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Monday, November 23, 2009
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2005-07-10
With the last of this summer's worldwide releases opening last weekend, the international details are once again dominated by smaller films. And to compound matters, most of those are only making noise in one of two markets. However, over the next few weeks there are plenty of big films opening in big markets and the International Details column should start showing signs of life soon.
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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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2004-02-23
Every week films get a second chance at success from the home market; or, in some cases, a first chance at success. Here is a list of wide releases, limited releases and a few from the growing TV on DVD section. There was a very eclectic mix the week, but the comedy / heist movie Foolproof - (Buy from Amazon) is my pick of the week. But if you have kids you probably won't go wrong picking up Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over - (Buy from Amazon).
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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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2004-01-25
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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2004-01-18
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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2003-12-10
In top spot, and the only film to earn more than $10,000 per theatre, was In America. The film dropped just 30%, despite the post-Thanksgiving slump. Some positive word-of-mouth and an increased theatre count could spell mainstream success.
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2003-11-04
ble to break the $10,000 per theatre average this week, although two came close.
The Stephen Glass biopic, Shattered Glass won the week with an average of $9,693 in 8 theatres. While the second weekend performance of Elephant actually jumped up a spot to second with $56,666 in 6 theatres for an average of $9,444.
Some long-term residents of the per theatre average charts made appearances as well. City of God, which has been in the release for almost a year, made another appearance in the top ten earning $4,782 in its one theatre. Pieces of April continues to do well in its third week earning $232,570 in 57 for an average of $4,080. And The Station Agent earned averaged $3,715 in 86 theatres to cross the $1 million mark after five weeks.
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2003-10-21
roaches, more and more contenders from major studios will be released in an attempt to sway Oscar voters. Because of this, smaller companies can get squeezed out of the marketplace. This week was a perfect example of that as the Sylvia Plath biopic was the only film to earn more than $10,000 on a per theatre basis. It earned $58,940 in just three theatres for an average of $19,647, more than double its nearest competitor.
There was a clump of movies between $8,000 and $10,000 this week including this week's box office champ, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the Thanksgiving Day movie Pieces of April.
Interestingly, Bubba Ho-Tep saw an increase in its per theatre average in its fifth week of the chart. The latest Bruce Campbell film earned nearly $110,000 in just 22 theatres for an average of $4,994.
Submitted by: C.
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2003-10-16
k promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here’s a list of highlights, plus one last look at websites for films opening this week. This was bit of a weird week, the best sites either had little or no changes to an already impressive site, or there was a major update but with most content being marked coming soon. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
Alien: The Director's Cut
Current Content: The flash site was launched during the past week and while there is a lot of information, most of the multimedia is still marked coming soon. Synopsis, Trailer, Cast and Crew Bios, Production Notes and Legacy are there. So is an interesting twist on reviews, they have reviews for the original from 1979 and will have reviews for the Director's Cut when they are available. As I said, most of the multimedia is marked coming soon and this includes 6 clips, TV spots and an interview with Ridley Scott. The site also has good background music and animated intros. The only complaint I have is the animated intros are a little too long, they could be trimmed to improve the pacing of the site.
Beyond Borders
Current Content: The production notes and the cast and crew bios were added.
Big Fish
Current Content: The flash site launched this week but there is very little content. In fact, there is more content on the placeholder site then there is on the flash site. That could change as the release date nears, but there are no features marked 'coming soon' to let us know.
Elf
Current Content: Another game was added, Snowball fight, as was a section on Elf-themed self-help books.
Garfield
Current Content: The redirect was replaced with a placeholder site. Right now there's just the synopsis and cast list, but it says the trailer will be online in November. There's also more animation and sound than most placeholders have, and that's a good sign.
Gothika
Current Content: The flash site went live and it is good. Not so much for its content, (most of which is marked coming soon) but for the mood it creates. The background music helps, so do the little interactive features. And most pages there's something you can click on to see flashed from the movie and some text will appear. I even got the all the menu items to turn to, 'Not Alone' but I have no idea how and I can't seem to do it again. So far the site has the synopsis, trailer, more than two dozen images (all of which can be sent as e-cards) and quite a few downloads. Production notes, cast and crew bios and 2 movie clips are marked coming soon. This is the best mood for site since Identity, and just like that site Gothika wins the fervent Weekly Website Award.
Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Current Content: There was a complete redesign of the site last week, the third design used, and the flash site is marked coming soon. There's less information about the movie than the last site, but more extras like wallpapers, screensavers, image gallery and even two full-length cartoons.
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Current Content: Three more interviews were added to the site featuring Viggo Mortenson, Karl Urban and Peter Jackson. Most of the interviews are text, but they are supplemented with video clips. Also, information on the upcoming release of the soundtrack was added.
Love Don't Cost a Thing
Current Content: The trailer was added to the placeholder site.
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Current Content: The Non-North American English International Sites is up, but it appears to be the same as the North American site.
The Matrix Revolutions
Current Content: This week's updates include more photos and the cover for the upcoming comic book.
Pieces of April
Current Content: Another movie opening this week with a website that hasn't changed since I last reviewed it. It's worth checking out for the extensive intro alone.
Radio
Current Content: Another flash site that launched this week. There's not much content, Synopsis, Trailer, Cast and Crew Bios, and four part production notes. There are two more previews marked coming soon.
Returner
Current Content: No changes since I first reviewed the site. Given the movie in question, the site could have used more flash.
Run Away Jury
Current Content: This site has previously won the Weekly Website Award. Unfortunately, I can't seem to get to the site right now; it's gone 404 on me.
Scary Movie 3
Current Content: So far there's just the trailer, four posters and a TV you can find. Since the movie is released next week, expect a large update soon.
Sylvia
Current Content: Opening this week, there was a bit of content added. There are six main sections, and each one except the last start with a little bit of animation and some background music. The music doesn't loop, so you only hear it when you change sections. The site has the usual information, Synopsis, Trailer and three other clips, Cast and Crew Bios, Image gallery, some downloads. It also has biographical information on the two main characters portrayed in the movie.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Current Content: Not much has changed, just new background music. The clip itself is long enough but the gap between loops is too long.
Timeline
Current Content: This site underwent a complete redesign this week and a lot of content was added, but even more is marked coming soon. It has the synopsis, cast and crew bios, both the teaser and the full trailer, image gallery (including some behind the scenes), downloads and even your chance to ask the director Richard Donner a question. Most of what is marked coming soon is multimedia, movie clips, behind the scene clips, interviews, concept art, etc. Production notes and news are also marked coming soon, as are three mysterious wormholes on the main page. I'm not sure what they do, but they might have something to do with the 1357 features marked coming soon.
Veronica Guerin
Current Content: The film opens tomorrow, but the cast and crew bios and film clips are still marked coming soon.
Submitted by: C.
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2003-09-24
k promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here’s a list of highlights, plus one last look at websites for films opening this week. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
Duplex
Current Content: It's a Miramax site. Boring beige background. Short synopsis. Cast and crew, no bios. The film opens in two days and the trailer is still marked coming soon.
Elf
Current Content: I know I usually love it when a site has background music, but I don't think I can take this background music for much longer. Maybe I'm old fashioned, But I feel it's too early for Christmas. Besides the background music this site has synopsis, trailer, photos, lots to download and a coloring book. Two of the sections also have more content marked coming soon, but no details on what that could be.
Gothika
Current Content: The trailer was added to the placeholder site.
The Haunted Mansion
Current Content: The full trailer was added to the site.
Honey
Current Content: No new content this week, but there was a redesign of the site.
Intolerable Cruelty
Current content: One of many flash sites that launched this week, and this one takes the divorce theme of the movie to heart. For instance, instead of downloads its called Disposable Assets. Besides the usual suspects, this site has a lot of interactive features and downloads. It also have TV spots and clips marked coming soon.
Kart Racer
Current Content: Having multiple, complete songs on a site is becoming a more common feature on sites, and this site has two. Besides the songs the site has the usual content plus a trivia game you have to register to play.
Kill Bill
Current Content: The flash launched this week and while there's a lot of content, most of it is either from the old site or is marked coming soon. There are flash intros to each of the characters, including one on Hanzo the sword, which was first on the old site. The last three characters are coming soon so is most of the new content, (Cast and Crew, Locations and Press Notes.) The character intros are good, especially Go-Go's which has some information on the band 5.6.7.8's and one of their songs you can listen to. I'm looking forward to when the rest of the sections are added and seeing how it all fits together.
Love Actually
Current Content: Just the placeholder site for now with the synopsis, cast and crew (no bios) trailer and photo gallery.
Love Don't Cost a Thing
Current Content: Typical Warner Bros. placeholder site with just the synopsis and a few images.
Luther
Current Content: The rest of the content has filtered in. There's an impressive amount of content, a lot of which deal with the historical aspect of the movie.
My Life Without Me
Current Content: Nothing new has changed since the site was first reviewed.
Mystic River
Current Content: The section on Clint Eastwood is now up. It consists of more than half a dozen interviews from the cast, the author of the novel and Clint Eastwood himself.
National Lampoon's: Dorm Daze
Current Content: This movie is set to be released this week, or maybe dumped is a better term. The site itself is offers nothing to keep the surfers attention. There's the trailer and four TV spots, none of which are intriguing, a few images and some posters.
Pieces of April
Current Content: The flash intro makes good use of flash animation and clips from the movie, both visual and audio. And it is definitely the best part of the site. All the usual suspects are there, (trailer, synopsis, cast and crew bios, production notes) but I kept going back to the introduction.
Prey for Rock and Roll
Current Content: Nothing new was added since the site was last reviewed but its still a great site with cool music that's just needed some extra flash to put it over the top.
The Punisher
Current Content: Complete redesign of the site. The old teaser site was moved and in its place is a new more in-depth site. It's still mostly teaser but there's a lot more background information.
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
Current Content: None, just a redirect.
Run Away Jury
Current Content: The sections that were marked coming soon last week were added this week. The last two characters were Nick Easter (3 clips) and Marlee (1 clip and 6 photos) as well as the clips section (4 clips) was added. Needless to say, this site is heavy into the multimedia. But it's not at the expense of other content, there's a synopsis, production notes and even a section on Hackman's and Hoffman's longtime friendship and how Run Away Jury is their first movie together. The excellent content combined with the animated intros, sound effects and background music add up to this week's emotional Weekly Website Review.
The Run Down
Current Content: A previously award winning site, this site have nearly everything a site should have. Animated intros, background music, video and audio clips, there's even a game to play. And this week several more multimedia clips were added including a behind the scenes featurette and three more clips from the movie.
The Singing Detective
Current Content: The trailer was added to the site, and the Coming Soon was removed.
Sylvia
Current Content: The teaser flash site is up with just the synopsis, trailer and image gallery. The full site is marked coming soon.
Tupac: Ressurection
Current Content: Nothing, just a redirect to the Paramount movie page.
Under the Tuscan Sun
Current Content: Just in time for this week's release, the flash site was launched and it has a good mix of multimedia and text content. For example, there's the trailer and five clips from the movie. There is also extensive cast and crew bios as well as behind the scenes information. There are also animated intros to each section and good use of music.
Yossi and Jagger
Current Content: This site is silent and still. In fact, the absence of any unusual features prevents the surfer from staying too long.
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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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