Bidding farewell to Schamus' Focus

For many still reeling from the news of James Schamus’ recent departure from Focus Features, the company’s latest bulletin has the tenor of a protracted funeral knell. Focus Features International will shut its London offices at the end of the year.  Though cause for hand-wringing and sad-blogging among arthouse aficionados and Hollywood holdouts, this most recent development is by no means unexpected, as the company announced only weeks ago it would close its New York headquarters and relocate all operations to LA. The writing was on a wall that, if slowly crumbling, will soon be rebuilt to the specifications of the new CEO, Peter Schlessel, formerly of FilmDistrict. Under Schlessel, Focus will increase the number of films it releases each year and broaden beyond its characteristic emphasis on specialty fare.

If nothing else, time away from the office is only that much more Schamus can spend with frequent collaborator, Ang Lee. The two have produced some of the best indie films of the past 20 years, including the Oscar-winning Brokeback Mountain.  The rest of Focus’ output wasn’t too shabby, either. Below, we’ve listed some of the best films released by the production/distribution company. Did we miss anything…?

Top  Films Focus Features Produced:
Far From Heaven (2002)
 
Lost In Translation (2003)
 
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
 
Pride & Prejudice (2005)
 
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
 
Lust, Caution (2007)
 
Eastern Promises (2007)
 
In Bruges (2008)
 
Milk (2008)
 
Coraline (2009)
 
The Kids Are All Right (2010)
 
Somewhere (2010)
 
Jane Eyre (2011)
 

Top Films Focus Features Distributed:
The Pianist (2002)
 
Swimming Pool (2003)
 
The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)
 
Brick (2005)
 
Atonement (2007)
 
A Serious Man (2009)
 
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2011)
 
Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
 

Unpacking the Academy Award nominations--and snubs

By Sarah Sluis

Early this morning, the Motion Picture Academy announced its nominees. With ten movies in the Best Picture section, this category actually had the least amount of drama. The five-nominee sections actually narrowed the field, removing strong contenders who had critics rooting for them.

The two tiniest films in the Best Picture nominee section, The Kids Are All Right and Winter's Bone, both assembled a smattering of nominations in other sections. Especially for Winter's Bone, this was a big accomplishment. John Hawkes, who hadn't received nearly as much buzz as Best Actress nominee Jennifer Lawrence, scored a nomination for Best Supporting Actor. After adding in the Ozark drama's Best Adapted Screenplay nomination, Winter's Bone scored a total of four nominations.

The Kids Are All Right had a similar scorecard: two acting nominations (Annette Bening for lead female, Mark Ruffalo for supporting male), Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture. Julianne Moore, who was just as worthy as Bening in my book, was left off. Maybe it's a question of seniority? Or Moore's terrible Boston accent on "30 Rock"?

One tiny movie that barely got any love from the Academy was Blue Valentine. Michelle Williams is in the mix for Best Actress, but her co-star Ryan Gosling was left off the ballot. A bit of an indie dark horse, it's not that surprising this movie struck out at the Oscars. In all honesty, I think it skewed a little young. There was a lot more talk about Another Year, which skewed older, than Blue Valentine. It's only the fact that Valentine is distributed by Weinstein Co. that it got as far as it did. Another Year's Lesley Manville failed to get an acting nomination despite getting raves for her performance, though director Mike Leigh's script is nominated in the original screenplay category. With just one nomination each, both of these films just barely made it into the Oscars.

The Academy treated a few films very well: 127 Hours rallied with six nominations, though some in lesser categories. Director Danny Boyle didn't get a nod, but he and his co-writer (Slumdog Millionaire Oscar winner Simon Beaufoy) are nominees for the Adapted Screenplay Oscar. True Grit, which got completely snubbed at the Golden Globes with Z-E-R-O nominations, received an astonishing ten nominations, leading the Coens to release a statement saying "Ten seems like an awful lot...we don't want to take anyone else's."

This summer's blockbuster Inception scored eight nominations, but the only big ones were for its script and Best Picture. Director Chris Nolan has now made three Oscar-worthy films (Memento, The Dark Knight, Inception) without earning a directing nomination for himself. One thing's sure, however: Inception will bring home a lot of those more technical awards. Whatever the movie was lacking, jaw-dropping special effects and technical prowess were not among them.

The announcement of the Oscars still puts us over a month away from the big day (33 days away!). Awards fatigue has definitely set in, at least for me--I mean come on, giving out awards for 2010 three whole months after the year ends? Now that the nominations have been announced, however, there will be plenty of time to strategize Oscar picks (hint from Awards Daily: The Social Network) and win the office pool.

'Inception' stays at the head of the table, with 'Dinner for Schmucks' close behind

By Sarah Sluis

For the third week in a row, Inception led the pack at the box office. The dreamy sci-fi movie dipped just 35% to $27.3 million, for a total of $193 million. That means the movie will cross the $200 million mark within the next few days. If it continues to drop around 30% for the rest of its run, it will finish just shy of $300 million.

Debuting in second place, the Steve Carell-led Dinner for Schmucks rang up $23.3 million. Based on the French comedy Le Dner des Cons, the remake received mixed reviews (averaging 51% on Rotten Tomatoes). The question here is if the movie will end up with a run similar to Carell's April release Date Night, which opened to $25 million but finished with a figure four times its opening weekend. The tamer PG-13 Date Night, which also co-starred a woman, has more of a mass-market appeal, but Schmucks features Carell as an oblivious buffoon somewhat similar to his Michael Scott character on "The Office," which could draw in audiences.

The idea of pet movies as box-office gold suffered a setback with the $12.5 million debut weekend of Cats & Dogs 2: The Revenge of Kitty Galore. The first Cats & Dogs, which released ages ago in 2001,

opened to $21.7 million. With all the original fans of the series now in their teen years, it's no wonder the sequel failed to generate significant buzz.

Zac Efron was able to secure a $12.1 million opening for his romantic drama Charlie St. Cloud, playing a sensitive young man overwrought with guilt over the death of his younger brother. Awareness and intent to see was high among teen girls, but for the movie to open higher it needed to

appeal to broader audience. Efron can enjoy the fact that his weepie romantic movie played better than that of the competition. Twilighter Robert Pattinson's Remember Me opened to just $8 million in March.

On the specialty front, The Kids Are All Right expanded yet again, going from 201 to 847 theatres and bringing in $3.4 million for a total that's now hovering just under the $10 million mark.

Get Low, starring Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, and Billy Murray, had an equally starry debut in four theatres with a per-screen average of $22,700. The Weinstein Co.'s The Concert averaged $10,000 per screen on two screens, and the documentary Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist, Rebel earned $10,000 on one screen.

This Friday, Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell take on the buddy cop comedy in The Other Guys, and Step Up 3D brings urban dancing to theatres everywhere.

'Inception' overpowers 'Salt'

By Sarah Sluis

Remaining in star form, Inception dropped a scant 30% in its second weekend to grab the first-place spot and another $43.5 million. Strong weekday grosses took the movie over $100 million just as the weekend started, bringing its cumulative total to $143.6 million. While the first weekend received the support of younger moviegoers, audiences over the age of 35 helped keep ticket sales brisk through its second weekend.

Salt was not far behind, debuting to $36.5 million. Because of the star power of Angelina Jolie, as well as its action premise, the movie is expected to perform strongly overseas. Producers are still throwing around the idea of a sequel, but the bigger news here is that yet another original story (Despicable Me, Inception, Salt) opened strongly. Pre-sold titles are not always the answer--here's hoping at least one of those board game adaptations Hollywood's been courting is dead in the water.

Kicking off in sixth place, Ramona and Beezus couldn't rise past the single-digit millions, and finished the weekend with $8 million coming from a largely female, family audience. Fox pegged the budget at just $15 million, however, so this movie

should turn a profit, especially once post-theatrical markets are factored in.

After expanding into over 200 theatres, The Kids Are All Right landed just outside of the top ten, bringing in a total of $2.6 million. The strong showing effectively doubled its cumulative gross, which is now just under $5 million. Next week, Focus plans to raise the number of theatres in its release to 500, which could bring the movie over $10 million if it can maintain its pace.

Returning films in the top ten were a mixed bunch, with about half posting drops in the 20% range, and the other half posting drops in the 40% range. CG animation titles posted minimal drops, with Despicable Me dipping 26% to $24.1 million and Toy Story 3 sliding 24% to $9 million. In a market light on adult comedies, Grown Ups maintained with just a 23% fall to $7.6 million. The remaining movies, all adaptations of some kind, fell more heavily: The Twilight Saga: Eclipse tumbled another 47% to $7 million, and The Sorcerer's Apprentice plunged 45% in its second weekend to $9.8 million. M. Night Shyamalan now has a confirmed miss, with The Last Airbender dropping 46% to $4.1 million. Predators fell the furthest, 59% to $2.8 million--just two weeks after it opened to a healthy $24.7 million.

This Friday, Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore will introduce a new 3D animated title to the summer mix. Charlie St. Cloud will give High School Musical fans Zac Efron in a mature, heart-wrenching role, and Dinner for Schmucks will fill the gap in adult comedies.

Midsummer weekend's dream for 'Inception'

By Sarah Sluis

This week, original films, not franchises, won out at the box office.

Leading the pack, Inception finished up the weekend with $60.4 million, on the high side of expectations.

Midnight screenings drew in $3 million, and both Friday and Saturday brought in similarly-sized crowds before dropping slightly on Sunday. Now that the secret is out about the movie's dream-within-a-dream structure, the blogosphere is diving in and dissecting the movie. The most exhaustive analysis to date comes from a New York Magazine interview with actor Dileep Rao (he plays the chemist). For those that have seen the movie [spoiler alert], his take is this: you can hear the top wobble at the end.

Earning double the amount of newbie release The Sorcerer's Apprentice, the original animation title Despicable Me dipped just 42% to finish in second place with $32.7 million, while Apprentice debuted to just $17.3 million. Poor reviews, a muddled

marketing campaign (in my opinion), and just a general confusion of how this Sorcerer's Apprentice related to a Mickey Mouse Fantasia sequence may have contributed to this family-friendly movie's lackluster performance. Despicable Me has the advantage of being fresh and original, and in the land of so many remakes, it's nice to see an original movie open strongly and hold its ground.

That came-out-of-nowhere kid-driven musical Standing Ovation drew in minuscule audiences, ending up with just $361,000 and a pitiful per-screen average of $361. This movie will likely screen much better on DVD at preteen sleepovers.

Among returning movies in the top ten, Predators suffered the worst fate. The reboot of the action/horror franchise plummeted 72% to $6.8 million. Toy Story 3 continued its slow float downward, losing 44% of last week's gross but still finishing with $11.7 million. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse slid down a steep slope, dropping 57% to $13.5 million. Grown Ups held the strongest, with just a 36 % dip for a total of $10 million.

After four weeks of increases at the box office, Cyrus fell 16% in its fifth week to grab the eleventh-place spot and $1.07 million, bringing its total to $5 million. The new indie on the block, The Kids Are All Right, is moving in the opposite direction. The family-centered comedy-drama went from seven to 38 locations, doubled its gross, and finished with $1.02 million, and a standout $27,000 per-screen average.

This Friday, kids' literary adaptation Ramona & Beezus will draw in the young crowd, while the rogue spy movie Salt will lure in audiences with headliner Angelina Jolie.

Audiences fall for 'Despicable Me'

By Sarah Sluis

Coming in much higher than expected, Despicable Me racked up $60.1 million over the weekend. That puts the Illumination Entertainment production right behind the opening weekend figure for Kung Fu Panda, which holds the title for the highest opening for an original, non-Pixar animated movie. Family audiences turned out

in force for the picture, which only recently gained high awareness among the general public. New York Magazine attributedits enviable debut weekend to a trailer placed before Toy Story 3, as well as a marketing campaign that decided to re-focus on the cute minions at the last minute.

In second place, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse fell 48% to $33.4 million, putting it roughly in line with the performance of New Moon. Since the fan-driven movie had already started to drop by Friday of last weekend (it opened on Wednesday), its decline weekend-to-weekend wasn't as significant. The movie will likely earn more than $250 million over the course of its run but fall short of the $300 million mark.

After picking up some good reviews (and a 64% average on Rotten Tomatoes), Predators opened to $25.3

million, a robust debut for the reboot of the humans-as-hunting-bait franchise.

Toy Story 3 dipped just 27%, despite the competition from animated Despicable Me, and added another $22 million to its toy box. With its $340 million total, it also became the highest-grossing Pixar movie ever. A caveat: Higher ticket prices, not higher attendance, brought the movie to the record-breaking position.

Featuring an unconventional love triangle, Cyrus rose 77% from last week and remained in the top ten with a $1.3 million weekend. Fox Searchlight has successfully ramped up this movie from week to week. However, its indie success story is poised to be eclipsed by another unconventional movie family in The Kids Are All Right.

The Kids Are All Right debuted to the highest per-screen

average of the year, $72,000 per screen at seven locations, for a

half-million haul. Shining reviews, as well as its strong appeal to

niche audiences, gave this movie an edge. Pronouncements like that of Dana Stevens

from Slate, who called it "the movie we've been waiting for all year,"

should help this comedy-drama attract a wide range of indie-seeking audiences.

Even as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the first movie in the series, continues to play in 81 theatres, The Girl Who Played with Fire earned $965,000 its opening weekend, with 110 theatres averaging a solid $8,700 per screen. Music Box is releasing the trilogy in quick succession, and the strategy appears to be working. Though the per-screen average of the sequel, $8,700, was slightly lower than that of the original ($9,800), the sequel played in three times as many theatres, which tends to bring down per-screen averages.

The sing-a-long version of Grease opened to $6,500 per screen at twelve locations, for a total of $113,000. Lyrics were cleaned up (I wonder the Pink Ladies still call Sandra "lousy with virginity?") and audience participation was encouraged. Though the opening weekend performance wasn't stellar, if the theatrical release is used to sell new sing-a-long versions of the DVD, it could turn another generation of people into Grease lovers.

This Wednesday, The Sorcerer's Apprentice will enter theatres, followed by the hotly anticipated and well-reviewed Inception.