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Style Or Substance? 20 Visually Stunning Movies That Go For Broke

  • By The Playlist Staff
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  • May 8, 2013 1:51 PM
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  • 23 Comments
20 Visually Dazzling Movies
Features
No matter what you think of Baz Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby," opening this week in ultra-luxurious 3D, one thing's for sure – it looks pretty spectacular. Filled with lovingly crafted costumes, opulent sets, and computer generated imagery that makes ragtime New York seem like a quasi-futuristic metropolis, it is drunk on its own excess. It feels like the movie Luhrmann has been angling towards for a while and has finally achieved (thanks in part to the added dimensionality of 3D), for better or worse. It's a giant, gilded, vulgar monstrosity that overwhelms more often than it entertains. And it got us thinking about other movies whose similarly excessive styles have either been an asset or a detriment. So put on your 3D glasses, your best pink pinstripe suit, and grab a glass of bootleg liquor, for our list of 20 visually dazzling movies.
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More: The Great Gatsby, Baz Luhrmann, Tron: Legacy, The Wachowskis, Oz The Great And Powerful, Sam Raimi, Terry Gilliam, Zack Snyder, Guillermo del Toro, Francis Ford Coppola, Tarsem, Darren Aronofsky, Walt Disney, Features, Terrence Malick

Weekend Box Office: 'The Croods' Notches Best Animated Opening Since November

  • By Gabe Toro
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  • March 24, 2013 11:33 AM
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  • 0 Comments
Box Office
Normally, we’re besieged by animated fare during all months, but not so far in 2013. The only animated film of the year thus far was “Escape From Planet Earth,” a production from The Weinstein Company that was treated like a last minute dump, posting numbers that only counted as a hit compared to the film’s small budget and meager ad campaign. Before that, DreamWorks kept “Rise of the Guardians” active in over 3,000 sparsely-attended engagements, though over the holidays it seemed kids would rather toss snowballs around than watch a weirdly oppressive, vaguely non-denominational holiday movie. Which meant that all Fox had to do was not embarrass themselves with “The Croods,” supplying the kids market with a 3D diversion that stands as the second biggest opening of the year, far ahead of the middling 'Guardians' debut.
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More: Weekend Box-Office, The Croods, Olympus Has Fallen, Gerard Butler, Oz The Great And Powerful, DreamWorks Animation, FilmDistrict, Admission, James Franco, Spring Breakers, Megan Ellison

Weekend Box Office: 'Oz' Continues To Rule, 'Burt Wonderstone' Far Less Than 'Incredible'

  • By Gabe Toro
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  • March 17, 2013 11:32 AM
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  • 5 Comments
Box Office
While it should be more than clear that "Oz the Great and Powerful" won't match the billion dollar haul of Disney's "Alice In Wonderland" – tears of sadness, Disney – still, this remains prime real estate for a family film as kids celebrate their spaced-out spring breaks. As such, 'Oz' has performed strongly on the weekdays, news that offsets the decent-but-unspectacular overseas returns. The film is on pace to rack up somewhere between $600-$800 million (probably the low end of that), which doesn't blow the doors off compared to a $300 million plus investment by the studio. But this is Disney we're talking about: there are ancillary earnings up the wazoo here.
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More: Weekend Box-Office, Oz The Great And Powerful, Halle Berry, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, Steve Carell

Box Office: 'Oz The Great And Powerful' Builds A Money Brick Road With Massive Opening

  • By Gabe Toro
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  • March 10, 2013 12:12 PM
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  • 4 Comments
Box Office
While the next few weeks will determine if “Oz the Great and Powerful” meets or succeeds expectations, it's off to a good start. Disney insiders were long forecasting an $80 million plus take for its first three days, and they pretty much hit that figure dead on (but didn't exceed it wildly as some were predicting). This prequel/spinoff to the original “The Wizard of Oz” reportedly cost in the neighborhood of $200 million, with at least an additional $100 million in prints and advertising, so Disney’s likely hoping the film can maintain some legs and possibly perform similarly overseas to “Alice In Wonderland,” which captured two-thirds of its billion dollar gross abroad. Speaking of which, the film totaled $150 million counting foreign box office, and it's the third largest March opening ever. So again, not a bad start at all.
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More: Weekend Box-Office, Oz The Great And Powerful, Walt Disney Pictures, Sam Raimi, Jack The Giant Slayer, Dead Man Down

Sam Raimi Won't Direct 'Oz The Great & Powerful' Sequel; Finally Saw The 'Spider-Man' Remake

  • By Edward Davis
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  • March 9, 2013 9:52 AM
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  • 5 Comments
News
Maybe it's kind of a restlessness we don't understand. After a rather pitiable box-office this past winter, one of the worst on record, "Oz The Great And Powerful," of all things, is somehow poised to make around $70 million this weekend. The expensive "Jack The Giant Slayer" movie proved not all fairy tale redos are a slam dunk and it bombed at the box-office last weekend with little signs of having any legs. But, 'Oz,' a film that received middling to OK reviews at best – we called it pretty to look at but otherwise dull – looks like it will be the first legitimate blockbuster of 2013.
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More: Sam Raimi, Oz The Great And Powerful, Walt Disney Pictures, The Amazing Spider-Man

What Are You Seeing This Weekend? 'Dead Man Down' Tries To Avoid 'The ABCs Of Death' From 'Oz'

  • By Emma Bernstein
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  • March 8, 2013 4:19 PM
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  • 2 Comments
News
Happy Friday, dear readers! One of the most wonderful things about film is its diversity of subject and style, the potential for variance and innovation inherent in the medium. This weekend's release schedule displays this core trait with relish; truly, it's a study in contrasts. We have an action-heavy neo-noir, a horror anthology, a war movie, two meditations on religion, documentaries (one that's pretty serious, one not so much), several character-based slice-of-life pics, and (sigh) another CGI world coming at you in three dimensions. Though, to be fair, we hear this last one is actually quite well done, so maybe watching it won't make us feel like our head's about to spin off. In any case, whether you're laughing, sobbing, or recoiling into your seat back (or, if you're lucky, all three in one sitting!), go enjoy the far-ranging capacity of this century-old medium. And tell us what you're most excited for in the comments below!
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More: Dead Man Down, Oz The Great And Powerful, The ABCs Of Death, Emperor, Electrick Children, The We And The I, Beyond The Hills, Somebody Up There Likes Me, The Girl

Obviously: 'Oz The Great And Powerful' Sequel In The Works

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • March 7, 2013 11:08 PM
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  • 4 Comments
News
By now, it shouldn't really be a surprise. When you're spending $325 million on a movie, you're hoping for a franchise, especially if you're Disney. Remember before "John Carter" came out how there was already tentative plans for a followup, "John Carter: The Gods Of Mars"? Perhaps learning not to count their chickens before they hatch, Disney has until now remained mum on any further travels down the yellow brick road after this weekend's "Oz The Great And Powerful" (our review). But with a massive opening weekend in the forecast, a small bit of their plans have been revealed.
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More: Oz The Great And Powerful, Walt Disney

Can Disney Keep The $325 Million 'Oz The Great And Powerful' From Becoming Another 'John Carter'?

  • By Charlie Schmidlin
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  • March 6, 2013 10:21 AM
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  • 11 Comments
News
It's unfortunate that director Andrew Stanton has to deal with his $250 million-budgeted “John Carter” being synonymous with high-stakes cinematic failure, but such are the risks that come with the gamble. Bryan Singer is the latest to join the club however, after “Jack the Giant Slayer” ($195 million) swiftly bombed at the box office this past weekend, earning just $27.2 million. Now, Disney is again on the chopping block with their similarly massive “Oz The Great and Powerful" (our review),” but will Sam Raimi's direction and Mila Kunis' intense likability score a successful result at last for the studio?
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More: Oz The Great And Powerful, Walt Disney

Sam Raimi Explains Why He Left Both 'Spider-Man 4' & 'World Of Warcraft'

  • By Gabe Toro
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  • March 5, 2013 3:26 PM
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  • 5 Comments
News
It seems as if after "Spider-Man 3," all the king's horses and all the king's men just couldn't put Spidey back together again. Famously, series architect Sam Raimi tried with an attempt at a fourth film featuring John Malkovich as the Vulture, with Anne Hathaway in an unspecified role believed to be the Black Cat. Chatting with Vulture (the site, not the villain) as his next film "Oz The Great And Powerful" opens this weekend, Sam Raimi he finally opened up about the aborted project, which was canceled in favor of last summer's reboot "The Amazing Spider-Man."
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More: Sam Raimi, Oz The Great And Powerful, The Amazing Spider-Man, World Of Warcraft

Not In Kansas Anymore: The Long History Of Disney And 'The Wizard Of Oz'

  • By Drew Taylor
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  • March 5, 2013 2:22 PM
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  • 5 Comments
Not In Kansas Anymore: The Long History Of Disney And 'Oz'
Features
This weekend's opulent 3D fantasia "Oz, The Great And Powerful," directed by former "Spider-Man" director Sam Raimi, is one of Disney's biggest movies of the year – a dreamy, technologically advanced marvel that cost $200 million to produce and god knows how much to market. And while this is the latest film from the Mouse House to flirt with the "Wizard of Oz" mythos (originally developed in a series of best-selling fantasy novels by American author L. Frank Baum), it is far from the first. In fact, Disney has been doggedly pursuing the world of Oz, to varying degrees of success, since the late '30s. The odyssey that Disney took to get to "Oz, the Great and Powerful" is more fraught with danger, pain, and dead-ends than anything involving a yellow brick road. Thankfully, nowhere in this story does a flying monkey with the voice of Zach Braff appear.
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More: Oz The Great And Powerful, Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney, Sam Raimi, Features, Feature

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