BoxOfficeFangrl

She does and she broke through after Julia Roberts so people expect Sandy to be younger than her when it's the reverse. Pretty impressive that The Martian is even keeping it close given Gravity's short run time and IMAX/3D advantages. TM seems more conventional, I don't mean that as a slam, just that it's more what the "general public" goes into a movie expecting to see and sometimes that is all people want. Can't wait to see how the WOM pans out.

Bullock was born in 1964 and 49 when Gravity was released two years ago, so...pretty close? Damon turns 45 this week but Hollywood typically gives men many more chances to be big-budget action heroes and at older ages.

Pretty much. Being a box-office draw doesn't mean someone's a miracle worker. It just helps the first weekend but if people don't like what they see, word will get out and the overall total won't be so great. Black Mass opened similarly to The Town, but it's not going to have those legs: 2010 Date (click to view chart) Rank Weekend Gross % Change Theaters Change / Avg. Gross-to-Date Week # Sep 17–19 1 $23,808,032 - 2,861 - $8,322 $23,808,032 1 Sep 24–26 3 $15,605,171 -34.5% 2,885 +24 $5,409 $48,692,072 2 Oct 1–3 4 $9,749,332 -37.5% 2,935 +50 $3,322 $64,056,752 3 Oct 8–10 6 $6,411,008 -34.2% 2,720 -215 $2,357 $73,847,527 4 Oct 15–17 7 $3,977,006 -38.0% 2,368 -352 $1,679 $80,510,629 5 Oct 22–24 9 $2,749,090 -30.9% 1,918 -450 $1,433 $84,681,614 6 Oct 29–31 9 $1,975,260 -28.1% 1,608 -310 $1,228 $87,626,867 7 Nov 5–7 13 $1,164,382 -41.1% 801 -807 $1,454 $89,748,239 8 Nov 12–14 20 $438,397 -62.3% 375 -426 $1,169 $90,626,556 9 Nov 19–21 23 $209,488 -52.2% 165 -210 $1,270 $90,982,269 10 Nov 26–28 21 $314,720 +50.2% 318 +153 $990 $91,429,625 11 Dec 3–5 24 $202,909 -35.5% 318 - $638 $91,735,513 12 Dec 10–12 28 $130,103 -35.9% 255 -63 $510 $91,947,016 13 Dec 17–19 36 $57,591 -55.7% 144 -111 $400 $92,074,857 14 Dec 24–26 49 $15,910 -72.4% 62 -82 $257 $92,123,695 15 Dec 31–Jan 2 49 $23,830 +49.8% 62 - $384 $92,173,235 16

Leighton Meester, Minka Kelly and Rachel Bilson: Leighton and Minka were in that Single White Female wannabe together...The Roommate? And Adam Brody dated Rachel but married Leighton. Dude has a type!

Maybe they can remix it, "Summertime Sadness" style (though it was a much better song to begin with, a memorable melody, for starters). I hadn't heard "All Time High" until today...another reminder that these songs can't all be winners.

Zzzzzzzz....I thought Sam Smith said Disclosure was involved in this? On the bright side, the producers are bound to go in a completely different direction next time.

The release date

Strong frontier combat, at that! Does it involve forest animals in some untoward way? Is "average/medium frontier combat" PG-13? What would Bambi rate these days?

So it's not about these guys? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwCbbMgp3Lw

Pretty much:

They both had their detractors; Exodus was called out for the ridiculous spray paint job on Edgerton and relegating the Middle Eastern actors mostly to background roles. Ridley's response to the flap hardly helped the movie's case. I don't know if the public is going into this expecting some big Oscar movie, so "merely" being an entertaining thrill ride may just be enough.

Yeah, I've seen ads for The Perfect Guy and also a billboard on a major thoroughfare, that's been up for 2-3 weeks, and I don't know when the last time it was, that I saw one of those for a movie. The title may be The Perfect Guy, but many women in the target audience would consider both Michael Ealy and Morris Chestnut pretty flawless. They're both in their forties, aging like fine wines, steadily working for years, so there's multi-generational appeal, too. And Sanaa Lathan is someone who this audience has wanted to see getting more starring roles.

Sam Smith 'wrote Spectre theme in 20 minutes':

Other big-time politicians and older figures in entertainment/literature/sports, too... When Red Auerbach (legendary Boston Celtics coach) actually died, I remember Bill Simmons writing a column about his days at a newspaper in the mid-1990s, when he discovered the newspaper's file of prepared obits and how it freaked him out that this was a thing. When Heath Ledger died, there were stories about the wire services and major outlets not having a ready-to-go obit due to his age, and that they only really did advance obituaries for stars under 30 if they were kind of known trainwrecks, in and out of jail or rehab repeatedly. I don't know if that's still true or not, though. But if you've ever had to write an obituary, it's hard, and even if you're detached from the person, it's just easier be prepared than have to come up with something on the fly. How often does it happen that the overall #1 movie isn't even in the Top 10 for engagements? I would love to see an admissions break down of War Room. Who knows with Pets? Did anyone see Home making what it did? But it might break out, it might not.

It's a pretty standard media practice that goes back years and years...preparing for the inevitable. It's like the news equivalent of having a will.

Bond has been a global phenomenon for decades...the original "Mr. Worldwide"? Too bad they've already used Miami with a Craig film, if it was Pitbull for a movie where the action took place there, him yelling out "305" constantly would be in context for once. The Bond traditionalists would lose their minds if the song ever had rap in it. It's really the last frontier for title themes... I know Bond is all about hype, but this seems like a good way to set up unrealistic expectations. Of course, the crowd unhappy it's Sam Smith won't be expecting very much from it in the first place...

Hmmm, IDK, War Room has direct competition starting on Friday: Not a huge theater count but look at what WR did last week with just 1100 or so locations. Some on OWN for sure, probably other stations geared more toward black/Christian viewers, but the bigger thing is that it's the same team that did Fireproof and Courageous, so they have a following among their target audience. Variety called the Kendrick Brothers "the Steven Spielbergs of Christian cinema".

Right. Norfolk, VA for example has two 18-plexes attached to malls: one has adult evening shows under $7 plus a $4.15 early bird price (first matinee show of the day, even on weekends) and at the other, the matinee price is about $7.50 and you'll pay $14 for an adult evening 3D ticket. Three guesses which location is considered more "upscale", but Norfolk is part of the Hampton Roads metro area (population 1.7 million) so it goes to show that it's not just four-screen second-run theaters in the boonies where movie tickets can be bought for well below the national average. The disparity in admissions between War Room and Straight Outta Compton will probably be greater than what difference in sales figures, between WR's group sales and popularity in areas with lower ticket rates.

I don't have a problem with movies being made for Oscars (movies are made for all sorts of reasons), but I guess when movies are just made for money, it's pretty straightforward and there's no pretense that there's anything "noble" about them. But "art" is supposed to have loftier goals, I guess, and be made for its own sake, so to make it with prizes in mind can strike some people as a bit desperate. Also, a lot of the movies that awards bodies tend to like aren't necessarily remembered in the long run, or even a year later. You could say that about a lot of cash-grab movies, but again, they're not held up as anything especially lofty or worthwhile in the first place. There's also probably a fair amount of resentment that whole genres are pretty much stricken from winning Best Picture, regardless of quality, while very middling movies set in the right time period and filmed with a certain tone get to be major Oscar contenders.

The Danish Girl has been in the works for years, at least since 2008 when Nicole Kidman (as the title character) and Charlize Theron were in talks.

IKR? It's like being on the AwardsWatch Forums when the rare debate about sexy women crops up there: "Duh, who wouldn't think Cate Blanchett is hotter than Sofia Vergara?" Not to say that in life, there's no one who finds the former sexier than the latter, but it's not a typical opinion by any stretch. Since when can't pretty boys be muscular? Are they supposed to be bony or flabby? Your superhero is a pretty boy, that doesn't make you any less masculine for liking Marvel/DC movies.

I read an article about how modern Christian movies are mostly sermon first, movies second, contrasting it with the approach of the old-school Biblical epics back in the day (Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur, The Robe, etc.) that had religious messages certainly, but also far stronger filmmaking techniques. Not just from a budget perspective obviously, but in terms of acting/directing/script, the quality was far higher and it wasn't just an exercise in crafting a plot around a sermon. Now, the big budget religious films are things like Noah and Exodus, which weird out the religious audience that would otherwise go for them, and on the other side, there's the low budget stuff like War Room and God's Not Dead or the Tyler Perry morality plays that will never appeal to critics. If a director could come along and strike the right balance of artistry and message, he/she could make a fortune in the domestic market.

A movie about a family in the whole Gothard movement could seriously be good, though, done by a qaulity director... It's FLDS level twisted without nearly the same publicity. You could either do a serious drama about the pitfalls of pumping out kid after kid after kid, yet the husband has to be his own boss, as much as possible, the wife can't work, the homeschooled sons are maybe allowed to go to some unaccredited college (but, hey, it enforces modesty rules!) and the daughters can't move out until Daddy's allowed men to court her, but they can't hold hands until they're engaged and are chaperoned until they say "I do". Wash, rinse, repeat, as two sheltered young adults who's never been alone with each other until their wedding day are expected to get to having babies of their own, right away. It's a real horror story, that 21st century Americans are living this way, all while getting reality shows to showcase their "family values" Sorry, watched 19 Kids and Counting for years, annoyed with how they got away with seeming like this odd but quaint family when the truth has always been much more sinister... To be on topic, I'm surprised War Room has such a low theater count. I wouldn't expect 4000 theaters or anything, but maybe 1500 or 2000 at least?

At least Heigl's character has a history with the guy, unlike Ali Larter's character in Obsessed, where the motivation seemed to be, "You're a crazy white she-devil, and...go!" Idris was a complete moron, and the movie completely shifts POV to Beyonce being the main character halfway through it. Still, it's a fun watch when it's on TV. Can't wait for the Fireproof/Courageous/War Room people to do their movie on a Josh Duggar type...