Thompson on Hollywood

Arthouse Audit: 'Zero Dark Thirty' and 'Amour' Open Strong

Box Office

The two most awarded and critically-acclaimed films of 2012 both opened last Wednesday in New York and Los Angeles, earning the highest Metacritic scores of the year (among the best of recent years). Their performance through the first five days show that audiences are responding. While faced with major competition for adult audiences as well as the normal pre-holiday slump, both posted numbers that would be considered strong any time of the year.

By Tom Brueggemann
|
December 23, 2012 4:21 PM
|
3 Comments

More:

Pre-Holiday Box Office is Weak: Christmas Can't Come Too Soon for Studios, Theaters

Box Office

Pre-Christmas weekends vary wildly in performance year by year, depending on where the dates fall (the closer to Christmas, the worse the business until December 25) and the strength of new openings. With the debuting films this year ranging for modest to weak, whatever strength there was came from the second week of "The Hobbit," which took a steep (but not unusual) fall from its smaller-than-expected opening. The result is a so-so total gross at best.

By Tom Brueggemann
|
December 23, 2012 1:03 PM
|
0 Comments

More:

Pre-Holiday Box Office: 'Jack Reacher' Best of So-So New Openers

Box Office

Warning signs for this year's year-end box office prospects appeared in Friday's numbers. Even though pre-Christmas Friday was two days earlier this year (generally the closer the day is to the holiday, the fewer people are going to movies), the take for the Top Ten was only $28 million yesterday, compared to $37 million on the same Friday last year.

By Tom Brueggemann
|
December 22, 2012 5:39 PM
|
0 Comments

More:

Weekly Wrap: The Best of TOH! - 'Zero Dark Thirty' Controversy, Apatow, and Beasts of Southern Wild Featurette

News

Best of the TOH Week that Was:

By TOH!
|
December 22, 2012 1:58 PM
|
0 Comments

Director Kormakur Literally Jumped Into Iceland's 'Deep' with Oscar Entry, Plans Viking Adventure

Awards

Iceland's shortlisted Oscar entry "The Deep" (spring 2013) is based on the true story of the sole survivor of a downed fishing boat. Baltasar Kormakur is a member of a growing band of truly international filmmakers who make films at home as well as Hollywood. Producer-star Mark Wahlberg starred in "Contraband," Kormakur's remake of his own "Reykjavik-Rotterdam," took a shine to the rugged Iceland actor-director, and went on to make another film with him, the upcoming $80-million actioner "Two Guns," co-starring Denzel Washington. Wahlberg is also producing an HBO pilot with him, "The Missionary."

By Anne Thompson
|
December 21, 2012 4:54 PM
|
1 Comment

More:

Oscar Foreign Language Shortlist Films All Open or Set for Release by Early 2013

Awards

Something funny happened on the way to the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar shortlist. Unusually, all nine contenders announced Friday morning have either already been released in the US or will be during the first quarter of 2013.

By Tom Brueggemann
|
December 21, 2012 4:27 PM
|
1 Comment

More:

Highlights from LA Times Directors Roundtable with Bigelow, Affleck, Russell, Lee, Hooper and Gervasi

News

Six directors talk shop for the LA Times' directors roundtable. John Horn is joined by Kathryn Bigelow ("Zero Dark Thirty"), Ben Affleck ("Argo"), Tom Hooper ("Les Miserables"), David O. Russell ("Silver Linings Playbook"), Ang Lee ("Life of Pi") and Sacha Gervasi ("Hitchcock") to discuss their films, working with actors...

By Sophia Savage
|
December 21, 2012 3:59 PM
|
0 Comments

More:

NRA Chief Blames Hollywood Media for Gun Violence, Names Oliver Stone's 1994 'Natural Born Killers'

News

Oliver Stone can't get a break. Almost two decades after he directed uber-violent "Natural Born Killers," Hollywood's most famous Liberal remains a fat target for the National Rifle Association, which held a Washington, D.C. press conference Friday interrupted by protests.

By Anne Thompson
|
December 21, 2012 2:00 PM
|
8 Comments

More:

Immersed in Movies: Costume Designer Jany Temime Talks 'Skyfall'

Features

Jany Temime effortlessly transitioned from dressing Harry Potter to James Bond because 007 has always been a part of her life. Temime knew exactly what she was getting into when she got the call from director Sam Mendes: "When you get to do a Bond, you take with you all that makes Bond," she proclaims.

By Bill Desowitz
|
December 21, 2012 1:30 PM
|
0 Comments

More:

'The Walking Dead' Loses Another Executive Producer, Will Show Chase Zombie Gore?

Television

Yet again there is a creative parting of the ways on hugely popular AMC series "The Walking Dead," which the cabler is renewing for a fourth season. "The Walking Dead" series based on Robert Kirkman's zombie graphic novels was first created by writer-director Frank Darabont ("The Shawshank Redeption"), who left after Season One. After that AMC and remaining executive producer Gale Anne Hurd relied on exec producer and showrunner Glen Mazzara, who shepherded Season Two and Three.