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)?

‘The Lego Movie’ to tower over ‘Monuments Men’

Remember when people thought The Lego Movie was a bad idea? All the sniping and Internet eye-rolling that accompanied Warner Bros.’ decision to release a film based on the popular kids toy brand has been all but forgotten today, as positive reviews for the animated flick continue to pour in. Opening wide in 3,775 locations, The Lego Movie is poised to enjoy a boffo opening.  According to Fandango, Lego is on track to rake in the highest pre-sales figures since Toy Story 3, a feat that would place it ahead of blockbusters Despicable Me 2, Monsters University, and box-office darling Frozen.  Each of the aforementioned films debuted to $67 million or more, which certainly bodes well for Emmet, Wyldstyle, and the rest of Lego’s funny, earnest and “special” cast.

The Monuments Men’s box-office performance, on the other hand, is more uncertain. Writer-director-producer George Clooney’s WWII dramedy could also be called funny and earnest, but critics are seeing something much less special in the combination. An old-fashioned war movie, which our critic Kevin Lally called “A film set in the 1940s that feels like it was made in the 1960s,” and to which NY Mag critic David Edelstein suggested the alternate title The Tasteful Dozen, The Monuments Men has received underwhelming reviews.  The draw of such a stellar, A-list cast (Clooney, Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray, John Goodman) will still likely help Men land at No. 2 this weekend, but expectations are tempered. Some pundits predict returns around $25 million. Others, like Sony, have less faith in the pedigreed caper: The film’s distributor believes receipts will tally out in the high teens.

The third and final new film opening today, Vampire Academy, is expected to fall behind Ride Along and possibly even Frozen to clock in at No. 4 or 5.  There hasn’t been much of a marketing push behind this new(ish) spin on the tired blood-sucker trope, although it does have Mean Girls and Freaky Friday director Mark Waters to recommend it. The teen romp will probably be funny enough – which, in all likelihood, will still not be enough to make an impact at the box office. Expect Academy to earn $6 or $7 million.

'Inception' overpowers 'Salt'

By Sarah Sluis

Remaining in star form, Inception dropped a scant 30% in its second weekend to grab the first-place spot and another $43.5 million. Strong weekday grosses took the movie over $100 million just as the weekend started, bringing its cumulative total to $143.6 million. While the first weekend received the support of younger moviegoers, audiences over the age of 35 helped keep ticket sales brisk through its second weekend.

Salt was not far behind, debuting to $36.5 million. Because of the star power of Angelina Jolie, as well as its action premise, the movie is expected to perform strongly overseas. Producers are still throwing around the idea of a sequel, but the bigger news here is that yet another original story (Despicable Me, Inception, Salt) opened strongly. Pre-sold titles are not always the answer--here's hoping at least one of those board game adaptations Hollywood's been courting is dead in the water.

Kicking off in sixth place, Ramona and Beezus couldn't rise past the single-digit millions, and finished the weekend with $8 million coming from a largely female, family audience. Fox pegged the budget at just $15 million, however, so this movie

should turn a profit, especially once post-theatrical markets are factored in.

After expanding into over 200 theatres, The Kids Are All Right landed just outside of the top ten, bringing in a total of $2.6 million. The strong showing effectively doubled its cumulative gross, which is now just under $5 million. Next week, Focus plans to raise the number of theatres in its release to 500, which could bring the movie over $10 million if it can maintain its pace.

Returning films in the top ten were a mixed bunch, with about half posting drops in the 20% range, and the other half posting drops in the 40% range. CG animation titles posted minimal drops, with Despicable Me dipping 26% to $24.1 million and Toy Story 3 sliding 24% to $9 million. In a market light on adult comedies, Grown Ups maintained with just a 23% fall to $7.6 million. The remaining movies, all adaptations of some kind, fell more heavily: The Twilight Saga: Eclipse tumbled another 47% to $7 million, and The Sorcerer's Apprentice plunged 45% in its second weekend to $9.8 million. M. Night Shyamalan now has a confirmed miss, with The Last Airbender dropping 46% to $4.1 million. Predators fell the furthest, 59% to $2.8 million--just two weeks after it opened to a healthy $24.7 million.

This Friday, Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore will introduce a new 3D animated title to the summer mix. Charlie St. Cloud will give High School Musical fans Zac Efron in a mature, heart-wrenching role, and Dinner for Schmucks will fill the gap in adult comedies.

Audiences haven't forgotten 'Toy Story 3'

By Sarah Sluis

Woody, Buzz, and the gang must be relieved that audiences still haven't returned them to the toy box. In its

second weekend, Toy Story 3 continued to draw in fresh audiences to the tune of $59 million, a 46% drop from the first week. Given its enormously high opening, the Pixar movie's dip should level out by next week. Added box office traffic due to the Fourth of July weekend could even boost the total.

Grown Ups opened to a healthy $41 million, despite its poor reviews. With the combined star power of Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade and Rob Schneider, the comedy

hedged itself against backlash towards any one star (if only Knight and Day, saddled with Tom Cruise, had that luxury). The movie even earned 2% more on Saturday than Friday. The summer-themed film has some flag-raising and holiday-weekend scenes, so if Universal can rotate those images into the promos it might win audiences this coming weekend due to its topicality.

After earning a combined $7.2 million on Wednesday and Thursday, Knight and Day racked up an additional $20.5 million over the weekend. Because the movie comes on the heels of another one of Tom Cruise's underwhelming movies, Valkyrie, he's receiving a lot of the blame for the soft opening. Maybe he has lost his star power.

On the other hand, another madcap action comedy involving a male assassin whose unwitting romantic interest gets dragged into the mess just opened a month ago, and it didn't do that well either. That would be Killers ($15 million debut, $44 million cumulative gross), and no one blamed Katherine Heigl or Ashton Kutcher for the movie's failure. I'm chalking this one up to genre fatigue, because I know I wasn't particularly excited about seeing a startled female star shriek as she's being shot at AGAIN. The whole concept feels tired to me, even if it was done well enough to earn a 53% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

On the specialty front, Oliver Stone's documentary South of the Border opened north of $20,000, an excellent opening figure but reflecting just one screen of business. War documentary Restrepo earned $15,000 per screen on two screens. Cyrus ramped up its release from four to seventeen theatres, adding 65% to its gross. The per-screen average dropped almost two-thirds, from $45,000 to $17,000, but the latter number still puts it in a strong position for further expansion.

Twihards will rejoice when The Twilight Saga: Eclipse opens this Wednesday in advance of the Fourth of July weekend. Going up against returning favorite Toy Story 3, kid-friendly The Last Airbender, a M. Night Shyamalan-directed movie in the vein of Captain Planet, opens on Friday.

'Knight and Day' and 'Grown Ups' aim for teen and adult crowds

By Sarah Sluis

Adults and teens will be greeted with two summer movie staples this weekend: a big-name comedy, Grown Ups, and a slick action comedy, Knight and Day. But don't expect either of them to beat the second weekend of Toy Story 3, which should earn well over $50 million.

Pairing up Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz, Knight and Day (3,098 theatres) jump-started the weekend by opening on Wednesday, bringing in $3.8 million on opening day. However, Toy Story 3 brought in $13.4 million the same day, a sign that the movie will be trounced at the box office. Critic Kevin Lally summed up the movie "as disposable and inconsequential as summer entertainments get," but for audiences dividing their attention between the film and their giant buckets of popcorn, they might get exactly what they wished for.

Grown Ups (3,534 theatres) is a movie cast with extremely funny people that isn't really funny at all--unless you're the kind of person who thinks that

bodily fluids are so hilarious you squirt milk out your nose in laughter. I'm talking to you, fourth-grade lunchroom table. The movie is an exercise in mediocrity, and at best numbs you for a couple of hours. Apparently, the cast had fun making the movie, but as this slideshow from New York Magazine suggests, the more fun you have during shooting, the less fun the audience usually has watching the final product.

A moving war documentary that's also a selection at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, Restrepo follows a group of soldiers stationed in the most dangerous part of Afghanistan. Without drawing

conclusions about its participants, it offers a reminder of "one of the irreducible, grim absurdities of this war, which is the disjunction between its lofty strategic and ideological imperatives and the dusty, frustrating reality on the ground," as New York Times critic A.O. Scott points out. I wrote about the movie on this blog earlier this week, and give it my thumbs up.

On Monday, we'll weigh in on the second-week drop of Toy Story 3, wonder if it's the end for Tom Cruise with Knight and Day, and see how many audiences fell for stupid-funny Grown Ups.

Victory for 'Toy Story 3' with a nine-digit weekend

By Sarah Sluis

Drawing in a remarkably diverse audience, Pixar's eleventh feature, Toy Story 3, brought in $109 million over the weekend, the highest opening weekend ever for a Pixar movie. What's more interesting, though, is

that attendance was comparable to Finding Nemo, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., and The Incredibles. What accounted for the millions more earned by Toy Story 3? Besides the usual culprit, rising ticket prices, the surcharge for 3D stands out. It's estimated that the extra dimension added $20 million to the movie's gross, although that bump falls on the low end for 3D movies. Also in the mix were a large number of adults paying full ticket prices. 46% of the audience was over 25, and not all of them were parents. Toy Story 3 drew in 33% of its audience from non-families, 40% of which came from young adults aged 17-24. With its strong debut and positive word-of-mouth, Toy Story 3 should dominate for the rest of the summer--expect it to be in the top ten for the next two months.

Earning 1/20th of the gross of Toy Story 3, Jonah Hex is the first unqualified flop of the summer box office.

The comic book/western/futuristic movie managed to draw in none of those audiences, and finished with just $5 million, though that was enough to earn it an eighth-place finish. Ouch.

In second place, The Karate Kid earned $29 million in its second weekend. Though the movie dropped 47%, Toy Story 3 proved tough competition. Given its positive reviews and strong opening weekend, the movie should bounce back in coming weeks. By comparison, two other kid-oriented movies in the top ten dropped more than 50%. Marmaduke slumped 55% to $2.6 million, and Shrek Forever After declined 65%, to $5.5 million.

Fox Searchlight's marketing campaign paid off with Cyrus, which earned a breathtaking $45,000 per screen on four screens. The movie will expand into more markets in coming weeks, and should earn at least $10 million if its performance holds up--my conservative estimate. Since the movie debuted on such a small number of screens, it's hard to tell how well it will scale up.

I Am Love, starring Tilda Swinton, made its debut with $15,000 per screen on eight screens. The stylish Italian art film drew in equally suave audiences, and its opening should give it a solid, if not blockbuster, run at the box office.

This Friday, action comedy Knight and Day, starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz, will open alongside Grown Ups, a comedy about basketball teammates reuniting in middle age. The cast is led by Adam Sandler.

'Toy Story 3' aims for a record-breaking weekend

By Sarah Sluis

Woody and Buzz are back in Toy

Story 3, which will open in 4,028 theatres, including more than 2,000 3D screens 2,463

3D theatres and 180 IMAX locations. Strikingly adult, from its

tear-jerking sequences to a

scary, fiery landfill scene, the movie will

strongly appeal to those who first saw Toy Story as kids, as well as

parents and other adults that turn out to see the film. Critic Kevin

Lally called the movie "bountifully inventive," and it's filled with

intricate gags and laugh-out-loud characters, like Barbie's sidekick Ken

(voiced by Michael Keaton) and a hedgehog toy that takes the pose of a snobby

British actor, asking everyone how they can "remain in character"

while they are playing with their owner. Lally praised "the Pixar

artists [who] never shy from genuine emotion and deeper resonance."

The animated movie is on track to earn over $100 million this weekend, and

could be the highest-grossing Pixar film ever if it beats Finding Nemo's

$339 million total--and Finding Nemo opened to just $70 million.

On the other end of the spectrum, "would-be summer blockbuster" Jonah

Hex (2,825 theatres) will be

quietly making its debut, and some

feel it could open to just $10 million. As an PG-13 rated feature, Jonah

Hex won't benefit from grabbing audiences from sold-out screenings of

the G-rated Toy Story 3. This "half-baked" comic book

adaptation that combines "old-fashioned western, supernatural action film,

El Topo-like acid trip and steampunk-style science fiction," according to

critic Ethan Alter, is unlikely to attract large audiences. It'll probably

die out quickly, unlike its death-defying protagonists (played by Josh Brolin and John

Malkovich).

Fox Searchight may be known for cute and quirky, but Cyrus

(4 theatres) is more creepy and quirky. The tale of a man who

falls in love with a woman, only to discover that her son is unwilling to let

someone impinge on his close relationship with his mother, it balances its

intimations of Freudian complexes and incest with a comedic tone and emphasis

on awkward situations. The Duplass brothers (of the "mumblecore"

movement) are making their first mainstream effort with the movie, which has a marketing campaign with plenty of odd

animated GIFs behind it, courtesy of Searchlight.

The general consensus on Italian director Luca

Guadagnino 's I

Am Love (7 theatres) is that it favors style over substance.

But oh, that style! The "oh-so-posh proceedings," as described

by David Noh, are "sumptuously designed and handsomely photographed by

Yorick Le Saux, with timelessly classic costumes." Tilda Swinton

plays a Russian-born wife in the primarily Italian-language film, and the

English speaker learned Italian for the role.

On Monday, we'll see how high Toy Story 3 was able to go at the box

office, if Jonah Hex attracted fans despite its dismal ratings, and if

Fox Searchlight played its cards right marketing Cyrus.

Pixar tries to convince college students they're not too old for 'Toy Story 3'

By Sarah Sluis

To build buzz for Toy Story 3, Pixar is turning to college students. While twenty-somethings aren't usually big consumers of animated films, the latest Woody-Buzz Lightyear movie has a few things going for it. First, nostalgia: many of these kids grew up with the first two movies and may have some interest in the third.

Second, the story: the plot follows Andy's toys, which have been donated after he goes away to college. What college kid can't relate to coming home and finding that their bedroom has been changed by their parents? Third, crossover family movies: Alice in Wonderland wouldn't have racked up over $300 million at the box office without the help of non-family viewers, and last summer's Up also played widely across demographics.

Like the college-based rollout for Paramount's Paranormal Activity or the free advance screenings popularized by studios like Fox Searchlight, twenty college towns will have abbreviated, cliffhanger screenings of Toy Story 3 that are being promoted virally. The tear-off flyer image on the left, for example, takes you to a website informing you of the screening. Because it's not unusual for studios to preview full-length feature films in advance of their release, there has been some backlash, like this post on FilmJunk that called the promotion a rip-off. In case people didn't spot the flyer, there's also a link to the screenings on Facebook, in a tab next to the Pixar fan page.

Will it work? My guess is--somewhat. Pixar films are fantastic and well-worth a night out, but for some, they lack the cachet of saying that you just saw gross-out movie The Hangover or another more edgy option. But at the same time, the success of Oscar-winning films like Wall-E and Up has paved the way for older, childless people to go back to animated movies without feeling like they are watching something intended for children. They're so critically acclaimed, they're worth seeing in their own right. By offering advance, abbreviated screenings, Pixar will be showing audiences what so many people have already discovered--these films appeal to all ages. Once you see a Pixar film, you understand what everyone's been talking about, so these screenings should help connect college students to an animated genre that's transformed since their own childhood.