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2009 | 2008

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'2012' May Hit $60M While 'Precious' Screams Out the Gates at Friday Box-Office

5 hours ago | Rope of Silicon | See recent Rope Of Silicon news »

Steve Mason is the first with the estimates tonight and he brings word of an estimated $25 million opening day for Roland Emmerich's 2012, which he believes may translate into upwards of $60 million for the weekend. He even cites anonymous sources predicting the film could reach $150 million domestically (no surprise) and when all things are said and done, $500 million worldwide. Yikes!

In what I think is rather interesting, A Christmas Carol is showing signs of only dropping 32% from last weekend with an estimated $5.5 million on Friday. But even if it hits Mason's estimated $20.4 million for the weekend it will have done in ten days what Emmerich's film looks to do in three.

Precious is the big and exciting news, as my favorite drama of the year thus far follows up its impressive $1.8 million opening weekend with an estimated $1.75 million on Friday. Mason predicts it will finish with $5.3 million for the weekend and a fifth place finish. »

- Brad Brevet

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'2012' Disaster Pic Dominates For $25M Friday & $60M Weekend; Also Big Abroad; 'Precious' Races To $2M In Just 175 Runs

7 hours ago | Deadline Hollywood | See recent Deadline Hollywood news »

Friday Pm/Saturday Am: Sources are telling me that Sony Pictures' 2012 opened as a runaway No. 1 with $25 million Friday, including $1M in Thursday midnights, for what's looking like a $60+M weekend. That's big for a PG-13 popcorn pic that's neither a previously established brand or franchise. Yet another in a long line of signature Roland Emmerich films featuring world destruction, this catastrophe film was anything but and became Sony Pictures' 8th #1 film this year in North America by exceeding expectations due to a marketing campaign that went into overdrive 6 weeks ago. (see below). Disney's A Christmas Carol showed an excellent hold for [...] »

- Nikki Finke

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Weekend planner

13 hours ago | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »

Things to do with your family this week

At home

We've become compulsive badge makers. It only takes a minute to create one, but one is never enough and our packet of safety pins was consumed quickly in a burst of creativity. We crafted a "Harry is six today" badge for a friend, moving on to emblems for our favourite causes before graduating to a clutch of fashion accessories. First get an image: draw one, cut out a photo from a magazine or print something from the internet. The more colourful the better. Then glue it to some card, tape a safety pin on the back and the job is done. For a deluxe version, laminate the front with clear tape or clingfilm.

We have created insignia that make us self-styled members of International Rescue (Thunderbirds are go!), name badges for fireman/doctor/nurse role-play, and emblems for our own dolphin lovers' club. »

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'Holidays in the City' Campaign Kicks Off Today With Website Launch

14 hours ago | BroadwayWorld.com | See recent BroadwayWorld.com news »

A special website, www.downtownholidays.com, goes live today to promote Seattle's center city as the region's premier holiday destination. Part of an innovative seasonal marketing campaign, "Holiday's in the City," the site acts as a virtual Seattle holiday headquarters, keeping visitors up-to-date on arts and cultural events, family activities, travel and hospitality opportunities and special deals. The site will remain active through the "Holidays in the City" campaign.

Downtownholidays.com offers listings and hyperlinks to the city's most popular holiday events, such as Radio City Christmas Spectacular at the Paramount Theatre, Act Theatre's A Christmas Carol and Pacific Northwest Ballet's beloved Nutcracker. Visitors may access information on the Macy's Holiday Parade, King 5 Wonderland featuring the Holiday Carousel benefiting Treehouse, the new Toyland Village at Waterfront Park, the Gingerbread Village and the Teddy Bear Suite as well as the Great Figgy Pudding Street Corner Caroling, Children's Arts & Crafts at the »

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Box Office Preview – Nov. 13 – 2012 looks to destroy the competition

15 hours ago | The Scorecard Review | See recent Scorecard Review news »

The only big film of of the week is 2012. It’s a mess of a movie about a mess. And it’s long.

Funny, I just watched a commercial for Pirate Radio, and it named Phliip Seymour Hoffman, January Jones and Kenneth Branagh as the three actors in the film. Jones has a cameo. It’s nice. But it’s a cameo. I thought you needed to know. It’s also in limited release so I don’t think it has enough juice to crack the Top 5.

Each week we’ll take a look at the box office and see if we can’t nail the Top 5 films (in correct order).

It’s harder than you think. If you don’t believe, let’s see what your answers are.

1. ‘2012′ – $55 million

Jeff Bayer’s Tsr – 3/10

2. ‘A Christmas Carol’

Jeff Bayer’s Tsr – 6/10

3. ‘The Fourth Kind’

Morrow McLaughlin’s Tsr – 7/10

4. ‘The Men Who Stare at Goats »

- Jeff Bayer

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Weekend Box Office Poll: What will you see? '2012'? 'Christmas Carol'? 'Precious'?

15 hours ago | EW.com - PopWatch | See recent EW.com - PopWatch news »

It's Friday funday, PopWatchers, so it's time to prep for your weekend. (T-minus seven hours until it officially begins!) EW's Nicole Sperling rounded up the weekend's movie offerings on our Hollywood Insider blog, and predicted that — is this a shocker? — Roland Emmerich's end-of-days schlockfest will likely draw the most theater-goers this weekend and gather a stunning $65 million at the box office. None of the other offerings of the weekend will likely be able to touch 2012's sure-to-be-huge box office haul, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you, our beloved PopWatch readers, are going to see the should-be-in-summer movie. A Christmas Carol, »

- Tanner Stransky

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2012 and Pirate Radio Opening This Weekend

22 hours ago | Hollyscoop.com | See recent HollyScoop news »

New In Theaters: 2012: A group of survivors struggle to stay alive when a global cataclysm - predicted by the Mayan calendar - brings an end to the world. Pirate Radio: In the 1960s, a group of rogue DJs rocked the high seas and shook up stuffy British society, all for the love of music. Also In Theaters: Disney's A Christmas Carol: Jim Carrey is the voice of Ebenezer Scrooge in a new animated adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic holiday tale. Michael Jackson's This Is It: A rare glimpse into the final days of Michael Jackson, compiled from an estimated... »

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The Reject Report Preps for the End of the World in 2012

13 November 2009 12:24 AM, PST | FilmSchoolRejects.com | See recent FilmSchoolRejects news »

Well, the end of the world is coming to a theater near you this weekend, and that will be the main focus here at the Reject Report. Yes, the long-awaited disaster epic 2012 is finally upon us and it is sure to be one big hit. That's pretty much the main order of business beyond a few limited releases this weekend. There is, though, one other wide release besides 2012 this weekend. It is Pirate Radio, and it stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy and Rhys Ifans in a story about a jolly band of rebel deejays. It's set in the era of those outlaw pirate radio stations that used to broadcast to the British Isles from boats in the North Sea in the Sixties. Fun stuff. Richard Curtis writes and directs. Personally, I'm probably more interested in seeing Pirate Radio this weekend, mainly because I'm a sucker for anything British from the Sixties, whether »

- John Cairns

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‘Up’ Will Beat 19 Other Films for Animation Oscar

12 November 2009 10:45 PM, PST | newsinfilm.com | See recent newsinfilm news »

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released a list of the twenty films vying for the “Best Animated Feature” Oscar in March 2010.  The category allows for five nominees, but has only included three potential winners one time since 2001 when the category was added.

This year the Academy is allowing ten nominees for “Best Picture,” which means Pixar’s Up has a solid chance of becoming the second animated film to compete for the highest honor.  (The first was 1991’s Beauty and the Beast.)   However, this year is proving itself a great year for film and a competitive race for the Oscar, so the animation studio may have to settle for this consolation prize.

A surprise announcement is extremely unlikely given the quality of Up’s storytelling, but there have been upsets in the category before.  Pixar’s Cars lost to Happy Feet in 2006 and Monsters Inc. fell to Shrek in 2001.  Then again, »

- Jeff Leins

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Zemeckis Directing Motion Capture Nutcracker?

12 November 2009 8:21 PM, PST | newsinfilm.com | See recent newsinfilm news »

Not content with taking three beloved books and turning them into expensive, glass-eyed renderings, Robert Zemeckis is planning yet another Christmas-themed motion capture movie.

The director of The Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol is considering a 3-D animated adaptation of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s original novel, “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.”  According to Pajiba’s source, it will not be a re-creation of the Tchaikovsky ballet, so at least the creepy cartoons won’t be in tights.

Instead it will be a period piece set in 19th century Russia about the origins of the Nutcracker and the battle between the dolls and the mice.

I know I have been hammering Zemeckis the last few weeks for his obsession with performance capture technology, but I can’t be the only one tiring of this gimmick.  Does the Nutcracker really need the performance of a high-profile actor when his jaw just goes up and down? »

- Jeff Leins

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20 Films Race for Oscar Best Animated Feature! Which One's Your Pick?

12 November 2009 6:52 PM, PST | Manny the Movie Guy | See recent Manny the Movie Guy news »

I, of course, pick Disney/Pixar's "Up." I saw the film again in Blu-ray and I cried and laughed again, and again, and again.

So according to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences rules, there must be at least 16 eligible films in a year to expand to five nominations. Did you know that if there are fewer than eight eligible films, the category disappears?

No need to worry about the Best Animated Feature category to vanish this year. 20 films were submitted for consideration! And they are:

* .Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.

* .Astro Boy.

* .Battle for Terra.

* .Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

* .Coraline.

* .Disney.s A Christmas Carol.

* .The Dolphin . Story of a Dreamer.

* .Fantastic Mr. Fox.

* .Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

* .Mary and Max.

* .The Missing Lynx.

* .Monsters vs. Aliens.

* .9.

* .Planet 51.

* .Ponyo.

* .The Princess and the Frog.

* .The Secret of Kells.

* .Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure »

- Manny

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Box-Office Oracle: Nov. 13 - Nov. 15, 2009

12 November 2009 3:21 PM, PST | Rope of Silicon | See recent Rope Of Silicon news »

#1 movie predicted correctly: 2 Weeks in a Row 1. 2012 10,000 B.C. made over $10,000 per theater back in 2008. 2012 will do much better than that, I'm bringing it in at $15,000 per this weekend. There's no real competition, this is a better film, and people are still starved for a hit. Fun fact about 10,000 B.C.: It made $95m domestically, but a whomping $175m internationally. This one will be much more balanced. Estimate: $51.1 million 2. A Christmas Carol It won't face any genre troubles until next weekend. Still, knocking it only 45 percent this weekend feels too kind. Estimate: $16.5 million 3. The Men Who Stare at Goats Did you guys watch this one? I don't really know what to do with it, there's not a ton of precedent on a title like this. Estimate: $7.2 million 4. Michael Jackson's This is It Losing a few theaters this weekend, down to near 3,000. Eight films within $3m dollars of each other, »

- Laremy Legel

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Breakdown: The Animated Oscar Race Begins with 20 Films

12 November 2009 2:14 PM, PST | FilmSchoolRejects.com | See recent FilmSchoolRejects news »

Yesterday, Variety published the list of films that have made the cut of 20 for the race to get the Best Animated Feature Oscar. These 20 films will eventually be cut down to a list of 5 nominees, rather than the usual 3, and ultimately cut down to the one film that will be named Best Animated Film by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. A few of these animated films are yet to be released, and have not yet been screened by the Academy, so it's possible that some may be disqualified because of too much live-action mixed in, quality, etc. The final five nominees will not be announced until February 2, with the Oscars being presented on March 7. For your viewing pleasure (and our own need to inject our opinion into this process), we would like to present the following list with comments: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel Instantly eliminated due to too much live-action and likelihood of »

- Neil Miller

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Box-office preview: How much destruction with '2012' cause at the box office?

12 November 2009 2:11 PM, PST | EW - Hollywood Insider.com | See recent EW.com - Hollywood Insider news »

The master of disaster Roland Emmerich is back and this time nothing's sacred. Will his over-the-top spectacle -- blowing up Vegas, India and Rome among other locales -- be the cure-all for moviegoers this weekend? Sony Pictures seems to think so. The PG-13-rated actioner starring John Cusack and Amanda Peet will bow in some 3,000 locations. The only thing that could hold back the weekend results on this film is the long runtime of 2 hours and 38 minutes. (This may be the perfect movie to test out RunPee.com so you know when to duck out to the bathroom.) Also opening »

- Nicole Sperling

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Boos! and Whoop-doos!: Finding Shoptimism in a Socioeconomic Crisis!

12 November 2009 12:26 PM, PST | MovieWeb | See recent MovieWeb news »

Lee Eisenberg's Shoptimism? Whoop-doo!

I'm broke. This is no new revelation. I've been heading down this road for a while. I work. I make a decent enough living. But there's no middle ground, and the weight is suddenly bearing upon my pocket book. All of my cash is going directly into bills, food, and gas. There is nothing left over. This wasn't always the case. How did I let this happen? Credit Card bills? A little. Everything I have put on credit has been a necessity that I couldn't afford in the moment. It's the socioeconomic cries of our times that have gotten me down. We're supposed to be coming out of a recession. And personally, I thought I wasn't being affected. I could at least still buy a DVD or two come payday.

Not anymore. I took on the challenge of becoming a single paycheck household in the »

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The Week in Film: Oscar Bait

12 November 2009 9:02 AM, PST | AfterElton.com | See recent AfterElton.com news »

Why, hello, folks! Another week means another week closer to December, which means it’s another week closer to Oscar bait movies. Aren’t you curious? I know you are, so let’s begin!

First up, we have 2012. It’s one of those natural disaster movies, but this time, on a global scale. The whole thing is based on the end of the world that in turn is based on the Mayan calendar. Expect super visual effects in the likes of things blowing up, giant tsunamis, raining meteors, skyscrapers collapsing, and Godzilla. Oh wait, scratch that last one.

Okay, sure this isn’t Oscar bait. But still, if you’re feeling like July in November, go for it! Oh, yeah, 2012 stars John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Oliver Platt, and Amanda Peet.

The second of the two wide releases this week is Pirate Radio. In the 1960s, a bunch of DJs went on a boat, »

- Raiden251

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Robert Zemeckis Planning on Directing an Adaptation of The Nutcracker

12 November 2009 7:09 AM, PST | Reelzchannel.com | See recent ReelzChannel news »

According to Pajiba, Robert Zemeckis plans to follow up his take on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol with an adaptation of another classic Christmas story: E.T.A. Hoffman's 1816 novel The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.

Apparently, Zemeckis has plans to stick to the novel, rather than draw from the Tchiakovsky ballet performed to millions every year around Holiday time. The movie will be a period piece that tells the story of the Nutcracker's origins, including his relationship with the young girl Marie and his his battle with the seven-headed Mouse King.

Zemeckis has gone a little overboard with 3-D animation as of late, and The Nutcracker will be no exception. After hit-or-miss efforts with The Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol (which opened last week), we can only take a guess as to the quality of this next effort.

Still, we have to admit that the idea of a darker, »

- Rich Z Zwelling

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Robert Zemeckis Eyeing The Nutcracker 3-D?

12 November 2009 6:30 AM, PST | FilmJunk | See recent FilmJunk news »

Robert Zemeckis is a director who was once mentioned alongside visionaries like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, having directed such blockbusters as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump and the Back To The Future trilogy. He certainly earned that reputation, but lately his career has taken a strange detour into the realm of motion capture technology, where his focus seems to be exclusively on taking existing stories and putting them on the big screen in a new way. Certainly Spielberg and Lucas have been big on pushing technology forward as well, but is Zemeckis letting his desire to pioneer get in the way of making good movies? His latest film A Christmas Carol hit theatres just last weekend and the reviews haven't been so hot, but that hasn't stopped him from lining up another Christmas movie to immediately follow it. According to Pajiba [1], Zemeckis wants to use motion capture to »

- Sean

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20 animated films to compete at the Oscars.

12 November 2009 1:51 AM, PST | Movie Jungle | See recent Movie Jungle news »

The race for the best picture isn't the only category generating some heat. There are twenty films vying for an Oscar at this year's awards. You be the judge, there are a hefty amount I'd remove and, surprisingly enough "Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure" I found to be wonderfully done. Strongest contenders I would pick would be "Up" (Disney and Pixar dominate this category for the most part), "9" (Shane Acker's efforts backed by Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov) are surely to contend, Disney's "A Christmas Carol" (could sneak off with the win despite less than impressive box office numbers), "Coraline" (Henry Selick's film is not an easy one), "Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson's work on this one puts it in big contention). »

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'Fantastic Mr. Fox,' fantastic year for animated movies

11 November 2009 9:12 PM, PST | EW.com - The Movie Critics | See recent EW.com - The Movie Critics news »

Owen loves Fantastic Mr. Fox and Disney's A Christmas Carol, and so do I. And by my count , adding in Coraline, 9, Ponyo, and Up, that makes at least six animated feature films on my short list for best movies of the year. On a related note, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences just announced that 20 titles have been submitted  for Oscar consideration this year in the category of Best Animated Feature-guaranteeing that, for only the second time in Oscar history, there will be a full five nominees for the award. I'm less interested in analyzing the tipping-point reasons »

- Lisa Schwarzbaum

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2009 | 2008

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