Last week, Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol became the actor’s highest grossing movie. By the end of the week, it had passed the $600m mark worldwide. Released in December, it has now become the sixth highest grossing movie from 2011. This makes it a massive success, and when you think about all that has gone on in the lead up to it, it is pretty astonishing.
Posted in Articles, Box Office, News
Tagged 2011, box office, ghost protocol, gross, mission: impossible, mission: impossible 5, news, paramount, success, tom cruise
The Muppets is released in cinemas in the UK this week. Released in the US last November, it is the first theatrical outing for The Muppets since 1999’s Muppets from Space. The movie enjoyed reasonable success in the United States, and we’ll find out this weekend how it fares in the UK. It has not set the world box office alight so far, but has definitely found an audience. The question, then, is how to build on this momentum.
Tagged box office, critical, jason segel, kermit, muppet show, news, sequel, success, the muppets, tv
The BBC is reporting this week that last year, for the first time ever, UK Box Office takings surpassed the £1bn barrier. Considering the economic crisis of the last few years, and the increasing number of people finding themselves out of work, it is perhaps a little surprising. There are several factors at work, however.
Posted in Articles, Box Office, News
Tagged 2011, 2012, bbc, box office, financial, harry potter, inbetweeners, king's speech, record, uk
This weekend saw the release of Contagion in the US, a new thriller of epidemic proportions, from classy filmmaker Steven Soderbergh. The movie boasts an impressive ensemble cast, and for a September release the opening numbers are reassuring. The question is, will the film reach pandemic proportions, or will next weekend see the virus snubbed out? Continue reading Posted in Articles, Box Office, News
Tagged box office, contagion, disease, gross, gwyneth paltrow, jude law, kate winslet, matt damon, opening, steven soderbergh
This week sees the release of The Hangover 2, Todd Phillips’ follow-up to his incredibly successful The Hangover from 2009. When The Hangover was released two years ago, it came with very little fanfare. With an experienced director, but a low-key cast and no major marketing campaign, it took everyone unawares. After its opening weekend, word of mouth spread like wildfire, and The Hangover became the surprise hit of the summer. It didn’t just enjoy massive critical and financial success, it broke a record. It became the highest grossing R-rated comedy of all time. Continue reading
Posted in Articles, Box Office, News
Tagged 2, box office, comedy, part 2, r-rated, the hangover, the hangover 2, todd phillips
This weekend Thor managed to stay in the top 3 at the box office, adding another $15.5m to its haul, for a total domestic gross so far of $145m. Thor’s box office performance so far isn’t a patch on many of the comic-book adaptations we’ve seen recently, but as a second tier hero played by a virtual unknown, it is a pretty good number. Will it be enough, though, to see Thor standing victorious in the comic-book movie wars at the end of the Summer? Continue reading
Posted in Articles, Box Office, News
Tagged blockbuster, box office, captain america, comic book, film, green lantern, gross, movie, superhero, thor, top ten, x-men
When Avatar broke every box office record in the book, it was the start of a period of shameless cash-in as studios rushed movies into post-production 3D in a desperate bid to jump on the bandwagon, and use the newfound novelty factor of the technique to wring more money out of the movie going audience. James Cameron had done his 3D the right way, spending hundreds of millions of dollars and spending years of his and his team’s time to get it looking great. This had the unfortunate effect of misleading viewers into thinking 3D would all be like this, and they flocked to 3D movies in droves. The reality, of course, was that post-production 3D was pretty shoddy.Tagged 3D, audience, box office, conversion, movie, reviews, thor
It’s official, the sequel is here to stay. OK, so it’s really no great revelation. There were some signs, however, that audiences were starting to get a little bored of shameless cash-ins, and were looking for something a little bit different. This week’s box office, unfortunately, told a slightly different story. Thor won the weekend with an admirable $65M plus, however that was not the big box office story. In second place was Fast and Furious 5, with a $32M haul. It may have been beaten into second place this weekend, but this added to the total gross it had already accumulated means the sequel to a sequel to a sequel to a sequel has made a massive achievement. It has become this year’s highest grossing film so far. Continue reading
Posted in Articles, Box Office, News
Tagged 2011, blockbuster, box office, fast 5, fast and furious 5, record, summer, thor
I’m not sure exactly when it started, or more importantly when exactly it became popularized. Sequels have been around for literally decades, but for me it is the eighties when it really became rife. If a film was financially successful, the studios made a sequel. Following the artistry of sixties and seventies filmmaking, films really began to become movies, and dumbed down overblown action movies became the big money makers. It was obvious, really. Why go to the time and trouble to try to develop and subsequently sell a new property when fans were itching to see the further adventures of Rambo, Rocky, Axel Foley, and the numerous other action heroes of that time. Continue reading
Tagged blockbusters, box office, budgets, captain america, development, fast and furious, green lantern, gross, james bond, news, prequels, profits, projects, reboots, remakes, screenplay, sequels, studios, thor, update, x-men
This past weekend, the new animated feature from 20th Century Fox, Rio, won the US box office with a $39M opening, beating highly fancied Scre4m into second place with a disappointing $19M. There was a lot of expectation from the fourth movie in the Scream franchise. The first three movies grossed around $300 million dollars between them, with the second and third installments opening with over $30M each, and that nearly 15 years ago. Continue reading
In the run-up to Sundance, the film festival currently taking place in Utah, filmmaker Kevin Smith announced that he would be holding an auction for the distribution rights for his latest film, Red State, immediately following its showing at the fest. This created a lot of anticipation for both the film, and the aftermath, leading to Red State being the hottest ticket in town this past weekend. In the end, it turned out to be somewhat of a ploy, as Smith bought back his own film for $20, and proceeded to lay in to the Hollywood studio system, which would have been well represented in the room with many studios keen for the chance to distribute Smith’s religious horror film. Continue reading
Tagged box office, director, distribution, filmmaker, films, hit somebody, independent, kevin smith, marketing, movies, news, press, promotion, red state, studios, sundance, tirade, twitter
It was just a couple of days ago, when I wrote about the evolving Alien prequel, that I stated that I was not, as a rule, against prequels, sequels, reboots and remakes. Trust Hollywood, then, to put this assertion to the test with the news that following the departure of executive Jessica Goodman from Warner Bros, a whole batch of remakes in development hell have been re distributed to other WB execs. On first glance, I didn’t really have a problem with this. The news that proposed remakes that were going nowhere have been shared out amongst execs that may well not take them anywhere isn’t inherently newsworthy. However, when I read the titles that were being primed for reboots, I started to shudder. Lethal Weapon, Westworld and the like are considered classics by many. Thinking reasonably about it, though, and you can find justification. Continue reading
Tagged box office, films, hollywood, lethal weapon, movies, remakes, sacred, sam peckinpah, success, the wild bunch, warner bros, wb, westworld
This week at aintitcoolnews.com Harry Knowles wrote a post revealing that Walt Disney Pictures may be about to announce that Tron 3 has been given the greenlight. Tron: Legacy has been successful at the box office, though not nearly as successful as Disney were probably hoping, and now that the film is effectively in the black, the company is apparently ready to begin development of the sequel. With a production budget of $170m and a worldwide gross of $300m, it looks on the surface like a no brainer. If, however, you take into consideration the marketing budget, which i would guess must almost equal that of the production, and it does not look quite so financially successful. The movie will make a small profit, particularly with merchandise and DVD/Blu-Ray sales yet to come, but conditions certainly don’t look ideal for a follow-up. Continue reading
Tagged 80's, blockbuster, box office, budget, development, disney, film, gross, legacy, marketing, movie, news, pirates of the caribbean, prequel, promotion, script, sequel, tron, tron: legacy, update, walt disney pictures
It was revealed this week that Bond 23 is finally on the slate for shooting to begin this year, with a November 2012 release date. The saga of the next Bond film has been going on for some time now. The rocky economic climate has affected many companies around the world, and last July we heard that the next Bond film had apparently been cancelled. MGM had been in turmoil for some time, with financial problems slowing projects, and no sign of a buyer. Things appear to be looking up a little, and a release date for the as yet untitled Bond movie is great news. Continue reading
Tagged 23, bond, bond 23, box office, british, cancelled, daniel craig, eon, espionage, films, james bond, latest, mgm, movie, movies, news, production, sam mendes, schedule, shooting
Weekend estimates for the US are in, and with them comes a very comforting tale of triumph. The Coen brothers’ Academy Award contender True Grit won the weekend, bringing in another $15m to take its total to around $110M. This meant it not only finally beat Little Fockers into second place in their running box office battle, it also firmly established its place as the Coen’s highest grossing movie. Their first film to break the $100m mark, it is a big landmark for the prolific brothers. Continue reading
Posted in Box Office, News
Tagged academy awards, box office, buzz, coen, coen brothers, draw, ethan, gross, hollywood, jeff bridges, joel, matt damon, news, oscar, success, true grit
