On Sunday, the New York Times featured a disheartening article about this summer's bigger winners and losers. For example, the Times's Brooks Barnes points out that while many thought that Kick-Ass's failure to break the bank during its first week in theaters meant it was an unmitigated dud, the fact is that the adaptation of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.'s "mature," ultra-cynical super-yarn was a pretty big hit. To recap: Lionsgate Entertainment picked up the film for $15 million and project it would make $30 million domestically during its opening weekend. The film only made approximately $20 million in that time, sending off all kinds of premature alarms. But the film has made $97 million worldwide and is estimated to sell 2 million copies once it hits dvd, blu-ray and is made available for purchase via online media outlets like Itunes.

Barnes's piece uses Kick-Ass's slow-but-steady success to point out how prognostication of a film's success really doesn't depend so much on its opening weekend anymore. There's no real speculation as to why that is in the piece, probably because it's a tough phenomenon to pin down: it's not just the home video market that's making up for lost revenue, it's an endurance test in theaters as well. On the one hand, How to Train Your Dragon made a lot of money opening weekend and even more money later over the course of the summer, grossing a total $497 million. On the other, Date Night flopped during its opening weekend but made out rather nicely in the long run, earning $152 million.

Filed under: Box Office

Continue reading Don't Trust Opening Weekends: 'Kick-Ass' Wasn't a Bomb After All

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- Fans of animatronic puppets should keep a new Swedish film from director Thobias Hoffmen called We R Animals on their radar. If you head right here you can see more eye-catching stills from the film currently in its proof-of-concept phase. Here's hoping Hoffmen gets everything he needs to make it-- I am dying to know the context of the picture above.

- After being the leading name for a few weeks now, Robert Schwentke has signed a deal to direct R.I.P.D. for Universal. Ryan Reynolds is still set to star in the adaptation of the Dark Horse comic about undead police officers.

- James Franco's SNL documentary, Saturday Night, which I found to be as funny as it is insightful, has finally been picked up by a distributor for release. Oscilloscope will be putting the film in theaters February 2011.

- The already interesting cast of Peter Berg's Battleship just got a little more eclectic: it looks like Liam Neeson will be playing the Admiral of the titular ship. That means Alexander Skarsgaard's character is his son, which isn't a huge stretch, but I'd of certainly rather have seen Stellan Skarsgaard in the role.

Filed under: Newsstand

Continue reading Cinematical Late Night: We R Animals, Neeson in Battleship, Zombieland 2 Progress

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Bust out your Slim Whitman records because the aliens of Mars Attacks! are back. Nine years after the film hit theaters, Warner Home Video is letting us enjoy the absurdity on Blu-ray and now that we're getting alien invasion movie after alien invasion movie, the genre could use some comedic relief. We get a little of every type of humor in this one from political satire down to dark comedy, all of which are undeniably memorable and still hilarious even after multiple viewings.

However, even though Mars Attacks! is certainly a comedy, many of the main characters meet grizzly ends at the hands of the violent invaders. On top of the on screen casualties, Mars Attacks! also faced a painful destruction at the domestic box office. It opened with just $9.4 million and only went on to make $37.8 million in total. Even with the additional $63.6 million it accumulated overseas, there was no overshadowing the heaps of mixed reviews. Mars Attacks! now stands at a rotten 50% on the Tomatoemeter and a weak, but somewhat respectable 52 on Metacritic.

Mars Attacks! may not have emerged victorious in the eyes of the money-hungry studio folk or the critics, but that's not to say the stars headlining the film met the same fate - even if they were annihilated in the film. In fact, Mars Attacks! must have taught the cast and thing or two about survival tactics because just about every member has eluded a beating in their careers at some point since that film hit theaters. Check out the most impressive survivors of Mars Attacks! after the jump.

Filed under: Comedy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Cinematical Seven

Continue reading Cinematical Seven: The 7 Strongest Survivors of 'Mars Attacks!'

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Mainstream romantic comedies generally suck. I know, because I have seen a lot of them, and they make me want to poke my own eyes out. The ones geared towards female audiences are actually worse than the Judd Apatow man-child ilk in my opinion. Although both peddle stupid stereotypes like the Career Woman, the Desperate-for-Marriage Harpy, and, my favorite, The Ice Queen, at least the guys in Apatow movies are slightly more likeable in their fallibility than the romantic leads in The Bounty Hunter, The Ugly Truth, When in Rome, and other female-skewed flicks.

Going the Distance is an interesting hybrid, and it's one I really enjoyed. And I know I'm not alone; both men and women I've talked to have also liked it, although I suspect this has more to do with age and sensibilities than gender. If you are offended by jokes about trying to perform fellatio on yourself or dry-humping, or if you don't watch YouTube videos of animals being ridiculous, maybe you should take a pass on this film.

The story itself is not particularly new, but it's been updated for the 21^st century. Last time I was in a long-distance relationship, we didn't have YouTube, much less any sneezing pandas to laugh at together late at night on our cell phones. I emailed him using PINE and dial-up. It was a nightmare. And texting? Let me dig up my old campus phone call bills for you.

Filed under: Comedy, Romance, New Releases, Warner Brothers, New in Theaters

Continue reading Does 'Going the Distance' Bridge the Gender Gap?

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400 Screens, 400 Blows is a weekly column that takes an in-depth look at the films playing below the radar, beneath the top ten, and on 400 screens or less.

Todd Solondz's sixth feature film, Life During Wartime (14 screens), opened in theaters a few weeks ago. I've heard some people hailing it as his best film, but it has barely made much of a ripple in the big movie pond. His second feature, Welcome to the Dollhouse (1996), had Siskel & Ebert buzzing, and his third, Happiness (1998), had everyone buzzing. And his last film, Palindromes (2004), at least had the power to piss off some people. I'm not sure what Todd has to do to get himself noticed these days, but apparently making a good film just isn't enough.

Filed under: Columns, 400 Screens, 400 Blows

Continue reading 400 Screens, 400 Blows - The Good 'Life'

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