Jake Gittes

The ones I tracked personally: July-Sept 2006 (DMC domination & Little Miss Sunshine demonstrating the power of a platform release with great WOM) Summer 2007 (3 $100m OWs in May, Transformers outgrossing AWE, The Bourne Ultimatum reaching its well-deserved heights) Dec 2007 - Feb 2008 (I Am Legend & Alvin breakout, No Country for Old Men in platform) July 2008 - TDK and the culmination of IM/IJ4 race for the second place May-June 2009 (Star Trek, Up and The Hangover) Dec 2009 - Feb 2010 (you know what I mean) Sept 2010 - Feb 2011 adult drama/thriller domination (The Town, The Social Network, The King's Speech, Black Swan, The Fighter, True Grit) Jan-March 2012 (expectations were beat practically every other weekend... box-office totally felt freaking alive)

Yeah, Murray isn't happening.

Cloud Atlas got by on the Wachowski name (all Matrix movies are well-liked by the general audience), the visuals in the trailers and the very wide release. It just so happened to be an intelligent movie in addition to that, like Inception, if you will.

Oh yeah, Blood Diamond. One of those films where I just don't care, as far as I'm concerned, it ends with Di Caprio's phone call to Connelly and the plane flying away. None of the subsequent cheesy bullshit.

Subtitles are unfortunately something most Russian audiences would take a lot of time to accept over dubbing or, yes, even voiceovers. The latter is just something people here are naturally used to, they have been for decades.

What shaky start? Sony had The Vow and 21 Jump Street early in the year

End of Watch is the first one that popped into my head too. First I couldn't believe how damn powerful the alleyway scene was... then I couldn't believe Ayer actually thought the very final scene wasn't out of place. An example of cheap, beating-you-over-the-head sentimentality that was completely worthless. The movie as a whole was still good, but it would have been far better without that part.

Comparing it directly with CR is somewhat incorrect IMO, since CR opened right before Thanksgiving and had a sub-25% second weekend drop as a result, helping it make substantially more money in its first 10 days than it would have made otherwise.

Came up with a longlist of 45 scores. Gonna be fun to narrow them down.

What about Star Wars and LOTR, are multiple films eligible there? There are some core themes reused, but most of those scores are original and stand on their own. They were deemed eligible for Oscar noms, too - John Williams was nominated for TESB after winning for ANH, Howard Shore won for FOTR and ROTK, plus Nino Rota also won for Godfather II. Not saying it's your obligation to do what the Academy did, but what are your conditions there?

It increased on Saturday from a $32m Friday. Maybe I missed something, but I wouldn't describe that as people rushing out to see it.

I'm thinking 53-57%. Highly doubt it's going to hold better than TBU even despite the time-of-the-year difference. On the other hand, over 57% is closer to 2012/QoS territory, and Skyfall is better than that. Right now I'd say $40m is exactly where it'll end up next weekend.

If QoS (and also 2012, which opened the exact same weekend with mid-$60millions) could do 2.5x, I'd expect 2.7x at the very least from Skyfall. I'd say it's nearly guaranteed (meaning like a 99% chance) to outgross The Bourne Ultimatum, has a good chance to make it past 250 and an outside chance to crawl past TASM. I think 240-270 is the range, and if forced to make a closer prediction, I'd say 250-255.Also, I was no fan of TASM, but to me it still blew SM and SM3 right out of the water. SM2, on the other hand, remained untouchable... for the time being. Just my two cents. I also enjoyed Garfield and Stone in their roles much more than Maguire and Dunst.

More like around $5m. There was some money made in the Mon-Wed period too, especially as Monday was a holiday.

Like I said, it's with (very wide) previews. CA made estimated $2.5m in the November 2-4 period alone.

Exhibitor Relations ‏@ERCboxoffice Silver lining? Wachowski's CLOUD ATLAS debuted in Russia w/ an enormous $8.7M this weekend. Pretty sure that's including previews, but still, damn impressive.

Skyfall's multiplier will be much closer to 3 than to 2.5, regardless of the OW.

A movie breaks an opening record for its franchise and the whole genre and still has a disappointingly limited audience.Only on box office forums!

Also, QoS had one of the most reliable advantages a franchise movie can have - it directly followed a predecessor that was received spectacularly well. Skyfall had a lot going for it, but that it didn't have, which only makes its opening more impressive in my mind.

US is not Germany. When PG-13 four-quadrant blockbusters open big in the US, they have an effect, they always did. And yes, when Skyfall opens to $80m+, it's going to have a fucking effect on movies around it.

Argo got hit along with everything else. $100-110m is still on the table, though, which is great.If that number for Ralph holds, it just lost all hope of reaching $200m. Considering the history of animated November openers, though, it'll be just fine as long as it reaches around 165 (and, coincidentally, makes its money back domestically).Flight looks headed for at least $75m, Taken 2 will get within $10m of Taken, Cloud Atlas won't reach 30, and I can't believe someone would downplay the Skyfall number. It tied with Fast Five for the record OD for a straight action film while being in 150 fewer theaters, will improve on QoS by 20% on OD and OW and will almost certainly cross The Bourne Ultimatum to become the highest grossing spy action film domestically. Anybody expected more from it, it's their problem, not the movie's.

How to Train Your Dragon was the most impressive to me, followed by TF3, Hugo, Avatar and Dredd.

I don't think Spielberg is fighting for anything at this point. 93% on RT for Lincoln? He's in.

Zodiac