BoxOfficeFangrl

SPECTRE will be released in 2015, even if the one after that is Craig's last it wouldn't be released before 2017, then they would probably take 2-3 years off before introducing the next Bond, which puts you into 2019, 2020 at the earliest, but probably they release Bond 25 in 2018, then Bond 26 in 2021 at the earliest, and Hoult's in his early 30s by then. Obviously they don't want to cast too young (why it wasn't Cavill before, also in his case I'm not sure he has the right charisma) but if you get someone who starts in the role at 40 or later, it limits their number of turns as 007. Since Craig has been a success and given the time it's taken to churn the movies out during his tenure, I've had the thought that the Bond after him would be someone born in the late 1980s or early 1990s--someone who could've been a kid in the Potter movies. Not sure if the Bond audience is ready for such a generational shift, though...

OK, that doesn't seem so unreasonable. I wouldn't want to go to the movies then but not everyone celebrates or has a big family thing planned. LOL at Meryl Streep not being a box office draw but Anna Kendrick is. Cute.

They have previews for Christmas Day openers? I thought a lot of theaters closed early, or is that New Year's Eve?

Someone said Dhoom 3 rose on Christmas Eve last year, too. Makes sense if much of the audience for it doesn't celebrate the holiday.

How do I put this...I don't think the movie's title will be a problem for audiences who saw movies like The Butler, 12 Years a Slave, or even 42. If other people less familiar with what Selma means end up seeing it, too, great, but I'm glad Paramount didn't pressure DuVernay/Plan B into taking an Intro to Civil Rights approach with the title. Plus, it's not like they've hidden that the protagonist is MLK, but if you call it King, it can leave the impression of being a cradle-to-grave biopic when it's not, and the focus does shift to other people at times. Lincoln was also about a narrow window of time in his life and called Lincoln, so calling it King wouldn't have been unjustifed, but I don't think Selma's ultimate financial potential will hinge on MLK's name not being in the title.

I agree that it is an odd move to release it VOD before even seeing how the limited release goes. The chains probably would've caved before the "holiday movie season" was over and it could've pulled a Borat. This move definitely shortens the theatrical window (which was going to be non-existent before, granted). Maybe they think they will make more with VOD right now, but with The Interview at this point, the hack has given Sony ulterior motives compared to most other movies out there, where it's mostly about money or awards (which will get the movie more money). I would be wild if this really made day-and-date releases more of athing with not just indies and drove a lot of theaters out of business, on top of provoking an international incident and costing hundreds of millions thanks to the hack. All for a Rogen/Franco comedy.

Weinstein demands an apology from 'Today' Show: Harvey Weinstein is pushing NBC for a formal apology over the Amy Adams “Today” show fiasco, sources exclusively tell Page Six. The movie mogul is furious after the “Big Eyes” star’s appearance on Monday’s show was abruptly canceled by “Today” executives as she sat in the green room after refusing to talk about the Sony hacking debacle. Adams was caught up in the mess after e-mails revealed she was paid less for “American Hustle” than her male co-stars. Adams was in the “Today” green room when a producer said, “This is a news show,” and she would be asked about Sony. A source said, “Amy said she didn’t feel comfortable talking about people who are her friends. Then a junior producer said her appearance had been canceled. That’s never happened in 20 years at ‘Today.’ Naturally Amy was upset, particularly when she saw, out of the corner of her eye, a segment was running about brushing a dog’s teeth. How is that news?” Even though “Today” host Matt Lauer tried to smooth things over after the drama with a call to Weinstein, the source added, “Weinstein wants a formal apology or at least an independent investigation into what happened by an independent authority like Rudy Giuliani.” A Weinstein Company rep said, “We hope NBC will apologize to Amy, and that in hindsight, they would have handled the situation differently.” NBC declined to comment last night. "Indepdent invesigation"? Uncle Harvey is sooooo milking it! Today has been around forever, thousands upon thousands of celebrity interviews, I seriously doubt no actor has wanted to avoid a certain subject before. And Today is not ratings powerhouse it used to be--stuff like this is a sure way to make a person choose Good Morning America.

Well, I think if Cavill had been Bond, he wouldn't have been free to do Superman. I've always thought Elba would just be too old for what TPTB usually want in a new Bond, by the time Craig finishes his run. And please no to Dan Stevens.

Yeah, but that didn't stop the news channel outrage when reality show famewhores crashed a White House state dinner, and Congress was all over the head of the Secret Service after the recent security lapse with the intruder who passed the gates, the lawn and walked around inside the White House. If there had been some French or Iranian movie about guys traveling to the US to off Dubya or Obama, maybe he wouldn't have retaliated like this, but a lot of Americans would not have found it funny at all and cable news would have tried to make it into a thing. Creatively people can do whatever they want, it just seems like a puzzling business decision to greenlight a movie like this, given how Hollywood is these days. I guess they should be applauded for taking a risk but I'm not sure how it happened. I would say they're Charlie Chaplin fans but I doubt the Sony execs/board know who he even was. There's a difference between a movie having fictional North Korean villains or Team America, which had puppets, and The Interview, a live action movie about killing a current world leader. There's a reason this is not a huge sub-genre in American film. I'm not saying he's a great guy, just the opposite, but there's nothing to indicate that he was going to react well and be all, "Yay, creative expression!" He's a brutal dictator, known for reacting badly to slights and NK has pulled off hacking attacks before, maybe in South Korea and not on US interests, but technologically, they're pretty advanced. I don't see anyone saying that the hacking was justified, just because they think Sony greenlighting the movie was a bad idea. Anyway, why Kim Jong Il didn't react this way ten years ago with Team America, he was older, maybe slightly thicker skinned and technology wasn't as advanced ten years ago. Plus being from a different generation, cyber attacks might not have been part of his MO.

Not really, if you watch TCM, tons of movies from the 1930s and 1940s clock in at under 2 hours or barely 1:30, something like GWTW was an outlier in terms of runtime even then. But I do think theater owners would balk, not to mention studios, they want more showings to get more money, they probably wish every movie was like Gravity, 90 minutes and getting jaded audiences to pony up for 3D surcharges.

Actually, the speculation is that Keira is already pregnant and just hasn't announced it yet. If you've looked at her wardrobe since she's been promoting TIG, it's a lot of generous draping around the middle. Cumberbatch got engaged not too long ago (causing a fangirl meltdown and rampant conspiracy theories which was ). Duchess Kate's grandmother worked at Bletchley Park during WWII, so Weinstein will be sure to trot out the royal endorsement when it's most advantageous.

IDK, with Quantum of Solace, it was less uncertainty than a collective WTF, no. It seemed like even the Bond nerds had to talk themselves into that one.

Isn't Cinemascore always just a handful of theaters anwyay, even for a wide release? Uncle Harvey will be advertising/press releasing the crap out of that Cinemascore, no matter how dubiously it was acquired, his thirst is real after having such a flop awards season last year (by his standards).

Not a bad title. Sam Smith seems like a strong candidate for the theme song, so long as he doesn't pull a Duffy and quickly becomes an irrelevant joke by the time the movie's released. They could also go with Lana Del Rey or a bit out of left field with Bruno Mars or something.

With Sorkin, I feel he has issues with message boards, social media, etc., he has a certain point of view about "those people" that use it, that's very limited/old school. He had to make Zuckerberg the loser not just because it was a "better story" but because that's honestly his concept of what an internet person/computer nerd is like. To me, it's just creatively lazy, as is making all of your characters speak almost exactly the same way.

Just because a movie is about the founding of Facebook doesn't make it the movie of a generation. I think it would be more that of a generational thing, if it were more about how social media has changed dating, bullying, friendships, family ties, work, etc., or brought something fresh to filmmaking. Sure, these were younger actors than the ones in A Few Good Men or on The West Wing, but what was really fresh about it? And pathetic how the screenplay left out Zuckerberg's now-wife because a steady relationship didn't fit the narrative Sorkin was trying to sell of the scorned, socially inept loser. The Imitation Game kind of combines elements of The Social Network and The King's Speech if you really think about it: computer genius who's not so great relating to people, except it's Brits triumphing over adversity during World War II. The best of both worlds! It only cost $15 million so I think it will be very profitable for Weinstein.

Watching this now, it was kind of cool to realize that it's Anthony Mackie as Papa Doc aka Clarence. Eminem is playing a thinly-veiled version of himself, but you can still screw that up (50 Cent), and he didn't. He might have had a decent acting career if he'd been interested.

Hawley and Jenny used to smash tho How many other characters are shown being able to do magic effectively while "powerful witch" Katrina swoons? The Headless Horseman was a lot more menacing last year when he was riding around machine-gunning everyone. Big mistake to make him lovesick (and shirtless), even if they did have to get a new actor (the guy last year is Batfleck's stunt double now so they recast).

Why can't it be a lot of money (relative to what we'll all ever make) and a disappointment? If the final gross drops $90-100M from the Catching Fire, why do we have to act like it's the most awesomest thing ever?

They've all migrated to Lifetime/Hallmark Channel/ION/UP and cater almost exclusively to women. It's a serious cottage industry, there are more than 20 new holiday-themed TV movies just this year.

Not that THG doesn't have a dedicated fanbase living and breathing for the series, but the Twilight and Potter movies probably played to a bigger chunk of those fans up to their eyeballs in it. So, they didn't get the $400m sequel, because the general audience wasn't as interested, but the ride or die fans are more likely to be in for the split movie cash grab. They lost some business for Part 1 but not nearly this much. It will be interesting to see what angle the studios uses with Mockingjay 2 to lure audiences. I think Katniss taking care of business in the arena and the whole idea of surviving the Games was very appealing, but even without that, I think a single Mockingjay would've outgrossed Catching Fire for sure. But with "nothing happening" in Mockingjay 1, and Mockingjay 2 not coming for another year...could the franchise just go out with the ultimate whimper? Maybe the casual audience who just liked the movies well enough and heard "bad" things about Mockingjay 1 won't be rushing to theaters in droves for Mockingjay 2 twelve months from now. It will probably make Lionsgate much more money so I guess they don't care whether it's a good look or not. Allegiant, though...the fan hate for that book is major, far more than with the other big YA series, the series isn't that popular and the movies are far more expensive than The Maze Runner... I hope they aren't already counting on that Allegiant 1 and 2 money because that could go bad in a major way. As for Twilight, the whole point was never about action as much as it was romance, so the events of Breaking Dawn Part 1 (wedding/honeymoon/birth/etc.) would definitely count as something "happening" for the fans of the series.

If they announce a BOM shutdown ahead of time, everyone can rip the numbers (since I don't think the data belongs to them the way music numbers seem to with Soundscan) and set up their own box office sites, or the sites already in existence can step their games up and redesign to make them more user-friendly. Then Amazon doesn't make money off all those IMDb Pro subscriptions they were going to sell to studios/journalists/box office junkies willing to pay up to have those priceless numbers all neatly organized. The backlash probably ruined that plan for now, but expect them to try it again in stages by putting certain features behind a paywall. There's no reason to think BOM can be relied on...contingencies should be in place in case it does go for good next time.

It's not that The Judge is merely unknown, it's that it's unknown and doesn't look appealing to the general audience...Will Smith couldn't make Seven Pounds or After Earth happen, Tom Hanks missed with The Terminal and that one with Julia Roberts where he was in a community college. Cruise had Lions for Lambs, though generally, he tends not to stray too much from the action umbrella with his starring roles these days, which minimizes his odds of flopping.

It's ALIVE! TW LW Title (click to view) Studio Weekend Gross % Change Theater Count / Change Average Total Gross Budget* Week # 1 1 Gone Girl Fox $26,800,000 -28.6% 3,284 +270 $8,161 $78,281,000 $61 2 2 N Dracula Untold Uni. $23,457,000 - 2,885 - $8,131 $23,457,000 $70 1 3 N Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day BV $19,100,000 - 3,088 - $6,185 $19,100,000 $28 1 4 2 Annabelle WB (NL) $16,365,000 -55.9% 3,215 +30 $5,090 $62,156,000 $6.5 2 5 N The Judge WB $13,330,000 - 3,003 - $4,439 $13,330,000 $50 1 6 3 The Equalizer Sony $9,725,000 -48.1% 3,117 -119 $3,120 $79,885,000 $55 3 7 N Addicted LGF $7,600,000 - 846 - $8,983 $7,600,000 - 1 8 5 The Maze Runner Fox $7,500,000 -35.5% 3,072 -533 $2,441 $83,840,000 $34 4 9 4 The Boxtrolls Focus $6,676,000 -44.3% 3,270 -194 $2,042 $41,032,000 $60 3 10 6 Left Behind (2014) Free $2,909,000 -53.8% 1,887 +62 $1,542 $10,920,000 $16 2 11 N Meet the Mormons Purd. $2,700,000 - 317 - $8,517 $2,700,000 - 1 12 9 Guardians of the Galaxy BV $1,807,000 -39.9% 1,291 -603 $1,400 $326,077,000 $170 11 13 7 This is Where I Leave You WB $1,645,000 -59.0% 1,511 -1,224 $1,089 $32,116,000 $19.8 4 14 8 Dolphin Tale 2 WB $1,320,000 -61.4% 1,505 -1,285 $877 $39,945,000 $36 5 - 10 No Good Deed (2014) SGem $990,000 -60.4% 801 -779 $1,236 $51,766,000 $13.2 5 - N Kill the Messenger Focus $939,000 - 374 - $2,511 $939,000 - 1 - 13 The Good Lie WB $550,000 -34.6% 461 - $1,193 $1,703,000 - 2 - 11 A Walk Among the Tombstones Uni. $388,000 -80.7% 554 -1,672 $700 $25,702,000 $28 4 - 15 Let's Be Cops Fox $310,000 -58.0% 319 -462 $972 $81,462,000 $17 9 - 38 Pride (2014) CBS $230,000 +126.5% 97 +74 $2,371 $556,000 - 3 - 27 Lucy Uni. $178,000 -5.6% 202 -50 $881 $126,089,000 $40 12 - 30 How to Train Your Dragon 2 Fox $177,000 +2.2% 204 -23 $868 $176,321,000 $145 18 - N Whiplash SPC $144,000 - 6 - $24,000 $144,000 - 1 - N St. Vincent Wein. $121,000 - 4 - $30,250 $121,000 - 1 - 22 The Giver Wein. $108,000 -55.4% 202 -169 $535 $44,440,000 $25 9 - 24 Hector And The Search For Happiness Rela. $100,000 -56.1% 144 -39 $694 $795,600 - 4 - 32 Boyhood IFC $90,000 -37.4% 72 -66 $1,250 $23,581,300 $4 14 - 21 The Drop FoxS $73,000 -73.0% 103 -326 $709 $10,603,800 $12.6 5 - 41 Tracks (2014) Wein. $63,000 -32.2% 64 -3 $984 $338,400 - 4 - 42 The Trip to Italy IFC $61,100 -32.9% 72 -58 $849 $2,763,400 - 9 - 36 Love is Strange SPC $57,000 -50.1% 70 -64 $814 $2,141,800 - 8 - N One Chance Wein. $32,800 - 43 - $763 $32,800 - 1 - 63 Art and Craft Osci. $23,000 +2.2% 11 +3 $2,091 $115,500 - 4 - 59 The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby Wein. $21,900 -19.0% 24 -35 $913 $549,200 - 5 - N Christian Mingle RM $20,500 - 15 - $1,367 $20,500 - 1 - 64 The Blue Room IFC $16,800 -23.0% 14 +11 $1,200 $51,300 - 2 - 58 The November Man Rela. $11,000 -63.8% 51 -43 $216 $24,949,300 - 7 - N The Overnighters Drft. $4,800 - 1 - $4,800 $4,800 - 1

Gone Girl 10.5.14 12:00 PM, 60% full Trailers: Into the Woods Theory of Everything Addicted Fifty Shades of Grey American Sniper Fury Interstellar Exodus: Gods and Kings Enjoyable ride, funnier than I'd expected, the ad calling it the "date movie of the year" is obviously trolling everyone. It will give a couple something to talk about but for getting to know you/first date material, the person's probably trying to tell you something. 8.5/10