Posted by editor@vimooz.com on November 8, 2009 under Box Office | 
Precious (Gabourey Sidibe, left) and Mary (Mo'Nique, right) in PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL 'PUSH' BY SAPPHIRE. Photo credit : Anne Marie Fox
While “Disney’s A Christmas Carol” was the top film at the box office over the weekend, it was Lionsgate’s “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” that was the true winner grabbing a record $1.8 million at only 18 runs in the U.S. That averages to $100,000 per screen, a record for a film opening in under 50 theaters.
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Posted by editor@vimooz.com on November 2, 2009 under Box Office |
Michael Jackson’s documentary “This Is It” was king of the box office, opening to $68.5 million at the international box office and to a more modest domestic haul of $32.5 million in its first five days. The big opening convinced the distributor Sony to announce it is extending the film’s two-week run by three weeks in North America. Overseas, the decision to extend will be made on a territory-by-territory basis.
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Posted by editor@vimooz.com on June 8, 2009 under Box Office |
- Focus Features “Away We Go,”
Focus Features ”Away We Go,” directed by Sam Mendes, starring Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski, sold out most shows on Friday and Saturday, including matinees reports Variety.
“Clearly, the film is playing effectively to a mixed-age demo, which is great for the ultimate box office potential,” Focus prexy of distribution Jack Foley said.
“Away We go” expands into six additional markets on Friday and will up its screen count in L.A. and Gotham.
Elsewhere French biopic “Seraphine” opened to a per-location average of $6,667 as it grossed $40,000 from six runs for Music Box Films. Oscilloscope Pictures documentary “Unmistaken Child” grossed $6,039 as it opened in one run in New York for a five-day total of $9,508.
Arthouse Films documentary ”Herb and Dorothy,” about art collectors Herb and Dorothy Vogel, opened to $10,042 runs from two runs in New York for a per-location average of $5,024.
Among indie holdovers, Regent Releasing’s Oscar foreign pic winner “Departures” grossed $88,102 from 16 runs in its second week for a per-location average of $5,506 and cume of $192,003.
Sony Pictures Classics’ “Easy Virtue” grossed $219,327 from 46 screens in its third sesh for a per-location average of $4,768 and a cume of $627,753.
Posted by editor@vimooz.com on March 23, 2009 under Box Office |
- Image from Focus Features’ “Sin nombre”
Films opening last weekend included Truly Indie’s “Valentino: The Last Emperor,” which scored the highest per-screen average of the sesh, an estimated $20,329 from one theater in New York City.
Focus Features’ “Sin nombre” grossed an estimated $77,403 from six locations for a strong per-location average of $12,900.
Successfully expanding over the weekend was Overture’s “Sunshine Cleaning.” Film grossed an estimated $705,161 from 64 locations for a per- location average of $11,018.
Read more in Variety
Posted by editor@vimooz.com on March 9, 2009 under Box Office |
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Image from ‘Phoebe in Wonderland’
Fox Searchlight’s “Slumdog Millionaire” is still feeling the Oscar effect, in a good way, and remained in the top 10 although it dropped noticeably for the first time. Placing No. 4, “Slumdog” declined 42% to an estimated $6.9 million from 2,890 runs for a cumulative to date of $125.4 million in its 17th week. The Weinstein Co.’s “The Reader” reached the $30 million mark as it grossed an estimated $2 million.
“Milk” grossed $2.2 million from 700 locations in 25 territories for Universal, led by a $1.4 million French launch. Film’s foreign cume is $13.7 million. Domestic cume is $31.2 million; worldwide, $44.9 million.
Among new openers, Sony Pictures Classics’ “12″ grossed $12,976 from five screens for a location average of $2,595 and a cume of $14,134 (pic opened Wednesday). ThinkFilms’ “Phoebe in Wonderland” posted a per-screen average of $2,391 as it grossed $26,111 from 11 locations. [via]
Full box-office list
Posted by adam.s.ryan@vimooz.com on February 17, 2009 under Box Office, Industry, Uncategorized |
No one can say for sure how the recession is going to alter the landscape of independent filmmaking, but it already seems clear that the change will be dramatic. If the sun-soaked major studios are getting lost in the fog, what chance do the fly-by-night operations have of finding the shore?
Quasi-independent production company Lionsgate Entertainment recently announced its underperformance in the closing months of 2008, a record that caused much hand-wringing and second-guessing among executives. The Los Angeles Times quoted the Vice-Chairman of Lionsgate: “It speaks not only to the underperformance of our film business, but to our use of forecasting assumptions that in retrospect clearly have proven to be unrealistic.” For those of us who are trying to advance the medium, the news that action sequels Transporter 3 and Punisher: War Zone were being deemed unrealistic may come off as just a little chilling.
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Posted by adam.s.ryan@vimooz.com on February 15, 2009 under Box Office, Film Festival, People, Uncategorized |
PART ONE of a three-part series considers the impact of Richard Linklater, Kevin Smith, and Wes Anderson.
It’s been almost a generation since a few spunky young directors inaugurated a new era for the American independent film. Given the circumstances, it seemed inevitable that something had to give, at least from an artistic standpoint. The democratization of the medium through video technology, together with the broad demographic changes associated with the baby boom phenomenon, set healthy preconditions for a little renaissance. Generation X was coming of age, and some of them had had enough of the studio-dominated film market.
The analogous moment in 70s cinema actually drew blood, by which I mean the studio system faced a real challenge to its survival. The failure of that little insurrection cast a pall over the next attempt, and it’s safe to say the VHS filmmakers never really expected to change the landscape as dramatically as their parents’ generation had hoped to do with movies like Easy Rider and Nashville.
But these modest ambitions belie the far-reaching influence of their art, an influence that seems likely to grow when the form takes its next leap forward—as it now seems poised to do. If the YouTube generation manages to succeed where its parents and grandparents failed, the filmmakers who set the tone for that revolution will occupy a special place in cinematic history. This may have been as far and as free as the American middle class could get with analog movies.
Since the fate of these Clinton-era pioneers is so critical to understanding how movies get made these days—especially by people with bigger dreams than pocketbooks—it’s worth taking stock of what they did, and what they’re doing now.
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Posted by editor@vimooz.com on February 8, 2009 under Box Office, Foreign Film |
The Wedding Game, a romantic comedy about two superstars who decide to fake their wedding for personal gains, scores No. 1 spot at Singapore’s box office for two straight weekends during the Chinese New Year period. (25 – 27 Jan & 29 Jan – 1 Feb 2009).
Directed and co-written by Thai director/writer Ekachai Uekrongtham (Beautiful Boxer, Pleasure Factory, The Coffin), the Mandarin film which also marks its director’s first comedy outing outperforms all other films during the same period, including the Hollywood blockbuster Inkheart starring Brendan Fraser and the Hong Kong star-studded comedy All’s Well Ends Well 2009.
Co-produced by Singapore’s MediaCorp Raintree Pictures and Scorpio East Pictures; and Malaysia’s Double Vision and Speedy Productions, The Wedding Game stars Singapore’s real-life celebrity couple Fann Wong (Shanghai Knights) and Christopher Lee (Return of the Condor Heroes) who will also be getting married off screen later this year.
Other cast members include Hong Kong’s Alice Lau (I Have a Date with Spring), popular Taiwanese TV host Hei Ren, Malaysia’s Lai Ming (Money No Enough II) and Daniel Tan (Ah Long Pte Ltd). The script is penned by Ekachai Uekrongtham, Desmond Sim (co-screenwriter of Beautiful Boxer)and famous Singapore radio host Dennis Chew.
Channel News Asia says The Wedding Game is “not all about the laughs, beneath it all lays a heart warming story”. Cinema Online gives it a 4-star rating and describes the film as “a delightful rom-com” with “endearing chemistry” between the two leads and “excellent production values”. The New Stratis Times calls The Wedding Game “a marriage of comedy and talent” and praises it for the star couple’s “spark-filled interaction” and “great chemistry”.
Ekachai Uekrongtham’s previous film The Coffin also scored top opening numbers in Thailand and in Singapore last year. The supernatural horror starring Thailand’s Ananda Everingham (Shutter) and Karen Mok (Shaolin Soccer) has become the top grossing Thai film in both Singapore and Malaysia. The Coffin has just been nominated for 4 Thai “Oscars” including Best Cinematography and Best Special Effects. The film had its European premiere at the Rotterdam Film Festival last month, and is currently making its European market premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Posted by adam.s.ryan@vimooz.com on February 1, 2009 under Academy award, Box Office, People |
Is Steven Spielberg a Self-Hating Studio Filmmaker?
It’s impossible to deny Steven Spielberg’s enormous gifts as a storyteller. From the tender-aged golden boy who inaugurated a new era of commercial filmmaking with Jaws to the reigning king of the blockbuster he remains today, the Spielberg brand has become synonymous with popcorn movies at their finest.
But could there possibly be a darker vein to this Eagle Scout with the magic camera and the three billion dollars to show for it? Is Spielberg perhaps more conflicted, angrier, and more complicated than he appears?
I grew up with his movies, and like everybody else I loved them like they were more or less part of my family. And so, again like most everybody else in my position, the release last July of a fourth Indiana Jones film was sort of like the homecoming of a long-lost sibling. (I’m exaggerating, but not by much.)
So it came as quite a shock to discover that long-admired sibling standing on my doorstep with greasy hair, a dirty poncho, a glazed look in his once-sharp eyes, one hand outstretched for my money and the other hand flipping me off.
I’m exaggerating, but not by much. Let’s consider the facts of the case. Over the course of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, a nuclear bomb is dropped on the hero’s head and he escapes unscathed; the sidekick is able to catch up to a racing car by swinging on vines; a flying saucer emerges from an archeological site. I would apologize for ruining it for you, but frankly it doesn’t need the help. The film is overwhelmingly, irrevocably, unbelievably bad.
The viewer, and in this case the loyal Spielberg fan, is compelled to ask: What gives? How could such a talented director, helming the sequel to a tried-and-true franchise, working with the best cast and crew in the business, fail so spectacularly?
The answer, I believe, is not as straightforward as it would appear—that Spielberg and his team simply dropped the ball. There is something larger simmering under the surface of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, something bigger and more surprising than failure. This may in fact be a definitive moment in Spielberg’s career, and an opportunity for his audience to view his work in a whole new light. Read more of this article »
Posted by editor@vimooz.com on December 22, 2008 under Box Office |
In limited release this weekend, the Mickey Rourke film, “The Wrestler” had a heavyweight debut, taking in $209,474 in just four theaters for a whopping average of $52,369. [via]
