The Latest in ShowBiz News

‘The Avengers’ is #1 at box office for third week!

‘The Avengers’ had another epic weekend at number one, adding $55.1 million dollars to their golden pot, which is almost half a million in the U.S. alone. Disney’s biggest blockbuster continues to take over the world.

A big release for Memorial Day Weekend ‘Battleship’ opened in second place with $25.3 million dollars. This naval board game brought to life was rumored to beat the superheroes, but it obviously wasn’t nearly a threat.

Sacha Baron Cohen’s new comedy ‘The Dictator’, reached third place collecting $17.4 million dollars. His eccentric new character, which is willing to risk his life to keep democracy from reaching his dictatorship hasn’t been well received, but it seems that his followers gave him a chance.

The Top 10 Movies in the Box Office are:

1. The Avengers – $55.1 mil

2. Battleship – $25.3 mil

3. The Dictator – $17.4 mil

4. Dark Shadows – $12.8 mil

5. What to Expect When You’re Expecting -$10.5 mil

6. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel – $3.3 mil

7. The Hunger Games -$3.0 mil

8. Think Like a Man – $2.7 mil

9. The Lucky One – $1.8 mil

10. The Pirates! Band of Misfits – $1.5 mil

‘The Avengers’ breaks more records at box office!

‘The Avengers’ continues breaking records on its second opening weekend with $103.2 million dollars, exceeding 1 billion dollars worldwide. This action movie only dropped by 50%, which is the smallest decline that any blockbuster has ever had. It surpassed the second box office weekend record that ‘Avatar’ held.

Tim Burton and Johnny Depp’s obscure film, ‘Dark Shadows’ took second place with $28.8 million dollars. This movie which is typical Burton style, might stay in the box office for a while given its star power.

The comedy, which has remained high in the box office, ‘Think Like a Man’, ended up in third place with $6.3 million dollars. Followed by ‘The Hunger Games’, both have fought endlessly to continue in the prestigious list.

The Top 10 Movies in the Box Office are:

1.The Avengers – $103.2 mil

2. Dark Shadows – $28.8 mil

3. Think Like a Man – $6.3 mil

4. The Hunger Games – $4.4 mil

5. The Lucky One – $4.1 mil

6. The Pirates! Band of Misfits – $3.2 mil

7. The Five-Year Engagement -$3.1 mil

8. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel -$2.7 mil

9. Chimpanzee -$1.6 mil

10. Girl in Progress -$1.4 mil

MPAA: Hispanics are #1 moviegoers again in US

And once again the MPAA (Motion Pictures Association of America) has revealed through its annual Theatrical Marketing Statistics, that Hispanics are the #1 movie going demographic, per capita, for the year 2011 (source: MPAA).

And yet, apart from ShowBizCafe.com’s coverage on its site and partner outlets, coverage for films is still minimal in the Hispanic media landscape. It is picking up, but hopefully it will be bigger by end of decade.

The MPAA, which is an American trade association that represents the six big Hollywood studios, advances the business interests of its members and administers the MPAA film rating system.

Its current Chairman, former Democratic Senator Chris Dodd, just at the end of April declared that, “I am confident we can do a better job of serving this growing population [Latinos] with themes that resonate strongly with them. The numbers just jumped out at me,” Dodd told reporters at a briefing at CinemaCon. “I think an effort ought to be made to work at that. You’ve got to be more sensitive about the subject matter than to just have Spanish subtitles,” Dodd said.

Dodd who speaks Spanish fluently, having worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic in his youth, understands that if you want to make the most money at the box office, you have to include Hispanics in your practices.

Hollywood’s top lobbyist said he was not sure if the push should come in terms of the movies that the industry produces or in the way it markets its films.

It really is both. One idea that I myself have been thinking for years, and one day it’ll click for someone over at the top 2 Spanish language broadcasts – Univision or Telemundo – is to adapt their hit telenovelas to the big screen. Telemundo, for example, has the best chance of making this happen because their parent company, Comcast/NBCUniversal, already owns one of the preeminent movie studios in the business with Universal Pictures. Chairman Ron Meyer could have taken Telemundo’s biggest hit – ‘La Reina del Sur’ some time last year, when it was at its zenith shattering ratings in English and Spanish, and have adapted it immediately to the big screen with the same actors, etc. Or who knows, even done a bigger production with Salma Hayek instead of the original actress Kate del Castillo. Nevertheless, why this hasn’t been done yet, even as an experiment defies, my logic. Univision is a little trickier. Historically, they did not produce telenovelas, but its Mexican partner Televisa does. Televisa is very wise to the power of this moviegoing audience and partnered with Lionsgate to create Panteleon Films. So far, no telenovelas have been adapted. But, I applaud them for making a statement to develop and distribute Latino stories for Hollywood and Latino audiences.

, ‘Betty La Fea’ or ‘Pedro Escamoso’ – could have made it to the big screen and be box office specialty hits. Why? There is already a niche fanbase audience, similar to the ‘Twilight Saga’ series, that won’t care about quality or the director behid the cameras, just the extension of their favorite novela.