Life On The Bubble

Box Office: Hopkins' 'Rite' Is Light at $15M, 'King's Speech' Surges | TheWrap.com

The power of Anthony Hopkins playing a priest compelled just enough moviegoers to make Warner's "The Rite" the No. 1 film at the domestic box office, grossing an estimated $15 million this weekend, according to studio data.

A handful of other films took in $11 million each this weekend - notably the Ocar-nominated "The King's Speech" -  still leaving the box office a weak 16 percent behind its performance last year.

"The Rite" came in on the low side of pre-release tracking for the exorcism-themed film, which had a production costs of around $40 million while garnering a B score from  Cinemascore.

"We predicted a gross in the range of $14 million to $16 million, and we came in right in the middle," said Dan Fellman, president of distribution for Warner Bros.

Some tracking firms had "The Rite" grossing $18 million or slightly more.

Oscar nominees did brisk business, notably The Weinstein Company's contender "The King's Speech," which surged 41 percent to take in $11.1 million at 2,557 theaters. The film led the nominations pack with 12 nods from the voting academy.

The weekend's other new wide release, CBS Films' low-budget remake of the Charles Bronson ode to pro killing, "The Mechanic," grossed $11.5 million, beating its studio's publicly stated estimate of around $8 million.

• 'The Mechanic': By Comparison, Charles Bronson's Original Was Pure Art-House Jan 27, 2011

The opening was in line with a typical start for "Mechanic" star Jason Statham, noted CBS Films distribution chief Steven Friedlander.

via www.thewrap.com

Box Office: Anthony Hopkins Looks to Exorcise Some Demons; So Does CBS Films | TheWrap.com

It's about exorcising demons at the box office this weekend.

With Anthony Hopkins set to play a go-to priest for those experiencing demonic-possessive issues, Warner is opening the PG-13-rated "The Rite" in 2,985 theaters this weekend and is expecting to gross somewhere between $16 million and $18 million for its trouble and lead the box office.

CBS Films, meanwhile, is opening "The Mechanic" -- a remake of the 1972 Charles Bronson hitman classic -- in 2,703 domestic locations, and is expecting to make around $8 million. Jason Statham stars.

It's a modest target for the R-rated film, but not a bad one considering CBS Films paid only around $4 million to acquire North American distribution rights for "The Mechanic" from Avi Lerner's Millennium Films, which spent around $40 million to make it.

via www.thewrap.com

'Thor' Script Leak Brings Down Paramount and Marvel Thunder | TheWrap.com

The leak of the upcoming God of Thunder blockbuster certainly hits all the right notes in the Marvel universe ... especially in anticipation of the upcoming "Avengers" movie directed by Joss Whedon.

The "Thor" script that ComicBookMovie.com obtained has -- as TheWrap reported before -- a cameo by Hawkeye, the character played by Jeremy Renner of "Hurt Locker" fame.

• Epic Comic-Con Wins for Disney, 'Scott Pilgrim'; Who Failed? Jul 26, 2010

• DC Gearing up Online, On-Screen to Challenge Marvel Oct 05, 2010

There is also a "Dr. Pym" mentioned, which is likely Dr. Francis Pym (aka Ant-man). That character has been mentioned several times as a possible cameo in "The Avengers" and a movie of his own.

Then there is the big one.

The script mentions a pioneer in gamma radiation which can only be a reference to Dr. Bruce Banner (aka the Hulk). The muscle-bound, green-skinned Hulk is to be played by "The Kids Are All Right" Oscar nominee Mark Ruffalo.

via www.thewrap.com

Box Office: 'No Strings' Takes in Solid $20.3M | TheWrap.com

The romantic pairing of Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman produced results at the domestic box office this weekend, with Paramount's Ivan Reitman-directed "No Strings Attached" grossing an estimated $20.3 million, according to studio data.

The $25 million romantic comedy came in with soft reviews (under 50 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), an R rating and a string of rom-com flops before it.

But the film lived up to its robust tracking, with women under 25 -- 57 percent of whom marked the movie their "first choice" in pre-release tracking-firm surveys -- flocking to see it.

Last weekend's box-office champ, "The Green Hornet," also had a strong second weekend, grossing an estimated $18.1 million and dropping only around 45 percent week-to-week. It's domestic total has reached $63.4 million on a $130 million production spend.

In third place, Universal ensemble comedy "The Dilemma" dropped only 45 percent in its second weekend, grossing an estimated $9.7 million and bringing its domestic total to $33.4 million on a $70 million production budget.

via www.thewrap.com

TheWrap.com: Google CEO Eric Schmidt Stepping Down

Wow, surprising. Click through for Dylan's pithy article and Schmidt's "An Update From the Chairman" note on the management change.

Eric Schmidt is stepping down as Google's chief executive, the company announced on Thursday. Larry Page, Google's 37-year-old co-founder, will take the reins as CEO on April 4.

Schmidt, 55, made the announcement via Twitter, linking to a note with this quip: "Day-to-day adult supervision no longer needed!" He joined Google in 200

via www.thewrap.com

Nikki Finke (deadline.com): ‘Green Hornet 3D’ Tops MLK Long Weekend With $40.5M; ‘Dilemma’ Disastrous $20.6M

Click through for the details.

This was a tough weekend at the box office for one new major studio tentpole opening on a long Martin Luther King weekend but not for another which met the lower end of expectations. The 4-day holiday overall is looking -25% down from last year's:

via www.deadline.com

Ben Fritz (LA Times): 'Green Hornet' has plenty of buzz, 'The Dilemma' may have a problem

Martin Luther King Day weekend has increasingly become a lucrative one for Hollywood, but that's much more likely to hold true for the debut of "The Green Hornet" than "The Dilemma" this year.

The 3-D super-hero action comedy "Green Hornet," starring Seth Rogen, is well positioned to be No. 1 this holiday weekend, according to people who have seen pre-release polling, while "The Dilemma," which pairs comedy stars Vince Vaughn and Kevin James, has much softer prospects.

"Green Hornet" should sell between $40 million and $50 million worth of tickets in the U.S. and Canada from Friday through Monday, while "The Dilemma" will likely be much lower, at between $15 million and $20 million.

via latimesblogs.latimes.com

Ben Fritz (LA Times): 'True Grit' beats 'Little Fockers'; 'Season of the Witch' and 'Country Strong' start soft [Updated]

After three weekends in theaters, "True Grit" has finally out-shot the competition.

The Coen brothers-directed western was No. 1 on a very soft post-New Year's weekend at the box office, as its ticket sales dropped a bit less than the winner of the last two weekends, "Little Fockers."

"Grit," which stars Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon, declined 39% to a studio-estimated $15 million, while the star-laden comedy "Little Fockers" was off 47% at $13.8 million, according to studio estimates.

Neither of the weekend's two new films did much business. The Nicolas Cage historical action film "Season of the Witch" opened to only $10.7 million, and the Gwyneth Paltrow drama "Country Strong" debuted to $7.3 million.

via latimesblogs.latimes.com

Lisa de Moraes - Oprah can't stop chattering at TV press tour

You gotta love Lisa de Moraes. Hilarious take on Oprah at the TCAs yesterday. Click through for the rest.

Just days after thousands of red-winged blackbirds dropped dead in Arkansas, more than 200 journalists were simultaneously lobotomized by Oprah Winfrey at television's Winter Press Tour 2011.

Oprah talked and talked and talked and talked. And then, she talked some more. And some more. And some more. Nearly an hour of psycho-babble about what it's like to be Oprah - the vessel from God who uses TV as a vehicle for the betterment of mankind but who does not allow TV to be on in her house.

[snip]

About halfway through the verbal siege, TV critics began to tweet to the outside world - cries for help from hostages in the ballroom at the Langham hotel in Pasadena:

via www.washingtonpost.com

Brendan Bettinger (Collider): Movie Box Office 2010 Recap

Damn. It's pretty easy to see how Brendan Bettinger spent the week between Christmas and New Year's. Nice job.

I have to use words to write for Collider, but my heart will always belong to the numbers. And few things cinematic provide the sheer numeric power of the box office.

I wanted to take a look at how the 2010 releases performed at the box the box office. We report on the totals each weekend, but that doesn’t always tell the whole story. Which movies had greater appeal overseas? Which genres were the most profitable? Which releases had “legs,” and kept audiences coming back week after week?

And so, after the jump, I sort and break down the past year in box office into charts and graphs every which way I can think of: by total gross, opening weekend, genre, release date, studio, MPAA rating, and staying power. From Alice in Wonderland ($334 million) to Youth in Revolt ($15 million):

For the most part we’ll look at wide releases — films that at one point played in 1000+ theaters. (Sorry, The Kids Are All Right, but I don’t know what to do with your 994-theater release.) There were 126 wide releases that opened between January 2010 to December 2010. The data — provided by Box Office Mojo and The Numbers — should be updated through December 30th, the final Thursday in 2010. Here’s a scatterplot at the total domestic gross of every wide release this year.

via collider.com

Ben Fritz (LA Times): Small openings for 'Season of the Witch,' 'Country Strong' mean 'Fockers' and 'Grit' will battle at top

Neither one of the two new movies opening Friday, the fantasy action flick "Season of the Witch" and the musical drama "Country Strong," is expected to sell as many tickets as the most popular two releases of the past two weekends, "Little Fockers" and "True Grit," according to people who have seen pre-release audience polling.

"Witch," which stars Nicolas Cage, should debut to about $12 million in the U.S. and Canada, while "Country Strong" will likely open to between $5 million and $7 million.

 "Little Fockers" and "True Grit" will likely each take in between $12 million and $15 million on their third weekend in theaters.

via latimesblogs.latimes.com

Spec Market Roundup - December 2010 (with link to the PDF)

If you're on my mailing list, you know I totally phoned it in last week when it came time to put together the Spec Market Roundup for December.  Between working on a fairly big deal related to itsonthegrid.com (details to come, knock wood) and pre-loading for NYE, it was all I could do to list last month's sold specs, tracking board style.  I even neglected to schedule the mailing until today.

Below are links to the Roundup as well as the year-end Spec Market Scorecard, in case it slipped through the cracks over the holidays.  Enjoy.

 

Spec Market Roundup - December 2010 -- http://bit.ly/dQQjmc

 

Spec Market Scorecard - Year-End 2010 -- http://bit.ly/dVVgYO

Alex Pham (LA Times): Amazon's Kindle opens new chapter for publishing industry

Wow. Click through for the interview with Russ Grandinetti, Amazon's VP of Kindle content.

Hat tip to Jason Hirschhorn's Media ReDEFined newsletter for linking to this last week.

When Amazon.com Inc. launched its Kindle digital book business in 2007, little did many people realize that the company was really rewriting the book on the entire publishing industry.

Three years later, the online retail juggernaut has sold more than 7 million Kindle devices, according to estimates by Cowen and Co. That means roughly 1 in 10 people who shop on Amazon's Web store have purchased a Kindle. This year, sales of Kindle devices and books are projected to hit nearly $2 billion, up 342% from 2009, according to Cowen.

When it comes to digital books, Amazon lives up to its name, controlling 76% of the U.S. market.

via www.latimes.com

Ben Fritz (LA Times): 'True Grit' almost gallops past 'Little Fockers'

"Little Fockers" did hold onto the No. 1 spot at the box office over New Year's weekend, but the real holiday box-office champ turned out to be "True Grit."

The western, directed by the Coen brothers and starring Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon, sold an estimated $24.5 million in tickets on its second weekend in theaters. That put it just behind the more hyped and more expensive "Little Fockers," starring Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller, which took in $26.3 million.

No new movies debuted nationwide the week after Christmas as studios focused on raking in more money with its big holiday films. With many people off work and kids out of school, the last seven days were some of the most lucrative that the industry had seen all year.

via latimesblogs.latimes.com

Ben Fritz (LA Times): 'Little Fockers' big but littler than its predecessor; 'True Grit' strong second; 'Gulliver's Travels' flops

If, like me, you've been on a holiday schedule and are just now wondering how the weekend's openers fared, click through the below. The weekend estimates are below Ben Fritz's usual excellent analysis.

The Fockers are still the king of the busy holiday box office as "Little Fockers" had a pretty good start, but the Coen brothers' "True Grit" was surprisingly close on their heels. Meanwhile, Jack Black's "Gulliver's Travels" barely got off the starting line.

"Little Fockers" opened to a studio-estimated $48.3 million from its Wednesday opening through Sunday, not bad but well behind the $70.5-million launch of its predecessor, "Meet the Fockers," on the same dates in 2004.

Though the opening of the PG-13 family comedy starring Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro was softer than expected based on pre-release surveys going into the weekend, "True Grit" topped expectations. The western remake starring Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen took in $36.8 million over the five days

The only other new movie in nationwide release was the Jack Black comedy "Gulliver's Travels," a 3-D adaptation of the classic Jonathan Swift story. It debuted Saturday, Christmas Day, and took in a weak estimated $7.2 million for the two-day weekend.

via latimesblogs.latimes.com

Ben Fritz (LA Times): Career ladder from assistant to Hollywood's top echelons gets tougher to climb

Lots of smart points in this article, most of it certainly resonates for me (especially the final paragraph). Wish Ben had drilled down a bit into Nina Jacobson's quotes -- I think the lack of churn at the top is as big a factor as the declining number of overhead deals.

It's a career path that has become the stuff of legend: Start off in the mailroom at a talent agency or doing menial tasks for a producer, director or studio executive, and one day you could be one of the empowered few who decide what movies end up on the big screen. Such well-known names as DreamWorks Studios Chairman Stacey Snider and mega-producer Brian Grazer trod that road to the top.

But as radical changes in the entertainment business force studios to cut staff, make fewer movies and generally reduce the amount of money flowing through the town, these thousands of young people have found the Hollywood career ladder a steeper and more treacherous climb.

via www.latimes.com

Nikki Finke (deadline.com): ‘Tron' Opens With $43.6M For Disney; ‘How Do You Know’ Expensive Flop For Sony

Click through for the rest, including Nikki's "How Do You Know" takedown.

Here's the Top 10:

1. Tron: Legacy 3D (Disney) NEW [3,451 Theaters]
Friday $18M, Saturday $14.9M, Weekend $43.6M, Intl $23M, Global $66.6M

Sequels 28 years after the original rarely happen in Hollywood. Yet this was exactly the sort of movie to benefit during the pre-Christmas rush because of the obvious fanboy interest, helped by the fact that every young male is out of school and can indulge his cultural need to see films like this first. So Hollywood and even Disney had been expecting a weekend of at least $50M. "Depends how good it is," one rival studio exec snarked. The movie's domestic grosses fell short. Remember that Friday's number included $3.6M from midnight screenings, so Saturday's take didn't increase -- not a good sign. With a budget estimated as $150M, and a global marketing push estimated at another $120M, Tron: Legacy 3D had a ton of pre-sales domestically but will have to depend on international overperforming. Globally, Tron 2 opened in 26 international markets (Australia, Brazil, Japan, Scandinavia, Spain, UK, etc.) representing about 50% of the marketplace. Overseas, Tron took in $23M for a worldwide total now of $66.6M.

2. Yogi Bear 3D (Warner Bros) NEW [3,515 Theaters]
Friday $4.7M, Saturday $7.1M, Weekend $16.7M

Not much good to say when Hollywood thought the bear could muster domestic grosses between $20M and $25M. Nope. The kiddie matinee bump for Yogi Bear was +52% on Saturday. Let's see how it does over the holiday. But I pity the poor parent who has to sit through this Jellystone Park mind-dumber, even with the nostalgia factor. Especially considering the higher 3D ticket prices.

3. Narnia/Dawn Treader 3D (Walden/Fox) Week 2 [3,555 Theaters]
Friday $3.5M, Saturday $5.1M, Weekend $12.4M (-48%), Cume $42.7M

4. The Fighter (Relativity/Paramount) Week 2 [2,503 Theaters]
Friday $3.9M, Saturday $4.8M, Weekend $12.2M, Cume $12.6M

Paramount gushed what a "great start" this expansion is for their blue collar Oscar contender. "We should have great word of mouth and play to a great multiple," an exec tells me because of The Fighter's high 89% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and "A-" CinemaScore and mere $40M budget. The studio's adult-targeted Christmas release last year, Up In The Air, did $11.3M in wider release and went on to gross $83M domestically.

5. Tangled 3D (Disney) Week 4 [3,201 Theaters]

via www.deadline.com

Ben Fritz (LA Times): 'Tron: Legacy' will dominate 'Yogi Bear' and weak 'How Do You Know'

The legacy of this weekend's box office seems certain to be a victory for a visual-effects-heavy event movie over a sophisticated adult comedy and a children's animated tale.

"Tron: Legacy," Walt Disney Studios' big-budget resurrection of the 1982 cult favorite, is a sure bet to be the most popular movie this weekend in the U.S. and Canada. People who have seen pre-release audience surveys say it should take in about $50 million, a solid but not spectacular start for such a highly anticipated movie.

Warner Bros.' animation/live-action hybrid "Yogi Bear" is appealing mainly to families with young children and is expected to kick off its run with a so-so $20 million.

The weekend's big question, however, is just how poorly Sony Pictures' "How Do You Know" will do. The costly adult comedy, directed by James L. Brooks and starring Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd and Jack Nicholson, is generating very soft interest and will likely open to only about $10 million.

via latimesblogs.latimes.com

How to Know Exactly Which Task to Start First

Man, how cool would it be if this actually works. HT to @JasonThibault of optimumwound.com for tweeting it.

How to Know Exactly Which Task to Start First

Ben Fritz (LA Times): Weak domestic starts for new 'Narnia,' Depp and Jolie's 'Tourist' turn attention overseas

3-D family film "The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader" and the Johnny Depp-Angelina Jolie adult thriller "The Tourist," both big-budget spectacles with aspirations of big box office to match, opened with studio-estimated ticket sales of $24.5 million and $17 million, respectively, in the U.S. and Canada.

They were soft domestic debuts for such high-profile films, which puts pressure on the pictures to perform exceptionally well overseas, where the studios releasing them believe they have better commercial prospects.

Luckily for "Narnia" backers 20th Century Fox and Walden Media, the movie delivered in its international debut. It opened in most foreign countries this weekend to a strong $81 million, more than three times the domestic launch.

Initial foreign grosses weren't as impressive for "The Tourist," which was shot largely on location in Europe. It debuted to only $8 million in a handful of countries, despite the global popularity of Depp and Jolie. Results were pretty good but not great in countries including Great Britain, South Korea and Taiwan.

The domestic opening of "Dawn Treader" was less than half that of the previous two "Narnia" movies, 2005's "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and 2008's "Prince Caspian," even though the new movie played in 3-D and thus benefited from higher ticket prices.

via latimesblogs.latimes.com