Memorial Day weekend puts 'Men in Black 3' on top

In Hollywood, you can't win everything. Men in Black 3, the first new installment of the sci-fi comedy franchise in a decade, earned $55 million over the three-day weekend and $70 million including Monday. Still, the return fell short of some predictions, which had the Will Smith/Tommy Lee Jones/Josh Brolin picture earning at least $80 million. Smith's star power is considered untouchable, but the less-than-thrilling opening has slightly diminished his reputation, at least in the opinion of some in the industry. Smith hasn't even been in a movie since 2008's Seven Pounds, though he's currently filming the sci-fi picture After Earth with his son Jaden.

Low-budget horror film Chernobyl Diaries made a disappointing $7.9 million over the weekend, which rose to just $9.3 million including Monday. At one point, it seemed like making a horror movie guaranteed a return on investment, but for every hit like Paranormal Activity or Insidious there are also flops like Apollo 18 and The Darkest Hour. Chernobyl Diaries falls into the latter category.

Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom broke the record for per-location average (for a non-animated film), finishing with $130,000 per screen. The film played in two theatres in NYC and two in LA. Judging by the hourly showtimes, the nostalgic story of young love was playing in more than one theatre in each location. Anderson's reputation undoubtedly assured a high opening weekend, but the record-breaking numbers mean this film has already been drawing in less committed Anderson fans. The release will expand into hundreds of theatres by June, but I wonder if the exceptional opening weekend will change Focus' distribution plan.

Weinstein Co.'s The Intouchables had a strong $25,000 per-screen average over the three-day weekend. The French-language, uplifting story of two friends hits straight at many indie film sensibilities, but there are already a couple of films angling to be the "indie hit of the summer," and that list won't include The Intouchables. Bernie (which averaged $85,000 per screen its opening weekend) topped $1 million for the first time this weekend, playing in 194 theatres and averaging over $5,000 per screen. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which expanded into over 1,200 theatres over the holiday weekend, did even better. The retirement-age comedy earned $6.3 million.

This Friday, Snow White and the Huntsman will attempt to unseat MIB3, and a few smaller films will aim for niche audiences.

Will Smith and son Jaden to star in M. Night Shyamalan's latest

By Sarah Sluis

M. Night Shyamalan seems to be forever chasing the success of his first film, The Sixth Sense. Sometimes I wonder if all his twists are really getting worse, or if audiences have simply come to expect the unexpected, ruining the surprise. After striking out last year with The Last Airbender, which he directed but did not write, he's again chosen to direct a project that he did not write--wisely, I might add. Once titled One Thousand A.E., the futuristic sci-fi movie has been extensively reworked. What's more, the project originally had Bruce Willis, Bradley Cooper, and Gwyneth Paltrow attached. Now it has Will Smith and his son Jaden signed on for the starring roles. It must have taken a few rewrites to incorporate these casting changes, unless Bradley Cooper was playing Bruce Willis' son, which is only plausible if Willis were a teen father.

Jaden will star as a kid who must traverse an abandoned (post-apocalyptic?) Earth after a spaceship crash, in search of his father (Will Smith). Will Smith's role would be considerably smaller. In this project's favor is Will Smith's successful run of sci-fi movies, including his turn as a post-apocalyptic hero in I Am Legend. Father and son have also starred together in The Pursuit of Happyness, and Jaden held his own in the remake of The Karate Kid last year, a surprise hit. The negatives? From a publicity standpoint, the idea of family working together is endearing, but there have also been rants in the blogosphere that Will Smith is pushing both of his children (daughter Willow is a budding pop star) into the limelight. Then there's M. Night. He's gone from being a budding auteur to someone who's been pigeonholed as a "suspense & twist" director, and just hasn't been able to deliver that effectively in his subsequent films. The Last Airbender was an attempt to branch out, and that didn't work so well. In fact, The Karate Kid outperformed Airbender, with just a third of the budget. Columbia Pictures, which produced Karate Kid and is taking over this sci-fi project from sister label Sony, must be betting that Jaden's rising star power and M. Night's talent will result in a home run.

Will Smith and daughter Willow may remake 'Annie'

By Sarah Sluis

Will Smith is creating a family empire. Last summer, the box-office dynamo shepherded his son Jaden through his first solo starring role, the hit remake of The Karate Kid. Smith had previously starred in The Pursuit of Happyness with Jaden as his son, and now it appears he wants to take a similar route with his daughter, Willow. The ten-year-old would star with her father in a remake of Annie. She would play the titular orphan, and it's presumed Smith will take on the Daddy Warbucks role. Jay-Z, who
famously remixed "Hard Knock Life" a decade ago, plans to collaborate on the music.

The fact that Jay-Z plans to work on the music hints that this could be a new kind of musical with rap and pop influences. The actors would be able to hold their own: Smith had several hits as a rapper, and his daughter Willow recently released an album featuring the rap/pop single "Whip My Hair." Annie is one of my favorite musicals, but I'm not a purist: I would welcome the opportunity to see the story re-framed not as a Depression-era tale but one reflecting the struggles of another impoverished environment, such as an urban ghetto. I'm sure that the orphanage could be reimagined, as could the mission of the hucksters who want to game the system and reclaim Annie as their own for personal reward. I'd actually prefer if they kept the historical distance, however, perhaps setting the movie during the nadir of urban decay in the '80s (making a rap-influenced score much more plausible).

Musicals have a hard time in the marketplace, but there are some successes that bode well for the reboot of this movie. One has been the resurgence of the musical on TV with the success of "Glee," which puts well-known songs into the hand of a high school chorus/glee club. Second has been the success of the Step Up series, which is not so much a backstage musical as a backstage dance-off, with digressive dance numbers that audiences accept and enjoy, to the point that the series has spawned two sequels with one more in the making.

Annie may not be an original idea, but a remake under the supervision of Will Smith and Jay-Z has the chance to turn the story into an emblem of another zeitgeist and infuse the songs with the sounds of a modern era and "Tomorrow."

Jaden Smith next 'Karate Kid'

By Sarah Sluis

The Karate Kid, the film that spawned a thousand martial arts studios in strip malls across America, is up for a remake.  Will Smith's son, Jaden Smith, who made his feature film debut in last December's The
Pursuit of Happyness, is attached to the film.  The film will not be a strict remake, but borrow elements from the original plot.  For those not raised on The Karate Kid, the film centered on a bullied youth who learns karate from a mentor.  In between training montages, the mentor teaches him the winning moves that will help him stave off bullies, land the Girl, and win gold at a karate competition.  Jaden Smith, 10, already practices martial arts, giving the production a head start--maybe he will have time to change the color of his belt before filming begins next year?  While the original film had the character moving from New Jersey to California, this film plans to shoot in Beijing, China, making me think that the rewrite will make the kid's move transcontinental.  Original producer Jerry Weintraub will reprise his role as a producer, along with China Film Group, which is co-producing the film.
  The original franchise consisted of four films--The Karate Kid, two sequels, and The Next Karate Kid, which started over and switched genders, launching the career of Hilary Swank and preparing her for her Oscar-winning role as a fighter in Million Dollar Baby.