'Gravity' proves its staying power, plucky 'Phillips' is No. 2

Continuing to monopolize film industry headlines and ticket receipts, Gravity soared through a banner sophomore weekend. The film experienced only a minor drop-off in sales these last several days, slipping just 21% to gross $44.3 million. That’s the strongest box-office hold any non-holiday movie that debuted over $50 million has ever experienced.  To further contextualize: Gravity had the second best weekend ever in IMAX sales, grossing $9 million – ahead of previous IMAX juggernaut The Dark Knight Rises.

All in all, Alfonso Cuaron’s trendy thriller – and we’d imagine one of this year’s most popular Halloween costumes – has managed the difficult task of impressing both critics and audiences alike,  earning itself the title of bona fide success story. The early Oscar favorite currently boasts a $123 million haul – and counting.

Itself no financial slouch, Captain Phillips grossed a respectable $26 million its opening weekend. While this stable debut may not elicit the awe of, say, a $50 million premiere weekend, it’s a much-needed hit for Tom Hanks: His last few movies, including Cloud Atlas, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and Larry Crowne, were financial disappointments.

As many pundits speculated last weekend, Phillips drew an older crowd. The film’s demographic breakdown is unequivocal: 62% of audience members were over the age of 35. Fifty-two percent were also male, so we think Sandra Bullock’s Oscar campaign should begin in full force… yesterday.

If the adults were all out gripping their armrests in a wonderfully fun state of suspense at Captain Phillips and Gravity, where had the kids got to this weekend? The littlest ones were watching, and perhaps re-watching, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2, which took a bit of a tumble, down 32% with a $14.2 million draw. The movie has earned $78 million so far, which is just a little less than what the first Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs had taken in at the same point in its theatrical run.

Older kids/teens were most certainly not out mooning over Romeo & Juliet. The poorly received reimagining of the Bard’s story of doomed love and overactive hormones earned a meager $509,000 at the box office. While R&J’s decided flop may come as no surprise to those who read our David Noh's review of the adaptation, more disappointing is the poor showing of the generally well-received The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete, which grossed just $260,000 after playing in 147 theatres.

The box-office doom and gloom for those films that are not either Gravity or Captain Phillips continues with the intake (or lack thereof) reaped by Machete Kills. The sequel to the more successful Machete can now claim one of the poorest openings of the year. It did just a third of the business its predecessor managed, bombing with $3.8 million. Not even a wacked turn by Charlie Sheen/Carlos Estevez as the leader of the free world could drum up much interest in the lackluster effort.

Escape From Tomorrow amounts to another debut unable to spin novelty into profits. Though the film had generated early buzz for its unique/stunt shooting – all on location at Disney World, without the consent or approval of Walt’s camp – the end product doesn’t appear to be nearly as interesting as the story of its creation. It earned just $66,100.

Ending this Monday’s weekend wrapup on a lighter, promising note, the little rom-com that could, Nicole Holofcener’s Enough Said, earned another $1+ million this weekend after expanding to 606 theatres. That boost has brought the film’s total up to over $8 million, and, with strong word-of-mouth continuing its laudatory chatter, it’s looking as if next weekend will only see more gains.

Can anyone free herself from 'Gravity's' orbit?

For the past week, Gravity has dominated the box-office discussion – and it doesn’t look as if anyone else will be sneaking a word in edgewise any time soon. The blockbuster thriller managed to compound its record-breaking opening weekend by earning roughly an additional $18 million over the last several days. That brings the movie’s total domestic earnings up to around $73 million.  Interestingly, however,  it seems Gravity’s word-of-mouth buzz hasn’t been quite as effusive as its critical reception, leaving some industry experts to predict a (small) financial dropoff this coming weekend.

Given the general trendiness of #Gravity though, not to mention the success the movie has enjoyed (and one can imagine will continue to enjoy) from pricey 3D ticket sales, we think it'll be just fine. Odds are Gravity will pull in another $35-$40 mil this Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Less certain is the opening weekend fate of Tom Hanks’ Captain Phillips. Hanks has been generating the expected Oscar buzz for his turn as sea-captain-turned-pirate-hostage Richard Phillips, and the film has a 94% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Giving the movie a timely if perhaps unnecessary publicity boost is news that the real-life crew of the Maersk Alabama is suing Captain Richard Phillips for allegedly ignoring maritime warnings and putting all their lives in danger. (Tom Hanks would never.) Far from keeping audiences away, however, it’s likely the scandal will only help drive sales. According to Deadline, the movie has already raked in $600,000 in late-show tickets.

But even with this seemingly fortuitous alignment of stars, does Captain Phillips really have what it takes to outshine Gravity? Many believe Phillips’ core demographic is a 25+ crowd, which doesn’t bode well; consensus has Millennials opting for director Alfonso Cuaron’s more visually innovative work, eschewing Paul Greengrass’ “traditional” suspense flick. We’ll see how the generation wars play out when the receipts are tallied come Monday.

While these two Oscar giants battle it out this weekend, a few other releases will vie for the rest of the country’s eyeballs. Machete Kills is another major release bowing tonight. The sequel to 2010’s Machete, itself a spinoff of Grindhouse, Machete Kills includes an eclectic mélange of cameos: Charlie Sheen (using his real name, Carlos Estevez) as the POTUS, as well as Mel Gibson, Lady Gaga, and Sofia Vergara. The Hollywood Reporter critic Justin Lowe wasn’t a fan, but if nothing else, the film’s rollout of wacky should provide just what the movies ought: entertainment.

Our David Noh wishes the same could be said of the latest film to tackle Bill Shakespeare’s greatest (or at least his most famous/oft-adapted) love story, Romeo & Juliet. The talented Hailee Steinfeld of True Grit fame has nabbed the starring role of poor dopey (er, doomed) Juliet, reciting Julian Fellowes’ (“Downtown Abbey”) odd mix of Elizabethean/modern-English lines with great and unfortunately stultifying care. This is no Baz Luhrmnan reimagining. The film opens in 461 theatres tonight.

The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete will also open tonight, in 147 theatres. Though the film revolves around the hard-luck life of two impoverished Brooklyn kids (Skylan Brooks and Ethan Dizon, both newcomers, both critically lauded for their ability to tug on the viewer’s heartstrings) Lionsgate’s newest release has two famous adult draws to its name: Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson and her fellow “American Idol” alumna Jordin Sparks. Film pundits see the movie earning around $1 million. Escape From Tomorrow, a black-and-white dramedy whose claim to fame includes a “guerrilla-style” shoot on location in Disney World, will also most likely reap a smaller haul.

And then there are those still holding strong: the tenacious Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2, and Enough Said, which expands nationwide to 606 theatres this weekend.

Labor Day audiences turn out for 'The American'

By Sarah Sluis

Machete and The American were neck-and-neck throughout the four-day Labor Day weekend. Machete led during its debut Friday, earning $3.9 million to The American's $3.84 million. After Friday, the George

Clooney thinking man/spy film pulled ahead, rising Saturday and Sunday and finishing the four-day weekend with $16.3 million. Machete, the Mexploitation picture from Robert Rodriguez, never matched its Friday night debut and finished with $14 million. Labor Day weekend is notoriously slow, however, so both of these films performed well in terms of their time slots and genres.

Debuting in fourth place, Going the Distance brought in a lackluster $8.9 million over the weekend. This makes the movie a loser even among romantic comedy bedfellows like Love Happens and The Switch (both of which were probably worse than this one, starring Drew

Barrymore and Justin Long). The movie's release date was changed from August 27th to September 3rd at the last minute, which could have affected grosses. The American and Going the Distance also drew large portions of their audience from the 25+ and 35+ crowd. For a movie like The American, that's fine, but a romantic comedy needs support from younger audiences, who didn't seem to show up in enough force.

As the summer movie season wraps up, several movies actually increased from their previous week. Family movies and word-of-mouth hits were the biggest beneficiaries. Despicable Me, Toy Story 3 and The Sorcerer's Apprentice increased from last week, even without taking the holiday into account. With the extra day added in, the special effects movie of the summer, Inception, boosted its take 20% along with cop comedy The Other Guys, which went up 5.8%.

Among limited releases, a Chinese remake of the Coen Brothers movie Blood Simple, A Woman, A Gun and a Noodle Shop, opened to a $7,000 per-screen average playing on five screens. Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1 yielded a $3,000 per-screen average playing on over thirty screens. The prior film, Mesrine: Death Instinct, opened in late August to a $5,000 per-screen average, so the second film may be a tougher sell.

This Friday will be slow at the box office, with Resident Evil: Afterlife (3D) leading releases and teen sex comedy The Virginity Hit opening under the radar in a limited release.

'Machete,' 'Going the Distance,' and 'The American' vie for Labor Day audiences

By Sarah Sluis

The final week of the summer movie season is usually a slow one at the box office. The sun-seeking beachgoers on the East Coast may have to trade in their beach blankets for theatre seats because of Hurricane Earl, potentially boosting the grosses in that area of the nation.

Opening in the widest amount of theatres, Going the Distance (3,030 theatres) should appeal most to female audiences drawn in by the friendly, lovable star Drew Barrymore. Guys may be surprised by the more vulgar humor and male bonding that takes place between leading man Justin Long and friends Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis. The romantic comedy is expected to earn somewhere above $10 million.

A full-length version of a trailer in Grindhouse, Machete (2,670 theatres) stars Danny Trejo as a Mexican Federale who becomes a vigilante after being double-crossed. The female co-stars are

tough in real life, known for being tabloid fodder and/or for their run-ins in the law: recently released inmate Lindsay Lohan plays a frequently naked nun, former inmate Michelle Rodriguez plays an organizer who works out of a taco truck. Jessica Alba, with the comparatively tame moniker "style icon," suits up as an immigration officer. The movie's stance on immigration comes across as political in the wake of Arizona's controversial immigration policy. According to critic Ethan Alter, the filmmakers "[use] the film as a vehicle to pointedly tweak the anti-immigration rhetoric expressed by a certain segment of the American public," but "subtle" these references are not. This homage to exploitation movies should earn in the high teen millions, and because of its appeal to male and Latino audiences, who are known for being first-weekend audiences, it's my pick for number one.

A quiet (some say slow) tale of a hit man (George Clooney) taking a break in Italy, The American (2,823 theatres) opened on Wednesday to $1.6 million, a head start that indicates the movie will hit the low teen

millions. Critic Ethan Alter astutely observes that the role doesn't play to Clooney's strengths as an actor. He "thrives when playing a determined man of action with a quick wit and/or a clearly stated goal," but here "he barely registers a pulse onscreen. Some actors can say volumes with a single expression�Clooney usually requires at least a line or two of dialogue as well." Director Anton Corbjin (Control), who started out as a photographer, "tells the story through a series of carefully composed still frames with minimal camera movement." This movie may not be getting the positive buzz that screams "awards season," but should appeal to indie-loving, mature audiences eager to escape popcorn pics.

Another crime-focused offering, the French movie Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1, will unspool in 28 theatres. A follow-up to Mesrine: Death Instinct, the biopic follows a real-life French criminal played by Vincent Cassel. "[A] towering achievement of the crime genre," according to critic Doris Toumarkine, and "the action scenes...induce total immersion in what transpires."

On Tuesday, we'll circle back to crown the winner of the four-day holiday weekend and see which of the trio of wide releases distinguished itself the most. Goodbye, 2010 summer movie season!

'Machete' continues exploitation film trend of highlighting racial issues

By Sarah Sluis

I had no plans to see Machete, a "Mexploitation" film from Robert Rodriguez that originated as a trailer within the movie Grindhouse. But today, I scrolled through Ain't it Cool News and discovered that a Machete trailer has been released in honor of Cinco de Mayo--and even though the movie was made a year ago, the plot

seems like a direct response to the controversial illegal immigration legislation passed in Arizona.

Culled from the Internet, the story goes like this: Danny Trejo plays a Mexican Federale (police officer) who fled the country after a bad encounter with a drug lord (rising drug violence around the Mexican border, anyone?). He's a day laborer who accepts a $100,000+ fee to kill a senator who is sending illegal immigrants out of the country. As he goes in for the kill, he's shot himself, and it turns out he's been set up in order to build support for the bill. With the help of fellow illegal immigrants, he pursues vengeance as he is hunted down by a U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement agent.

While it's social issues movies like Crash that get rewarded at the Oscars, exploitation and horror movies have a long history of tackling racism and discrimination. They appeal to deep emotions and fears, and it can go both ways: just as promiscuous teenage girls are punished in slasher films, often being the first to die, who can forget the black man in Night of the Living Dead surviving a night of zombies only to be killed by vigilantes at the end who assume he is the bad guy?

Pam Grier, who coincidentally has been in the news lately because of her memoir, starred in movies like Coffy

and Foxy Brown that showed strong, powerful black women and centered around issues of drugs and violence. In Coffy, she sets out to kill the drug dealers who gave her sister contaminated heroin, and in Foxy Brown she goes after the gangsters that killed her law-enforcement boyfriend. The movies can be subversive and expose issues like objectification of women (which works out fine for Grier, who seduces people before killing them). At the same time, the blaxploitation genre has been viewed as a double-edged sword: did it expose black issues or did it perpetuate stereotypes? You could say the same about Machete. The plot is driven by anger, fear, and mistrust. The Danny Trejo character embodies many negative qualities and stereotypes, from what I saw, but it's impressive that the trailer opens with him saying, "$70 a day for yard work. A hundred for roofing. $125 for septic." It's exposing the economic realities of his situation and makes his agreement to kill someone for over a hundred thousand dollars justifiable. I'm now curious to see Machete and find out if Rodriguez has packed the movie with commentary on immigration in between the sex, explosions, and guns. It wouldn't be the first time exploitation films have covered this territory.