It’s looking as if this weekend’s box-office champion will be a tough one to call, as the newest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot squares off against last weekend’s monolith, Guardians of the Galaxy. Turtles opens in 3,485 theatres today, boasting strong brand recognition from fans who grew up watching the old cartoons of the ‘80s and ‘90s, as well as from today’s tiny devotees of the Nickelodeon show. Toss in the name clout of director Michael Bay and his former Transformers leading lady Megan Fox, and Turtles could have a strong shot at taking the title from Marvel’s Guardians.
The film’s drawbacks, however, include a PG-13 rating, the hardest rating yet for a theatrical Turtles offering. This may isolate a good chunk of the aforementioned Nickelodeon fans, while its poor reviews (21 percent rotten on Rotten Tomatoes) may keep many of the older, former fans of the franchise at bay. Still, according to Fandango, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is currently out-selling the two G.I. Joe films, the last of which, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, opened to a strong $51 million.
Assuming Turtles performs as well as the pre-release data suggests, whether or not it claims the No. 1 spot at the box office will depend upon how well Guardians of the Galaxy holds. Most Marvel movies dip around 60 percent their second weekend in theatres. However, Galaxy seems to be a particularly successful case, as indicated by its mid-week numbers: The film had the best Tuesday-Wednesday spread of 2014 so far. It should make at least $40 million this weekend, though most likely, it will earn considerably more – certainly enough to give those Turtles a run for their share of moviegoers’ money.
Look for Into the Storm to claim the weekend’s No. 3 position, ahead of fellow new releases Step Up All In and The Hundred-Foot Journey, as well as holdover Lucy. While critics seem to agree the movie’s tornado special effects are impressive, the film’s lack of compelling characters has earned it roundly unfavorable reviews. The lure of a big-screen spectacle should be enough to pull in revenues in the mid-to-low teens, but word-of-mouth will likely hurt its chances of theatrical longevity.
The Step Up franchise has seen diminishing returns with each successive installment, though its overseas popularity remains healthy enough to warrant continued production. The last Step Up film raked in a little under $12 million its opening weekend; All In should fall just shy of this figure.
No. 5 should come down to The Hundred-Foot Journey and Luc Besson’s Lucy. Helen Mirren is a favorite among a certain dedicated set, but advanced buzz surrounding her latest, an adaptation of a Richard C. Morais novel produced by Steven Spielberg and Oprah, has been relatively muted. Previous food-centric films to open in August include Eat Pray Love and Julie & Julia, both of which topped out to around $80 million. Journey probably won’t match those earnings; a debut of $10 million or so is likely. Lucy should also pull in returns in the $10 million range.
Finally, What If, Daniel Radcliffe’s first foray into romantic comedy, also opens today, in 20 locations. The movie has been garnering favorable reviews, and should see healthy returns prior to its larger nationwide expansion.
Twenty-five years ago this past July, When Harry Met Sally… revitalized the romantic comedy genre, ushering in an era of modern rom-coms great (Pretty Woman, Clueless, Bridget Jones’ Diary) and wanting (most Katherine Heigl vehicles). The occasion of the film’s anniversary prompted writers the Internet over to re-evaluate recent offerings; Grantland, for instance, devoted an entire section of its website to nothing but genre musings for the duration of its “Rom-Com Week.”
Most pundits agree: Romantic comedies of the past several years have failed to attain the heights of wit and sentiment achieved in Nora Ephron’s When Harry Met Sally… But the rom-com is not the only genre to have lately fallen from grace. Once staples of the cinema, musicals no longer enjoy an exalted standing. Every few years, a Chicago or a Dreamgirls wins a few Oscars, a Mamma Mia! or a Once develops a cult following, and a Nine or a Jersey Boys becomes popularly regarded as the creative misstep of a talented filmmaker. Something like the recent Begin Again or Get On Up incorporates musical elements into the framework of another genre (the romantic comedy and biopic, respectively); or a specialty offering such as the French Beloved or upcoming God Help the Girl uses a more traditional musical approach to service a narrative so odd, it's like as not to halve the genre’s already niche audience. Thus, filmmakers continue to make musicals, but those of great success, and great acclaim, and mass appeal, are relatively few. Just as the modern romantic comedy seems to want its modern Ephron, the modern musical appears to be lying in wait for its modern Vincente Minnelli.
And yet, the music industry is not without artists capable of scoring or inspiring a musical hit. On Broadway, the songbooks of Billy Joel (Movin’ Out), Queen (We Will Rock You), and, most recently, Carole King (Beautiful) have all been theatrically interpreted to successful results. Instead of adapting another Broadway show, however, we would love to see Hollywood generate its own original fare. One look at the current domestic box office, in which Luc Besson’s Lucy recently opened to a surprisingly strong $44 million, and it’s clear there is yet demand for novel premises.
So, whose songs could make for a great new and original Hollywood musical? Our picks below:
Kate Nash & Childish Gambino
Both the work of Nash, an English chanteuse who boasts Adele’s accent, Lily Allen’s attitude, and Regina Spektor’s arrangements, and the rapper Childish Gambino, a.k.a. “Community” actor Donald Glover, could support independent musicals. But there’s something appealingly zeitgeist-y about pairing the two. This would be the 20something musical, the Brooklyn set and Brooklyn-set. Both artists concern themselves with the tragicomic state of modern dating, exercising a wit, incisiveness and inventiveness above the common make of Top 40 contemporaries. Perhaps the Nash & Gambino musical could feature duel leads who each perform the tunes of the respective songwriters? Perhaps we simply want to hear a “Foundations”/ “Freaks & Geeks” mash-up.
Frank Ocean
The songs on Ocean’s debut album Channel Orange feature protagonists who struggle with issues related to race, class, drugs, and desire. The wonderful “Pyramids,” which takes for its central character a beset stripper; the operatic tale of homosexual unrequited love that is “Bad Religion;” even the album’s melancholy and most successful single, “Thinkin’ Bout You,” could each serve a climactic number. We’re thinking a coming-of-age romance, perhaps one in which the main character has been suddenly thrust from a life of poverty into one of privilege, allowing him to reflect on the place from which he has come (“Crack Rock,” “Pilot Jones”) and comment on the new troubles to which he is now bearing witness (“Sweet Life,” “Super Rich Kids”).
Rufus Wainwright
Wainwright is, simply, one of the best songwriters of the past several decades. Three of his early albums in particular, Poses, Want I and Want II, are exercises in beautiful weirdness best described using a litany of adjectives: theatrical, spiritual, vulgar, sly, melancholy, hilarious. Having written 11 albums and an opera, Wainwright’s body of work is large enough to provide screenwriters with plenty of potential storylines. Given his tongue-in-cheek humor, which is of the sort that would fashion a double-entendre out of the aforementioned phrase, we would suggest a black comedy.
Leonard Cohen
It’s surprising no one has yet written a Leonard Cohen musical, or that the prolific writer himself never attempted the feat. His songs have already featured in a number of films, from McCabe & Mrs. Miller to Natural Born Killers. If Wainwright is one of the best songwriters of the past several decades, Cohen – whose daughter, Lorca, is the biological mother of the daughter Wainwright is raising with his partner Jorn Weisbrodt, Viva Katherine Wainwright Cohen – is one of the cleverest and loveliest lyricists of the past half-century. The LC musical would likely be a reflective affair, but the spiritualist has several up-tempo works that could serve a dance number or two, notably “The Future” and “Everybody Knows.” We’re partial to “Chelsea Hotel No. 2,” the song Cohen wrote about Janice Joplin. A musical about the talented and the doomed, or, as Cohen sings, those “fallen robins?” Endless potential.
Spoon
After the fast sink of the cinematic Rock of Ages, a rock-inspired musical may give many a studio exec pause. But the eminent sing-ability of Spoon’s work, particularly hits “Don’t Make Me A Target,” “The Underdog,” and “You Got Yr. Cherrybomb” from the album Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, plus the widespread familiarity the band enjoys with the teen-to-20something crowd (Spoon’s songs have appeared in “Scrubs,” “How I Met Your Mother,” and, most definitively for its breakout success, “The O.C.”), could just be the perfect, successful combination. A kind of Monkees-esque flick that sees a bunch of likeable guys pal-ing around and singing catchy song after rock tune sounds like great alternative summer programming to the slow and steady march of Marvel films to which we’re to be treated through 2020.
Earlier this week came exciting word from Sony’s executive suite: The studio behind The Amazing Spider-Man franchise intends to release the first-ever female Marvel superhero film, a spin-off of its Spidey series. Most details surrounding the project have yet to be released, although we do know Lisa Joy, of the upcoming Evan Rachel Wood and Anthony Hopkins-starrer Westworld, is the lucky lady writer attached. No word on director, or, most importantly, which of the women populating Spider-Man’s fictive universe is the lucky recipient of her very own tentpole.
Following Monday’s announcement, The Hollywood Reporter published a list of six suggestions, including the “derivative” choice of Spider-Woman, and the intriguing, as most everyone who has seen The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is likely to term it, selection of love interest Gwen Stacy. (Yes, who wouldn’t suspend her disbelief by several stories for the sake of an Emma Stone superhero flick?)
As helpful and informative as the publication’s list is, however, it doesn’t mean very much to those who have never read the Marvel comic-books from which its characters are drawn. And yet, ignorant as we are of the nuances of a personality like Silver Sable, or Bombshell, there are certain abstract characteristics we would love to see represented in female-superhero form. To that end, using Great Ladies of the Cinema past for our inspiration, we’ve compiled a wish-list of traits we’re gunning to see embodied by Sony’s new superwoman:
Smashing expectations, increasing the clout of the Marvel brand, and pulling the domestic box office out of a seasonal slump characterized by some of the weakest returns in a decade – Guardians of the Galaxy did it all this weekend, opening to a stellar $94 million.
GoG’s accomplishments are many. The film bested The Bourne Ultimatum’s $69.3 million debut to set the new opening weekend record for August. It boasts the third highest bow of 2014, just behind Transformers: Age of Extinction (which opened to $100 million) and Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($95 million). It helped reverse a worrisome trend which, for the past several weeks, has seen the domestic box office at a loss to meet the revenue of summers past: This weekend, the total earned by the top 12 films ($172.6 million) was up 40 percent from the same frame last year. Finally, Guardians of the Galaxy proved itself a hit the world over, walking away from the weekend with an incredible $160.4 million worldwide total to its name.
Further data show women were in attendance in larger numbers than at any previous Marvel opening, as 44 percent of viewers were of the female persuasion. That’s a new high: The Avengers previously attracted the most women over its debut weekend, with an audience that was 40 percent female. Fifty-five percent of viewers for Galaxy was also over the age of 25, most likely lured by an aggressive marketing campaign that highlighted the film’s humor and the individual personalities of its five intergalactic protagonists. Speaking of marketing, many pundits were surprised the movie out-performed its tracking numbers - which had it pegged at a $65-$70 million debut - to the extent that it did, but Disney Distribution Chief Dave Hollis largely attributes the film’s success to a promotional campaign that saved 40 percent of its marketing for the week leading up to the premiere, according to Variety.
In a second place far, far away, Lucyraked in $18.3 million this weekend, a downturn of 58 percent. While its drop may seem rather steep, given the film’s poor word-of-mouth (viewers awarded it a C+ CinemaScore grade last week) and crazy competition from those Guardians, its total isn’t too shabby.
Third place went to Get On Up, as expected. The film’s earnings were equally on par with expectations: Universal had predicted returns in the low teens, which is what the film delivered, grossing $14 million. That’s better than recent musical Jersey Boys, which bowed to $13.3 million, though considerably weaker than director Tate Taylor’s The Help ($35.9 million over its five-day opening). Still, viewers awarded the film a strong CinemaScore grade of an A, meaning word-of-mouth, coupled with its positive reviews, should help Get On Up reach a respectable total of $70 million or so.
Numbers four and five went to Hercules and its $10.7 million gross, and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes with its $8.7 million worth of earnings, respectively. Other notables included A Most Wanted Man, which retained its hold on the No. 10 position with $3.3 million, after having expanded to 729 theatres this weekend. Finally, Boyhood earned itself another distinction, that of the third highest-grossing film of all time for distributor IFC, just behind My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Y Tu Mama Tambien. Richard Linklater’s latest is the very definition of a gamble that paid off.
FJI correspondent Doris Toumarkine reports on a singular meeting of two very different screen legends.
It was billed as “An Evening With Isabelle Huppert,” but it was also a subversive two-hander of live chatter at New York's Walter Reade Theater, hosted by The Film Society of Lincoln Center. The go-to girl who has worked for some of the world’s greatest directors in some of cinema’s most shocking films (Haneke’s The Piano Teacher, Chabrol’s La Cérémonie, to name just a few) shared the stage with the “Divine” John Waters, the bad-boy filmmaker director who turned sleaze into a nice word and the divinely grotesque cross-dressing Harris Glenn Milstead into the star better known as Divine.
Huppert is very French and Waters very Baltimore, but there was no continental divide up on the Walter Reade stage. The two found uncommon common ground in a mutual love of disrupting the conventional with their work. The French are good at this and even have a term for it—épater la bourgeoisie or, roughly, shock the pants off the stuffed shirts.
Waters, of course, did this with such films as Pink Flamingos, Mondo Trasho, Polyester and Hairspray (these and other hits will comprise the first complete Waters retrospective in the U.S. this September, also to take place at Lincoln Center). And Huppert, as predictably as the latest technology, continues to disrupt as evidenced by her role as a stroke patient in Cathérine Breillat’s recent and somewhat autobiographical Abuse of Weakness, whose screening preceded the talk.
Huppert and Waters didn’t exactly shock the audience but warmed up the room in a lively conversation (no “scat chat”) revealing the actor and director’s love of working on the edge and deep respect for each other.
And putting things bluntly, as when Waters asked Huppert about whether it was painful for her to play the stroke victim character (“I mean she didn’t even get laid”). Huppert, showing her Frenchiness, countered with her feeling that there could have been and should have been sex in the film. As to whether Breillat, crippled by the real-life stroke, will ever direct again, Huppert said that she’ll be making movies for as long as she can.
Back on their slippery playing field, Waters wanted to know what kind of project Huppert, with nearly a hundred titles to her credit, might say ‘no’ to. Huppert countered that “I’m not an easy girl… I like to play survival victims and put them in the light.”
When Waters accused her of loving to play bad women, Huppert wisely countered with “No. I play women in bad situations.” Touché, as the French also say. As an actor she likes to explore.
Referring to what Waters described as “extreme directors,” Huppert offered that she didn’t work with Fassbinder but did several films with Werner Schroeter, one of her favorites who “reminds me of you.” Huppert “got along so well with him” and says that when she believes in a director’s talent, “I’m completely comfortable and like to give myself. Huppert also regrets not having worked with Buñuel, Bergman, Sirk, Hitchcock and (drumroll) Waters.
Continuing on the “extreme” track, Waters asked her about Lars von Trier. Waters is a “fan.” Huppert, for whom playing a nymphomaniac would be no stretch, allowed that “I like him but never worked with him.”
Movies chewed over included Elia Kazan’s Wanda, which Huppert’s husband distributes and which, said Waters, rehearsed in the famed and infamous Warhol Factory. Huppert called the film interesting because it’s about the creative process, how to get a movie made, a metaphor about finding the money.
Waters, referring to the film’s urinating scene, asked Huppert whether she considered Haneke’s The Piano Teacher “the most extreme of movies.” She concurred: “Yes, it’s radical and extreme but also a great love story.” Maybe surprising to many, Huppert described Haneke (also the director of the grim and brilliant Amour) as “funny.”
Generally, Huppert said she gets along with directors who have a vision. “I don’t get along with non-talented people, that’s for sure.” But she feels liberated when working with those she trusts and finds shelter in the work.
She sees no difference in female directors and believes their movies can’t be called “female.” Asked specifically about Marguerite Duras, about whether she was a friend, Huppert got a laugh when she shot back: “I’m not sure you can be friends with Duras.”
And she’s not a believer in rehearsals: “Especially before shooting, it takes life from the role.”
Huppert shared that she’s opening next week in Jean Gênet’s play The Maids and is shooting two films in America, one Norwegian, the other French. As for the difference between theatre and film, she calls movies “routine” and theatre “exceptional.”
And, Waters dared, might she herself direct? “Maybe out of curiosity but maybe never because I’m lazy.”
Did we mention that Waters confessed his love for “abortion movies” and Huppert reads “the good reviews” she gets? Maybe a dearth of material for Waters, but Huppert must have piles to go through.
Whether or not you're one to enjoy the scientifically preposterous gambit that is Luc Besson's Lucy, its strong showing at the box office last weekend seems to signal something roundly positive for Hollywood: namely, movies with female leads and original premises (by "original" we mean those storylines that do not build off in sequel, or prequel, or spinoff fashion the plot of something that has already been done. Did we say already?) can lure a sizable audience. Pamela McClintock of The Hollywood Reporteranalyzes just how and why Lucy managed to best what should have been stiffer competition, that generous helping of testosterone popularly billed as Hercules.
Unfortunately, not everything over the past several days has echoed the empowering sight of ScarJo in action mode. When The Village Voice writer Stephanie Zacharek asserted her voice in lone opposition to this week's offering to the fanboys, Guardians of the Galaxy, said fanboys turned nasty. Not only did they impugn Zacharek's critical faculties, they attacked her personally, for being a woman, and offered helpful suggestions of the horribly misogynistic sort: "stick to reviewing chick flicks only." Sam Adams of Indiewire took to the site's blog yesterday to air his both male and non-sexist response to those Nathaniel Hawthorne characters calling Zacharek a "harlot," which was nice. Says Adams, "Sick 18th-century burn, dude."
Yes, archaism seems to be the order of things in many places, though happily, not everyone's head is twisted quite so far backwards. UN Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson, for instance, proved she was taking her new role seriously when she tweeted a picture of herself looking considerably less than serious. The actress posted her laughing snap in response to a speech made by Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Arinc, in which he exhorted women to be chaste and "not laugh in public." The silly comment prompted Turkish women to begin tweeting out pictures of themselves giggling, chuckling, guffawing, and otherwise normally (it is sad one could equally say here "defiantly") enjoying themselves, all with the accompanying hashtag, "#direnkahkaha" or "#direnkadin" ("resist laughter" and "resist woman," respectively). Watson's tweet of solidarity read: "#laugh #direnkahkaha @UN_Women." The actress with 14 million Twitter followers has thus earned herself the mantle of Coolest and Best Use of Global Platform this week.
While you'd be hard-pressed to find many a Westerner (all right, besides the GoG "harlot" hordes) who find Watson's stance on international affairs reprehensible, the same cannot be said of the Western response to fellow celebs Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, and Pedro Almodovar. The three, along with several others, earlier this week signed their names toan open letter denouncing Israel's recent bombings of Gaza as "genocide." Cruz and Bardem have each since independently issued "clarification" letters expressing their sympathy and goodwill towards the Israeli people, but one imagines so far as those who are pro-Israel are concerned, loyalties that transcend even Hollywood fandom, the damage has been done.
A sense of irreversibility is something Christopher Nolan, J.J. Abrams, and Quentin Tarantino are trying their darnedest to combat. Film manufacturer Kodak has entered into negotiations with the major studios in an attempt to keep film a viable filmmaking option. Nolan, Abrams and Tarantino are among those who have voiced concern over the recent industry-wide switch to digital shooting and projection, likewise urging Hollywood to halt that technological progress which, as its inevitable byproduct, is making their beloved medium obsolete. Kodak hopes to continue making film available for shooting, distributing and archival purposes.
Will whoever helms the new adaptation of Donna Tartt's Pulitzer-winning novel The Goldfinch for Warner Bros. shoot on film? What about all those forthcoming Harry Potter-related movies Warner Bros. has likewise assembled a task force to plan, among other Potter offerings? One can assume, given the opportunity, Tarantino will certainly shoot his on-again, off-again, back-on-again The Hateful Eight on film.
While you await the answers to those questions, here's a pair of awesome teaser trailers released earlier this week. Should you have more than a minute to spare, Wesley Morris of Grantland'swonderful take on the modern rom-com is well, well worth the read.
Guardians of the Galaxy has a fair shot at setting an August opening weekend record, so the pundits say. The latest film from Marvel opens in 4,080 theatres today, which is, actually, already a record – no August release has ever bowed in so many locations before. That the movie will open at No. 1 is a foregone conclusion; pundits are less sure just how much it will rake in.
On the one hand, there’s the high precedent set by those Marvel films released since The Avengers managed its boffo returns in 2012. Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier all opened to $85 million or more. However, each of those films already had a built-in following not only from the comic books on which they’re based, but, as each of the titles are sequels, from the first films in their respective franchises. Additionally, the individual characters populating Guardians of the Galaxy are significantly less well-known than standalone superheroes Iron Man, Thor and Captain America. Disney does, however, seem to understand popular unfamiliarity is a hurdle in need of some savvy surmounting; thus, much of the film’s marketing has focused on introducing the five guardians and playing up their individual personalities. Playing up the jokes as well: The film’s tongue-in-cheek humor has figured prominently in trailers. Many believe Guardians should open in line with the first Captain America and Thor, and rake in around $65 million.
Others say that’s a conservative estimate. This camp is using data from Fandango to support its claim: Guardians is the company’s biggest August pre-seller ever, and is currently out-tracking the aforementioned Captain America: The First Avenger and Thor. If the numbers bear out, Guardians of the Galaxy could best The Bourne Ultimatum’s $69.3 million opening to set a new August record. Given advance buzz and favorable reviews (91 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), this seems likely.
James Brown biopic Get On Up is the other new major release bowing today, although it probably won’t secure the No. 2 spot behind Guardians. Second-place standing will instead likely go to last week’s No. 1, Lucy. Biopics don’t normally enjoy big opening weekends: The genre’s notable successes include Ray ($20 million) and Walk the Line ($22.3 million), both of which had awards-season buzz working in their favor. Get On Up distributor Universal is predicting returns in the low teens.
Finally, the specialty box office welcomes the latest from John Michael McDonagh, Calvary, starring McDonagh favorite (of John Michael as well his brother,In Bruges director Martin) Brendan Gleeson. Calvary screens in four theatres, while A Most Wanted Man expands to 727 locations today.
