Thompson on Hollywood

Sanctum: "Visually Arresting," "Paper-Thin Personalities"; Cameron Promos on Twitter

Sanctum opens February 4. James Cameron produced (along with a handful of others), and Aussie director Alistair Grierson helmed the 3-D project. Cameron joined Twitter on January 28 per Ryan Seacrest's suggestion. The filmmaker has already amassed 48,200 followers (he's following 38, mostly scientific orgs). Since joining, Cameron's focus has been mostly #Sanctum promos (see tweets below), for which he calls himself "such a ho":

By Sophia Savage
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February 2, 2011 7:50 AM
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Year-End Box Office Wrap 2010: Winners and Losers Chart, Warners Leads Domestic Market Share

It was feast or famine at the 2010 domestic box office. The studios spent too much on too many uber-flops, but thanks to holdover Avatar and premium 3-D ticket prices, they enjoyed their second-best year at the domestic box office with $10.46 billion, off less than 2% from 2009’s all-time haul of $10.6 billion. The theatrical buoyancy of 3-D inflated the average stub from $7.46 in 2009 to $7.85 in the third quarter (per the National Association of Theater Owners). But the real trend is worrisome: higher ticket prices plus static turnstiles equals fewer butts in seats. Admissions fell 6% from 1.42 billion in 2009 to 1.33 billion last year.

By Anne Thompson and Anthony D'Alessandro
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January 7, 2011 9:10 AM
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Forbes Top Entertainment Earners: Women vs. Men

- Check out Forbes' annual list of Hollywood's highest-grossing women in entertainment. For one thing, points out THR, there aren't any female directors among the top ten women. James Cameron dominates the men's list, along with George Lucas and Michael Bay, but Oscar-winner Kathryn Bigelow isn't on the list at all.

By Sophia Savage
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November 12, 2010 7:07 AM
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AFM Panels: Weinstein Loves iPad, Barber Talks MGM, Deconstructing Global Markets

The American Film Market is under way in Santa Monica. Here are ten things Anthony D'Alessandro learned at AFM panels.

By Anthony D'Alessandro
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November 8, 2010 12:06 AM
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Three Critics Debate Future of 3-D

I invited indieWIRE critics Leonard Maltin and Eric Kohn to join me in a debate about the present and future of 3-D for Moviefone Movies. Here's a sample (read the full piece here):Maltin kicked off the conversation with his take on 'Jackass 3D' opening with $50 million a few weeks back. "I felt they ought to have a huge asterisk next to that saying, 'And we built most of that out of overages in the admission price,'" he argued.

By Anne Thompson
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November 5, 2010 7:46 AM
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Cameron To Direct Avatar 2 & 3; Who Will Direct Cleopatra?

James Cameron has made up his mind. He can't get Avatar out of his head. And he's doing the right thing, shooting two sequels to Avatar (possibly back to back), because he's going to give audiences more of what they want. (Reminder: Avatar grossed $ $2.8 billion worldwide, bolstered by premium 3-D prices, and tops Blu-ray sales records.) And he'll plow some of the huge R & D that went into the cost of Avatar back into the sequels (presumably making them less expensive--although you know he'll want to up the VFX ante). And he will remind us of what top-of-the-line 3-D can be. Immersive. Engrossing. Welcoming us into another world, in this case, Pandora. Don't you want to go back there? Holiday 2014 and 2015 seem very far away. But now Cameron knows what he is going to do next.

By Anne Thompson
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October 27, 2010 4:49 AM
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Names That Command the Moviesphere: Cameron Talks Avatar Sequels, True Lies, Cleopatra

If you run a movie site that seeks to service readers --and build traffic--then you don't have to be a rocket scientist to know what works. Certain names, stars, projects have heat. When you write about James Cameron, David Fincher, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, franchises like Avatar, Inception, Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, Bourne, Twilight or The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Swedish or American), or hot films like The Social Network (or Mark Zuckerberg), they will come. And despite David Poland's sloppy rant about headlines with numbers in them, guess what? They pull more readers: folks love races, contests, drama, debates, polls, controversy, exclusives (which is why the word is so rampantly abused--there's a difference between a one-on-one interview and an exclusive) and yes, lists.

By Anne Thompson
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October 20, 2010 4:19 AM
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Cameron's Master Class on Avatar: Extended Collector's Edition DVD; When's 3-D Version?

It's called milking a cash cow.

By Anne Thompson
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October 5, 2010 7:46 AM
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Weekend Box Office: Last Exorcism Over Takers in Summer Photo Finish

Two pictures vied for the top slot on the last slow dog-days-of-summer weekend. At press time it looked like Lionsgate's The Last Exorcism was beating out Sony/Screen Gems' Takers. Meanwhile holdovers The Expendables and Eat Pray Love hung onto slices of the top-five b.o. pie, reports Anthony D'Alessandro.

By Anthony D'Alessandro
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August 29, 2010 4:28 AM
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Worthington Heads Home, Hurt Locker Reality Show, Brolin Talks

- Sam Worthington is heading home to Perth, Australia to shoot surfing drama Drift, in which he plays a photographic journalist who helped to turn surfing into a worldwide industry. After several big-budget Hollywood films, the actor is excited to be involved in this $11-million project, he says, to "put something back into my home town...There's something pure and true about surfing, and there is something pure and true about this script." (There was also something pure about his performance to in 2004's Somersault opposite Abbie Cornish). This may be the perfect project for him to rediscover the satisfaction of low-budget acting away from the blue-screen razzle-dazzle of Avatar, Clash of the Titans and Terminator: Salvation.