12.13.2016 | By Jack Rico |
The 1-4-0: RogueOne: A Star Wars Story is not a better film experience than #TheForceAwakens, but it is a solid sci-fi, action film that provides high entertainment value and some nostalgic “cameos” for old-school fans. Read More
07.11.2013 | By Jack Rico |
How many times have you seen Mary Poppins? 5, 10? Ever wonder how it made it to the big screen? Disney’s brand new film, Saving Mr. Banks, will answer that question and we have the first trailer for you to see! Read More
07.1.2013 | By Jack Rico |
I have to say that when I first heard of Disney greenlighting The Lone Ranger, I had some major questions, in particular why Johnny Depp wasn’t in the lead role and whether action westerns are still a viable and economical avenue to amuse film-goers and generate a profit. Disney invited me to a sneak peek about a month ago and… I was pleasantly surprised. From the close to 20 minutes I saw, it was worth watching. Here is the latest The Lone Ranger featurette called “In the Elements” that should give you a better understanding of what you’ll be paying to see at the box office! Read More
11.1.2012 | By Mack Chico |
Meet the Wicked Witch in the first of three images from the new poster for OZ THE GREAT & POWERFUL!
If you were thinking this was going to be another 1939 Judy Garland Oz, guess again. From what we can discern from the poster Oz has gone from a quiet country spot with an Emerald City, to an almost tropical-feeling landscape that feels a bit more alive proving that Disney is really trying to go for the visual galore.
There’s a bit of yellow brick hiding in the corner, too, which is good. And it seems a smart marketing move to allude more to the story people know and love (The Wizard of Oz), rather than focus on this film’s main character, (Oz, the wizard himself) and how he came to be there. If nothing more, the nostalgia attached to The Wizard of Oz will get plenty of people in the seats to see what the Land of Oz would look like in 2012.
The plot: Oscar Diggs (James Franco), a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, is hurled away from dusty Kansas to the vibrant Land of Oz. At first he thinks he’s hit the jackpot-fame and fortune are his for the taking. That all changes, however, when he meets three witches, Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz), and Glinda (Michelle Williams), who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyone’s been expecting. Reluctantly drawn into the epic problems facing the Land of Oz and its inhabitants, Oscar must find out who is good and who is evil before it is too late. Putting his magical arts to use through illusion, ingenuity-and even a bit of wizardry-Oscar transforms himself not only into the great and powerful Wizard of Oz but into a better man as well.
Oz the Great and Powerful comes into theaters on March 8, 2013.
06.22.2009 | By Pau Brunet |
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.
04.12.2009 | By Mack Chico |
“Hannah Montana: The Movie” opened as the top film over the Easter weekend, taking in $34 million in ticket sales at theaters in the U.S. and Canada.
“Hannah Montana,” from Walt Disney Co., displaced the action film “Fast & Furious,” which fell to second with $28.8 million, box-office researcher Media By Numbers LLC said today in an e-mailed statement.
Sales rose 61 percent to an Easter holiday weekend record of $130.2 million from a year earlier, the third straight weekend of year-over-year gains for Hollywood studios. For the year to date, box-office revenue is 17 percent ahead of last year, and attendance is up 15 percent.
“‘Hannah’ had a gigantic Good Friday, when kids were out of school, it didn’t do as well on Saturday or Easter Sunday, but this was well above expectations,” said Steve Mason, a film analyst with BigHollywood.com, in a telephone interview. He had expected the movie to earn about $25 million.
In “Hannah Montana: The Movie,” a spinoff from Walt Disney Co.’s “Hannah Montana” television show, Miley Cyrus plays a teen-age star who returns to her hometown to escape the pressure of stardom. Cyrus’s father, Billy Ray Cyrus, co-stars.
A 3-D concert film, “Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour,” took in $70.6 million worldwide last year, according to Box Office Mojo. The film had $31.1 million in sales during its opening weekend.
‘Fast & Furious’
“Fast & Furious,” from Universal Pictures, is the fourth in the series about illegal street racing. Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, stars of the original “The Fast and the Furious,” return for the first time since the original film to reprise their roles. Diesel made a cameo appearance in “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift” in 2006.
NBC Universal is a unit of General Electric Co.
In “Fast & Furious,” an undercover cop played by Walker joins forces with Diesel’s character, a former convict. The first three films generated $334.2 million at theaters in the U.S. and Canada, according to Box Office Mojo LLC. The film was expected to take in $32 million in its second weekend, the estimate of Gitesh Pandya, the editor of BoxOfficeGuru.com in New York.
Third place’s “Monsters vs. Aliens,” the 3-D animation feature from Dreamworks Animation SKG Inc., earned $22.6 million in its third week. The movie, which is about a group of monsters called on to battle invaders from outer space, features the voices of Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Rainn Wilson and Stephen Colbert.
‘Observe and Report’
“Observe and Report, which debuted in fourth place with $11.1 million, stars Seth Rogen as a mall security guard who longs to become a real police officer. He gets to try out his sleuthing skills when a streaker targets the shopping center. The film is distributed by Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros.
The Nicolas Cage thriller “Knowing” earned $6.67 million for Summit Entertainment LLC in fifth place. Cage stars as a professor who decodes a document, left in a 1958 time capsule, that has foretold the world’s worst disasters, including some yet to come. Rose Byrne co-stars.
Here’s a complete look at the weekend’s top-grossing films based on Friday-Sunday estimates as compiled by Exhibitor Relations:
