Prediction: 'Les Miserables' is going to be a revolutionary hit

The two hour, forty minute screen adaptation of Les Misérables is even more epic on screen than seen live in a theatre. At least the musical has an intermission, something that would have helped the bladders of some of the younger guests at the press screening last week in New York City (we let the eleven-year-old cut in line). The press for the Christmas Day release is approaching a fever
pitch. After seeing the movie last week, I've been busy finding YouTube videos of the 25th anniversary performance and listening to the soundtrack on Spotify. Hearing the musical on other mediums made me realize just how good the screen version is.

On the screen, Les Misérables lives up to the intimate promise of movies. You can see the characters in close-up. Director Tom Hooper's decision to have the actors sing live instead of with playback makes their voices sometimes haggard and strained. For such an tragic, epic story, that realism adds poignancy and revs up the emotional impact. While the London version of Les Misérables features the cast singing in front of a microphone, which I don't particularly like, in the screen version the characters move within their environments--but not too much. It's almost the cinematic equivalent of an actor on a mike. They're shot in close-up, removed from their surroundings, with such a narrow depth of field the background is almost always blurry. Les Misérables has done the impossible: It's just as good as the musical, albeit in different ways. I can't speak for the book yet, though a copy of the thousand-plus-page tome is now downloaded on my Kindle.

While the creative choices are really what make the screen version shine, if the actors couldn't sing, it would have been for nothing. Les Misérables is also a triumph of casting. Who would have thought that so many A-listers could also sing? Anne Hathaway as Fantine and Amanda Seyfried as Cosette? Broadway veteran Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean is no surprise, but Russell Crowe as Javert? Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen as the Thenardiers? The biggest surprises, however, are the two characters who were unknowns. Samantha Barks, who was playing Eponine in the London musical, landed the role for the film. Eddie Redmayne, freckled and barely scruffy as Marius, is certainly destined for stardom. In last year's My Week with Marilyn, he played an admirer of the blonde sex symbol. With this role, he may be the heartthrob everyone is ogling. This year's Oscar race will be interesting with Les Misérables in the running. The Academy has a soft spot for musicals, but this is a year of many strong films. After a few years where the victor seemed preordained, this year there are other frontrunners: Zero Dark Thirty, Lincoln, and Argo.

 

Party's still on for 'The Hangover'

By Sarah Sluis

The Hangover has hit the jackpot. Last week it was the surprise #1. The day after Up was declared the winner, higher-than-estimated Sunday grosses pushed The Hangover to the top spot. This week, the Las Vegas comedy dropped a mere 25% to earn $33.4 million. Thanks to high weekday grosses, its cumulative box office has already passed the nine-figure mark: $105,000,000. With a $9,960 per-screen average, plenty of people were turned away from Friday and Saturday night screenings, ensuring high grosses in weeks to come.

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 opened lower on the list, taking in $25 million and the #3 spot. It's a solid opening for an actioner that didn't receive much buzz. Lower on the list, the lightly marketed Imagine That came up with just $5.7 million at #6. Family audiences likely chose the much higher regarded Up over the Eddie Murphy film. In its third week, Up soared to $187 million cumulative, bringing in $30.5 million while losing just 30% of its gross.

Of the rest of the films in the top ten, Land of the Lost dropped the most (51%), followed by Drag Me to Hell (45%) and Terminator Salvation (43%). Of the three, Drag Me to Hell was the best reviewed, so it may actually be defying the precipitous drops (of 50-70%) often seen with horror titles.

Dropping between 32-35%, generally considered a better-than-average performance, were Star Trek, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, and Angels & Demons. All these films have crossed the $100 million mark (and Trek the $200 million mark), so their mid-30's drops will help boost the ends of their runs.

On the specialty side, Food, Inc. was the clear winner, earning $21,000 on each of its three screens. Moon followed with $18,000 on eight screens, and Francis Ford Coppola's Tetro came in with $15,000 on two screens. All are stellar performances, and bode well for the films' expansion.

This week, ancient-times comedy Year One will try to perform more like The Hangover and less like Land of the Lost. Sandra Bullock rom-com The Proposal, the first of the genre since Ghosts of Girlfriends Past released on May 1st, also stands to do exceptional business for romance-starved audiences.

'Bolt' and 'Twilight' to satisfy the young (at heart)

By Sarah Sluis

Twilight (3,419 screens) debuted with sold-out midnight screenings last night, and finished at #5 among all-time pre-sold tickets (per Movietickets.com), right below The Dark Knight.  With the help of "Twilight Moms," the most obvious expansion of the teen girl demographic turning out for the film, the
vampire romance will continue to sell out screenings throughout the weekend.  Among non-Twilight-reading and Twilight-reading critics, the film has inspired polarized opinions.  A decent portion have acknowledged the film's ability to pull heartstrings despite some corny moments, but for others, like our critic Ethan Alter, those moments, combined with some trite camera setups and technical sloppiness, make the film unbearable.  A friend who accompanied the press screening called Twilight "teen fantasy reduced to its most basic form.   There is something so pure about a film that doesn't try to trick you into thinking it's clever, or appealing to anyone outside its demographic.  It's exactly the film for exactly its audience.  That's rare."

Bolt (3,651 screens) opens after a non buzz-generating sneak preview last weekend.  With a large portion of the screens exhibiting in 3D, the film will receive a boost in revenue from higher ticket prices
at those venues.  A solid film, our executive editor Kevin Lally called Bolt "an unpretentious, consistently entertaining romp...with plenty of heart".  As Lally notes, the breakout press story is that of Disney animator Mark Walton.  A hyperactive fanboy who naturally possesses hamster-like qualities, his scratch recording of the hamster Rhino was so good, it made it into the final film.  Coupled with the celebrity voices of Miley Cyrus, John Travola, and "Curb Your Enthusiasm"'s Susie Essman, the film should please adults and kids alike.

On the specialty side, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas expands to 406 screens, Muslim-lesbian romantic drama I Can't Think Straight opens on 3 screens, drug-induced superhero hallucination picture Special debuts on 1 screen, and Laotian immigrant documentary The Betrayal (Nerakhoon) opens at New York City's IFC Theatre.