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Monday, November 23, 2009
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2004-06-07
Every week films get a second chance at success from the home market; or, in some cases, a first chance at success. Last week there were nearly 700 new releases, but the list of releases this week is just a third the length. However, in many ways it's a much stronger week with three or four candidates for DVD pick of the week. Some of the candidates were the multiple Oscar winning Mystic River - Buy from Amazon and the hilarious SCTV - Buy from Amazon. But in the end I went with The Dead Zone - The Complete Second Season - Buy from Amazon, one of the best Stephen King adaptations in the past decade, although I'll probably end up buying all three anyway.
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2004-03-01
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of last nights Oscars was the lack of surprises. Even the sweep by Lord of the Rings: Return of the King wasn't that big of a shock.
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2004-02-29
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King swept all the categories it was nominated for in winning a record-equaling 11 Oscars earlier this evening. Here is a list of the winners with reactions to be posted tomorrow.
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2004-02-29
The final results are in from our Predict the Academy Awards Competition, and Numbers readers are forecasting a Lord of the Rings sweep at the ceremony tonight.
A stunning 90% of voters are calling for Lord of the Rings to win Best Picture and Peter Jackson to win Best Director - some of the strongest predictions we've seen in the 7 years we've been running the poll.
The movie is also projected to win in every other category in which its nominated.
With no Rings stars nominated for acting awards though, some of the other results are still ripe for speculation.
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2004-02-26
Having called the results for Best Animate Feature and Achievement in Directing over the past two days, we're ready to announce a projected winner for the big prize... Best Picture.
Our projections are based on the entries in our Predict the Academy Awards competition.
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2004-02-25
Every day between now and the Academy Awards ceremony we're predicting the result of one of the categories based on votes in our Predict the Oscars competition.
Yesterday we predicted a safe win for Finding Nemo as Best Animated Feature.
Today we're calling the result for Directing.
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2004-02-23
The 10th Annual Screen Actor Guild Awards were handed out on Sunday, and there were a not a whole lost of surprises this year. At least not if you take the Golden Globe awards into consideration.
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2004-01-27
Nominations for the 76the Annual Academy Awards were announced today. As always, here is a list of the nominations, plus reactions below.
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2004-01-26
There seems to be a pattern developing for 2004. The number one movie surprises, but the overall box office is lower than expected. This week was no different. The total box office was down from last weekend's 3-day total, which is not surprising as last weekend was a long weekend. But it dropped by a massive 24.7%. The performance compared to last year that is more troubling. Before the weekend 2004 was 7% behind 2003 and at first glance this weekend was almost flat compared to last year, down less than $200,000 or just 0.002%. But this weekend last year was Superbowl weekend, so the performance is really more equivalent to a 10% drop.
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2004-01-26
While the Writers' Guild of America hand out more than a dozen awards each year, only two apply to theatrical releases, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Here are the nominations in each of those categories.
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2004-01-26
Recapping last nights Golden Globes ceremony, here are the winners with a brief reaction below.
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2004-01-25
With the awards ceremony only hours away, here's one last look at the theatrical nominations for tonight's 61st annual Golden Globes awards.
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2004-01-23
Two movies staring That '70s Show alumnus open this weekend, and while neither of them will be recognized with any major awards, they probably won't light up the box office either. In fact, next weekend isn't looking that spectacular either. The box office should pick up again in February.
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2004-01-18
On Thursday the 10th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards(R) Nominations were announced. Here is a list of all the nominations in theatrical categories as well as a brief reaction to them.
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2003-11-04
ionally a bad night for the box office. Younger kids are out trick or treating, and most parents are either out there with their kids or handing out candies at home. So when Halloween comes on a Friday you know the box office is going to be hurt. This year, most of the releases were scaled back from the much wider released that were previously planned. This hurt the box office to the tune of 21.7% from last week and 14.4% from last year.
By Thursday, Scary Movie 3 had lost nearly 90% of its opening night box office. This could mean one of two things, its audience is skewed very young and they couldn't go to the movies on a school night, or it's a really bad movie. After only taking in $20.0 million for its second weekend, a drop of 58.4%, the latter seems more likely. It did beat Scary Movie 2's box office, but topping the first’s will be all but impossible.
Coming in a very close second was Brother Bear with $19.4 million. Not opening on Halloween seemed to be a good strategy, but the two-day box office will still be seen as a disappointment to Disney. It will need better legs than Finding Nemo just to hit $100 million, and is no where close to Disney's animated fair of the past. And that holds true on the critical side as well; with only 39% positive, reviews are well below expectations.
If one movie benefited from Halloween it was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Its target audience was too old to trick or treat and was too young to have kids that wanted to trick or treat. It took in another $10.8 million to raise its total box office to over $66 million. That's more than double the cost to make and advertise the movie.
Radio made more at the box office than predicted, $9.6 million. However, it wasn't able to hang onto third place like I thought.
Fifth place was just as tight as I thought it would be with Runaway Jury taking it $6.5 million to $6.2 million over
Mystic River. The total box office for the two films are even closer with Mystic River holding a slight lead $33.5 million to $33.3 million.
In The Cut's performance was right in line with predictions. It managed only $2.1 million and just missed a spot in the top ten. With very poor reviews, look for this one to disappear from theatres quickly before having and unrated DVD released.
The Human Stain would have had the best per theatre average in the top 10, if it had made it in the top ten. However, it had to settle for $1.0 million and 15th place. Reviews are a little better than In the Cut, but not enough to suggest a much wider release is in the works.
The release of Alien: The Director’s Cut the biggest disappointment of the weekend. It was probably hurt by the multiple releases that are already on DVD, or the fact that a 9-DVD box set will be released in December. Whatever it was, while the critics are almost unanimous, the director's cut is excellent, the re-release was a bust earning only $1.0 million.
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2003-10-31
he opening of only one wide release, and some that don’t quite make that cut. Many were planned for wider openings than they got, and after this week we’ll see if it was a smart idea to cut back on the theatres.
Last week’s winner is likely to repeat at the top of the charts this week. Scary Movie 3 should take in about $25 million to raise its total to $80 million after just two weeks, topping the final box office of Scary Movie 2. Topping the first’s box office will be much harder to do.
Disney’s latest animated movie, Bother Bear, won’t open in theatres till Saturday. This is probably a good strategy given most kids will be out trick or treating today. However, I doubt most parents will want to be in a theatre with a bunch of kids on sugar highs. So Brother Bear’s prospects for the weekend are bleaker than most Disney movies. And with reviews that are well below par for Disney movies, $15 million will be all it will get.
Radio will again finish third with $9 million at the box office. This is a drop of only 33% and could spell some nice legs for the film. But even so, it will have to wait till the home market before it starts to show a profit.
Dropping a couple of spots will be The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It won’t be far behind Radio with $8 million. This box office will be helped out by some Halloween action, but bigger drops are coming for next week.
Mystic River and Runaway Jury will be in a very close contest for the last spot in the top five. Both will get around $6 million with Runaway Jury having a slight advantage.
In The Cut, which opened in just 6 theatres last weekend opens wider this weekend. But calling 800 theatres a wide release is not quite accurate. Reviews for the movie have been quite poor and there’s only so much Meg Ryan’s controversial sex scenes can do for a movie. Look for $2 million and possibly a spot in the top ten.
The release of Alien: The Director’s Cut was reportedly trimmed back from 1700 theatres. And considering how poorly the movie did during its Wednesday release that was probably for the best. It has failed to make the top ten either day and this weekend it will only get $1 million at most. This is too bad because the reviews are excellent. But if you don’t get a chance to see it in the theatres, you can always pick up the 9-DVD box set in December.
Lastly, Human Stain opens in 160 theaters. Also originally planned for a much wider release, its reviews suggest cutting back was the right thing to do. Box office wise, it should fall just below Alien: The Director’s Cut with under $1 million.
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2003-10-27
nd to close out October with records set for widest October opening, biggest opening weekend in October and best overall October box office. With all these box office records being set, it's no surprise the box office was up 14% from last week and 21% from last year.
It was no surprise that Scary Movie 3 won the weekend; it was a surprise how much it earned. $48.1 million dollars was not only well ahead of all predictions, it was also a record for the biggest opening weekend in October. It also broke the record for widest opening in October at 3,503 theatres. For this type of movie reviews are almost a non-issue; however, the PG-13 rating may have helped the overall box office by allowing more high-school males to get tickets. Budget information hasn't been released yet, but it is expected to be between the first two movies in the Scary Movie Trilogy, and even with a $25 million ad campaign Scary Movie 3 will show a profit by the end of next weekend. Needless to say, there is another sequel in the works, this time lampooning Super Heroes.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre also beat expectations, albeit by a much smaller margin. The $14.5 million earned in its second week was only a 47% drop at the box office, very good given the genre and advanced hype. It was also enough to push its total past $50 million and to start showing a profit for the studio.
The latest attempt by Cuba Gooding Jr. to regain acting legitimacy came in third place with $13.3 million, just below predictions. Reviews for Radio are not strong enough to erase the memory of Boat Trip, and were in fact weaker than the rest of the top ten at only 35% positive.
After a weaker than expected opening weekend, The Runaway Jury had a much better than expected second weekend. The courtroom drama lost less than 30% of its box office to land at $8.4 million and fourth place. This could be an indication of strong legs to come, but no amount of legs will allow the film to recover the estimated $80 million production / P&A budget.
For the second weekend in a row, Mystic River rounded out the top five. This time its box office was $7.8 million, down just 25%. Its box office total is now just shy of its production budget of $25 million.
If there is any accountability in the movie industry then the performance of Beyond Borders should cost someone their job. The budget for this movie has been estimated at anywhere from $50 to $70 million, but its first weekend it only made $2.1 million and failed to make the top ten. That's a per theatre average of just $1154, compare that to The Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl which made $1271 per theatre and it was in its 16th week of release. Reviews are going to be no help either; at just 16% positive it has the lowest number of positive review for any movie currently in wide release by nearly 20 percentage points. Paramount will be lucky to make back 10% of its investment before it hits the home market.
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2003-10-24
ening wide this week, but none of them are opening to rave reviews. And while the most likely number one movie won’t suffer due to poor reviews, the other two will mostly like suffer.
The third movie in the Scary Movie trilogy opens today with much less fanfare than the other two, but in a huge number of theatres. Reviews for Scary Movie 3 are almost exactly between the first two movies, and so should the box office. $31 million this weekend, with an outside shot at $100 million.
It has been a while since Cuba Gooding Jr. made a really high quality movie but Radio was supposed to break that streak. This movie has, ‘for your Oscar consideration written’ all over it. However, with the reviews currently sitting at just 35% positive, (and even lower for the cream of the crop.) he will have to wait for his slump to end. Financially, the movie is in better shape with a budget of only $35 million. With an opening weekend of $14 million, it should show a profit by the home market.
Given the hype and the genre, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre will drop a lot this weekend. Dropping down nearly 60% down to $13 million and third place. Even with the fast drop, the low costs will mean this film is close to a profit already.
There will be a virtual tie for fourth place with both Mystic River and Kill Bill: Volume 1 making roughly $8 million. Mystic River has the slight edge for top spot, but it won’t win by much.
The last new movie opening this weekend is Beyond Borders. It not only has the weakest reviews at just 16% positive, but the lowest theatre count at just 1798. Because of this, expect an opening weekend of just $5 million before quickly exiting out of theatres.
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2003-10-20
to October, the last two weekends have shown amazing growth especially when compared to last year. Overall the box office was up 4.5% from last week and an amazing 25% from last year.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre just missed becoming the second biggest opener in October as its $28.1 million was $1 million less than Sunday's estimates. Reviews for the film also suffered dropping to just 36% positive. With poor reviews, a weak internal multiplier, fanboy effect and the horrow genre The Texas Chainsaw Massacre will have trouble hitting $70 million. However, it only cost $13 million to make and even with an advertising budget closer to $30 million, this movie will make a profit during it's domestic run. Needless to say, there is a sequel in the works. But given how the sequels to the original performed, this is probably not a good idea.
Kill Bill: Volume 1 held up better than expected to walk away with $12.4 million and a second place finish. That's a drop of just 43.8%, not a bad result normally, and very good considering the rest of the year.
It turns out The Runaway Jury won't quite turnaround John Grisham Hollywood career. Its opening weekend of just $12.1 million was weak, and with reviews that were good, but not great, it probably won't have the legs to succeed.
The School of Rock added another $11.0 million to push its total past $50 million. It is now tracking ahead of Freaky Friday's weekend numbers, but with school kids in school its weekday numbers are really dragging it down.
Helped by great reviews, including 100% from the cream of the crop, Mystic River landed in fifth place with $10.4 million. But with a per theatre average of just $7,120 and the MPAA screener ban, that's probably not enough to make it a serious Oscar contender.
After doing well in its native country of Ireland, Veronica Guerin came crashing down this week. Opening in less than 500 theatres, it was only about to make $611 thousand or roughly $1300 per theatre. That was much lower than expect, and even the mediocre reviews don't explain it.
As expected, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl cross $300 million on Friday. It now sits behind Star Wars: Attack of the Clones on both the domestic and worldwide charts.
Submitted by: C.
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2003-10-17
remake of a 1973 horror classic, the return of John Grisham, the not quite wide release of a docu-drama and the expansion of last week's Per Theatre Average Chart topper. With so much new, the top five will mostly be new movies with holdovers only occupying a couple of places.
Having the best shot at top spot is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a remake of the 1973 movie of the same name. First of all, the advertising campaign claims that this movie is 'inspired' by a true story, which is overstating the facts. It is inspired by real life events in the same way Who Framed Roger Rabbit is inspired by real life events. Also, these crimes involved were also the inspiration for both Psycho and The Silence of the Lambs, both of which are superior movies. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is following in a long line of low budget horror movies released this year starting with Darkness Falls in January and with the most recent example, House of the Dead, opening just last week. The most successful of these movies this year was Freddy vs. Jason and Texas Chainsaw Massacre hopes to duplicate its success. And while it is opening in roughly the same number of theatres (3016 to 3014) and has roughly the same reviews (43% to 41%), it isn't opening at an as lucrative time of the year. So look for a $22 million opening.
In the early 90's John Grisham was one of the hottest Hollywood properties. Three of the first four movie based on his novels passed $100 million at the box office, with the fourth just missing that feat. But after that, the next three movies made just over $60 million combined. The Runaway Jury is the first John Grisham movie in over five years, and granted it won't break any personal bests for him in either reviews or box office. However, it should pull in $18 million during its opening weekend and have a total closer to the first four than the last three.
The School of Rock will continue its strong performance at the box office. It will drop to third in its third week adding another $11 million to its already impressive total.
With direct competition and the lack of opening weekend hype, Kill Bill: Volume 1 will drop a little more than 50% at the box office to just under $11 million.
Rounding out the top five is Mystic River, which expanded into over 1400 theaters on Wednesday. Reviews have been great for the film and its box office should jump up to $10 million. It will need another jump in its theatre count and continued success at the box office for it to become a serious Oscar contender.
The last movie opening in more than a few cities is Veronica Guerin. Opening in less than 500 theatres to moderately positive reviews it should earn around $3 million but may or may not make the top ten.
On final note, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl should cross $300 million this weekend. It will be only the second movie to do so this year, and the 16th all time.
Submitted by: C.
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2003-10-14
rected by Clint Eastwood had an amazing opening last weekend. Mystic River earned $640,815 in just 13 theatres for an average of nearly $50,000 per theatre average. That was head and shoulders above its nearest competitor and bodes well for when it opens nationwide next weekend.
The Station Agent dropped to second place with a $14,397 average in 3 theatres. While this is a good result, it is doubtful The Station Agent will have much success outside the Art house circuit.
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2003-10-09
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.
This will be an abridged version due previously mentioned scheduling conflict. But you can't really tell.
The Alamo
Current Content: The full trailer is up, along with the old teaser trailer.
Barbershop 2
Current Content: A placeholder site so far with just the teaser trailer.
Big Fish
Current Content: Typical Sony placeholder site with just the synopsis and trailer.
Broken Lizard's Club Dread
Current Content: Typical Fox Searchlight placeholder site with just the synopsis so far.
Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind
Current Content: The site is based on the company Lacuna from the movie. Right now its just a commercial for that company, but it says to check back tomorrow for further updates.
The Dreamers
Current Content: Typical Fox Searchlight placeholder site with just the synopsis so far.
Dopamine
Current Content: Simple site without sound or animation. There's some interesting content, including some on the role of Dopamine in the brain. But overall there's not enough to keep a surfer's attention for too long.
Elf
Current Content: Another game was added, Stocking Stuffer. But that background music is getting to me something awful. And to think, I've got to listen to every week to check for updates.
Girls Will Be Girls
Current Content: The format is the same as most IFC sites, but there is more content than most of their sites. Trailer, synopsis and cast and crew bios are all there, so are a few clips, image gallery and even sites for the three girls from the film.
Good Boy
Current Content: Another game was added to the site, this one a variation on concentration. Overall, this is a good site especially for its target audience.
House of the Dead
Current Content: The original site was removed due its graphic nature. The new site is toned down, but relatively unchanged.
Intolerable Cruelty
Current Content: Two TV spots and four clips were added just in time for the movie's release.
Kill Bill
Current Content: No changes from last week, and with Volume 1 opening tomorrow I doubt the remaining three character intros will be added till Volume 2 is nearing its release date.
Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Current Content: The second blog was added to the site, which adds a bit more background information.
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Current Content: Did they really need the whole name in the URL? I don't think so. A large portion of the site is called The Journey, which alternates between entries in the Captain's Log and information about life on a ship from the sails to meals. There are also regulars features, but so far much of this is marked coming soon. Synopsis, Cast and Crew Bios, Production Notes and Featurettes are all marked coming soon. That does leave the trailer, images, interviews with three consultants (in .pdf format) and something called The Broadband Experience. The last feature is for Internet Explorer users only, so I can't review it. There are also several international sites, but they are all marked coming soon. The only complaint is the URL, but to deny it an award based on that would be petty, so it wins this week's nugatory Weekly Website Award.
The Matrix Revolutions
Current Content: As expected, there were more updates this week. This time it was information on The Matrix Reloaded's DVD release and a couple more posters, one just for international sites.
Mystic River
Current Content: There were no new additions since the last update. It is still an understated yet compelling website.
Shark Tale
Current Content: New name, new URL, same intro.
The Singing Detective
Current Content: The flash site launched and while it takes a little advantage of the animation flash allows, there is no sound outside the trailer and a clip from E.T. The site does have synopsis and cast and crew bios, but I was looking forward to for some behind the scenes info.
Spider-Man 2
Current Content: Quite a big update this week. A new webisode was added with director Sam Raimi and costume designer James Acheson that is about the changes to Spider-man's costume. The character section was added with brief bios and connections between the characters. In addition, the Ultimate Quiz will quickly show how much time you spent reading Spider-man comics as a kid (for me it was obviously too much.) There were also some more behind the scenes images and another wallpaper added.
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2003-09-24
k promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here’s a list of highlights, plus one last look at websites for films opening this week. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
Duplex
Current Content: It's a Miramax site. Boring beige background. Short synopsis. Cast and crew, no bios. The film opens in two days and the trailer is still marked coming soon.
Elf
Current Content: I know I usually love it when a site has background music, but I don't think I can take this background music for much longer. Maybe I'm old fashioned, But I feel it's too early for Christmas. Besides the background music this site has synopsis, trailer, photos, lots to download and a coloring book. Two of the sections also have more content marked coming soon, but no details on what that could be.
Gothika
Current Content: The trailer was added to the placeholder site.
The Haunted Mansion
Current Content: The full trailer was added to the site.
Honey
Current Content: No new content this week, but there was a redesign of the site.
Intolerable Cruelty
Current content: One of many flash sites that launched this week, and this one takes the divorce theme of the movie to heart. For instance, instead of downloads its called Disposable Assets. Besides the usual suspects, this site has a lot of interactive features and downloads. It also have TV spots and clips marked coming soon.
Kart Racer
Current Content: Having multiple, complete songs on a site is becoming a more common feature on sites, and this site has two. Besides the songs the site has the usual content plus a trivia game you have to register to play.
Kill Bill
Current Content: The flash launched this week and while there's a lot of content, most of it is either from the old site or is marked coming soon. There are flash intros to each of the characters, including one on Hanzo the sword, which was first on the old site. The last three characters are coming soon so is most of the new content, (Cast and Crew, Locations and Press Notes.) The character intros are good, especially Go-Go's which has some information on the band 5.6.7.8's and one of their songs you can listen to. I'm looking forward to when the rest of the sections are added and seeing how it all fits together.
Love Actually
Current Content: Just the placeholder site for now with the synopsis, cast and crew (no bios) trailer and photo gallery.
Love Don't Cost a Thing
Current Content: Typical Warner Bros. placeholder site with just the synopsis and a few images.
Luther
Current Content: The rest of the content has filtered in. There's an impressive amount of content, a lot of which deal with the historical aspect of the movie.
My Life Without Me
Current Content: Nothing new has changed since the site was first reviewed.
Mystic River
Current Content: The section on Clint Eastwood is now up. It consists of more than half a dozen interviews from the cast, the author of the novel and Clint Eastwood himself.
National Lampoon's: Dorm Daze
Current Content: This movie is set to be released this week, or maybe dumped is a better term. The site itself is offers nothing to keep the surfers attention. There's the trailer and four TV spots, none of which are intriguing, a few images and some posters.
Pieces of April
Current Content: The flash intro makes good use of flash animation and clips from the movie, both visual and audio. And it is definitely the best part of the site. All the usual suspects are there, (trailer, synopsis, cast and crew bios, production notes) but I kept going back to the introduction.
Prey for Rock and Roll
Current Content: Nothing new was added since the site was last reviewed but its still a great site with cool music that's just needed some extra flash to put it over the top.
The Punisher
Current Content: Complete redesign of the site. The old teaser site was moved and in its place is a new more in-depth site. It's still mostly teaser but there's a lot more background information.
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
Current Content: None, just a redirect.
Run Away Jury
Current Content: The sections that were marked coming soon last week were added this week. The last two characters were Nick Easter (3 clips) and Marlee (1 clip and 6 photos) as well as the clips section (4 clips) was added. Needless to say, this site is heavy into the multimedia. But it's not at the expense of other content, there's a synopsis, production notes and even a section on Hackman's and Hoffman's longtime friendship and how Run Away Jury is their first movie together. The excellent content combined with the animated intros, sound effects and background music add up to this week's emotional Weekly Website Review.
The Run Down
Current Content: A previously award winning site, this site have nearly everything a site should have. Animated intros, background music, video and audio clips, there's even a game to play. And this week several more multimedia clips were added including a behind the scenes featurette and three more clips from the movie.
The Singing Detective
Current Content: The trailer was added to the site, and the Coming Soon was removed.
Sylvia
Current Content: The teaser flash site is up with just the synopsis, trailer and image gallery. The full site is marked coming soon.
Tupac: Ressurection
Current Content: Nothing, just a redirect to the Paramount movie page.
Under the Tuscan Sun
Current Content: Just in time for this week's release, the flash site was launched and it has a good mix of multimedia and text content. For example, there's the trailer and five clips from the movie. There is also extensive cast and crew bios as well as behind the scenes information. There are also animated intros to each section and good use of music.
Yossi and Jagger
Current Content: This site is silent and still. In fact, the absence of any unusual features prevents the surfer from staying too long.
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2003-08-28
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.
21 Grams
Current Content: None, just a redirect to the Universal Pictures movie site.
Anything Else
Current Content: The flash site was launched this week and it has a lot of multimedia. This includes the trailer and 10 minutes of interviews with the two main cast members. Also included were four clips and a short behind the scene video. It is interesting to note that much of the clips and behind the scene stuff is also in the trailer and interviews, so there's a lot of repetitiveness. It also has synopsis/production notes, cast and crew bios and an image gallery.
Cabin Fever
Current Content: The last two photos have videos now, but they make about as much sense as the first two. Watch the trailer on the regular site before coming to the flash site. Or check out the old site for a little more information.
Cheaper by the Dozen
Current Content: Just the placeholder site for now, with just the trailer and cast and characters (no bios.)
Civil Brand
Current Content: The old site is back with the trailer as its only content.
Elf
Current Content: The trailer is back on the site.
Honey
Current Content: As I have mentioned early, Honey is the first site I wrote about and in that time there have been no substantive changes, until now. Half a dozen more images were added to the gallery this week. That may not sound like much, but it more than doubled the content of the site. Late Update: The trailer was added today. See, having the column a day late was a good thing.
Jeepers Creepers 2
Current Content: The content of this site is told almost exclusively through multimedia. Each section starts with a short clip, and there are eight sections in all. These include the image gallery, e-cards and storyboards. Plus two trailers, four clips and character intro (in the form of short clips.) There is only one section presented in text and that's the 'About the Film' section. Although there are five parts and it is quite extensive. There is also sound effects and background music. Unfortunately the music, while moody, was too quite compared to the rest of the site.
Mambo Italiano
Current Content: This site has a lot of information, synopsis, cast, crew and character bios (character bios are almost always a plus), press kit, trailer and seven clips. What it doesn't have is any sound or animations. Because of that this site is an effective but simple site. A little more flash might have really helped.
The Matrix Revolutions
Current Content: Along with the content for the first two movies, the international trailer for the third movie was released. From now to its release expect plenty of updates to this site.
Mystic River
Current Content: The crew bios are now available, including Clint Eastwood. But the section on Clint Eastwood in the main menu is still marked coming soon. So I expect that to be much more detailed than the current bio.
Nola
Current Content: As long time readers of this column know I feel the most overlooked aspect of movie websites is sound, specifically background music. Many sites have no background music whatsoever, others have only short clips, (much of which is too short or poorly looped.) This site has not one, but two full songs. Right away that puts it ahead of the pack, and many weeks it would be enough to win the weekly website awards. But this site has even more. There is plenty of content with all the regular features present, (synopsis, trailer, image gallery, cast and crew bios) and some lesser used features like production notes, directors statements, wallpapers and e-cards, an interview with the director and 3 clips from the movie. Add in animated segues and you have this weeks winner of the inescapable Weekly Website Award. And it's the first winner with the new graphic.
Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Current Content: This is a week of double shots. First two movies with Emmy Rossum and now two movies that take their name from the classic Sergio Leone movie Once Upon a Time in America. The Flash site opened this week and it is a very well done site. The main part of the site has animated intros that rotate through the three main characters. There is also very good use of animation and sound effects for each section. For example, the options are shown as bullet holes complete with gunshots are they are created. The content is also well done with the synopsis, trailer, cast and crew bios (the three main stars also have a few images) and production notes. And most of this information is given in both English and Spanish. It's a very nice touch indeed.
Once Upon a Time in the Midlands
Current Content: The second movie to borrow its title from Sergio Leone, this time the homage extends to the trailer (especially the fonts) and the background music for the website. It's a nice touch. The site also features a bit of animation to introduce the sections, which include all the major features (synopsis, cast and crew bios, production notes, and image gallery.) It’s not very flashy, which is probably for the best.
Something's Gotta Give
Current Content: Just the typical Sony placeholder site for now. Just the synopsis and the trailer and that's all for now.
Underworld
Current Content: The new, full trailer was added.
Wonderland
Current Content: Got an error message about the flash animation for this site, something about a slow script. So I can't give a review of the site.
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2003-08-20
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 Alamo
Current Content: After the intro there is just the synopsis, trailer and cast and crew (no bios.) But as the release date nears that should change.
Battle of Shaker Heights
Current Content: It's a Miramax site. Same as all the other Miramax sites.
Beyond Borders
Current Content: Just a placeholder site with only the trailer for now.
Fighting Temptations
Current Content: The flash site launched this week and as expected music was a major focus of this site. There are half a dozen songs from the soundtrack on the site, much better than the usual 6-second-looped clip. There's even the music video for the title track, although that's just a link to the MTV site. As for the rest of the content it has all the usual features (synopsis, cast and crew bios, trailer, images, etc.) plus some more marked coming soon. (Music mixer, movie clips, media player skins.)
Highwaymen
Current Content: The release date is still months away, so the lack of content is not surprising. Synopsis, trailer, e-cards and images are there. But there is no sign of cast and crew bios, for example. There is some background music that helps the site. Hopefully more content will be added later.
House of the Dead
Current Content: A movie site should have a hook, something different that keeps a surfer's attention. For this site it's the diary. "I feel like a real actor now. I have been decorated with fake poo." You don't get that kind of insight with most sites. Besides this features, there's the synopsis, cast and crew bios, trailer (on fangoria.com) and lots of images.
Lost in Translation
Current Content: This is the second site this week with lots of music. This time, however, there are only clips of the songs. Still, this is a major step above most sites that seem to treat music as an afterthought. The transitions between sections is well done and I look forward to when the video clips are added in.
Marci X
Current Content: This movie opens this week and the only content on the site is the synopsis and the trailer. Not a good sign.
The Medallion
Current Content: Not much has changed since the last time I reviewed this site. The content is still good, the background music is still way too short, and the best part of the site is still the side scrolling game you can play.
Mystic River
Current Content: The introduction with the characters is superb. Enough is given to keep you intrigued, but not enough to spoil anything. The rest of the content is given in an understated fashion, which fits well with the tone of the movie. This mood is further enhanced by the background music. There is still some sections marked coming soon, notably crew bios and a section on Clint Eastwood.
The Order
Current Content: There's a big problem with this site. The video clips, which there are a lot, are too quite compared to the other sound effects. So you either can't hear the voices, or get blown over by the sound effects, or you have to change the volume in between every clip. This overshadows what should have been an otherwise good site.
Pieces of April
Current Content: Placeholder site with just the synopsis and the trailer.
Polar Express
Current Content: Not even a placeholder site, just a redirect to the Warner Bros. movie site.
Saved!
Current Content: Just the name. Very, very plain even for a placeholder site.
Shattered Glass
Current Content: Just a placeholder site for now.
Stoked
Current Content: This site is divided into two sites. The main site with synopsis, image gallery, timeline, etc. And the bonus site with trailer, crew bios, and play dates. The main site has animated segues and background music and another song.
Thirteen
Current Content: This is an excellent site that has much more than the usual features. Its main focus is thirteen clips from the movie and interviews with some of the cast. These give a greater insight into the movie. And the way they are presented adds to the experience. The only thing the site is missing is background music. Even so, it wins the enviable Weekly Website Award. Also worth noting, Thirteen opens in theatres today (Wednesday) so if you live in New York City, you can check it out.
Veronica Guerin
Current Content: It's been a while since the placeholder site was first launched, so it's nice to see the flash site up. However, most of the content is still marked coming soon, including cast and crew bios and film clips. There are animated introductions to the section, accompanied by an audio clip from the movie. There is also background music that is long enough and loops well enough to not become repetitive too quickly.
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