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Thursday, November 26, 2009
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News Stories About Duplex
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2004-03-01
Every week films get a second chance at success from the home market; or, in some cases, a first chance at success. Here is a list of wide releases, limited releases and a few from the growing TV on DVD section. A bit of a slow week, which means I was able to reduce my choices for DVD pick of the week to just one: School of Rock - (Buy from Amazon.) I'm not counting Father Ted - The Holy Trilogy, because it was one of my Picks of the Week when it was originally supposed to be released.
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2003-09-29
increases at the box office, the box office stumbled this week. And while two of the three new movie beat expectations, the overall box office dropped by 11.8% from last week and 9.1% from last year.
No one was predicting The Rundown would break the record for biggest September weekend, but some predictions had it coming close. However, in the end its $18.6 million was barely half what Sweet Home Alabama made last year. Even with good reviews and few blockbusters as competition, The Rundown won't have the legs needed to save this movie from its $100+ million total budget.
Opening in the fewest theatres of the three wide releases didn't hurt Under the Tuscan Sun, which earned $9.8 million, almost $2 million more than predicted. Reviews were mixed with most of the praise going to Diane Lane rather than the film itself. Look for an expanded release next weekend with lots of legs at the box office.
Underworld dropped just a little more than predicted finishing with $9.4 million this weekend. Its box office is just one weekend away from topping its total production cost of $45 million.
Buoyed by the trailer for Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Secondhand Lions made $8.3 million this weekend. How much of that was due to the trailer will be known by its performance next weekend.
Finishing out the top five was The Fighting Temptations with $6.4 million. That's a larger second week drop-off than expected and doesn't bode well for the film's legs.
The last new release for the week, Duplex, actually did a fraction better than expected. But $4.6 million will still be looked upon as a disappointment regardless of expectations. Even more bad news, reviews weakened over the weekend from 41% positive to 33%.
Lost in Translation did stay in the top ten for the second week in a row. However, its per theatre average was not the best in the top ten, as expected. That honor went to Under the Tuscan Sun.
Submitted by: C.
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2003-09-26
er three new movies are released. Two of the three movies are getting positive reviews, but it might be bit of a shock which movie is getting the best reviews.
Neither The Rock nor Seann William Scott has a reputation for staring in critically acclaimed movies. In fact, between them only the first American Pie has earned better than the 60% needed for an overall fresh rating needed at Rotten Tomatoes. So it comes as bit of a shock that The Rundown is getting the good reviews that it is. 74% is well above the other two releases for the weekend, and the best for either star. And its box office will be even farther ahead of the nearest rival with $25 million this weekend.
Underworld will drop just over 50% to $10 million, something that would have been seen as a disaster earlier in the year but is now seen as par for the course. There is already talk of a second, and possibly third film being made.
In third place will be the trailer for Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Anticipation for the last of the trilogy is so high that the trailer will pull in $9 million this weekend. Also showing is Secondhand Lions.
Despite opening in only 1,226 theatres, Under the Tuscan Sun will land $8 million for fourth place. Reviews are mixed, but on the positive side and a good performance this week should lead to an increased theatre count in the coming weeks.
The gospel comedy The Fighting Temptations will land in fifth place with will with just over $7 million. Probably not what Paramount was hoping for, and closes out a poor year in which the studio had only two hits in nine tries.
The latest dark comedy from director Danny Devito, Duplex, also opens this weekend. Danny Devito's directorial debut was Throw Mamma from the Train and he followed that up with War of the Roses. Both were dark comedies and both were hits. However, his last movie was the dark comedy Death to Smoochy, which failed to connect with an audience despite the almost Oscar worthy performance by Jon Stewart. Unfortunately, it looks like Duplex will resemble Death to Smoochy more than the other two. It is opening in nearly identical theatre counts (2,189 to 2,164) and nearly identical reviews (41% to 40%) and should get nearly identical opening weekends ($4.5 million to $4.3 million.)
Also of note, Lost in Translation is expected to stay in the top ten, perhaps even climb a spot.
Submitted by: C.
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2003-09-24
k promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here’s a list of highlights, plus one last look at websites for films opening this week. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
Duplex
Current Content: It's a Miramax site. Boring beige background. Short synopsis. Cast and crew, no bios. The film opens in two days and the trailer is still marked coming soon.
Elf
Current Content: I know I usually love it when a site has background music, but I don't think I can take this background music for much longer. Maybe I'm old fashioned, But I feel it's too early for Christmas. Besides the background music this site has synopsis, trailer, photos, lots to download and a coloring book. Two of the sections also have more content marked coming soon, but no details on what that could be.
Gothika
Current Content: The trailer was added to the placeholder site.
The Haunted Mansion
Current Content: The full trailer was added to the site.
Honey
Current Content: No new content this week, but there was a redesign of the site.
Intolerable Cruelty
Current content: One of many flash sites that launched this week, and this one takes the divorce theme of the movie to heart. For instance, instead of downloads its called Disposable Assets. Besides the usual suspects, this site has a lot of interactive features and downloads. It also have TV spots and clips marked coming soon.
Kart Racer
Current Content: Having multiple, complete songs on a site is becoming a more common feature on sites, and this site has two. Besides the songs the site has the usual content plus a trivia game you have to register to play.
Kill Bill
Current Content: The flash launched this week and while there's a lot of content, most of it is either from the old site or is marked coming soon. There are flash intros to each of the characters, including one on Hanzo the sword, which was first on the old site. The last three characters are coming soon so is most of the new content, (Cast and Crew, Locations and Press Notes.) The character intros are good, especially Go-Go's which has some information on the band 5.6.7.8's and one of their songs you can listen to. I'm looking forward to when the rest of the sections are added and seeing how it all fits together.
Love Actually
Current Content: Just the placeholder site for now with the synopsis, cast and crew (no bios) trailer and photo gallery.
Love Don't Cost a Thing
Current Content: Typical Warner Bros. placeholder site with just the synopsis and a few images.
Luther
Current Content: The rest of the content has filtered in. There's an impressive amount of content, a lot of which deal with the historical aspect of the movie.
My Life Without Me
Current Content: Nothing new has changed since the site was first reviewed.
Mystic River
Current Content: The section on Clint Eastwood is now up. It consists of more than half a dozen interviews from the cast, the author of the novel and Clint Eastwood himself.
National Lampoon's: Dorm Daze
Current Content: This movie is set to be released this week, or maybe dumped is a better term. The site itself is offers nothing to keep the surfers attention. There's the trailer and four TV spots, none of which are intriguing, a few images and some posters.
Pieces of April
Current Content: The flash intro makes good use of flash animation and clips from the movie, both visual and audio. And it is definitely the best part of the site. All the usual suspects are there, (trailer, synopsis, cast and crew bios, production notes) but I kept going back to the introduction.
Prey for Rock and Roll
Current Content: Nothing new was added since the site was last reviewed but its still a great site with cool music that's just needed some extra flash to put it over the top.
The Punisher
Current Content: Complete redesign of the site. The old teaser site was moved and in its place is a new more in-depth site. It's still mostly teaser but there's a lot more background information.
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
Current Content: None, just a redirect.
Run Away Jury
Current Content: The sections that were marked coming soon last week were added this week. The last two characters were Nick Easter (3 clips) and Marlee (1 clip and 6 photos) as well as the clips section (4 clips) was added. Needless to say, this site is heavy into the multimedia. But it's not at the expense of other content, there's a synopsis, production notes and even a section on Hackman's and Hoffman's longtime friendship and how Run Away Jury is their first movie together. The excellent content combined with the animated intros, sound effects and background music add up to this week's emotional Weekly Website Review.
The Run Down
Current Content: A previously award winning site, this site have nearly everything a site should have. Animated intros, background music, video and audio clips, there's even a game to play. And this week several more multimedia clips were added including a behind the scenes featurette and three more clips from the movie.
The Singing Detective
Current Content: The trailer was added to the site, and the Coming Soon was removed.
Sylvia
Current Content: The teaser flash site is up with just the synopsis, trailer and image gallery. The full site is marked coming soon.
Tupac: Ressurection
Current Content: Nothing, just a redirect to the Paramount movie page.
Under the Tuscan Sun
Current Content: Just in time for this week's release, the flash site was launched and it has a good mix of multimedia and text content. For example, there's the trailer and five clips from the movie. There is also extensive cast and crew bios as well as behind the scenes information. There are also animated intros to each section and good use of music.
Yossi and Jagger
Current Content: This site is silent and still. In fact, the absence of any unusual features prevents the surfer from staying too long.
Submitted by:
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2003-04-02
k promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here’s a list of highlights, plus one last look at websites for films opening this week. This was a very busy week with lots of placeholder sites that were launched, so many that they were placed in there own section at the end of the list. In the coming months I’ll keep track of these sites reporting on new content as it added, (if any is added.) If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
Bullet Proof Monk
Current Content: This site offers a good mix of style and substance. In addition to the usual features, (synopsis, trailer, cast and crew bios) there’s a storyboard of one of the fight scenes narrated by the director, Paul Hunter. There are also come downloads, (wallpaper, buddy icons and E-cards) and a section for movie clips marked, coming soon.
City of Ghosts
Current Content: New Flash site added. Navigating the site is easy and the graphics are very intriguing. In addition to the previous content, there are cast and crew bios, new images, wallpapers, buddy icons and a map of Cambodia. There are also clips from the movie marked coming soon.
Cowboy Bebop
Current Content: Well laid out design with good content both in text (synopsis, background information) and multimedia (images, trailer and movie clips.) The background information is especially helpful to surfers who have not seen the TV show.
Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry met Lloyd
Current Content: The new site is back after appearing for several hours a couple of weeks ago. The bulletin board presentation is a nice touch. While there is plenty to watch, (trailer, photos and even a toilet) there’s not much to read. No synopsis, no cast and crew bios, no behinds the scenes.
The Good Thief
Current Content: A little different sense of style sets this site apart from others. And the usual information, (synopsis, cast and crew bios, photo gallery and trailer) make this an effective, if somewhat plain site. There is background music, but the clips are a little short to add much to the experience.
Holes
Current Content: An excellent site with a lot to check out. There are extensive cast and crew, and character, bios to read, as well as a synopsis and behind-the-scenes information. The trailer is available and so is a 60-second clip of the music video Dig It by the D-Tent Boys. A clip of the song plays on the main site as well, it’s long enough to be effective, but the looping is a little rough. Also, sound clips from Mr. Sir play occasionally, so there’s a lot to listen to as well as watch. And then there’s the interactive portion of the site. In the Wreck Room you can play a game of Find Zero! make your own creepy crawly or send e-cards. Plus, there are lesson plans for teachers to use. The best site of the week and winner of the festive Weekly Website Award.
The Hulk
Current Content: A little bit as been added, as the release date grows nearer. New game called Hulk Smash Up. Basically a clone of the old Rampage arcade game.
Levity
Current Content: Nothing new since it was first reviewed, so here’s a cut and paste of that review. “Flash Site starts with scenes from the robbery with happen 22 years before the events of the movie. Once the intro is done, there’s lots of information to read (synopsis, cast and crew bios, production notes and the director’s statement. Periodically images from the flash intro of the robbery reappear. While this is an interesting concept, it does make reading the text very difficult and disrupts the flow of an otherwise good site.”
A Man Apart
Current Content: Some new content since it was first reviewed most notably 3 short videos, (each about 30 seconds long) narrated by Vin Diesel. Also there are flash intros to some of the section.
The Man Without A Past
Current Content: A well done site, simple but effective. And after watching the trailer, it is quite safe to say the movie is the same. Quite a lot of information on the movie, including the usual suspects (Synopsis, Trailer, Cast and Crew Bios) and a statement from director Aki Kaurusmäki and information about his other projects.
Phone Booth
Current Content: Starts with a rather long and interactive intro, which makes the rest of the site a bit of a disappointment. Besides the intro there is a synopsis, cast bios, photo gallery and the trailer.
What a Girl Wants
Current Content: A very busy site that tries to pack in a lot on information. And for the most part succeeds. There’s text information that includes not just the synopsis and cast and crew bios, but information on the music, the costumes and the filming in England. You can view the trailer and couple of clips, download poster, screensaver, buddy icons, wallpapers and a calendar. Create your own e-cards, ask Amanda a question, flaunt your style or send a text message to a friend. There are a couple of contests you can enter (for US residents only.) Or visit What I Like About You or Amanada Bynes’ Official sites. Told you there was a lot. The transitions between sections help keep the site cohesive.
XX/XY
Current Content: A very utilitarian site that lacks style. However, there is a fair amount of substance. Synopsis, Trailer and cast and crew bios are joined by an interview with the director, three clips from the movie and a clip of the director talking about his inspiration.
Placeholder Sites
Duplex
Current Content: Like the rest of the Miramax movies’ site that launched this week, this one only has the synopsis and a trailer marked coming soon. All these site look identical and don’t keep a surfer's attention for more than a few seconds.
DysFUNKtional Family
Current Content: Another Miramax one page site. Includes just a synopsis and the trailer.
The Great Raid
Current Content: Synopsis and a trailer marked coming soon.
The Human Stain
Current Content: Just the synopsis and a trailer marked coming soon.
Jersey Girl
Current Content: Right now it’s just the synopsis. But as the release date comes closer expect View Askew to come up with a much more in-depth site. Thou it might not be at the current address.
Man on the Train
Current Content: So far, just the Synopsis. However, there’s a least a hint that more content will be added later on.
The Singing Detective
Current Content: Just the synopsis, with no additional features marked coming soon.
The Station Agent
Current Content: Just the synopsis and a trailer that is marked coming soon.
United States of Leland
Current Content: None, just a placeholder site till the release date gets closer.
Yossi & Jagger
Current Content: Just a synopsis and a theatre finder.
Submitted by:
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2003-01-17
tes have been announced for the following movies:
With March 21 suddenly looking crowded, we can expect some more suffling before the time comes.
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