Forbes list of 'Most bang for your buck' actors doesn't really mean anything

By Sarah Sluis

I'm all about cute statistics, but Forbes' list of actors that deliver that most bang for their buck doesn't really say much. It uses the ratio (actor's salary: total gross of movie) to determine what stars deliver the most money for their performance. If only it were that simple. First, the low-hanging fruit: correlation does not imply causation.

Take the topper on that list, Shia LaBeouf. He was in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. A movie directed by Steven Spielberg starring Harrison Ford and one of the most famous franchises out there. Of course his salary was low compared to the movie's total gross! He wasn't the main draw in the movie. He wasn't paid that much because he didn't matter that much.

LaBeouf also starred in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Another news flash: no one cared about LaBeouf, they cared about seeing those toys turned into giant heroes and villains in the most confusing, terrible movie to make over $800 million (I'm still bitter about the two hours I lost because of that movie).

What would show the star power of an actor would be a performance in a star-driven vehicle, like a generic action movie or romantic comedy. You would have to exclude performances in huge franchises, control for the effect of having co-stars that were bigger than them, or a huge director. But it's kind of hard to find such movies.

Anne Hathaway, who placed second on the list, comes close to a "star power" movie with Bride Wars, a so-so flick that she starred in with Kate Hudson. The real reason that Hathway placed second, though, was because of a supporting role in Alice in Wonderland, where she played the White Queen. Actor Johnny Depp was a bigger draw, and her influence is somewhat lost in the 3D-driven spectacle adaptation directed by Tim Burton. She contributed to the movie's success, she didn't cause it.

The third-place finisher, Daniel Radcliffe, is also third mainly because he's cast in the behemoth franchise Harry Potter.

It's only when you go lower down the list that actor performances actually start to come into play. Although Iron Man 2 is a comic book franchise, Robert Downey Jr. helped sell tickets, as did his performance in Sherlock Holmes (another adaptation of a well-known property).

Whether an actor is a "value" depends on a lot more than salary and total gross of the movie. If anything, this list confirms that being part of a franchise or known property gives a greater probability for success than an original film. Yet another reason there are so few Inceptions out there and so many Transformer 2s. Also, a note to actors: if you want to game the system, land some supporting roles in really big films, and your fractional salary will boost your ratio and lead everyone to believe you're a great value.

'The Last Exorcism' claims first place, with 'Takers' not far behind

By Sarah Sluis

The belief that horror movies open big was proved yet again this weekend, with The Last Exorcism grabbing the top spot with $21.3 million. The audience was primarily female and over half Latino, which according to Box Office Mojo is the big market for these kinds of supernatural horror movies.

Takers had to settle for second by a margin of just $300,000, finishing at an estimated $21 million even. The contest is close enough that when the actual numbers come in, the first place winner could be reversed. Though the heist movie features virtually an all-male cast, the gender of

audiences was split almost 50/50. The hunk appeal of the stars may have made this an equal draw for both males and females, with a stylish presentation to boot.

The re-release of Avatar was expected to gross in the high single digit millions, but fell short of that, finishing with $4 million in twelfth place. However, since the movie is already out on home video, many die-hard fans probably already saw the film recently, and the idea of seeing an extra 8 1/2 minutes of footage maybe just wasn't that enticing. The re-release gave 20th Century Fox bragging rights, however: It pushed the movie over the $750 million mark domestically.

Elsewhere in the top ten, Twilight spoof Vampires Suck fell 56% to $5.3 million. The horror movie Piranha 3D plummeted 57% to $4.3 million, a fate that The Last Exorcism will probably endure next week. Lottery Ticket, also in its second week, fell from fourth right out of the top ten to eleventh with $4 million.

Titles with more staying power included Inception and The Other Guys, each of which dipped in the 35% range. Male-driven action movie The Expendables had a strong showing in its third weekend, dipping 44%. Eat Pray Love leveled its fall slightly, dropping 42% this week compared to 47% last week. Its reported budget was $60 million, and the film has now grossed just as much.

This Friday, George Clooney stars as an aging spy in The American, while Grindhouse-inspired Machete takes on the un-American illegal immigration policies through the guise of an exploitation movie. A bicoastal romance between Drew Barrymore and Justin Long, Going the Distance, rounds out the bunch.

'Takers' and 'The Last Exorcism' take on 'Avatar' re-release

By Sarah Sluis

Kids are starting to go back to school, the first cold chill has swept through New York City, and summer is drawing to a close. This week will be a light one at the box office, with a couple of fun, genre-y diversions sharing space with the re-release of Avatar.

A "Michael Mann-lite," stylish drama about a bank heist, Takers (2,206 theatres) features a cast including hip-hop stars Chris Brown and T.I., "The Wire"'s Idris Elba, and well-known actors Matt Dillon and Star Wars-cursed Hayden Christensen. Younger audiences may get the most out of the movie, which "is actually kind of cool, if you've never watched this kind of thing before," according to critic Frank Lovece, who himself was plagued by an ability to predict the plot twists well in advance.

The Last Exorcism (2,874 theatres) pairs up a charlatan priest with a real-life exorcism case, shot in a mockumentary style that "works

beautifully," according to critic Maitland McDonagh. Teen girls are expected to shriek through the PG-13 contortions of their peer, but "hardcore gore-hounds will be disappointed by the lack of flashy special effects," predicts McDonagh, since the movie "is more concerned with psychological chills."

Avatar will be re-released in 810 3D venues, including 125 IMAX theatres. The reboot is expected to provide a boon to exhibitors, with an expected gross in the high single millions. The second round in theatres will also help promote the movie's deluxe DVD and Blu-ray release in November. An extra 8 1/2 minutes of footage has been added to provide incentive for fans to see the movie yet again. Especially the kind of fans that tattoo Avatar characters on their back.

For specialty audiences, part one of the ominously titled Mesrine: Death Instinct will open in 28 theatres. The French gangster film is "snazzily shot" but "disappointingly superficial," according to critic Jon

Frosch. Forced incest takes center stage in the Mexican film Daniel & Ana (NYC), and lovers of B-movies will get a kick out of Gladiator-esque Centurion (9 theatres) from director Neil Marshall. Critic Ethan Alter dubbed him "one of the most reliable contemporary creators of kick-ass genre flicks," and I'll praise him for authoring the truly creepy cave horror movie The Descent.

On Monday, we'll see if there were any takers for Takers, if The Last Exorcism enticed spook-seeking audiences, and if Avatar's second coming resulted in crowded theatres filled with people anxious for a second glimpse.

Hipsters, Christians form new indie bases

By Sarah Sluis

Just last week I interviewed a filmmaker who lamented the decline in sources of funding for independent filmmaking. He counted himself as one of the lucky ones, and his "indie" documentary was in fact being distributed by a major studio. So if many independent movies have had to get "bigger" to survive, the other end of the market has had to get smaller to survive, a trend highlighted by two recent New York Times pieces. Besides the fact that they're serving micro-niches, these small indie distributors seem to be serving up movies for audiences just like themselves--be they hipsters or Christians.

A trend that's been covered lately is the use of alternative venues to show small indie films, often to a

hipster crowd intent on finding the undiscovered and unappreciated. As The New York Times reports, boutique theatres and bars that double as performance venues often exhibit the movies. The latter brings to mind the kind of places that book rising indie bands. In fact, as the article explains, many independent music companies are branching out into film, and applying the techniques they honed for musical acts to movies. Their extremely small scale allows for the promotion of movies with infinitesimal audiences: the article mentions the company Factory 25, which has just one employee and needs so sell 400 DVD-LP combinations to break even, out of runs of 1,000.

The "boutique" concept has already been identified and scaled-up by theatre chains, which have added in-theatre dining and other amenities like reserved seating or lounges to create a luxury cinema experience, but part of the appeal in the indie setting is not only the unique venue but seeing a unique, underground film, shared with just a handful of people in an almost bootleg environment. I'm not sure how much this trend can grow, but it presents new ways for audiences to catch movies, and perhaps a technique that larger independent movies can exploit to gain audiences and positive word-of-mouth.

Besides the hipster movie crowd, religious audiences that may have had only straight-to-DVD offerings are also showing up in theatres. The faith-based audience seems to make itself known in waves, occasionally propelling a film like The Passion of the Christ to the top ten, making Fireproof the top independent movie in 2008, and turning the faith-friendly The Blind Side into a $250 million Oscar-nominated juggernaut. The latest movie to appeal to the faith-based audience, What If.., is another made-by-us-for-us movie that debuted to a $2,000 per-screen average on 23 screens this past weekend. The New York Times profiled the director, Dallas Jenkins, as well as the group financing the picture--a large church outside of Chicago. While it doesn't seem as if What If... will be joining the line of religious-themed success stories because of its smallish box-office debut, it's interesting to see these two very different market demographics both reaching their audiences through the specialty film market.

'Nanny,' 'Pirahna,' 'Lottery Ticket' and 'Vampires' crowd the box office

By Sarah Sluis

Emma Thompson's "snaggle-toothed, uni-browed, wart-ridden" version of Mary Poppins makes a second appearance in Nanny McPhee Returns (2,783 theatres). Our critic David Noh was unimpressed with the

movie's jokes about farm animal excrement and "unending, chaotic chase scenes," which leave the audience with a "noisome and numbing" effect. As the only new offering for kid audiences, the movie may open well, but it's unlikely to approach the must-see status that drew such large audiences to the animated crowd-pleasers of the summer.

Expanding into the largest amount of locations this weekend, Vampires Suck (3,233 theatres)

opened on Wednesday to $4 million, a surprisingly high number for a movie that, judging by the number of the times its name and release date were changed, didn't inspired much confidence among the folks at 20th Century Fox. However, making fun of Twilight and the glitter content of vampire heartthrob Edward's body has become a favorite topic for young males, so this spoof may prove popular among that set. It comes from the creators of genre parodies Date Movie, Epic Movie, Disaster Movie and its ilk, so viewers will be in store for some stupid fun that, just maybe, offers them a few laughs, especially if you still have a -teen suffix at the end of your age.

Lottery Ticket (1,973 theatres) is expected to draw in largely black audiences to the tale of a boy from the projects who wins the jackpot right before the

long Fourth of July weekend, leading everyone from his grandma to a rogue preacher to try to snag the ticket from him. First-time director Erik White is "unable to blend broad comedy with the uncomfortable ghetto realities," according to THR critic Kirk Honeycutt, leading to a stereotypical presentation of life for poor blacks. Its first weekend will be the test, since black-oriented comedies, including Tyler Perry's, tend to open big and fade quickly.

Oh, look! It's Jennifer Aniston in another romantic comedy, The Switch (2,012 theatres). In this one, she stars opposite Jason Bateman as a

woman who decides to become a mother with the help of a sperm donor of her choosing, except Bateman replaces his sperm and becomes the father of the kid. It's pretty average, and apparently isn't tracking well. This movie will have to contend with Eat Pray Love, as the two will be battling for some of the same audiences.

A remake of a lowest-common-denominator horror film and Jaws spoof, Piranha 3D (2,470 theatres) adds another dimension to the equation, releasing almost exclusively in 3D (2,220 out of 2,470 theatres in 3D). With just a limited amount of critics seeing the movie, it's currently tracking at 88% on Rotten Tomatoes--what?? As long as you're evaluating it as a low-brow, cheesy exploitation horror movie, it's a "pitch-perfect, guilty-pleasure serving of late-summer schlock that handily nails the tongue-in-cheek spirit of the Roger Corman original," according to THR critic Michael Rechtshaffen.

Releasing with an R rating, despite the filmmakers' protestations, the documentary The Tillman Story (NY/LA; 4 theatres) tells the story of NFL player-turned-Army Ranger Pat Tillman who died in Afghanistan in what was spun as an act of heroism but was later determined to be a friendly fire incident. Talented director Amir Bar-Lev (My Kid Could Paint That) elicits both heartbreak and outrage with his story. For something lighter, there's the story of a restaurant owner (Adam Bousdoukos) with a struggling business, Soul Kitchen (NY; 2 theatres). Despite an "awful run of bad luck," the owner's "constantly changing fortunes are the good-natured joke in this disarmingly loose and energetic comedy," according to critic Kevin Lally. Based on a true story of a Chinese ballet dancer who goes to Texas as part of an exchange program, only to abandon his homeland for America, Mao's Last Dancer (29 theatres) is a "conventionally told biopic," according to Lally, that "follows a pretty basic path of contrasting Western freedom with the rigid totalitarianism of Li's [Cunxin, the dancer] upbringing." The ballet sequences and true story help make this movie a crowd-pleaser, according to Lally.

On Monday, we'll see where each of these new releases fell in the top ten, and if returning releases The Expendables and Eat Pray Love continue to hold on to their sizeable audiences. The summer movie season is coming to an end, and this may be the last week any film has even a chance of breaking $100 million. Then we'll be on to the September slump. Though many of next month's films aren't expected to be huge winners at the box office, there should be some entertaining ones in the bunch.

Spotlight: J.J. Abrams, the guy who can make 'nerd' films everyone sees

By Sarah Sluis

Last weekend the Comic-Con darling Scott Pilgrim vs. the World opened to a disappointing $10 million. The cult movie Kick-Ass also opened soft, to $19.8 million, though I can vouch for both films: they deserved more. This has led to writers sounding the alarm about so-called nerd films that fail to cross over to the rest of the marketplace.

Which made me think of someone who has managed to inspire both cult followings and crossover audiences with his work: J.J. Abrams. "Lost" drew in diehard fans as well as mainstream audiences (although some of the less devoted, such as myself, dropped out before the final season). Last year, he managed to attract wide audiences for that apex of nerdom, Star Trek. Never did I think I would go to a Star Trek movie and not think of all the Trekkie nerds I knew in school, but he did a great job making the story accessible and somehow appealing to the kind of people who wouldn't be caught dead at a sci-fi convention, or who had never even seen a single episode.

What stronger sign that someone has "made it" than when Steven Spielberg collaborates with you? The two are working on a sci-fi/aliens/teen-oriented project called Super 8, which is coming out next summer. Both directors have a populist sensibility that also works well with critics, and I bet they'll be able to come up with something incredible together. Let's not forget that both Jaws (Spielberg) and Cloverfield (Abrams, producer) were both the types of action/horror movies that usually receive a much more low-brow treatment.

This week, Abrams announced that he's also working on the nostalgically inspired 7 Minutes in Heaven, which will focus on two teens who disappear in a closet for their seven minutes in kissing heaven, only to return to find their friends dead. It's a clever pairing that juxtaposes the innocence of youth with murder--isn't that what all teen slasher movies are about? Of course, there could be other forces at work, but a slasher is the first that comes to mind, unless Abrams wants to go The Happening route and create toxic trees.

On a lighter note, Abrams appears to have a thing for numbers, and it's only a matter of time before he can count to ten with his films: There's Super 8, 7 Minutes in Heaven, Mission Impossible III and the planned MI:IV, Star Trek the first and the upcoming Star Trek sequel. Now he just needs to make a film with a five or six.

What is Joaquin Phoenix doing in 'I'm Still Here'?

By Sarah Sluis

Perhaps you remember about a year ago Joaquin Phoenix announced he was quitting acting.  Soon after, news surfaced that Phoenix was going to film a documentary (or was it a mockumentary?) about his experience leaving the movies and becoming a rapper.  His celebrity friend Casey Affleck would direct.

Now, the trailer is out, giving audiences a first look at the movie, I'm Still Here.

The film is a rather baffling project, especially for a two-time Oscar nominee, and apparently film buyers were unsure about whether the movie was a mockumentary or documentary.  Nevertheless, it was picked up by Magnolia, and will release in less than a month, as a special presentation at the Toronto Film Festival.  I'm not placing much money on it doing well: it has a confusing premise that could likely backfire, and Phoenix is not a public figure that graces the tabloids regularly, which means there is limited interest in his personal life.

What's odd and sad, however, is that his decision to give up acting and pursue music seems like some kind of tribute to his brother.  According to that crowd-sourced encyclopedia Wikipedia, his brother River Phoenix was in the process of developing a career as a musician when he died of a drug overdose outside of a club.  Joaquin was the one who called 911 and tried to save him.  Joaquin Phoenix has had an interesting life in his own right, enough to create a biographical documentary, not a mock one: his family grew up in the cult Children of God before rejecting it and changing their last name from "Bottom" to "Phoenix." He has struggled with fame before, quitting acting for a year after his brother died, and also gone to rehab for alcohol addiction.  Despite the solemn, existential voiceover at the beginning of the trailer, the movie apparently is a hard R, including graphic sex and gross-out moments.  That seems like some hiding from the truths of his life rather than searching for discovery.  Then there's the fact that the production is currently the target of a lawsuit by someone alleging sexual harassment from Affleck.

Despite my reticence to see the movie because I suspect it will be narcissistic and navel-gazing (and, apparently, gross), there's something intriguing about someone who is drawing a thin line between reality and fiction.  Nowadays reality shows have become more scripted, leaving audiences to wonder--was that set up, or was that for real?  Phoenix, though he may loathe to say it, seems to following in the path of those MTV series "Laguna Beach," "The City," and "The Hills," which purported to follow the lives of the cast members but were in fact scripted to an inscrutable degree.  In such a case, the fictional world spills over into the real world. Just as Phoenix acted oddly on "David Letterman," perhaps while in character, the storyline in the MTV shows was extended to the tabloids, which followed the fictional relationships created on television--and to further blur the line, some of them actually existed.

I'm Still Here may hit theatres and generate lots of publicity, or it may quietly fade like so many other specialty releases. But it reflects an impulse in our society to experience "reality," even if that reality is scripted.