Audiences head to the theatres over New Year's weekend

By Sarah Sluis

The top fourteen movies this week all performed better than last week. Despite these strong week-to-week holds, the box office overall was still down $8 million and 6% from last year. The national holiday on Monday made for a strong finish to the four-day weekend.

Mission: Impossible--Ghost Protocol showed that Tom Cruise is back. Its four-day total of $38.2 million was a 30% improvement from the previous week. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows also rose 30% to $26.5 million. The improvements for these blockbuster films were actually the weakest of the bunch.

Adding 171 theatres, War Horse moved from a cantor to a gallop, earning a whopping 155% more than last week for a $19.2 million four-day total. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo also gained traction, with a 50% increase to $19 million that shows this thriller still has audiences to tap.

The romantic comedy New Year's Eve finally benefited from its topicality, showing a 133% increase to $7.7 million. That's as good as the ensemble movie's second weekend way back in mid-December.

Steven Spielberg-directed motion capture film The Adventures of Tintin increased 54% compared to Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked's 67% improvement, proof that the high-pitched voices of the chipmunks are a siren song to youngsters.

Rising back into the top ten, The Descendants made 100% more than last week while adding another $4.2 million for a $40 million total. This indie definitely appears to be a crowd-pleaser, which could raise its profile come awards season.

The two indies posting the strongest per-screen averages were Pina and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. The first, a 3D dance documentary, averaged $31,000 per screen in three locations. Tinker, the John Le Carre spy adaptation, held onto a $26,500 per screen average, even while playing in 57 locations. Finally, Warner Bros.' 9/11 drama Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close finished with a $24,800 per-screen average while playing in six locations.

The three specialty releases and awards hopefuls that squeaked in before the end of 2011 all showed incredibly strong debuts. It's no surprise that Meryl Streep's portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady tallied $70,000 per screen in four locations. When was the last time Streep has done wrong? The Iranian drama A Separation earned $26,500 each in three locations, an admirable opening. Finally, Pariah made $16,300 per screen in three locations, an especially strong debut for a movie with limited visibility compared to its peers.

This Friday will be a quiet one for new releases as people continue to catch up on holiday releases. The horror release The Devil Inside will be the only new major addition to the lineup of wide releases.

'Tintin,' 'M:I 4,' 'Dragon Tattoo,' and 'We Bought a Zoo' compete for holiday audiences

By Sarah Sluis

This year, Christmas falls on Sunday and Monday is a national holiday. Though a half-dozen wide releases will join the holiday movie fray between Wednesday and Sunday, the box office is currently down 4% from last year. A defecit that large will be hard to make up, putting the industry on edge.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2,800 theatres) already jumped the gun and opened in theatres on 7pm on Tuesday, earning an estimated $1.6 million. David Noh praised the David Fincher-directed adaptation of the Swedish book and film, calling it a "highly satisfying and smart thriller." As the tattoed and mowhawked Lisbeth, Rooney Mara turns in a "supremely iconic performance." Audiences are excited too, with 26% of people visiting Movietickets.com saying they would see the movie over the holiday. The only film to post a higher percentage? Mission: Impossible--Ghost Protocol, which captured 26.8% of the vote.

M:I 4 will expand from 500 to over 3,400 theatres today. Audiences who saw the actioner last week are spreading the word. From Wednesday to Sunday, the Tom Cruise picture is projected to earn $35-40 million, slightly higher than Dragon Tattoo.

The Adventures of Tintin (3,000 theatres) has already earned $240 million overseas, where kids and adults alike are familiar with the Belgian comic book character. In the U.S, the character is not as well-known, but director Steven Spielberg's "splashy animated adventure," which critic Chris Barsanti compares to his Indiana Jones series, could win over American audiences, but it will take time. Its opening will be behind some of the big adult pictures, with many estimating a total in the high $20 millions through Sunday.

On Friday, We Bought a Zoo (3,000 theates) will join the menagerie. Cameron Crowe directs the feel-good tale about a widower father (Matt Damon) who buys a run-down zoo. The "facilely obvious" movie did not win over critic David Noh, who had this to say: "Strictly targeted family films always lay it on pretty thick; We Bought a Zoo uses a two-ton trowel." The PG-rated movie will probably see the most action the Monday after the holiday, since Christmas Eve is considered a low day at the box office.

On Sunday, Christmas Day, War Horse (2,300 theatres) will give audiences another Steven Spielberg-directed option. Kevin Lally was touched by the tale of a boy and his horse, separted by the events of World War I. He called it a "lovingly crafted, impressive achievement from a movie master." Some have decried the play adaptation for its sentimentality, but the holidays are often a perfect time to release such films.

Sunday will also see the release of The Darkest Hour (2,200 theatres), an alien invasion film set in Russia that's the black sheep of the bunch. Summit probably hopes to target those looking for the sci-fi/horror fare that's not available this time of year, and capitalize on the high theatre attendance around the holiday.

In addition to the wide releases, a host of specialty films will debut or expand into new territories. A romance set during the Bosnian War, In the Land of Blood and Honey (6 theatres) will release on Friday. Angelina Jolie shows "real flair as a filmmaker" in her writing/directing debut, according to critic Marsha McCreadie. Black-and-white silent The Artist will expand into 170 theatres, and My Week with Marilyn into 400 theatres. On Sunday, the 9/11 literary adaptation Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close will open in just 6 theatres.

Next week will start to reveal which films will be the hits or disappointments of 2011. Many of these releaes will play strongly or expand through January. Then there's awards season, which is only just beginning.

Teaser 'War Horse' trailer quintessential Spielberg

By Sarah Sluis

Steven Spielberg hasn't directed a film since the meh sequel Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. His next film, War Horse, is coming out this Christmas, intent on grabbing audiences during what's often a sentimental, entertainment-heavy time of year. The teaser trailer for the movie just came out, but I wasn't immediately impressed.

The movie is based on the novel and play War Horse. I have heard nothing but raves for the play, so I was expecting the trailer to pull me in. It didn't. One key difference: The play received the most word-of-mouth praise from its incredibly life-like horse puppets. The movie uses a real-life horse, so it's hard to compare. The only hint of how the movie might give the horse humanizing attributes is at :50, when we see a close-up of a girl's reflection in the horse's eye. Gorgeous.

The trailer doesn't reveal the plot, just the settting and a loose sense of the emotional register. Since movies have been giving way too much away lately in trailers, I'm pleased that there's some mystery about the story, but at this point all we're seeing are shots of WWI and a horse. The actual story involves a boy who goes on a journey to find his horse, which is fighting in the battlefields of Europe in WWI. It's the kind of rescue mission that's implausible and melodramatic, but wasn't Saving Private Ryan founded on the same premise?

For a trailer that's based entirely on looks, it doesn't do a whole lot to draw you in. It took me a couple of viewings before I could appreciate the visuals of the trailer, my favorite being when a group of soldiers hiding in a wheat field collectively mount their horses. It made me reflect on Spielberg himself, who's always been nearly invisible in terms of style. People talk about Spielberg's frequent themes, like children of divorced parents and friendly aliens, but can't put a finger on his style. Spielberg's always followed the tenets of classical Hollywood style, as this discussion of his cutting style drives home.

Even when there are explosions (:10, 1:00), beautiful sunsets (1:35), and epic battle sequences (1:32), Spielberg has our eyes trained on the boy or the horse. It's pretty incredible. I put Spielberg with James Cameron in the category of filmmakers who are true masters of invisible filmmaking. In fact, it's enough to make me pull out my nerd hat and offer you this example, thanks to Hulu. In the T-Rex scene in his 1993 film Jurassic Park, look how clearly Spielberg establishes the space, opening with a wide shot and then moving in. Also notice how he pans to connect places. This short sequence has a half-dozen pans. Modern directors would just cut all over the place, and would also do some lame cut-ins, as if we wanted to see a close-up of a hand holding a flare when there's a T-Rex around. I'm being harsh on War Horse, but seeing the movie is a given. Even with tons of war scenes, the focus will be on the boy and the horse. It's directed by Steven Spielberg, the king of classical Hollywood style.

Back-to-back Spielberg in December 2011

By Sarah Sluis

Steven Spielberg hasn't directed anything for over two years. His last film, in case you can't remember, was Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, a taut throwback to his earlier work but greeted rather tepidly by critics--and myself. He now has two films coming out: The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, which he's been working on for years, and War Horse, which only started production. Both films, it turns out, will release within five days of each other during December 2011.

Why so close?

-DreamWorks, which only has a financial stake in War Horse, made the decision to move the Disney release. They don't care about Tintin as much. But Spielberg probably does, and they also don't want to upset Sony and Paramount, the distributors of Tintin. The fact that Tintin will release first, followed by War Horse, seems like a concession of sorts. Tintin will be first out of the gate, and that can make a difference at the box office.

-War Horse "felt like a holiday movie," according to DreamWorks executive Stacey Snider. The movie centers on a young WWI soldier trying to find his horse, which is a rather Spielberg-y project; wars, young boys all alone, etc. The material is rather dark, especially if you look at the pictures of the stage production, so it makes sense that the movie will release during the holiday movie season, and not the more popcorn-y summer season. In fact, it makes me wonder if that was the plan all along.

In other news, literary adaptation The Help was moved to the spot vacated by War Horse, August 25th. Plans are to market this as an event film along the lines of Eat Pray Love or Julie & Julia. I enjoyed this novel, which was popular among book clubs. The premise has some similarities to the Fox Searchlight movie The Secret Life of Bees--a movie that opened to $10 million but made $37 million on an $11 million production budget. Both books center on white characters in black worlds in the South. Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Bryce Dallas Howard lead the cast, and I have high hopes for the film.

DreamWorks has an impressive slate planned, which includes other films like Real Steel (from Night of the Museum's Shawn Levy). I look forward to seeing the studio step up and turn out more of the "elevated genre" pictures (their wording) they plan on producing.