'Beverly Hills Chihuahua' engulfs 'Body of Lies'

By Sarah Sluis

As predicted, all four of the new releases made it into the top ten. Weakest link City of Ember ($3.2

million) just barely squeaked into the top ten, no doubt due
to the competition from competing family release and the number one film for the second week in a row,
Beverly Hills Chihuahua ($17.5 million).

Seemingly coming out of nowhere, this family film has benefited from two additional demographics: the Latino market, which sees movies at higher rates than Caucasians and African-Americans, and dog owners.  Not falling into any one of those categories myself, I only heard of this film weeks before its release--and then only through its utterly
befuddling trailer featuring no plot whatsoever, just a dog dance
revue.  However, in the grand tradition of Homeward Bound and
upcoming release Bolt, lost dog films are a surefire plot winner.

In a big hit to the star power of Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, and Ridley Scott, Body of Lies ($13.1 million) came in below Chihuahua and Quarantine ($14.2 million).  Both Quarantine and Body of Lies address government conspiracy.  Funny, the LAPD's cover-up of a secret
zombie infestation was a bigger draw than the lies, deceit, and
bluffing of the CIA.

Appaloosa ($3.34 million) and The Duchess ($3.32 million) have also successfully expanded from limited to wide release.  Both
premiered four weeks ago, but Appaloosa went into wide release a week earlier, making its cumulative gross of $10.8 million double The Duchess' $5.6 million total.

The Express opened to a modest $4.7 million, in line with expectations.  Returning release Eagle Eye came it at #4 with $11 million, bringing its cumulative total up to $70.5 million, a boon for an action film release outside of summer--will it be able to hit the $100 million mark before it's pulled from the theatres? 

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist ($6.5 million) finished at #5, below Eagle Eye, and included a $12.50 contribution from the ticket I bought to see this short and sweet film.  It's a must-see for anyone young and living in New York, filming in all the go-to places, which were even more recognizable to me than that other big New York-centric movie, Sex and the City.  One late night scene took place in the deli up the street from our office (which makes great sandwiches), and others took place in Arlene's Grocery, Mercury Lounge, the Hudson River Park, Papaya King, and Veselka.  One of the film's big "stars" is a yellow Yugo, which made me realize I had even walked by the set of the film months ago and marveled at the weird, beat-up car.

The last mention on the top ten is Nights of Rodanthe ($4.6 million), which has quietly racked up a substantial $32.3 million in three weeks by below-average drops in its audience, down 37% this week.  While falling out of the top ten, Fireproof only dropped 20% this week to $3.1 million, and has made $16.9 million on a $.5 million budget.

Next week brings another four wide releases, so look for the box office preview on Friday.

Full box office results available here.

Four wide releases set sail for Columbus Day bounty

By Sarah Sluis

After weeks of overstuffed, competitive lineups that left many new films stranded outside of the top ten, this week has a mere four wide releases.  All of them stand a chance to debut in the top ten.

Star-studded Body of Lies (2,710 theatres), a Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio spy thriller, opens to
high marks for its highly plausible terrorism premise that almost seems like a dramatization of actual events.  Critics, however, have taken shots at the affectations of Crowe and DiCaprio, noting that despite its physical authenticity, Crowe's girth seem strapped on, and both Crowe and DiCaprio's accents seem misplaced and create ill-fitting characterizations.

With most schools closed for the Columbus Day holiday on Monday, two PG-rated releases hope to capture the kid and teen audience, City of Ember and The Express.

City of Ember (2,022 theatres) follows two kids trying to solve a puzzle to free them from their underground city, whose generator has expired after 200 years. Atonement's Saoirse Ronan and Harry Treadaway star as the city-saving duo, and Bill Murray and Tim Robbins support in roles as the mayor and father.  The film boasts gorgeous production design, and the NY Times remarked on its "whiz-bang...neat gadgets and sound effects."  According to our critic, who also remarked on the production design, "if the first thing you compliment is the set (or the music or costumes), the movie is in trouble."   Still, this film looks like the kind I would love if I were a kid: two independent children saving the day in a world with just the right amount of creepiness and darkness.

A.O. Scott sums up The Express' (2,808 theatres) appeal rather wryly.  "Aimed at a presumably large
cross-section of the moviegoing public: people who love football and hate racism," The Express tells the affirming story of Ernie Davis, the first black football player to win the Heisman trophy.  The game sequences give the audience plenty of opportunities to boo racism and root for the champ, but those expecting a spot-on historical account should be warned: FJI critic Frank Lovece noted that the film "plays fast and loose with the historical record," inflating racist incidents and changing the location of a key game to Southern West Virginia.

For high schoolers enjoying the three-day weekend, horror picture Quarantine (2,461 theatres) releases.  Shot from a first-person point of view, Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield-style, the film claims to be footage shot by a television crew trapped in a building ravaged by zombies.

On the specialty side, Happy-Go-Lucky (4 theatres) has drawn much acclaim (and Oscar buzz) for Sally Hawkins' performance as an unflappably happy person.  Apparently, her happy demeanor is contagious, leaving a number of critics smiling well after the credits.

Indie's beloved director, Wong Kar-Wai, re-releases his film Ashes in Time Redux (5 theatres).  Slightly shorter than the original, the film has drawn the most note for its its impressionistic fight sequences, as well as  Wong's signature attention to time and use of a circular plot structure.

Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla opens in limited release (7 theatres) this week.  The fast-talking comedic crime caper (if you can decipher the British accents in time to get the jokes) promises to reprise some of the fun of Lock, Stock & two Smoking Barrels.  Film Journal found RocknRolla "a middle-class fantasy of thug life," but "so relentlessly kinetic, rudely funny and visually flamboyantly that it doesn't matter."

Expect these films to join Beverly Hills Chihuahua and Eagle Eye as the major players this holiday weekend, and I'll see you on Monday for the Weekend Roundup.  Next week is ShowEast in Orlando, Florida, so Executive Editor Kevin Lally will also be posting news from the convention.

DreamWorks delays financing talks with Wall Street

By Sarah Sluis

While Hollywood likes to tout its immunity to recession via The Great Depression, during which the
industry not only made money, but also lifted the spirits of America with its leggy musicals, it looks as though the credit crunch has already affected Hollywood financing.

DreamWorks chose to delay its Wall Street pitch for additional financing, planning to wait a month for the crisis to settle down before proceeding.  Right now this makes sense--DreamWorks says it has enough money from its Reliance deal, and Wall Street has more important things on its hands right now than to lend more money.  More news stories like this might indicate trouble.  However, with the Dow dropping 40% from last year, the question is not if we will see more stories like these, but "when?" and "how many?" 

As I wrote yesterday, major studios have already secured financing for most of their projects going into production now, giving them some safety and lead time.  In fact, many of them had delayed their projects for another one of capitalism's favorite concerns--unions, and the expiration of the Screen Actors Guild contracts.  Hollywood has stated its confidence that people will still go to movies in an economic crisis, since they are a relatively cheap source of entertainment, but what if it lacks the money to make its films?

Reprising my "Money, Politics, Hollywood" post from last month, I thought I would throw in a Hollywood political update.  Today, THR's Risky Business blog ruminated about the timing of the release of Oliver Stone's W.  Releasing a film about our president before his term has finished surprises me as well, although from what I understand it's more of an "origin" film than an analysis of the Bush presidency.  Unlike other politically minded films like Farenheit 9/11, which looked for someone to blame, W's trailer surprised viewers, including myself, with its frat boy lampoon of Bush.  The trailer shows Bush's partying antics and his sheepish reception of a lecture from his father--no one nefarious, just criminally clueless.  With the popularity of Tina Fey's Sarah Palin imitation fresh on the minds of viewers, I think W's greatest angle for success will come from viewers trying to chase laughs similar to SNL's political caricatures.

Kids rule at the major studios

By Sarah Sluis

Alice in Wonderland adds Anne Hathaway
Anne Hathaway has played a princess before, but for her next project she's graduated to queen, signing
on to play the White Queen in Tim Burton's adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.  Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, two of his recurring casting choices, are already in place as the Mad Hatter and the Red Queen, respectively.  Eighteen-year-old Mia Wasikowska, who has a role in this winter's Defiance, will play the part of Alice--no doubt her girlish look combined with her over-eighteen status informed the decision, since she won't be restricted by the laws limiting the hours of child actors.  Using a combination of live action and performance capture, Burton's film will likely work off the dark but family-friendly style of his film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but I am curious about how Burton will integrate the performance capture.  Will he use it for animal characters like the Cheshire Cat, or will the film have a Roger Rabbit look?

Tom Thumb film in works
Continuing in the vein of children's folk stories, Warner Brothers plans to adapt Tom Thumb, and has attached Enchanted and Tarzan director Kevin Lima to the project.  Under development through the Red Wagon label, the producers hope to spin the story by focusing on the beginnings of Tom Thumb.  They're enlisting Robert Rodat to write the screenplay.  While best known for his screenplay Saving Private Ryan and war follow-up The Patriot, he got his start writing family pictures Fly Away Home and Tall Tale, and will serve as a good choice if the producers want to emphasize the battles and adventures of the thimble-sized hero.  The producers are also undecided about representation of the little man, with live action and CGI both being thrown around as options.

Studios' production slate rich in kid and teen pictures
While Tom Thumb is still in the development phase, Alice in Wonderland will join other a large number of projects going into production now that some of the uncertainty surrounding the renewal of the SAG contracts has blown over.  Variety compiled a list of over forty projects going into production.  A substantial amount target child and teen audiences:

• Ramona, the classic children's book by Beverly Cleary



• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows



• Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, a Harry Potter knockoff based on a book series about a boy who realizes he is the descendant of a Greek god (directed by Harry Potter alum Chris Columbus)



• Tooth Fairy, which looks to be an Elf-like comedic riff on the coins-for-teeth fairy (if you replace Will Ferrell with stone-faced Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson)



• Diary of a Wimpy Kid, an adaptation of a series of cartoon books



• Mars Needs Moms, another illustrated storybook adaptation



• Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, a live action adaptation of the anime-styled comic book



• Footloose remake, starring Zac Efron and sure to draw in tweens and teens



• Fame remake, another song-and-dance high school film

One trend in this slate of films is the popularity of graphic or comic novels as a literary source.  With adaptations of action and superhero comics doing so well in the box office, there has been an increased demand to develop books that mine the comic book format, using panels or incorporating illustrations and letters into their stories.  Spielberg, for example, is directing animated Tin Tin, based on the French comic.  The richness and depth of plot in these stories, however, can be as much help as hindrance, as writers must sift through and delete material over the course of the adaptation.  Of all these projects, however, I am most enthusiastic about Burton's Alice in Wonderland, which will be much more about the actors' interpretations of the characters rather than the plot of the original (and rarely read by children anymore) Alice Adventure's in Wonderland.

Notes from the 'Watchmen' Sneak Preview

By Sarah Sluis

The upcoming release Watchmen is a superhero movie, but it's not an action movie.  Instead, director
Zack Snyder and illustrator David Gibbons describe Watchmen as "punctuated by action," with the real juice of the film coming from the complicated and rich backstories of the characters. 

I generally dislike superhero movies.  I found the Spider-Mans dull but enjoyed fringe genre films like Unbreakable or Harry Potter that explore the condition of being "super" rather than bothering me with the constant rescuing and saving. Judging from the New York sneak preview of scenes from Watchmen presented by Snyder last night, the film promises to defy the conventions of a "typical" superhero movie while still providing action sequences to satisfy viewers in search of explosions (violence-hungry audiences are apparently the target audience of the trailer, which can be viewed here).

The film has a "cold open" action sequence: a disheveled man in a bathrobe watches the news, revealing that we are in an alternative 1985 where Nixon is still president and a nuclear clash with Russia is imminent.  A black-clad person breaks in, leading to a spectacular, slo-mo-laden sequence.

After a matter-of-fact death, the film segues into a long credit sequence set to Bob Dylan's "The Times, They are A-Changin" that expands on the alternative world inhabited by the Watchmen.  Employing a green-screen or chroma-key effect to give the montage a slightly askew, "pop-up" feel, we are presented with a series of visual "dioramas."  Two-beat, slow-motion snippets show American history with Watchmen's superheroes inserted into the fold.  Like Forrest Gump shaking the hands of the presidents, we see a superhero immortalized by Andy Warhol, part of the moon landing, and at the scene of JFK's assassination.  There are also clues to other parts of the superheroes' history: two criminals tied up with a mysterious ink blot note, and a murdered lesbian superhero.  The linkage of the Watchmen superheroes within the history of pop culture makes for an intriguing departure from the anonymity of Gotham City.  While both fictional worlds are dark and corrupted, the specificity of the references in Watchmen makes the apocalyptic climate more biting.

At the preview, we also saw the transformation of Dr. Manhattan, a contemplation/flashback sequence in which the scientist Dr. Manhattan escapes to Mars, and a prison-break sequence in which two superheroes rescue a Dr. Rorschach from a flaming compound.  Incredibly ornate and detailed, even Dr. Manhattan's flashbacks were not presented in a linear order.  Similarly, a murder in the prison break sequence is seen/concealed by a swinging butler door, leaving the audience to fill in the gory details.

Director Snyder mentioned at the screening that '"I've said before, that if I succeeded in making a two hour and forty minute advertisement for the book, I would be happy."  In that respect, he's already succeeded.  I went out and ordered the graphic novel after watching the
preview, eager to consume this superhero world so unlike that of the
gawky teen who saves the world.

Related link:
MTV News has a shot-by-shot breakdown

'Beverly Hills Chihuahua' captures $29 million from family audiences

By Sarah Sluis

As predicted, family-friendly Beverly Hills Chihuahua snagged the top spot this weekend, coming in just below the $30 million mark with a $29 million box-office take.  Families comprised 70% of the audience. In a week where most releases dropped 50% or less, competing family film Igor dropped 68.4% as families flocked to the new entry.

Other newcomer Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist finished at number three with $12 million, and execs expect strong word-of-mouth will carry the film through several more weeks with below-average box-office drops.  The field is favorable: no teen movies will release next week, and the three consecutive weeks will see Sex Drive (Oct 17), High School Musical 3 (Oct 24), and Zack and Miri Make a Porno (Oct. 31) release, none of which have a perfectly overlapping audience with Nick & Norah.  Both Michael Cera and Kat Dennings are reaching new levels of awareness among audiences, which makes me suspect that regardless of box office take, this film will be revisited in years to come as a launch pad for their stardom.

Dueling satires An American Carol ($3.8 million) and Religulous ($3.5 million) both finished in the top
ten. While below An American Carol, Religulous' highly targeted distribution strategy that emphasized running in theatres where political films like Farenheit 9/11 played well gave it an $6,972 per-theatre average, three times that of American Carol.

Eagle Eye, now the only substantial action film in the market, dropped a minimal 39% and finished at number two with $17.7 million.

Fireproof also dropped a minimal amount (40%) and took in another $4 million

With the crowded week, a few new releases premiered out of the top ten.  Flash of Genius finished at number 11 with a $2.3 million take, and Miramax's Blindness took in $2 million.  How to Lose Friends and Alienate People fared the worst, taking in only $1.4 million with an $801 per-theatre average.

Specialty release Rachel Getting Married earned $33,667 per screen opening up in nine locations, an

auspicious start for the film.  Appaloosa made a strong showing in its first week in wide release, finishing at number five and taking in $5 million.  When the film opened in eleven theatres two weeks ago, it made $17,775, half of what Rachel Getting Married pulled in.   While no wide release for Rachel has been set, if it follows in the footsteps of Appaloosa it could have a top ten finish in its future.

Full box office charts available here.

Will 'Beverly Hills Chihuahua' bark its way to the top?

By Sarah Sluis

It's another crowded week at the box office, and early yapping from moviegoers places the decidedly silly

Beverly Hills Chihuahua (3,215 screens) as the one to beat, with tracking reports estimating a $30 million estimated take, which I predict will be on the high side.

This week brings us two ideological lampoons (Religulous and An American Carol) and two young urban comedies (Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist and How to Lose Friends and Alienate People).  Religulous (502 screens) has agnostic Bill Maher taking on religious dogma, while American Carol (1,639 screens) has conservative David Zucker lampooning Michael Moore while taking on politics and patriotism--leaving agnostic conservatives in for a tough viewing decision.  Nick & Norah's Infinite
Playlist (2,421 screens), a "one crazy night" teen film, might see some overlap with How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (1,750 screens), as those in the twenty-something range debate whether they want to relive a bit of high school or look ahead to a loosely defined workplace/ambition comedy (I think Nick & Norah will win).  A.O. Scott called Nick & Norah "like Martin Scorsese's After Hours filtered through the high school sensibility of John Hughes, or Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise remade for Nickelodeon."  Conversely, How to Lose Friends is expected to have paltry returns and make it up on the DVD market.  Say no more.

Ambitious literary adaptation Blindness (1,690 screens), the rare film that combines the thrill of depicting a worldwide apocalypse with arthouse allegory (except, of course, that this description fits upcoming release The Road) has been slowed by disappointed critics that wish director Fernando Meirelles could have awed them as much as he did in City of God.  The film will have to count on forgiving audiences giving the thumbs up to their friends in order to do well at the box office.

Flash of Genius also looks to be a feel-good family picture in a little man vs. the auto industry fight over his invention of the intermittent windshield wiper--except it isn't, and will likely be a victim of the crowded weekend.  With a PG-13 rating, and reviews calling out the film for its slow pace, families will likely opt for Chihuahua, or one of the sneak previews of next week's PG-rated sports drama The Express.

Arthouse western Appaloosa expands to 1,045 screens this weekend, and another little film, Jonathan Demme's Rachel Getting Married, opens on nine screens.  Anne Hathaway gives the film a high profile, and it's a brilliant career move on her part to break out from her Disney-manicured image.  The film itself has a meandering view of the wedding, with an unusual amount of musical interludes coloring the white suburban house with a bit of bohemia.  The eccentricity is played out without question, but in one final dancing scene (featuring an approximation of belly and can-can dancers and West African beats) I couldn't help but think of how this scene would fit into another film altogether--say the horrified looks of the Wedding Crashers.

Along with these new releases, holdover Eagle Eye, only in its second week, will certainly stay in the top five, while Burn After Reading, four weeks into its run, will probably be bumped down a few places.