Thompson on Hollywood

Fast Five Could Beat Last Installment's $70.95 Million Weekend

With Fast Five, Justin Lin, by all accounts, has delivered the best Fast and Furious installment so far--adding Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to chase the original lead duo Vin Diesel and Paul Walker--and Universal is cautiously optimistic, saying that it is tracking as well in the same range as the fourth. Anthony D'Alessandro looks at the performance of the franchise to date--and predicts the coming weekend's performance. Gas-strapped Americans are expected to break their piggy banks this weekend to see Universal’s auto five-quel Fast Five, which has scored the first "fresh" reviews of the series. Should the gross rival the $70.95 million April record bow of the 2009 installment, it will not only herald a new entry for the month's annals, but finally move up the summer B.O. season start date – a bar that distributors have continually tried to reach, but consistently miss (2002's The Scorpion King--$36.1 million--and last year’s A Nightmare on Elm Street--$32.9 million scored less than tentpole numbers). Over the past decade, as filmmakers tinkered with the series' beefcake-and-babe dramatis personae –Vin Diesel stepped out of two installments while bad girl Michelle Rodriguez has been M.I.A. for three -- ticket sales have gassed out and revved up.

By Anthony D'Alessandro
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April 27, 2011 12:53 PM
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Prom Early Reviews: Formulaic Tween Fantasy Flick or Stereotype Reinforcer?

Disney's Prom opens April 29. It stars Aimee Teegarden, Thomas McDonell, DeVaugh Nixon, Danielle Campbell, Yin Chang, Nolan Sotillo, and more. Joe Nussbaum directs a script from Katie Wech. Reviews, picture and the trailer are below.

By Sophia Savage
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April 27, 2011 6:44 AM
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Weekend Box Office: Rio Rolls Over New Openers Madea's Big Happy Family, Water for Elephants

Niche fans for Tyler Perry and Rob Pattinson turned out for Madea's Big Happy Family and Water for Elephants, respectively, but family toon Rio continued to rock the box office. Anthony D'Alessandro reports:Family films shined brightly at the Easter weekend box office as kids kept Fox’s Blue Sky Studio kid pic Rio in the top spot with $26.8 million while grandmoms and moms shelled out $25.75 million to see Lionsgate’s Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family. Fox execs were also crowing about solid returns for its $40-million Reese-Witherspoon-Robert Pattinson depression-era romance Water for Elephants, which beat its $15 million estimate with $17.5 million. Thanks to the bunny holiday, Hop jumped 17% in its fourth frame and secured a timely figure of $100.5 million.

By Anthony D'Alessandro
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April 24, 2011 5:04 AM
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Weekend Preview: Madea, RPattz, Witherspoon & Elephants, Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Incendies

Tyler Perry fans and Robert Pattinson shriekers can flock to theaters this weekend. In the meantime, check out a variety of alternatives from the indiesphere.

By Sophia Savage and Anne Thompson
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April 22, 2011 7:15 AM
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The Tree of Life Delivers Dinosaur Picture

In case you weren't already excited for Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life (premiering at Cannes May 16, limited stateside release May 27), here's the latest picture-- revealing a dinosaur. (This is a higher-res version of the tiny photo included in the poster art.) Sight unseen, it's hard to label The Tree of Life with a genre. Let's call it a supernatural-sci-fi-period-epic-coming-of-age-drama.

By Sophia Savage
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April 21, 2011 7:17 AM
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Weekend Box Office Roars Back as Best Opener of Year Rio Beats Scream 4 Horror Fest

The spring box office finally brought upbeat news as animated family movie Rio beat sequel scary movie Scream 4, marking the year's best opening, reports Anthony D'Alessandro:

By Anthony D'Alessandro
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April 17, 2011 4:24 AM
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Weekend Preview: Indie & Foreign Films to See: Princess of Montpensier, Screaming Man, Armadillo

Here's TOH's weekend preview of the mainstream box office contenders. And for the smart-movie demo, here's a look at the weekend's new indie and foreign language offerings, from Bertrand Tavernier's The Princess of Montpensier (gorgeous, as pictured) and Danish war documentaryArmadillo, to Italy's Oscar submission The First Beautiful Thing and the France/Belgium/Chad co-production A Screaming Man, which indieWIRE's Eric Kohn calls Divine.

By Sophia Savage
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April 15, 2011 6:20 AM
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Weekend Boxoffice Looks Up as Family Toon Rio Faces Horror Comedy Scream 4

Studios keep insisting that spring doldrums will give way to summer-level box office when the right product hits the marketplace. Well, that might be this weekend, reports Anthony D'Alessandro:Looking to buck the box office blues, 20th Century Fox is banking that families will cha-cha into theatres for their 3-D toon Rio, while Dimension Films is planning to scare both old fans and new into its horror four-quel Scream 4. Per Box Office Mojo, the annual box office through yesterday is at $2.4 billion, off 22% from the January – mid April frame a year ago.

By Anthony D'Alessandro
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April 14, 2011 10:53 AM
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Headline In Search of a Story: Franco's Oscar Night Did Not Hurt Your Highness Box Office

Some online headline-mongering makes me crazy. Basically, the idea is to take a celebrity name and fashion a question around it. In this case, did James Franco's lousy Oscar hosting lead to last weekend's weak opening of Your Highness?

By Anne Thompson
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April 12, 2011 8:12 AM
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Weekend Box Office: Hop Tops Arthur and Hanna; Your Highness in Sixth Place

It was Russell Brand weekend at the box office, as the Brit comic starred in top-ranked holdover Hop as well as remake Arthur, which went toe-to-toe with smart-house actioner Hanna, starring Saoirse Ronan. Ensemble period spoof Your Highness trailed in sixth place, despite a cast led by James Franco and Natalie Portman.