a wee melodramatic One Day failed to lure away female audiences from The Help. The Anne Hathaway-Jim Sturgess romance earned $5.1 million, though its sub-2,000 screens meant its $2,900 per-screen average was higher than films further up in the top ten.

On the specialty circuit, historical war film Amigo earned $4,000 per screen on ten screens. Mozart's Sister, which had charming reviews, averaged $4,700 per screen on seven screens.

This Friday, horror flick Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, actioner Colombiana and comedy Our Idiot Brother will provide a mix of genre and adult-skewing fare to audiences in search of some air-conditioned entertainment.

'The Help' director may helm adaptation of 'Peace Like a River'

By Sarah Sluis

Director Tate Taylor delivered a polished adaptation with The Help, which has a surprisingly well-calibrated tone and has gotten off to good start at the box office. Now that he has one success under his belt, he's pursuing a number of other projects, with Peace Like a River among them. Ostensibly a young adult novel, I remember the book for its ethereal prose and its exploration of religious faith. I'm a little surprised that an adaptation is in the works, but this book, properly adapted, could be a hit.

Religion. From The Blind Side to Higher Ground, faith has become a more prominent force in movies recently, in part because the support of faith-based audiences can draw in lots of additional viewers.

What The Help does for the South, Peace Like a River does for the heartland. With most in the entertainment industry flitting between LA and NYC, a disproportionate amount of movies ignore the flyover zone. It's a novelty when the latest rom-com chooses a city other than NYC or LA as its locale. Peace Like a River is firmly Midwestern, from its characters to its scenes of hunting, cooking game, and religious life.

Potential to create high-quality mainstream fare. The Help was a summer movie, but it's also exceptionally well crafted, and might even snag an Oscar nomination (I think Viola Davis is a frontrunner). Peace Like a River is even more serious and poetic. The book is narrated by a "miracle" boy who is brought back from death at birth by his father's prayer. When his older brother kills someone (under ambiguous circumstances) and goes into hiding, the father packs up his family and goes in pursuit of his son. Both father and son are being hunted by the FBI. The family's time on the run is more Night of the Hunter or even Badlands and less The Fugitive. At least, that's the way it is in the book. I'd love to see Taylor recognize that the book is better suited for an emotional, arty adaptation than a fast-paced chase movie.

Brad Pitt's Plan B Productions has had rights to the book for years. David Brown and Kit Golden (who produced Angela's Ashes and Chocolat together) are also producing. IMDB lists Kathy McWorter (The War) as the writer of the screenplay. Most importantly, the movie already has a home: Warner Bros.

'Apes' summons more moviegoers than 'The Help'

By Sarah Sluis

By keeping its second-weekend fall to just under 50%, Rise of the Planet of the Apes retained its number-one spot and added another $27.5 million to its total. The movie's visual effects played a large part in attracting audiences. Now that this reboot is a success, maybe one of the four sequels the original 1968 film spawned will end up in the works.

The Help put in a strong performance, just barely missing the first-place spot with a $25 million total. Females over 25 comprised the majority of viewers, though the movie played well across all audience segments. The drama, which opened on Wednesday, has performed steadily, with a five-day total of $35 million. The movie's release has been accompanied by some thoughtful, biting commentary. Tulane professor Melissa Harris-Perry dismissed the movie as "The Real Housewives of Jackson, Mississippi," an apt description that explains both why the movie is entertaining and not the best place to look for straight history.

Final Destination 5 finished under expectations with $18.7 million and the lowest attendance of any film in the horror franchise. The last movie, The Final Destination, was billed as the last, so it's possible some of the hard-core fans felt cheated by the franchise's refusal to die when planned.

30 Minutes or Less debuted fifth to a disappointing $13 million. Of the many R-rated comedies that have come out this summer, this one seemed to have the most limited appeal, with teen boys (including ones too young to buy tickets) in the comedy's sweet spot. Indeed, 69% of the audience was under the age of 25 and 53% was male.

Glee: The 3D Concert Movie became a miss in the hit-or-miss live concert category. Despite higher ticket prices for the 3D movie, the concert film grossed just $5.7 million. Perhaps viewers didn't see the value of a movie. The actual "Glee" concerts provided viewers a rare opportunity to see the cast members in real life, but the concert movie was essentially an expensive rerun of the television show.

This Friday, the summer box office will still be in full swing. Spooky remake Fright Night will open opposite action epic Conan the Barbarian, the romantic One Day, and Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, which will have just a week or so to capture young audiences before they go back to school.

Will 'The Help's' head start help it beat out '30 Minutes or Less,' 'Glee,' and 'Apes'?

By Sarah Sluis

The most view-worthy offering this week is The Help (2,534 theatres), which opened on Wednesday to $5.5 million. Based on a popular novel, The Help explores the relationships between Southern white women and their black help in the 1960s, but in a friendly, sanitized kind of way.. Slate's Dana Stevens called the movie "a Barbie Band-Aid on the still-raw wound of race relations in America," and "a feel-good movie that feels kind of icky." While in some ways the movie makes light of the country's struggles during the Civil Rights movement, it's also "classy, feel-good...eye-opening and sometimes deliciously satiric entertainment," according to critic Doris Toumarkine, who accurately pegs the period film as a "sunny drama." While a debut in the $20 millions is expected, I think this movie could be a wild card and overperform.

An entire movie composed of freak accidents (do not, repeat DO NOT fall off the acupuncture table while your entire body is pricked with needles), Final Destination 5 (3,155 theatres) gives its fans what they came for, according to critic Maitland McDonagh, who found the horror flick "technically slick, briskly paced and painless to watch, assuming you're not the sort to squirm miserably at the sight of anatomical mayhem." The previous installment opened in the mid-$20 millions, which the fifth movie is also on target to meet. It won't be long before young people start dying in Final Destination 6.

Glee: The 3D Concert Movie (2,040 theatres) offers a front-row seat into a concert many Gleeks probably couldn't afford. David Noh caught the performers' infectious spirit, enjoying the cast's songs which were "cannily chosen, terrifically arranged and...possess a sparkle which hardly needs the added, needless fillip of 3D." Some are estimating the movie will just earn a number in the high single digits, but the concert movie could easily exceed expectations if prognosticators misestimated the number of hard-core Gleeks.

A pizza delivery boy is strapped to a bomb and forced to rob a bank in 30 Minutes or Less (2,888 theatres). "Mayhem ensues in this entertaining, foul-mouthed ride to nowhere that most will enjoy," according to Toumarkine, especially if you're an "18 to 40-year-old, easy-to-please male with a hearty appetite for mindless raunchiness." Like most of the other releases this week, this R-rated comedy could earn in the $20 millions, as long as it doesn't underwhelm like last week's R-rated miss, The Change-Up.

On Monday, we'll see if any of the new releases were able to top the second weekend of surprise hit Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and if there are any upsets in how the new releases stacked against each other.

Could 'The Help' be this summer's second female-driven hit?

By Sarah Sluis

This summer began with an R-rated un-rom com, Bridesmaids, which opened softly but has since earned over six times its opening weekend. The highly anticipated adaptation of the novel The Help releases today, which I predict will soon have membership to the $100 million club. According to a Variety article published today, the studio held over 300 advance screenings of the movie that targeted black and faith-based audiences, as well as some library crowds. I took a look at some of The Help's comparable films to try to figure out the movie's prospects, which are currently looking quite bright.

Eat Pray Love (2010)
Opening weekend: $23 million. Domestic Total: $80 million.
Unlike The Help, Eat Pray Love was hampered by poor reviews. Just 46% of audiences liked the movie, according to Rotten Tomatoes, compared to 89% of audiences who have previewed The Help. Like The Help, Eat Pray Love was based on a bestseller popular in book clubs, but interest stopped at older white women. Many people dismissed the movie as covering "white girl problems," and the midlife crisis impetus for the woman's journeys alienated younger viewers. Prediction: The Help will blow this release out of the water.

Julie & Julia (2009)
Opening weekend: $20 million. Domestic Total: $94 million.
Another movie based on a popular book, Julie & Julia had much better reviews. It opened lower than Eat Pray Love, but audiences kept coming, giving the movie a higher finish. The casting of Meryl Streep, who was nominated for an Oscar, was also a boon. Prediction: The Help will do at least as well, in part because it also appeals to faith-based and black audiences.

Bridesmaids (2011)
Opening weekend: $26 million. Domestic Total (so far): $166 million.
Plenty of people who loved reading The Help would not be caught dead watching this R-rated comedy. However, it's worth noting that even with a lot of marketing and media exposure, this comedy only opened to $26 million. If The Help opens low, its performance the second and third weeks will spell whether the drama is a success or not. Prediction: Tough competition, but I think The Help has a chance of matching Bridesmaids.

The Blind Side (2009)
Opening weekend: $34 million Domestic Total: $255 million.
Comparison between The Blind Side and The Help may be the most valuable. They both share similar plotlines, about white people helping black people. Faith-based audiences responded particularly well to the Sandra Bullock drama, which is a bit more Christian than The Help, in my opinion. However, I don't know how popular The Blind Side was with black audiences. A movie like The Help will have much more resonance with black audiences than Blind Side, whose black character was mostly mute and unexplored as a person. In contrast, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer have been giving tons of interviews and many people will come to the movie to see them. The sports theme of The Blind Side was an automatic draw for male audiences, who may be less enthusiastic about The Help. Prediction: Unless The Help ends up in the Best Picture category like The Blind Side, I think The Help will come in underThe Blind Side's total.

A final thought. If Disney/DreamWorks has been successful in marketing The Help to black audiences, the movie's opening weekend could be much bigger than most female-driven adaptations of "book club" novels. Tyler Perry's Madea movies routinely earn half their total haul the first weekend, when middle-aged black women turn out in force to see these movies.

First-day estimates of The Help should post tomorrow. Currently, 31% of advance ticket sales on Fandango are for the movie.

Star on the rise: Emma Stone

By Sarah Sluis

Emma Stone has juicy roles in two films this summer (and a bit part in a third), and each one proves that she's a star on the rise. Yesterday I saw Crazy, Stupid, Love, which comes out on Friday. As a young law school grad looking for true love, Stone holds her own against an all-star cast that includes Steve Carell, Julianne Moore, and Ryan Gosling's abs. Stone has a Julia Roberts-level star magnetism that can only go up. In her other film, The Help, which comes out in a few weeks, Stone mixes comedy with more serious subject matter. Even in this different environment, her trademark mix of sarcasm, determination, and a self-effacing manner remain intact. So far, every role I've seen her in has been enriched by a current running through the personality that is oh-so-distinctly Stone.

Stone has mainly stayed in a sweet spot of comedy, with other roles in movies such as Easy A, Superbad, The House Bunny, and Zombieland. But now she's being tapped for Gangster Squad, a 1940s crime drama. The movie would re-team her not only with Gosling but also with her Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer. Unlike other stars in Hollywood with difficult reputations (Katherine Heigl, for example), Stone appears to create good working relationships. How else could it be so easy for her to be cast in her most serious film to date? Stone would play a woman torn between her love for the good cop (Gosling) and the gangster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn).

The surest sign of Stone's success is her casting as Spider-Man's love interest Gwen Stacey in The Amazing Spider-Man, which is coming out next summer. Appearing in an action tentpole is one checkmark on the path to being an A-list star. Other young ingnues like Bryce Dallas Howard and Kirsten Dunst have occupied that role in the past, when they too were stars on the rise. Stone's charming sarcasm has put her on my must-see list. Now let's hope she continues to find good roles that utilize her strengths--and no more superhero films after Spider-Man!

Back-to-back Spielberg in December 2011

By Sarah Sluis

Steven Spielberg hasn't directed anything for over two years. His last film, in case you can't remember, was Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, a taut throwback to his earlier work but greeted rather tepidly by critics--and myself. He now has two films coming out: The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, which he's been working on for years, and War Horse, which only started production. Both films, it turns out, will release within five days of each other during December 2011.

Why so close?

-DreamWorks, which only has a financial stake in War Horse, made the decision to move the Disney release. They don't care about Tintin as much. But Spielberg probably does, and they also don't want to upset Sony and Paramount, the distributors of Tintin. The fact that Tintin will release first, followed by War Horse, seems like a concession of sorts. Tintin will be first out of the gate, and that can make a difference at the box office.

-War Horse "felt like a holiday movie," according to DreamWorks executive Stacey Snider. The movie centers on a young WWI soldier trying to find his horse, which is a rather Spielberg-y project; wars, young boys all alone, etc. The material is rather dark, especially if you look at the pictures of the stage production, so it makes sense that the movie will release during the holiday movie season, and not the more popcorn-y summer season. In fact, it makes me wonder if that was the plan all along.

In other news, literary adaptation The Help was moved to the spot vacated by War Horse, August 25th. Plans are to market this as an event film along the lines of Eat Pray Love or Julie & Julia. I enjoyed this novel, which was popular among book clubs. The premise has some similarities to the Fox Searchlight movie The Secret Life of Bees--a movie that opened to $10 million but made $37 million on an $11 million production budget. Both books center on white characters in black worlds in the South. Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Bryce Dallas Howard lead the cast, and I have high hopes for the film.

DreamWorks has an impressive slate planned, which includes other films like Real Steel (from Night of the Museum's Shawn Levy). I look forward to seeing the studio step up and turn out more of the "elevated genre" pictures (their wording) they plan on producing.