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2009 | 2008

1-20 of 810 articles from 2009   « Prev | Next »

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First Look: 'Alvin 2' Beats 'Avatar'

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

Wednesday Pm: First look at tonight's box office... Analysis coming... Top 10 1. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (Fox) Wed $19M [3,656 runs] New 2. Avatar (Fox) Wed $16M [3,456 runs] Week 1  3. The Princess And The Frog (Disney) Wed $2.4M [3,475 runs] Week 5 4. The Blind Side (Alcon/Warner Bros) Wed $2.3M [2,760 runs] Week 6 5. Up In The Air (Paramount) Wed $1.8M [1,895] Week 4 6. Did You Hear About The Morgans? (Sony) Wed $1.M [2,718] Week 1 7. A Christmas Carol (Disney) Wed $1.M [1,245] Week 8 8. New Moon (Summit) Wed $950K [1,593] Week 6 9. Invictus (Warner Bros) Wed $777K [2,160] Week 3 10. Brothers (Relativity/Lionsgate) Wed $500K [...] »

- Nikki Finke

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Screen Rant’s Favorite Christmas Movies

9 hours ago | ScreenRant.com | See recent Screen Rant news »

Christmas is upon us again, faster than we expected (as usual). Over the years, thousands of hours of feature film and television time have heralded the arrival of this annual holiday – while some titles may have changed, and even been remade or rebooted, the jingle of holiday bells and giggles of cinematic heavenly ghosts and their audiences continues to echo on in theaters and homes… And we thought we’d share some of our favorites with you.

Whether they’re traditional treats that continue to give, or outside-the-box laughter landslides that help to make the spirit ring even louder, the month of December is truly full of special holiday films that touch the heart. So have a seat in your preferred chair, warm up a cup of your favorite holiday beverage and enjoy the Screen Rant staff’s Christmas List of Favorite Holiday Movies!

 

Vic Holtreman: (Owner, Editor-in-Chief)

“I’d »

- Mike Wilkerson

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Boos! & Whoop-doos!: 12 Months of Toilet Plunkers and Dumpster Diamonds!

18 hours ago | MovieWeb | See recent MovieWeb news »

The End of 2009? Whoop-doo! This year has been one hellatious shit storm from the get-go. Pregnant ladies and babies, The Great Depression Part II, pig flu, more than a handful of horrible shootings, a balloon boy, Tiger's indiscretions, and our first black president. Not to mention more dead celebrities than I can shake a stick at. Every time I turned around, some other atrocious calamity was happening right before my eyes. Making 2009 one of the most interesting years of this entire decade. According to Michael Ruppert in his film Collapse its only going to get worse before it gets better. Yes, the Teens are going to see more than half of your friends and family dead. Take account of the folks around you. By the time 2020 rears its ugly head, most of these people will be gone. Turned to dust and painful memories. My advice to you this coming New Year? »

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Avatar Conquers U.K. Cinema Chart

23 December 2009 12:06 AM, PST | WENN | See recent WENN news »

James Cameron's Avatar has shot to top of the U.K. box office, with the computer generated epic raking in $13.6 million (£8.5 million) in its opening weekend (19-20Dec09).

The groundbreaking sci-fi movie has scored the third biggest opening in Britain and Ireland of 2009 after The Twilight Saga: New Moon and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

The weekend's (19-20Dec09) second spot was claimed by St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold with $2.5 million (£1.6 million), followed by Jim Carrey's animated tale A Christmas Carol in third place with £1.6 million (£1 million).

Nativity! and Planet 51 round out the top five, pulling in revenues of $924,000 (£578,000) and $721,000 (£451,000) respectively. »

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The Karate Kid Remake Trailer

22 December 2009 12:31 PM, PST | ScreenRant.com | See recent Screen Rant news »

Following some first official images, Columbia Pictures has released the first trailer for The Karate Kid (formerly titled The Kung Fu Kid), the remake of the classic ’80s movie. The film stars Jaden Smith (son of megastar, Will Smith) as Dre Parker who, because of work pressure for his single mother, moves to China and soon thereafter comes up against a bully. His misfortune catches the eye of Mr. Han (read: this new version’s Mr. Myagi), played by Jackie Chan. Mr. Han then teaches young Dre karate, presumably in order to defend himself.

There’s been much negative fan reaction to this Karate Kid remake, some people citing Jaden Smith playing the lead role as their problem, others just generally hating the idea of remaking such a classic movie that a lot of people hold dearly from their childhoods (myself included). This trailer starts out alright, but the further it gets into it, »

- Ross Miller

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"Avatar" Doesn’t Set Record After All 2

22 December 2009 12:21 PM, PST | Studio Briefing - Film News | See recent Studio Briefing - Film News news »

Actual box-office receipts for Avatar turned out to be bigger than the studio's original estimates but not as big as the first revision on Monday, which would have made it the top-grossing December movie ever. And while the film's $77.03-million take -- the final figure -- overshadowed the first-weekend gross of any other James Cameron movie, including Titanic, it fell short of some of the biggest summer blockbusters -- most especially last year's The Dark Knight, which holds the opening-weekend record with $158 million. Overseas, the film collected $159 million, to bring its worldwide total to $236 million -- far short of the $394 million amassed by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince last July. Still, no one was complaining. The general consensus was that the film would certainly recoup its production and marketing costs, which some reports have estimated could come to nearly $500 million. The real test of the film's potential could come during the next few weeks when analysts will be able to appraise its repeat business, the crucial factor in the success of Cameron's Titanic. It appeared that the film could face some serious competition quickly from the musical Nine, which collected $257,232 in just four theaters over the weekend -- or an average of $64,308 per theater. When it expands on Christmas Day, it will only be shown in about 1,500 theaters, compared with the 3,452 showing Avatar. Overall, the box office stood up quite nicely to the storms that hit the East Coast. The top twelve films collected $129.83 million, up 60.84 percent from the comparable weekend a year ago when Jim Carrey's Yes Man topped the list. As of Sunday, the box office was just $4 million short of hitting the $10 billion mark for the year and likely hit that figure on Monday. Revenue for the year is up 8.84 percent over last year while attendance is up 4.76 percent.

The top ten films over the weekend, according to final figures compiled by Box Office Mojo (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date):

1. Avatar, 20th Century Fox, $77,025,481, (New); 2. The Princess and the Frog, Disney, $12,185,949, 2 Wks. ($44,717,721); 3. The Blind Side, Warner Bros., $10,021,280, 5 Wks. ($164,725,525); 4. Did You Hear About the Morgans?, Sony, $6,616,571, (New); 5. The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Summit, $4,407,598, 5 Wks. ($274,598,319); 6. Invictus, Warner Bros., $4,203,171, 2 Wks. ($15,877,956); 7. Disney's A Christmas Carol, Disney, $3,443,464, 6 Wks. ($130,813,354); 8. Up in the Air, Paramount, $3,210,132, 3 Wks. ($8,216,,051); 9. Brothers, Lionsgate, $2,889,121, 3 Wks. ($22,349,862); 10. Old Dogs, Disney, $2,340,575, 4 Wks. ($43,625,471). »

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'Avatar' soars to UK box office top spot

22 December 2009 6:49 AM, PST | digitalspy | See recent digitalspy news »

James Cameron's Avatar has topped the UK box office on its debut weekend on release. The science fiction epic pulls in £8.5 million, making it the third-largest opening of 2009 behind Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince and New Moon. It is the largest opening for an original feature since last year's Hancock. The critically-mauled St Trinian's 2 opens in second place with £1.5 million, while A Christmas Carol slips to number three. Nativity! and Planet 51 round out the top five. Elsewhere, horror Paranormal Activity was the (more) »

- By Simon Reynolds

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Movie News Wrap Up: December 21, 2009

21 December 2009 3:47 PM, PST | ScreenRant.com | See recent Screen Rant news »

This week:

Avatar might be blue,but it sees green; Wild Hogs 2 runs out of gas; Bruce Willis sees Red in October; Steven Spielberg saddles up a War Horse and Segal joins a Neighborhood Watch.

 

Box Office

We all knew that it was going to happen – James Cameron’s Avatar snagged the top spot at the box office and banked a heavy $73 million. The gross is impressive considering that the weather in North America was terrible over the weekend. Factoring in foreign grosses the film has now scored over $232 million – if the legs are good, this could be Cameron’s second billion dollar grosser.

The Princess and the Frog had to settle for the runner-up spot. The film dipped just under 50% for a $12.5 million total. The total gross for the Disney film is now $44 million, with $100 million still an option.

America’s Sweetheart Sandra Bullock was in the third spot with The Blind Side. »

- Niall Browne

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Something Borrowed, Something Blue

21 December 2009 12:25 PM, PST | ifc.com | See recent IFC news »

I can imagine Robert Zemeckis -- whose botched motion-capture animated features "The Polar Express" and "A Christmas Carol" were full of rubbery, dead-eyed, freakish-looking human constructs -- watching James Cameron's "Avatar" with an expression on his face not unlike F. Murray Abraham's Salieri listening to his first Mozart composition in "Amadeus."

From a technical standpoint, "Avatar" is a game-changer, a paradigm shift, the greatest thing since sliced "2001." In the same way that "The Matrix" and its technological advances reverberated over the ensuing decade, so will "Avatar" act as a bellwether for the next wave of effects-heavy genre films.

I just wish it were a better movie. For all of Cameron's soaring accomplishments in creating realistic motion-capture characters and his deft handling of the new era of 3D, "Avatar" feels both familiar and overlong. You've traveled this road before, even if now you're doing it in a blinged-out luxury »

- Alonso Duralde

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Monday Morning Box Office Report: Avatar Saves Hollywood

21 December 2009 9:26 AM, PST | FilmJunk | See recent FilmJunk news »

Good news folks... James Cameron's Avatar has saved cinema! Okay, that may be a little premature. It didn't break the all-time opening weekend box office record (it didn't even break the opening weekend record for December), but it still made $232 million worldwide and it is expected to continue making even more money over the next few weeks as strong word of mouth carries it through. For all the things it had going against it (including a big snow storm across the East Coast), I think it's safe to say that Cameron has silenced his critics. The Princess and the Frog and The Blind Side were a distant second and third this weekend, while Did You Hear About the Morgans? made just $7 million, proving that sometimes America really does have good taste. Will Avatar be able to hold its own against Sherlock Holmes next weekend? 1. Avatar -- $73M 2. The Princess and the Frog »

- Sean

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Avatar is global No 1 with $232.2m opening | Jeremy Kay

21 December 2009 4:22 AM, PST | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »

With James Cameron's 3D sci-fi extravaganza unsurprisingly conquering box-office charts everywhere, the real shock was how badly the Hugh Grant-Sarah Jessica Parker pairing in Did You Hear About the Morgans fared

The winner

Avatar looks like it's going to do very well indeed based on this weekend's results. James Cameron's 3D sci-fi opus was expected to launch at No 1 and duly did so, delivering $73m (£45m) over three days in North America. That may have been roughly $10m lower than box-office trackers had predicted but is impressive nonetheless (see The Real Story below). This is a big debut for a two-hour-40-minute non-sequel, original story (yes, it's The Last Samurai without the tragic ending, but by "original" I mean it's not based on a pre-existing property).

The running time swallows a large chunk of the day but it's a worthwhile investment because Avatar is spectacular popcorn entertainment. »

- Jeremy Kay

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‘Avatar’s’ domestic opening slowed by snow storms, earns $73 million at box office

20 December 2009 8:12 PM, PST | ReelLoop.com | See recent Reel Loop news »

Although hampered by furious snow storms in the north-eastern United States, James Cameron’s big-budget action feature Avatar took the No. 1 spot at the North American box office over the weekend.

The highly-touted sci-fi extravaganza, budgeted at around $250 million, scored $73 million domestically during its debut. Avatar undoubtedly suffered from the severe blizzards that landed on northern portion of the eastern American seaboard. Many experts see the film as having “long longs” thanks to heavy buzz and early critical acclaim. Fox should expect Avatar’s domestic gross at around $220-280 million.

Internationally, Avatar nearly earned back its investment with $232 million. This marks the best global launch ever for a non-sequel.

The weekend’s other debut, Did You Hear About the Morgans?, landed at No. 4 with $7 million and should enter first run theaters soon.

Disney’s The Princess and the Frog earned $12.2 million at No. 2, beating the Sandra Bullock sleeper hit, The Blind Side, »

- Reel Loop News Staff

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Box Office Report, Avatar is King

20 December 2009 8:00 PM, PST | MoviesOnline.ca | See recent MoviesOnline news »

Dude here again. Only two more box office reports left for 2009, can you believe it? What a crazy year it's been, from the Mall Cop to the New Moon, and everything in between. It certainly has been a roller coaster ride, full of terrible movies making far too much money, while more deserving films got swept under the rug. It's all part of this ridiculous game that gets played out every week. A game which I bet on every week in Vegas, hoping to make a fraction of the Transformers 2 gross.

To date, I haven't made a dime, mostly because I insisted on betting obscene amounts on movies like Ninja Assassin.

This weekend, James Cameron came around to change everyone's game. Did he succeed? Let's go to the numbers, shall we? (All in millions, remember, and these are the studio estimates. The actuals will be available on Monday).

1. Avatar (Fox) $73.0, 3452 screens, »

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'Avatar' Tops Weekend Box Office Chart

20 December 2009 7:05 PM, PST | Aceshowbiz | See recent Aceshowbiz news »

James Cameron's "Avatar" has shown its domination on North American Box Office by collecting $77 million in its first weekend, making it sitting on the top spot. According to Slash Film, it took in a worldwide gross total of $242 million, which was the "highest-grossing nonfranchise, nonsequel opening ever."

Commenting on the performance of the Sam Worthington-starring sci-fi in its debut, co-president of Fox Theatrical International Paul Hanneman said, "We are off to a great start." Additionally, he believed "Avatar" grosses will stand firmly in the coming weeks, claiming "We played 106 markets, and we were No. 1 in all of them."

Meanwhile, last week's winner Disney's animation "The Princess and the Frog" dropped 49.7% in ticket sales, making it only securing the second place with $12.2 million haul. On the third position was Sandra Bullock's "The Blind Side", which raked in an additional $10 million. So far, the football drama has collected $164.7 million domestically. »

- AceShowbiz.com

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Box Office Beat Down: Avatar Makes an Out-of-this-world $73 Million

20 December 2009 6:52 PM, PST | MovieWeb | See recent MovieWeb news »

Weekend Box Office 1) Avatar - $73 million 2) The Princess and the Frog - $12.2 3) The Blind Side - $10 million 4) Did You Hear About The Morgans? - $7 million 5) The Twilight Saga: New Moon - $4.3 million 6) Invictus - $4.1 million 7) Disney's a Christmas Carol - $3.4 million 8) Up In The Air - 3.1 million 9) Brothers - $2.6 million 10) Old Dogs - $ 2.2 million Well, to nobody's real surprise James Cameron's 3D outer-space epic Avatar was the number one film at the box office this weekend in its opening week. Avatar, which is the director's first movie since his multiple Oscar winning film, Titanic, was released in 3,452 theaters and averaged $21,147 per theater for a grand total of $73 million over the weekend, well on it's way to earning back its purported $200 million plus budget. Last week's number one film, Disney's animated film The Princess and the Frog fell back one spot this week by only earning $12.2 million. The film, which »

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Avatar opens in top spot

20 December 2009 5:26 PM, PST | Corona's Coming Attractions | See recent Corona's Coming Attractions news »

Welcome back to the top of the box office Mr. Cameron. The Titanic director's latest work, which may now hold the title for the most expensive movie ever made, has opened in first place. But is a $73 million dollar three-day opening good enough for James Cameron's Avatar?

$73 million dollars isn't a poor showing by any means. Snowstorms on the east coast may have chewed away more ticket sales for Avatar and the annual Christmas shopping rush probably didn't help much either. Still, Avatar is the best opening ever for a James Cameron movie, surpassing Titanic's opening weekend gross of $28.6 million back in 1997, and the blue space cat people will likely have legs throughout the holidays. But how much of a drop-off will Avatar next week? How many people are within travelling distance to see the film in 3D capable theaters? There are a lot of unknowns in play »

- Patrick Sauriol

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Avatar Weathers Winter Storms for Top Finish

20 December 2009 3:56 PM, PST | newsinfilm.com | See recent newsinfilm news »

James Cameron and 20th Century Fox’s Avatar won the weekend box office despite heavy snowstorms that slowed audiences in the northeast.  At least that’s the angle every other outlet is taking on its slightly lower start.  It’s the snow’s fault.

The visual effects epic posted an estimated $73 million domestic, the second largest December opening behind Will Smith’s I Am Legend ($77M) and beating Oscar juggernaut The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ($72M).  Those two ultimately grossed upwards of $250M in the U.S. alone and analysts are expecting at least that in final numbers.

The opening is the largest 3D weekend ever and the biggest debut for James Cameron, whose Titanic remains the highest grossing movie of all time.

Cameron’s expensive 3D movie added another $159.2 million overseas for a whopping worldwide total of $232 million, a massive opening for a non-sequel. »

- Jeff Leins

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Box Office Report: December 18-20, 2009

20 December 2009 2:32 PM, PST | Fangoria | See recent Fangoria news »

Note: These are early box office estimates. Final tallies may differ slightly.

The highly anticipated Avatar debuted this weekend at (not surprisingly) number one, picking up an impressive $73 million at the box office. Last weeks number one flick The Princess And The Frog slipped to number two with just over $12 million (for a $44 million four week total), while the surprise hit The Blind Side registered at number three on the box office charts drawing another $10 million (for a $164 million five week total) in ticket sales.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon continued it's slow but steady decline falling to number five this week after taking in just over $4 million (for a $274 million five week total), while A Christmas Carol slid to number seven, adding another $3 million to it's now total $130 million (over the course of seven weeks) earnings. Meanwhile, Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones snagged an additional $41,000 in limted release in three cities. »

- no-reply@fangoria.com (Matt Molgaard)

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Sci-fi saga 'Avatar' gets phenomenal start

20 December 2009 1:27 PM, PST | Filmicafe | See recent Filmicafe news »

Us director James Cameron's newest film 'Avatar' filled the cinema cash registers this weekend with a $73-million take that put it way in the lead at the box office.The futuristic science fiction epic, shown with new 3D technology that was 12 years in the making, thus took in about a quarter of its production costs estimated at $250 to 300 million.Cameron's previous phenomenal success was 'Titanic'. A record December snowstorm that has shut down roads and commercial firms across most of the East Coast could have eaten into the potential take, Hollywood experts said.Disney's animated film 'The Princess and the Frog' dropped to second place from first place last week, with $12.2 million, followed by: 'The Blind Side' ($10 million); 'Did You Hear About the Morgans?' ($7 million); 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon', ($4.3 million); the Nelson Mandela biopic, 'Invictus', ($4.2 million); ' »

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"Avatar" Opens Worldwide with $232.2 Million Box Office Take

20 December 2009 12:32 PM, PST | Manny the Movie Guy | See recent Manny the Movie Guy news »

James Cameron must be feeling a lot like the king of the world again. "Avatar" debuted at No. 1 with $73 million domestic, and $159.22 million overseas, for a grand total of $232.2 million worldwide!

Many insiders were saying that "Avatar's" box-office take could have been higher but bad winter storms in the east coast prevented some moviegoers to enjoy Cameron's masterpiece.

(Check out my review of "Avatar" here)

Produced at an earth-shattering budget of $400 million, distributor 20th Century Fox was happy with the film's weekend box-office take. The film, starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, and Sigourney Weaver, bumped previous weekend winner, "The Princess and the Frog," to No. 2.

The Walt Disney flick took in $12.2 million. "The Blind Side," featuring Golden Globe award nominee Sandra Bullock, came in at No. 3 with $10 million.

Buoyed by its Golden Globes nominations, Paramount's "Up in the Air" broke into the top 10 at No. 8 with $3.1 million. From director »

- Manny

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2009 | 2008

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