Inception retains the number one position at the box office; there’s a killer at large in Wes Craven’s Scream 4; Jennifer’s Body director Karyn Kusama is stuck in a Rut; Shepherds watch their flock in Lore; the Weinstein’s get ready to Raise Hell and grow Corn; it looks like Timur Bekmambetov can do what Spielberg can’t and bring Abraham Lincoln to the screen; after The Spirit comes Will Eisner’s Contract With God and Shawn Levy has a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.
Box Office
Christopher Nolan’s science fiction epic Inception was number one for the third weekend in a row. The Leonardo DiCaprio film grossed an estimated $26 million over the weekend, giving the film a highly impressive total of $191 million. It’s rare these days when an original (and good) film makes this sort of money. It kind of makes me go all soft and fuzzy inside thinking of a time when remakes, 3D movies and comic book adaptations didn’t rule the roost in Hollywood.
Dinner For Schmucks had to settle for second place after grossing $23 million from Friday. The Steve Carrell/ Paul Rudd comedy had to overcome some negative publicity in order to achieve this number. The opening was in line with Carrell’s last film Date Night, and that went to hit $100 million – Schmucks won’t be so lucky.
Angelina Jolie’s Saltdropped just under 50% from last weekend’s debut, giving the film $70 million, after taking in $19 million from Friday. With $100 million in the bag in the next few weeks, and strong international grosses, it looks like there might be a sequel. What will they call it Added Salt, A Pinch of Salt?
Despicable Me continues to impress. The animated film banked another $15 million over the weekend, upping its total to $190 million. This represents Dreamworks’ biggest domestic success in a few years so expect a sequel.
Cats & Dogs 3D: Kitty Galore crashed and burned over the weekend after grossing a not so good $12.5 million. Factor in higher than normal 3D ticket prices and this pet franchise appears to be road kill.
Zac Efron’s Charlie St Cloud could also be classed as a failure after scoring in the $12 million range. These tween stars just can’t open movies that don’t have musical numbers or vampires. Chances are it was pretty cheap, and it might have legs – so it’ll turn a profit and Efron will continue to get work. I’m guessing that the Footloose remake doesn’t appear like such a bad thing to the High School Musical graduate.
Toy Story 3D continues its charge to $400 million. Another $5.5 saw the Tom Hanks voiced film up its cume to $390 million.
Adam Sandler’s Grown Ups continues to impress, with another $4.5 million. The comedy has now ratcheted up $150 million worth of coin.
Sorcerer’s Apprentice waved his magic wand and brought in another $4 million. A $51 million total means that this isn’t the total disaster that everyone predicted when it opened a few weeks ago. It’s shown some decent legs, but it has to be viewed as a disappointment considering its heavy price tag. International revenue and DVD sales should be okay, but I hope that Jerry Bruckheimer circles the wagons and decides that the Pirates of The Caribbean formula is wearing thin. Let’s hope that he goes and produces a few more macho action films like Top Gun and Crimson Tide. Heck, at this point I’d even settle for Armageddon 2.
Ramona and Beezus scored another $3.5 million, upping this book adaptation to $16 million. Remember this was a cheap movie, so profit participants are the winner here.
Movie News
1. Wes Craven has hit the Twitter zone and gone and spoiled who the killer is in Scream 4. Check it out below.
Gotcha!
Anyone else remember when Craven went off horror and decided to direct Meryl Streep in Music of the Heart? What was that about?
2. Karyn Kusama has directed Megan Fox in Jennifer’s Body and Charlize Theron in Aeon Flux, so you could say that her bargaining chips in Hollywood are running out, so she’s trying to gain back some cred(it?)
The director is set to direct The Rut with Kick Ass star Chloë Moretz is in negotiations to take the lead.
According to the LA Times:
“It concerns a father-daughter relationship and centers particularly on hunting, as a daughter must learn the tricks of hunting and archery taught to her by her father after said father goes missing.”
So, it’s Deliverance from a young girl’s perspective. What’s next – The Expendables remaking How to make an American Quilt?
3. Andrew Lazar’s Mad Chance and Circle of Confusion have picked up the rights to husband-and-wife comic book team of Ashley Wood and T.P. Louise’s Lore.
Cory Goodman and Jeremy Lott have been hired to write the script, which apparently the producers hope to turn into a Men in Black style franchise.
The comic follows secret society of “Shepherds”, who guard the world from mythical creatures and monsters. When this hereditary line of protectors is broken a heroine finds herself under threat when the creatures come back.
Sounds like Wanted meets The Da Vinci Code with monsters to me
4. Now that it’s clear that the Weinstein brothers won’t be regaining control of Miramax, it appears that they’re getting busy to bring The Weinstein Company back in business.
The company plans to have 4-6 wide releases a year, and at least six other limited releases. These films will either be Weinstein Company productions or acquisitions.
In development at the minute are the previously announced Scream 4, Spy Kids 4 as well as remakes of Hellraiser and Children of the Corn. Also on the way are sequels to Scary Movie (shudder!) and Halloween.
While theses sequel films will have a higher budget, Harvey Weinstein plans to produce most films in the $15 million-$25 million range. This is probably in the hope of regaining some of that Oscar glory that he had when he ran Miramax with his brother.
5. Deadline is reporting that Russian director for Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted) could be directing the previously announced Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
The director was originally down to produce the film alongside Tim Burton and Jim Lemley, but it now looks like it could be his first film since the above mentioned Angelina Jolie starrer.
I wonder if they could get Liam Neeson to star?
6. Need another Will Eisner adaptation after Frank Miller’s The Spirit?
No, I’m not fussed on that either, but apparently someone is, and that someone is writer-producer Darren Dean. Dean plans to bring A Contract With God to the big screen.
According to THR:
“God recounts Eisner’s memories of growing up in a New York City tenement, and four directors, who will each helm one chapter of the tale, have lined up to bring it to the screen.”
Who will these directors be? Alex Rivera, Tze Chun, Barry Jenkins, Sean Baker.
Good. No Frank Miller.
7. Four words that really terrify me are: “high-concept family comedy”.
When you throw the words Shawn Levy and 20th Century Fox into a sentence with them, things go from bad to worse.
Such is the case with the news that Levy and Fox will bring children’s book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day to the screen.
According to Variety:
“Rob Lieber will pen the adapted screenplay, which revolves around family members collectively enduring the worst day of their lives. In the book, the central character, Alexander’s day goes from bad to worse after he wakes up with gum in his hair.”
Levy’s 21 Laps production company will produce, and he might not necessarily direct, but I can only imagine that this thing will make it to screens one way or the other as Judith Viorst’s book has sold over four million copies in 59 printings, with seven editions published abroad. Yikes!
