It came down to the wire, but “Takers” nosed “The Last Exorcism” this weekend by a couple hundred thousand dollars. Both films were able to take advantage of the slow “can it please just be fall already” weekend, with “Takers” surprising the most, at least in my estimation. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s always exciting to keep tabs on an Oscar-winning director’s follow-up film. For “Slumdog Millionaire” helmer Danny Boyle, that film is “127 Hours,” based on the true story of Aron Ralston, who got his arm stuck under a boulder while out hiking the Moab in Utah and … well the title says the rest. Read the rest of this entry »
Two-titles with two syllables are not this week’s theme. This Trailer Wednesday focuses on two films of the thriller genre, Darren Aronofsky’s (“Requiem for a Dream,” “The Wrestler”) latest film about rival ballet dancers and a film based on the true story of outed CIA agent Valerie Plame from Doug Liman, director of “The Bourne Identity.” Read the rest of this entry »
Technically speaking, the five new films that came out this weekend were the expendable ones. “The Expendables” stayed on top for a second straight week with about $16 million while those films finished second, fourth, sixth, seventh and eighth. Read the rest of this entry »
If Hollywood had a more stringent steroid policy like Major League Baseball, then you’d have to put a fat asterisk by the near-$35 million take of “The Expendables.” The action film easily finished ahead of the rest of the pack. Chick flick “Eat Pray Love” starring Julia Roberts did rather well for second and final newcomer “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” disappointed a bit at $10 million. Read the rest of this entry »
Two distinctly opposite methods of transportation are the focal point of the two trailers on hand this week. The first is a train and the second is some kind of alien spaceship. They are two November films: Tony Scott’s “Unstoppable” and the sci-fi flick “Sklyine” from the Strause brothers. Read the rest of this entry »
“The Other Guys” got it done, but the other guys not so much. The latest Will Ferrell/Adam McKay combination was good for more than their last film, “Step Brothers” by about $5 million with a total of $35.5 million, easily enough to take a declining box office. Read the rest of this entry »
At Comic Con a couple weeks back, a 40-second teaser for “The Avengers” was shown at the Marvel panel. What does this mean? Marvel has developed a logo. That’s about it. You can still watch it, however, as the clip has made its way online for all of us to watch despite it being completely inconsequential. If you needed Samuel L. Jackson’s voice to remind you this is a film about many heroes coming together to stop a mighty evil force, then you got it. Enjoy. Read the rest of this entry »
How is this for contrasting trailers? The teaser for the Guillermo Del Toro-produced horror film “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” and this winter’s kid-friendly film based on the classic cartoon, “Yogi Bear.”
“Dark” debuted its footage at Comic Con. Del Toro described the film as being “as serious as an attack of [expletive] gonorrhea.” See if you can tell why by watching the teaser. That comment makes me wonder just what Del Toro would say about this simply awful looking “Yogi Bear” trailer. Read the rest of this entry »
For yet another week, no new films have along and made enough of a splash to beat out “Inception.” Steve Carell and Paul Rudd comedy “Dinner for Schmucks” earned just north of the $20 million comedy standard, but the sequel to “Cats & Dogs” tanked despite a wide release, finishing outside the top five. Read the rest of this entry »
Today’s Trailer Wednesday is brought to you by the letter “V.” “V” as in “Violence.” I suppose we should expect nothing less from the first week of trailers post-Comic Con. Although these are mostly teasers, I figured it would be far more interesting than bringing you the latest “TRON: Legacy” trailer or the second “RED” trailer though both films should be great.
We’ll go in order of building suspense. That means starting with the brief teaser for Nicolas Cage in “Drive Angry 3D,” going on to next May’s vampire action film “Priest” starring Paul Bettany and on to the trailer that blew the most minds at Comic Con, Zack Snyder’s “Sucker Punch.” Read the rest of this entry »
Not that there’s a rivalry, but Leo beat Angie this weekend at the box office. This proves the age-old argument that boys are better than girls, among other things.
Okay, so maybe not. Jolie continued to show that she’s as bankable as they come and that 35 is still a prime age for an action star, regardless of gender. However, it wasn’t enough to give her action thriller “Salt” the title of number one film in America. “Inception” fell by less than a third of its opening weekend totals, earning a terrific $42.7 million in its second week, which puts it at just below $150 million for its 10-day total. “Salt” took in a very respectable $36 million. Read the rest of this entry »
Well, it didn’t take long for our first bit of news to come out of Comic Con. On the floor during Preview Night last night, MTV got a chance to speak with “World War Z” creator Max Brooks who said that the film version of his apocalyptic zombie war novel is not only moving forward with Plan B Entertainment, but Plan B’s very own, Mr. Brad Pitt, is currently attached to star. Paramount, who will distribute the film, is eying a summer 2012 release date.
Click here and be sure to follow me on Twitter. I’ll have all the most interesting movie bits from Comic Con retweeted from the sites I trust who are in attendance. I won’t always be at my computer, because frankly I have other things to do, but if you just want the best Comic Con news and not to be inundated with updates, I’m your guy. You can follow my specific coverage at PlayerAffinity.com. Either myself or my team will have new stories and panel recaps so you can stay abreast without flipping through the boring information.
Happy Comic Con!
-The Movie Muse
Two highly intriguing fall films made this week’s Trailer Wednesday. If you can’t tell, I’m really high on David Fincher’s “The Social Network,” aka The Facebook Movie. Last week brought us the first full-length trailer for the film. Alongside it we have “The Town” Ben Affleck’s sophomore feature after “Gone Baby Gone” a few years back. Read the rest of this entry »
