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Tuesday, November 24, 2009
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2006-03-04
There were no big winner at today's Independent Spirit Awards with several films sharing the awards.
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2006-02-07
The Writers Guild of America announced its winners over the weekend with Crash taken home the Best Original Screenplay while Brokeback Mountain added yet another win with Best Adapted Screenplay. Finally, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room won for best Documentary.
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2006-01-31
Brokeback Mountain again led the list of nominees as with 8 Oscar nods. There were three films with six nominations a piece, Crash, Good Night and Good Luck, and Memoirs of a Geisha, (although for that last one, they were all the less prestigious technical awards.
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2006-01-16
It is a deceptively slow week for DVD releases.
There are five wide releases coming out tomorrow, if you are willing to stretch the definition of wide a little bit, but of those five films only one earned a Tomatometer reading of above 50%, while the other four combined couldn't score that high.
So it comes as no surprise that the DVD Pick of the Week came from the TV on DVD category as Titus - The Complete Third Season was clearly the best of the bunch, although Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room - Buy from Amazon and Junebug - Buy from Amazon are also worth checking out.
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2006-01-06
The Writers Guild of America announced its nominations this week, and while there are plenty of awards, only three are for theatrical releases.
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2005-11-30
The Independent Spirit Awards announced the nominations today and The Squid and the Whale led the way with six nominations, including Best Feature, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and nods in three of the four acting categories.
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2005-11-06
With The Legend of Zorro earning a nearly worldwide release this past weekend, and the imminent release of another juggernaut, there was little room for other releases this weekend on the international scene.
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2005-10-30
Oliver Twist opened in two major markets over the weekend, placing second in both France with $2.4 million on 547 screens and Italy with $1.3 million on 301 screens.
Other markets include $360,000 in the U.K. for a $3.6 million total there and $140,000 in Poland for $1.1 million. Add it up and you have $4.2 million for the weekend and $9.6 million in total.
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2005-10-23
The Brothers Grimm dropped just 35% during its second weekend in France adding $2.1 million to its $5.7 million total there. In Germany, the film performed a nearly the same level falling 36% to $950,000 over the weekend and $2.9 million during its run. Overall the film made $4 million for a $27.8 million runny tally and that places it fourth on this week's charts. While the film struggled domestically, it is doing quite a bit better on the international scene, and could show a profit sometime during its home market run.
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2005-08-09
There was a very tight race atop the Per Theatre Charts this weekend with Broken Flowers finishing just ahead of 2046. The former film earned $780,000 in 27 theatres for a $28,904 per theatre average while the latter made $113,000 in four theatres for a average of $28,269. Last week's winner, The Aristocrats took a tumble losing 56% of its per theatre average falling to third place with $26,609. Rounding out the $10,000 club was Junebug, which just snagged a spot with a $10,677 per theatre average.
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2005-06-14
The overall box office champ also took top spot on the Per Theater Charts.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith earned a surprising $50 million at the box office for an average of $14,703.
The only other film to reach the $10,000 milestone was Howl's Moving Castle, which performed admirably with $11,889; but that's not as strong a start as Hayao Miyazaki's previous film, Spirited Away.
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2005-05-24
It's been a while since the overall box office champion topped the Per Theater Charts, but that's just what Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith did this weekend. The film fell just short of setting a record for highest per theater average for a saturation level release (3,000 or more theaters), as its per theatre average of $29,619 was just below the $31,768 earned by Spider-Man. The only other film to reach the $10,000 level was Mysterious Skin with $13,300; the film has now reached that milestone for the third weekend in a row, very impressive.
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2005-05-10
Mysterious Skin opened with $17,425 in its lone theater to lead the Per Theater Charts this weekend.
The only other film to make it into the $10,000 club was last week's winner, Holy Girl which added $21,069 in 2 theaters for a $10,535 average.
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2005-04-26
Only a single film made it into the $10,000 club this weekend as Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room opened with a huge $76,639 in just 3 theaters for an average of $25,546.
Last year was a big year for documentaries at the box office, but this year it's been slow so far; hopefully this film's run can help turn it around.
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2005-04-24
There are important lessons to be learned from the story of Enron, and Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room uncovers some remarkable material to tell the tale. The movie, however, fails to draw out the broader issues raised by America's biggest corporate failure.
The story of Enron, as told by Smartest Guys, is the story of three men: Ken Lay, Jeffrey Skilling and Andy Fastow, aided and abetted by pretty much every financial institution you can think of. Add in the considerable human tragedy of company, and you have a compelling narrative, well constructed by the film makers.
Enron's rise to become one of America's most respected and powerful companies makes for interesting watching, and the film draws on a wealth of material, including internal videos, taped telephone conversations, interviews with former employees and congressional testimonies.
One of the most enthralling sequences concerns the California energy crisis, when Enron traders (among others) manipulated the power market to drive prices sky high. The rolling "brown outs" and billions of dollars in costs to the State and end customers caused widespread and enduring misery in California. Recorded conversations between traders gleefully discussing the money they were making as a result are enough to make anyone's blood boil (particularly, I admit, among those of us still footing the bill).
But this sequence, powerful as it is, also reveals the movie's biggest flaw. In its desire to keep the blame firmly pinned on Lay, Skilling and Fastow, the movie portrays (quite cleverly, actually) the traders as merely acting under orders. The truth runs deeper than that, and could have been more fully explored.
Another weakness is the movie's failure to explain exactly how Fastow's financial manipulations worked. Dry as such matters may be, they do lie at the heart of the issues raised by Enron's failure. One assumes that the film makers deliberately kept the descriptions at a high level to keep the movie's appeal with the broadest possible audience. And, to be fair, that is a laudable goal.
For, Enron: Smartest Guys in the Room is a film that deserves to be widely seen. Its source materials speak for themselves, so even if the maovie misses opportunities to expose some of the lessons learned, it's worth watching by anyone who wants to have money in their pension plan when they retire.
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2005-04-22
This week we have not one but two films opening in, 'Select Cities.' Long time readers know how much I dislike this release strategy as it usually results in a very poor box office performance. Fortunately there is also an anticipated documentary to pick up the slack.
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2005-04-21
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner, Kicking and Screaming - Official Site.
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2005-04-14
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner, The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants - Official Site.
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2005-03-31
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner, The Longest Yard - Official Site.
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