Not much in the way of first run releases this week, but we do have more Awards Season players coming out on the home market. However, if you want the best of the best, you have to look to Sin City - 2-Disc Blu-ray. This week's list was a little too big to fit on one page, so the second part can be found here.
Not much in the way of first run releases this week, but we do have more Awards Season players coming out on the home market. However, if you want the best of the best, you have to look to Sin City - 2-Disc Blu-ray. This week's list was a little too big to fit on one page, so the second part can be found here.
If you were to ask a hundred moviegoers at the beginning of the year what their most anticipated film of 2004 was, I'd bet Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban would be in the top three, if not number one. And because of that, it's no surprise that no other studio would try and take on Harry Potter.
Summer got off to a really, really slow start this year. Last year the first weekend in May resulted in an incredible 66% week-to-week increase but this year that increase was only 7.1%. And while this weekend last year was the slowest of the summer box office season (May to mid-August), but this year it was actually 1.4% lower. If we don't see a dramatic increase next weekend the year-to-date increase could drop below the inflation.
Finally, the summer season at the box office is starting. While it isn't until Memorial Day that Summer Official starts in the movie industry, the first full weekend in May has become increasingly important. This year doesn't look as strong as last year, but it still should be a mile above anything we saw in April.
Five movies opening wide in one weekend is just too many for one weekend. Combined with the horrible reviews and its no wonder all but one film flopped. Fortunately that one film had one of the best April openings ever so we saw a pretty good increase from last weekend at 4%. However, this time last year was the beginning of May, which marks the official start of the Summer Blockbuster season, so it is no surprising that this weekend is down a huge 33% from last year. In fact X-Men United opening was just shy of the top 10's total. And if you add in The Lizzie McGuire Movie and their combined debuts are higher than the weekend's total box office.
After surprising analysts at the box office this summer, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl has broken records at the home market. The Disney DVD sold 4 million combined VHS and DVD copies in just the first 24 hours, and went on to sell 11 million copies in its first week. That last figure is a record for most units sold in the first week for a live-action feature.
n few hits this year, with even fewer surprise hits. Sure, the fact that Finding Nemo is leading the box office race is a surprise to many, but the fact that it was a hit was almost guaranteed back when it was first announced
However, if you asked earlier in the year which movies would have a shot at $200 million almost nobody would have picked Pirates of the Caribbean. It was based on a ride at Disneyland, and the previous attempt to adapt a ride led to the bomb The Country Bears. And it was a pirate movie, the last pirate movie to do well at the box office was … does Muppet Treasure Island count? But after being in the theatres just two weekends it seems like $200 million is almost a sure bet. The real question is, how high can it go?
Just 13 days into its run it is the fifth highest grossing movie of the year, having just passed Anger Management. However, there's a large gap to get to X-Men 2 at $214 million. After 13 days, X-Men 2 had $155 million compared to the Pirates' $138 million, however, the Pirates are also pulling in more than twice the weekday numbers. And in its third weekend it should earn more than X-Men did on the same weekend. Looks like beating the mutants is just a matter of time.
And that might not be the end of the Pirates conquests.
g the jump on the weekend by opening today. And if my bad Pirate talk didn't give it away, it's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. This movie is the second from Disney based on rides from their Theme Parks. The first, The Country Bears, did very poorly at the box office and that led many analysts, me included, to be very pessimistic about Pirates' chances. And the early ads did very little to sway those feelings.
However, later stages of the campaign showcased a good mix of action, FX and the most over-the-top performance from Johnny Depp I've ever seen. It was then that Pirates of the Caribbean started to look like it might be good. And the reviews are definitely agreeing with the latter sentiments. Currently it has an amazing 86% positive on Rotten Tomatoes. It is the best-reviewed major release since Finding Nemo. And the fourth best wide release of the year after 28 Days Later and X-Men 2, (Note: 28 Days later was a wide release at 1258 theatres, but not a major release.)
But what does this mean for Pirates of the Caribbean's chances at the box office? I have a hard time believing it could beat Terminator 3's performance last week, even with the stronger reviews. But it could come very close, $11 million for the day and $35 million for the weekend.
But the biggest impact could be on the International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Now off to the theatres! And handsomely now, ye scurvy dogs. Or ye'll meet the rope's end.
3 and it’s time to look at the state of the movie industry, and the news is decisively mixed. The overall box office is down approximately 1.5% while the average ticket price has increased more than 2.5%. And there’s no monster hit like last year’s Spider-Man. But despite this, so far in 2003 just the top ten movies represent almost 40% of the box office. (Up nearly 4 percentage points from last year.)
Good news is the dramatic increase in the number of $100, $200 million movies, and the number of $50 million openings. All are double what they were this time last year. Also good news, production budgets seem to be coming down, closer to 2001’s figures.
But even with lower average costs, of the 60 movies that received a wide release, only about half made more at the box office than it cost to make. Factor in P&A budgets and theatres’ share and only a handful will make a profit domestically.
ttp://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2003/MTRX2.php>Matrix Reloaded made its sensational debut in May, no one could really tell how far THIS rabbit hole would go.
But it soon became clear that Reloaded was a big thing, Critics say it has dropped off to quickly in the US. Nonsense,
reloaded has stuck in the top ten for 40 days. Thats a Long time for any flick to stay in that reigon, and its takings offshores are still strong despite the same stiff competition that knocked it off the US top rolling out across the world. But reloaded is set to stop at around 720-740 Million, depending on US performance in the months to come. "2 Fast 2 Furious" furiously smashed in at number one in the uk after extensive advertising. It took $2.7 Million($4.5 Million) for its first weekend, but Reloaded only took 660k. But with a healthy $30 Million ($50.5 Million) from the UK alone in its bank, And no sign of slipping to let the nearest rival, Identity, overtake it, Reloaded should stay in the top three for a few weeks yet.
But Identity has started out strong, knocking Anger Management down to fourth. The movie has opened to brilliant reviews and good buzz, being likened to intellegent hits like "The Usual Suspects" it did take a fairly healthy $51 Million in the us, enough to cover its budget.
But the main competition for all, sure to crush the other grosses, its the mega-hyped and Uber advertised "Bruce Almighty" which hits cinemas this friday in the UK. With three weeks of pre-release advertising under its belt, Bruce is sure to demolish the box office competition, In previews alone in limited theartres this weekend, it took an astonishing $1.8 Million($2.9 Million).
The hit comedy looks like its legs will be challenged too, with Charlies Angels 2 making its debut the week after Bruce's release, it will just show how Mighty he is. One things a dead cert, 2 Fast wont be Furious enough to fight of Bruce and The Angels, its expected to drop to fourth when Bruce is released. Reloaded could make big dropoffs, but due to a surprisingly strong UK support base, its likely to fluctuate between 2-4th positions for a while.
Elsewhere on the UK Charts, Igby Goes Down, the "Indie-Teen Movie Of The Year" rose a place, knocking X-2 down to 11th while it nestled into the top ten. And John Travolta's "Basic" debuted with an embarrasing £248k ($412k) Weekend, while a good figure for UK, the number was much lower than the millions expected, but the critics trashed the return of travolta, "Connie Nielsen is like a walking acting folio, she morphs her accent more than she blinks, and Travolta is totally outshone by Jackson"
Bringing Down The House slipped three places in the charts. The Queen Latifah hit had not mirrored the huge success it enjoyed in the US, it is expected to close in the UK at around $5 Million.($8.3 Million)
British Classical Diva, Charlotte Church's acting debut, "I'll Be There" is also opening soon, but reviews have been mixed, one speaking on Church-"Is worse than Madonna and makes you realise Britney wasnt that bad in Crossroads" and another on the same subject "Church is up to the role, it was written with her personality in mind, so the acting wasnt challenging, and it shows"
Everyone is predicting the Hulk will easily win this weekend, and most analysts agree it will break the record for a June opening currently held by Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me at $54.9 million. But how well will it compare to the other monster openers of 2003. Some are predicting The Hulk will beat fellow Marvel Movie X-Men 2. But I think matching Finding Nemo is a more likely scenario. $69 million for an opening weekend, and based on the good reviews, enough legs to get well past $200 million.
The week to week drop-off for Finding Nemo was even better this week than last week. So look for an even smaller drop off this weekend. A box office of $20 million and second place for the year this weekend, after breaking $200 million Wednesday.
Speaking of $200 million, Bruce Almighty was able to cross that milestone on Thursday, completely a week which say it lose very little of its box office. If this trend continues, and it should despite losing nearly 400 theatres, Bruce Almighty should earn $9 million and could overtake X-Men 2 for third place this year.
2 Fast 2 Furious didn’t drop quite as badly during the mid-week, but it is losing nearly 10% of its theatres in just it’s third week. So another 60% drop at the box office should be expected. Still, this leaves it at $8 million for the weekend and just shy of $100 million total box office.
Rugrats Go Wild has held up surprisingly well during the midweek, and a drop of less than 40% could help this movie make a profit, eventually. Look for $7 million on the box office and enough legs to get at least close to $40 million.
Alex and Emma is the second new movie opening wide this weekend. On paper, this movie should be a sure hit. But the terrible reviews, including 0% from the cream-of-the-crop suggest it will be anything but a hit. Look for it to get worse numbers than other ‘also ran’ comedies like The In-Laws and Down With Love. About $6 million and missing the top five is in store.
The last new movie released this week is From Justin to Kelly, which wasn’t screened for critics. Some are comparing it to The Real Cancun; another reality TV turned movie. I think it’s safe to assume From Justin to Kelly will not do quite as badly, with an opening weekend roughly the same as The Real Cancun’s total gross. Or about $4 million, but it may not make the top ten.
box office figures for the Matrix Reloaded mirrored the domestic side as the movie dropped more than 50%. Loses were heavy in most major markets: in the U.K. it was down 57%, in Germany, 55% and in Italy, 53%. But despite these steep drops, it was still able to lead the weekend with $55 million.
And Reloaded overtook X-Men 2 for the 2003 International box office lead with a total of $250 million. By next week it should surpass the original's international total of $285 million.
For the first time in 2003, the weekend box office totals were significantly above the same week last year. The total box office for the top ten was up nearly 45% from 2002 year. This helped put May in the record books as the best month in box office history. But, even after May's record-breaking performance, 2003 is still behind 2002's total for the year to date.
Opening in first place, with a record weekend for both Computer Animation and a studio best for Pixar was Finding Nemo. The Albert Brooks fish tale earned $70.3 million at the box office, and if the stellar reviews and past Pixar performances are any indications, this movie could pull in close to $300 million domestically, and a little more than that internationally.
Bruce Almighty came in second, and did so with a smaller drop off than expected. $37.3 million was only a 45% decline, which is very good considering the huge opening weekend take and the post-holiday dip. Along the way Bruce Almighty became the largest grossing comedy of the year after crossing the $100 million mark on Thursday.
Third place went to the second of three wide releases this weekend. The Italian Job grabbed up $19.5 million, on par with predictions. Surprisingly good reviews could give this movie legs. However, with a $60 million production budget, and an advertising budget close to half that it won’t see a profit in the home market.
Continuing to drop faster than expected is The Matrix Reloaded, with $15.7 million, down nearly 58% over last weekend. The movie seems to be suffering from The Empire Strikes Back effect, that is to say it doesn't have the novelty of the first movie, and doesn't have the satisfying conclusion of the third movie. Speaking of Star Wars, The Matrix Reloaded is now just a few hundred thousand above Attack of the Clones' pace, despite having a $24 million lead after opening weekend. It will take a surge just before the release of Matrix Revolutions to push this film above $300 million.
Daddy Day Care was able to stay in the top five one last week with a $5.7 million dollar performance. The movie now has made a little more than $80 million in four weeks, and could have enough gas in the tank to cross $100 million.
Opening with a little weaker box office than predicted, but a spot higher was Wrong Turn. $5.2 million is not a lot of money for an opening weekend, but considering a budget of only $10 - $13 million, it should be enough to pull a profit from the home market. The reviews for Wrong Turn were not as low as one might have expected, getting a 50% score from the run-of-the-mill Internet reviewers. However, of the Cream-of-the-crop reviews, of which only four even bothered to review the movie, none of them gave it a positive review.
Coming in less than $100,000 behind in sixth place was X-Men 2 with $5.1 million. The mutant movie sequel just failed to cross the $200 million dollar mark but should do that by Tuesday. That total is enough to pay off the production budget, but it will take a bit more to make a profit domestically. However, add in its impressive international numbers and X-Men 2 has made Fox very happy.
The second Albert Brooks movie in the charts, The In-Laws, fell to eighth place with $3.7 million. It had one of the best drop-offs of the week, but that wasn’t good enough to save it: $14.5 million after two weeks is still a disappointment.
Down With Love dropped faster than predicted with only $1.6 million. Only $17.2 million after three weeks of wide release is quite a shock considering the talent attached to this film.
Rounding out the top ten is The Lizzie McGuire Movie, which was only able to grab $1.2 million this weekend and fell just shy of $40 million total. Fortunately, not only will it cross that mark before long; it will also have covered its total budget as well.
The weekend after Memorial Day sees three new movies open wide, each with widely difference target audiences and wildly different expectations.
Almost guaranteed to open first is Finding Nemo, the fifth film from Pixar studios. The real question with Finding Nemo is whether it will break records for the studio. It needs more than $62.5 million to better Monsters Inc. opening, which will be difficult - especially considering the post-Memorial Day dip that is historically experienced at the box office. However, Finding Nemo does have a higher theater count (3,374 to 3,237) and unbelievably high reviews going for it. Currently there is only one reviewer on Rotten Tomatoes that is not giving it a positive review. That puts it above both Monsters Inc. and A Bug’s Life, but amazing below both Toy Story 1 and 2, both of which received 100% positive reviews.
Coming in second, and crashing back down to Earth will be Bruce Almighty. The huge first weekend take and a post holiday weekend means this film will drop more than 50%. However, since the film outperformed expectations by such a large margin the first week, a 50% drop will still leave a second weekend box office greater than what the studio were hoping for before it opened.
There will be a close battle for third place between Matrix Reloaded and The Italian Job. The Matrix Reloaded is again tracking well below last week’s performance, which should result in another big drop. However, The Italian Job is only opening in 2,633 theatres, which is a little low. Surprisingly, The Italian Job is currently receiving nearly identical reviews as the Matrix. So look for the two movies to get nearly identical box office takes this week, around $18 million with a slight edge to the newcomer.
Fifth place will also go down to the wire as Daddy Day Care and X-Men 2 fight to stay in the top 5 one more week. Both are shedding theaters, but X-Men 2 is doing it faster. On the other hand, Finding Nemo will surely draw more of Daddy Day Care’s target audience away than from the X-Men. Still, Daddy Day Care has the lead last weekend, and while it will shrink, it should still win this weekend $8 million to $7 million.
Opening in only 1,615 theaters is the horror movie Wrong Turn, which has a plot reminiscent of The Lurking Fear by H.P. Lovecraft. The real surprise with the reviews is not that they’re as poor as they are, but that there are so few of them. As of noon Friday, there were only 6 reviews posted. But the target audience for these films generally doesn’t care about reviews or the lack thereof, so that shouldn’t affect the box office. And with a budget a mere fraction of the other films debuting this week, the studio should still be happy with $6 million and a seventh place finish.
In eighth place will be The In-Laws, which unperformed when in debuted last week and will do the same this week with a little more than $4 million. There are two bright spots for the studio, the movie did have a lower budget than most and it should find a larger audience in the home market.
In ninth place will be Down With Love, which unperformed when in debuted two weeks ago and will do the same this week with a little less than $3 million. Ok, enough of the cut and paste predictions, but the performance of the two previous movies has been very similar. Low expectations, even lower box offices and a quick descent down the charts.
Rounding out the top ten is The Lizzie McGuire Movie, which is shedding theaters faster than its box office pull would suggest it should. Failure to support this film in the long run could cost Disney several million dollars off the final box office figure. Even with the lost theaters it should earn a little more than $2 million and cross the $40 million mark for its total box office. The studio’s share of that figure should cover production and advertising costs.
Memorial Day Weekend had more than a few surprises this year as records were broken, but not by the movie most people expected to break them. Overall, the box office was in a dead heat with last year's with only a 1% increase. But it was an increase, which is better news than most weeks this year.
Setting records for largest Memorial Day Weekend and largest non-sequel comedy among others was Bruce Almighty. With a box office of $85.7 million over four days it destroyed the competition and nearly doubled most predictions. Even with reviews that are
just average, this movie should have more than enough legs to make a profit domestically.
In second with a huge drop was Matrix Reloaded. My prediction on Friday of $55 million was one of the lowest, and it still wasn’t low enough. $45.6 million over four days was a 50% drop, and its three-day total was nearly 60% lower. After the first weekend, Matrix Reloaded had a $24 million lead on Attack of the Clones, now that lead has been cut to $9 million. For a film that just last week, people were predicting $400 million, Matrix Reloaded might struggle to cross $300 million. This is one of the sharpest and most unexpected drops in recent memory. Still, Matrix Reloaded did top the original’s box office in only 9 days, and became the year’s biggest hit the next day. So there are some bright spots.
Still topping expectations was Daddy Day Care. $18.1 million over four days was barely a noticeable drop from last week. But with a hefty $90 million production and advertising budget, Daddy Day Care will still have to wait till the home market to make a profit.
Recovering nicely from early drops was X-Men 2, sitting in fourth place. A better than average drop-off allowed the mutant movie to edge closer to the $200 million mark, a milestone it should cross next weekend. Combined with the overseas numbers, X-Men 2 has already made the studio a profit.
Earning less than most analysts predicted was the remake The In-Laws. $9.2 million was only good enough for fifth place and the reviews were on the weak side and competition is just too great for this movie to have the legs needed to make the studio happy. This is the second disappointing film for Michael Douglas in as many months, and Albert Brooks has another movie being released next week. But it’s almost a guarantee that Finding Nemo will be a success.
ult these days to find a movie that is worth spending your time and hard earned dollars on, and twice as difficult when both seem to be consistently evaporating. As a young married adult with two children and as the sole provider in my family, finding an in-law that is free to babysit on any given weekend, on a day I am not working on my lawn, house or an article for this site, during a pay week that I can actually squeeze a dollar or two from my budget... ALL so that I can grab a bucket of popcorn and catch a flick with the wife, is tantamount to every planet in our solar system coming into alignment - and it occurs just as frequently. Loathed is the idea of going to a movie, with all the time and effort I put into it, not knowing for sure if I will enjoy my excursion despite the feature, or thanks in part because of it. SO what do I do? WHAT do I do?
I USED to look to the movie critics for some guidance... once upon a time, long, long, ago, with a budget that is now far, far, away... and then I got broke... and then I got cheap... and then I got real selective... and then I came to the realization that many of these movie critics are as qualified to review a movie as Richard Simmons is qualified to review a gentleman’s club. Well OK, perhaps some movie critics are more qualified to review films, but that doesn’t mean I should buy into what they are trying to sell me and as The Numbers will indicate, these sentiments aren’t uniquely my own. When you get right to it, we probably shouldn’t put much stock into what most movie critics have to say, about ANY movie! But please, let me explain where I’m coming from with this...
The World Is Coming To An End!
Alright, not to frighten anyone out there because believe you me, no one was more shocked than I... but last Sunday, me and the wife pulled off the ever elusive, self made, double feature: we saw X2 and Matrix Reloaded in the same afternoon. No, the world isn’t coming to an end (well not that I know of anyway), and the last I checked, all of the planets won’t be coming into alignment until approximately 2468... AND I just recently visited with my mother in-law and her house was a warm 72 Degrees F, so no, Hell did not freeze over either... but we did it all the same, we saw two movies in a single afternoon and WE LOVED IT! As a matter of fact, we couldn’t decide on which movie we enjoyed more. And if two great flicks weren’t enough, I decided to give myself a reprieve for the afternoon and went off my diet... "Man oh man I love the smell of movie theaters in the morning. It smells like... Jiffy Pop!" Best of all, I spent little more than 4 hours with my wife, in close quarters, WITHOUT getting into an argument. And why not. After all we had no reason to even talk during this time... ah yes, what a splendid afternoon it was. BUT it almost never came to be... thanks in part to so called professional critics.
The Pros and Their Scores
I am reprinting segments from MSN’s critic collection on the two movies I just saw last Sunday. I would have to say that MSN has compiled some of the most mainstream and most read movie critics in the US. They include the likes of Roger Ebert, formally of Siskel and Ebert, and Elvis Mitchel of the NY Times. I think there is some interesting data here in the form of 2 movies with 2 different scores.
X2 (List and Quotes Collected by MSN Entertainment)
Source
Quote from the review
Grade
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
"Gifted director Bryan Singer ('The Usual Suspects') seems to be having fun with the material instead of being overwhelmed with special effects." Full Review
B
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
"Brisk and involving with a streamlined forward propulsion, it's the kind of superhero movie we want if we have to have superhero movies at all." Full Review
A-
MSNBC David Germain
"The first film intellectualized and moralized more about human bigotry, whereas 'X2' is the cinematic equivalent of a comic, thin on the sociological conflict, heavy on gunplay and hand-to-hand combat." Full Review
B
New York Times A.O. Scott
"'X2'... honors both the allegorical grandiosity of [its] source and the moods and anxieties of the superpower-endowed individuals who inhabit its universe." Full Review
B
Village Voice J. Hoberman
"The movie is funny, reasonably crazy, and unpretentiously faithful to its source." Full Review
B
Overall Grade: B
Matrix: Reloaded (List and Quotes Collected by MSN Entertainment)
Source
Quote from the review
Grade
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
"It is an immensely skillful sci-fi adventure, combining the usual elements: heroes and villains, special effects and stunts, chases and explosions, romance and oratory." Full Review
A-
Chicago Tribune Mark Caro
"Although the technical aspects don't disappoint, the human ones do. Action scenes can't be heart-stopping if the story hasn't gotten your ticker going to begin with." Full Review
C-
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
"If a concept is to sustain itself over a multipart story, it must make an emotional connection, and this 'Reloaded,' especially with stars cast for their lack of affect and affinity for blankness, cannot do that." Full Review
C
MSNBC Kirk Honeycutt
"The Wachowskis may have… started to believe in their own semimythological status, for the brothers seem to be taking themselves way too seriously." Full Review
C-
New York Times Elvis Mitchell
"[The Wachowski brothers] relentless love of movies, junk-food mythology and thoughtful reimagining of a future endangered by mass consumption and proliferation of pleasure to the point of soullessness makes for a heady and unusual mix." Full Review
B-
Slate David Edelstein
"'The Matrix Reloaded' is as messy and flat-footed as its predecessor is nimble and shapely. It's an ugly, bloated, repetitive movie that builds to a punch line that should have come an hour earlier (at least)." Full Review
D
Overall Grade: C+
Now color me objective, but I am not even quite sure how to read ratings like this. I mean, in high school, a B was great, and I was appreciative of the grade when ever my gym teacher gave it…that coupled with my long term love affair with Marvel Comics, going to see Xmen 2: Xmen United was a no-brainer. As far as the C+ that The Matrix sequel received, well…for me…in high school a C meant that I didn’t get a D which was all to close to an F or that horrible new-fangled E which was like the F but with the possibility of Summer school present. All things being equal though, I assumed that here, a C+ might not be worth my time. Worse yet, I sincerely considered THESE ratings in particular, before replacing pork chops with pasta on my grocery list just so I could fund last Sundays movie excursion. Thankfully, The Matrix was such a great experience the first time around that I decided to go with my gut instinct and saw Reloaded anyway. I again traded down on a grocery item…the pasta for soup, and went for the double header. No disappointments here…and based on the scores you Numbers readers gave both these movies…you all whole heartedly agreed!
The Numbers Raters-Get It Right
Below are the ratings readers of the The Numbers gave to both X2: X-Men United and The Matrix: Reloaded. Here is a break down of how you all rated the two flicks as of 5/19/2003.
With an average of 8.25 for both movies, I think the fans of this site rated X2 and The Matrix with dead on accuracy. And why shouldn’t I agree more with these numbers as a whole, if not more so? Chances are, we all could identify with each other a lot more than we could with an Ebert or a Robert. After all, unlike many movie critics, we don’t get paid to see films weekly, and when we do head out to the theater, were not over exposed and we don’t suffer from the Ralph Cirella Syndrome.
The Ralph Cirella Syndrome
As sad as it may sound, I have often thought long and hard about people who’s job it is to go out on a regular basis and rate anything, let alone movies. And not to paint all film critics with a single broad stroke, but other than a knack for the written word, many of these critics are void of anything that uniquely qualifies them for the columns they write. Quite a few get their start as journalist who early in their career, were tapped to write movie critiques for some obscure local paper. But, not to nay say anyone’s skill or career, because I do appreciate the difficulties involved with a job like that. Imagine the tedious effort involved with constantly having to see movies on a daily basis! And no, not every movie is an X2 or a Matrix: Reloaded. Imagine having to see 4 to 5 films a week from huge block busters to small independent films and after being exposed to them all, having to write an article or column on what you thought about each flick. Is it any wonder that some of their critiques can end up so far off base?!!?
To put it into context that we can all relate to, imagine taking part as a judge in a beauty contest, A Miss America Pageant. Errr... and for you ladies that are reading, whatever the male equivalent would be. You are inundated with beautiful people strutting their stuff for you in hopes of receiving your approval in the form of a good score. After a while, you're bound to show your favoritism for people who have characteristics you are partial to. Perhaps you favor red heads over brunettes, or guys with 4 packs as opposed to guys with a 6 pack (we're talking abs here). After a while, you may even become de-sensitized to all but the absurdly obvious or the uniquely and personally attractive.
And this is the life of a movie critic.
I like to call this, the Ralph Cirella Syndrome. And for those of you who live in a cave and don’t listen to morning radio, Ralph Cirella is a whiny, mousy, awkward looking member of the Howard Stern show. He is often called upon by Howard to act as a judge over beauty contests and female fan evaluations. On any other day of the week, these woman would sooner insert their stiletto heel into his forehead than allow themselves to be evaluated by the likes of him. But because his ego is now swollen from the undeserving attention showered on him from beautiful Howard Stern groupies looking for self-validation, he is able to offer harsh and blunt critiques that are as funny as the situation is ironic.
My Humble Review Without The Flowery Words
Pick a movie, any movie and you’ll see some cheesy quote from some obnoxiously obscure paper similar to:
"A knock down, drag out, take no prisoners movie that brings you to the edge, and then drops you off a 1000 foot cliff!"
"A life altering experience that will forever linger in the mind like a childhood sweetheart!"
"A gut wrenching, knee slapping, split your sides comedy that doesn’t stop until your in tears!"
"Best Movie of the year and it’s only January!"
"The movie that everyone should see if only to become more enlightened!"
I think these people simply made a wheel of movie quotes out of an old Twister spinner and then gave it a flick come time for quote stamping a movie commercial. And it’s not like the films that sport such audacious banners are obvious Schindler's List masterpieces. I mean c’mon, were talking Batman flicks and Jim Carrey films. Fun, yes... enjoyable, certainly... but "Awe inspiring, mind bending" anything? Please, how about a regular movie review from a regular guy. Something like this for example:
Movie Critic: George W. Horta III
Brief Bio
George Horta is a hard working, young family man who doesn’t believe in make up for men, refuses to use soaps and personal hygiene products that smell like flowers and that come in colored packaging other than white, often takes the daily news paper with him into the toilet, and who wishes porn was a socially acceptable topic for dinner conversation. And though he fancies himself a decent and burgeoning writer didn’t graduate from The Shakespearean School of Movie Reviews
X2: X-men United
A Good story line and fantastic visual effects kept me interested the whole way through, and all of the female actors were shapely and buxom. Women in leather and spandex make me smile, half naked blue super models make me smile, and so does senseless violence involving totally lopsided odds (Like the scene where two military commandoes shot at Colossus with their MP-5’s). And by the way ladies, Hugh Jackman and Daniel Cudmore (AKA Colossus), run around in this film topless for what seems like half the movie. I really think it was worth paying matinee prices for the film and only a nit picking, anal retentive, Marvel geek would find fault with this movie. I give it a Go see it if you're not broke rating.
Matrix 2: Reloaded
Carrie-Anne Moss gets half naked in this film, and the bumping and grinding scene in Zion made me sweat a little. They squeezed Monica Bellucci into a skintight dress that looks so good, you may want to pull a Pee Wee Herman. Fight scenes were violent and reminiscent of the Saturday Afternoon Kung Fu Theater I watched as a child. The huge brawl in the first half of the movie does look digital at times, but overall, the hand to hand choreography was so great, you leave the movie wanting to kick somebody’s ass. Did I mention Carrie-Anne Moss gets half naked in this film and that Monica Bellucci has a dress that was painted on? And ladies, Keanu’s ass has a few seconds of screen time as well. This movie made me smile and at times it made me horny. I give it a Stretch the budget a bit if you have to and see it in the theater rating.
Bad Reviews Don’t Mean Bad Numbers
A great review from a big name movie critic tends to encourage people to see a film, hence the flowery Twister spinner of review quotes. On the other hand, I don’t ever think I heard the words "Oh... (Blank) gave it a bad review. Well I’m definitely never going to see that movie." This list of 5 flicks as compiled by Rottentomatoes.com is proof positive of that fact. These 5 films received cohesive thumbs down from a multitude of reviewers and these films also averaged over $100 million in box office sales. (List reported by C.S. Strobridge)
Top Five Box Office Hits that were critically drubbed of 2003. (In no real order.)
Very rarely, one will find a movie critic that reviews movies with an eye like our own. I personally find that Roger Ebert often shares my taste in films (coincidentally, he obviously shares my weakness for junk food). But if it isn’t apparent by now, the most powerful and accurate reviews come from people like you and me. People who don’t go to the movies for a living. And even then, you should keep in mind that tastes and preferences vary from individual to individual. I don’t know what used to upset me more... catching a movie on Pay-Per-View that I would have loved to have seen in the theater, if not for the vile review a pro gave it, or wasting my money on a flick that some other pro gave a thumbs up too, because they were punch drunk with hyper-movie exposure. Films are made, box office numbers are collected, and in the end, all that really matters is the experience and enjoyment everyone takes from the movie they just saw. Films will find their own fan fare, and even flicks that aren’t popular in the theaters or popular with the masses, can have an opportunity to show in the privacy of our own homes. After all, just because it wasn’t worth $9 dollars in the theater, doesn’t mean it isn’t worth a gander for $3.50 a three day DVD rental, from the comfort of your own couch... and thank goodness for small miracles or I may never have seen the wonder that is Showgirls!
Memorial Day Weekend is typically the busiest weekend of the year, and this year it is shaping up to be the same with two movies battling for top spot. However, last years records are probably safe.
In first place will be Matrix Reloaded, but it might not break Attack of the Clones’ Memorial Day Weekend record. Matrix Reloaded started out 33% above Attack of the Clones, but had a larger drop on Friday, smaller increase Saturday, etc. In fact, only once in the first week did the Matrix Reloaded’s day to day change beat Attack of the Clones’ performance, and by Wednesday it fell behind in daily box office. Combined with the increased competition from new releases this year compared to last and I predict Matrix Reloaded will drop just shy of 40% and make $55 million.
Bruce Almighty is the first of the new openers this weekend and it could open with personal bests for all three stars. Granted for Jennifer Aniston that’s not a hard feat as her previous best was $9.7 with The Object of My Affection. Reviews for Bruce Almighty are not great, but are on par with Me, Myself and Irene, but far behind Liar, Liar. However, there is enough positive buzz to overcome those reviews, for at least one weekend. Look for a $50 million opening weekend, but with an uncertain longevity.
After a smaller than expected second week drop Daddy Day Care was able to add theatres pushing its theatre count to nearly 3500. With the long weekend, expect an even smaller drop-off this time. It’s tracking just 10% behind last week’s number so a box office of $17 million is a pretty save bet.
The second of the new releases is The In-Laws, a remake of the 1979 movie of the same name. This time around it’s stars Michael Douglas and Albert Brooks. Neither star has had a lot of box office success lately; and this movie will neither be a box office smash, nor will it be a failure. Reviews are currently exactly the same as Bruce Almighty, but The In-Laws has an older target audience so look for a $12 million opening and better legs. On a side note, next week another Albert Brooks' movie opens wide, the computer animated fish tale Finding Nemo.
Dropping to fifth place will be X-Men 2. Earlier in the week, the mutant movie was tracking more than 50% below the previous week’s. But a late week recovery plus the long weekend it could help it avoid dropping below $10 million, but that’s not a sure thing.
the-numbers.com/movies/2003/MTRX2.php>The Matrix Reloaded was number one in its first weekend despite opening in only 13 markets. The sequel earned roughly $31 million on just 2,877 screens, breaking several records along the way. In second place was X-Men 2 with $18.5 million in its third week. It’s total is now over $150 million internationally, more than the original’s total international run and currently the best of 2003. In third was the previous number one international movie of 2003, Johnny English. The spy spoof made $3.3 million to past the $100 million mark in its sixth week of international release.
As expected, Matrix Reloaded’s opening was huge, but not big enough to keep up with last year when Attack of the Clones opened. After this weekend, 2003 will have fallen another $8 million behind last year’s pace.
While it is true that Matrix Reloaded broke records this weekend, it didn’t break as many as some are saying. This confusion is due to Wednesday’s 10 p.m. previews. Estimates for the Matrix Reloaded preview range from $5 to $9.3 million dollars. Regardless of which figure is more accurate; this did break a record for largest single showing preview. However, this figure was added to Thursday’s box office inflating it past Spider-Man for the largest opening day. Another record that might not be a record was the largest four-day total. Taking Thursday though Sunday we get a total that is on par with Spider-Man’s total of $126 million, depending on how much the Wednesday preview really brought in. Another record broken is largest opening for an R rated movie.
Comparing these figures to the first movie is difficult. The first movie opened slowly as none of the stars had real drawing power. Keanu Reeves was in a slump since Speed, Laurence Fishburne previous best was 14 years earlier, and The Matrix was Carrie Anne Moss’s first major movie. Matrix Reloaded did better on its opening day than the first did on its opening weekend. It made more than 70% of its total box office in just four days. The $92.8 million opening weekend and $134.3 million total are great news, but the lower than expected reviews will probably mean Spider-Man’s total box office of $400 million will not be beat.
In second place, with a surprisingly low drop-off was Daddy Day Care, taking $18.9 million. The Eddie Murphy family friendly movie has now earned $50 million in two weeks, and could be on it’s way to $100 million total.
Dropping 57% on its way from first to third was X-Men 2. The direct competition from Matrix Reloaded hurt it at the box office, but the $17.3 million was more than enough to surpass the first’s total box office. It goes without saying there’s another sequel in the works.
As predicted, Down With Love finished fourth, however, it did significantly worse at the box office than predicted. The 60’s retro comedy earned $7.0 million, less than half of some predictions. Its reviews were quite good compared to most films released this year, but were still shy of the 60% needed for an overall positive rating.
After a larger than expected second week drop-off, The Lizzie McGuire Movie recovered nicely to earn $4.8 million to stay in the top 5 for the third week in a row. For a movie that cost an estimated $25 million to make, and advertise, its box office total of over $32 million should make the studio very happy.
Hanging in the top ten for another week were A Mighty Wind and Bend it Like Beckham. The Folk music mockumentary’s second week in the top ten helped it’s total move past $12 million. Bend it Like Beckham has now been in the top ten for three weeks and its total is now over $15 million.
The Matrix Reloaded opens today, and expectations are huge, both critically and at the box office.
It is safe to say The Matrix Reloaded will win the weekend, the real question is by how much? If it doesn’t make more today (Thursday) than the first made during its opening weekend (roughly 28 million) it will be seen as a disappointment. And if it doesn’t break $100 million by Saturday or Sunday at the latest, 2003 will fall further behind 2002 as far as the box office goes. There are a couple of warning signs which suggest Matrix Reloaded won’t be able to handle the pressure. Critically the movie is getting mostly great reviews, but its 78% positive is nearly a full 10 percentage points below the original. Compare that to X-Men 2 which beat the original’s reviews by 7 percentage points. Also, the extreme hype has the potential to cause backlash, and there is some evidence that this is happening. These signs aside, look for Matrix Reloaded to help this weekend be at least on pace with last year.
Dropping to second place is X-Men 2, which currently sits just $2 million behind the original’s total box office. Weekday tracking shows an even larger drop-off is in store for this weekend. However, that could be mitigated by Matrix overflow. X-Men 2 should make roughly $20 million this weekend.
Weekday tracking for Daddy Day Care suggests that a 50% second week drop off could be in the cards. Best case scenario still sees it lose more than 40%, which is not good for a family movie.
Coming in fourth will be the second new opener this week, Down With Love. Opening in only 2,200 theaters and with only moderately good reviews it should grab a respectable $6000 per theater for a total of $13 million. Enough to make the studio happy, but not enough to start a new trend.
In fifth place should be The Lizzie McGuire Movie, with an estimated $4 million. The studios share of the box office is already enough to pay for the production costs, and the P & A budget should be covered in a few more weeks.
c take, X-Men 2’s second week saw strong drops in many markets but its $30.9 million was still good enough to win the international box office. Drops in of 40% - 50% in countries like Germany, U.K. and Japan were offset by better performances in France and Spain. X-Men 2's total international take now sits at $120 million, less than $20 million below the original’s total international run.
Next week when Matrix Reloaded opens in a similarly massive fashion, all this will change. But by then X-Men 2 will have nearly matched X-Men in both domestic and international box office so the studio will be happy.
=http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2003/XMEN2.php>X-Men 2 overtook Bringing Down the House for top spot on the 2003 box office chart. It took the mutant movie only 9 days to surpass what the comedy grabbed in 65 days. The Steve Martin surprise hit will probably drop a few more places in short order. Anger Management is just $5.5 million back, less than what it earned this weekend. However, it’s unlikely that Anger Management will beat Bringing Down the House before Matrix Reloaded does.
It was a slow week as only one movie opened wide, but this is just the calm before the storm that is Matrix Reloaded. Compared to last year, the summer is falling further behind and needs Matrix Reloaded to open huge on Wednesday.
No surprise which movie came in first. X-Men 2 lost a lot in its second weekend, but not as much as some had predicted. Also not as much as X-Men dropped in its second week, so better legs could push the final box office higher than the original predictions and into the Top 20 All Time. Down 53.2% to $40.0 million for a total of nearly $150 million, just $10 million shy of the original’s total box office.
In second place was Daddy Dare Care with $27.6 million. This continues a trend for Eddie Murphy whose only big hits recently seem aimed at a decidedly younger audience. Reviews were very bad with only 29% positive, include only 19% from the cream of the crop reviewers. So that could hurt Daddy Day Care’s longevity at the theatres, and with a cost of $60 million to make and $30 million to advertise Sony and Revolution studios will probably have to wait for the home market to see a profit.
On Friday I predicted that The Lizzie McGuire Movie would have the lowest drop-off in the top five, as it turned out it had the highest dropping 58% to $7.2 million. This is very surprising considering the younger target audience, which usually means better legs at the theatre. This could be an anomaly due to Mother’s Day, or it could a sign of the Fanboy Effect, or should I say Fangirl Effect. Even with a much greater drop-off The Lizzie McGuire Movie should get the little more than $40 million needed to be profitable during its domestic run.
Holding up better than most horror / suspense films is Identity, which was down only 31% for its third. The weekend figure of $6.5 million was good enough for fourth place and brought its total to nearly $40 million. Identity should continue in the top ten for a few more weeks and surpass its combined budget before its domestic run is finished.
In its fifth week and in fifth place was Anger Management with $5.7 million for a total of $122 million. The movie is shedding theatres fast but should still put in one or two more appearances in the top ten.
Two movies with limited distribution made the top ten this week. A Mighty Wind expanded into 765 theatres and moved from 14th last weekend to 7th this weekend. The mockumentary look at folk music needs about $20 million to make a profit during its domestic run, and that is definitely in sight. The second limited release film was Bend It Like Beckham. A small increase in theatres to 555 and an actual increase in per theatre average helped the British film land in 9th spot after 9 weeks in release. Already profitable from its international run Bend It Like Beckham is getting extra exposure by finishing in the top ten, so it could still climb a spot or two in the coming weeks.
EF=http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2003/XMEN2.php>X-Men 2 crossed the $100 million mark in just its 6th day of release. This tied it for sixth fastest on the all-time chart. To make the same place on the fastest $200 million chart, it would have to double its total box office figure in the next 9 days. How possible that is depends on how well it does this weekend. Internationally, it will cross $100 million early this weekend.
movie opens wide, Daddy Day Care, but it does open in almost 3400 theatres. Will that be enough to unseat X-Men as box office champ? In a word, no.
X-Men 2 earned so much on its opening weekend that a 50% drop is almost assumed. Before X-Men 2, more than half the movies with previous top ten opening weekends suffered a 50% drop on their second weekend. Weekday tracking, original movie’s performance, fanboy effect all suggest this trend will continue. Still, even a 60% drop would be enough to win this weekend.
Eddie Murphy’s career has been hit and miss recently, misses like I Spy and Pluto Nash are offset by hits like Dr. Doolittle and The Nutty Professor. But where does Daddy Day Care fit in? Reviews, which are poor, suggest a box office similar to Showtime. But the target audience suggests closer to Dr. Doolittle. Split the difference for a $20 million box office.
The rest of the top five will be made up last weeks 2 through 4, in the same order. The Lizzie McGuire Movie will probably have the lowers drop off in the top five, and should finish comfortably in third place with $10 million. That would make its total box office more than its total budget in less than 2 weeks. We will be seeing a lot more of Hilary Duff after this.
Identity will drop to fourth place, with a little more than $6 million. Identity’s total box office could reach $40 million by this weekend on its way to a $55 million total box office. Not bad for a movie that cost about half that to make.
Anger Management is really shedding theatres, while Holes is still picking some up. So we could see Holes overtake it to stay in top five for one more week. Either way, the fifth place finished should grab an additional $5 million.
Two additional notes for this weekend: A Mighty Wind is expanding into 765 theatres and should end up in the top ten. Also, The In-Laws is having a preview in 800 theatres on Saturday; it opens wide on May 23rd.
elease X-Men 2 in as many markets as possible seems to have paid off. Since Wednesday, it was released in 93 markets and placed first in 92 of those markets. (The lone exception was Japan.) And from Wednesday to Sunday X-Men 2 earned $69.3 million internationally, the second best international opening ever and had the best worldwide opening with more than $150 million. But to put those numbers into perspective, Fox studios spent and estimated $60 million on movie prints alone. Add in the cost of production and a worldwide advertising campaign and it will take a lot more before Fox sees a profit.
In a distant second place was Johnny English, which had lead the international box office the previous three weeks. This week the Rowan Atkinson spy spoof lost more than half its box office dropping to $8.2 million. Total box office after just four weeks is now over $90 million with nearly a dozen more opening yet to come, including domestically July 18th.
F=http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2003/XMEN2.php>X-Men 2win the total box office race, it won the per theatre average with $22,870. The only other movie to come close was Spellbound with $17,508 in its only theatre. Winged Migration, which finished first the last two weeks was down to third with an average of $11,312 in 8 theatres.
The first weekend of summer started a little weaker than last year, but it is still very strong. Of course, it wasn’t long ago when summer didn’t start till Memorial Day.
X-Men 2 easily won with $85.6 million, on the high end of the estimates. Better reviews, and a better internal multiplier than the first movie, suggest X-Men 2 should have better legs. However, the sequel will have stronger competition when The Matrix Reloaded opens in just 10 days. Even with this increased competition, $250 million should be an easily obtainable goal.
Opening in second place was The Lizzie McGuire Movie at $17.3 million, $2 million more than it cost to make. It will still take quite a bit more at the box office till the studios share pays for production and advertising, but it’s well on its way to profitability. The opening for Lizzie McGuire is better than fellow Tween movies Agent Cody Banks, What a Girl Wants and Holes. Factoring in the lower production budget and advertising budgets than any of those, Buena Vista should be very happy. Poor reviews could mean weak legs, but it will take a week or two to determine that.
In third was Identity with $9.4 million. While a drop of 41.9% would normally be considered quite bad, the genre mixed with the extreme competition makes this a better than expected result. Fourth place went to Anger Management which dropped 44% to $8.4 million. Holes came in fifth with just shy of $7 million and now has a total of over $45 million in just three weeks.
On an interesting note, Bend It Like Beckham made it’s first appearance in the top ten in its eighth week of release. The British film made $1.5 million in just 484 theatres to bring its total past the $10 million mark. Not bad for a movie that cost about half that to make.
Note: CinemaScores went to a subscription service, so I an no longer be able to use it in my analysis. Sorry for the inconvenience and I am looking for a replacement.
nter and a weak spring, summer has finally arrived with the release of X-Men 2. Estimates for Friday’s box office are in and if they hold up X-Men 2 will have the fourth largest single day of all time, at nearly $34 million. Compared to the first movie, X2 earned almost 60% more on it’s opening day. Granted, X-Men did drop more than 10% on Saturday and did have a weak multiplier. Both are bad signs for the success of the sequel. If X-Men United doesn’t have better legs than X-Men, it will still result in a $80+ million weekend and a nearly $250 million total box office. By tomorrow we will have a better idea on the its longevity.
The only other movie to open wide was The Lizzie McGuire Movie, which will easily beat my estimate with $18 million for the weekend. That estimate was already high compared to most other forecasts, so the better than expect box office is even more amazing. Expect to see a lot more of Hilary Duff in the future.
Despite the huge openings, this weekend is still lower than the same weekend last year. But with two better than expected opening the box office slump can be considered over.
This week marks the official start of the Summer Box Office season. And while there are two wide releases, it seems only one is talked about by the press.
X-Men 2 is the first big release of the summer, and will be used to judge all other blockbusters to come. Fox was able to get X-Men 2 the largest release domestically, (opening in 3,741 theaters, 59 more than the previous record) and worldwide, (opening in 93 markets in just 3 days.) And with excellent reviews this movie should open huge, and it must with a production budget of $125 million and Print & Advertising budget estimated at $50 million. If X-Men doesn’t place in the top 5 biggest weekend (about $75 million) it will be seen as a disappointment. Second place is a real possibility ($90+ million), but beating Spider-Man is doubtful at best.
The Lizzie McGuire Movie is the second wide release in 2,825 theatres, a little more than initial predictions. With a production budget smaller than X-Men 2’s Print budget alone, The Lizzie McGuire movie isn’t in the same class. However, with the popularity of its star, Hilary Duff, it could have a more profitable box office on its opening weekend. Reviews are weak, but on par with other movies with such a narrow target audience. Look for The Lizzie McGuire movie to match its production budget ($15 million) opening weekend, and have a profitable run.
Last week's 1-2-3 will finish this week 3-4-5, probably in the same order, all with $7 million - $9 million box offices. Anger Management could surpass Identity depending on which movie the X-Men overflow decides to see instead. After this weekend, only its third in release, Holes’ box office will be higher than its total budget. Something that is rarely seen these days.
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.
The Dancer Upstairs
Current Content: A very understated website and I’m not sure if that is good or bad. Too flashy would be a distraction, but as it is it’s not very memorable. Besides the usual synopsis, trailer and cast and crew bios, there are 10 images that can be sent as e-cards and 2 clips from the movie.
Down With Love
Current Content: The movie is set in the 60s, and the website flaunts it. The style, the sound effects, the music all scream 60s, in a cheesy by charming way. Speaking of the music, it loops flawlessly, but some clips are a little short. There’s the usual synopsis, trailer, photo Gallery, cast and crew bios, as well as downloads like wallpapers, screensavers and Buddy Icons. There are two interactive sections, but they are still marked coming soon.
The In-Laws
Current Content: Two new TV Spots were added to the video section. Also, in the non-flash section, there are extensive production notes I failed to mention last time.
The Italian Job
Current Content: A flash site was launched with a section for each character, including the Mini. Each section has an actor bio, image gallery and several facts about heists, traffic jams, Venice sinking and other (marginally) related info. Each fact appears in a pop-up menu but if you move the mouse cursor off of it, it immediately closes. This was quite annoying, especially for the longer bios.
The Lizzie McGuire Movie
Current Content: Added this week was the Lizzie Party Planner, complete with invitations, simple pizza recipe, outfit suggestions and some simple Italian phrases. I found this section the most valuable as previously the only Italian phrase I previously knew was, “Dio mio! C'e' un' ascia nella mia testa!” Two more features, The Music Diva Makeover and Lizzie’s Vespa Tour, are marked coming soon.
New Suit
Current Content: This site has all the usual players, synopsis, trailer, cast filmographies, photo gallery. And it has simple, yet effective intros to each section. However, after the intro, there is no sound. And this is a shame, cause the site would have benefited from a little more sound.
Owning Mahowney
Current Content: Just the usual bits (synopsis, photo gallery, cast and crew bios) with the trailer still marked coming soon. The transition to and from each section is well done and the music, while a little short, is effective.
Rugrats Go Wild
Current Content: This week the four Thornberrys kids are added to the Spike Game. Other features are still marked coming soon.
Spellbound
Current Content: The movie is a documentary about the National Spelling Bee Championships, and the web site plays well to the subject matter. The chalkboard theme is not only fun, but doesn’t interfere with the information. Most of which focuses on the eight contestants from the movie. There’s also the synopsis, trailer, crew bios, release dates and a game of Hangman that I found strangely addicting.
Veronica Guerin
Current Content: So far just the synopsis, trailer and cast and crew (no bios.) But the film won’t be released for nearly half a year, so there’s plenty of time to add more.
X-Men 2
Current Content: This site is as huge as they come. Tons of animations and sound, information on cast, crew and characters, trailers, video clips behind the scenes, press conferences, etc. This is what a movie site should be. Of course, the people at Fox probably spent more on this site than the production budget of some of the other films on this list. But never let it be said that the incontrovertible Weekly Website Award can’t be swayed by flashy graphics.
The last week in Spring is usually a time when studios dump movies before the summer season officially starts, and it’s usually the slowest pre-summer weekend of the year. This year was no exception. It was better than the same weekend last year, but that could be the result of twice as many movies opening this year.
Picked by most to finish second, or even third, Identity managed to grab first spot with an impressive $16.2 million. Also impressive was its reviews at 64%, but its CinemaScores was just average at B. That, the genre, and X-Men 2 opening next week suggests Identity won’t have great legs at the box office, but with a budget of only $28 million, it won’t matter.
In second was Anger Management, which dropped another 40% to $15 million and crossed the $100 million mark. Even with much stronger legs than predicted, this film is still well behind Big Daddy for Adam Sandler’s largest box office, despite having a larger opening weekend.
Third with the smallest week to week drop in the top ten was Holes. Its more than $12.5 million represents only a 23% drop, and after two weeks its total box office is just a few million shy of its production and P&A budgets combined. After figuring in the theatre’s share of the box office, Holes should finish its domestic run just shy of profitability. But at this point, even a disappointing international box office will push this film into the black.
Malibu’s Most Wanted dropped a spot to fourth, but its box office dropped little less than 42% to $7.3 million. This was a little better than most expects predicted. With a production budget of only $15 million, and a total box office of nearly $25 million, look for more films like this to follow.
Opening in fifth place was Confidence at only $4.6 million, in line with most predictions. Excellent reviews couldn’t overcome the small advertising push. Word of mouth might help this movie receive a larger audience for the home market, but that’s a best case scenario at this point.
To say It Runs in the Family opened wide would be a bit of a stretch. At only 1200 theatres, it wasn’t in the top ten for theatre count, but it did finish 9th at the box office. Still its $2.8 million box office is a disappointment, but probably better than its bad reviews and weak CinemaScores would suggest.
It tenth place, proving that the movie going public does have taste was The Real Cancun. This movie bombed, earning $2.1 million in more than 2200 theatres. That’s a per theatre average of less than $1000 per theatre, second worse in the top twenty. Bad reviews are one thing, but the real story here is the CinemaScores. Their target audience (males under 21) gave the movie a C-, with movie goers over 35 gave it an F. Hopefully this will give the other studios contemplating Reality TV Movies something to think about.
y released what is in
my opinion, the first movie to ever successfully marry computer effects with
live action scenes and actors.The saga
pitted Jeff Bridges,
a computer gaming programmer gone rogue against an evil electronic A.I. that
abducts him into a cyber world and places him in combat scenarios against
hordes of battle vehicles and humanoid programs.This movie - Tron - was in essence the Matrix of its
time.Since then, Visual Effects
technology has been used to create character enhancements and action scenes
that previously would have cost production companies millions of dollars in
time and materials.A technology so
advanced, that we now have CGI characters playing important roles in
movies.A technology that is so well
received and relatively economical that the advent of completely digitally
animated features are common place. A technology which has trickled down to
every day use in video games and small screen productions.
And a technology that is so excessively used
in film, and at times so poorly rendered, that it smacks of the campy falseness
that was a Godzilla costumed, Japanese actor, stomping through a miniature of
1960’s Tokyo.
Not to offend die-hard Godzilla
fans mind you, or you aspiring computer
visual effects specialist, because for one, I am a Godzilla fan from
way back and I am annually parked in-front of the Sci-Fi channel during their
October Godzilla marathon.Believe me,
campy, cheesy over sized lizards are my passion.
Two, I am a die hard
technologist, and Generation X-er who not only appreciates the hard work and
effort behind the 3D-modeling, rendering programming, CGI, and various other
skills involved, but I regularly pray at the alter of Bill Gates while back
flipping, high kicking, and round house punching my way through a well designed
game using a half naked, bouncy, digitally rendered babe named Divinity on my
X-Box.Believe me, I salute you
computer artists, and subsequently so do the good people of Kleenex Tissues and
Saint Ive’s Hand Lotions.
But... (and you knew the "but" was coming)
There are some movies that did it right, and others, that
just plain did it wrong.Instead of
treading through the murky depths of what can be a very categorized field
encompassing a wide array of technologies and techniques, I will instead look
at specific movies and scenes that were impressively done and I will look at
other movies that weren’t so impressively done.In the interests of server space and tired fingers (there are
so many movies using and/or abusing digital effects these days I could
write a book) I will concentrate on the top-earning visual effects movies of all
time, and some particular movies that I feel need to be pointed out for one
reason or another.
[Author's Note: The original top 10 list that inspired this article was compiled by www.digitalmediafx.com, a group that
provides content and information mainly for people who are in the industry.]
Top 16
Visual Effects Movies of All Time
The following is a list of
the highest grossing FX movies of all time.
Note: "Visual Effects Movie"
refers to a film that heavily relied on special effects in the telling of its
story.Visual Effects can be
model-based or computer generated.Results are based on how much money the movie made in the U.S./Canada
Domestic box office and may include money made in re-releases (depending
on circumstances).In addition, the list
does not allow for inflation or higher ticket prices. The original list is at http://www.digitalmediafx.com/specialreports/topfxmovies.html
Men in Black
Starting from low to high
in terms of box office numbers on this list and working our way up, we have Men
in Black.A feature which I felt
crossed the line regularly with their use of digital visual effects, only to be
saved thanks to the on screen chemistry of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones.
Frank the Talking Dog was
well done, and so were many of the scenes involving various space aliens and
technology.But it’s always easier to
animate something that doesn’t exist in real life, because no one can really
say what an alien with an exploding head looks like when growing a new noggin,
or what worm aliens should look like when drinking coffee.Still, these effects-laden films have to
remember that digital effects, computer rendering, and modeling, is far from
perfect, mostly because it looks too perfect on screen!The clarity and smoothness of CGI
characters, slightly off color and shading, and almost too fluid motion, makes
for glaring examples that can overpower a scene with its blatancy.Occasionally, MIB did the smart thing
balancing a mix of CGI, Special effects robots, make up, and live models for
this film.Because it could have been a
lot worse and because the acting and story helped pull my attention away from
all of the CGI, it is in my personal "Did It Right" category.
Batman and The Grinch
The next two films on our
list were surprises to me but welcome ones nonetheless.I group these two films together because
more traditional effects magic were used in the making.Computer animation was held to a minimum and
modeling and make up specialists took the lead.More movies should do it this way; at least until the computer VE (Visual
Effects) side of the house is perfected.
Not
much to say on The Grinch.There wasn’t
a chance in the world that any type of visual effects would have been able to
direct the audience away from Jim Carrey's
acting.Mostly make up effects here,
and I believe that if you can’t notice the effects, if it doesn’t pull you
away from the story, then it "Did It Right!".
Batman,
which used a lot of green or blue screen shots (Placing an actor in front of
a blue or green screen and then inserting the back round later) and city
modeling, played well in the dark comic book world that was Gotham City.It might not have been so in another
film.However, the fight scenes were
tight, realistic, used simple camera shots, and great martial arts
choreography, really making this movie memorable.A more recent visual effects movie similar to Batman that isn’t
on this list, but I feel really shows an important contrast, is the Blade series
starring Wesley Snipes.The first Blade being well done, and the
fight scenes being just as impressive as the first Batman movie.However, Blade II, which I
still found to be thoroughly enjoyable, made the mistake of using CGI for their
vampire on vampire fight scenes.Particularly noticeable were the acrobatics preformed by Wesley Snipes
character Blade and the Leonor Varela character Nyssa during the GOD
lights fight sequence.Also of
particular note was the end fight scene between Blade and Luke Goss character
Nomak.Again, production companies
using any type of visual effects have to remember that new technology and
methods doesn’t always mean better or more entertaining.I would personally prefer not to see digital
effects in action sequences.If you
need to make for a more stunning sequence, The Matrix style wirework plays well
and is visually stunning in most respects.My call on all of these films, Batman, The Grinch, and Blade "Did It Right!".Blade II, in most vampire on
vampire scenes, "Did It Wrong!"
Star Wars: All Of Them
No big surprise here in regards to Star Wars.Currently holding 5 of the top 16 spots,
this is again a perfect example of how it was done right the first time, and on
the second go around, just didn’t quite make it.George Lucas pioneered some impressive modeling techniques and
make up work during the original production of Star Wars.Ground breaking work to which my words just
can’t do justice (Note: Death star scenes where X-wing
fighters were making strafing attacks on the surface, used miniatures and drive
by camera work off the back of a pickup!).On its recent re-release, the George Lucas studio and George
Lucas himself, decided to add some upgrades via CGI.In my opinion, all of these scenes are obvious and not worthy of
the original visual effects craftsmanship.The Star Wars opening scene with the chasing Imperial Destroyer is still
one of the most realistic and awesome scenes I have seen to date and it was
done in 1977.In regards to Star Wars
Episode 1, just three words: Jar Jar Binks!My call for the Star Wars series, great movies, awesome story lines,
great acting and the first time around, "Did It Right!". On re-release
and on the newer series, "Did It Wrong!".
Independence Day
The visual effects in this film were stunning.The shots of the alien saucers floating
above various US monuments and in orbit were amazing and I couldn’t tell just
by looking at it that they were all digitally inserted.Some of the F-15/alien ship dog fight scenes
were suspect, but overall, an amazing job.Animatronics/puppeteering type technology was used for close up shots
involving the aliens and the blue/green screen shots were flawless.Fox did it right in this film and coupled
with a fantastic cast and script, the only surprise here is that it isn’t
closer to the number 1 spot.Simply put
"Did It Right!"
Jurassic Park
I was going to duo this film with Independence Day, but it was so well
done, and the technology used to create the dinosaurs so groundbreaking, it
needed its own line.One of the first
to use CGI on such a large scale, Jurassic Park really demonstrated to other
production companies and film makers that the sky is the limit in terms to what
you can do with effects, as long as your budget is sky high as well.I can still pick out the CGI, but only
because I know dinosaurs have long been extinct.Close up shots of the dinos were animatronics and it was all
superbly done.Hey, we have all seen
clips of the old stop motion dinosaurs from the movies past, and the scenes in
movies where nothing but animatronics (Skins and artist created sub-dermals
stretched over remote control robots) were used.Anyone remember Baby - Legend
of the Lost Dinosaur?By the end of
this movie, I was hoping that Baby would just die.Jurassic Park, "Did It Right!".
Spider-Man
I don’t know where to start with this film. A big Marvel
Fan, and Spider-Man fan myself, I was happy to see a live action Spider-Man film
being released into the theaters. The acting was fantastic and I really loved
how they brought the character to life on the big screen; not many characters
can make such a successful transition. But I was really not impressed with any
scene involving Spiderman climbing, jumping, and web slinging through the city
streets. I was down right disappointed in the fight scenes between Spider-Man
and the Green Goblin. The movement of CGI characters just doesn’t look right.
No, I have never seen a crime fighting spandex clad human with the powers of a
spider making his way through a city, so no I don’t have a point of reference
to which I make that comment; But I do know what looks real and natural and
proportioned and Spider-Man CGI was not. As unfortunate as it is because I
really loved the movie, the CGI in the film in almost every action scene, "Did
It Wrong".
Titanic
When I first saw this film on the list, I was very surprised, only
because the visual effects weren’t of long extinct animals, super natural
beings, or aliens and alien technology. The technology wasn’t as a character in
the movie like the others. Titanic was a movie that used visual effects to
recreate an era and an environment and strikingly so.How appropriate that it resides in the number 1 spot, because it
is number 1 in my personal list of movies that flawlessly utilized digital
effects to help present the story.This
movie was shot on a partial mock-up of the boat in a huge water tank.The background was digitally inserted, as was
the vast ocean.The sinking of the ship
and violent collision with the Iceberg was digitally rendered then inserted.Titanic went completely over budget and was
a huge risk for everyone involved.Hands downed, "Did It Right!".
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE RINGS MAN... THE RINGS AND THE POTTER??
Because I would prefer not to be hunted down in the
streets and flogged by a crowd of readers lead by Bruce Nash for not mentioning
it, lets take a look at Lord of The Rings: The
Fellowship of The Ring, The Two Towers,
and the Harry Potter movies. Bruce actually updated the Digitalmediafx chart to include the newer movies which is why it's a top 16 as opposed to a top 10. Afterall, as my
editor so keenly pointed out, Lord of The Rings raked in $313 million and The
Two Towers over $337 million. Harry
Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone brought in over $317 million with the
sequel, Chambers of
Secrets only bringing in a modest $261 million; (That was sarcasm by the
way). Sorry Grinch, MIB and Batman, time to move over, here comes
something with bigger box office takes. The first movie in both of these franchises are
without a doubt in the "Did it Right!" realm. However, I wasn’t
necessarily impressed by everything I saw. It looks like the cave troll that
attacked both Harry Potter and the Fellowship graduated from the same
University of crappy CGI. (Would that be CCGIU then?)Other then that, both prequels were
brilliant. Harry deserving particular mention for the Broom flying scenes during the Quibbage Event, and The
Fellowship for the scaling effects used to make the hobbits (played by full
size actors) appear smaller then their co-stars. And then we have the
sequels!!! What is it with these two movies anyway? They must be sharing visual
effects companies because the house elf in the Chambers of Secret looks just as
crappy as Gollum did in the Two Towers. And good thing for Harry that the Mr.
Riddles snake wasn’t in more of this movie or I would have really went off the film. Conversely the ying to their yangs, came in the form of the amazingly
created flying car sequences and again with another awesome broom flying Quibbage game for Harry Potter. In Lord of the Rings: Two Towers, the CGI tower modeling and
environmental inserts were equally brilliant. Those particular CGI marvels,
along with excellent acting, fantastic story lines, and superb cast chemistry
help propel both into the "Did it Right!" category.
A Constantly Changing List
To be honest, this list will probably be defunct by the time this year
is out.With the exception of Titanic
and the first Star Wars, we can expect the rest of this directory to be updated
annually. Digital effects in movies have made for great movie magic and will
continue to do so for years to come.This year alone we will see The Hulk, X-Men 2, Terminator 3: Rise of
The Machines, and the Matrix: Reloaded
hit the screen and the production of big budget movies with big budget effects
isn’t showing signs of slowing.
Digital effects can be a great thing if done so in a subdued manner, or when the movie
using them is pioneering, but when main characters and huge scenes rely on the
technology, watch out because it is going to distract.With the exception of the Matrix (I wish it was on this list, because it should be a bible of how action computer visual effects should be done), some of the most visually appealing and
realistic movies I’ve seen are early 80’s and 90’s films that relied on make up
and sweat as opposed to numbers and processors.Movies are fun because they pull you into a whole new world with
whole new characters and scenarios, but the illusion is easy to break when hit
with "in your face" CGI and technology. Just remember, if you watch a movie and
it looks like Intel and Microsoft will appear in the credits, then someone has
just committed digital overkill.
(Author End Note: The field is growing and changing on a regular basis.
Especially by movies who aren’t afraid to do something new and exciting for a
first time. Wired
Online Magazine has a great article on The Matrix: Reloaded which is a nice
read)
the-numbers.com/movies/2003/JENGL.php>Johnny English’s second week on the international market was just as impressive as its first week. The Rowan Atkinson comedy earned another $18.5 million in nearly 3500 theatres in 38 markets to push its total to $50 million dollars. Second week highlights included a tiny 26% drop in UK and similar strong second weeks in Spain and Austria, record openings in both Singapore and Malaysia as well as excellent showings in other Asian markets. And next week it will be released in 12 more markets. Johnny English opens domestically on July 18th.
But despite the success of Johnny English, the international market is still as weak as … well as weak as the domestic market. All this is putting great pressure on X-Men 2, which opens in two weeks in the biggest movie rollout ever. X-Men 2 will open in 93 countries within 3 days, and if that doesn’t revitalize the Box Office, we could be in for a long dry summer.
mic book adaptations made casting news recently and not all of it good.
Shortly after being reported that the competition for the role of Superman was down to just Brendan Fraser and Matthew Bomer it was reported that both were no longer in the running. So who is rumored to play Superman now? Cinescape reported it could be Henry Cavill, who starred in The Count of Monte Cristo. Maybe. What is known is director Brett Ratner is dropping out of the project to work on Rush Hour 3. He cited the casting troubles as one of the reasons for his decision. At this rate it may be smarter for Warner Bros. to take a play from Terry Gilliam and make a movie about making the Superman movie instead of the Superman movie itself.
The reports of a Spider-Man casting crisis were apparently exaggerated. Speculation was that Tobey Maguire’s back was too sore to return as Spider-Man. In his place Donnie Darko star Jake Gyllenhaal would take his place. However, as it turns out this rumor started when Tobey Maguire’s publicists simply stated her concern over the physical nature of Spider-Man 2 after just completing two physically demanding roles. The term, "mild discomfort" was used, so you can see why entertainment journalists assumed Tobey Maguire would be forced to drop out of the sequel to 2002’s biggest movie.
Thomas Jane, who can be seen starting this week in Dreamcatcher, may have slipped past Kurt Russell for the role as The Punisher. While promoting Dreamcatcher, Jane let it slip that he might have the role, however, later on when asked he said, "I've been told not to talk about it." Oops.
Lastly, Halle Berry has been very critical of her role as Storm in the X-Men movies. So much so that she has refused to participate in a third movie if there is one. (And there mostly likely will be.) So it comes as bit of a surprise that she is in talks to take on another comic book role, Catwoman. A movie based on the Batman nemesis has been in the works since Michelle Pfeiffer played the character in Batman Returns. Since then Ashley Judd and Nicole Kidman have been pegged to play the title character. If Berry does land the role she will be joining the likes of Lee Meriwether, Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt.
ts and marketing budgets climbing, the average movie needs to make more than $100 million at the box office to show a profit. It's no wonder that movie executives are always looking for ways to minimize risks. One of the ways to do this, along with making remakes and adapting previous sources like comic books, is to make sequels.
Now, it seems every year around this time some entertainment source declares this year to be, 'The year of sequel!" I won't be doing that, cause that would ignore the sheer number of sequels released last year, and what will surely be a similar number of sequels released next year. But I will give a brief list of some of this year's sequels and some of the more anticipated sequels that will be released later on.
The first was well liked by Civil War Enthusiasts, but made very little at the box office. This one has twice the budget, but probably the same small audience.
Set 20 years after The Talented Mr. Ripley, this time with John Malkovich playing the title character. Ripley's Game is without any of the big box office names of the first film, and has a slightly lower budget. This film will be less of a box office success, but could be a favorite come awards seasons.
One of the more eagerly anticipated sequels, this movie reunites most of the previous ensemble cast with a few notable additions. Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler being one. The first movie had a very tight production schedule, which shouldn't be a problem this time around.
Originally reported to be a prequel, this is potentially the biggest hit of the year, and records should fall. At least until The Matrix Revolutions is released on November 7, 2003. The biggest question is whether movie goers will be burned out by The Matrix by then.
Freddy vs. Jason
Sequel to: Way to many to name here.
Release Date: June 13, 2003
Website: Not Available
This often delayed crossover looks finally set to hit theatres. Maybe. The only reason that it won't move is the lack of another Friday the 13th in 2003. The next one after June isn't until February 2004.
The original showed Reese Witherspoon to be a bankable star and Sweet Home Alabama solidified that. This summer, if Legally Blonde 2 does the business the MGM is hoping for, it could propel her to the upper echelon of the pay scale.
Despite Arnold Schwarzenegger's recent attack on sequels, he is set to star in two of them in. Terminator 3 being the first and True Lies 2 being the next. Reportedly took a pay cut to keep production in California, however, recent box office performances might have has something to do with that decision.
The first movie had a relatively low budget, two mostly unknown stars (Will Smith and Martin Lawrence), a unproven director (Michael Bay) and very low expectations. But it became one of the most surprising hits of 1995. The sequel reunites all three with a budget more than triple the first. This time there's much more pressure to succeed.
A prequel 30 years in the making, this movie will tell the story of Father Lankester Merrin's first encounter with the devil. With the original making nearly $40 million during its recent re-release, this could be a sleeper hit.
This movie was green-lit before Spy Kids 2 hit the theatres. Since Spy Kids 2 under-performed compared to the first, it remains to be seen whether Spy Kids 3 can live up to the first two. The fact that Sylvester Stallone has signed on to play the villain isn't a good sign. Stallone hasn't had a live-action hit since 1993's Cliffhanger. Part of the action will be in 3-D.
Horrible critical reviews, low CinemaScores, poor legs and a final box office that was barely more than the production and advertising costs. So why are they making a sequel? Cause the first made almost $50 million on its opening weekend. Look for this one to have a bigger opening, worse reviews, lower CinemaScores, no legs and another sequel after that. All this while movies that deserve to be seen, like Chance, are still without a distribution deal.
Jeepers Creepers had a $10 million dollar budget when it was released back in 2001, but it surprised everyone when it made nearly $16 million during its opening weekend, so a sequel should be no surprise. However, it barely made $20 million for the rest of it's run. So expect this one to have a bigger opening that the first, but absolutely no staying power.
Last in the Mariachi trilogy with a budget four times the combined total of the first two. With an all star cast and a bankable director, this one looks like a sure thing. Not a massive hit, but it should make Columbia Pictures happy.
Return of the King is a low budget film that will struggle to find an audience. ... Ok, I'm just kidding. But if you are just learning about the third installment of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy you probably don't care.
Originally planned for a spring 2003 release, production was delayed due to Director Jay Roach's schedule. It may be released the same time of the year Meet the Parents was, but at this point a 2004 release date is more likely.
Based on the short lived, make that very short lived cartoon version of Clerks. When it will be made is still a bit of a mystery as Kevin Smith is still busy with Jersey Girl and has Fletch Won to work on.
Fletch Won
Prequel to: Fletch and Fletch Lives
Release Date: Unknown, possibly 2004. Possibly later than that.
Website: Not Available
Written and directed by Kevin Smith and staring his favorite actor, Jason Lee. The pair has been involved in 7 films together and if this film does well, look for many Fletch films to be added to that list.
Disney is describing this movie as an interquel. That is to say, it retells the story of The Lion King from Timon and Pumbaa's point of view. It could be an interesting exercise in storytelling. Or it could be a cheap grab at some quick cash.
Alfred Molina has officially signed on to play Dr. Octopus. Last year's biggest movie at the domestic box office, this sequel has a lot of pressure on it to perform.
The final chapter in the Star Wars Saga. It's to be seen whether it can bounce back from the second's disappointing run at the box office. You know a movie has high expectations when $300 million domestically and nearly $650 million worldwide is seen as a disappointment.
Just started filming in England. Could be the final Harry Potter with Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. If this one doesn't make more than $750 worldwide it would be a shock.
NOTE: As usualy, all release dates are subject to change repeatedly and without warning.
t for the release of the X-Men 2 movie
this May, then maybe you can placate your self with the newly revamped X-Men DVD on sale
at stores February 11th, 2003. In a digital world meets DVD
marketing gimmick, 20th Century Fox is sure to boost its profits on
the X-Men franchise by repackaging and reselling the original home DVD now
dubbing it “X-Men 1.5”.
First released for home collection in November of 2000, the
box set made $60 million in VHS and DVD sales over the Y2K Thanksgiving holiday
alone; more then it’s opening
weekend at the box office. This new and improved DVD set will contain never
before seen featurettes, content, and more importantly, a sneak peak of the
up-coming X-Men 2 movie. Amazon.com is also offering its consumers an early
peak at some of the content if you pre-order it now.
The home video subsidiaries of a movie production house
generally release both full screen and wide screen versions of the same movie,
occasionally spawning a Special Collectors Edition containing some extra
content. However, 20th Century Fox’s marketing and well timed
release of a "1.5" version, just ahead of the X-Men sequel, is unique and
will surely lay the ground work for other DVD re-releases.
X-Men 2 will hit
theaters on May 2nd 2003.
ic Books are entering a new Golden Age. When X-Men was a hit in 2000 movie studios started snapping up every comic book property they could get their hands on. After since last years highest grossing domestic film, Spider-Man, is also based on a comic book, look for this trend to continue.
Upcoming Comic Book movies include:
Daredevil: Starring Ben Afleck, Jennifer Garner and Michael Clarke Duncan. In the Marvel Universe, Daredevil and Spider-Man live and work in the same city, but since the two licensing deals went to two different movie companies all references to one another had to be removed from the films. Opens in two weeks on February 14th.
X2: Sequel to X-Men, starring Patrick Stewart, Famke Jannsen, Anna Paquin, Alan Cumming, and many, many more. With a production schedule that was more flexible than the first movie’s, X2 should be bigger and better than the first. Release date is May 2nd, 2003.
The Hulk: Starring Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly and a whole lot of CGI. Variety reports that the F/X for The Hulk is expected to break new ground, although it is hard to imagine the F/X could beat Gollum from The Two Towers. Release date is June 20th, 2003.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: A comic book of a most unusual nature. Set in the late 19th century England and with a cast of characters from Sean Connery as Allan Quatermain to Shane West as Tom Sawyer this Alan Moore comic book could be the most unique comic book movie in a long time. Release date is July 11th, 2003.
Batman: We could write a weekly column dedicated to who is attached to direct Batman. This week it’s Memento director, Chris Nolan. Release date is to be announced.
Superman: This movie is playing musical directors like Batman, but with the lead actors as well. Josh Hartnett, Jude Law, Ashton Kutcher and Brendan Fraser are among the actors rumored to suit up as The Man of Steel. To Confuse matters more, some of the directors will only direct if their choice for Superman is cast. And Vice versa. The longer this soap-opera continues the more appealing it is to have Nicolas Cage star in the Kevin Smith scripted Superman.
Ghost Rider: Speaking of Nicolas Cage, he will be starring in Ghost Rider. Without only slight script problems, (The first draft was too violent for the PG-13 rating the studio was going for.) this movie should get underway shortly. Release date is also to be announced.
Danger Girls: Jessica Biel is rumored to be the front-runner to star in this adaptation of J. Scott Campbell’s independent comic. One of the hottest, if least punctual, independent comic books is based around an organization of female adventurers / super spies.
And there’s many more, including sequels to Spider-man and Blade II, remake of Barbarella the cross-over Batman vs. Superman, etc.
Note: As regular readers of The Numbers know, all release dates are subject to change, repeatedly.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
