'Angels & Demons' to usurp top spot from celestial 'Star Trek'?

By Sarah Sluis

Joining the fray of big releases, Angels & Demons opens this weekend (3,527 theatres), its main competition holdovers Star Trek, in its second week of release, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I saw the film this Wednesday and while I'll go along with the opinion that the follow-up is better than The Da Vinci Code, better is a relative term. I think The New York Times' A.O. Scott puts it best, saying director Ron Howard "combines the visual charm of mass-produced postcards with the mental stimulation of an easy Monday crossword puzzle." The intrigue seems paper-thin, and the ciphers are either incredibly easy to decode or require leaps of faith to pursue. Mr. Hanks, for example, simply looks at where statues are pointing and follows their direction, managing to find precision in casual hand gestures. The movie does have a nice twist towards the end, but for the first two-thirds you're actually watching a serial killer movie. Imagine Seven, but set in Rome, and you have the right idea. The Catholic Church, after objecting to the first film, seems to have deemed the second innocuous. Angels & Demons isn't expected to do the big business of Wolverine or Star Trek in its opening weekend, but say a prayer that it will cross $50 million in its opening weekend.

Most of the post-opening weekend Star Trek buzz has centered on one anecdote. Over the past week, I've heard from friends, family, and even eavesdropping, the same comment: "So-and-so [a female who would not be expected to like a sci-fi movie, especially one with such a strong geek following] really liked it." People seem to be interested in the fact that its appeal extends to the anti-fan, which is exactly the kind of word-of-mouth that will sustain a film beyond opening weekend. It's been killing it this week, earning five times as much as Wolverine each day and currently at $99 million.

The specialty market this weekend is packed, once again, though the less-crowded market at Cannes indicates that there will be fewer specialty films in the pipeline. With so many great indie films out there, and only a limited amount of time to see them, many are viewing the slowdown as a good thing. Summit's sneaking its oft-delayed The Brothers Bloom, which stars Adrien Brody and Rachel Weisz, into four theatres, with plans to expand the film over the next two weekends. Big Man Japan, a "goofy sci-fi satire aimed at a narrow audience," will release in NY and LA. Romantic comedy Management, which stars Jennifer Aniston as a corporate executive and Steve Zahn as the motel owner she trysts with, opens in 212 theatres. Jerichow, which our reviewer described as a "modern-day, Teutonic Postman Always Rings Twice," also opens in NY and LA, along with IFC's Summer Hours, a story about three children dividing up their mother's belongings after her death.

Angels & Demons should win the box office, though Star Trek 's spectacular weekday performance could make it a tight race. Wolverine should grab the third spot. From the specialty front, The Brothers Bloom will be looking for a strong per-screen average to set up the caper comedy for its expansion. All the wide releases will want to rack up grosses before next week, Memorial Day, which will see ticket sales siphon away towards R-Rated Terminator Salvation and PG-rated Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.

'Star Trek' back with a $76.5 million opening

By Sarah Sluis

With J.J. Abrams at the helm, Star Trek has officially relaunched. The prequel gave the franchise its biggest open ever. Including Thursday evening screenings, which tacked on $4 million to the total, Star Trek earned $76.5 million. IMAX screenings of the film added 11% to the film's bottom line, consistently selling out and counting for $8.3 million in ticket sales. The film also did better Saturday than Friday, which usually indicates positive reviews and the likelihood that the film will have legs at the box office.

While Wolverine dropped 68% from last week, down to $27 million, the film was number one overseas. Star Trek wasn't franchised internationally and thus tends to underperform globally, which dampens its profitability in an age where most films rely on international box office in order to make a film go into the black. Still, that doesn't seem to be changing any plans to go ahead with the next Trek film.

Next Day Air, a mix-up comedy that deals with the fallout when drugs are delivered to the wrong house, brought in a modest $4 million and grabbed the #6 spot.

Despite the presence of two tentpoles, the rest of the top ten dropped just 30-45%. Tellingly, most of the titles remaining in the top ten skewed towards females, kids, and families, apt films for those not in the mood, or old enough, for sci-fi or action. At #3, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past dropped just 32% to earn $10.4 million, and teen-themed titles 17 Again and Hannah Montana: The Movie both held on in the top ten, bringing in $4.4 million and $2.4 million. Monsters vs. Aliens, in its seventh week of release, brought in $3.3 million, and Earth, a documentary that focuses on the lives of animal families, reeled in $3.3 million.

Among specialty debuts, Rudo Y Cursi, which released in 70 theatres, brought in $3,000 per location. The per-screen average is light for a specialty title, and may indicate that the Spanish-language film could have benefited from more specific Hispanic marketing, most famously used in last year's Beverly Hills Chihuahua. Little Ashes, only at 11 locations, did better from a per-screen perspective with $6,400 per theatre, and Atom Egoyan's Adoration earned $4,000 across ten locations.

This Friday Angels & Demons releases, marking the third week in a row dominated by a tentpole. Because it's based on a mass-market paperback, there's a chance it will bring in a different, possibly older and more female audience than the previous two big-budget films. With both Star Trek and Wolverine out of the gate, everyone will be watching to see how they hold up in their second and third week of release.

'Star Trek' to boldly go to 3,849 theatres

By Sarah Sluis

The big films of the weekend are Star Trek (3,849 theatres) and holdover Wolverine. While Star Trek will clearly grab the top spot, there's a sense that there's only so much pie out there, and either Wolverine will drop harder than expected and Trek will do phenomenally, or Wolverine will dip modestly and dampen Trek's first-weekend gross. It appears that Trek studio Paramount is expecting the latter, as it's laid out relatively modest expectations for the picture, starting at $50 million. However, even with a smaller debut, Paramount won't lose face, since they're positioning the film as a type of Batman Begins, with the idea that there is a Dark Knight down the line.

Manohla Dargis at the NY Times pinpointed the greatest achievement of the re-launch: "Mr. Abrams doesn't treat Star Trek as a sacred text, which would be deadly for everyone save the fanatics." Indeed, the tale is appropriate for nearly everyone, as our reviewer Ethan Alter noted: "If this version of Trek doesn't become a four-quadrant hit, than Paramount might as well stop trying."

For those not interested in sci-fi, many specialty films are opening this week to provide counter-programming. Rudo Y Cursi opens in NYC. Coming from Carlos Cuarn, it's a tale heavy on fate: two brothers (one plays goalie, the other offense) are recruited from rural Mexico to the major leagues, where they struggle with their sudden good fortune, and, to the consternation of the viewer, keep on making decisions that threaten to push them back into their unknown, rural world. I found the film fanciful and fun, though those going to look at the hunk-like visages of Gael Garcia Bernl and Diego Luna will find them marred by terrible, terrible haircuts (think Brad Pitt in Burn After Reading).

Twilight fans may be in for a surprise when they check out Little Ashes (NY/LA: 12 theatres), which stars Robert Pattinson, Matthew McNulty, and Javier Beltrn, who play 1920s trio Salvador Dali, Luis Buuel, and Federico Garcia Lorca. The three have a flirtatious sort of friendship, but, according to our reviewer Stephen Farber, nothing really develops. The "diffuse script...disappoints," giving the film a "handsome but meandering" feel.

The documentary Objectified, Gary Hutsit's follow-up to Helvetica, offers intriguing explanations of everyday objects like chairs, techno gadgets, and vegetable peelers. The designers' perspective is contagious, and after the film you'll find yourself examining everyday objects with the same thoughtfulness as the designers.

Tilda Swinton stars in the thriller Julia (NY/LA: 3 theatres), playing an alcoholic with a poorly conceived kidnapping plan. The documentary Outrage, which just debuted at Tribeca, outs closeted gay politicians, calling them out for their hypocritical voting. It's been generating controversy among audience members, which will probably only drive more curious people into theatres.

I'll see you back on Monday to discuss just how out-of-this-world Star Trek performed.

$87 million for 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine'

By Sarah Sluis

Coming in right in the middle of the $70-$100 million estimates that were floating around in Hollywood, X-Men Origins: Wolverine earned $87 million this weekend, six times the amount of the second-runner-up, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past ($15.3 million). The latter film earned the same amount as last year's Made of Honor, which seems fitting since both received similar thumbs-down reviews.

The success of X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a pleasant kick-off to the summer movie season. Despite the recession, movie grosses are up, and the turnout for Wolverine suggests that other big titles this summer--including next week's origin re-do, Star Trek, and the time-traveling Terminator Salvation two weeks from now, can bring in at least the same audiences.

Among the rest of the top ten, titles competing for the Wolverine audience, like Fighting ($4.1 million), dropped heavily, while kid-oriented titles 17 Again ($6.3 million), Hannah Montana: The Movie ($4 million), and Monsters vs. Aliens continued to hold strong. However, proving counterprogramming doesn't always work, kid-oriented, animated opener Battle for Terra debuted outside of the top ten at number twelve, earning $1 million, and only $916 per (3D) theatre. Compare that take with the six-week-old Monsters vs. Aliens, which dropped only 31% even as it shed 732 theatres, some of them 3D screens that made the mistake of screening Battle for Terra. The Paramount/DreamWorks film still earned twice as much per theatre, $2,200, totaling $5.8 million. While surely the marketing budget wasn't there for Terra, I think the quality of the animation, as well as the fact that it wasn't from an "animation-focused" studio like Disney or even DreamWorks, impacted its tiny gross.

This Friday Star Trek, helmed by "Lost's" J.J. Abrams, opens. I had the chance to see the film last week, and despite my unfamiliarity with the Star Trek mythology, I found the film compelling, humorous, and appealing to demographics beyond just the "Trekkies." It's truly a mild PG-13 film, so I imagine it doing extremely well with younger crowds. With Wolverine exceeding expectations this weekend, will some of the moviegoers who saw the film take a break and not see Trek on opening weekend? May is a tight month, with Star Trek being followed by Angels & Demons, then Terminator Salvation, then Pixar's Up the last week of May, so viewers will have to prioritize, even with tentpoles.

Summer season gets some competition

By Sarah Sluis

Hollywood used to have a scheduling formula: blockbusters and tentpoles in the summer, awards films in the winter, and more blockbusters to cover the winter holidays and Easter/spring break. While the logic makes sense, it's left many moviegoers high and dry when they want to see a good film at an off time. There's nothing worse than wanting to catch a movie with a friend in late January, only to be faced with stale awards fare or some unappealing horror film or teen comedy.

However, just as television stations colonized the rerun space of summer a few years back, studios are looking hard at the recent succeses of "off-time" movies that opened, like 300, Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Taken. In a model that pits quality films against quality and junk against junk, these films managed to rise above the pack, doing consistent business week after week because they were more than "just junk," they (arguably) were films that people would have seen at any time of year.

Fox is jumping on this strategy, and recently moved several of its upcoming films to these less competitive but more and more lucrative slots. Tooth Fairy, the Dwayne Johnson movie planned for a pre-Thanksgiving November 13th release in 2009, has been pushed back to January 22, 2010. Race to Witch Mountain, which Johnson recently starred in, also opened on a slightly off time, March 13 of this year, and racked up $63 million, so the studio can expect similar results.

The comedy Date Night will open on April 9, 2010, also a light time at the box office, but one that coincides with the television schedules of Tina Fey and Steve Carell--expect many commercials for the film during "30 Rock" and "The Office." In another off spot (though coming in around when some lucky students have mid-winter break), the kid fantasy adventure Percy Jackson will release on February 12th.

Like Paramount last year with Iron Man, Fox is pushing the boundaries of "summer movie season." While, like the color white, tentpoles were taboo before Memorial Day, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which has all the markers of a tentpole, will release on May 1st, weeks before the kick-off holiday. The studios's not abandoing the Memorial Day slot, as it's positioned Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian there against Terminator Salvation, but it's front-loading its films that can easily be classified as tentpoles, leaving movies like Fox Searchlight's Jennifer's Body (September 18) to finish up the summer, a time when back to school leads to a temporary drop in the box office.

For me, evenly spacing quality films will lead to more trips to the box office. While I certainly go to the movies more in the summer and the winter, it's because there are more films I want to see, not necessarily because I have more spare time. While I do have some nostalgia for childhood trips to air conditioned theatres during summer break, and seeing a special film the day after Thanksgiving, nostalgia alone does not sell movie tickets (unless we're talking about a drive-in theatre). Making movie marquees appealing year-round is an excellent decision by Fox, and one that many studios will likely follow.