First look at 'The Hunger Games' a whole lotta nothing

By Sarah Sluis

When it was announced that MTV's Video Music Awards would feature a clip of The Hunger Games, I expected to see something meaty. Instead, we got a minute-long clip of the film's heroine Katniss running through the forest. There's some fire. She runs. She shoots something with her bow and arrow. That's it. Entertainment Weekly's photo preview of The Hunger Games was better, because at least it revealed some set design along with boring costuming. I'm not surprised that Lionsgate chose to save the best, most sci-fi elements for later on, but I am disappointed. Here are the top five things about The Hunger Games I'm most excited to see translated on film.

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1. The Capitol. This is where the sci-fi set design will really get to be shown off. Everything will be gleaming, modern, and totally foreign to Katniss. I hope they don't cut the scene of her being totally flummoxed by the Capitol's weird, elaborate showers. Anyone who's traveled can relate to being unable to figure out how to work odd showers.

2. The Avox. These are rebels who were captured and punished by the Capitol. Their tongues are cut out and they must must work as slaves. Although they don't look that different from regular people, they're one of the many things in the Capitol that takes Katniss by surprise.

3. Katniss' makeover. Everyone loves a good makeover film. Katniss' makeover once she reaches the Capitol promises to be The Princess Diaries on steroids. Not only does she receive a complete bodily transformation, she's also done out to the nines by her dressmaker, which leads me to...

4. The makeover team, Cinna and his dresses. All the people in the Capitol are incredibly superficial and go through extreme body modification as a form of fashion. We're talking crazy hair colors and the plastic surgery of the future. Katniss' makeover team includes Cinna, her stylist and dress designer. He looks a little out there himself, but he's also secretly rooting for Katniss. After dubbing her the "girl on fire," he outfits her in a dress that makes the people in the Capitol finally take note of those in the twelfth district, a grubby, poor area known for its coal.

5. The creatures. In the film's extreme survival games, the Gamemakers don't just throw twenty-four kids into a fake environment and let them fight to the death. They help them along, using frightening creatures to attack and kill unlucky tributes. They also use them to tweak the odds, helping out some and hurting others. In the first film, the creatures include killer wasps called "tracker jackers," mutant wolves that have the faces of the killed tributes, and the benevolent mockingjay, which can imitate human tunes.

I'm sure part of the reason Lionsgate hasn't shown these clips is because they require extensive CG work, but that didn't stop Super 8 from releasing an effects-laden teaser trailer last year. Hunger Games fans will have to be patient until next March, when they get to see the whole film beginning to end.

All-you-can-watch MoviePass relaunches with new partner, support of theatres

By Sarah Sluis

Back in June, the upstart company MoviePass announced that it was selling all-you-can-watch passes to movie theatres for $50/month. The plan quickly soured when theatre chains balked at letting consumers redeem their passes. Turns out they hadn't been consulted, and weren't so into giving discounts they hadn't approved of. Now MoviePass is back with a new partner. Hollywood Movie Money, a company offering movie passes, has longstanding relations with exhibitors and studios, which appears to have helped smooth things over. But now a bigger question has emerged. Will people subscribe to MoviePass? And how will the company make money?

From a customer perspective, MoviePass is a mixed bag. With the average movie ticket price across the country around $9, you would have to see six movies each month in order to make back your investment. Certainly there are many people who go to the movies once a week, but twice a week? During summer movie season or the winter holidays, it might be worth it to subscribe for a month and see all the good movies that have piled up, but the rest of the year? Nah. To account for the seasonality of good movies, it appears that MoviePass is thinking about offering discounts when you sign up for multiple months. In this customer survey, they ask if people would commit to a year for $29.99 a month or $39.99 for six months.

An oft-quoted adage about the movie business is that they get 80% of their revenue from 20% of the customers. Will MoviePass end up capping the amount of money frequent moviegoers spend to $50/month? Or will it move more twice-a-month moviegoers up to the $50/month range, increasing the amount of high spenders? It's tough to tell.

Then there's the issue of redeeming the passes. During the launch, apparently some movie theatres rejected the passes people had paid for. Consumers hate redeeming coupons as it is, so if theatres make the process hard for subscribers, that will definitely turn off viewers. In MoviePass' favor is the popularity of sites such as Groupon that have made coupons more socially acceptable. Plus, if people have smartphones they can simply flash the screen to the theatre instead of printing out vouchers.

MoviePass' business model is currently a bit muddy. Some articles have suggested that the business will make money by having customers who watch fewer movies than they paid for. If that's true, I think MoviePass is destined for extinction. Netflix, which also offers an all-you-can-watch model, is all about giving recommendations to its members so they watch more moves, get their money's worth, and don't cancel. However, Wired reveals that MoviePass intends to use its customers as a marketing base. They will try to sell DVDs, merchandise, and other movie-related goodies to their customers. They also plan to have promotional screenings for their viewers and give them customized recommendations based on their movie-watching habits. This could add revenue to the company's base. Ultimately, I don't see how MoviePass will survive unless they cut a deal with studios to get specially-priced tickets. But before they do that, they will have to build a big enough customer base to get Hollywood to pay attention.

Hurricane Irene pummels weekend box office

By Sarah Sluis

Hurricane Irene caused millions of dollars of damage. With an estimated 1,000 theatres closed because of the storm, this weekend's box office was no exception. Receipts were down 20-25% from 2010, meaning some $25 million was lost due to decreased attendance. Even in areas where theatres were open, many chose to hunker down for the whole weekend.

The Help held on to its first-place spot by dipping just 28% to $14.3 million. Strong support from areas outside the East Coast, like the South, Los Angeles, and Chicago, kept the movie from dropping significantly. The drama should cross the $100 million mark sometime this week.

Colombiana landed on top of the new releases with a seven-digit debut of $10.3 million. The revenge-action pic, starring Zoe Saldana, drew audiences from all four demographic quadrants. Women comprised 57% of the audience, and 65% of viewers were over the age of 25.

While horror movies normally open big, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark had a more modest debut, racking up $8.6 million. In fact, only two supernatural horror movies have opened lower in the past three years. FilmDistrict had a surprise hit earlier this year with horror movie Insidious, so perhaps the spry distributor can quickly help the film back on its feet.

New York City-set comedy Our Idiot Brother, which finished with $6.5 million, was especially hard-hit by Irene. The movie tested best among East Coast viewers, who couldn't turn out due to the weather. The movie's highest-grossing location, Manhattan's Union Square theatre, was closed Sunday due to the hurricane. Next week it will be hard work to pick up the mess and try to recoup the adult audience.

Vera Farmiga's religious drama Higher Ground released in three theatres, including two in Manhattan, for a per-screen average of $7,000. Studio execs estimated the pic would have averaged $15,000 per screen in better weather.

This Wednesday, The Debt will hit theatres. On Friday, the box office will kick off the long Labor Day weekend with sci-fi thriller Apollo 18 and the sharks-eat-teens flick Shark Night 3D.

'Colombiana,' 'Idiot Brother' and 'Don't Be Afraid of the Dark' head off against 'Help'

By Sarah Sluis

The last weeks of the summer box office are normally dampened by kids going back to school and people trying to squeeze in some time for a final beach trip or barbecue. This weekend, the East Coast box office will be hampered by Hurricane Irene, which has put citizens from North Carolina to New York City on alert and unlikely to be thinking about catching the latest summer movie. Even for those areas without a hurricane to worry about, the trio of new releases is unlikely to unseat The Help from its first-place spot.

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (2,760 theatres) should grab a number in the low teen millions thanks to horror fans who prefer to see their movies opening weekend. Unlike a lot of other scary fare, the R-rated picture has little gore. This could either bring in a wider audience or alienate hard-core horror fans who like to see blood spilled along with their scares. Although the movie hews to haunted house film conventions, I wrote in my review that it will "partially satisfy those in need of simple, old-fashioned chills."

The charming Our Idiot Brother (2,555 theatres) tells the story of a "homeless hippie who disrupts the more conventional lives of his three New York City sisters," as described by critic Kevin Lally." The "first-rate cast" wields remarkable comic abilities, making Idiot Brother a "comedy of modest, genial pleasures." Like Don't Be Afraid, this comedy could open somewhere above the $10 million range. However, the New York audience is definitely a sweet spot for this comedy, which is set in the city, so the hurricane could easily blow these projections off course.

Some like revenge served cold. Others like to see their victims "shot, knifed, garroted, run over, blown up and eaten alive," which is what critic Daniel Eagan says happens to a number of supporting actors in Colombiana (2,614 theatres). Zoe Saldana stars as a contract killer out for revenge on those who murdered her parents. Eagan calls her the fantastic action star, a would-be "perfect Catwoman," who is "lithe, graceful, and eager to get dirty." While nothing here feels "remotely original," there's more than enough to satisfy genre fans.

On the specialty front, Midnight in Paris will triple the amount of locations in release for a total of 652 theatres. The Woody Allen movie has already earned $50 million, making it the indie hit of the summer. Vera Farmiga directs and stars in Higher Ground (3 theatres), which is based on a woman's memoir about her religious journey. Unlike a lot of religious movies, the subject is handled with "real intelligence and objectivity," according to David Noh. Brighton Rock (11 theatres), the adaptation of a Graham Greene novel, suffers from "wrongheaded bloat."

On Monday, we'll see what damage Irene did to the box office, and if The Help was able to maintain its spot at number one.

More details emerge about 'Cloud Atlas'

By Sarah Sluis

When I first wrote about Cloud Atlas in April, the project seemed so ambitious, I wasn't sure it could be pulled off. After all, the book the movie is based on follows six seemingly unrelated people across centuries, with each story written using different genre conventions (journal, hard-boiled thriller, sci-fi dystopia). However, the movie, which has a budget rumored to be up to $100 million, will start filming this September in Germany. The project is a collaboration between The Wachowskis (Matrix trilogy) and Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run). The directors plan to divide up the sequences and shoot them in parallel. Having two directors is extremely rare, and even then they tend to be sibling teams. To pair up a sibling team with a third party may be the rarest breed of them all. I'm sure the Directors Guild freaked out a bit figuring out how the credits would work. I also think that having three directors on a project is a rare show of humility. Cloud Atlas takes place over centuries, and the idea of tackling both period sequences and futuristic ones is daunting. The Hollywood Reporter suggested that Tykwerwould shoot the period sequences while the Wachowskis would take charge of the futuristic ones.

Since the casting of Tom Hanks as one of the leads, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Susan Sarandon, Ben Whishaw and Jim Broadbent have joined the cast. I suspect that each of these six actors will be the lead in their story's respective era, since four of the leads are male and two are female. The cast is stellar to be sure, but only three out of these six actors have cachet among mainstream global audiences. (Berry, Sarandon, Hanks). I also don't think Hanks, who was the first to sign on, counts as A-List the same way Leonardo Di Caprio did in Inception. He's not a young dramatic star anymore, and his showing in Larry Crowne this summer really drove that home. Warner Bros., which handled Inception, will release the film stateside here. I definitely think the two movies will be compared with each other, because they both combine disparate surroundings into the same film. Cloud Atlas is planned for a summer 2012 release, and it could be the cerebral popcorn movie that draws in action lovers as well as those who like substance paired with their chase scenes.

Miramax starts streaming movies on Facebook in U.S., U.K., and Turkey

By Sarah Sluis

Facebook is the latest distribution outlet for movie studios. Earlier this year, Warner Bros. added Inception and Harry Potter to Facebook, and The Big Lebowski recently joined the Facebook fray, timed to the movie's Blu-ray release. Unlike when you rent a movie, Facebook allows for a social component. People can share comments while they watch a film, and users can post movie clips to their wall. It sounds like Facebook is trying to turn movie-watching into "Pop-Up Video."

Now Miramax is entering the game, announcing that Good Will Hunting, Spy Kids, Chicago, Cold Mountain, and No Country for Old Men will be available to rent on Facebook. Viewers now have the choice between iTunes, Amazon, Netflix, Redbox, and Hulu for a number of titles. I used to think that one provider would dominate the others, but now I think that there may be room for a number of streaming providers. Facebook streaming offers a unique experience, but it's also not for everyone. Cult movies like The Big Lebowski seem tailor-made for the site, since they're all about repeating catchphrases with friends. But if you're in the mood for a movie, Facebook has no directory page that allows you to browse through titles and make a decision. Since there are so few movies on Facebook right now, a library may only reveal the site's paltry collection, but it will be a grave error if Facebook doesn't add such a page if it's really serious about getting into the movie rental game.

The other reason multiple sites will proliferate for movie rentals has to do with consumer habits. Not everyone is interested in the next big thing, so they won't be willing to watch a movie on Facebook. Some people prefer to rent, but balk at 48-hour windows in which they must see a film. Others would rent if the movie file expired in 30 days, like some sites offer. I recently joined the music streaming service Spotify, and was interested to see that Spotify and iTunes had significantly different artists and songs in their top ten. In fact, only three songs were in the top ten on both Spotify and iTunes. Clearly, people with different demographics and different tastes are using the service. Additionally, iTunes charts purchases while Spotify tracks listens. This is pretty similar to movie rental vs. movie purchase. Some songs you like to listen to, others you're willing to buy. As each of the movie streaming sites develop, they may end up succeeding not because of their mass appeal, but because they offer content that appeals to those who like it unlimited, pay-per-use, or with a strong social component.

Hear executive editor Kevin Lally talk summer movies on WNYC

By Sarah Sluis

Today on the Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC, executive editor Kevin Lally dissected this summer's pleasant surprises, the movies that disappointed, and indie films to add to your must-see list. With fellow guest Richard Corliss of Time Magazine, the two cover everything from the fate of 3D, this year's superhero movies, and the proliferation of prequels, origin tales, and remakes.

Listen to the broadcast here:

 

 

 

'The Help' steps up to first place

By Sarah Sluis

In a late summer coup, The Help rose a spot to first place in its second week, taking home $20.4 million. The Civil Rights era drama with a touch of comedy lost just 21.4% of its audience. Earlier this summer, Bridesmaids managed the same feat, dipping just 20.4% its second outing. Other female-driven summer releases of years past, like Julie & Julia and Eat Pray Love, fell 35-50% their sophomore sessions, proving that a strong hold takes not only a female-driven audience but extraordinarily positive word-of-mouth. Though the end of the summer is approaching, The Help should continue to make waves at the box office. While New York and Los Angeles typically have the highest-grossing theatres in the nation, The Help has drawn support from theatres in Jackson, Mississippi, where the film is set, and Southern audiences in Memphis, Tennessee.

The four new releases this week couldn't summon audiences. The highest-grossing of the bunch, Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D, finished third with $12 million. As kids go back to school, Spy Kids won't be able to count on the high weekday grosses that made earlier youth-targeted pics so profitable. With poor reviews and box-office performance, this may be the end of the Spy Kids franchise.

Conan the Barbarian, considered one of the frontrunners, landed fourth with $10 million. Audiences over 25 were the main attendees of the movie, when really a younger audience would have sparked to the content. A lack of awareness of the first film probably turned off younger audiences, as well as the casting of Jason Momoa, a relative unknown.

Ending up a disappointing sixth, Fright Night debuted to just $7.9 million. Again, the majority of the audience was comprised of viewers over 25 who may have been aware of the first film, which came out in the 1980s. Critics liked the movie, but attendees weren't as excited. Those polled gave it a B- score overall.

The romantic, occasionally a wee melodramatic One Day failed to lure away female audiences from The Help. The Anne Hathaway-Jim Sturgess romance earned $5.1 million, though its sub-2,000 screens meant its $2,900 per-screen average was higher than films further up in the top ten.

On the specialty circuit, historical war film Amigo earned $4,000 per screen on ten screens. Mozart's Sister, which had charming reviews, averaged $4,700 per screen on seven screens.

This Friday, horror flick Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, actioner Colombiana and comedy Our Idiot Brother will provide a mix of genre and adult-skewing fare to audiences in search of some air-conditioned entertainment.

Can 'The Help' stave off a quartet of wide releases?

By Sarah Sluis

As we enter the last weeks of summer, the biggest blockbusters have already made their appearances. This week brings a quartet of new releases, but with all of them expected to open under $20 million, there's a chance that a strong showing from The Help could best all the new offerings.

1980s remakes Fright Night (3,114 theatres) and Conan the Barbarian (3,015 theatres) both have projected openings in the teen millions. Fright Night stars Colin Farrell as a vampire who moves to the suburbs, prompting the suspicions of a teen boy (Anton Yelchin). The horror rehash found a fan with critic Maitland McDonagh, who proclaimed the flick a "remake that retains the best and reworks the rest with a cleverness rooted in [screenwriter] Marti Noxon's (TV's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") knowledge of and respect for the genre."

Conan the Barbarian stars Jason Momoa ("Game of Thrones") in the role made famous by Arnold Schwarzenegger. McDonagh bemoans that the filmmakers "understand the mechanics of pulp fiction while being collectively deaf to the throbbing of its thrillingly vulgar heart." The one bright spot is Momoa's performance, which puts Schwarzenegger's "locker-room camp" acting to shame.

On one day in July each year, One Day (1,719 theatres) offers a snapshot of the (un-)relationship of the characters played by Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess. Critic Daniel Eagan qualified the movie as a "gimmicky romance with a strong emotional payoff." Although the decades-long romance has its flaws, namely Sturgess' character's unlikeable qualities, it "presents its characters' struggles with enough honesty and insight to merit its weepy ending." With a smaller, targeted release, One Day is expected to open below $10 million.

One last kid-oriented picture is slipping into the summer lineup, Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (3,295 theatres). The British reviews (where it's already screened for critics) don't think highly of the movie. Now that the franchise is in its fourth installment, it's resorted to gimmickry. The kiddie caper will be presented in "4D," with audience members using 3D glasses and scratch-and-sniff cards to modify the moviegoing experience. Sounds like fun for kids, but a trial for parents.

Packed with "elegant dialogue and formidable human observation," Mozart's Sister (7 theatres) tells the story on Nannerl, a talented musician who was overshadowed by her brother Wolfgang solely because she was female. David Noh praises the performances and the movie's recreation of a period setting, which makes "you truly feel you are there." A rarely explored cinematic subject, the U.S. invasion of the Philippines, gets its due in Amigo (11 theatres), a tale with "parallels with Afghanistan and Iraq today," according to THR's Ray Bennett.

On Monday, we'll see if The Help can ascend to first place its second week, or if Fright Night or Conan the Barbarian will be able to summon enough interest in order to start out in the top spot.

Patti Smith's writing a screenplay of 'Just Kids'

By Sarah Sluis

I'll be the first to admit that Patti Smith was before my time. But I wouldn't hesitate to see an adaptation of her book Just Kids. Smith, the "godmother of punk" whose memoir won the 2011 National Book Award, plans to co-write the screenplay with John Logan. Logan, an Oscar nominee, has experience both in adaptations (Hugo, The Time Machine, Sweeney Todd) and in biopics (The Aviator, upcoming Lincoln). Though a number of high-profile producers wanted to acquire rights to the picture, Smith wants to develop the screenplay solo, presumably to keep creative control.

Just Kids was popular not only because it told the story of Smith's life, but also for her descriptions of New York City in the late 60s, when she moved there. Smith encounters a variety of luminaries in the book. Amazon mentions that while residing at the legendary Chelsea Hotel, she befriended William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Johnny Winter--quite the bunch. Another excerpt from the book (page 213) describes her then-boyfriend Robert Mapplethorpe as moving to 24 Bond St, a "cobblestone side street" where "John Lennon and Yoko Ono had a place across the way." Smith appears to have known all the creative movers and shakers at the time.

While Smith's book can capture the feeling of a historic New York City and its menagerie of celebrities just fine, those will pose two of the greatest challenges in the adaptation. Casting will be incredibly difficult, since the filmmakers will have to find so many actors who can imitate specific celebrities. Making period films is something Hollywood has down pat, but where do you even find a gritty place in New York anymore? Also, the book's focus on Smith's relationship with the soon-to-be-controversial photographer Mapplethorpe, her lover turned gay friend, could limit the movie's mainstream potential. Perhaps that's why Smith wants to maintain creative control.

'The Help' director may helm adaptation of 'Peace Like a River'

By Sarah Sluis

Director Tate Taylor delivered a polished adaptation with The Help, which has a surprisingly well-calibrated tone and has gotten off to good start at the box office. Now that he has one success under his belt, he's pursuing a number of other projects, with Peace Like a River among them. Ostensibly a young adult novel, I remember the book for its ethereal prose and its exploration of religious faith. I'm a little surprised that an adaptation is in the works, but this book, properly adapted, could be a hit.

Religion. From The Blind Side to Higher Ground, faith has become a more prominent force in movies recently, in part because the support of faith-based audiences can draw in lots of additional viewers.

What The Help does for the South, Peace Like a River does for the heartland. With most in the entertainment industry flitting between LA and NYC, a disproportionate amount of movies ignore the flyover zone. It's a novelty when the latest rom-com chooses a city other than NYC or LA as its locale. Peace Like a River is firmly Midwestern, from its characters to its scenes of hunting, cooking game, and religious life.

Potential to create high-quality mainstream fare. The Help was a summer movie, but it's also exceptionally well crafted, and might even snag an Oscar nomination (I think Viola Davis is a frontrunner). Peace Like a River is even more serious and poetic. The book is narrated by a "miracle" boy who is brought back from death at birth by his father's prayer. When his older brother kills someone (under ambiguous circumstances) and goes into hiding, the father packs up his family and goes in pursuit of his son. Both father and son are being hunted by the FBI. The family's time on the run is more Night of the Hunter or even Badlands and less The Fugitive. At least, that's the way it is in the book. I'd love to see Taylor recognize that the book is better suited for an emotional, arty adaptation than a fast-paced chase movie.

Brad Pitt's Plan B Productions has had rights to the book for years. David Brown and Kit Golden (who produced Angela's Ashes and Chocolat together) are also producing. IMDB lists Kathy McWorter (The War) as the writer of the screenplay. Most importantly, the movie already has a home: Warner Bros.

IFC blog creates movie etiquette manifesto

By Sarah Sluis

At some point a few years ago, people in movie theatres finally remembered to silence their phones before the show. Hearing a phone ring during a movie became a thing of the past. But that auditory assault has been replaced with something far more nefarious. Light pollution. Most people keep their phones on vibrate nowadays because they're checking their phones every hour anyways, and using their phones more for texts and emails. That means I now see people whipping out their smart phones and fiddling with them nearly every time I watch a movie. Can't it wait, people? I actually remember seeing the guide to my friend's new cell phone in 2003 or so, back when texting was a new thing, and it had a whole section on how to text in movie theatres. I blame the attitude behind that guide, in part, for unleashing the Pandora's Box of texting and emailing during movies.

Turns out I'm not the only one who can't stand the disrespectfulness of other people during movies. An IFC blogger created a movie etiquette manifesto with a link to an online petition. Turning off cell phones comes in at #2. Some of his other complaints including babies at R-rated movies, smelly outside food, and talkers. He also has some pretty specific rules for space buffing. Don't sit in front of or next to a stranger at a less-than-full show, and don't pretend to save seats for people at a fuller show. With stadium seating the standard nowadays, I haven't had a problem with people sitting in front of me for a long time. That's one thing I can cross off my list of annoyances.

With the creation of the petition, the blogger seems to be going for a viral distribution in the style of the Alamo Drafthouse texter, but that YouTube video will be hard to beat. What I would like to see would be a guerilla video of a confrontation between an old lady smoking an e-cigarette (which lights up with each puff) and the commenter Geraldo V, who pointed out that she was also kicking her legs back on the seat in front of her and talking on her cell phone. I haven't heard of light pollution from an e-cigarette before, but with cigarette smoking on the decline, I have hope that this won't turn into the next movie theatre annoyance.

'Apes' summons more moviegoers than 'The Help'

By Sarah Sluis

By keeping its second-weekend fall to just under 50%, Rise of the Planet of the Apes retained its number-one spot and added another $27.5 million to its total. The movie's visual effects played a large part in attracting audiences. Now that this reboot is a success, maybe one of the four sequels the original 1968 film spawned will end up in the works.

The Help put in a strong performance, just barely missing the first-place spot with a $25 million total. Females over 25 comprised the majority of viewers, though the movie played well across all audience segments. The drama, which opened on Wednesday, has performed steadily, with a five-day total of $35 million. The movie's release has been accompanied by some thoughtful, biting commentary. Tulane professor Melissa Harris-Perry dismissed the movie as "The Real Housewives of Jackson, Mississippi," an apt description that explains both why the movie is entertaining and not the best place to look for straight history.

Final Destination 5 finished under expectations with $18.7 million and the lowest attendance of any film in the horror franchise. The last movie, The Final Destination, was billed as the last, so it's possible some of the hard-core fans felt cheated by the franchise's refusal to die when planned.

30 Minutes or Less debuted fifth to a disappointing $13 million. Of the many R-rated comedies that have come out this summer, this one seemed to have the most limited appeal, with teen boys (including ones too young to buy tickets) in the comedy's sweet spot. Indeed, 69% of the audience was under the age of 25 and 53% was male.

Glee: The 3D Concert Movie became a miss in the hit-or-miss live concert category. Despite higher ticket prices for the 3D movie, the concert film grossed just $5.7 million. Perhaps viewers didn't see the value of a movie. The actual "Glee" concerts provided viewers a rare opportunity to see the cast members in real life, but the concert movie was essentially an expensive rerun of the television show.

This Friday, the summer box office will still be in full swing. Spooky remake Fright Night will open opposite action epic Conan the Barbarian, the romantic One Day, and Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, which will have just a week or so to capture young audiences before they go back to school.

Will 'The Help's' head start help it beat out '30 Minutes or Less,' 'Glee,' and 'Apes'?

By Sarah Sluis

The most view-worthy offering this week is The Help (2,534 theatres), which opened on Wednesday to $5.5 million. Based on a popular novel, The Help explores the relationships between Southern white women and their black help in the 1960s, but in a friendly, sanitized kind of way.. Slate's Dana Stevens called the movie "a Barbie Band-Aid on the still-raw wound of race relations in America," and "a feel-good movie that feels kind of icky." While in some ways the movie makes light of the country's struggles during the Civil Rights movement, it's also "classy, feel-good...eye-opening and sometimes deliciously satiric entertainment," according to critic Doris Toumarkine, who accurately pegs the period film as a "sunny drama." While a debut in the $20 millions is expected, I think this movie could be a wild card and overperform.

An entire movie composed of freak accidents (do not, repeat DO NOT fall off the acupuncture table while your entire body is pricked with needles), Final Destination 5 (3,155 theatres) gives its fans what they came for, according to critic Maitland McDonagh, who found the horror flick "technically slick, briskly paced and painless to watch, assuming you're not the sort to squirm miserably at the sight of anatomical mayhem." The previous installment opened in the mid-$20 millions, which the fifth movie is also on target to meet. It won't be long before young people start dying in Final Destination 6.

Glee: The 3D Concert Movie (2,040 theatres) offers a front-row seat into a concert many Gleeks probably couldn't afford. David Noh caught the performers' infectious spirit, enjoying the cast's songs which were "cannily chosen, terrifically arranged and...possess a sparkle which hardly needs the added, needless fillip of 3D." Some are estimating the movie will just earn a number in the high single digits, but the concert movie could easily exceed expectations if prognosticators misestimated the number of hard-core Gleeks.

A pizza delivery boy is strapped to a bomb and forced to rob a bank in 30 Minutes or Less (2,888 theatres). "Mayhem ensues in this entertaining, foul-mouthed ride to nowhere that most will enjoy," according to Toumarkine, especially if you're an "18 to 40-year-old, easy-to-please male with a hearty appetite for mindless raunchiness." Like most of the other releases this week, this R-rated comedy could earn in the $20 millions, as long as it doesn't underwhelm like last week's R-rated miss, The Change-Up.

On Monday, we'll see if any of the new releases were able to top the second weekend of surprise hit Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and if there are any upsets in how the new releases stacked against each other.

Morgan Freeman rounds out the cast of 'Now You See Me'

By Sarah Sluis

Recently, I've developed a bit of a Morgan Freeman obsession. On television, I keep finding his voiceovers left and right. It's a rare person who wasn't won over pre-DVR by his starring role in cable TV favorite The Shawshank Redemption. His voice is rich and reserved, authoritative but twinkling. He just may be the best narrator out there. I recently took a look at his Alex Cross films (Along Came a Spider and Kiss the Girls) on the announcement that Tyler Perry plans to star in a reboot of the franchise, I, Alex Cross. They're generic, formulaic detective movies that date quickly, but they're also films in which Freeman gets to play the character he's honed so well over the years: wise, competent, and always ready to save the day.

Now You See Me centers on a couple of FBI agents who are trying to take down a quartet of magicians who carry out bank heists during their performances, ending by distributing the money to the attendees. Freeman will play a former magician who now gives away the secrets behind the tricks, an action that makes him reviled in the magic community. Freeman as a wise, behind-the-scenes guy who has more insight into what's going on than anyone else? Sounds like the perfect Freeman role to me.

Besides Freeman, Mark Ruffalo has signed on to play one of the FBI agents for the Summit Entertainment project. Jesse Eisenberg will play the cocky ringleader of the magicians (presumably employing his mile-a-minute delivery) and Amanda Seyfried and Melanie Laurent will play femme fatales. Though the cast is top-notch, the writing/directing team has a less than stellar track record. Director Louis Leterrier helmed the ill-fated Clash of the Titans, the poster child for poor 3D conversions, as well as The Transporter and its sequel. His record is pure action, but is he hungry to prove himself dramatically? The screenwriting team of Boaz Yakin and Edward Ricourt also gives little indication of their capability. Yakin has writing, directing, and producing credits on a variety of films, including Uptown Girls (director, executive producer), Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (writer), and the documentary Bombay Beach (producer). Ricourt is a new talent, with no finished films but four scripts to his name on IMDB, which range from sci-fi to thriller to literary adaptation. There's no telling what shape the project Now You See Me might take, but one thing's for sure. Freeman will be there, lending his wise and comforting presence.

Could 'The Help' be this summer's second female-driven hit?

By Sarah Sluis

This summer began with an R-rated un-rom com, Bridesmaids, which opened softly but has since earned over six times its opening weekend. The highly anticipated adaptation of the novel The Help releases today, which I predict will soon have membership to the $100 million club. According to a Variety article published today, the studio held over 300 advance screenings of the movie that targeted black and faith-based audiences, as well as some library crowds. I took a look at some of The Help's comparable films to try to figure out the movie's prospects, which are currently looking quite bright.

Eat Pray Love (2010)
Opening weekend: $23 million. Domestic Total: $80 million.
Unlike The Help, Eat Pray Love was hampered by poor reviews. Just 46% of audiences liked the movie, according to Rotten Tomatoes, compared to 89% of audiences who have previewed The Help. Like The Help, Eat Pray Love was based on a bestseller popular in book clubs, but interest stopped at older white women. Many people dismissed the movie as covering "white girl problems," and the midlife crisis impetus for the woman's journeys alienated younger viewers. Prediction: The Help will blow this release out of the water.

Julie & Julia (2009)
Opening weekend: $20 million. Domestic Total: $94 million.
Another movie based on a popular book, Julie & Julia had much better reviews. It opened lower than Eat Pray Love, but audiences kept coming, giving the movie a higher finish. The casting of Meryl Streep, who was nominated for an Oscar, was also a boon. Prediction: The Help will do at least as well, in part because it also appeals to faith-based and black audiences.

Bridesmaids (2011)
Opening weekend: $26 million. Domestic Total (so far): $166 million.
Plenty of people who loved reading The Help would not be caught dead watching this R-rated comedy. However, it's worth noting that even with a lot of marketing and media exposure, this comedy only opened to $26 million. If The Help opens low, its performance the second and third weeks will spell whether the drama is a success or not. Prediction: Tough competition, but I think The Help has a chance of matching Bridesmaids.

The Blind Side (2009)
Opening weekend: $34 million Domestic Total: $255 million.
Comparison between The Blind Side and The Help may be the most valuable. They both share similar plotlines, about white people helping black people. Faith-based audiences responded particularly well to the Sandra Bullock drama, which is a bit more Christian than The Help, in my opinion. However, I don't know how popular The Blind Side was with black audiences. A movie like The Help will have much more resonance with black audiences than Blind Side, whose black character was mostly mute and unexplored as a person. In contrast, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer have been giving tons of interviews and many people will come to the movie to see them. The sports theme of The Blind Side was an automatic draw for male audiences, who may be less enthusiastic about The Help. Prediction: Unless The Help ends up in the Best Picture category like The Blind Side, I think The Help will come in underThe Blind Side's total.

A final thought. If Disney/DreamWorks has been successful in marketing The Help to black audiences, the movie's opening weekend could be much bigger than most female-driven adaptations of "book club" novels. Tyler Perry's Madea movies routinely earn half their total haul the first weekend, when middle-aged black women turn out in force to see these movies.

First-day estimates of The Help should post tomorrow. Currently, 31% of advance ticket sales on Fandango are for the movie.

Trailer report: 'In Time,' set in a world where money buys immortality

By Sarah Sluis

Now that there's talk of a double-dip recession, movies that touch on class differences and offer revenge fantasies will be perfectly poised to scoop up the people responding to the zeitgeist. Into this environment comes In Time (formerly titled I'm.Mortal and Now), positing a world in which the rich can live forever and the poor die young, to prevent overpopulation. Yes, now is indeed a great time for class antagonism. Andrew Niccol, the auteur behind the most emotinally resonant futurisic movies, Gattaca (writer/director) and The Truman Show (screenplay), writes and directs the futuristic sci-fi tale. Here's the trailer:

Five things to know about In Time

1. It's coming out in a not-so-good time slot, October 28. I can't explain why, since that weekend is usually reserved for horror films taking advantage of the pre-Halloween weekend. Then again, Niccol's movies have a history of being dumped. His best, Gattaca, played for just three weeks, yet it's among the finest sci-fi movies I've seen--watch New York Times movie critic A.O. Scott's revisiting of the film to learn more.

2. Casting! Vincent Kartheiser, who plays "Mad Men"'s Pete Campbell, plays a spoiled villain, a role we already know he's good at. After Justin Timberlake turned in an excellent performance in The Social Network, it's great to see him building his career further. Amanda Seyfried, who's mostly played charming, wields a gun in this flick, a welcome addition to her star image.

3. The creepy opening introduction. Seconds into the trailer, Kartheiser indicates three nearly identical 25-year-old women, introducing them as his wife, mother-in-law, and daughter. It hits just the right unsettling note I look for in my dystopias. And could it be a coincidence that the countdown clocks are located on the left forearm, the same place where the Nazis tattooed serial numbers on their Jewish prisoners?

4. Roger Deakins is the cinematographer. The recepient of the 2011 American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Lifetime Achievement Award, Deakins is known for his longtime work with the Coen Brothers and his mastery as a cinematographer. Gattaca also had a strong visual look, which In Time appears to continue.

5. Niccol as an auteur. As solid as The Truman Show and Gattaca are, I haven't seen Lord of War or S1mOne, which seemed like such a laughable concept--a virtual actress! That was one road I didn't want to go down. But then again, people just discovered that a new member of a Japanese pop band was created by a computer. She will "perform" in concerts via hologram. Could Niccol simply be ahead of his time? After all, The Truman Show released well before reality shows took over our televisions.

Niccol's work also has consistency from film to film, and repetition is one mark of an auteur. Gattaca and The Truman Show both use travel into the unknown space of the ocean as turning points for the characters and powerful metaphors. In Time (what I know from the trailer) and Gattaca both feature suicidal rich people who give what they had at birth to a scrappy poor person who can actually use the gifts. These stories feel personal, a rarity in Hollywood. Though the trailer features gun fights and car chases, which Niccol's previous movies have been light on, I hope his moving insights into futuristic societies shine through. I'll take that over Paranormal Activity 3 any day.

'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' summits the top ten

By Sarah Sluis

With little advance awareness, most prognosticators were cautious about Rise of the Planet of the Apes' prospects. The appeal of dystopian futures in movies, and, let's face it, CG primates, drew more viewers than predicted, to the tune of $54 million. Though the opening weekend was less than 2001's Tim Burton remake Planet of the Apes, and both had similar production budgets (around $100 million), most seem to be calling Rise the success. The current release has had better reviews, receiving an 81% positive aggregate rating on Rotten Tomatoes to the 2001 film's 45% positive rating. Warm ratings and a decent box office could make Rise the first of many Planet of the Apes reboots.

The Change-Up, however, was not as lucky as Apes. The comedy's $13.6 million opening weekend was the lowest of any R-rated comedy this summer. Paring an R-rating with the Freaky Friday set-up, which has mainly been used in kid-friendly PG tales, appears to have confused audiences and turned them off. Frankly, the movie's posters made my nose wrinkle in disgust instead of laughter. They were offensive in the most boring, tired way possible, which didn't bode well for the comedy. Surprisingly, 59% of the audience was women, with all ages represented.

Rachel Weisz's star turn in The Whistleblower averaged $8,300 per screen on seven screens, a modest debut for the movie, which will probably grab more viewers once it hits Netflix. Gun Hill Road, which centers on a released prisoner who discovers his son is transitioning to female, boasted the highest per-screen average for a specialty release, $12,600. Oscilloscope's Bellflower, a "stew of dark fantasies and youthful gonzo ambition," according to THR's John DeFore, also did well, averaging $12,000 per screen.

A number of specialty releases gained ground this week as they expanded their releases. The Future rose 213% as it went from one to 17 locations, averaging $5,000 per screen. Sony Pictures Classics' The Guard remained strong, rising 152% and only dropping its per-screen average by half, to $10,000, at each of the 19 locations. Fox Searchlight's Another Earth more than doubled its locations and rose 51% while maintaining a $3,000 per-screen average. Finally, Weinstein Co.'s Sarah's Key enjoyed a 45% boost when it doubled the number of locations, finishing with a $7,900 per-screen average and $532,000, the highest of any of the expanding specialty releases.

This Wednesday, female-dominated historical pic The Help will release, offering a breath of fresh air in a summer market dominated by broad comedy and action. The comedy 30 Minutes or Less, horror sequel Final Destination 5, and Glee the 3D Concert Movie will round out the offerings on Friday.

'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' heads off against 'The Change-Up'

By Sarah Sluis

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (3,648 theatres) bills itself as an origin tale. The "primate revolution" alluded to in the 1968 film gets the full treatment here. Unfortunately, the unraveling of this mystery is a hollow experience, says our critic. "Whereas the first films...[held] a mirror up to human society's failings like slavery, war-mongering and intolerance, this one reflects nothing but a failure of the imagination," Chris Barsanti concludes, calling it a "by-the-numbers prequel" with James Franco's performance limited to a furrowing of the brow and occasional confused looks. Older males are showing the most interest in the film, which should earn in the $20 millions. You can count me out. I don't want to ruin the feeling of the 1968 original's spectacular ending, one of the best, most satisfying conclusions of all time.

I'm pretty sure the pitch for The Change-Up (2,913 theatres) went something like this: Let's do Freaky Friday, but R-rated! With guys! Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman play two guys, one a single player, the other married with kids, who switch bodies. Critic Marsha McCreadie rejoiced in the "somewhat sadistic fun [watching] guys obsessing over stuff that used to worry cinematic women," like "parenting, how to treat women, handle sex, fulfill career commitments and keep it all in balance." The Change-Up may not be too original, but there are "amusing bits" amidst the "gross-out humor."

Starring Rachel Weisz as a "a working-class Nebraska cop turned U.N. law-enforcement monitor in Bosnia," The Whistleblower "eschews light escapist touches to deliver a hard-hitting message of man's inhumanity writ large." That inhumanity involves Weisz's character's discovery of sex slave trafficking, with young women tricked into thinking they will find work in such innocent occupations as waitressing.

Magic Trip (4 theatres), from prolific documentarian Alex Gibney (who co-directed with Alison Ellwood), covers Ken Kesey's famous 1964 road trip on a bus loaded with LSD and the very first hippies. The footage, culled from their amateur efforts, didn't have sync sound and "shots are blurry, shaky, often poorly exposed, and almost never long enough to understand what is going on." That didn't stop critic Daniel Eagan from declaring that "Kesey may have had some wrong-headed notions, but in Magic Trip at least he comes off as a true adventurer with noble goals."

On Monday, we'll see if The Change-Up continues the trend of overperforming R-rated comedies, and if Rise of the Planet of the Apes attracted a $20+ million opening.

Really? PETA gives award to 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes'

By Sarah Sluis

A standard part of ending credits on a movie is the American Humane Association's seal of approval: "No animals were harmed during the making of this movie." Since Rise of the Planet of the Apes uses CG monkeys, it's unclear if the AHA even had to give the movie its seal of approval. Yet PETA is giving an award to this Fox pictures. The animal-loving organization's strategy is trying to encourage the use of CG animals, so they've made a special fuss and given the movie a "Proggy" award (that's progress + award). I wouldn't be rolling my eyes so much, except I doubt that the movie would have used live-action apes anyway. The first movie was famous for having humans in ape suits with makeup. Even the 2001 remake of the 1968 film used makeup, not CG. The only primates being helped out by the CG are the human actors who no longer have to sweat in ape suits.

The things is, most of the time there isn't really a choice about whether a production goes with CG or live-action. If it's possible to film animals in live-action, like with domesticated animals, most productions choose that route. Should Lassie be CG? No. Should Mr. Popper's Penguins use CG animals? Probably. Talking animal films/TV shows used to be achieved by training horses to randomly flex their mouths, and it actually looked pretty good. Oh man, did I love watching "Mister Ed" on Nick at Nite. Instead of creating CG horses, the technology is used to employ weirder, non-trainable animals like the guinea pigs in G-Force. Movies like Beverly Hills Chihuahua will still use real dogs (maybe with CG lips) because audiences know it is possible to shoot a film like that live-action, and they demand it.

However, I also admire PETA for going the positive route. The organization gets most of its press attention from its protests, like the one it did for this summer's Zookeeper after a giraffe died shortly after filming. By singling out movies that do a better job, they can be associated with the maintenance of good practices instead of constantly having to act as a police officer.

What will Paul Schrader and Bret Easton Ellis do with a horror movie called 'Bait'?

By Sarah Sluis

How's this for a curious project? Bret Easton Ellis and Paul Schrader are teaming up for a psychological horror movie called Bait. With sharks. The plot reads like any B movie, but I imagine this duo will be able to bring a little something extra to the table. A man who despises rich people secures an invitation onto a yacht. He then pilots it into shark-filled waters, and lets the carnage begin. Both are working on a final version of the script, and Schrader will direct. Here are three reasons why this idea, in the hands of Ellis and Schrader, could end up being something special.

1. Ellis writes rich people very, very well. His novels Less than Zero and Rules of Attraction were tales of empty hedonism and jaded excess. He can be so deliciously cruel to his subjects, but this kind of biting humor is often married with a shred of compassion or psychological analysis into his characters.

2. Schrader and Ellis are both experienced writing psychopaths. Schrader wrote Taxi Driver, that messed-up tale of vigilante justice. Ellis wrote (and adapted for the screen) American Psycho, a murderous Wall Street tale. There's no doubt in my mind that this yacht club worker will have a personality that's unusually rounded, compelling, and scary.

3. Now is a really good time to hate rich people. Recession-themed tales have been seeping into Hollywood over the past couple years. Everything from documentaries (Inside Job) to maudlin tales of unemployment (The Company Men), movies based on real events (Margin Call) and even other horror tales (Drag Me to Hell) have hit screens. There's something primal about horror movies that let people experience and live out their fears and revenge fantasies. If Bait can resonate with peoples' lizard brains, I predict an unlikely hit.

Will director Cary Fukunaga graduate to the big league with 'Spaceless'?

By Sarah Sluis

Director Cary Fukunaga made an assured debut in 2009 with Sin Nombre, the tale of poor Honduran who hitches rides on trains in an attempt to make it to the U.S. Shot with beautiful cinematography, the movie had a socially conscious premise and a thoughtful arthouse plot along with one of those maddening endings that refuse to let everything settle at the most comfortable conclusion. It was hard to believe this was his first feature (not including his student work, which won an award at the Sundance Film Festival). He followed that well-regarded movie with 2011's Jane Eyre, a higher-profile picture from the same distributor, Focus. With up-and-comer Mia Wasikowska as his lead actress, Fukunaga again showed himself to be a poised, competent director. Not many people could adapt a book that's been done close to two dozen times before, confident that they could bring something new to the table. But he did.

Now Fukunaga's signed on to direct Spaceless, a sci-fi tale from Universal. Could this be his chance to bring his cinematic sensibility to a wider audience? The plot is more 2001: Space Odyssey than Star Wars. An assassin wakes up, floating through space. A computer stands by to keep him company before his air supply runs out. He doesn't remember much about what happened before, just some fuzzy memories about being ordered to carry out a hit on a space station. As he continues to amble through space, he wonders if he's actually in space, or part of a simulated reality. Any plot that blurs the lines between reality and virtual reality is a win in my book. In this sense, the plot reminds me of Moon, the 2009 low-budget sci-fi tale with a twist ending. Besides Fukunaga, another plus for the project is the screenwriter, Jeff Vintar. As expressed in his Wikipedia page (which actually feels like it was written by Vintar himself, just saying), his work is firmly in the camp of sci-fi. I, Robot was based on his screenplay, and Spaceless itself has been in development for over a decade at Fox. He's the kind of screenwriter who has a ton of unproduced work and gets rewrite work, but has yet to see much of his work actually hit the big screen. Perhaps because of this, Vintar recently reacquired the rights to the movie and set it up at Universal, where it's finally moving forward. Gore Verbinski, a longtime fan of the screenplay, will executive produce.

A few "smart" sci-fi pictures have been released in recent years (such as Moon), with more on the way. Alfonso Cuaron is directing Gravity, a sci-fi romance with a "two people alone on a desert island" kind of concept. The author Daniel H. Wilson has seen a number of his sci-fi tales acquired. Steven Spielberg is directing Robocalypse, and the more comedic How to Survive a Robot Uprising has Jack Black attached. If there are two types of sci-fi movies, cerebral (2001: Space Odyssey) and action-filled (Star Wars), it appears, for the time being, that the cerebral ones are winning out.

'Cowboys & Aliens' earns narrow win over 'Smurfs'

By Sarah Sluis

Cowboys & Aliens was hailed by many critics as the rare sci-fi/western genre mash-up that worked. Audiences turned out, but the $36 million fell short of the $40+ million the studio had hoped for. On the bright side, over 63% of audiences were over 30, a demographic that often sees movies weeks after their release. The $160+ million film will have to hold well at the box office to recoup its blockbuster budget.

I put the live-action/CG hybrid The Smurfs in the same category as Alvin and the Chipmunks and Yogi Bear. Critics called the movies stupid and terrible, but parents shrugged their shoulders and indulged their children in the lowbrow fun. More audiences than predicted turned out to see the blue cartoon characters in their very own movie, giving The Smurfs an estimated $35.6 million opening weekend, just under Cowboys & Aliens. Other kid-friendly titles in the top ten fell heavily (50-70%) due to the animated competition. Even Harry Potter "7B," as it's nicknamed on movie marquees, barely leveled its fall, diving another 53% to $21.9 million.

The intergenerational romantic comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love landed in fifth place with $19.3 million. The variety of ages paid off: 71% of audiences were over the age of 25, which also bodes well for coming weeks. The opening is below Carell's summer pic from last year, Dinner for Schmucks, but far ahead of this summer's flop Larry Crowne, which also targeted an older audience.

This week was a busy one for specialty releases. Actor/writer/director Miranda July's The Future, which premiered on just one screen, had the highest screen average, $28,000. Sony Pictures Classics' crime drama The Guard followed, with a $20,000 average on four screens. A couple of big studios went with smaller releases for their films, and succeeded in drawing audiences. Lionsgate's Scarface-styled treatment of Uday Hussein, The Devil's Double, did admirably, using five screens to accumulate a $19,000 per-screen average. Screen Gems' Attack the Block, a would-be cult horror comedy, averaged $16,000 on eight screens. The two latter ones should expand in coming weeks and will be films to watch.

This Friday, the R-rated Freaky Friday-style comedy The Change-Up will release, along with Rise of the Planet of the Apes.