Thompson on Hollywood

Alamo Drafthouse Presents Guy-Centric 'Summer of 1982: The Greatest Summer of Movies... Ever'

News

Alamo Drafthouse has programmed an uninspired three-month series of summer blockbusters celebrating their 30th anniversaries this year.

By Beth Hanna
|
March 2, 2012 7:51 PM
|
6 Comments

More:

Half-Eaten Poster Battle: Iron Lady vs. Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

The most recent poster for The Iron Lady, a biopic about Margaret Thatcher, shows Meryl Streep's face fading into the buildings of Parliament, under the tagline "Never Compromise." This poster coincidentally resembles recent art from an upcoming feature about another iron-willed lady, Lizbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) in David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. In this poster, Mara's profile silhouette makes a sort of ying-yang design with a handsome mugshot of Daniel Craig. (Both posted on their own below).

By Maggie Lange
|
September 23, 2011 6:22 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Weekly Wrap: TIFF: Moneyball, Descendants, Deep Blue Sea; Reviews Kevin, The Lady; Media Watch

Box Office:

By Maggie Lange
|
September 16, 2011 5:20 AM
|
0 Comments

Why The Help Is the Most Successful Movie in America

For this week's “Now and Then” column, Matt Brennan veered from his planned course.I had originally planned on writing about two brilliantly constructed, unnerving examples of the “new Romanian Cinema” — 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days and Police, Adjective, both of which I recommend. But last night, tired of waiting for Tropical Storm Lee to pass, I finally ventured out with a friend to see The Help (trailer below).

By Matt Brennan
|
September 5, 2011 6:22 AM
|
4 Comments

More:

Hurricane Irene Wipes Out Weekend Box Office: The Help Provides Shelter

As Hurricane Irene pummeled the East Coast, causing some 1000 theaters to close their doors, The Help continued its box office surge. Anthony D'Alessandro reports.It's easy to blame Hurricane Irene for sub-standard late summer product and depressed weekend box office results. Certainly the weather did have an impact, as surviving cinemas charted close to the lowest weekend of 2011 with an estimated $88.4 million, coming in slightly ahead of Super Bowl's $87.3 million bottom-dwelling frame. This weekend was also 23% behind the same period a year ago and a huge 29% down from last weekend. When exhibitor-distributor gross collector Rentrak issues its own weather advisory that Saturday and Sunday ticket sales will be impacted by 1,000 theater closures, you know it's serious. Theater chains such as Clearview Cinemas, Regal and AMC closed across the eastern seaboard stretching from Washington D.C. to New York. Even though the hurricane was downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it hit New York, a number of Manhattan cinemas shuttered today as the city contends with the overflow of the Hudson River and lack of transportation.

By Anthony D'Alessandro
|
August 28, 2011 4:43 AM
|
4 Comments

More:

Weekend Preview: Directorial Debuts Transition B.O. from Summer to Fall; Higher Ground, Circumstance

During this transitional August week, blockbusters make room for smaller films and usher in the September start of the fall awards season. There's not a single sequel hitting theaters this weekend, although Guillermo del Toro and Troy Nixey's horrific Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, which Roger Ebert writes "milks our frustration deliciously," is a remake of a TV movie. Nixey's is one of four films from first-time feature directors, including Vera Farmiga's impressive Higher Ground, which Variety calls "satirical yet sensitive"; Maryam Keshavarz's surprising underground portrait of Iran, Circumstance, which is "stirringly sensual". AP calls Rowan Joffe's Brighton Rock, based on Grahame Greene's 1939 novel, "an exercise in style over substance."

By Sophia Savage
|
August 25, 2011 8:07 AM
|
2 Comments

More:

Confessions of Conan the Barbarian Writer, Dark Knight Leaves Pittsburgh, Universal Drops Ouija

Christopher Nolan has wrapped filming on The Dark Knight Rises in Pittsburgh; he still has more principal photography in New York and Los Angeles. The film opens July 20, 2012.

By Maggie Lange
|
August 24, 2011 8:11 AM
|
1 Comment

More:

Weekend Box Office: The Help Ascends to Number One, Spy Kids 4 Strongest Newbie

As expected, robust holdover drama The Help kept all weekend newcomers at bay and claimed the number one spot. Of the newbies, family-friendly Spy Kids 4 fared best. Anthony D'Alessandro reports:Disney/DreamWorks' The Help bossed around three franchise reboots and an arthouse film for the top box office spot, earning $20.5 million in its second sesh and a respectable 21% dip. Clearly, many moviegoers have lost patience with summer carbon copies and are ready to embrace the autumn wave of smart adult fare coming down the pipe. Weinstein Co. four-quel Spy Kids: All the Time in the World came out ahead of the competition with $12 million because it was the only film geared toward families. Meanwhile, two R-rated 3-D films shot each other in the chest: Nu Image/Lionsgate's Conan the Barbarian forked $10 million and DreamWorks' Fright Night, handled by Disney, scared audiences out of the multiplex with $8.3 million. And Focus Features' One Day bucked sour reviews in top markets, grossing $5.1 million.

By Anthony D'Alessandro
|
August 21, 2011 4:51 AM
|
9 Comments

More:

Weekend Preview: Fright Night, One Day, Conan the Barbarian; Momoa: "Drogo would kick Conan's Ass"

As Rise of the Planet of the Apes and The Help do torrid business, the dog days of August are now upon us. This is the traditional dumping ground for movies that Hollywood deems neither robust enough to compete in the summer fray nor able to earn quality reviews during the more demanding adult fall season.

By Anne Thompson and Sophia Savage
|
August 18, 2011 5:30 AM
|
1 Comment

More:

Oscar Watch: Sony Pictures Classics Boasts Strong Fall Line-up; Midnight in Paris Stays in Theaters

Sony Pictures Classics is having a good year. Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris is not only the most successful Woody Allen movie ever ($49 million domestic and counting), it's the only movie to play all summer long. After its successful launch May 20 after opening Cannes, co-president Tom Bernard refused to tell me when they were planning to release the DVD. "We're staying in theaters as long as possible," he said.