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Box Office Spotlight: 'Due Date'

By Eugene Novikov (Subscribe to Eugene Novikov's posts), Posted Nov 8th 2010 11:00AM


The Movie: 'Due Date,' starring Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis, and directed by Todd Phillips, fresh off the runaway success of 'The Hangover.'

The Target Audience: High-schoolers, college students, and pop-culture-savvy adults.

The Competition: Lots. Marking the official end of the autumn movie dead zone, the weekend saw the release of two blockbuster attractions in addition to 'Due Date': Dreamworks' trendy, star-studded 3D animated feature 'Megamind,' and Tyler Perry's latest melodrama 'For Colored Girls.' 'Megamind' ended up winning the weekend, but each of the three debuts performed well; for the details, see Moviefone's Box Office Report.

The Number: Due Date certainly has a zeitgeisty pedigree, with each of the main players on a seemingly limitless upward trajectory. Robert Downey Jr. has successfully launched two franchises in the last two years, and gave a classic comic supporting turn in 'Tropic Thunder' -- one of the few things people remember about that film. Zach Galifianakis has worked a miracle in getting the mainstream to sign on to his stridently bizarre schtick, and he seems to be getting more popular by the day. And 'The Hangover' turned Todd Phillips into one of the hottest comedy directors around.
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Box Office Spotlight: 'Saw 3D'

By Eugene Novikov (Subscribe to Eugene Novikov's posts), Posted Nov 1st 2010 9:30AM
Filed under: Box Office, New Releases, Cinematical


The Movie: 'Saw 3D,' the seventh and supposedly final film in the gruesome, exceedingly profitable horror franchise, directed by Kevin Greutert (who edited the first five films and directed the last two), and once again starring series stalwart Tobin Bell, despite his character having been dead since the end of 'Saw III.' It is the first 'Saw' film to be offered in 3D.

The Target Audience: With the movie apparently being completely (instead of just mildly) incomprehensible to those who haven't seen its predecessors, it's safe to say that the target audience here is "fans of the 'Saw' franchise."

The Competition: For the second weekend in a row, a horror film has opened without any competition from other new wide releases. With 'Saw' having pretty much owned the last six Halloweens (except maybe last year, when the first 'Paranormal Activity' got in the way), the rest of Hollywood apparently decided to let it have the weekend to itself. Mainly, then, the movie had to deal with 'Paranormal Activity 2,' last weekend's horror holdover, which took a significant, if largely expected, tumble from its impressive opening. The full weekend chart is available in Moviefone's Box Office Report.
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Box Office Spotlight: 'Paranormal' Shows More Activity

By Eugene Novikov (Subscribe to Eugene Novikov's posts), Posted Oct 25th 2010 9:10AM
Filed under: Box Office, New Releases, Cinematical


The Movie: 'Paranormal Activity 2,' directed by first-time genre filmmaker Tod Williams ('The Adventures of Sebastian Cole,' 'The Door in the Floor') and literally starring a cast of unknowns: not only are the actors not famous, but Paramount has done their best to keep us from learning their names. It is a sequel to Oren Peli's sleeper indie hit 'Paranormal Activity,' which cost $15,000 and grossed $108 million domestically last fall.

The Target Audience: Horror fans of all stripes, including those who can't or won't stomach the heavier, gorier fare that's become the rage over the past few years. Teens. People on dates.
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James Gunn's 'Super' R-Rated Clip: Rainn Wilson Fights Line Cutters

By Eugene Novikov (Subscribe to Eugene Novikov's posts), Posted Oct 20th 2010 3:15PM
Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Cinematical
It's hard to blame anyone for being a bit weary of the whole everyday-superhero thing, what with all the attention lavished on 'Kick-Ass,' plus the likes of Woody Harrelson's 'Defendor,' Michael Rapaport's 'Special,' etc. But there's still something undeniably intriguing about James Gunn's 'Super,' which takes the same concept -- regular guy decides to don a costume and fight evil -- and, by all accounts, takes it to some seriously offbeat and funny extremes.

You can see this pretty well in a terrific, R-rated, slightly disturbing trailer for the film -- more of a clip, really -- after the jump or over at Spike TV. In it, Rainn Wilson, waiting to buy tickets to something, puts on his Crimson Bolt costume and dispatches a jackass line-cutter (as well as the line-cutter's female enabler) with a wrench to the forehead.

Even if one is sick of the concept, this little bit is brilliantly rendered, from the detail that the prototypically obnoxious line-cutter attempts to ply his target with an offer of a sailor's hat, to the wonderfully righteous and outraged way Wilson proclaims "No butts!" It's also interesting in another, more disquieting way, namely that the punishment Wilson metes out here seems so grossly disproportionate to the transgression.
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Adrien Brody Sues to Stop Release of Dario Argento's 'Giallo'

By Eugene Novikov (Subscribe to Eugene Novikov's posts), Posted Oct 18th 2010 8:50PM
Filed under: Movie News, New Releases, Horror, Cinematical
Back in 2008, the casting of Adrien Brody in Dario Argento's 'Giallo' was greeted with some excitement at the prospect of Argento possibly making some headway into the mainstream American horror scene. Now, on the eve of the film's DVD release (set for this Tuesday), Adrien Brody has sued to keep the film from hitting the shelves.

The reason for the lawsuit is predictable: Brody says he was never paid the $640,000 he is owed for starring in the film. Why does that entitle him to prevent the producers from releasing the film (rather than just suing for the money)? Well, Brody signed a contract that entitled him to "withhold consent to the use of his likeness in the picture" in exchange (and as collateral) for deferring payment of his salary. According to Brody, the producers brazenly never paid him (and never intended to), and have ignored his attempts to exercise his right to keep the movie from being released.

The complaint lists Dario Argento as a "non-party co-conspirator," implying that the venerable Italian filmmaker, though not himself a Defendant, had a part in repeatedly lying to Brody to induce him to complete the film. Brody asks for either full payment of the $640,000 or an injunction barring the release of the film, and $2 million on top of that for fraud.
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Box Office Spotlight: 'Jackass 3D'

By Eugene Novikov (Subscribe to Eugene Novikov's posts), Posted Oct 18th 2010 10:02AM
Filed under: Box Office, Cinematical


The Movie: 'Jackass 3D', the third film in the popular franchise that spun off the successful MTV series of the same name. Like its predecessors, 'Jackass 3D' is a loose compilation of skits, sketches and stunts, some involving dwarfs, starring goofballs Johnny Knoxville, Chris Pontius, and Steve-O, and directed by franchise originator Johnny Tremaine. For the first time, the fluids, bees (!), and little people go flying in three dimensions.

The Target Audience: Teenagers; college kids; audiences eager to watch idiots hurt themselves; fans of the prior films and people who grew up on the TV show – which, it's easy to forget, began airing ten years ago. All kidding aside, 'Jackass' has become a remarkably enduring pop culture phenomenon.

The Competition: The somewhat demographically challenged retired-secret-agent action comedy 'Red', which nonetheless performed reasonably well in second place. 'The Social Network' was the strongest holdover, followed by mostly family fare and rom-coms. A well-chosen weekend to open 'Jackass 3D'. More details about the weekend's box office are in our Box Office Report here.

The Number: $50 million on 3,081 screens – holy crap! That's the highest opening weekend gross for any movie in September or October, ever. It is the ninth highest opening weekend gross for an R-rated film, ever. It is roughly equivalent to the opening weekend grosses of the first two 'Jackass' films combined, improving on its direct predecessor by a full $20 million.
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Luc Besson Talks New Sci-Fi Film: "'The Fifth Element' to the Power of 10"

By Eugene Novikov (Subscribe to Eugene Novikov's posts), Posted Oct 13th 2010 4:02PM
Filed under: Movie News, Cinematical
Luc Besson has always seemed a little bit crazy, in the best possible way. First of all, just look at him. Second, look at his movies -- particularly the ones he's written or directed. Virtually all of them are bursting with ambition, but also kind of a weird lurid streak, a temptation to cross boundaries that one wouldn't expect to be crossed in the movie one is watching. Think the graphic rape scene in 'The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc', or the massively creepy sex slave auction toward the end of 'Taken'. The guy has a knack for taking ordinary genre films and slipping in something to make your skin crawl.

That weirdo sensibility served Besson particularly well with 'The Fifth Element', a massive sci-fi/fantasy folly that on paper should have been a historic flop -- but which instead became massively profitable, an enduring cult favorite, and Besson's most popular film. It was sort of like 'The Matrix', in that it was something that general audiences really hadn't seen before, and that struck a chord. Unlike 'The Matrix', 'The Fifth Element' hasn't spawned a string of imitators: it's too oddball for that.
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