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Monday Box Office – "Transformers 2"

Aside from its whopping five-day domestic tally — the second highest of all time — Paramount’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” broke records in several countries overseas, leading to a massive $387.3 million worldwide through Sunday, one of the best global launches ever.

The five-day opening gross of $201.2 million from 4,234 theaters domestically easily eclipsed the $152.4 million earned by “Spider-Man 2,” which previously held the five-day record for a Wednesday launch. And “Transformers 2” nearly matched the best five-day gross of all time: $203.8 million for WB’s “The Dark Knight.”

Overseas, the action tentpole opened to an estimated $162 million, the fourth best international opening of all time, after “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” ($216.3 million), “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” ($193 million) and “Spider-Man 3” ($164.9 million). The sequel’s foreign cume was $186.1 million when factoring in the $24.1 million earned the previous weekend in the U.K. and Japan.

Although the Michael Bay-helmed pic sucked up most of the oxygen at the box office, other pics scored notable numbers. Disney-Pixar’s “Up” surpassed Par’s “Star Trek” to become the year’s highest-grossing title at the domestic B.O. (The film’s cume through Sunday was an estimated $250.2 million, boosted by the added charge for 3-D tickets.)

Warner Bros.’ “The Hangover” passed $200 million at the worldwide B.O. Domestically, it saw $17.2 million from 3,525 for a cume of $183.2 million. Abroad, film earned $10.1 million from 1,250 runs in 29 markets for a cume of $46.2 million and worldwide tally of $229.2 million.

Several specialty titles popped, including Summit Entertainment’s “The Hurt Locker.” Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, the film posted a per-screen average of $36,000 as it opened in four theaters in L.A. and New York, grossing an estimated $144,000.

The weekend’s only wide release besides “Revenge of the Fallen” was Cameron Diaz-Abigail Breslin drama “My Sister’s Keeper.” The film saw modest biz in grossing $12 million from 2,606 runs to come in No. 5 for the weekend.

In other holdover action, Fox’s “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” crossed the $200 million mark internationally as it grossed $5.2 million from 4,000 runs in 62 territories for a foreign cume of $202.3 million and worldwide tally of $365.5 million.

Sony continued to see strong international results for “Terminator Salvation,” which grossed $10.1 million for the sesh from 7,470 theaters in 70 markets for a foreign cume of $193.7 million. Accounting for territories where Sony isn’t distributing, pic’s total foreign gross is $219.5 million.

The romantic comedy “The Proposal,” from the Mouse House, continued to click. The Sandra Bullock-Ryan Reynolds starrer dipped 45% to an estimated $18.5 million from 3,058 runs; cume is $69 million. The pic grossed another $7.2 million overseas for the weekend, putting the worldwide cume at $91.7 million in its first 10 days.

On the domestic front, Focus Features’ dramedy “Away We Go” landed in the No. 10 spot in its fourth week, grossing $1.7 million as it expanded into 495 locations for a per-screen average of $3,390 and cume of $3.4 million. 

And Woody Allen’s “Whatever Works,” from Sony Pictures Classics, grossed $386,286 in its second frame for a per-screen average of $11,036 and cume of $765,433.

Miramax’s Michelle Pfeiffer period piece “Cheri” grossed $408,000 as it opened on 76 screens for a per-location average of $5,368.

Not having such a good weekend domestically was Sony’s Jack Black-Michael Cera laffer “Year One,” which tumbled 70% in its second frame to $5.8 million for a domestic cume of $32.3 million.

But the big news, of course, is the “Transformers” sequel, the first tentpole since “Dark Knight” to truly rocket into the B.O. stratosphere. 

Paramount co-chair Rob Moore said the pic played to a much broader audience than its predecessor, noting that the first time around, males made up 60% of the audience. This time, that number dropped to 54%.

More important to Moore: Despite negative reviews, more than 90% of those polled as they left theaters said the sequel was as good as, or better than, the first.

“To us, that’s the most compelling data point,” Moore said. “The thing that works so much about this franchise is the level of optimism and fun that’s inherent in it. It transports you to a world that stretches reality but is a ton of fun.”

Par execs were particularly pleased, since the studio pegs the pic’s production and worldwide marketing at $350 million — which the film already surpassed in five days.

In terms of just the three-day weekend, “Transformers 2” grossed $112 million domestically. That, plus the $163 million international opening, makes for a worldwide weekend bow of $274 million, the third best after “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World End” ($356.1 million) and “Spider-Man 3” ($315.9 million).

The international haul was led by China at $21.9 million — the biggest opening of all time for an English-language movie. While it played strongest in Asia, “Revenge of the Fallen” performed ahead of the first film in almost every market, proving that the franchise has taken hold, Paramount prexy of international distribution Andrew Cripps said.

“Transformers,” which Par and DreamWorks debuted over the Fourth of July holiday in 2007, opened to $70.5 million domestically on its way to cuming $319.2 million in North America and $700 million worldwide.

Imax also participated in the “Transformers 2” bounty. The pic played on 169 Imax screens domestically. Five-day opening gross at Imax sites was a record $14.4 million.

The “Transformers” franchise was among the projects that reverted to Paramount after its split with DreamWorks, although Steven Spielberg remained an exec producer on the sequel and DreamWorks’ logo appears at the opening of the pic and in ads.

Adam Goodman, who arrived at Par six months ago from DreamWorks, helped guide both “Transformer” pics. Just days before the “Transformers” sequel opened, Paramount chair-CEO Brad Grey announced that Goodman was being upped to Paramount Film Group prexy as production toppers John Lesher and Brad Weston were exiting the studio. 

Grey also lauded Bay’s ability to connect with audiences. He said the entire Par family is “proud to be behind him, and we look forward to our collaboration with him in the future.”

“Transformers 3” is tentatively slotted to open July 1, 2011.

In the meantime, “Revenge of the Fallen” is expected to remain a sizable B.O. force in the coming days, looming over such new fare as 20th Century Fox’s 3-D toon “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs,” which opens Wednesday.

Also opening Wednesday is Universal’s Johnny Depp gangster pic “Public Enemies.”

My Sister’s Keeper

Rated: PG-13 for mature thematic content, some disturbing images, sensuality, language and brief teen drinking.
Release Date: 2009-06-26
Starring: Jeremy Leven, Nick Cassavetes
Director(s):
Distributor:
Film Genre:
Country: USA
Official Website: http://www.mysisterskeepermovie.com/

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“My Sister’s Keeper” is two straight hours of emotional torture. Melodramatic in its essence and shamelessly exploitative in its purpose.

Based on the best-selling novel by Jodi Picoult, the film tells the story Sara (Cameron Diaz) and Brian (Jason Patric) who live an idyllic life with their young son and daughter. But their family is rocked by sudden, heartbreaking news that forces them to make a difficult and unorthodox choice in order to save their baby girl’s life. The parents’ desperate decision raises both ethical and moral questions and rips away at the foundation of their relationship.

There are so many holes with this movie and so many questions that arise from them, that the crying your eyes out is just one way of expressing your dissatisfaction with it.
There is also the greater question of the ethics of bringing one child into the world simply to help keep another one alive, even though you may be putting that child through enormous amounts of pain and stress as a result–what would happen if that child finally decided that enough was enough and that she wanted to have some say in the matter as well? These are all intriguing questions and a smart movie would have been willing to deal with them in a thoughtful manner.

On the acting front, Cameron Diaz’s acting was stretched beyond its dramatic ability, but Alec Baldwin’s presence, as the attorney engaged by Anna to pursue her case, no matter how brief, invigorated the screen with some life and needed dry humor. Breslin (“Little Miss Sunshine”) acts saintly and not at all real, while Joan Cusack, in an uncomfortably odd cameo, twitches and blinks as a judge with her own private tragedy.

All in all, this film will be appealing to those who have a flare for dramatic and love crying at a whim. Most will just be crying to get their money back.

Janet Jackson returns to film in Perry’s "Married" sequel

Janet Jackson will reprise her role in Tyler Perry’s comedy sequel “Why Did I Get Married Too.”

The thesp will again portray a successful author and psychologist who prefers to analyze other’s relationship problems rather than deal with her own marriage.

Jackson’s the first announced casting for the project other than Perry. Lionsgate announced in March that it had acquired rights to “Why Did I Get Married Too” and “I Can Do Bad All by Myself” with Perry writing, directing and starring in both projects.

“Bad,” which features Perry’s Madea character, is set for release Sept. 11.

“Why Did I Get Married Too” has been set for release on April 2, the start of next year’s Easter weekend. The first pic, based on Perry’s stage play, grossed $55 million domestically.

The Oscar’s: From 5 there will be 10

And the winner is… well, actually there are lots of winners with the decision to broaden the best-picture Oscar race to 10 films.

The board’s decision to double the category to 10 nominees “may make it more interesting and less cloistered,” said Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences prexy Sid Ganis at a press conference Wednesday morning.

Ganis speculated that the longer list could include a documentary, foreign-lingo film, animated feature and, he deadpanned, “maybe even a comedy.”

The expansion to 10 slots increases the chances of films in those three categories, which have long been eligible for best-pic bids but may have missed out because they have their own categories, as some Oscar voters have said in the past. And indie films gain, because there’s more room for “little” movies.

The other big winners could be the TV audience — and, by extension, the Academy — if the expanded list includes more populist fare. And it can’t hurt that more films will be in line for a potential Oscar bump at the box office.

What’s more, one Acad member in the know predicted that this change is just the first in Oscar’s world.

Ganis’ “less cloistered” observation was a deftly phrased acknowledgment that the org has been charged in recent years with being elitist in some of its choices. After the 2008 noms came out, many media pundits, industry workers and film fans bemoaned the omission of such crowd-pleasing films as “The Dark Knight” and “Wall-E.”

Conventional wisdom says that when well-known films are nominated, such as “Titanic” or “The Lord of the Rings,” ratings for the Oscarcast rise. As for answers to other questions being asked around town Wednesday:

• The foreign-language, feature doc and feature toon races will not be affected.
• The nomination ballot will have space for 10 entries instead of five. That’s the only change, and the awards schedule will remain the same, since PricewaterhouseCoopers won’t need more time to count ballots.
• Acad execs said they don’t feel the move will add significantly to the running time of the show, and the idea of cutting some categories from the telecast didn’t even come up.
• No other categories — such as director — will be expanded to 10 nominees.

One awards pundit said the move makes the director race the one to watch, since it’s still five slots and could be a better indicator of the favorites. (However, it’s rare when the five director nominees exactly mirror the pic race.)

On Wednesday, many kudos vets were surprised but positive about the change. A few had qualms: The Acad will need more seats for more nominees, and the additional best pic clips could add to the ceremony’s running time. A few skeptics worried that the voters may have to scrounge around to come up with 10 worthy films (unlikely, since about 300 films qualify annually).

And one pundit said that with 10 nominees, a pic could win with only 11% of the vote.

That’s absolutely true. But a close race among 10 films is unlikely, and in the past, with five movies, there always seemed to be two or three front-runners. (The PWC accountants are too discreet to ever reveal how close or lopsided some of the races have been.)

Asked whether “Dark Knight” was a factor in the move, Ganis said that many titles were mentioned in the post-mortem, including that one.

“We’ve been mulling what we can do to make everything more valid,” Ganis said.

Though the move sounds radical, Ganis began his remarks at the confab by saying that the Academy is returning to an old tradition — a fact emphasized by two posters flanking him that gave the titles of the 10 best-pic contenders for 1939. The titles showed the breadth of choices, including “Gone With the Wind,” “Love Affair,” “Stagecoach” and “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

The Acad had 10 pic nominees between 1931 and 1943.

Every year, an AMPAS awards committee does a post-mortem on lessons learned from the recent show. Ganis said this year’s Oscarcast producers Bill Condon and Laurence Mark suggested to the committee that it would be great if “the spectrum was wider” for best-pic contenders. Ganis said some at the Academy had been thinking the same thing, invoking the ’39 race. (The org is currently doing a tribute to those 10 contenders.)

It’s likely that Acad honchos were particularly receptive to Mark and Condon’s ideas since they came in the wake of their show, which changed the DNA of the Oscarcast by jettisoning many old traditions — which resulted in a positive reaction and improved ratings. And those changes opened up a lot of possibilities elsewhere.

Acad exec director Bruce Davis said Wednesday that the awards-review committee was enthused by the expansion of the best pic nominees. There were no dissenting votes at the board meeting held Tuesday night, Davis said.

Jessica Alba & Robert Rodriguez to hook up for ‘The Insiders’!

Is it not enough that Jessica Alba has already played iconic comic book characters in “Fantastic Four” and “Sin City“? Apparently not, as rumors swirl today about her involvement with yet another paneled page property.

ICv2 is reporting that Alba has acquired the screen rights to a French comic book series titled “The Insiders.” The news originated from “various French language Websites,” which also pegs Alba’s “Sin City” director Robert Rodriguez as her partner in securing the comic’s film rights.

“The Insiders” first debuted in 2002 from Jean-Claude Bartoll and Renaud Garreta, yielding seven volumes of the series in France with an eighth scheduled for this October. In the same month, Americans will also see the first volume of “The Insiders” titled Chechen Guerilla — perhaps a move to familiarize stateside audiences with Alba’s upcoming character.

Should the rumors pan out, Alba would play Najah Cruz, a Columbian woman with “the weapons expertise and combat skills of a James Bond.” In the series, Cruz is tasked with infiltrating a crime syndicate on behalf of the United States government, where she ultimately works her way into becoming the lead criminal’s body guard.

Given the long delays in “Sin City 2” and reports that a “Fantastic Four” reboot is in the works sans the original cast, Alba could be without a comic book franchise to call her own — which is why turning to “The Insiders” could be a strong move for an actress looking to stick with the genre.

On top of that, Alba’s first high-profile gig came in the form of “Dark Angel,” a James Cameron-produced television series where she played a hard-as-nails soldier of the same ilk as Najah Cruz. Truly, starring in “The Insiders” would be a return to form for the young actress.

Monday Box Office – "The Proposal" is #1

Walt Disney Co.’s romantic comedy “The Proposal” debuted as the top film in the U.S. and Canada over the weekend, as star Sandra Bullock’s best-ever opener gave the company its second No. 1 movie in a month.

“The Proposal” had $34.1 million in ticket sales, researcher Hollywood.com Box-Office said yesterday in an e- mailed statement. Time Warner Inc.’s “The Hangover” slipped to second with $26.9 million, while “Up” from Disney’s Pixar Animation Studios had $21.3 million in receipts.

The two Disney movies have brought in a combined $258.2 million since the animated 3-D feature “Up” opened at No. 1 four weeks ago. Bullock is identified with romantic comedies, and “The Proposal” gave audiences exactly what they went for, said Brandon Gray, president of Box Office Mojo in Sherman Oaks, California.

“Sandra is probably an underrated star, because she’s one of the few who can actually draw an audience when she’s in the right movie,” Gray said. “A lot of movies suffer from a lack of clarity or a lack of information in their advertisements, but ‘The Proposal’ was on point and promised a rollicking romantic good time for all.”

In “The Proposal,” Bullock plays an executive who faces deportation to her native Canada. She tries to fool U.S. immigration authorities by having her assistant, played by Ryan Reynolds, pose as her American fiancé. Gitesh Pandya, editor of Box Office Guru LLC, projected the film to earn as much as $22 million in its debut weekend.

‘The Hangover’

The top 12 films this weekend grossed $140.7 million, up 1.64 percent from a year earlier, Hollywood.com said. Ticket sales for all films rose 2.85 percent to $147 million.

“The Hangover,” a comedy about the aftermath of a bachelor party gone awry in Las Vegas, was the top film the two previous weekends. It has taken in $152.9 million since it opened on June 5.

“‘The Hangover’ is like a hangover; it just won’t go away,” Gray said. “It’s one of the great box-office successes of the year.”

“Up” is Disney’s most successful film this year with $224.1 million in receipts since its May 29 release and has helped lift the studio from last place among its Hollywood peers. The movie, featuring the voice of Ed Asner, drew family audiences with its story of an accidental friendship between a young boy and an elderly man who finally achieves his dream of foreign travel.

‘Pelham 1 2 3’

“Year One,” from Sony Corp., debuted in fourth place with $20.2 million. The film stars Jack Black and Michael Cera as hapless hunter-gatherers kicked out of their tribe for violating a taboo. Their wanderings lead to run-ins with Cain and Abel and other Old Testament figures. “Year One” was forecast by Pandya to generate $20 million in sales.

Sony’s “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3,” starring Denzel Washington and John Travolta, fell to fifth from third with $11.3 million.

Sony Pictures Classic’s “Whatever Works,” by director Woody Allen, took in $280,720 in nine theaters, the best limited-release opener this year, according to Paul Dergarabedian, an analyst at Hollywood.com Box-office. The per- theater average of $31,191 was triple the $11,163 for “The Proposal.” The film will expand into more than 300 theaters on July 3, according to Dergarabedian.

‘Transformers’

A comedy led box-office sales for a fifth consecutive weekend. That may end next week when Viacom Inc. releases “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” a sequel to 2007’s “Transformers.” Advance sales for the sequel were ahead of the first film by a 3-to-1 margin as of June 17, according to online vendor MovieTickets.com.

The movie, which opens June 24, has the potential to gross more than $200 million in its first seven days, nearing the record $238.6 million set by “The Dark Knight” in July 2008, Gray said.

The original “Transformers,” released in 2007, opened with $70.5 million and took in $708.3 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo, which tracks receipts.

The following table has figures provided by studios to Hollywood.com Box-Office. The amounts are based on actual ticket sales for June 19 and June 20, and estimates for yesterday.

Sean Penn says no to ‘Cartel’ and ‘3 Stooges’

Sean Penn‘s busy shooting schedule has suddenly gone dark.

In an announcement that has caught two studios by surprise, Penn has pulled out of two films, citing personal reasons.

Penn has informed Universal and Imagine that he will be unable to star in the Asger Leth-directed drama “Cartel,” which was to be his next movie. His role will be recast. Studio is putting together a list of actors now and hopes to stick with an early fall start date.

Scripted by Peter Craig, the movie follows a man who journeys to protect his son after his wife is murdered by Mexican cartels.

Penn will also be unable to make the start date of MGM comedy “The Three Stooges.” He was to star as Larry in the pic, directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly. “Stooges” also stars Jim Carrey as Curly and Benicio Del Toro as Moe. It’s unclear if the studio will recast or wait for Penn to return to work.

Penn has completed two films for River Road, both earmarked for release next year. “Fair Game,” the Doug Liman-directed drama about outed CIA agent Valerie Plame, co-stars Naomi Watts. The Terrence Malick-directed “The Tree of Life” also stars Brad Pitt.

During the Cannes Film Festival, Penn was revealed to be in talks to star in “This Must Be the Place,” which will mark the English-language feature debut of Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino, with a script co-written by Sorrentino and Umberto Contarello (Daily Variety, May 17). Pic was to be produced by Nicola Giuliano of Indigo Film and Andrea Occhipinti of Lucky Red. Financing and scheduling were not yet complete on that film, but Penn still intends to make the film at some point.

Penn is taking an undetermined sabbatical — possibly as much as a year — to focus on his family.