Indiewire Browse the indiewire network

The Playlist

The obsessives' guide to contemporary cinema via film discussion, news, reviews, features, nostalgia, movie music, soundtracks, DVDs and more.

Interviews

Actors

Directors

Archives

The Playlist

Weekend Box Office: 'Dolphin Tale' Flips Over Another Batch Of Weak New Releases To Score #1

  • By Gabe Toro
  • |
  • October 2, 2011 4:38 AM
  • |
  • 0 Comments
Break it down however you want, but its simple economics. The last month has been absolutely saturated with product, so few of it appealing to mainstream America. These movies aren’t bad. And, in most cases, the marketing isn’t all that faulty. It’s pure numbers. The market can’t withstand this over-saturation. In September, eighteen films entered wide release of 1500 or more theaters, and only six crossed $30 million domestic, two of them benefiting from inflated 3D prices. That’s a poor record of success, even as we keep the bar exactly that low.
Read More »
More: Films, Film Studios, Weekend Box-Office, Animated Films, Dream House, Contagion, Take Shelter, 50/50, What's Your Number?, Universal, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros, Sony, Open Road, Lionsgate, The Lion King, Margaret

This Took Longer Than We Thought To Happen: 'Avatar' To Become A Disney Theme Park Attraction

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
  • |
  • September 20, 2011 6:38 AM
  • |
  • 4 Comments
It has been about two years since James Cameron's "Avatar" destroyed the box office, got nerds drooling and had everyone in Hollywood deciding that everything had to be in 3D (with the director himself leading the chorus). With over $2.7 billion in ticket sales (good lord guys, the movie is not that good), 20th Century Fox and Cameron, who gets a nice slice of the pie, have continued to rake it in with DVD and BluRay sales (no doubt helped by their environmentally friendly double-dip of releases within months of each other) and the expansive merchandising, which has seen the movie whored out to anybody with a printer and UPC code (have you picked up your "Avatar" Party Pack?). So it's a bit of a surprise to us that it's taken this long for a theme park ride to emerge.
Read More »
More: Films, Film Studios, 20th Century Fox

Weekend Box Office: Families Complete The Circle Of Life, Pack Theaters For Movie They Own On DVD

  • By Gabe Toro
  • |
  • September 18, 2011 3:49 AM
  • |
  • 17 Comments
Right now, some jerk at Disney is finding a way to use the term “circle of life” to define how they can release “The Lion King” anytime, and it will always make money. A 3D re-issue of the film became the number one weekend attraction by a very wide margin with $29 million, a huge middle finger to those who claim audiences are looking for something “fresh” or “new.”
Read More »
More: Films, Film Studios, Weekend Box-Office, The Help, Drive, Contagion, I Don't Know How She Does It, The Weinstein Company, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros, Sony, Screen Gems, Focus Features, FilmDistrict, Straw Dogs

'Wolverine' Sequel May Have To Wait Several More Months for Hugh Jackman (Maybe Summer 2012)

  • By Drew Taylor
  • |
  • September 8, 2011 10:53 AM
  • |
  • 2 Comments
Matthew Vaughn Expected To Return For Another 'X-Men: First Class Sequel'While making the rounds to promote the home video release of the surprisingly fun "X-Men: First Class" (tomorrow is "First Friday" or something, 20th Century Fox is making a huge over-done fuss out of this release in hopes to drum up some more revenue, sheesh), producer Lauren Shuler Donner -- who we're sure is a nice lady but on the special features portion of the Blu-ray disc looks like some kind of horrifying wax sculpture brought to life by dark magic to inflict deadly harm on the land of the living -- let loose some details about other projects set within the "X-Men" universe.
Read More »
More: Films, Actors, Film Studios, James Mangold, Super Hero Films, Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, X-Men: First Class, The Wolverine, Marvel, 20th Century Fox

DreamWorks & Fox Team Up For Steven Spielberg's Expensive ‘Robopocalypse’

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
  • |
  • September 7, 2011 6:13 AM
  • |
  • 12 Comments
By now, you should know the formula: Steven Spielberg generally (with a few exceptions) follows his Oscar bait, dramatic pictures with blockbuster popcorn stuff. Hell, this year alone (in a span of a few months) we'll get dazzling, animated, comic adaptation "The Adventures of Tintin" followed by the WWI story "War Horse." This fall Spielberg will finally shoot his long-gestating dream project "Lincoln" with Daniel Day-Lewis in the lead, but after that? It's back to making some of the best multiplex entertainment out there.
Read More »
More: Films, Film Studios, Robopocalypse, 20th Century Fox, Dreamworks

Who Were The Winners And Losers Of The Summer Of 2011?

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
  • |
  • August 30, 2011 4:08 AM
  • |
  • 24 Comments
As the summer winds die down with a flat and uninspired whimper, the realization sets in: the summer of 2011 was for the birds. "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" was the last major tent-pole to open, followed by sleeper hits like "The Help" and the not-so-successful R-rated action comedy, "30 Minutes or Less." Many had forecast that the overstuffed summer would prove disastrous, with Jon Favreau predicting that, "There’s not a weekend where there won’t be teeth on the floor," but ironically it's Favreau's film that proved to be one of the biggest box-office disappointments. Financially, films did very well with three billion-dollar blockbusters – “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2,” “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides”-- helping the industry set a summer box-office record and nearly rebound from a horrible start to 2011 (Currently, 2011 revenue is running only 4 percent behind 2010, but in March, things were looking grim – 19% lower than the year previous).
Read More »
More: Films, Actors, Actresses, Film Studios, Feature, Rob Marshall, Justin Lin, The Hangover 2, Super Hero Films, Comedies, The Help, Horrible Bosses, Transformers: The Dark Of The Moon, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two, Bridesmaids, 30 Minutes Or Less, Attack The Block, Ryan Reynolds, Justin Timberlake, Chris Evans, Tom Hanks, Michael Fassbender, Owen Wilson, Alec Baldwin, Chris Hemsworth, Olivia Wilde, Cameron Diaz, Kristen Wiig, Hayley Atwell, Green Lantern, The Change-Up, Marvel, Universal, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros, Pixar, Paramount, Conan, D.C. Entertainment

Weekend Box Office: 'The Help' Defeats Tepid Newcomers And Hurricane Season For Another Week At #1

  • By Gabe Toro
  • |
  • August 28, 2011 4:37 AM
  • |
  • 10 Comments
Usually, studios will look for any possible reason to blame the weather for a film’s poor box office showing. Heat waves only mean audiences will seek the air conditioning of a theater, at least when something exciting is playing. And people will withstand non-apocalyptic snowstorms simply to get away from the cold while enjoying the blockbuster of their choice. But there aren’t a whole lot of options when almost half of a movie’s proposed locations are under siege by a vicious hurricane. Many large chains didn’t even bother to stay open during Irene’s reign, meaning that these quiet end-of-August releases could find no traction heading into the typically-comatose Labor Day weekend.
Read More »
More: Films, Film Studios, Weekend Box-Office, Genre Films, Modern Horror, The Help, Columbiana, Our Idiot Brother, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Weinstein Company, 20th Century Fox, Sony, FilmDistrict, Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark

Weekend Box Office: Audiences Stay Home In Droves As 'The Help' Defeats Weak New Releases

  • By Gabe Toro
  • |
  • August 21, 2011 4:53 AM
  • |
  • 6 Comments
Credit a canny expansion strategy that nabbed “The Help” the number one spot at the box office in its second weekend of release. Disney wisely banked on the film having more buzz than the slate of underwhelming new releases (not all of it positive), and after two weekends, it’s easily one of the season’s big success stories, as the picture has crested $70 million after only twelve days of release. The establishment has been encouraged - stories of the struggles of minorities highlighted by the heroism of a plucky white person of higher social strata are surefire earners, particularly if you market to families. Institutionalized racism at its most efficient.
Read More »
More: Films, Actors, Film Studios, Genre Films, The Help, One Day, The Smurfs, Fright Night, Conan The Barbarian, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Universal, The Weinstein Company, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros, Sony, Paramount, Dreamworks, Focus Features

Weekend Box Office: 'Apes' Dominates 'The Help'; One Franchise Reaches Its 'Final Destination'

  • By Gabe Toro
  • |
  • August 14, 2011 4:27 AM
  • |
  • 3 Comments
All is forgiven between the public and the “Planet Of The Apes” franchise. This relationship seemed on the outs as soon as Tim Burton gave us Apebraham Lincoln a decade ago, but “Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes” has healed all wounds. While not keeping pace with that last Apeventure, 'Rise' has still taken only two weekends to cross $100 million at a much lower cost, a total no one at Fox was expecting. When the dust settles, this offering, which held well-enough to suggest strong word-of-mouth, will have outdistanced many of its genre companions from this summer, particularly those benefiting from the 3D price bump.
Read More »
More: Films, Film Studios, Weekend Box-Office, Genre Films, Modern Horror, The Help, 30 Minutes Or Less, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Universal, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros, Sony, Final Destination 5

Max Winkler & Jake Johnson Write & Create Mayoral Comedy For Fox TV

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
  • |
  • August 10, 2011 7:38 AM
  • |
  • 2 Comments
EXCLUSIVE: Earlier this year, during an interview with David Gordon Green, we asked about his Rough House Pictures production shingle, the company he formed with filmmaking pals Jody Hill, Danny McBride and Matt Reilly. He told us it's a place where the "strange ideas and concepts" they cook up or come across have a home to grow and develop. And it looks like those plans are starting to bear some fruit, particularly on television. Last spring, MTV picked up the animated series "Good Vibes" and this summer Rough House signed a one-year development deal with 20th Century Fox. Well, they certainly haven't wasted any time in getting things rolling.
Read More »
More: Actors, Film Studios, Max Winkler, Jake Johnson, 20th Century Fox

Follow Us

Email Updates

What's Poppin'

Recent Comments

Blog Roll

Around The Network

the network

indiewire

categories