Box Office Report from Cinematical
09/02/2010
Do 3D Movies Deserve Higher Ratings?
Filed under: Box Office, Tech Stuff, Politics  We're all well aware of the subtle and subjective art of the cinematic rating system. Remove a word here, take out an innuendo or slip of the nip there, and suddenly that risque adult fare becomes palatable for familial audiences. But here's a new goodie to consider: With the rise of 3D, will we start seeing the same film receive different ratings between the second and third dimension, and what will that mean for the ever-important box office take?
It seems that overseas in Sweden, the country's Board of Film Censors doled out two different ratings for Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore. The 2D version was rated G, meaning everyone could see it without adult supervision, while the 3D version was rated PG, requiring adults to accompany tykes under the age of 7.Continue reading Do 3D Movies Deserve Higher Ratings? Permalink | Email this | Comments
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08/31/2010
Will 'Avatar' Mark the End of the Re-Release?
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Box Office, Exhibition, 20th Century Fox  Did anyone see Avatar this past weekend? The once-high-grossing 3D movie was re-released in theaters again, this time with nine minutes of previously unseen material tacked on. And going by its box office take of "only" $4 million, it's likely that you did not give in to that little bit of bonus footage. Both Fox and James Cameron are likely not crying, though. They're probably fine with any additional pocket change thrown atop their $750 million total. Besides, $4 million in one weekend is the best it's done since mid-March, when it was playing on a lot more than this past weekend's 800s screens.
Without looking at the data, maybe this Special Edition release seems a disappointment, as Steven Zeitchik spins it over at 24 Frames. He wonders if this "struggle" by Avatar could be a nail in the coffin for re-releases, still despite success with 3D retrofit editions of films like The Nightmare Before Christmas and Toy Story and Toy Story 2. Plus, as he notes, they're low-risk. And they shouldn't be looked at against a weekend's new titles. Avatar might not have done Star Wars Special Edition numbers, but it had a better re-release gross than The Dark Knight -- of course that one didn't get the extended cut treatment (and it didn't have the benefit of 3D surcharges).Continue reading Will 'Avatar' Mark the End of the Re-Release? Permalink | Email this | Comments
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08/30/2010
Is 2010 The Best Year for Documentaries Ever?
Filed under: Documentary, Independent, Awards, Box Office, Cinematical Indie 
I've had a feeling that this was the best year for documentaries ever. But I also thought the feeling had to do with the fact I'm seeing a whole lot more docs now that I'm the resident doc guy here at Cinematical. I also went to my first film festival devoted completely to the non-fiction format (Silverdocs). Meanwhile, though, I did notice that the docs selected for both Tribeca and Toronto fests were more noteworthy this year than normal.
And let's not forget the docs that came out of Sundance, many of which either blur the line between fiction and documentary (Exit Through the Gift Shop, Catfish) or at times feel more like great narrative features than documentaries (Restrepo, Last Train Home). Not to mention, 2010 is the year we've got an all-star documentarian anthology film (Freakonomics). You know non-fiction film has made it when five filmmakers can be considered "all stars."
The reason for my questioning if this is like non-fiction's 1939 (considered the best year for fiction film of all time, right?) is a claim by award season analyst Scott Feinberg that this is "the strongest - or, at the very least, the deepest - year yet in the history of documentary filmmaking." He lists 29 films on his radar. I think that means films he's seen and recommends, none of which is my very favorite film of 2010 so far, Last Train Home. The Chinese doc, which is also one of my favorite docs in years, made the front page of the New York Times yesterday with a profile in anticipation of its theatrical release this Friday.Continue reading Is 2010 The Best Year for Documentaries Ever? Permalink | Email this | Comments
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08/30/2010
Summer Box Office: Hollywood Loses Audiences, but Makes More Money
Filed under: Box Office, Exhibition  Hollywood is thanking its lucky stars for 3D this week as the estimated figures for the 2010 summer box office are being tallied. According to USA Today, the number of actual tickets sold is the lowest since 2005. You know, the year of the "big slump." Actually this year's number (552 million) will be less than that of five years ago (563.2 million). Fortunately, thanks to the surcharges added to 3D movie tickets, despite this dismal moviegoer turnout the box office grosses are actually up this summer. Through labor day the box office should reach about $4.35 billion, which is $100 million more than the record set last year!
So, we can likely expect that Hollywood will learn nothing from this except that it should keep making -- or at least releasing -- movies in the 3D format. Never mind that this summer was one of the worst in a long time (some blame the World Cup). And just ignore that half of this report that says attendance is terrible. In a business sense, the season was very successful. Sorry James Cameron, but it looks like we'll be getting even more low-quality 3D movies to cheapen the medium's already poor reputation. Especially if execs pay more attention to the part of the analysis that says 3D surges were a heavy factor, as opposed to those high-grossing movies that didn't have a 3D release (Inception, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, Iron Man 2) -- though IMAX surges may have helped these in a similar fashion.Continue reading Summer Box Office: Hollywood Loses Audiences, but Makes More Money Permalink | Email this | Comments
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08/30/2010
Weekend Box Office: 'Takers' and 'Last Exorcism' Neck-in-Neck for Top Spot
Filed under: New Releases, Box Office  It took the backing of Eli Roth and a sweetheart distribution deal from Lionsgate to get there, but The Last Exorcism did finally turn into indie gold. The film, which cost $1.8 million to make (and $1 million for Lionsgate to buy), took in $21.3 million over the weekend. The $2.8 million doesn't include the costs of marketing and distribution, of course, but that's still a lot of pure profit for everyone involved. Hopefully this will catapult obviously talented director Daniel Stamm into a career making more tight, effective genre films like this one.
Takers, which made an estimated $21 million, is another big marketing victory, this time for Screen Gems. Featuring a slew of B-level stars and a totally generic heist plot, this movie could easily have fallen through the cracks. But Screen Gems started pushing the flick early, and unleashed a barrage of slick advertising in recent weeks, emphasizing its bevy of action scenes and (uneven, truth be told) kinetic style. It worked; good on 'em.
Now with two strong holds under its belt, The Expendables looks like it will easily sail past $100 million, a perfect storm of star power, nostalgia, and audiences' insatiable hunger for simple shoot-em-up action, served up with style. The Other Guys has likewise ridden a wave of audience goodwill to $100 million and beyond -- which, if you've seen the deeply strange film, is at least a little bit remarkable.
The 800-screen release of Avatar: Special Edition didn't get a ton of press, but the highest-grossing movie of all time had enough firepower left to get up to #12 this weekend, adding $4 million to Fox's coffers. (By all accounts there wasn't much to see, or at least not much new.) The number is pretty impressive considering that Avatar (the original version) has been on DVD for over four months.
The chart after the jump.
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08/25/2010
Hollywood Has Made a Whopping $7 Billion Off Vampires
Filed under: Box Office 
So The Hollywood Reporter just did a bit of number-crunching, and have pronounced that since Twilight first hit theaters in November of 2008, Hollywood has already grossed a staggering $7 billion from vampire-related properties, with worldwide box-office grosses accounting for $3 billion of that total. This might not seem like such a seismic cultural phenomenon when you consider that films about humans have domestically grossed nearly $20 billion in that same time period, but the breadth of our obsession with vampires is what puts those undead blood-suckers in a league of their own.
Despite the fact that vampires wantonly feast on the blood of the innocent, Americans young and old can't help but invite this latest wave of folkloric parasites into their homes and hearts. Teenage girls across the country are tearing Justin Bieber off their walls in favor of giant Max Schreck posters, and you're unlikely to find an adult who can't quote Park Chan-Wook's Thirst from start to finish and in Korean. ...No? Okay, so maybe the financial figures are just more evidence that the True Blood and Twilight franchises are both wildly popular, but with the effortless parody Vampires Suck almost out-grossing the deservedly ballyhooed likes of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and the final two Twilight films on the horizon, it's time to concede that the $7 billion barrier actually means something beyond confirming the prevailing obsessions of our day? Could seeing a vampire in a film become as ordinary as seeing a kid in a film, or a Samuel L. Jackson?Continue reading Hollywood Has Made a Whopping $7 Billion Off Vampires Permalink | Email this | Comments
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08/25/2010
Cinematical Late Night: M:I4 Casting, All Good Things, James Cameron's Tech
Filed under: Casting, Box Office, Newsstand
- Those who appreciate the movie tech of yesteryear should get a kick out of this 1955 diagram explaining Cinerama [via Reddit].
- The Wrap tells us that later this week Paramount will commence test screening young actors to co-star with Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible 4. The first three being seriously considered for the gig are Anthony Mackie, Keven Zegers, and Christopher Egan. I don't know who else they'll be testing down the line, but I'd be perfectly happy if the role went to Mackie; dude deserves some higher profile work after The Hurt Locker.
- If you were super excited to see those extra eight minutes of Avatar on the big screen starting this Friday, you should be very happy to know that this November's special edition DVD/Blu-ray release will arrive with a further eight minutes of unseen footage on top of what will be in theaters.
- After Dark have announced the cast for their latest original film, Transit. The plot basically sounds like The River Wild but with an SUV instead of a canoe, but I'll give that a pass since I like Diora Baird, Harold Perrineau, Elisabeth Rohm and James Caviezel.Continue reading Cinematical Late Night: M:I4 Casting, All Good Things, James Cameron's Tech Permalink | Email this | Comments
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08/23/2010
Dimension Plans 'Piranha 3D' Sequel
Filed under: Horror, New Releases, Box Office, Remakes and Sequels
Hollywood moves fast these days -- sometimes greenlighting sequels to films before the originals even hit theaters, so today's announcement that Piranha 3D is getting a second installment isn't exactly a surprise.
Alexandre Aja's remake of the Roger Corman/Joe Dante cult classic about swarms of flesh-eating fish was a hit with critics (it's pulling an 81% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes currently) and fans alike, raking in 10 million bucks over the weekend. Granted, that's not a lot of cash for an opening weekend, but apparently Dimension is happy enough with those results to go ahead with a follow-up -- which is ironic since they hid this release from critics before it hit theaters on Friday. How much better might it have opened if we all could have raved about it prior to Friday?
The new version (check out Peter's review) -- which features lots of gore, nudity, and over the top action -- stars Elizabeth Shue as the sheriff of a small town that's overrun by college kids every Spring Break. All hell breaks loose after an earthquake cracks open the lake bed and frees an ancient species of the killer fish -- and boy are they hungry. Shue is joined by Ving Rhames, Kelly Brook, Adam Scott, Riley Steele, Richard Dreyfuss, and Christopher Lloyd (amongst countless others ... ) in this over the top updating.
No word yet on who might be back for a sequel (though it may take place in Thailand during the Full Moon Party) or if Aja will return to direct, but we can all sleep easy tonight knowing that there's more Piranha mayhem in our future. What say you, readers? Are you up for more blood, boobs, and carnivorous fish or is one Piranha remake enough to keep you satisfied? Permalink | Email this | Comments
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08/23/2010
Blame DVRs For The Increase in Online Movie Ads
Filed under: Box Office, Tech Stuff, Home Entertainment, Movie Marketing
It may seem hard to believe, but the way we watch TV is now affecting how films perform on their opening weekend according to an article in today's THR. With the advent of DVR's and online services like Hulu, "time shifted" television viewing is on the rise -- meaning those movie ads that have long been a part of the television viewing experience may not be reaching audiences in the way marketers intended and could be something we see far less of in the future.
Time shifted viewing -- or viewing programs at a different time than they originally aired -- has been around since the advent of the VCR, but the proliferation of DVRs (coupled with how much easier they are to use to record things than a VCR) have made recording programs to view at a later time easier than ever. A recent survey of Comcast subscribers found that 62% of them are using DVRs, Hulu, or VOD services regularly. What this means to film advertisers is that their targeted new release ads airing on a Thursday evening for a Friday release may not be seen until the following week -- making them money wasted in some instances.
Hit the jump to read more about how time shifted viewing is changing movie advertising.Continue reading Blame DVRs For The Increase in Online Movie Ads Permalink | Email this | Comments
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08/23/2010
Weekend Box Office: 'Vampires Suck' Leads Pack of New Releases
Filed under: New Releases, Box Office  For a while I've been wondering how Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer feel when they read reviews and articles calling them scoundrels, charlatans, and scourges of the Earth. This weekend, it finally dawned on me: they are laughing at us. All the way to the bank. All the vituperative reviews in the world -- and I almost literally mean that -- couldn't keep crowds away from Vampires Suck this weekend, as the $20 million Twilight "spoof" generated more than twice the opening weekend gross of Disaster Movie, the last Friedberg/Seltzer telegram from hell (more than three times in the five days since its Wednesday release). So send these guys all the nastygrams you like. Call them an affront to the spoof genre, to cinema, to all that is decent on this Earth. Their audience won't listen -- and their coffers grow with every poop-drenched "parody" they slap together and release.
What's funny is that I don't even think people like this stuff. I think that -- outside of audiences who are on top of the movie beat -- the Friedberg/Seltzer anti-phenomenon remains under the radar. I suspect that people are just getting snookered over and over again. But who knows.
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