Ultimate FY Round Ten (FINAL RESULTS)

Winner: donnie
Runners-up: Geezer, jas_8382 (tie)

Winning slate: Real Steel, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Twilight: Breaking Dawn Pt 1, Shame, Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol, Carnage, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, A Separation

Ultimate HY Round Five (FINAL RESULTS)

Winner: Walleye413
Runners-up: undeadmonkey
Third place: Geezer

Winning slate: Martha Marcy May Marlene, Puss in Boots, The Descendants, Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1, The Artist, Shame, Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol, A Separation

Box Office FY Round TEn (FINAL RESULTS)

Winner: Geezer
Runners-up: aquamann2001
Third place: undeadmonkey


Winning slate: Puss in Boots, Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Misison: Impossible Ghost Protocol

Box Office HY Round Five (FINAL RESULTS)

Winner: jas_8382
Runners-up: undeadmonkey
Third place: donnie

Winning slate: Puss in Boots, Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1, The Muppets, Young Adult, Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol

Congratulations to all the winners!

Shrykespeare

And thus, 2011 ended. Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows finished the calendar year with identical Top 5 points (thirteen) and with nearly identical box office takes ($134 and $132 million, respectively). True, M:I4 has slightly more momentum going forward, but it’s clear that these two films will end up being the two biggest films of December. Kudos must also go to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, which earned PTA points for the fourth straight week and brought its overall PTA point total to seventeen, which ties it with The Help for the most PTA points earned by any film in 2011. The Iron Lady and A Separation finished 1-2 in that category this past weekend.

Thanks, again, to every single person who participated in the 2011 Super Leagues. Both Full-Year tournaments as well as both of the second-half Half-Year tournaments finish up today (Sunday), and as soon as this weekend’s numbers become final, the tournament winners will be posted. I am so looking forward to getting it all started up again (mostly to wash my dismal performance this past year out of my mouth). It’s not too late to sign up, and if you have, please remember to enter the leagues, if you haven’t already!

How does one start off a brand new year? Well, if you are a studio figuring out where to dump a film that will probably not bring in a tremendous amount of moviegoers, the answer would be “cautiously”. It’s a new year. The holiday season is over. Kids are returning to school, adults are returning to work, and everybody is getting started on their half-assed attempt to satisfy whatever New Year’s resolutions they made. As far as movies go, most people are still to catch (or catch again) any number of Christmas holdovers that are still being shown. To put something new against all that is a risky venture, which is why most studios don’t even try, instead preferring to give those holiday films a buffer before introducing some new flavors into the mix.

The very first weekend of the year often heralds one, and only one, new title, or at least is has done in the past few years. That film is usually a low-budget or low-grade (or both) horror film, shoved into a couple thousand theaters with a “might as well” attitude by whatever studio is distributing it. That film, this year, is Paramount’s The Devil Inside.

No, this film is not an adaptation of the 2000 video game from Cryo Interactive. Rather, the latest in an ever-lengthening list of exorcism movies, a list that includes recent films such as The Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Last Exorcism and The Rite. Director William Brent Bell (Stay Alive) is in the big chair for this film, which has precisely zero recognizable names in the cast and is shot documentary-style. Wonder if it’ll have the INXS song of the same name in there somewhere…

The story: in October of 1989, a woman named Maria Rossi (Suzan Crowley) undergoes an exorcism, but ends up murdering three people while ostensibly being possessed by a demon. Enter the Catholic Church, and Maria is committed to a psychiatric hospital in Rome. Twenty years later, Maria’s daughter Isabelle (played by Brazilian-born actress Fernanda Andrade) hires a film crew and searches for a pastor/scientist to help Maria, largely out of fear that psychological problems such as her mother’s might be hereditary. As it turns out, Maria’s possession is unique, and after several more failed exorcism attempts, things start to really go horribly wrong. Simon Quartermain (Scorpion King 2), Evan Helmuth (Fever Pitch) and Ionut Grama (The Whistleblower) co-star.

The last found-footage horror film not part of the Paranormal Activity series was last September’s Apollo 18, which fizzled at the box office, bringing in a mere $18 million. Go back to the previous September, and the even-more-similar The Last Exorcism was able to open impressively, bringing in $20 million in its first three days on its way to $41 million overall. And then there’s the timing… early January is not the best slot for a film like this, but then again, it’s been a while since there has been any pure-horror films in theaters (The Darkest Hour notwithstanding). As a point of reference, here is how January’s leadoff horror-genre hitters have done over the past few years:

2011: Season of the Witch (Relativity) - $10M OW (#3, 2816 theaters), $25M overall
2010: Daybreakers (Lionsgate) - $15M OW (#4, 2523 theaters), $30M overall
2009: The Unborn (Universal) - $19M OW (#3, 2357 theaters), $42M overall*
2008: One Missed Call (Warner Bros) - $12M OW (#5, 2240 theaters), $27M overall
2006: Hostel (Lionsgate) - $19M OW (#1, 2195 theaters), $47M overall
2005: White Noise (Universal) - $24M OW (#2, 2261 theates), $56M overall

* - The Unborn finished just behind Bride Wars, which also debuted that same weekend.

If you throw out Season of the Witch, these numbers aren’t all that bad, all things considered. I’m not sure exactly how many theaters The Devil Inside will be in, but I am virtually certain it will be somewhere in the 2,000-2,500 range. Add all that up, what does it mean? Well, I can’t really base my prediction by how much advertising I’ve seen (which hasn’t been much, not that I’ve been actively looking for it), so I’ll play it safe and project an opening three days of $13 million for The Devil Inside, on its way to three Top 5 points and $27 million overall. I wouldn’t take this film in any but the January leagues (where it is price at $6 in Ultimate, $7 in Box Office), and only because it is guaranteed no fewer than seven PTA points (five this week, at least two next week). It won’t help you in the other two categories, but there are so few sure things in the early part of the year.


My predictions for the weekend of January 6-8, 2012:

1. Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol – $19 million
2. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows – $14 million
3. The Devil Inside - $13 million
4. Alvin & the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked – $12 million
5. War Horse - $11 million

Well, that will do it for me for another week. Next week, three films get the year rolling in earnest, as 2012 tries to assert itself against the holdovers of 2011, and they are: Contraband, a crime thriller starring Mark Wahlberg and Kate Beckinsale; Joyful Noise, a musical comedy starring Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton; and finally, the 3D re-release of the classic Disney film Beauty and the Beast.

Later!

Shrykespeare

Hello all,

Round One of the January Super Leagues is now open.  This year, I believe we are going to have more participants than every before, and that should make it the most exciting and competitive year yet. 

2011 was a banner year for our Italian contingent, led by outstanding players such as donnie, bestfilm, ColoredXIII and theantman.  Another round of thanks must go to our Italian friends for producing this marvelous website in the first place!

If you are interested in participating in the following tournaments, and are not on my mailing list, please send an e-mail to shrykespeare42@gmail.com, stating your wish to participate, and I will send you the relevant instructions and passwords.

There are four tournaments starting on January 6, 2012:  Ultimate Full-Year, Ultimate Half-Year, Box Office Full-Year, and Box Office Half-Year.  The Full-Year tournaments run all year long, and the Half-Year tournaments run through the May-July season.

If you have registered previously with me, check your email for the passwords, which I have already sent out.  Feel free to contact me at the above address if you have any problems or questions.

Thanks to all of you for your continued participation, and good luck!

Shrykespeare

Shrykespeare

So it turns out that Tom Cruise was the king of Christmas weekend, as Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol soared to a towering win this past weekend, collecting over $26 million, significantly ahead of Robert Downey Jr. and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Of the films that debuted over the past seven days, it was David Fincher’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo that finished the highest, garnering $24 million in its first five days, well ahead of The Adventures of Tintin and We Bought a Zoo. Meanwhile, on the PTA front, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy took first place, just ahead of Roman Polanski’s Carnage.

2011 is coming to an end. A year that saw many, many films fail to reach their potential; case in point, only six films topped $200 million in 2011 (so far), and not a single one of those was an animated film (Believe it or not, it was Cars 2’s $190 million that topped that particular list). It was also a hit-or-miss for sequels: apart from the latest installments in the Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean, Twilight, Hangover, Fast & Furious and Paranormal Activity franchises, most other sequels saw their prospects come to a screeching halt.

For the first time ever, Harry Potter went toe-to-toe with Transformers and came out ahead, taking the #1 spot for 2011 in that franchise’s last hurrah. Addtionally, a year rife with superhero films actually saw some pretty consistent numbers across the board. Thor led the way with $181 million, followed by Captain America ($176 million), X-Men: First Class ($146 million) and Green Lantern ($116 million).

Most of the year’s surprise hits were comedies or family films. No one, and I mean no one, could have predicted that The Help would soar to an unbelievable $169 million when it came out, could they? Same goes for Bridesmaids (also $169 million), the female-centric adult comedy that put Kristen Wiig on everybody’s lips. And lest we forget, there were other blockbuster comedies as well, including Horrible Bosses ($117 million), Just Go With It ($103 million) and Bad Teacher ($100 million).

What will 2012 bring? Will it be a step up from 2011? I would like to think so. However, before we start looking ahead to next year, we have to finish this one off, so let’s get started.

With only one week left in the Super Leagues, a few of the races have already been decided. However, in the Ultimate leagues, there are races that will go right down to the wire, and this week’s three films, the three final films to be released in the calendar year 2011, may or may not have something to do with who hoists the virtual trophy come New Year’s. All three are limited-release films, and will be showcased in only a handful of theaters this weekend, which makes every single one of them a legitimate threat to win the PTA crown.

The first of these three films is Pariah, which will be debuting in four locations this Wednesday. Much like 2009’s Precious, the film centers on a teenage African-American girl living in one of the rougher neighborhoods in New York City. Also like Precious, the film looks to be a very deep, emotionally-charged film, with the conflict stemming from the teenage girl’s fight for acceptance and the girl’s mother (and society in general) as the antagonist.

Pariah tells the story of Alike (Adepero Oduye), a 17-year-old Brooklyn girl who is quietly but firmly embracing her identity as a lesbian. Living at home with her parents (Charles Parnell and Kim Wayans), Alike has managed to maintain an excellent scholastic record and is nurturing a burgeoning love for poetry. However, when Alike’s sexuality becomes a point of contention with her mother, who is not concerned as much about her sexual orientation but rather how lesbians are still ostracized by much of society… in fact, Alike’s best friend Laura (Pernell Walker) came out not long before, and is now estranged from her family.

Pariah is director Dee Rees’s very first film, but it is certainly unlikely to be her last, given by the amazing reception Pariah has gotten: since making its debut at Sundance earlier this year (where it won the award for Excellence in Cinematography), it has gotten nothing but rave reviews. Its current RT score is an amazing 100%, with all sixteen critics that have reviewed it giving it a thumbs-up. It also has a very impressive User Rating of 7.5 at IMDb (though with only 162 votes), which is just about what Precious finished with… and it’s worth noting that these Ratings are very atypical for films with primarily African-American casts.

Pariah will be expanding to only ten theaters next week (according to the film’s website), so for only $4 in Ultimate leagues, this film could very well end up bringing in PTA points in multiple weeks, especially when you consider that only one film is debuting next week, and it is highly unlikely to be a PTA monster. With a pedigree like this, no one could fault you for taking this film.

Next up is A Separation, an Iranian drama whose accolates up to this point have been even more impressive than Pariah’s, if you can believe it. It was the hottest property at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year, receiving awards for Best Film, Best Actor and Best Actress, becoming the first Iranian film ever win that award. It is also nomated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Film (and is the likely favorite to win, from what I hear). It, too, has a perfect score on RT, as all thirty of the critics that have reviewed it have given their stamp of approval. Wow.

Taking place in modern-day Iran, A Separation centers on the turmoil of married couple Simin (Leila Hatami) and Nader (Peyman Moadi). Simon, you see, wants to leave Iran with Nader and her young daughter Termeh (Sarina Farhadi, the daughter of director Asghar Farhadi) in search of a better, less restrictive life, but Nader refuses to leave because he is forced to take care of his Alzheimer’s-stricken father. Simin therefore files for divorces, but it is denied, and with no other recourse, she moves back in with her parents. Nader is therefore forced to hire a young pregnant woman named Razieh to assist him, and that’s when things get really complicated.

A Separation will be debuting in three theaters in New York and Los Angeles this Friday. In the next month, it will be adding an average of a couple theaters per week before spreading out to roughly a hundred by February. With a platform like that (coinciding with the Academy Awards), there’s no reason to believe that this film can’t manage double-digits in PTA points. And if the RT score wasn’t enough to convince you of THAT, its current Rating should: it’s now at a whopping 8.6 with over 20,000 votes, which means it’s unlikely to change at all. There are very few sure bets in this game, but A Separation would seem to be one of them. For $5 in Ultimate, grab it with both hands.

There’s a reason that no one in history has garnered more Oscar acting nominations than Meryl Streep. It’s because she’s… well, Meryl Streep. Certainly no current actress in Hollywood is more respected, and if you have an Oscar-bait movie requiring someone to play the role of a famous historical figure, well, you just can’t go wrong with Meryl. She played actress Karen Silkwood with verve, and brought energetic life to her role as Julie Child in 2009. And now, she puts her stamp on former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, probably the most important woman in British history that is not a member of the Royal Family, in The Iron Lady.

Director Phyllida Lloyd (who also directed Streep in Mamma Mia!) is behind the camera for this film, which will be bowing in four theaters this Friday. It will be told as a narrative through a series of flashbacks, and will include the 17-day period leading up to the Falkland Islands War in 1982. Of course, one can imagine the early struggles Thatcher had to endure as well, trying to take control of a country that was in the middle of a steep decline at the time despite the handicap of being a woman in a government that didn’t have very many. Academy Award winner Jim Broadbent (Iris) plays Margaret’s husband Denis.

Compared to other recent biopics of political figures, I would venture that The Iron Lady will finish on the respect-meter somewhere between J. Edgar and The King’s Speech. In other words, it probably won’t disappoint, but neither will it run away with tons of awards either. Its current RT score is good but not fantastic (69% on 21/30 reviews), and despite the presense of Streep, I have to believe that the PTA chances of The Iron Lady are just not as strong as those of Pariah or A Separation. (Certainly not the latter, anyway.)

It’s entirely possible that The Iron Lady will go wide at some point, much like The King’s Speech did, but that is by no means a sure thing. For $7 in Ultimate ($6 in Box Office), I would venture that it’s too big a gamble. Better to take the sure thing in A Separation and save your other PTA picks for a less-crowded time period.


My predictions for the weekend of December 30, 2011-January 1, 2012:

1. Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol – $18 million
2. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows – $11 million
3. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - $10 million
4. Alvin & the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked – $9 million
5. The Adventures of Tintin – $7 million

Well, that will do it for me for another YEAR. Would you believe I talked about 250 since 2011 started?? And next week, we start it all over again. (And there was much rejoicing…) Only one film is on tap to lead off 2012, that being horror flick The Devil Inside, the latest in a long line of “exorcism” films. I’ll also be previewing my Most Anticipated Films of 2012 (January-April). Don’t forget to enter the Super Leagues, and Happy New Year to all of you!

Happy New Year, everybody!

Shrykespeare

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, as expected, easily won this past weekend, but in doing so it came in well under expectations, managing only $40 million in its first three days, only about 2/3 of what many pundits were projecting. The odds that Robert Downey Jr.’s latest titan will reach $200 million now seem very slim. The big winner of the weekend, surprisingly, was Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol, which, based on terrific reviews and word-of-mouth, kicked butt at the four-hundred plus IMAX locations where it debuted, scaring up enough dough to not only take third place in the overall box office ($13.6 million) but managed to pull an upset in the PTA category, beating out limited-release films like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Carnage in the process.

Ah, Christmas weekend. If you’re a movie buff like me, you’re in a dither about what movie to go see first, because there are so many worthy films debuting in theaters, and that’s not even including the Oscar-bait films that are coming out in limited release! There is just so much going on this weekend, and so many films to talk about, that I am going to have to do something I’ve never done before, and that’s split my column into two parts. Plus, I will be implementing a format change… From now on, I will be inserting the YouTube trailer videos after I talk about each film, and not clustered together at the very end. Let me know if you like the change or whether you preferred it the old way.

First off, my sincerest apologies… originally, Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol was supposed to premiere this Wednesday, on December 21st. I knew several weeks ago that the film would be given several hundred sneak-preview showings in IMAX theaters this past Friday, but I wasn’t aware until after I posted my column last week that the date assigned to it for game purposes had changed as well. The bad news is, it doesn’t really matter what I say about the film now, since it’s too late to add it to your slates. If you don’t have it on there already, you’re SOL.

Still, I can’t let a film of this caliber slide by without saying a few words about it, can I? Priced at $21 in Ultimate and $23 in Box Office, it will be expanding to roughly 3,400 theaters this Wednesday. However, given that quite a few people who really wanted to see it will have already done so, my original prediction for its opening weekend has diminished. Added to that is the fact that the wide release is taking place on a Wednesday, and on probably the most crowded weekend of the entire year. The upswing is, there are no new “big” movies next week and only one the week after that (barely), so seven or eight Top 5 points are probably not out of the realm of possibility.

I won’t go heavily into the plot, since I’m sure most of you know it already and I’ve got a ton of other stuff to talk about as well. Suffice it to say, critics have been over the moon about Ghost Protocol, to the tune of an astounding 95% fresh on RT (only six negative reviews out of 115), which is something I’m betting NO ONE was expecting. For those that chose it (and there were a lot of you), the current Rating (8.1 with about 2,000 votes) will also help you. Let’s hope it measures up in the other categories as well. In all, I predict $18 million for the three-day weekend, and $140 million overall.

The second big film to debut this Wednesday is The Adventures of Tintin, an animated film from Paramount done in the motion-capture style, a style adopted by past films such as The Polar Express, Beowulf and A Christmas Carol. Based on the comic book series penned by Belgian author Hergé in the first half of the last century, the movie is an amalgam of three of the original stories (The Crab With the Golden Claws, The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham’s Treasure). It is directed by Hollywood legend Steven Spielberg (who also has another film, War Horse, debuting this weekend, which I’ll get to in a bit) and produced by another Hollywood legend, Peter Jackson. Those two together? That’s a hell of a collaboration!

Tintin (voiced by Jamie Bell), for those not in the know, is a young European journalist who, while browsing in an outdoor market with his faithful dog Snowy, happens across a model of an old sailing vessel called The Unicorn, a vessel that was lost at sea centuries before. Before he knows it, Tintin becomes embroiled in a web of intrigue surrounding the model, which just might contain a clue to the resting place of the actual ship, where a fabulous treasure lies just waiting to be salvaged. Along the way, Tintin makes the acquaintance of gruff seaman Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis), who just happens to be a descendant of The Unicorn’s original captain.

This film, with a European setting, a largely European cast (which also includes Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Cary Elwes and Toby Jones), premiered all over Europe two months ago. In seven weeks, it has amassed nearly $250 million, which is quite impressive. Whether it will do that will in the U.S. is doubtful, but, unlike every other motion-captures film that came before it, there seems to be an engaging story within it; it would also appear to be the last animated movie (in its original run) to be put into theaters until February.

The Adventures of Tintin will run you $20 in the both the Ultimate and Box Office leagues. I don’t believe it will have enough to beat Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows in its second week, but I think it has an excellent chance to take the #2 spot. It, too, has gotten great reviews and has a solid Rating (7.8 with over 20,000 votes), so I think it’s worth that price tag. I predict a $20 million weekend, along with nine Top 5 points, several PTA and $115 million overall. Not too shabby.

(Quirky coincidence #1: Simon Pegg appears in both The Adventures of Tintin and Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol.)

There’s no doubt about it: David Fincher is one of the hottest directors in Hollywood right now. After helming fan favorites such as Se7en and Fight Club, he upped his game even further, spawning the amazingly-reviewed Zodiac, and then followed that up with two films that both won him a Best Director nomination at the Oscars: 2009’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and last year’s The Social Network. I would put it out there that apart from Christopher Nolan, he’s the top director in Hollywood at the moment.

It takes a lot of gumption to follow two Oscar-nominated films with an adaptation that’s still so fresh in everybody’s minds; the Swedish novel The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (by the late Stieg Larsson) was only published six years ago, and translated into English only three years ago. Not only that, it (along with two sequels) were already made into Swedish-language feature films, and they have all enjoyed enormous success around the world. The Swedish Dragon Tattoo, which was filmed on a miniscule budget of $13 million, made over $100 million internationally.

The story is a very dark one, so perhaps its not all that surprising that someone like Fincher would take a shine to it. The male protagonist of the film is Mikael Blomqvist (Daniel Craig), the publisher and co-owner of a political magazine in Sweden, who was just recently accused of libel in court and lost, and soon faces jail time. Before that, however, he is hired by an elderly man named Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), who wants Mikael to bring his keen insight to discovering what happened to his great-niece Harriet, who disappeared four decades earlier. He is aided – reluctantly at first – by Lisbeth Salander (The Social Network’s Rooney Mara), a hacker-slash-surveillance expert with a very disturbing past of her own.

I wasn’t sure that an English-language remake of this film so soon after the original was a good idea when I heard about it, especially with a relative unknown like Mara playing such a crucial role. However, from the reviews I’ve read, I’ve been worried for nothing. The reviews so far are nearly universally outstanding (33/35 positive on RT, or 95%), praising everything about this film, from the direction to the tone to the score to the supporting cast to especially Mara herself, who just garnered herself a Golden Globe nom. How about them apples?

In an October release last year, The Social Network nearly topped $100 million despite its rather dry subject matter. From all I’ve heard about it, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo certainly deserves to achieve blockbuster status, but it’s certainly not a sure thing. On the one hand, both book-readers and movie aficionados are already very familiar with the subject matter, and this English version looks, in many ways, to be an improvement on both the book (I’ve heard from many people that have attempted to read it but just couldn’t get through it) and the Swedish version. There are only two details that I could see hurting this film’s chances in the long run. Firstly, there is the story itself, a story that involves a lot of brutality, including murder and rape… the R rating is well and truly earned. And secondly, there is the running time, which is over two and a half hours. A running time that long ultimately means fewer showings, and, ultimately, less money taken in.

For a price tag of $16 (in both leagues), The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo just might be worth the gamble. Fincher is on a serious roll right now, and if the accolades and nominations continue to roll in, it could have serious legs before all is said and done. Despite only debuting in 2,800 theaters, I predict an OW of $19 million, on its way to seven Top 5 points, three PTA and $90 million. The Rating (currently at 7.4) will not drop more than a few tenths, and it might even go up. Even so, it would seem to be a better pick in Box Office than Ultimate.

(Quirky coincidence #2: In the Swedish version, the characters Mikael and Lisbeth were played by Swedish actors Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace. Nyqvist just happens to play the villain in Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol, and Rapace made her big English-language film debut this past weekend as the female lead in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. She will be appearing next in Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel, Prometheus.)



Continued below…

Shrykespeare

So that takes care of Wednesday’s films. The one and only major film debuting on Friday, December 23rd, is We Bought a Zoo, the seventh outing for director Cameron Crowe and his first since Elizabethtown underwhelmed in 2005. The man behind the camera for films like Say Anything…, Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous is back for this comedy-drama from Fox, which is based on the memoirs of author Benjamin Mee.

The story, basically, tells of how Mee used his life savings to buy the Dartmoor Zoological Park, a rundown zoo in the English countryside. He uses this opportunity not only to save the zoo’s nearly 200-strong population of exotic animals from destruction but to rebuild his own life, a plan that delights his very young daughter Rosie (Maggie Elizabeth Jones) but seeks to further alienate his teenage son Dylan (Colin Ford). Thomas Haden Church, Scarlet Johansson and Elle Fanning also co-star.

We Bought a Zoo is getting a respectable release platform (3,000 theaters), and it is the only big film coming out on the Friday, but, unlike pretty much every other heavy hitter that is this film’s competition (except for Chipwrecked), the reviews have been… lukewarm, to say the least. RT currently has it at 58% Fresh (on 7/12 reviews), and the IMDb Rating is 6.8. I like Matt Damon, but with so much going on, something has to come out on the short end of the stick, and We Bought a Zoo looks like it. It may do respectably well over time, but I doubt it will earn more than one or two Top 5 points (if that), along with no PTA, and perhaps $75 million if it’s lucky. But for game purposes, it would seem to be way overpriced at $11 in Ultimate ($12 in Box Office).

After so much space spent on wide-release films (and we’re not even done yet!), it’s high time we mentioned a limited-release film, and debuting in three theaters on Friday is In the Land of Blood and Honey, which marks the directorial debut of actress Angelina Jolie (which she also wrote and co-produced). It is a love story set against the backdrop of the Bosnian war of the 1990’s, an idea that came into Jolie’s head when she visited that country as a U.N. goodwill ambassador.

The story centers on Danijel (Goran Kostić) and Ajla (Zana Marjanović), two people on opposite sides of the brutal conflict. Danijel is a soldier fighting for the Serbs, and Ajla is a Bosnian woman being held captive in the camp that he oversees. Having been in a previous relationship prior to the war, their bond is tested to the limits as the chaos that surrounds them grows ever darker.

I just don’t know. I mean, it’s good to see Jolie spreading her artistic resume out a bit, and from what I’ve read, for a first effort, In the Land of Blood and Honey isn’t bad. But “isn’t bad” may not translate to many PTA points on this weekend, if any at all. Love stories set during wartime are often a hard sell even in indie circles (unless the story is written by Nicholas Sparks), but if you want to spend $4 on this title, go for it. I wouldn’t, though.

Steven Spielberg’s name has always carried a lot of clout. Since the 70’s, he has been the visionary behind some of the most beloved films of all time, including Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Jurassic Park, just to name a few. But apart from family fare, sci-fi or action films, he has never shied away from more dramatic, even horrific, subject matter, having won Best Director Oscars for films such as Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan. The last time he wore the director’s hat was for the hugely underwhelming Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and now, he’s back with another period drama, entitled War Horse. It is based on the children’s novel of the same name by author Michael Morpurgo.

Unlike Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan, which took place during WWII, War Horse is set in England at the onset of WWI. The story is centered on the friendship between a young man named Albert (Jeremy Irvine, making his big-screen debut) and his horse, Joey. After Joey is sold to the cavalry and shipped to France, Albert enlists for service as well. Over the course of the film, both undergo harrowing, fateful journeys as the Great War rages around them.

There is probably no one that makes war movies that tug at the heartstrings quite as ably as Steven Spielberg. His name is above the title for War Horse, and you’d better believe that those in the mood for a touching, poignant, inspirational film will be interested in seeing this film. Unfortunately, for game purposes, this film has too much going against it. First off, it is debuting on Christmas Day, which is a Sunday, which means it will have all of one day to make its bones against all the film’s I’ve already talked about… I can see no possible way that it will even come close to the Top 5 on its first weekend. It could conceivably sneak in for one or two Top 5 points in forthcoming weekends, but that’s iffy at best. I imagine a opening day of $5 million and about $60 million overall. It may be worth $9 in Box Office, but for $11 in Ultimate? Stay the hell away.

(Quirky coincidence #3: War Horse is directed by Steven Spielberg, whose last big war epic, Saving Private Ryan, starred Tom Hanks and Matt Damon, both of whom have films debuting this weekend.)

Making the least auspicious debut on Christmas weekend is The Darkest Hour, a sci-fi action thriller that is being shoved into 2,200 theaters starting Sunday, including some 3D locations (why???). It is being distributed by Summit Entertainment, whose track record for films not in the Twilight series has been less than impressive.

In this story, five friends decide to visit the snowy climes of Moscow, Russia, together. Not long after they arrive, however, Earth is attacked by alien invasion, who seek to drain the planet of all of its energy as well as to wipe out its population. The five friends must band together with whatever locals they can find to turn the tables on the unseen aliens, whose technology is vastly superior to our own. Emile Hirsch, Olivia Thirlby and Rachael Taylor star.

Given the time of year and the genre, it’s very easy to look at the trailer for The Darkest Hour and think of last year’s sci-fi disaster Skyline. Which I suppose is apt; it’s sci-fi, with a story chronicling an alien invasion and sporting a largely unknown cast. (At least Battle: Los Angeles had Harvey Dent and the chick from Avatar…) It is the first major film for director Chris Gorak, who served as the art director for notable films such as Tombstone, Fight Club and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Skyline debuted in mid-November last year and only managed to pull in a measly $21 million. The Darkest Hour will be in even fewer theaters, so I daresay $21 million would be optimistic as far as its potential goes. Will the film itself be as bad as Skyline? Doubtful, since NOTHING could be as bad as that steaming turd of a film. If there’s one thing that makes me want to see this film, it’s the fact that it was produced by Timur Bekmambitov, who directed Wanted in 2008 and produced 9 in 2009 (the latter of which I enjoyed very much.) Plus, the film was shot on location in Moscow, and from what I hear, the set direction is fantastic. That’s about all I can say about this film in the positive, however. For $7 in Ultimate ($9 in Box Office), I would only take this film in Bankrupts.

The final film up for consideration this week is Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. This drama comes to us from Fox and thrice-Oscar-nominated director Stephen Daldry (for Billy Elliot, The Hours and The Reader), and will be bowing in six theaters this Sunday. It is scheduled to expand nationwide on January 20th.

Where were you on that fateful Tuesday in 2001 when two hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center? That horrific day in history is relived through the eyes of ten-year-old boy Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn, making his debut) who tragically lost his father (Tom Hanks) in those attacks. Through flashbacks, we learn how close he was to his father, and when a mysterious key is bequeathed to Oskar, he undergoes a journey across New York to find the lock box that the key opens, for it might be his last connection to his father. Sandra Bullock plays the role of Oskar’s mother, making her first on-screen appearance since winning the Oscar for Best Actress for The Blind Side two years ago.

You’d think that combining a director like Daldry with two proven top-notch actors like Hanks and Bullock would be an instant recipe for success, but that may not be the case. Since Hanks’ character is seen almost always in flashback, and Bullock’s part is relatively small, this film would appear to be mostly Horn’s to carry, and that’s a lot to ask of a young, inexperienced child actor, but it wouldn’t be unprecedented if he did. Plus, the film’s lack of mention in the just-released Golden Globe nominations doesn’t bode well either.

There have been several movies in the last decade set against the backdrop of 9/11, most notably World Trade Center, which managed to pull in $70 million in 2006. And if this movie does take off when it goes wide, it certainly has the ability to get there, but the bad news is that if it does, it won’t reach that plateau until mid-February at the earliest.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close will run you $8 in Ultimate leagues and $10 in Box Office. That may seem like a lot now, given that its PTA prospects may be limited when stacked up against all the rest of the Oscar-bait films. It would be a gutsy call, to say the least, to put it on your slates, but if you do, you’ll have to be very patient with it.

My predictions for the weekend of December 23-25, 2011:

1. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows – $23 million
2. The Adventures of Tintin – $20 million
3. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - $19 million
4. Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol – $18 milion
5. We Bought a Zoo – $15 million
6. Alvin & the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked – $13 million

Well, that will do it for me for another week. Next week, it all ends: 2011, the Super Leagues, and another year of column-writing. The dust from this past week will have barely settled as the final three films of 2011 hit theaters, all in limited release: Pariah, a drama starring Kim Wayans; The Iron Lady, a biopic about former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, starring Meryl Streep in the title role; and A Separation, an Iranian drama that has kicked ass on the festival circuit and is nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar.

Later!

Shrykespeare

Well, this past weekend was supposed to be the beginning of an upswing at the Box Office, but it turned out to be just another dead weekend. Romantic comedy New Year’s Eve proved to be a completely unworthy “sequel” to Valentine’s Day, scrimping together $13 million but still taking first place due to a lack of competition. The other wide-release film to debut, The Sitter, took second with a paltry $9.8 million of its own. Things were much more pleasant on the PTA front, as limited-release films Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Young Adult and We Need to Talk About Kevin all made very impressive debuts in the few theaters that showcased them.

We’re only three weeks away from crowning our Super League champions, and only four weeks away from starting it all over again. If you are reading this and have not registered, please do so immediately. If you have friends or co-workers that might be interested, tell them! I would love to make 2012’s field the largest ever, and that can’t happed without your help!

It was only two years ago that Robert Downey Jr., whose career resurgence after numerous stints in rehab has been nothing short of miraculous, rode his rocket-powered Iron Man persona into a completely different genre: a dark mystery-drama, where he played the most famous literary detective of all time, in Sherlock Holmes. This well-placed film very nearly topped Avatar (which was only in its second week) over Christmas weekend in 2009, pulling in $62 million on its way to $209 million overall. The bad news: it was never able to QUITE overtake James Cameron’s cinematic monster, finishing at #2 for three straight weeks. However, the good news is, there is no 800-pound gorilla waiting in the opposite corner to take on Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows this time. With all of the November movies fading out of theaters, this film is definitely the biggest dog in this particular hunt.

Director Guy Ritchie, who had his first major success with the original Holmes, is back again to helm the sequel, which returns Downey to the titular role of the brilliant but flawed sleuth, as well as Jude Law in the role of Holmes’ intrepid colleague, Dr. John Watson. It has long been established, way back when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle penned the stories originally, that if there was one person that was Holmes’ intellectual equal, it was Professor James Moriarty, the major difference between them being that Moriarty used his gifts for evil. Though the character was only seen in the shadows in the first time, he is front-and-center here (and played by actor Jared Harris).

The story: the Crown Prince of Austria has been found dead, and all evidence points to suicide… but Holmes thinks otherwise. With the help of his friend Watson, his older brother Mycroft (Stephen Fry) and a gypsy fortune-teller named Sim (played by Noomi Rapace, the Swedish star of the original The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo films, who is making her American-film debut) who just may be the mysterious assassin’s next target, Holmes begins an investigation to prevent a catastrophe that could have dire ramifications for all of Europe if not averted. Rachel McAdams and Eddie Marsan reprise their roles as Irene Adler and Inspector Lestrade, though I would wager their parts are significantly smaller than before.

With no blue-skinned aliens vying for supremacy this time around, look for A Game of Shadows to open to huge numbers: say, $65 million, on its way to eleven Top 5 points, three PTA, a Rating in the mid-7’s and $210 million overall, which is very comprable to the original’s numbers and allows for a slight sequel slump. In the December-February leagues, A Game of Shadows is the most expensive property, running $26 in Ultimate leagues and $27 in Box Office. Most of its competition will come next week, where a boatload of potentially-big films will be debuting over Christmas holiday. Regardless, I fully expect this film to be the highest-grossing film of December, and likely the last film to eclipse $200 until next May.

Coincidentally, there was another film that debuted two years ago on Christmas weekend, the exact same weekend that Sherlock Holmes debuted. That film was comedy-musical Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel, and that film pounded out $48 million of its own that weekend, en route to $219 million overall (just barely beating the numbers of the original Alvin film, which managed $44/$217 in 2007). Two years later, the third chapter in the series hits theaters, entitled Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked.

Who’d’ve thought that two movies about animated chipmunks, who act like out-of-control human teenagers and sing and dance to the latest hits in high-pitched, squeaky voices could manage over half a billion dollars in the U.S. alone ($800 million worldwide)? Certainly not me. Was a third film in the series really necessary? Probably not… but any sequel that outgrosses its predecessor is certainly not going to be the final one, so you can bet that Warner Bros. is going to milk this particular cash cow until it stops mooing.

I won’t describe what is laughingly called a plot, because the film is doubtless just going to be 87 minutes of Alvin (Justin Long), Simon (Matthew Gubler) and Theodore (Jesse McCartney), along with their female counterparts, the Chipettes (Amy Poehler, Anna Faris and Christina Applegate), running amok and causing trouble for their hapless owner, Dave (Jason Lee). This time out, after causing a series of mishaps on a luxurious cruise ship, that the gang finds themselves awash on a deserted island, where they will sing and dance for our amusement while they await rescue. Really, what more do you need to know?

Do I expect Chipwrecked to outdo The Squeakuel, as far as numbers go? In a word, no. I firmly believe that this series’ “jump the shark” moment has arrived, and sequel fatigue will start to set in when Chipwrecked’s numbers start to roll in. The numbers won’t be horrible, they just won’t be as good as before. Say, $32 million in its first three days, on its way to $130 million, eight Top 5 points and maybe a couple of PTA. As for the Rating? It will be bad. Like, in the 4.0 range. For that reason, I would probably only take it in Box Office, where it will run you $24. It’s only $21 in Ultimate, but going up against Sherlock Holmes, it will ultimately play second fiddle, and that’s not something you really want on your slates.

Last spring, controversial director Roman Polanski’s film The Ghost Writer turned into a modest hit, pounding out 13 PTA points and a respectable overall take of $15 million in theaters. Building on that success, Polanski’s latest, a black comedy entitled Carnage, will be debuting this Friday in five locatoins, before expanding to several dozen in January.

Carnage centers on two sets of parents, who decide to meet after their sons are involved in a schoolyard brawl. But what starts out as a polite discussion about child-rearing soon escalates into verbal warfare, with all four parents revealing their true colors. And the actors/actresses playing these four parents? Oscar-caliber talents all, with Jodie Foster (The Accused) and John C. Reilly (Chicago) and Kate Winslet (The Reader) and Christophe Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) on the other.

December is the season for Oscar-bait movies, and Carnage seems like it fits that particular bill. And at a price tag of $6 in Ultimate, I would highly recommend it, not just because it’s a hit with critics so far (80% on 24/30 reviews) but with viewers as well (7.9 on IMDb with 3,000 votes). I’m not sure it will break out at the box office like The Ghost Writer did, but even so, I’d be cautious about spending $4 on it in Box Office. I would also think about whether you believe Carnage has the potential to top the films I mentioned in the end of the first paragraph of this column, which will all be in their second week (minus Young Adult, which will be expanding to 1,000 theaters).

The final film this week is one that I talked about a month ago, so I’m just going to cut-and-paste what I said from that column, with one or two tweaks:

Cook County ($2 Ult, $1 BO) – After two years on a shelf, little-known Hannover House will be distributing this drama into an unknown number of theaters this Friday. It centers on seventeen-year-old Abe (Bandslam’s Ryan Donowho), who is trying to kick his addiction to meth and protect his young niece from his abusive uncle Bump. (Straw Dogs’ Anson Mount). When Abe’s father (Xander Berkeley) returns from prison, he and Abe must find a way to deal with the minefield that is the lifestyle created around them by crystal meth and Bump.

There’s not a lot I can tell you about Cook County beyond that. It has a so-so Rating on IMDb right now (6.9), but with only 122 votes in the can, it could change quite a bit when it’s released. It’s worth noting that this is the ONLY title left in the December Ultimate leagues with a $2 price tag. So, if you are dead set on the films you already have on your roster, and you only have $2 to spend, this is your last option, because everything else from here on out in the December-February leagues are $3 or more.


My predictions for the weekend of December 16-18, 2011:

1. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows – $65 million
2. Alvin & the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked – $32 million
3. New Year’s Eve – $8 million
4. Arthur Christmas – $6 million
5. Young Adult (wide expansion) - $6 million
6. The Sitter – $5 million
7. The Muppets – $4 million
8. Hugo – $4 million
9. The Descendants – $4 million

Well, that will do it for me for another week. Next week, it’s the last big hurrah of the year, as eight noteworthy films debut, at various intervals, that will take us through the Christmas holiday. On Wednesday: Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol, the latest hypercharged action film starring Tom Cruise; The Adventures of Tintin, a stop-motion animated film based on the popular European comic book character; and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, the latest outing from director David Fincher and a remake of the popular Swedish film of the same name. On Friday: We Bought a Zoo, the latest film from director Cameron Crowe and starring Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson; and In the Land of Blood and Honey, a Bosnian war drama directed by actress Angelina Jolie. On Sunday (Christmas Day): Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, a 9/11 drama starring Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock; War Horse, a WWII war drama from director Stephen Spielberg; and The Darkest Hour, a sci-fi horror film starring Emile Hirsch and Rachael Taylor.

Later!

Shrykespeare

L'uscita del film Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol è anticipata di una settimana, cioè al 16/12 anzichè 21/12, perchè il film uscirà venerdì 16 in alcune sale americane in versione completa e non in sneak preview. Per tale motivo, anche l'uscita ai fini del gioco viene anticipata.

Act of Valor, previsto il 17/2 è stato posticipato al 24/2.

Donnie

This past weekend played out as predicted as the pre-Thanksgiving holdovers enjoyed their last few days on top of the Box Office charts. With only four weeks to go in 2011 and a whole horde of potential blockbusters debuting in theaters before then, we are rounding the final turn and beginning the final stretch, the stretch that will determine the victor in the last round of the 2011 Super Leagues. Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1 won in a walkaway for the third straight week, coming up with just shy of $17 million, significantly ahead of The Muppets, which managed only $11 million in its second weekend after a strong start. Hugo and Arthur Christmas held fairly well, and new debut Shame just barely surpassed The Artist’s second weekend for the PTA crown.

Unlike this past weekend, which only saw the debut of two new titles (both limited-release), this Friday will herald the premiere of seven new titles, two wide and five limited. That’s a lot of ground to cover, so I won’t mince any more words. Here we go!

In February of last year, veteran director Garry Marshall brought to theaters Valentine’s Day, a romantic comedy with a veritable cornucopia of acting talent, all taking part in several separate yet intertwining stories about various stages of love, set against the backdrop of the holiday that is dedicated to love. Valentine’s Day massacred (heh) at the box office, powering to an OW of $56 million on its way to $110 million overall. And now, nearly two years later, Marshall is back with yet another holiday-themed ensemble-cast movie, entitled New Year’s Eve.

I won’t list the plots of the various vignettes that make up this film’s run-time, you can probably discern that on your own from watching the trailer. It is worth mentioning some of the more noteworthy members of the cast, which includes Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, Sarah Jessica Parker, Abigail Breslin, Hilary Swank, Sofia Vergara, Halle Berry, Zac Efron, Jon Bon Jovi, Jessica Biel, Josh Duhamel, Carla Gugino, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Alyssa Milano, Seth Meyers, Sienna Miller, and Lea Michele. Not too shabby.

Everyone is comparing New Year’s Eve to Valentine’s Day in every way, and why not? Same director, same format, same huge cast. The question is: can New Year's Eve surpass its predecessor? Well, let’s look at some things that New Year’s Eve has in its favor. Firstly, it’s the first pure romantic comedy to hit theaters since Crazy, Stupid, Love (unless you count What’s Your Number?, which was barely a blip on anyone’s radar), and there won’t be another one for a while. Secondly, New Year’s Eve is debuting several weeks before the blessed event named in its title, which means that it could conceivably avoid the huge drops that Valentine’s Day suffered by debuting on Valentine’s weekend.

For these two reasons, and because the box office race is wide open again this week, it’s pretty much a given that New Year’s Eve will take first place this weekend. But even so, I can’t envision an OW for New Year’s Eve much higher than $25 million, which is less than half of what Valentine’s Day managed. (And I’m being generous, as most Internet pundits are predicting much lower numbers than that.) In all, I expect $83 million, eight Top Five points, two PTA and a Rating around 6.0. For $15 in the December Ultimate leagues ($16 in Box Office), this is a pretty safe pick. Maybe not the best one, but there is almost no chance that it will completely tank.

The other major film this weekend is also a comedy, and it is most assuredly an adult film despite the presence of several small children in it. It is The Sitter, the latest film from Fox Studios and director David Gordon Green, who had a big hit in 2008 with The Pineapple Express but flopped hard earlier this year with Your Highness. The premise is eerily similar to the 1987 film Adventures in Babysitting, a typical 80’s guilty pleasure romp where a beleaguered high school senior (Elisabeth Shue) has to juggle both her personal life, a crisis involving her best friend and three youths charged to her all in the space of one wild and crazy night fraught with mishap and danger. In The Sitter (which is rated R, not PG), the title character is played by ubiquitious comic actor Jonah Hill (last seen in Moneyball).

Hill plays Noah, a college student on suspension who now lives with his mother. After an argument, Noah is forced into taking a babysitting gig, even though he has no rapport whatsoever with children. Like AiB, there are three kids, two boys and one girl. Unlike AiB, however, all three kids are of pre-high-school age: the studios Slater (Max Records), wild child Blithe (Landry Bender) and Mafia-esque exchange student Rodrigo (Kevin Hernandez). The other major difference? The mess that Noah gets into is entirely of his own making (starting with bringing the kids to a party where he can “get some”, if you know what I mean). Before long, Noah and his trio of terrors are on the run from two psychotic drug dealers (Sam Rockwell and J.B. Smoove). Can Noah get the kids back in bed safe and sound? And get some?

Jonah Hill is quite popular, to be sure, but I remain unconvinced that he has enough star power at this point to successfully carry a film on his own. He’s close, but I don’t think he’s quite there yet. For that reason, I’m only going to predict a $10 million OW for The Sitter, on its way to five Top 5 points, zero PTA, a Rating in the mid-6’s and $35 million. Comedies tend to have good legs, and like I said earlier, the next month-plus will have a dearth of comedies. I’m just not sure the stats that I mentioned are worth spending $11 on (in either league).

And now, a little bit about this weekend’s bevy of limited-release films:

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy ($8 Ult, $7 BO) – This film is an adaptation of the bestselling 1974 British spy novel of the same name by John le Carre (which was also made into a 1979 movie starring Sir Alec Guinness). This version stars reigning Best Actor Colin Firth, along with Gary Oldman, rising star Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones and Mark Strong.

Taking place during the Cold War of the mid-20th century, the film centers on disgraced spy George Smiley (Oldman), who is re-hired by his government to determine the identity of a double agent who has infiltrated the British Secret Intelligence Service (aka MI6) and is suspected of working directly for the Soviets. Director Tomas Alfredsson (Let the Right One In) is at the helm, which is reason enough to take notice.

Tinker Tailor would appear to have everything it needs to be a PTA champ: a great cast, a great director, a miniscule release platform (four theaters), kudos out the wazoo (it was nominated for six awards at the British Independent Film Awards as well as the Golden Lion at Venice), a truckload of critical acclaim (a staggering 96% score on RT with 49/51 positive) and an awesome Rating (7.7 with over 5,000 votes). Even so, $8 is a lot to spend on it, especially with strong competition in that category like Shame, The Artist and A Dangerous Method, not to mention everything else coming out this week. The $7 price tag in Box Office is predicated on whether or not the film will ever go wide, and I am unsure at this time whether something like that is being planned, so I would probably pass there.

Young Adult ($6 Ult, $5 BO) – This is the latest film from director Jason Reitman, following up critical darlings Juno and Up in the Air. It will be debuting in eight theaters this Friday before expanding wide next week (I’m guessing somewhere in the 1,000-1,500 range). The screenplay was written by Diablo Cody (who won an Oscar for Juno). Charlize Theron plays Mavis Gary, a writer of teen literature who returns to her small hometown to try to recapture her glory days, as well as to try to woo her old high-school sweetheart (Patrick Wilson), despite the inconvenient fact that he’s happy married. She also forms a rather unusual bond with a former classmate (Patton Oswalt), who hasn’t quite learned how to move on, either.

From watching the trailer, I can’t get over just how similar Theron’s character is to Cameron Diaz’s character in Bad Teacher, which is a shameless go-getter who is prepared to do pretty much anything she can to get what she wants no matter who she has to steamroll to get it. Oswalt’s character looks to be pretty much the same as Jason Segel’s, which is the sardonic voice of reason. Still, that film managed $100 million, and while I don’t think Young Adult will do THAT well, it still has the potential to make $30-$40 million if word of mouth is good. For $5 in Box Office, you could do a lot worse. I probably wouldn’t take it in Ultimate, though.

We Need to Talk About Kevin ($4 Ult, $2 BO) – What’s worse than being the parent of a teenage boy who is tragically killed? Being the parent of a disturbed boy whose love of archery culminates in a killing spree that claims the life of your husband, your young daughter, and several high-school students. Tilda Swinton plays Eva, whose son Kevin (Ezra Miller) does just that. Much of the film is apparently told in flashback, as Eva recalls the events of Kevin’s life, starting as a very young child, that let him up to that terrible day. John C. Reilly also co-stars.

I’m not sure how many films are in store for We Need to Talk About Kevin this Friday, but it’s worth finding out, because this film has just as much chance to win the PTA crown as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It, too, has been lauded by critics (85% on RT with 58/68 positive) since its debut at Cannes this year. Its Rating (8.0 with over 2,000 votes) is also extremely solid. However, given the subject matter, this can’t be an easy film to watch, and there’s just as equal a chance that the PTA score will be low as high. I would probably pass on it… there’s just too much else going on.

W.E. ($3 Ult, $2 BO) – I’m sure I’m not the first to say that for a director, Madonna is an excellent singer. W.E. is her second project sitting in the director’s chair, but it’s clear from both the RT score (33% on 2/6) and its User Rating (4.8 with 400 votes) that whether she’s behind the camera or in front of it, the former Material Girl has yet to develop any kind of following when it comes to cinema.

W.E. is a biopic that touches on the same situation that The King’s Speech did last year. In that film, the stutter-prone King George VI was forced to assume the pre-WWII throne of England because the rightful heir, his brother King Edward VIII, was forced to abdicate after falling in love with American socialite Wallis Simpson. In W.E., the star-crossed lovers are played by James D’Arcy and Andrea Riseborough.
I’d go deeper into the plot, but there doesn’t seem to be any point. Given the film’s pedigree, it seems likely to engender anything but supreme indifference at however many theaters deign to show it. Even for $3, I wouldn’t take this film in anything but Bankrupts.

I Melt With You ($2 Ult, $1 BO) – Believe it or not, there is another film this week with equally unimpressive stats as W.E., and that’s I Melt With You. Currently boasting an RT score of 25% (2/8 positive) and a 5.3 Rating (on 244 botes), this outing from the usually-reliable Magnolia Pictures will be debuting on an unknown number of screens this Friday. Four former college friends now in their 40s (Thomas Jane, Rob Lowe, Jeremy Piven and Christian McCay) have habitually united once a year in order to commisserate and reminisce, which includes using whatever recreational substances they can get their hands on and partying hardy. However, on this occasion, tragedy strikes, and in response, they decide to “resurrect a former pact by which to live and die, thus creating a new world order” (or so says Wikipedia).

From the looks of things, I Melt With You has only one thing going for it… it’s $2, a price tag that not one other film in the December-February leagues has. Which means, if you first seven picks total $98, this is your only choice. Which is not much a choice at all. It won’t get any PTA, and it’s Rating will hurt your more than it’ll help. If you choose this film, I hope your other seven choices turn out better.


My predictions for the weekend of December 9-11, 2011:

1. New Year’s Eve - $25 million
2. The Sitter - $10 million
3. The Muppets - $8 million
4. Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1 - $7 million
5. Hugo - $6 million
6. Arthur Christmas - $6 million

Well, that will do it for me for another week. Next week, only three films will be debuting, but oh, my, they are big: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, the second chapter in the saga of the famous literary detective starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law; Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, the third film in the series featuring the trio of singing, dancing rodents; and Carnage, a comedy-drama from controversial director Roman Polanski, starring Kate Winslet and Jodie Foster.

Later!

Shrykespeare

Looking back at this past Thanksgiving weekend, one could call the box office numbers “encouraging”. All three of the new wide-release films debuted to respectable numbers (especially Hugo, which rode terrific reviews to a $15 million 5-day OW, despite being in only 1,277 theaters). Almost all of the holdovers suffered only minute drops, and Tower Heist even managed to surpass its previous weekend’s numbers. The one exception, of course, was the fourth Twilight movie, which dropped nearly 70% in its second week. This was expected, and also expected was the fact that it still managed to finish #1 in the standings, well ahead of The Muppets.

Kudos must also go to the limited-release films as well: The Artist took first in the PTA race, followed closely by David Cronenberg’s latest outing A Dangerous Method. The reigning PTA champ, The Descendants, expanded to 390 theaters but still managed to not only place third in the PTA this week but was #9 on the overall box office list. Nice job!

This weekend, of course, we start to get into the December films. This means that not only are we starting off a new set of leagues (i.e. the second round of the Mini-Super Leagues and the usual Regulars Leagues), but we have rounded the final turn and are heading for the finish line in the 2011 Super Leagues. The final cuts have been made, and at the end of this month, we will crown our various champions.

The first week of December, much like the first week of September, has categorically been one of the worst weekends (box-office wise) in recent memory, as far as new releases go. The powerhouses that are typically released on or immediately prior to Thanksgiving tend to hold over fairly well, and no studio wants to put up anything against it… not only is there too much competition, but Christmas is still four weeks away, and the inevitable lull that occurs between two major holidays starts now.

Case in point… here are the dismal numbers put up by wide-release films released on this particular weekend in recent years:

The Warrior’s Way (2010), $3 million OW (#9), $5 million overall.
Brothers (2009), $9 million OW (#3), $28 million overall.
Armored (2009), $6 million OW (#7), $16 million overall.
Everybody’s Fine (2009), $4 million OW (#10), $9 million overall.
Punisher: War Zone (2008), $4 million OW (#8), $8 million overall
Awake (2007), $6 million OW (#5), $14 million overall
The Nativity Story (2006), $8 million OW (#4), $37 million overall.

About the only two success stories in that time period that debuted on the first weekend of December were Oscar-bait films that started out as limited releases: 2009’s Up in the Air ($83.8 million) and 2010’s Black Swan ($106 million).

One thing that has been very consistent is the fact that almost every Thanksgiving holdover tends to drop somewhere between 50-60% on the first weekend of December, even the family-friendly films that tend to have terrific legs the rest of the year. Bottom line: you can expect The Muppets, Arthur Christmas, Happy Feet Two and Hugo to probably finish this weekend with less than half of what they managed last weekend. About the only question remains is whether Breaking Dawn Part 1’s third-week drop will be sufficient enough for The Muppets to take over #1 or not. But then, if you didn’t pick any of those films up, it’s too late now, so I’ll waste no more time talking about it.

The first weekend of December this year, as it turns out, is even more uneventful than usual. There is not one wide-release film. In fact, there are only two limited-release films on the docket, and it is extremely doubtful that either one will break out the way Up in the Air or Black Swan did. It is worth noting that because these two films will lead off the December-February leagues, which means that one of these two films is a shoo-in for five PTA points, and the other will earn no fewer than four PTA points.

The more notable of these two films is Shame, which is directed by Steve McQueen (Hunger) and stars Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan. Even if it isn’t likely to break out financially, it has already been road-tested at numerous film festivals, garnering numerous awards along the way. Check out these kudos:

British Independent Film Awards: nominations for Best Film, Director, Actor, Supporting Actress, Screenplay, and two others (zero wins)
Hollywood Film Festival: won Best Supporting Actress (Mulligan)
London Film Festival: won Best Film
Venice Film Festival: won Best Film (two categories), Best Actor (Fassbender), and nominated for the Golden Lion

Shame also has a current Rotten Tomatoes score of 84% (on 26/31 reviews) and a stellar IMDb Rating of 8.0 (with nearly 1,000 votes). If you really need any more critical anticipation for a film’s theatrical release, then good luck finding it. It will be released in a PTA-friendly four theaters this Friday.

The story: Brandon (Fassbender) is a 30-something New York yuppie who has a compulsive addiction to sex but tends to shun any level of intimacy with women. When his wayward younger sister Sissy (Mulligan) moves into his apartment, bringing with her the baggage of a painful past involving both of them, Brandon’s insular life threatens to spiral out of control.

December will certainly have its share of box office hits. With between seven and ten films coming out with the potential to hit $100 million, that breeds a lot of uncertainty and competition. Shame, on the other hand, has zero competition in the PTA category… in the December leagues, anyway. (How it will stack up in the October and November leauges against The Artist, A Dangerous Method and The Descendants remains to be seen.) I will say that for $4 in the December leagues, you’d be a fool not to take advantage of this bargain. The chances are excellent that it could hang on for PTA points in its second week as well. So take it!

The other film debuting this Friday is Outrage, a Japanese crime drama (original title: Autoreji) that will be bowing in two locations this Friday, and will be expanding by 1-4 theaters slowly over the next two months. It was actually nominated for the coveted Palme d’Or award at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival and will spawn a soon-to-be-released sequel, Outrage 2.

Outrage is set in the world of organized crime – specifically, the Japanese yakuza. The plot is very reminiscent of some of Kurosawa’s work (specifically, Ran). At the top of the food chain is Sekiuchi (Kitamura Soichiro), and under him are several rival bosses who seek to “rise through the ranks” by scheming and plotting over sake. One of these bosses, Ôtomo (Takeshi Kitano, who also directed), must find a way to wade through the minefield of corruption and betrayal and somehow come out ahead when the dust settles.

Japanese dramas tend to be rather hit-or-miss when it comes to PTA points, and if Outrage were going heads-up against a more crowded docket, I probably wouldn’t recommend it, even for only $2. However, you are guaranteed at least four PTA points for this film, along with a decent Rating (currently at 6.9) that is unlikely to change given that it already has over 2,000 votes in the can.

You know, it would be very tempting to take both of these titles in the December-February leagues, wouldn’t it? Think about it: you spend only $6 on two films, and you come out of it with at least nine PTA points, 14.9 in total Rating. Granted, there are a host of other possible PTA giants coming up, but nothing is ever a sure bet in this game. This is guaranteed.

My predictions for the weekend of December 2-4, 2011:

1. The Muppets - $14 million
2. Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1 - $14 million
3. Arthur Christmas - $7 million
4. Happy Feet Two - $7 million
5. Hugo - $6 million

Well, that will do it for me for another week. Next week, the cinematic cupboard will go from bare to full again, with seven titles making their debuts on December 9th: New Year’s Eve, a follow-up of sorts to Valentine’s Day, with a sizeable ensemble cast to match; The Sitter, an adult comedy starring Jonah Hill. Also present are limited releases Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (a remake of the 1979 espionage film), Young Adult, We Need to Talk About Kevin, W.E. and I Melt With You.

Later!

Shrykespeare

The Understudy, previsto in uscita il 14/10/2011 e Pirana 3DD, in uscita a fine novembre, sono stati spostati indefinitamente a Dicembre.

My week with Marilyn, in uscita il 4/11 è stato posticipato al 23/11.

Donnie

Texas Killing Fields. previsto per oggi, viene posticipato al 14 ottobre prossimo

Rioma

Puss in Boots è stato anticipato al 28 ottobre prossimo e Johnny English Reborn è stato anticipato al 21 ottobre.

Rioma

Around June, previsto in uscita il 30 settembre, non esce più. MAI PIU'. E se pure esce, scordatevelo, ha smesso di esistere.

Donnie

Wanderlust, previsto il 7/10/2011 è stato posticipato a febbraio 2012.

The Descendants, previsto il 23/11/2011 è stato anticipato al 18/11/2011.

Donnie

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy previsto il 18 novembre è stato posticipato a Dicembre.

Safe, previsto il 28 ottobre è stato posticipato a marzo 2012.

Donnie

Buzzkill è stato posticipato al 26 Agosto prossimo.

Donnie

Around June, previsto il 24 giugno è stato posticipato a settembre.

Donnie

A little help, previsto il 24 giugno è stato posticipato al 22 luglio.

Donnie

My Afternoons with Margueritte,  previsto il 17 giugno 2011 è stato spostato al 16 settembre.

Rioma

Apollo 18, previsto il 26 agosto 2011 è stato spostato al 2 settembre.

Rioma

The Trip, previsto in uscita il 20 maggio prossimo, è stato posticipato al 10 Giugno 2011.

Donnie

Skateland, in uscita il prossimo 25/3 è stato posticipato al 13/5.

Donnie

Viva Riva! previsto il 25/5 è stato posticipato a giugno.

Donnie

"Born to Be a Star" previsto in uscita il 22/4/2011 è stato rinominato "Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star" e posticipato al 9/9/11.

Donnie

Shelter, previsto in uscita il 25/2 è stato improvvisamente spostato a data da destinarsi.

Donnie

Around June, previsto il 4/2/2011 è stato posticipato a giugno.

Donnie

Dopo una preview per gli Oscar, della quale non si è tenuto conto, Frankie&Alice, previsto in uscita il 4/2/2010 è stato rinviato a data da destinarsi. Il film non è più nella lista degli acquistabili.

Donnie

Attention all gamers!

The weekend of 1/7 begins the third series of year-long leagues.  Basically, the rules are these:  There are two Full-Year tournaments (one for Ultimate and one for Box Office), which last ten rounds, starting in the Jan-Mar season and ending in the Oct-Dec season.  There are also four Half-Year leagues (two for Ultimate, two for Box Office); they are five rounds long, starting in Jan-Mar and ending in May-Jul.  (The second-half leagues start with Jun-Aug and end in Oct-Dec.) 

Play to the best of your abilities.  At the conclusion of each round, a percentage will be cut from the tournament.  (10% in the FY tournaments, 20% in the HY.  What this means is if there are 50 players in all tournaments, each FY round will see the elimination of five players, and each HY round will eliminate ten.)  If you finish in the top 5% of any round, you earn an Immunity Marker (IM), which you can redeem if, in any future round, you finish at the bottom and face elimination.

These tournaments are open to everyone.  But make sure that this is something you can stick with until the end!  I have created Round One of the tournaments as follows:

2011 Super League Ult FY Round One

2011 Super League Ult HY(1) Round One

2011 Super League BO FY Round One

2011 Super League BO HY(1) Round One

THE PASSWORD TO ALL OF THESE LEAGUES IS "roundone".

Just be warned: all future rounds will also be under "Private Leagues", but the passwords will only be sent to people who enter Round One.  If you think that I may not have your e-mail address, please send it to shrykespeare42@gmail.com so that I can e-mail you the passwords for future rounds at the appropriate time.  If you just enter, and you are not known to me, then I have no way of contacting you.

This is the biggest Fantasy tournament ever created for movies.  Test your mettle against the most seasoned pros this game has to offer... if you dare!

Here are the results of the just-completed 2010 tournaments:

Ultimate FY Round Ten

Winner: kblane
Runner-up: Spectre (-3 pts)
3rd Place: codeslinger (-4 pts)



Ultimate HY(2) Round Five

Winner: Facedown
Runners-up: Aquamann2001 and Spectre (-6 pts)



Box Office FY Round Ten

Winner: _donnie_
Runner-up: silversurfer (-$17.5M)
3rd Place: W (-$34.6M)



Box Office HY2 Round Five

Winner: W
Runner-up: codeslinger (-$23.3M)
3rd Place: Geezer (-$26.5M)

W and Shrykespeare won the Ultimate HY(1) and Box Office HY(1) tournaments, respectively.

As a frame of reference: here is how the 2009 tournaments went:

Ultimate FY - Geezer
Ultimate HY(1) - mutard7
Ultimate HY(2) - Geezer

Box Office FY - undeadmonkey
Box Office HY(1) - Dantic
Box Office HY(2) - Shrykespeare

Congratulations to all the winners!

Shrykespeare

Ranchero, in uscita il prossimo 14 gennaio è stato spostato a marzo (il giorno di uscita non è stato specificato. Provvederemo a inserirlo appena se ne avrà notizia).

Donnie

Biutiful, in uscita il prossimo 29/12 è stato posticipato al 28/01/2011.

Donnie

Gulliver's travels, programmato il 22/12/2010 è stato posticipato di 3 giorni. Uscirà quindi il 25/12/2010.

Donnie

The Company Man, previsto in uscita il 10/12/2010 è stato posticipato al 21/01/2011.

Donnie

Restless, previsto in uscita il 28/01/2011 è stato posticipato a data da definire.

donnie

Non si ha nessuna notizia di Red Dawn, previsto per il 24 novembre. Esce così dalla lista dei film in gioco.

Donnie

The wild hunt, previsto in uscita il prossimo week end è stato spostato a data da destinarsi.

Donnie

Il film Morning Glory, in uscita il 12 Novembre prossimo è stato anticipato di due giorni, al 10 Novembre.

Donnie

The Company Man, previsto per il 22 ottobre prossimo, è stato posticipato al 10 dicembre 2010.

Donnie

Saigon Eclipse è stato posticipato a Marzo 2011 e, di conseguenza, esce dalla lista dei film acquistabili.

Donnie

Hereafter, previsto il 22 ottobre prossimo, è stato anticipato di una settimana, al 15 ottobre.

Donnie

The wild hunt, previsto per il week end scorso, 17/9/2010, non è uscito ed è stato posticipato senza preavviso al 19/11. Il film è stato sbloccato in modo che i suoi acquirenti possano ancora decidere se tenerlo o toglierlo.

Terkel in trouble, previsto anche loui per il week end scorso, non è uscito e non si hanno notizie. E' stato così eliminato dalla lista e i suoi acquirenti sono invitati a sostituirlo.

Infine, Welcome to the Rileys, previsto per il 5/11 è stato anticipato al 29/10.

Donnie

The Virginity Hit, inizialmente previsto per il 10/9/2010, è stato posticipato di due settimane, al 24/9/2010.

Donnie

Going the distance, previsto il prossimo 27/8 è stato posticipato al 3 settembre. Esce così dalla lista dei film in gara.

Donnie

Sono arrivate le notizie ufficiali.

The wild Hunt, originariamente previsto il 16/7 e poi misteriosamente "missing" è stato ufficialmente posticipato al 17 Settembre.

Twelve, inizialmente previsto il 30/7 è stato posticipato al 6 Agosto.

Happythankyoumoreplease, originariamente previsto il 20/8 è stato posticipato a data da destinarsi.

Donnie

The Wild Hunt, previsto per il 16 luglio, è stato spostato senza un'indicazione di una nuova data. È probabile che sia stato rinviato di una settimana ma è anche possibile che sia stato spostato a data da destinarsi. Si è deciso di non cancellarlo dalla lista, in quanto non si ha nessuna notizia certa, e spostarlo al week end del 23/7, in attesa di capire se effettivamente uscirà. Pertanto, chi ce l'ha nel roster, potrà eliminarlo o tenerlo a suo rischio e pericolo.

Donnie

Countdown to zero, la cui uscita era prevista il 9 luglio prossimo, è stato posticipato al 23 luglio.

Donnie

The Last Airbender, in uscita il prossimo 2 luglio, è stato anticipato al 1 Luglio.

Takers, previsto per il 20 agosto, è stato posticipato al 27 agosto.

Donnie

Piccoli spostamenti di data per alcuni film della lega appena iniziata:

Twelve, previsto il 2 Luglio, è stato posticipato al 30 luglio.

The concert, previsto il 16 luglio, è stato posticipato al 23 luglio.

Mao's last dancer, previsto il 6 Agosto, è stato posticipato al 20 agosto.

Donnie

Il film Beastly è stato posticipato a data da destinarsi.

Donnie

Proprio pochi giorni prima della presunta release, anche BOM ha ufficializzato le voci che volevano I love you Phillip Morris rimandato a data da definire. Il film esce pertanto dal gioco.

donnie

Perrier's Bounty, previsto per il 14 Maggio, è stato posticipato al 21 maggio.

Donnie

Segnaliamo due variazioni di data di uscita:

Mercy, previsto per il 23/4 è stato posticipato al 30/4;

Let it rain, previsto il 23/4 è stato posticipato al 18/6.

Donnie

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Undead, in uscita il prossimo 21 maggio, è stato posticipato all'11 giugno.

Donnie

Vi segnaliamo che circolano voci insistenti sull'ennesimo spostamento di I love you Phillip Morris. Alcuni siti riportano che il film è posticipato a luglio 2010, ma BOM non ha ancora ufficializzato la variazione, cosa per cui non abbiamo modificato la nostra data di uscita. In ogni caso consigliamo attenzione.

Discorso simile per Rosencrantz e Guildestern are Undead: il sito di HSX lo da in uscita il prossimo 16 aprile, BOM non conferma.

Donnie

Leaves of Grass, previsto per il 2 Aprile prossimo, è stato rinviato a data da destinarsi. Esce così dalla lista dei film acquistabili.

Donnie

Please Give è stato posticipato dal 23/4 al 30/4.

Last Night è ancora presente nelle liste di BOM per errore, in quanto, sulle altre fonti, non sembra in release per questo week end. Il film viene quindi spostato a data da definire.

Donnie

The Runaways

E' stata corretta l'uscita di The Runaways, previsto per il 9/4. Anche se BOM non conferma, è riportato da più fonti che il film uscirà prima limited il 19/3 e poi si espanderà il 9/4. Per questo motivo, la data in cui il film sarà bloccato viene anticipata al 19/3. Vi informeremo su eventuali novità.

Donnie

Wall Street:: Money never Sleeps, tra i film di punta della prossima stagione, previsto per il 23/4, è stato posticipato al 24/9/2010. Esce pertanto dalla lista dei film in gara per le leghe Marzo-Maggio.

Donnie

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Undead, inizialmente previsto per il 16/4, è stato posticipato al 21/5.

Donnie

Stolen spostato al 12/3

BOM ha riportato a sorpresa la notizia che Stolen, in uscita oggi, 5 marzo, è stato posticipato al prossimo week end. La nuova data è stata inserita e il film è stato nuovamente sbloccato, in modo che gli acquirenti possano, se vogliono, modificare l'acquisto.

Donnie

It’s the end of an era. Not only did this past weekend mark the end of the December leagues, it also marked the end of the very last leagues that I did by hand, something I was forced to do after FM folded. Hard to believe it was just over a year that I had to keep this up, because God knows, it sure felt a lot longer sometimes. But I want you all to know that it was a pleasure to do it, no matter how many withering glares my wife gave me while I was pounding away at my Standings Pages. The Fantaverse is so worth it.

Of course, now that we are into March, Avatar has now officially disappeared over the horizon in our rear-view mirror. James Cameron’s monster finished with 45 Top 5 points, 45 PTA points, a User Rating of 8.5 and over $706 million. Just unbelievable, especially when you consider that it is STILL in the Top 5! But for the purposes of game play, it is now merely a memory.

The first weekend of March officially kicks off the spring season, the two-month stretch sandwiched between the uncertainty of post-Christmas winter and glorious big-budget summer. One year ago, Watchmen entered theaters with a mountain of hype, a geyser of hope and a wellspring of fan-boy fanaticism. Sadly, it failed to strike a chord with the average moviegoer, with its prodigious length (163 minutes), its rating (a heavy R for violence, gore and sex) and its overblown premise. Such a pity, as I find the story to be quite engaging. Still, those of us that chose it for our slates regretted it almost immediately.

This spring’s leadoff hitter has only two things common with Watchmen: it too represents the “fantasy” genre, and it too has probably just as many question marks. But other than that, they are as different as night and day. I am, of course, referring to Alice in Wonderland, which just happens to be the 394th collaborative effort between director Tim Burton and Hollywood A-lister Johnny Depp. (Just kidding, it’s actually only their seventh, but it seems like a lot more, doesn’t it?)

Based on the novels “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-Glass” penned by Lewis Carroll nearly a century and a half ago, Alice in Wonderland seems to be tailor-made for the Burton/Depp combo… it’s a truly bizarre story, filled with bizarre circumstances and equally bizarre characters. Perhaps the only normal character is Alice (played by relatively inexperienced Australian actress Mia Wasikowska), a 19-year-old girl from Victorian England who accidentally falls down a hole while chasing an enigmatic white rabbit. She finds herself back in Wonderland, a place that she had visited ten years before but can’t remember the details.

Wonderland is now under the rule of the tyrannical Red Queen (Helena Bonham carter, appearing in her sixth STRAIGHT Burton film), who terrorizes her subjects with the Jabberwock, a dragon-like creature that Alice must slay to end her rule. Depp, of course, plays the legendary Mad Hatter, throwing himself into the part in a way that only he can. There are a bevy of other famous faces in the cast, including Anne Hathaway, Crispin Glover, Steven Fry and Michael Sheen.

I mentioned that there were question marks surrounding this film, but in my mind, it’s only because of the bizarre-ness of the story, something that may be off-putting to people looking for a nice simply story, as well as those who think that the Depp/Burton marriage may be played out. But on the other hand, it’s Disney, it’s rated PG, it comes in at a crisp 109 minutes, and, lest we forget, it is about to kick Avatar to the curb in most of the 3D and 3D IMAX facilities in the country, a spot it will occupy, I figure, for three weeks (after which How to Train Your Dragon will come calling.)

Alice in Wonderland is estimated to be coming out in 3,400 theaters or so, but I have no idea if that number includes the aforementioned 3D and IMAX theaters. Avatar has well and truly run its course, and I think that those who made it the #1 film of all time are ready for something new and colorful, and this film could easily fit the bill.

Therefore, I am going to “conservatively” predict that Alice in Wonderland will open with $46 million its first three days, and will glean eleven Top 5 points, six PTA and a User Rating around 7.4, on its way to a total take of about $120 million. For $32 in the March Ultimate leagues ($34 in Box Office), that’s a pretty fair trade, though I still think How to Train Your Dragon is a slightly safer pick, given that DreamWorks is on a pretty good roll and the marketing blitz for that film has already started.

The only other wide-release film this weekend is Brooklyn’s Finest, a gritty cop/crime drama directed by Antoine Fuqua, the man behind the camera for Training Day, arguably one of the best cop dramas of the last decade. One of that film’s stars, Ethan Hawke, also stars in Brooklyn’s Finest, along with Richard Gere, Don Cheadle and Wesley Snipes (making HIS first big-screen appearance in six years… whatever happened with that whole tax-evasion thingy? Does anyone know?)

I’d elaborate on the plot, but some of the professional reviews I’ve read seem to agree that said plot is sketchy at best (30% Fresh on 3/10 at RT), so I’ll just give an overview. Basically, the film follows the lives of three police officers over the course of one harrowing week, as they attempt to keep their wits (and their covers) about them as they try to foil a huge drug operation. Gere plays Eddie Dugan, a veteran cop mere days from retirement; Hawke plays Sal Proceda, a “cop on the edge” who is desperate to find a way to support his large family; and Cheadle plays Clarence “Tango” Butler, currently deep undercover with his prison buddy Caz (Snipes), one of the city’s most infamous drug dealers.

This film has been postponed several times to get to this point, and I can’t help but wonder if that will have a negative effect on the outcome of this film. The good news for you is, it’s only $8 in Ultimate, which could very well buy you four or five Top 5 points, four PTA and a tremendous User Rating (which is a polar opposite to its RT score: it currently sits at 8.5 with well over 600 votes, which means it probably won’t drop more than a point during its run). It is poised very well; in a week that opens up a league, it will score very well in all categories. I don’t think it’s worth its $7 price tag in Box Office, however, as I doubt it will end up pulling much more than $28 million overall.

About the only reason I could think of for recommending this week’s only limited release film, Stolen Lives (aka Stolen), is the fact that because it is one of only three films debuting this week, it is guaranteed to get at least three PTA points… that is, assuming that its distributor, IFC, ends up reporting its numbers at all. Still, $3 for a guaranteed 3 PTA points would seem like a pretty sweet deal.

What a shame the actual movie looks like a rehashed mess. Jon Hamm (Mad Men) stars as Tom Adkins, a detective who becomes obsessed with work after his ten-year-old son goes missing. He copes by throwing himself into the case of a young boy whose skeletal remains were unearthed after having been murdered 50 years earlier. Hoping against hope that solving this murder will lead him on the path to redemption, he begins to suspect that the murdered boy and his son are somehow connected. Josh Lucas, Rhona Mitra and James Van Der Beek co-star.

Like I said, you are guaranteed three PTA points by choosing this film, but be warned: you’ll also be inheriting Stolen's terrible User Rating, which currently sits at 5.0 (with only 30 votes, but I’d be surprised if it goes up at all). Pick your poison, I guess.


My predictions for the weekend of March 5-7, 2010:

1. Alice in Wonderland - $46 million
2. Shutter Island - $13 million
3. Brooklyn’s Finest - $12 million
4. Cop Out - $10 million
5. Avatar - $8 million


Well, that will do it for me for another week. Next week, I’ll have a very busy week, with no less than EIGHT new titles to talk about, all coming out on March 12th, including: Green Zone, an action drama re-teaming the potent combination of Matt Damon and his Bourne Identity director, Paul Greengrass; Remember Me, a romantic drama starring Twilight hunk Robert Pattinson and Lost’s Emilie de Ravin; Our Family Wedding, a screwball comedy starring about two families whose cultures clash head-on when two of their members decide to marry; She’s Out of My League, a comedy starring Jay Baruchel as a geeky loner who is dumbfounded when a gorgeous hottie asks him out; as well as four limited-release films.

Later!

Shrykespeare

What recession? I mean, seriously! You look at the front page of any local newspaper, it will probably include some tale of woe about rising foreclosures, plummeting real estate valuations, failing business and lack of viable employment. And yet, in the midst of the country’s worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, not only has Avatar managed to crank out nearly $700 million domestically, but the last three box office champs to succeed Avatar have managed to pump out extremely respectable numbers: three weeks ago, Dear John brought in a very respectable $30 million; two weeks ago, Valentine’s Day took full advantage of the holiday in its title, scoring a whopping $56 million in its first three days (though it did drop nearly 70% in its second weekend); and this past weekend, Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island powered to a very impressive $41 million despite being shown in less than 3,000 theaters.

Whatever can this mean? Well, an optimistic view would suggest that people are finding more solace in going to the movies, which are, after all, still a relatively cheap source of entertainment for oneself, one’s significant other, and/or one’s family. The above numbers are very good for February, and they don’t stop there: even Percy Jackson and The Wolfman have done pretty well. That’s five success stories out of six major releases (From Paris With Love being the only flop). Can the last week of February avoid the pre-March swoon that it did last year? (You do remember the Jonas Brothers movie, right?)

Well, there’s one film this week that I will be recommend VERY strongly. But I’ll get to that a little bit later. The first wide-release movie on the docket today is Cop Out, which marks, if my math and memory are correct, the FOURTEENTH film in the career of Bruce Willis that he has played a member of law enforcement. (Note: This includes all four Die Hard films, but does not include the numerous occasions on which he played soldiers, or Unbreakable, where he played a security guard.)

Needless to say, Balding Bruce, who will turn 55 in March, is very comfortable in roles where he gets to carry a badge and a gun, drive really fast and kick some ass. He’s also no stranger to comedy, and neither is Cop Out director Kevin “Silent Bob” Smith, whose past works include such off-kilter films as Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Clerks, Dogma and 2008’s Zack and Miri Make a Porno. He seems to be coveting a wider demographic with this one, and he may just get it.

In Cop Out, Willis plays NYPD detective Jimmy Monroe, who hopes to sell one of his vintage baseball cards in order to pay for his daughter’s wedding. But when the card is stolen by a memorabilia-obsessed thief, he recruits a new partner (SNL alum Tracy Morgan) to track down the card… and along the way, find themselves smack in the middle of a situation involving gangsters and money laundering. Kevin Pollack, Adam Brody and the ever-immature Seann William Scott co-star.

Set to bow in over 3,100 theaters, Cop Out has a very good shot at #1 this weekend, though it will depend entirely on how well Shutter Island holds. Scorsese’s latest has gotten very good reviews and equally good word-of-mouth, which could mean a small drop in its second week. But I will still give the nod to Cop Out because of its lead actor in a comfortable role, its placement in a successive row of February successes, and the fact that there really won’t be another action-comedy for another three weeks (The Bounty Hunter).

It will run you $12 in both Ultimate and Box Office leagues for February, which is a very low price for a film that might bring you as many as ten Top 5 points, four PTA and $60 million. I wouldn’t count on the User Rating being all that high, given that the film is just another vehicle for Willis to shoot off guns as well as his mouth. But since From Paris With Love was able to scare up a so-so 6.5 rating, Cop Out probably won’t fare much worse. I’d say pick this up.

February is probably the third-biggest month for horror movies, after October and January. The Wolfman has cleared $50 million in two weeks, which isn’t too bad for a horror film (though most people who saw it would like their money back, including myself). And the only other horror film to come out in February 2010 is The Crazies, which will be coming to roughly 2,400 theaters this Friday.

The Crazies is a remake of 1973 film of the same name, which was written and directed by horror legend George A. Romero. In that story, a biological weapon is accidentally released upon the inhabitants of a small town. In the 2010 version, while I am unsure of the origins of the toxin involved, the results would appear to be the same: namely, something is put into the water supply of the town of Ogden Falls, Iowa, something extremely nasty that causes normal people to fly into a homicidal rage and kill everyone in sight.

The film stars Timothy Olyphant as the sheriff of Ogden Falls, who is perplexed by the sudden mysterious behavior of people he’s known for years. But when the situation spirals out of control, he must try to simply escape with his wife (Radha Mitchell) and family… that is, if they can slip by the government forces who have cordoned off the town and seem hell-bent on keeping the contagion from spreading at all costs.

Honestly, the premise doesn’t look all that far removed from recent films like 28 Days/Weeks Later, Zombieland, Carriers or a host of other uninfected-people-running-from-infected-people movies. I’ve seen some advertising for this film, but probably not enough. I expect far, far better from the brain trust behind the reboot of A Nightmare on Elm Street, which is coming at the end of April.

The Crazies will run you $8 in Ultimate ($9 in Box Office), which, for me, is too much. Given its tired premise, its theater count and Avatar’s slow, slow drop, I put this film to debut no higher than #4 this weekend, with barely more than $10 million. Two Top 5, no PTA, $25 million and a middling User Rating are not worth this dollar amount. Shop elsewhere.

The first of this week’s two limited-release films is A Prophet (Un Prophete), and not only is it my PTA pick of the week, it may be my PTA pick of the SEASON… or at least, it would be if it had come out earlier in the month. Due to the MMG rule that states that a February movie cannot earn PTA points in a March league (dammit), it means that this very worthy film will probably not earn more than the five PTA points that it CAN earn (unless I’m missing something very, very basic).

In a nutshell, this is a French film with English subtitles, which has pretty much everything you could possibly want in a PTA champ: a boatload of awards (including the Grand Prix at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival), a nomination for Best Foreign Film in next month’s Oscars (for which is should and probably will win), a simply monstrous RT score (98% Fresh on 50, yes 50 out of 51 positive reviews – wanna bet the one panner was lynched?), and an amazing User Rating (8.2 with well over 4,000 votes). Need I go on?

The film follows Malik El Djebena (Tahar Rahim), an illiterate young man who is sentenced to six years in prison, where he immediately falls under the sway of a Corsican Mafia group led by the ruthless Luciani (Niels Arestrup). In order to survive, he becomes Luciana’s man, which includes the brutal murder of Luciani’s rivals. But while doing this, he secretly grows in intelligence (and literacy) until he can find the strength to step out of Luciani’s shadow.

This film has been compared to The Godfather as “the greatest organized crime movie EVER”. My good friend Chienfantome says that it may very well be the best prison movie of all time (Shawshank included). God, if only there were a way to squeeze more than one week’s PTA out of this!

Well, anyway, the good news is, for $7, you can buy yourself a surefire 5 PTA points and a terrific User Rating, which is not too shabby. And if it does indeed win the Oscar for Best Foreign Film, it may be rewarded with a wider release and a few bucks too. I have it on almost all of my January and February Ultimate slates. In a game where most films are a crap-shoot, this one is as close to a dead-bang cinch as there is. If only I knew exactly what its theater count would be, I could be 100% certain (instead of only 99).

The final film this weekend is Prodigal Sons, a documentary by (and largely about) filmmaker Kimberly Reed. Kim grew up in a small Montana town with her two brothers, one of whom (Mark) was adopted. Being different from the rest of his family, Mark was an underachiever who dropped out of high school and then suffered a head injury at the age of 21… and then he found out that he was the grandson of Hollywood legends Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles.

But it gets stranger. You see, when Kim was young, she was actually a boy. And when she returns home after having had sexual reassignment surgery, with her brother in tow… well, you can imagine the reaction of her family.

For $3 in Ultimate, this MAY get you a few PTA points, if you think it’s worth the gamble. Documentaries often fare well, but some don’t. And if it doesn’t, it does have a pretty good User Rating (7.1, but with only 88 votes). My advice: if you’re looking for something to spend your last few bucks on, try something on less shaky ground.


My predictions for the weekend of February 26-28, 2010:

1. Cop Out – $23 million
2. Shutter Island - $21 million
3. Avatar - $12 million
4. The Crazies - $11 million
5. Percy Jackson - $8 million


Well, that will do it for me for another week. Next week, the spring season starts up as we usher in the month of March with two very different films with fairly impressive casts, and they are: Alice in Wonderland, another re-telling of the classic – and still bizarre – Lewis Carroll story, which also happens to be the eighth(?) collaboration between potent director/actor team Tim Burton and Johnny Depp; as well as Brooklyn’s Finest, a gritty cop drama from director Antoine Fuqua and starring veteran actors Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Wesley Snipes and Ethan Hake.

Later!

http://forum.reelsociety.com

Shrykespeare

Well, THAT was a surprise. I was almost sure that Avatar’s time on top wouldn’t end until Valentine’s weekend, but along comes Dear John and upsets the apple-cart. I mean, I know it had to drop from that #1 spot eventually, but I sure didn’t think this was the movie that would do it. (Just like I’m sure most people didn’t think Titanic’s 16-week run at the top would be ended by the incredibly lame Lost in Space.) Kudos to those players who chose it for the slates, and even bigger ones to those guys who had to sit through it. (I didn’t see it, but to paraphrase Lisa Simpson, I heard it was so sappy, you needed to blow your nose with a pancake afterwards.)

As you know, Valentine’s/President’s Day weekend coming up, and if you look at the crop of movies that are coming out on Friday, you’ll get the impression that the appetizers of January are over, and we are finally getting into the entrées that early 2010 has to offer. Case in point: only three films (Tooth Fairy, Edge of Darkness, Avatar) were shown in 3,000 or more theaters this past weekend, but look for all three to drop below that number come Friday. ALL THREE of this weekend’s new films will be bowing in over 3,000 locations (according to Box Office Mojo), which is something that very rarely happens. Clearly Fox, Warner Bros. and Universal are betting big on these three films. Do they all have blockbuster potential? Yes. Will they all deliver? Well…

Up first we have a film totally appropriate for its release date, that being Valentine’s Day, this year’s obligatory multi-talented, multi-story-arc rom-com, very much like He’s Just Not That Into You did one year ago, soaring to $93 million in domestic revenues despite so-so reviews. Set to bow in roughly 3,600 locations, Valentine’s Day is directed by veteran Hollywood helmer Garry Marshall, who was in the big chair for such romantic fare as Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride and both Princess Diaries movies. He looks to improve – by an order of magnitude – over his last outing, the shrill Georgia Rule.

Not only that, his Valentine’s cast is a leaps-and-bounds improvement over Lindsay Lohan and Jane Fonda. Check this out: Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Ashton Kutcher, Julia Roberts, Jamie Foxx, Anna Hathaway, Shirley MacLaine, Jennifer Garner, Patrick Dempsey, Eric Dane, Emma Roberts, Taylor Swift, Taylor Lautner, Joe Jonas, Queen Latifah, Topher Grace, Kathy Bates, Hector Elizondo and George Lopez. I mean, wow. Jacob Black, The cute guy from The Hangover, Dr. McDreamy, Kelso AND Forman, and a Jonas Brother to boot? What girl, from age 12 on, WOULDN’T want to see this tidal wave of hunkiness?

As for what’s it’s about? Well, it’s about “casually intertwining stories of the heart that take place over the course of one Valentine’s Day.” Which means we probably explore every facet of the falling-in- or out-of-love process, with different age groups and generations represented. Seriously, though, given the time of year, the pedigree of the cast and director, and the fact that there really hasn’t been a good romantic comedy since It’s Complicated (sorry, Leap Year), and there won’t be any more offerings in this genre until mid-March, it would seem a foolhardy idea to bet against Valentine’s Day. Dear John may have ended Avatar’s reign of terror, but at the risk of repeating myself, Valentine’s Day will be shown in a lot more theaters. It’s the widest release any 2010 movie has been given so far, in fact.

I predict an opening three-day weekend of $34 million for Valentine’s Day (with a bigger percentage falling on Sunday than most), on its way to twelve Top 5 points, three PTA, a user rating around 6.5 and about $100 million. For $20 in the February Ultimate leagues ($21 in Box Office), it seems like a fairly solid and safe pick.

Up next we have The Wolfman, the latest attempt to remake or reboot a horror classic. In this case, it is actually a remake of the 1941 film starring the immortal Lon Chaney Jr., who many horror historians will tell you is one of the best-remembered films in the glory days of Hollywood. Which means, to do it justice, it’d better have a stellar cast and a director who knows what he’s doing… fortunately, this version of The Wolfman seems to have both.

Though Joe Johnston has mostly done light-hearted fare in the past (Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Jumanji, The Rocketeer), his last outing, Hidalgo, had a much more serious air. Wolfman is his first foray into horror, but his cast is well-seasoned and well-respected, including two Academy Award-winners in Sir Anthony Hopkins and Benicio Del Toro, as well as Hugo Weaving (V for Vendetta) and the up-and-coming Emily Blunt (The Young Victoria).

Set in the 1880’s, the story is centered on Lawrence Talbot (Del Toro), who returns to his ancestral home and reuniting with his father (Hopkins) after his brother has been killed. He clearly has less-than-fond memories of the place, but a plea from his brother’s fiancée Gwen (Blunt) persuades him to return home. He learns that something ferocious has been mauling local villagers, which also prompts a Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline (Weaving) to investigate. But when Lawrence discovers that he is the latest in a familial line that are victims of an ancient curse – one that causes transmorphing into a bestial, snarling werewolf when the moon is full – things take a terrifying turn.

I’m not a big fan of horror, but I find myself not only wanting to see The Wolfman, but hoping that it does well. Unlike last year’s Friday the 13th reboot, I admire the chutzpah it takes to re-tell a classic story in the same way while bringing new life to it. Not that I want a bevy of sequels to follow should this film find success, but rather, just the opposite… as a stand-alone piece of entertainment, I think it would be better served.

R-rated horror often has a hard time finding an audience. But given this cast, I really wouldn’t expect the teen crowd to be lining up for this one anyway. I expect The Wolfman to debut at #2 this weekend, with about $22 million coming in its first three days. For $17 (in both leagues), you can expect about eight or nine Top 5 points, a few PTA, about $75 million and an outstanding User Rating - it currently sits at an unbelievable 8.9 on IMDb with over 400 votes. It will certainly drop after it is release, but it probably won’t go much below 8.1. The only review I could find was on IMDb as well, and it said (for what it’s worth) that the acting was superb, but that it dragged in places and included a few unnecessary sub-plots.)

So it really is up to you decide what you need more: if you’d rather get slightly more money and Top 5 points, go with Valentine’s Day. If you’d rather punch up your User Rating, go with The Wolfman.

With three big films coming out in the same weekend, all of them bowing in over 3,000 locations, one of them has to end up on the short end of the stick, and I’m betting that one will be Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Not because I think it’s a bad film, but because it lacks the oomph of the other two.

As you know, the Harry Potter series will be wrapping up soon. The Chronicles of Narnia's third chapter will be coming this winter, and it seems unlikely that any more of C.S. Lewis’s beloved novels will be adapted into films any time soon. So what is there in the teen-fantasy genre that has the stones to take the place of the boy wizard? Well, The Golden Compass failed utterly a couple of years ago, but maybe Percy Jackson can fill the bill, at least marginally.

One thing’s for sure: they’re really plugging the film as Harry’s successor, especially given that Percy is being directed by Chris Columbus, who got the Harry Potter series out of the gate in a big way, leading The Sorcerer’s Stone to a domestic take of $317 million and The Chamber of Secrets to $262 million. And while Rick Riordan’s series of books doesn’t hold a candle to J.K. Rowling’s gazillion-copies-sold epic, its adaptation is going to give it the old college try.

The titular character, Percy Jackson (Gamer’s Logan Lerman), is a teenager who discovers that he is the demigod son of the Greek god Poseidon (Kevin McKidd), a role that includes a lot of really cool superhuman abilities, including harnessing the power of lightning. Along with his friends Annabeth Chase (Alexandra Daddario) – who is a daughter of Athena – and a satyr named Grover Underwood (Brandon Jackson), Percy must try to save his mother (Catherine Keener), recover the lightning bolt stolen from Zeus (Sean Bean), and prevent a war between the gods. (No pressure, kid.) Pierce Brosnan, Rosario Dawson, Steve Coogan and Uma Thurman also co-star.

Well, what can I say about this? I’m not a teenager, and I haven't read the books, so I really have no way to gauge just how popular this story is, or might be, for the teenage set. There’s no way in hell that it will come close to the popularity of Harry Potter, but it’s entirely possible that it may set itself up as a worthy, if lesser, successor. (Hey! That rhymes!)

Both reviews over at RT are positive, and its decent ad campaign and 3,300-theater release platform should be a recipe for success. But I remain unconvinced. I will probably be watching this film at some point, and it looks entertaining, but then, so did From Paris With Love. Not that I’m comparing the two films, I’m just saying. I may be way off, but I’ll predict an opening three-day weekend of $20 million, good enough for #3 (just ahead of Dear John, which I expect to lose about 50% of its audience, and Avatar, which finally has some worthy competition).

Like Wolfman, it too costs $17 in both leagues. But I foresee only six Top 5 points, a couple of PTA, about $55 million and a decent User Rating. In an incredibly crowded weekend, I am betting this one will end up with the least impressive numbers when all is said and done.

I’m not sure whether it will be added in time, but just in case it is, I’ll say a few words about My Name is Khan, this week’s only (cursory) limited release. If it’s up by Friday, it will be worth $4 in the February Ultimate leagues. It is a Bollywood film, and it tells the story of Rizwan Khan (Shahrukh Khan), an Indian Muslim with Asperger syndrome. Growing up in Mumbai and later moving to San Francisco, Khan eventually falls in love with a woman named Mandira (Kajol). But Khan’s seemingly perfect life is shattered after the events of 9/11, after which all Muslims were treated as potential threats. After a series of brutal encounters, he embarks on a journey to Washington D.C. for a word with the Commander-in-Chief himself.

Box Office Mojo has My Name is Khan coming out in 120 theaters, which seems to me to be rather too many to make it a viable PTA choice. So, if it’s there, my advice is: don’t take it.


My predictions for the weekend of February 12-15/16, 2010:

1. Valentine’s Day – $34 million ($43 million 4-day)
2. The Wolfman – $22 million ($28 million 4-day)
3. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief – $20 million ($27 million 4-day)
4. Dear John – $18 million ($22 million 4-day)
5. Avatar – $16 million ($21 million 4-day)


Well, that will do it for me for another week. Next week, I’ll have very little to write about, as it looks like there will only be two films that will possibly be included in the February leagues, those being: Shutter Island, the Martin Scorsese-led horror/thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio that was supposed to have been release last October; and The Ghost Writer, a political thriller starring Pierce Brosnan as a former British Prime Minister and Ewan McGregor as the ghost-writer hired to complete his memoirs, and who uncovers secrets in the P.M.’s life that may put his own in jeopardy.

Later!

http://forum.reelsociety.com

Shrykespeare

(NOTE: I am writing this column under the sincerest hopes that the February leagues will be available come Friday. Things may happen in an extreme rush, so all of you, watch these boards and your in-boxes diligently.)

As we speak, we are but scant days away from watching Avatar pass Titanic’s previously-thought-as-unbreakable domestic box office record. I am somewhat ambivalent about this historical occurrence, having mixed feelings as I do about both films. On the one hand, Titanic was expertly made, fairly well-acted, and quite engaging despite its prodigious length. Did it deserve all of its 11 Oscars? Maybe, maybe not. But it was #1 at the Box Office for four consecutive months, never making more than $35 million in any (three-day) weekend. Slow, steady, the quintessence of consistence.

Avatar, on the other hand, has been able to reach $600 million in far, far less time, starting out with an opening weekend of $77 million and then following it up with weekends of $75 million, $68 million, $50 million, $42 million, $34 million and finally $30 million. Not to mention the fact that it did tremendously well on weekdays, boosted as it was by its continuous run on 3D and IMAX 3D screens. Will it win as many Oscars as Titanic? Honestly, I hope not. It deserves every technical award there is, but Best Picture? No. There were better movies this year. Being a record-breaker should not have any influence on Academy voting, and it never has. After all, The Dark Knight was not even nominated (and it deserved to be).

So, seven weeks and counting… Is an eighth likely? Judging by this Friday’s crop of movies, I’d say yes. Avatar’s final week at #1 will likely be this weekend, as there are no less than three films coming the following Friday with some very decent box office potential. This weekend, there are only two wide-release films, both being put into roughly 2,500 theaters, and neither one really looks like it has enough widespread appeal to dethrone the champ. The first of those two is From Paris With Love, a title that is no doubt supposed to bring back memories of early Bond classic From Russia With Love. But from what I’ve seen (and from what few reviews I’ve read), the comparison should stop right there.

Directed by Pierre Morel (who helmed last year’s surprise hit Taken) and written and co-produced by Luc Besson (La Femme Nikita), Paris seems to be a low-grade, cliché-ridden action-flick-slash-buddy-comedy. Much in the same vein as, say, the Rush Hour films, Paris throws together two men with nothing in common and hope that some on-screen chemistry developes.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers plays James Reece, a personal aide to the American ambassador in Paris (Richard Durden). More of an intellectual than a man of action, he prefers time with his fiancé (Kasia Smutniak) and a game of chess over danger. But when he is offered a chance at promotion, he swallows his fear and hooks up with Charlie Wax (John Travolta), an arrogant spy/assassin, with whom he must help to uncover a terrorist plot to destroy the French capital, as well as… uh, shoot some Chinese guys, I guess.

The one review at RT that I’ve read seems to bear out my fears, calling From Paris With Love a complete mess, with Travolta “humiliating himself with a shaved head, jumping from roof to roof, leaning out a car window with a bazooka” and Meyers simply “insipid” as Reece. The villains appear to be straight out of central casting. Of course, this doesn’t necessarily add up to automatic failure, as audiences often go for this kind of thing. We all know that films don’t have to be good to do well (otherwise, how would G-Force have made over $100 million?).

Assuming that the February leagues are up before Friday, From Paris With Love will run you $10 in both the Ultimate and Box Office leagues. It will probably end up at #2 this weekend, but with some pretty good competition coming in the next few weeks, it won’t stay near the top for very long. Say, five Top 5 points, $45 million in total take and a User Rating in the 6’s. For PTA, well, since this is the first week of the new season, that means the PTA slate has been wiped clean. That means that Paris may be able to cop a couple of PTA points, but it may not. There are a lot of limited release films that will probably beat it in that category (which I’ll get to in a bit). I would probably pass on this title.

Up next is Dear John, the latest story to be adapted to the big screen from a Nicholas Sparks romantic novel. Following previous efforts Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, The Notebook and Nights in Rodanthe, Dear John is hoping to capitalize on the success of its author, and using two fairly hot young actors to tell the story.

Channing Tatum (G.I. Joe) plays John Tyree, a loner who lives with his father (Richard Jenkins). While on leave from the army, he meets a college student (Amanda Seyfried) from a wealthy family. As their relationship blossoms, John is called back to duty, pledging to finish his two-year tour in Iraq before returning home to marry her. In return, she promises to write him letters every day.

Sounds very romantic, but Sparks has been down this road before. The Notebook was about reading a year’s worth of letters out loud to a patient with dementia. And all the elements are present in Dear John as well – the writing, the secrets, the other lover, the mental turmoil. At least the director, Lasse Hallstrom, is no stranger to this kind of film, having helmed What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, The Cider House Rules and Chocolat.

This is not my kind of movie, but it looks exactly like the kind of film that young women will want their boyfriends to take them to. Older women? Who knows. But I don’t have to tell you that most modern-day stories involving the military tend to fall flat, and Dear John, though a love story at heart, may join those ranks.

This title will run you $9 in Ultimate leagues and $10 in Box Office. I don’t think that much of its box office prospects, given that Valentine’s Day, another romantic movie with better advertising, a much better cast and a more alluring premise, is coming only one week later. Dear John will likely debut at #3 or #4 this Friday, and that will be it. Its User Rating is anybody’s guess, and I wouldn’t pick it for its PTA prospects either.

And now, a bit about the plethora of limited-release films coming out this weekend. I know very little about the prospective number of screens these films will be debuting on, but I’ll do my best to guide you. My best advice: watch the theater counts of all these films very closely.

Frozen ($5 Ult, $3 BO) – Director Adam Green (Hatchet) brings us a dramatic thriller about three skiers (Emma Bell, Shawn Ashmore and Kevin Zegers) who try to get one last ski run in at their favorite resort when the unthinkable happens: they are sitting on a chairlift halfway up the mountain when the ski patrol switches off the power and goes home for the week. Stranded fifty feet off the ground, the trio must find a way to save themselves before they freeze to death.

Much like Open Water, Frozen looks to be a tense thriller. It has gotten very good reviews so far (4/4 at RT), with critics giving kudos like “a potent combination of absolute terror and compelling human drama”, “…it will do for skiing what Jaws did for swimming”, and “will send different sets of shivers down the audience’s spines”. Seems like a good pick, but if I had to guess, I’d say that the theater count will be several hundred, which makes PTA a dicey prospect at best.

District B13 – Ultimatum ($4 Ult, $3 BO) – another action film directed by From Paris With Love's Pierre Morel. It is the English language release of a 2009 French action film entitled Banlieue 13 Ultimatum, and a sequel to District 13. In this story, main characters Damien (Cyril Raffaelli) and Leto (David Belle) must return to District 13 – a troubled sector controlled by five different gang bosses – to try to bring peace before the city government attempts a more radical (and final solution).

It’s gotten very good reviews (74% Fresh at RT), but its User Rating is only so-so (6.5 with nearly 4,000 votes). Action movies are very rarely PTA champs, particularly limited-release films, though Luc Besson (who also wrote the screenplay) does carry some weight. Odds are good that it will pick up some PTA, but how many? Who knows.

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers ($4 Ult, $2 BO) – Documentaries, on the other hand, are a much surer bet for PTA points, particularly when they pack as much punch as this one. This one centers on Daniel Ellsberg, an insider who “fired the first shot that brought down the Nixon regime”.

If you don’t know who Ellsberg is (and I didn’t), here’s the skinny: he is a former Marine who helped fight the Cold War up close and personal. He worked for years as an analyst, finally releasing the “Pentagon Papers” in 1971, which were basically an extended history of the United States’ involvement in Southeast Asia, along with proof that every administration from Truman through Nixon had lied about said involvement.

It’s too detailed to go into here, but Ellsberg is definitely set up as the white knight here, but most critics agree that directors Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith do so with no grandiosity or pomposity. Dangerous Man has amazing numbers across the board (100% Fresh on 15/15 reviews at RT, 8.5 with 45 votes at IMDb), and it is my choice for PTA pick of the week.

The Korean ($4 Ult, $1 BO) – I couldn’t find much info on this film, beyond its description: “A big city crime-lord is betrayed by four associates. With only hours before his arrest, he calls in the deadliest cleaner to get revenge.” Said cleaner is Lee (Josiah D. Lee), who plies his trade with “two guns, one knife, no mercy”, according to the tagline.

This is the directorial debut of Thomas Dixon, and the first big role for Lee, who has done mostly supporting work in the past. Its current User Rating is an impressive 9.1, but that’s only with nine votes. It could very well pick up a few PTA, and it’s very cheap, so even if it doesn’t, it won’t hurt you too much. The final Rating probably won’t drop much below 7.7.

Terribly Happy ($3 Ult, $1 BO) – This is a Danish film that is bowing on limited screens in New York and Los Angeles. It is a drama that centers on a cop (Jakob Cedergren) who is transferred to a hick town (here inbreeding is common) after suffering a nervous breakdown. I wasn’t able to find out much about the actual plot, but the one review I found was promising. Happy is, in fact, Denmark’s entry for Best Foreign Film in the Oscar race this year.

Its current Rating is 7.1 (with almost 1000 votes), so again, its cheap price tag won’t hurt you much if you swing and miss. However, foreign dramas are often excelling sources of PTA, and this one could a gold mine, particularly when you consider that ZERO limited-release films are scheduled for next week.

My predictions for the weekend of January 29-31, 2010:

1. Avatar – $23 million
2. From Paris With Love – $16 million
3. Dear John – $14 million
4. Edge of Darkness – $11 million
5. Tooth Fairy – $8 million

Well, that will do it for me for another week. Next week, three new films to talk about, all of them big ones, as we have finally reached Valentine’s weekend. And those films are: The Wolfman, a re-telling of the classic tale starring Sir Anthony Hopkins, Benicio Del Toro and Hugo Weaving; Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, a Harry Potter-ish story about a youth with magical powers that must face a bevy of unearthly monsters; and Valentine’s Day, the season’s obligatory love-soaked rom-com telling the story of a number of good-looking couples and singles exploring the ins and outs of romantic relationships.

Later!

http://forum.reelsociety.com

Shrykespeare

Sixth verse, same as the first. Avatar passes The Dark Knight as the #2 film of all time, and is probably only a couple of weeks away from supplanting Titanic as the biggest film ever, both domestically and internationally. Anyone remember a time when we were all speculating that it might end up being one of the biggest BUSTS in history? Not me, of course, I KNEW that it would be huge. Never a doubt in my mind. Nosiree Bob, never once. (Grin.)

So while we sit back and watch the story about the big boat get sunk by something other than the iceberg, we’ve got a few more films to talk about, as we close out January with four titles, consisting of two wide-release films and two limited-release films, all of which can be found on the January leagues at MMG.

One year ago this week, a little action film that had been postponed numerous times defied all odds and became one of the biggest surprise hits of 2009. Taken marked the beginning of an eventful year for its star, Liam Neeson, who tragically lost his wife, Natasha Richardson, in an accident. However, his role as Bryan Mills, a former spy who pulls out all the stops to rescue his kidnapped daughter, made him even more of a bankable star, which he is parlaying into big roles in 2010 films like Clash of the Titans, The A-Team and the third Chronicles of Narnia film.

On its surface, the plot for Edge of Darkness seems to be quite similar to Taken, with a few minor tweaks. First of all, the main character, Thomas Craven, is a homicide detective and not a spy; second of all, his daughter ends up being murdered, not kidnapped; and thirdly, instead of Neeson, Edge marks the return to the big screen for Mel Gibson, who we haven’t seen in a starring role since Signs in 2002.

Of course, we’ve all heard about the off-camera troubles Mel has had since then, culminating in the drunken anti-Semitic rant leading to his arrest in 2006. He lost a lot of respect then, probably the #1 reason that his directorial effort Apocalypto met with a less-than-stellar reception. The question is: had enough time passed that the average moviegoer is willing to give him another chance?

But let me back up one step: Edge of Darkness, much like last year’s State of Play, is based upon a British television series, and it is directed by Martin Campbell, who has proved that he is no slouch when it comes to helming action movies, having directed both Zorro films as well as two of the better recent James Bond films (Goldeneye, Casino Royale). Its screenplay was penned by William Monahan, who only won an Oscar for The Departed. Not too bad.

The plot: when Det. Craven’s daughter Emma (Bojana Novakovic) is brutally murdered in his home, he goes on a rampage to find the persons responsible. Along the way, he uncovers a rather shady secret life his daughter had been leading, as well as a governmental cover-up to not only have her removed but all the evidence as well. The always-good Ray Winstone co-stars, as well as Wolverine baddie Danny Huston.

Honestly, I like the look of this film. It seems to have all the ingredients that Taken had one year ago, with one or two glaring exceptions, those being 1) the fact that Gibson’s checkered past hasn’t quite disappeared in many people’s rear-view, and 2) the fact that Avatar, six weeks into its release, STILL hasn’t found a worthy adversary. (Note: I asked my local theater manager how long it would be before Avatar’s run in 3D ended, and she said that it wouldn’t be until early March, when Alice in Wonderland debuts. That’s still over a month away, people.)

Since Avatar seems to be losing steam at a rate of about 15-20% per week, that would mean that it will probably pull in a further $28 million this weekend. To beat that number, Edge of Darkness will have to have an opening weekend equal to that of Book of Eli, but I honestly don’t think that will happen, because while Edge’s ad campaign has been pretty good, it hasn’t been plastered all over television and billboards the way Eli was. So, I figure it will come out to about $19 million on its OW ($63 million overall), eight Top 5 points, three PTA and a very decent User Rating (over 7.0).

For $14 in both types of January leagues, I think this could be a worthy pick. It certainly looks better-acted and less cartoonish than next week’s From Paris With Love, and much more adult-oriented than Percy Jackson. If word of mouth and reviews are good, it could be a very solid addition to your slates, particularly if you’ve shunned all of January’s other offerings (for which I probably wouldn’t blame you).

Up next we have When in Rome, a romantic comedy starring Kristen Bell (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and Josh Duhamel (Transformers). Directed by Mark Steven Johnson, whose last two films, Daredevil and Ghost Rider, were superhero films which both met with moderate financial success despite being widely panned.

Bell plays Beth, an ambitious young New Yorker who has completely struck out in romance. However, on a trip to Italy’s capital to attend her younger sister’s (Alexis Dziena) impulsive marriage, she decides to steal some coins from a local “fountain of love”, which apparently has magical powers, in that it makes many men in the local vicinity pursue her romantically (as the coins ostensibly belonged to them).

Honestly, could it get any more trite and formulaic? Romantic comedies in general are not usually bastions of creative thought, but oy vey. Bell, while attractive, has not convinced me yet that she can be a solid leading lady, as she lacks the charisma of someone like Reese Witherspoon or Katherine Heigl. And Josh Duhamel, shedding his fatigues and slipping back into his Las Vegas persona, has also yet to convince me that he’s ready to be a top biller either.

The supporting cast is actually quite good: Anjelica Huston, Danny Devito, Will Arnett, Jon Heder and Lee Pace, among others. It’s about the only thing about When in Rome that I can find to recommend. It’s been postponed numerous times, and I expect it to meet with the same lethargic reaction that Renee Zellweger’s New in Town did one year ago. In fact, I’ll go ahead and predict exactly the same stats as that film: $7 million OW, $16 million overall. It might give you a couple of Top 5 points, but that’s not enough to spend $9 on it… not when there are “romantic” titles coming up with a lot more promise (Dear John and Valentine’s Day).

And now, a few words about this weekend’s two limited-release films:

Saint John of Las Vegas ($4 Ult, $2 BO) – I don’t know how many theaters this is scheduled to bow in (ComingSoon has it debuting only in New York and L.A.), and I really wish I could recommend this film as a possible source for PTA, but I don’t know if I can. And it’s a pity, because Steve Buscemi is one of those actors that can turn in a terrific performance no matter who he plays. Here, he plays John, a veteran insurance-fraud investigator who had a serious gambling addiction at one point but found a way to quit. However, when an assignment takes him back to Sin City, he finds himself getting into heaps of trouble once again.

You’d think, with a talented supporting cast that includes Peter Dinklage (Death at a Funeral), Sarah Silverman, John Cho, Romany Malco and Emmanuelle Chriqui would be a surefire hit. However, early reviews have been horrible (0/4 at RT), and its User Rating is less than promising (6.1/90 votes). I have to believe that even for $4, you can do better than this.

Off and Running ($3 Ult, $2 BO) – With not much data to go on, I’ll have to make this one my PTA pick of the week. It is a documentary centered on a teenage Brooklyn girl named Avery, who was adopted at birth by a same-sex couple (two Jewish ladies), and lives with them along with her two younger adoptive brothers (one mixed-race and one Korean). However, when Avery becomes curious about her African-American roots grows, she decides to contact her birth mother, a choice that threatens to distance her from the only parents she’s even known.

The title is a dual reference to not only Avery’s search for her own identity but the fact that she is a budding track star. It debuted last year at the Tribeca Film Festival to favorable reviews, and currently sits on IMDb at a 7.2 User Rating (though with only 11 votes). It will only run you $3 in the Ultimate leagues, which means if you gamble and lose, it won’t hurt you too much. But on the other hand, if it ends up winning the PTA weekend, won’t you be glad if you took it? (Not one person took The Last Station in the December leagues, which is a shame, given that if they had, they’d have scored nine PTA points for only a few bucks.)


My predictions for the weekend of January 29-31, 2010:

1. Avatar – $28 million
2. Edge of Darkness - $19 million
3. Legion - $10 million
4. Book of Eli - $9 million
5. Tooth Fairy – $8 million

Well, that will do it for me for another week. Next week, I’ll break in February with the slate of movies that will open up the Feb-Apr leagues, which include: From Paris With Love, an action movie starring a bald, badass John Travolta as the least subtle American spy in Europe, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers as an ambassador’s attaché forced to tag along with him as they try to foil a terrorist attack on the French capitol; Dear John, an adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel starring Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried as a soldier and his GF whose bond is tested when he decides to re-enlist; and a whole host of limited-release films, all vying for the first PTA points of the new season.

Later!

http://forum.reelsociety.com

Shrykespeare

Bright Star, la cui uscita era prevista il 5 febbraio, è posticipato a data da definire.

Oceani 3D, la cui uscita era prevista il 12 febbraio è posticipato al 16 aprile.

Donne senza uomini, la cui uscita era prevista il 26 febbraio è posticipato al 12 marzo.

Un profeta, che era uscito dall’elenco dei film disponibili, rientra in gioco in quanto  risulta in uscita al 26 febbraio.

Donnie

Percy Jackson e il ladro di fulmini, inizialmente previsto per il 12 febbraio è stato posticipato al 12 marzo.

Donnie

Departures, in programmazione lo scorso week end non è più stato rilasciato in nessuna sala.

Adam, la cui uscita era prevista il 5 febbraio, è posticipato a data da destinarsi.

Tenderness, la cui uscita era prevista il 12 febbraio, è posticipato a data da destinarsi.

Questa, come al solito imprevista e imprevedibile, moria di film a 2-3 soldi può essere affrontata grazie all'inserimento di nuovi film nell'elenco dei film acquistabili. Tutti a modici prezzi, (2 milioni), per tutte le tasche e per tutti i roster! I nuovi film inseriti sono:

22/1 - Presagio Finale

29/1 - Bangkok dangerous

5/2 - Bright star

26/2 - Nord

26/2 - Shadow

Accorrete gente, oggi 3X2!

Donnie

Five weeks and counting. Twenty-five Top 5 points, nineteen PTA points, an 8.7 User Rating, and oh yes, nearly half a billion dollars earned. Holy schnikes. Denzel made a game of it, but nothing seems to be slowing this juggernaut down. By the time next week, Avatar will likely have passed The Dark Knight for #2 on the all-time list, and could be #1 by the end of the month. You know, records WERE meant to be broken, after all. One can only wonder what film will come along some time down the line that will break this one. Scary thought, huh?

Three films make their debut this Friday, on January 22nd, and it’s probably they are as different as can be: a slapstick-y family comedy, a horror/thriller and a serious drama. Whether any of them will open to a level of acceptance higher than mere indifference remains to be seen, but someone’s got to be the one to end Avatar’s streak, doesn’t it?

The film opening the widest this week is Tooth Fairy, the latest family comedy to star former college football star, pro wrestler and Scorpion King Dwayne “Not the Rock Anymore” Johnson. A few years ago, I would have bet real money that he would attempt to be the next big-budget action star, but to his credit, he went a different route. And to prove that point, you can see that the last three films he’s had top billing in have all been family films (The Game Plan, Race to Witch Mountain, Planet 51). I can only guess that being a dad had something to do with that decision, which I commend him for. He actually as a fair amount of acting talent (well, more than you might have expected) and a lot of charisma.

But the question is: can Johnson in a tutu and wings draw a crowd? Well, perhaps I’d better qualify that statement: In Tooth Fairy, Johnson plays Derek Thompson, a hard-nosed minor league hockey player who has been given the moniker “The Tooth Fairy” because he has a habit of… well, messing up opponents’ dental work, if you get my drift. And since it seems that he’s as bad off the ice as he is on it, it’s only a matter of time before he gets called on his B.S.

One misdeed too many gets him a one-week sentence as, you guessed it, a REAL tooth fairy, wherein he must visit the homes of kids and leave money under their pillows. He is put through his paces by Lily (Julie Andrews), a senior fairy who is every bit as tough as he is. Before long, Derek begins to warm to his new position, rediscover his own forgotten dreams, and all sorts of other warm, fuzzy stuff too. Ashley Judd and Billy Crystal (where have THEY been?) costar.

Given that The Spy Next Door failed to make even a ripple in the box office tidal pool, the door would seem to be wide open for Tooth Fairy, which has a better studio backing it (Fox), a director with a better track record (Michael Lembeck, who helmed the last two Santa Clause movies), a better ad campaign and a much more solid lead actor (sorry, Jackie).

It will run you $13 in both Ultimate and Box Office leagues, but be warned before you even think of taking it in Ultimate: it comes with some heavy baggage…namely, a current User Rating of 3.9. Now granted, that is with not even 150 votes, but do you really think it’s going to improve that much? It will probably need to crack $25 million to have any chance at beating Avatar, which has got to run out of steam at some point. (Right???) But even if it doesn’t, it should end up with at least eight Top 5 points, three PTA and about $60 million if it takes off well. Movies like this often have good legs, and there is very little in the next few months aimed specifically at kids, so there’s that. I’d recommend it in Box Office, but that User Rating is just too low to be a viable Ultimate pick.

Regardless of what else may happen, I figure Avatar and Tooth Fairy are a lock to finish in the top two positions (in whatever order). Third place will very likely be The Book Of Eli, which had a very impressive OW, even beating Avatar on its first day. I’m betting #4 will be Legion, a horror/thriller from Sony Screen Gems. And if you thought Eli was rife with biblical connotations, then you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

This is the first major directorial project for Scott Stewart, who has spent the better part of the last decade as a visual effects man. Rated R for violence, profanity and some extremely disturbing images (if the trailer is anything to go by), Legion unfolds when the Man Upstairs has finally had it with humanity’s crap, and has sent a vast army of angels to snuff us out once and for all. That is, except for one lone savior, the archangel Michael (Paul Bettany), who has decided to be mankind’s final champion.

The center of the battle seems to be a small town in New Mexico, where Michael seeks to protect a young waitress named Charlie (Adrianne Palicki), who just may be pregnant with Christ in his second coming. Along with her are a bevy of familiar faces, played by veteran actors like Dennis Quaid, Charles S. Dutton, Tyrese Gibson and Lucas Black. Together, they must try to withstand maybe the most fearsome army ever assembled. I mean, seriously… if GOD wants us dead, it may be time to put our affairs in order, huh?

Scheduled to debut in roughly 2,500 theaters, I imagine a fair opening for Legion, perhaps in the neighborhood of $15 million, possibly less, given that this is practically the same genre as Eli, but with less star power. For $9 in Ultimate, I predict two Top 5 points, maybe one PTA if it’s lucky, and a User Rating in the high 6’s. There’s simply too much going on for this to really stand out, and I don’t think it will make much more than $30 million total, which puts it out of the realm of respectability for the $8 you’d spend on it in Box Office as well. Sorry.

Even less desirable may be Extraordinary Measures. Not because it lacks star power, or an uplifting story, or a bad ad campaign. Actually, I don’t know if I can put my finger on why this film will probably fail, but something just tells me it will. Perhaps that’s unfair, but sometimes you have to take a flyer in this game.

Measures tells the story of John Crowley (Brendan Fraser), a biotechnology executive whose two youngest children were afflicted with a rare genetic disorder called “Pompe Disease” – basically, they lack a certain enzyme needed to break down glycogen, which results in progressive muscular degeneration. John, along with his wife Aileen (Keri Russell), seek out the aid of eccentric researcher Robert Stonehill (Harrison Ford), who just might be their last hope to find a cure before their kids are beyond help.

Based on true events outlaid in the bestselling book “The Cure” by Geeta Anand, this looks like the kind of story that follows the predictable pattern of dramas like this: things look bad, things look worse, and the last-ditch effort turns into a miracle. Now, I may be completely off base with this prediction, as I don’t know the story behind this, but I would venture that this is how the movie will play out. Not that there’s anything wrong with that… happy endings are what most moviegoers covet, especially in these dark economic times. I’m just not sure this is the vehicle for hope that the folks at CBS Films thinks it will be.

I don’t imagine an opening weekend of much more than $12 million, which means it will have to outduel The Lovely Bones for that fifth and final spot in the Top 5. Granted, it’s only $6 in the Ultimate leagues, but you’d still like a better return on your investment than one Top 5 points (if that), no PTA, and a fair-to-middling User Rating. $5 in Box Office is better, but only if you think it can pull over $20 million, which might be a stretch.

Only one other film to mention this week, and that is To Save a Life. It’s not available in the January leagues, but it is still available in the December leagues, so I figure it’s worth a mention. It is a Christian film, coming in limited release from Samuel Goldwyn studios.

It tells the story of Jake Taylor (Randy Wayne) and Roger Dawson (Robert Bailey, Jr.), two high-schoolers who are polar opposites: Jake is the most popular kid in school, while Roger is practically a pariah. At one time they were friends, but the chasm of popularity between them caused them to drift apart. Things get even worse when Roger commits suicide, forcing Jake into a crisis of conscience, given that he did nothing to stop it from happening. From there, Jake re-examines his outlook on life, and must make a choice between the ephemeral illusion of popularity and doing what is right by his faith.

Sounds nice enough, I suppose. Since there are no other limited-release films on the docket for this week, it may be worth checking into. For $3 it could be a good source for cheap PTA points, and it probably won’t hurt you much in the User Rating category either.


My predictions for the weekend of January 22-24, 2010:

1. Avatar – $32 million
2. Tooth Fairy – $26 million
3. The Book of Eli – $17 million
4. Legion – $14 million
5. Extraordinary Measures – $11 million

Well, that will do it for me for another week. Next week, four new films to talk about as we close out the first month of 2010 (boy, that went quick, didn’t it?). Mel Gibson makes his long-awaited return to the big screen in Edge of Darkness, where he plays a homicide detective who goes on the warpath against the people who murdered his activist daughter; When in Rome, a trite-looking romantic comedy starring Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel; as well as limited-release features Off and Running and Saint John of Las Vegas.

Later!

http://forum.reelsociety.com

Shrykespeare

Gli aggiornamenti delle classifiche tengono conto del valore totale ufficiale del boxoffice di tutti i film in gara. Il film The Princess and the frog è entrato effettivamente in gara, nelle nostre leghe, l'11 dicembre 2009, in occasione dell'uscita wide. Tuttavia il film era già nelle sale, in edizione limited, da 3 settimane precedenti che non fanno parte della gara in corso. Pertanto, al film dovranno essere sottratti i 2.879.870 $ guadagnati prima dell'11 dicembre e non accumulabili ai fini del gioco. Tale sottrazione avverrà in occasione dell'ultimo aggiornamento finale, a fine febbraio. I giocatori che hanno acquistato The Princess and the frog devono tenere presente che al loro incasso totale visualizzato fino a febbraio, dovrà essere sottratta quella cifra.

Donnie

Departures nuovamente in gioco e The Debt rinviato

L'uscita di DEPARTURES, cancellata e spostata a data da destinarsi, pare che sia stata finalmente confermata il 15 gennaio prossimo. Il film, pertanto, rientra nell'elenco dei film acquistabili.

The debt, la cui uscita era prevista il 19 febbraio, è rinviato a data da definire.

Donnie

Avatar, Avatar, Avatar. When will it stop? As of Sunday, this behemoth has passed Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen as the highest-grossing film of 2009, and shattered Titanic’s all-time record for the highest-grossing 4th weekend in history (by almost $20 million). It is now the 7th-biggest film of all time domestically, and will probably be #3 by this time next week, trailing only The Dark Knight and Titanic on the all-time list. Wow. Just… wow.

Avatar even seems immune from the normal post-holiday swoons that most December films suffer once the calendar turns. Suffering only a 29% drop this past weekend, it seems clear that a fifth straight week at the top seems likely. While all other comers fall by the wayside, James Cameron has proved once again that he is the master of all he surveys.

However, there are always new movies to talk about, and that is why I’m here. There are several new films to talk about this week, and the biggest contender is undoubtedly The Book of Eli, the latest outing from Warner Bros. Scheduled to be released in over 3,000 theaters (a fair amount for January), this action film is being directed by another set of brothers, Albert and Allen Hughes, who you may remember from past projects like Menace II Society, Dead Presidents and From Hell.

Eli stars Denzel Washington as the titular character. Denzel, who just turned 55 years young, appears to be going back into full-on badass mode, something we haven’t seen him do much in this decade, save perhaps Man on Fire and, of course, Training Day. It is the year 2043, and Eli wanders through a post-apocalyptic world some 30 years after cataclysm. He is in possession of a book (duh) that could very well be the last Bible in existence, a book fanatically coveted by the autocratic ruler of a local town (Gary Oldman, back in his wheelhouse playing the villain again).

Trailers and commercials for The Book of Eli have been EVERYWHERE in the past month (particularly during the NFL playoff games), and this film could easily become the first success story of 2010. As I said, it has been given a respectable theater count, and despite its R rating, I firmly believe Eli could give action film buffs their first fix of the year (assuming they’d rather see something new than sit through Avatar for the tenth time), and that will be reflected in its opening weekend numbers.

My yardstick for choosing a movie based on Box Office numbers alone is this: If I can reasonably expect it to earn $1.5 million for every dollar I spend on it, then it’s worth it. In January Box Office leagues, it will run you $15, and I think Eli will pull about $23 million in its first three days, en route to a final total of roughly $60 million. It may not beat Avatar for #1, but I think it will do well enough to pick up seven Top 5 points, five PTA (under the new rule), and have a very respectable User Rating (say, around 7.2). Whether those stats are enough for you to fork over $19, however, is a tough call. There are no surefire hits in January, and Eli is probably the closest thing you have to one. There are probably better prospects in February and March, but you just never know.

Remember The Pacifier? It was a fairly lame 2005 Disney family comedy starring Vin Diesel (legendary for his comedic talent, snark) as a former Navy SEAL forced to become a nanny-slash-bodyguard to the five children of a kidnapped scientist. Despite its lameness, however, it cruised to over $113 million.

Four years later, the formula is being re-tested in another movie, entitled The Spy Next Door. Jackie Chan plays former CIA spy Bob Ho (no, really), who must look after his girlfriend Gillian’s (Amber Valletta) three kids while she’s away. Of course, they don’t like him much, so they proceed to make his life hell… that is, until one of the kids accidentally downloads a top-secret formula, causing one of Bob’s longtime enemies, a Russian terrorist named Poldark (Magnus Sheving) to pay him a visit (don’tcha just hate when that happens?).

Chan (now 55, ironically the same age as Denzel), is still in very good shape, and I’m sure we’ll see a lot of his trademark martial arts moves, beating up bad guys with a flurry of arms, legs and inanimate objects. And I’m sure anyone who likes Chan, or movies like The Pacifier, will probably enjoy The Spy Next Door. However, this is NOT Disney (it’s Lionsgate), it’s not spring (it’s January), and it’s... been… done… before. And it co-stars… Billy Ray Cyrus and George Lopez (uh-oh…).

Between this and next week’s equally cutesy-poo family comedy Tooth Fairy, I’ll probably side with the latter in terms of prospects. Tooth Fairy has a better studio (Fox), a more popular lead actor (Dwayne Johnson), and a better ad campaign. I think Spy Next Door will have one fair-to-decent weekend, and then be quickly forgotten. Hell, it’ll probably be out on DVD in May.

For $12 in Ultimate, I would not pick this film, as I think it will give you no more than four Top 5 points, two or three PTA, and about $35 million. It’s User Rating will likely be terrible (say, around 5.0, and that’s being generous), so there’s that. $10 in Box Office is more feasible, but not enough for me to recommend it.

And now, a few words about the two limited-release films debuting this week. Neither of these films are in the January leagues, but they ARE available in the December leagues, so it’s not too late to pick these up if you still want them):

Fish Tank ($3 in Dec. Ult.) – Easily my PTA pick of the week. It’s only bowing in two theaters, which is optimum for PTA points. It’s got great scores everywhere you look (7.7/1,411 votes on IMDB, 92% Fresh on 33/36 review at RT), and it’s dirt cheap. It’s gotten rave reviews from some of the most respected critics in the biz. Really, what more could you want?

Newcomer Katie Jarvis plays Mia, a 15-year-old who lives in Essex, England with her single mother and younger sister. Mia is a troublemaker who has been kicked out of school and prefers to spend her time practicing urban dancing in a deserted area of her mother’s estate. However, trouble brews when Katie’s mum brings home a man named Connor (300’s Michael Fassbender), and early flirtations turn into a full-blown affair behind mum’s back (ooh, that can’t be good).

This film won the Jury Prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, no mean feat. Really, there isn’t anything more that I can say to recommend it. It really is a shame that it was added to Box Office Mojo’s lineup too late to include in the January leagues, as it really is a steal.

The Last Station ($5 in Dec. Ult.) – This is a German biographical film about War And Peace author Leo Tolstoy, starring Christopher Plummer as the prolific writer and Helen Mirren as his wife, Sofya. The film also stars James McAvoy and Paul Giamatti, rounding out a truly impressive cast.

It may interest you to know that Mirren won the Best Actress Award at the 2009 Rome Film Festival for this movie, and both she and Plummer are nominated for Golden Globes. It is destined for limited release in both New York and Los Angeles, which means that it could easily pick up a few cheap PTA points itself. Its scores are very good (7.4/188 votes on IMDB, 68% Fresh on RT), but I just can’t recommend it over Fish Tank. Any other weekend I probably would, so there’s that.


My predictions for the weekend of January 15-17, 2010:

1. Avatar - $31 million
2. The Book of Eli - $23 million
3. The Spy Next Door - $14 million
4. Sherlock Holmes - $8 million
5. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel - $8 million

Well, that will do it for me for another week. Next week, three more big films hit theaters, including: Legion, a horror/thriller about an army of angels sent from heaven to destroy mankind, with only Paul Bettany to fight them; Tooth Fairy, a silly-looking family comedy starring Dwayne Johnson as a rough-and-tumble hockey player who is sentenced to don wings and tights and stick money under kids’ pillows; and Extraordinary Measures, a true story starring Brendan Fraser as a father desperate to save his terminally-ill kids and Harrison Ford as the researcher who may have stumbled onto a possible cure.

Later!

http://forum.reelsociety.com

Shrykespeare

A single man, la cui uscita era prevista per il 22 gennaio 2010, è stato anticipato al 15 gennaio.

L'uscita di Alleluja (Le missionaire), cancellata e spostata a data da destinarsi, è stata invece confermata il 19 febbraio. Il film, pertanto, rientra nell'elenco dei film acquistabili.

donnie

I love you, Phillip Morris, la cui uscita era prevista per il 5 Febbraio 2010, è stato posticipato al 26 Marzo.

Donnie

It’s the start of a new year, a new game, a new age. Let us give thanks one more time to donnie and her erstwhile crew of Italian entrepreneurs who have made it all possible. Speaking on a personal note, thank you for unloading the tremendous burden I had to shoulder by keeping the game going after FM folded. And if this is the first column that will be linked to from the new MMG site, it’s just possible that this may be reaching the largest audience I’ve had in well over a year. So, I’d better make this column a good one! Oh, jeez, opening night jitters…. (Grin.)

Well, Avatar has proved me wrong in spades by surpassing Twilight: New Moon's total numbers in very short order. It looks like James Cameron’s (successful) attempt to re-establish himself as the “king of the world” has become the first winter film to surpass $300 million since The Return of the King did it in 2003. It also has become the first film to win three consecutive weekends since Tropic Thunder did in August of 2008. Can any of the leadoff hitters for 2010 stem the tide?

Well, that is, in a word, doubtful. Even if Avatar sinks to, say, $25 million in its third weekend, any of the three new wide-release films will be hard-pressed to make that much, but January films usually represent a drop-off in movie-going interest. The residual efforts of films like Avatar, Sherlock Holmes, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel and Up in the Air could be hard to overcome. But if any of these three films has the gumption to crack the Top 5, it just might be Daybreakers. And keep in mind that there is a new rule in the Ultimate game, that being that only movies being released THIS WEEKEND will be considered when awarding PTA points in the January season. Given that there are six films scheduled, that means that all but one will be walking away with at least one PTA point.

This horror movie – with a sci-fi twist – is the latest creepy outing from Lionsgate Pictures, and is the first American release for German-born directors Michael and Peter Spierig. It’s an interesting “what if” premise: as in, what if the world’s population was almost entirely vampires, who must feed on what few humans remain for their blood. But now, in the year 2019, their society has reached a tipping point: they are on the verge of running out of blood entirely, which could mean the extinction of their race, or worse – those few that survive would be transformed into slavering, bestial bat-like creatures.

The main villain of the film is Charles Bromley (Sam Neill) the head of a powerful corporation that holds the largest remaining stock of human blood still in existence. Working for him is researcher Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke), who is trying to find a way to cure vampirism entirely. Opposing just about everyone is Lionel “Elvis” Cormac (Willem Defoe, having a blast), a former vampire turned vampire-hunter.

It’s interesting to note that on Rotten Tomatoes, Daybreakers currently has a “100% Fresh” score. Now, don’t get carried away… most of these reviews come from fan-mags, but it’s still worth noting, as is the fact that its pre-release User Rating on IMDb is a hearty 8.6 (with over 600 votes). Again, don’t get carried away, this is bound to drop by at least a full point when the general public gets a glimpse, but still, a rating in the mid-7’s is exceptional for films in this genre and with this release date.

This film will run you $12 in the Ultimate leagues. It has a chance at picking up some PTA points, as well as a very good User Rating, but I don’t think that it will procure much more than four or five Top 5 points, and $35 million seems like the ceiling for this first big film out of the gate. $8 in Box Office may be a better bargain, but January is so hit-or-miss… there are four or five movies that COULD be hits, but will they? That remains a mystery.

Up next we have Leap Year, 2010’s first romantic comedy. It stars Amy Adams, who is currently on a hot streak, having received critical acclaim for her last three starring roles (Doubt, Sunshine Cleaning, Julie & Julia). And as much as I would like to believe that this film, directed by Thai helmer Anand Tucker (Shopgirl), will continue her streak, I just don’t see it happening. Judging from the trailers, it looks to be about as formulaic, trite and predictable as they come.

Amy plays Anna, a girl who is waiting patiently for her boyfriend Jeremy (Adam Scott) to pop the question. But after one more opportunity goes by with no luck, she decides to follow him to Dublin – where he is ostensibly headed on a business trip – in order to propose to him. For you see, there’s an old Irish tradition that says that when a man is proposed to on Leap Day (February 29th), he has to accept. Yeah, good luck with that…

Running into turbulence en route and forced to divert to Wales, she hooks up with Declan (Watchmen’s Matthew Goode), a cab driver who has agreed to take her to her beau. What’ll you bet she develops feelings for Declan whilst enduring every road-trip pitfall there is? Seriously, it looks just like an unfunny version of The Sure Thing dropped into a P.S. I Love You setting to me!

Up until this past week, I had not seen any television advertising for this film, but now it seems to be everywhere. I wouldn’t have thought it had a shot at breaching the Top 5, but now I think it has a chance. Last year, the Christmas holdovers all dropped about 55-60% on this particular weekend, allowing Bride Wars and The Unborn to slip in at #2 and #3. However, last year’s Christmas movies don’t even hold a candle to this year’s, so take that as read.

Scheduled to be released in about 2,500 locations (about the same as Daybreakers), I see it dueling with Daybreakers for that #4 spot. It may get a couple of PTA as well given the new rule, but is that worth spending $10 on it in Ultimate ($7 in Box Office). Not hardly. I foresee this making about $25 million, total, and it probably won’t have a User Rating north of the 6.0 mark. Pass on this one.

Third up is Youth in Revolt, the latest outing from Puerto Rican director Miguel Arteta (whose debut project in 1997, Star Maps, was actually pretty good, but from whom I have yet to see anything since). It, too, has a very respectable RT score (86% Fresh on 6/7) and User Rating (7.3/330). But is there an audience for this, which is only scheduled for 2,000 screens?

Perennial teenager Michael Cera (now 21) plays Nick Twisp, a sex-obsessed 16-year-old who meets Sheeni Saunders (newcomer Portia Doubleday) a smart, beautiful girl who, of course, only sees Nick as a “friend”. Desperate to win her affections, he cooks up a more devilish, more sinister alter-ego named Francois Dillinger (also Cera, but with blue eyes and a fake ‘stache), who possesses the self-confidence necessary for him to pull it off. Of course, handing the reins to Francois ends up having dire consequences, and soon Nick is a wanted fugitive. Oh, bollocks.

I’ve seen a fair amount of advertising for this film, which is good. It might have had a chance to beat out Leap Year, and could even pick up a Top 5 point or two if it can gross around $12 million (and that’s a big if), but I don't see it happening. It will run you $8 in the Ultimate leagues, which I think is just too steep a price. I doubt it will make more than $18 million, and you’re going to need that revenue later on in the season, I guarantee it. $5 in Box Office is more feasible, but with heavier hitters coming up starring Denzel Washington, Jackie Chan and Dwayne Johnson, can this little film be heard above the noise? I say no.

And now, a few words about the three limited-release films coming this week:

Crazy on the Outside ($5 Ult, $2 BO) – Hollywood veteran Tim Allen stars (and makes his directorial debut) with this film, a comedy where he plays Tommy Zelda, an ex-con who is forced to re-engage with his somewhat offbeat family following his parole from prison following a three-year stint.

This film has no shortage of star power: apart from Allen, the cast includes Sigourney Weaver, Jeanne Tripplehorn, J.K. Simmons, Ray Liotta and Kelsey Grammer. Normally, I would consider this to be a shoo-in as PTA champ given the new rule, but I don’t think that will be the case. Box Office Mojo has Crazy on the Outside bowing in 80 locations, which is rather too much to make a serious case for PTA points. Spend your $5 elsewhere.

Waiting For Armageddon ($3 Ult, $2 BO) – This is a documentary that graphically outlines the beliefs of some 50 million Americans, who are convinced that the Bible’s prophecies regarding the end of the world are about to come true. Weaving together critical perspectives of Christianity, Zionism and Judaism, filmmakers Kate Davis and David Heilbroner seem to have created a film that shines a big light on a subject that few people (excepting Roland Emmerich) would care to discuss.

It is for this reason that I would not pick this film. Well, that and it’s current IMDb score (6.1 with only 12 votes). I am not sure how many theaters this film will be bowing in, so the odds are good that you may pick up a PTA point or two, and even if it it’s the odd film out, it won’t hurt you very much for only $3. And that’s the nicest thing I have to say about it.

Wonderful World ($5 Ult, $2 BO) – This is my PTA pick of the week. Not because I have a tremendous amount of confidence, but merely by process of elimination. Though it only has a medium-level User Rating (6.6/283), the trailer is rather engaging, and you should check it out if you haven’t yet. Distributed by Magnolia Films, Wonderful World tells the story of Ben Singer, a cynical former children’s singer who has become increasingly despondent. When his Senegalese roommate Ibu (Michael K. Williams) falls into a diabetic coma, it falls to Ibu’s sister Khadi (Sanaa Lathan) to try to bring Ben back to the world of the living, along with the help of Ben’s young daughter Sandra (Jodelle Ferland).

It may not have the appeal that The Visitor did, but it may be able to capture some of its more light-hearted and uplifting overtones. And if it can, this could be your ticket to cheap PTA points. Really, what else is there?


My predictions for the weekend of January 8-10, 2010:

1. Avatar - $32 million
2. Sherlock Holmes - $18 million
3. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel - $15 million
4. Daybreakers - $12 million
5. Leap Year - $11 million

Well, that will do it for me for another week. Next week, only two films to talk about, and they are both action films, albeit very very different ones: The Book of Eli, starring Denzel Washington as the badass hero and Gary Oldman as the badass villain in a post-apocalyptic society; and The Spy Next Door, a kiddie action comedy starring Jackie Chan as an international spy who is asked to watch over his girlfriend’s three kids. What, Vin Diesel wasn’t available?

Later!

http://forum.reelsociety.com

Shrykespeare

The book of Eli nuovamente in gioco e nuovi film per le leghe ITA

L'uscita di The book of Eli, cancellata e spostata a data da destinarsi, pare che sia stata finalmente confermata il 26 febbraio. Il film, pertanto, rientra nell'elenco dei film acquistabili.

Inoltre, per compensare la cancellazione di film nelle leghe italiane, dovuta ai continui spostamenti di data, sono stati inseriti nell'elenco dei film acquistabili alcuni nuovi film rilasciati in seguito all'apertura della Lega e che ora possono essere acquistati nella lega in corso:

8/1 ONG BAK 2

15/1 LA PRIMA COSA BELLA

5/2 IL CONCERTO
12/2 LOURDES

19/2 IL RICHIAMO DELLA FORESTA 3D

19/2 IL FIGLIO PIU' PICCOLO
26/2 DONNE SENZA UOMINI

Donnie

Due film cancellati e uno spostato per le leghe ITA

Amabili resti, la cui uscita era prevista per il 5 febbraio 2010, è stato posticipato al 12 febbraio.

I film seguenti sono scomparsi dal calendario della programmazione e vengono pertanto eliminati dalla lista della Lega. Se dovessero riapparire in tempo nel calendario, provvederemo a reintegrarli.

Departures, la cui uscita era prevista il 15 gennaio è stato spostato a data da destinarsi.

Il maledetto United, la cui uscita era prevista il 12 febbraio è stato spostato a data da destinarsi.

Donnie

Per le leghe USA

Takers, la cui uscita era prevista per il 26 febbraio 2010, è stato posticipato al 14 Maggio.

Per le leghe ITA

Un profeta, la cui uscita era prevista per il 26 febbraio 2010, è stato posticipato al 12 Marzo.

Donnie

Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil, la cui uscita era prevista per il 15 Gennaio 2010, è stato posticipato a data da destinarsi.

Donnie

ANCORA SPOSTAMENTI

Sembra la maledizione di ogni inizio settimana: controlliamo le date di uscita dichiarate per il mercato italiano e scopriamo che MOLTISSIME sono state cambiate. I continui cambiamenti sembrano essere sintomatici del nostro Paese, sia per ricorrenza che portata e, pur rendendoci conto che questi spostamenti costringono i giocatori a rivedere periodicamente il proprio roster, siamo spiacenti di non poter risolvere in alcun modo questo inconveniente. L'unica cosa che possiamo fare è controllare accuratamente ogni giorno e comunicarvi TEMPESTIVAMENTE ogni cambiamento. Vi consigliamo, quindi, di leggere periodicamente le news e, eventualmente, apportare le modifiche necessarie ai vostri roster.

Riportiamo di seguito l'elenco dei film con le recenti variazioni:

I seguenti film hanno subito spostamenti MA restano in gara per la lega italiana:

- An Education (uscita prevista 15 gennaio) --> NUOVA DATA: 5 febbraio 2010

- Up in the air (uscita prevista 15 gennaio) --> NUOVA DATA: 22 gennaio 2010

- Che fine hanno fatto i Morgan? (uscita prevista 22 gennaio) --> NUOVA DATA: 19 febbraio 2010

- Il maledetto United (uscita prevista 19 febbraio) --> NUOVA DATA: 12 febbraio

- Invictus (uscita prevista 12 febbraio) --> NUOVA DATA: 26 febbraio

I seguenti film hanno subito spostamenti in avanti ed escono dall'elenco dei film acquistabili. I giocatori che li hanno acquistati devono procedere alla loro sostituzione. 

- The Box (uscita prevista 15 gennaio) --> NUOVA DATA: da definire

- Alleluja (uscita prevista 22 gennaio) --> NUOVA DATA: da definire

- I love you Philip Morris (uscita prevista 29 gennaio) --> NUOVA DATA: de definire

- The book of Eli (uscita prevista 5 febbraio) --> NUOVA DATA: da definire

- The ghost (uscita prevista 19 febbraio) --> NUOVA DATA: da definire

- Io sono l'amore (uscita prevista 5 febbraio) --> NUOVA DATA: 19 marzo

- Valentine's Day (uscita prevista 19 febbraio) --> NUOVA DATA: 12 marzo

- Legion (uscita prevista 26 febbraio) --> NUOVA DATA: 12 marzo

Donnie

AVVISO PER LE LEGHE USA

Did you hear about the Morgans? la cui uscita era prevista l'11 dicembre è stato posticipato al 18 dicembre 2009.

AVVISO IMPORTANTE PER LE LEGHE ITALIANE

Moltissimi film, la cui data di uscita era prevista nelle prossime settimane per le Leghe Italiane, hanno subito una variazione nelle date di uscita. Riportiamo di seguito l'elenco dei film con le variazioni:

I seguenti film hanno subito spostamenti MA restano in gara per la lega italiana:

- Welcome (uscita prevista 4 dicembre) --> NUOVA DATA: 11 dicembre 2010

- An Education (uscita prevista 22 gennaio) --> NUOVA DATA: 15 gennaio 2010

- Arthur e la vendetta di Maltazard (uscita prevista 8 gennaio) --> NUOVA DATA: 30 dicembre 2009

- Up in the air (uscita prevista 22 gennaio) --> NUOVA DATA: 15 gennaio 2010

- Maga Martina e il libro magico del draghetto (uscita prevista 22 gennaio) --> NUOVA DATA: 12 febbraio 2010

- Che fine hanno fatto i Morgan? (uscita prevista 29 gennaio) --> NUOVA DATA: 22 gennaio 2010

- Baciami ancora (uscita prevista 22 gennaio 2010) --> NUOVA DATA: 29 gennaio 2010

- Amabili resti (uscita prevista 29 gennaio) --> NUOVA DATA: 5 febbraio 2010

- Tenderness (uscita prevista 5 febbraio) --> NUOVA DATA: 12 febbraio

- Un profeta (uscita prevista 19 febbraio) --> NUOVA DATA: 26 febbraio

I seguenti film hanno subito spostamenti in avanti ed escono dall'elenco dei film acquistabili. I giocatori che li hanno acquistati devono procedere alla loro sostituzione. 

- Happy ever afters (uscita prevista 5 gennaio) --> NUOVA DATA: da definire

- Il piccolo Nicolas e i suoi genitori (uscita prevista 5 febbraio) --> NUOVA DATA: 26 marzo 2010

- Shutter Island (uscita prevista 12 febbraio) --> NUOVA DATA: 5 marzo

- Tutto l'amore del mondo (uscita prevista 26 febbraio) --> NUOVA DATA: 19 marzo

- Old Dogs (Daddy Sitter) (uscita prevista 22 gennaio) --> NUOVA DATA: 26 marzo 2010

- The Final Destination 3D (uscita prevista 22 gennaio) --> NUOVA DATA: maggio 2010

- La bella e la bestia 3D (uscita prevista 12 febbraio) --> NUOVA DATA: estate 2010

Donnie

Weekend 4-6 Dicembre

Boxoffice

1. The Blind Side - 25
2. The Twilight Saga - New Moon - 18
3. Armored - 9
4. 2012 - 8.5
5. Brothers - 7

Donnie

Weekend 13-15 Novembre

Boxoffice

1. The Twilight Saga: New Moon - 90
2. 2012 - 30
3. The Blind Side - 18
4. Planet 51 - 13
5. A Christmas Carol - 12

donnie

Mancano solo due weekend al termine della lega, ma il tempo degli schiaffoni violentissimi è appena cominciato: nei prossimi giorni vedrete cadere i piazzati della prima ora come meteore dal cielo e le belve fameliche piazzate a metà classifica e affamate di punti, dopo tanto digiuno, fare balzi in avanti da dieci posizioni a botta; assisterete ai conti del boxoffice fare scatti in avanti da 100milioni a colpo e molti concorrenti piangere in un angolo come bimbe impaurite.
A dare il via a questo impressionante party di ultraviolenza è 2012 di Roland Emmerich: l'ennesimo disaster movie porta a casa 5 punti Top5, 3 PTA, un voto Imdb di 6.7 ed un incasso di oltre 65milioni che copre in un weekend l'intera corsa di This is it (dopo 19 giorni di programmazione).
A molta distanza A Christmas Carol resiste in seconda posizione con un minuscolo calo (26%), che si traduce in 4 punti Top5, 2 PTA e altri 22milioni.
Sorprendendo persino le previsioni più ottimistiche, Precious - proiettato in appena 174 sale - non solo riesce ad imbucarsi nella Top5 ma arriva addirittura terzo, con un incasso di quasi 6milioni, 3 punti Top5, altri 4 PTA (che portano il totale a 9) ed un voto Imdb di 7.5.
In quarta e quinta posizione, The Men Who Stare at Goats e This is it si apprestano a scomparire con  - rispettivamente - un dignitosissimo bottino ed un ottimo punteggio totale, non fosse per quell'incasso da blockbuster wannabe che penalizzerà non poco chi si era affidato al morto piuttosto che ai sogni di Giacobbo.
L'unica altra nuova uscita semi-wide della settimana, Pirate Radio, è D.O.A. con un incasso di neanche 3milioni, zero Top5, zero PTA ma un ottimo 7.6 all'Imdb.
Nel settore limited, Fantastic Mr. Fox si mette in tasca 5 punti PTA ed un voto di 7.6.
Per il prossimo weekend tenete pronta la Preparazione H: pioveranno licantropi omosessuali.

Filippo

Weekend 13-15 Novembre

Boxoffice

1. 2012 - 65
2. A Christmas Carol - 19
3. This is it - 7.5
4. The men who stare at goats - 7
5. The fourth kind - 6

donnie

Weekend 6 - 8 Novembre

Boxoffice

1. A Christmas Carol - 42
2. The fourth kind - 11.5
3. The men who stare at goats - 11
4. This is it - 10
5. The box - 9

donnie

Proiezioni col tutto esaurito da qui al 2030. Un incasso previsto di un miliardo di dollari in un'ora e in un solo cinema. La fine della fame nel mondo.
Sono soltanto tre delle qualità attribuite a This is it prima della sua effettiva uscita nelle sale.
Il risultato nel mondo reale? 34milioni e mezzo di incasso in cinque giorni (23 nel fine settimana), 5 punti Top5 e 3 PTA, ovvero lo stesso, identico boxoffice e punteggio che Couples Retreat ha fatto in un weekend. Ah, già, This is it può contare su un 7.6 all'Imdb ma, viste le aspettative (anche senza contare la dichiarazione di "250milioni in cinque giorni" fatta da un PR impazzito, al quale avrebbe potuto credere soltanto il più stronzo n00b dei nostri giocatori) e visto che molti lo hanno affiancato a New Moon come vice monstro della lega, al posto di 2012, non si può non parlare di grossa delusione, anche e soprattutto perché questa scelta, a molti, potrebbe costare carissima, proprio nel periodo di gioco in cui arrivano gli schiaffoni seri.
Insomma, chi credevate che Michael Jackson fosse, Heath Ledger?
Mentre al secondo posto troviamo il fuori gara Paranormal Activity, la terza posizione è occupata da Law Abiding Citizen, uno dei migliori affari dell'intera lega, capace, di settimana in settimana, di sopravvivere a titoli ben più quotati (e costosi): dopo una settimana trascorsa ad incassare una media di un milione al giorno, il raccolto del weekend prevede altri 7milioni e rotti e 3 punti Top5.
Al quarto posto c'è il redivivo Couples Retreat (2 punti Top5, 87milioni di boxoffice totale), mentre al quinto troviamo Where the Wild Things Are, che strappa il suo ultimo punto Top5 ai danni di Saw VI, già stramorto e strasepolto dopo soltanto dieci giorni, che non gli sono bastati neanche a pareggiare l'incasso che il precedente capitolo aveva fatto in 72 ore.
Nel settore limited, mentre An Education continua a macinare PTA come un fìo de 'na mignotta e A Serious Man si appresta a morire con grande dignità, a spiccare è The House of the Devil, che con la complicità di Halloween si porta a casa 4 bei punti PTA e un voto di 7.3 all'Imdb.
A dare un'arrotondata al punteggio dei suoi pochi acquirenti ci pensa Gentlemen Broncos con 2 punti PTA ed un modesto 5.8 all'Imdb.

Filippo

L'outsider Paranormal Activity ha stracciato Saw VI interrompendo il dominio incontrastato di quest'ultimo nel periodo di Halloween.
Non solo Saw VI è arrivato secondo, ma è arrivato secondo per un pelo, con uno scarto di soli 100mila dollari sul terzo e con un incasso (14milioni e spicci) che solo sette giorni fa sarebbe stato stracciato perfino da un rincalzino come Law Abiding Citizen, segno che già dalla prossima settimana il calo fisiologico di incassi potrebbe renderlo di fatto inutile come rimpolpatore di incassi e, se le cose vanno per il verso sbagliato, come distributore di punti Top5 (per non parlare del PTA).
Il bottino, di Saw VI, comunque, non è disprezzabile (4 punti Top5, 14milioni, 2 PTA e 6.7 all'Imdb), ma chi l'ha comprato si aspettava certamente ben altro.
Mentre Where the Wild Things Are crolla di quasi il 60% riuscendo comunque a strappare una dignitosissima terza posizione e Law Abiding Citizen (quarto) continua a superare le aspettative, le altre nuove uscite della settimana fanno a gara per quale di loro debba essere eletta Inculata of the Week: sia Astro Boy che Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant sono fuori dalla top 5; con un incasso di 6milioni e rotti, zero punti Top5, zero PTA ed un voto di 6.6 per entrambi, si segnalano tutti e due come fallimenti completi senza possibilità di riscatto.
Amelia, con i suoi 3milioni e 900mila, zero Top5 e 6.1 di Imdb riesce, se non altro, a rubare 3 punti PTA.
Nel settore limited, solo tante risate: sia Ong Bak 2 che Motherhood, trasmesso da Canale5 lo scorso 20 agosto, riescono a raccogliere soltanto qualche briciola di Imdb (rispettivamente 6.4 e 6.9).

Bella Pe' Chi Ce L'ha of the Week: Saw VI
Inculata of the Week: Astro Boy/Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant

Filippo

Weekend 23 - 25 ottobre

Boxoffice

1. Saw VI - 28
2. Paranormal Activity - 15
3. Law abiding citizen/- Where the wild things are - 14-13
5. Astroboy - 10

Donnie

Come previsto anche dalla vecchia che sta al bar sotto casa mia, Where the Wild Things Are si aggiudica il weekend con 32milioni e mezzo di incasso, che si traducono in 5 punti Top5, 3PTA ed un potente 8.3 Imdb.
La vera sorpresa della settimana, però, si trova in seconda posizione con Law Abiding Citizen: non solo il film ha oltrepassato le aspettative di inizio lega (che suggerivano un quieto terzo posto), ma ha anche superato quelle che lo volevano quarto (o quinto) dopo il temibile exploit di Paranormal Activity. Re Leonida e il negro che muore per primo si portano a casa 4 punti Top5, 2 PTA, un rispettabilissimo 7.5 di Imdb e un incasso di 21 gustosi milioni, il tutto al costo di soli 5 soldi.
La terza ed ultima uscita wide della settimana, The Stepfather, riesce in qualche modo a non farsi coprire di sputi scippando 1 punto Top5, 11milioni ed un Imdb un po' meh di 5.4.
Se stanotte sentirete una mano accarezzarvi la schiena nel tentativo di ingentilire la sgradevole sensazione di un poderoso fallo che si fa strada tra le vostre natiche non preoccupatevi: è New York I Love You. Il comico FAIL del film (0 Top5, 0 PTA, 380mila dollari di incasso e 7.8 Imdb) non fa altro che dare ragione ad uno dei più acuti e attenti analisti della MMG WAR, quel Jontom che qualche settimana fa aveva dichiarato "ricorda: new york I love you spaccherà i culi". Come dargli torto?

Bella Pe' Chi Ce L'ha Of The Week: Where the Wild Things Are

Inculata Of The Week: New York I Love You

Filippo

Weekend 16 - 18 ottobre

Boxoffice

1. Where the wild things are - 31
2. Couples retreat - 19
3. Paranormal Activity - 18
4. Law abiding citizen - 14
5. Zombieland - 9

Donnie

Le classifiche delle leghe in corso sono state aggiornate alla sesta settimana di gioco.

JcK

Nine, la cui uscita era prevista per il 25 Novembre 2009, è stato posticipato al 18 Dicembre (limited release) e al 25 Dicembre (wide release) 2009.

Donnie

Weekend 9 - 11 ottobre

Boxoffice

1. Couples Retreat - 32
2. Zombieland - 17
3. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs - 10
4. Toy Story 1-2 - 7
5. Surrogates - 5

Donnie

Aiutato dallo spostamento al weekend lasciato libero da Shutter Island, Zombieland svetta in vetta accompagnato da un risultato da applausi: 5 punti Top5, 25milioni di incasso, 2 punti PTA ed un bestiale 8.6 all'Imdb, tutto questo per soli 8 soldi e con un passaparola frantumaculi che probabilmente aiuterà il film con Woody Harrelson a rimanere nelle parti alte della classifica anche nel prossimo fine settimana.
Al secondo posto resiste Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, che con altri 4 punti Top5, 1 PTA ed un incasso complessivo di 81milioni ricorda a tutti che i bimbi down possono svolgere lavori come tutti E vanno al cinema, e si propone come l'Hangover di questa lega.
Il terzo posto è bruciato dal double feature con Toy Story 1 e 2, non disponibile per l'acquisto, mentre la quarta posizione è occupata da Surrogates, che strappa i suoi ultimi 2 punti Top5 e cala a 6.6 al punteggio Imdb.
1 punto Top5, zero PTA, 7milioni di incasso ed un voto di 7.3 sono invece il bottino di The Invention of Lying, moscio rincalzino che lascia però fuori dalla Top5 sia Capitalism: a Love Story in espansione (che a questo punto è da considerare ufficialmente una mezza sòla) che Whip it, che al di là di un ottimo (ma instabile) voto di 7.8 deve arenarsi sulla spiaggia del fallimento come un delfino con una busta di plastica in faccia, con il temutissimo doppio zero in Top5 e PTA, imponendosi con prepotenza come Inculata of the Week.
Nel settore limited, se si tende l'orecchio, è possibile udire distintamente lo "SfrrSfrrSfrrSfrrSfrrSfrrSfrrSfrrSfrr" dei culi scuciti da A Serious Man, che oltre ad un violentissimo (anche se incerto) 8.7 all'Imdb si porta a casa 5 punti PTA e lascia ben sperare per l'espansione della prossima settimana.
4 punti PTA e 7.1 all'Imdb per More Than a Game, documentario su un pallone da basket circondato ovviamente da negri. Già pronti i sequel: More Than a Fried Chicken e More Than a Watermelon.

Bella pe' chi ce l'ha of the Week: Zombieland

Inculata of the Week: Whip it

Filippo

Night of the Demons, la cui uscita era prevista per il 9 Ottobre 2009, è stato posticipato a data da destinarsi e quindi rimosso dai titoli per la Lega in corso.

Donnie

Weekend 2-4 ottobre

Boxoffice

1. Zombieland - 17
2. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs - 16
3. Toy Story 1-2 - 12
4. Surrogates - 9
5. Whip it - 8

Donnie

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs conferma le sue palle di carne rimanendo in cima alla top5 anche questa settimana e portando a casa altri 5 punti Top5, 2 PTA, un incasso complessivo di 60milioni ed un voto Imdb di 7.5.
A molta distanza, al secondo posto, ecco un deludente Surrogates, che grazie alla faccia di un signore un po' anziano fotoshoppata sul corpo di un altro riesce, se non altro, a posizionarsi secondo guadagnando 4 punti Top5, 1 PTA, 15milioni e 7.0 all'Imdb. Non male, certo, ma un incasso del genere significa, con molta probabilità, una sparizione repentina dalla zona alta della classifica con relative sfumature di implicita sodomia.
Fame riesce a fare anche di peggio, con un incasso poverello di 10milioni, 0 punti PTA, 3 Top5 ed un voto di 4.4 che rischia addirittura di calare nei prossimi giorni.
Se in quarta e quinta posizione resistono, rispettivamente, The Informant! e i nigga di I Can do Bad All by Myself, al sesto posto troviamo l'usurpatore di ani del weekend, Pandorum, che inanella uno spettacolare doppio zero (Top5/PTA), un incasso che suscita ilarità (4milioni e mezzo) ed un rispettabile (almeno quello) ma un po' instabile 7.7 all'Imdb.
Nel settore limited si trova il vincitore del weekend in fatto di PTA, Michael Moore e il suo Capitalism: a Love Story, che con poco meno di 300mila dollari ottiene 5 punti PTA ed un voto di 6.2 all'Imdb.
Coco Before Chanel, che adorna i roster di tutti gli Alfonso Signorini della lega, strappa 4 virili punti PTA ed un voto di 6.7, mentre The Boys Are Back porta a casa 2 punti PTA ed un cazzutissimo (ma assai traballante) 7.6 all'Imdb.
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell è D.O.A. e guadagna soltanto un merdoso 4.8 sull'Imdb.
Dal prossimo fine settimana si inizia a fare sul serio.

Bella pe' chi ce l'ha of the Week: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Inculata of the Week: Pandorum

Filippo

1. Cloudy with a chance of meatballs - 18-20

2. Fame - 17

3. Surrogates - 16

4. The Informant - 8

5. Pandorum - 7

Donnie

A meno che non sia una cosa arty con un cartellone tendente al verde, a prendere un cartone animato non si sbaglia mai: a confermare questa regola non-scritta è l'esordio di Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs che, in assenza di un vero concorrente e aiutato dai prezzi maggiorati per le sale 3D, degli altri film del weekend ha fatto polpette (AHAHAH!).
Il film d'animazione della Sony ha incassato 30milioni, 5 punti Top5, 5 PTA ed un voto IMDB di 7.3, e oltretutto sembra destinato a resistere nella parte alta della classifica per almeno un altro paio di weekend. Senza ombra di dubbio il migliore acquisto di un finora disastroso settembre.
Al secondo posto, a sorpresa, si piazza The Informant! (Maaaaatt Daaaaamon), che ha ripagato il suo prezzo piuttosto salato con 4 bei punti Top5, un incasso di 10milioni e mezzo, 1 punto PTA ed un ottimo voto IMDB di 7.6.
Al terzo posto resiste Tyler Perry e il suo I Can do Bad All by Myself, che con altri 3 punti top5, un incasso complessivo di quasi 38 milioni e altri 3 punti PTA cerca di tamponare l'AIDS che ha sparso nei roster dei suoi acquirenti con l'incredibile 2.0 preso all'IMDB, voto che - di fatto - stronca qualsiasi possibilità di recupero in quella categoria.
In zona scorreggine abbiamo Love Happens, uno scroto moscio che porta a casa 8milioni e spicci, 2 punti Top5, 2 PTA ed un voto all'aroma di peto anziano di 5.5.
In quinta posizione troviamo invece l'Inculata of the Week, Jennifer's Body, una dura lezione per tutti quelli che non hanno capito che nell'era dell'internet per farsi una pippa su Megan Fox non è necessario né spendere 7 dollari, né abbandonare la propria camera.
Questo cane morto produce fallimento con un boxoffice di appena 6milioni e 800mila dollari, 1 punto Top5, zero PTA ed un voto di 5.9, il tutto a fronte di un costo di ben 16 soldi.
Nel settore limited si segnala solamente il buon esordio di Paris, che con 4 punti PTA ed un decente 6.9 all'IMDB non farà rimpiangere i 4 soldi spesi per averlo nella propria lista di film.

Bella pe' chi ce l'ha of the Week: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Inculata of the Week: Jennifer's Body

Filippo

Weekend 18-20 settembre

Boxoffice

1. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs - 28-30 
2. Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself - 12
3. Love Happens - 11
4. The Informant! - 10 
5. Jennifer’s Body - 8

Donnie

Youth in revolt, la cui uscita era prevista per il 30 Ottobre 2009, è stato posticipato al 15 Gennaio 2010 e, quindi, rimosso dalla lista dei titoli per la Lega in corso.

Donnie

Un negro travestito? Nel MIO punteggio IMDB???
È più comune di quanto credi.

Uau! Tyler Perry e il suo I Can do Bad All by Myself è primo al boxoffice! Ha incassato 23 milioni e mezzo! Ha guadagnato 5 punti Top5! Ha preso 5 punti PTA! Corro a vedere il voto Imdb di questo affare d'oro!
Madò...
2.8.
Due punto otto. Quanto basta per rovinare la festa a chi si è fidato di Tyler Perry ed un voto talmente disastroso da compromettere l'intera categoria IMDB del proprio roster, per l'intera lega. Anche se per miracolo il punteggio dovesse risollevarsi a 4, quelli che hanno comprato ICDBABM farebbero bene a rivedere completamente la propria lista e a comprare un esercito di Dear Zachary.
Al secondo posto troviamo 9, capace di offrire una buona performance composta da un incasso totale di 15 milioni, 4 punti Top5, 2 punti PTA ed un buon voto IMDB di 7.4. Nulla che possa far gridare al miracolo, anzi, ma vista l'apocalisse di questi due primi weekend di settembre direi che ci si può accontentare.
Al contrario dello scorso fine settimana, però, stavolta le vere inculate sono schiette e sincere, senza fronzoli, inequivocabili.
Sia Sorority Row che Whiteout, infatti, si piazzano al di fuori della top5, guadagnano entrambi un incasso miserabile di circa 5 milioni, zero PTA ed un voto IMDB di, rispettivamente, 6.0 e 5.9, entrambi destinati, con tutta probabilità, a calare.
Sul fronte limited si segnala l'ottima tenuta di Amreeka (che porta a casa altri 4 punti PTA), l'esordio di No Impact Man (penalizzato dallo spostamento dell'uscita ma comunque in grado di prendersi 3 punti PTA ed un sufficiente 6.9 all'IMDB), il punticino PTA strappato da Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (6.5 IMDB) e la prematura sparizione di Walt & El Grupo, che al di là di un bel voto di 7.5 si deve accontentare del nulla più assoluto.
Tutte le uscite limited della settimana hanno fatto incassi talmente bassi da essere del tutto irrilevanti.
Nella lega MMG WAR 2 da segnalare il singolare e bizzarro roster di Markus, che ad appena due settimane dall'inizio della lega ha già esaurito 5/8 della propria lista di film portandosi a casa l'inculata of the week, lo sfavillante voto Imdb di Tyler Perry, due mezze inculate (che oltretutto erano in diretta concorrenza) ed un film che ha incassato quello che io ho in tasca al mattino presto.
Enjoy your slate full of AIDS, nigga!

Bella pe' chi ce l'ha of the week: 9
Inculata of the week: Whiteout

Filippo

C'è voluto un po' più del previsto, ma alla fine il nuovo sistema di registrazione è on-line.

Se possedete già un'utenza della prima MMG War non dovete far altro che entrare nella vostra area utente e cliccare sul pulsante "Iscriviti" di fianco alla MMG War 2.

Se invece non vi siete mai iscritti ad una lega (e la lingua italiana non offre abbastanza parole per descrivere quanto dovreste vergognarvi) potete creare una nuova utenza cliccando qui.

JcK

Weekend 11-13 settembre

Boxoffice

1. Tyler Perry's I can do bad all bad myself - 35-40
2. Sorority Row - 12-14
3. 9 - 10-13
4. Whiteout - 8-9
5. Inglourious basterds - 6-7

Donnie

Quelle giornate un po' così

Strano weekend, quello che ha inaugurato le nuove leghe.
Se da un lato tutti i film usciti - nessuno escluso - possono essere considerati delle inculate (qualcuno più, qualcuno meno), pellicole destinate a non avere futuro, dall'altra hanno comunque fruttato come minimo una manciata di punti capace di attenuare il bruciore.
Te lo appizzo, ma con gentilezza.
Prendiamo ad esempio All About Steve: la nuova cacata con l'anziana Sandra Bullock, a fronte di un costo di 14 soldi, ha portato ai suoi acquirenti dalla sessualità incerta un dignitoso bottino di 3 punti Top5, 14milioni di incasso e 4 punti PTA, ma ha contemporaneamente compromesso la categoria Imdb dei suddetti concorrenti con un voto abbastanza imbarazzante di 4.8.
Gamer, invece, si attesta su uno stabile e più che sufficiente 6.6 di Imdb, raccoglie un apprezzabile 3 al PTA ma infetta di AIDS i roster con 2 soli punti Top5 e un incasso assai magro di 9milioni e spicci.
Extract, poi, rimane a bocca asciutta per quanto riguarda la categoria Top5, rastrella un misero incasso di 5milioni e mezzo ma si riscatta con 2 punti PTA ed un ottimo 7.2 all'Imdb.
Tra le uscite "limited", Amreeka - miracolato dallo spostamento all'ultimo secondo di No Impact Man - scippa la corona del PTA portando a casa 5 punti ed un voto Imdb di 6.4, mentre l'horror Carriers si spinge addirittura oltre il miracolo e si fa consegnare direttamente dalle mani di padre Pio (che non resiste a sussurrargli "mortacci tua che gran culo...") 1 punto PTA guadagnato nonostante un incasso ridicolo, per via dell'assenza di concorrenza di altri film validi per la lega.
Una partenza un po' a cazzo, non c'è che dire.

Bella pe' chi ce l'ha of the week: -
Inculata of the week: -

Filippo

Riassunto Lega

Zona Masters of the Universe - 1/5

Ha trionfato Berto, uno che si è tenuto Casi Divas nel roster al posto di The Ugly Truth. Lui dice che questo dovrebbe far riflettere sul punteggio che avrebbe avuto in caso avesse comprato il film con Gerald Butler e che, quindi, la vittoria è più schiacciante perché, come Bolt, è arrivato al traguardo con una scarpa slacciata. Il mondo la pensa diversamente, perché Bolt non è stato tanto rincoglionito da slacciarsi la scarpa da solo e ciò la dice lunga sulla vera natura della vittoria dell'attempato Berto.

Peccato per Jontom, capace di rimanere costantemente ai piani alti, per tutta la lega, ma poco incisivo nel momento della verità, probabilmente distratto da quelle nuove e favolose tendine per la cucina.

Ottima la performance dei sottovalutati Bennett e Bianconiglio e piuttosto divertente il modo in cui la Darth Mogul Pictures ha scippato l'ultimo posto valido per la zona Champions all'ultimo weekend di gara.

Zona Bravità - 6/10

A parte le numerose risa per Rioma (che si è aggiudicato la Posizione LOL), da segnalare l'impressionante scalata di Motosega, che ha passato tutta la gara a galleggiare come uno stronzo a metà classifica per poi compiere una rimonta trionfale nelle ultimissime settimane di gara, e il nono posto di Donnie, prima tra le donne, posizionamento frutto di duro studio in parte compromesso da una scelta dettata dalla vagina (Public Enemies).

Walleye413, in decima posizione, è il primo tra i non-MMG.

Zona Dignitosa - 11/20

Nonostante si inizi a sentire distintamente un'acre puzza di piscio, una pacca sulla spalla a tutti i concorrenti posizionati dall'undicesimo al ventesimo posto, che in una gara con più di 60 concorrenti sono posti che mantengono ancora una loro dignità, fatta eccezione, ovviamente, per l'undicesimo posto dello spartano che, proprio come il suo corrispettivo cinematografico, urla, strepita, proclama e poi se la pìa 'nder culo senza fare un fiato, ammutolito come una montagna di granito, paralizzato come una scultura di ghiaccio.

Zona Indistinto Mare Giallo - 21/40

Come tanti tappi di sughero, i concorrenti finiti nelle paludi di piscio di questa zona galleggiano in un limbo di fallimento che non è abbastanza clamoroso da suscitare ilarità né tantomeno si sono fatti apprezzare in positivo. In quella che è probabilmente la fascia peggiore della classifica si segnala la presenza di Nero728, che ha impiegato l'intera lega per uscire dall'inferno giallo e diventare un mediocre signor Nessuno e sorprende la presenza di Edweena, un'agguerrita signorinella che in passato aveva saputo offrire prove assai più convincenti.

Zona Piss of Fire - 41/50

Eccoci in una fascia in cui si annega nel piscio bollente di un numero imbarazzante di giocatori e in cui il fail è talmente evidente da strappare risate convinte. Guardate ad esempio al concorrente in quarantasettesima posizione, il poro LukeMcCaine che, in preda alla depressione per via di un'accoppiata di inculate of the week back-to-back, ha deciso di suicidarsi distruggendo il suo roster e tentando un inutilissimo attacco frontale con un carico di monstri che a nulla sono serviti se non a rendere più copioso il numero di risa di scherno suscitate.

Dispiace per la presenza della concorrente Troma, che vistasi privata del confortante appiglio fornito da un cartone animato potente ha smarrito la via affidandosi a bambine tumorate e a Michelle Pfeiffer in vena di cose sofisticate.

In quarantanovesima posizione troviamo invece il guardiano supremo della fascia di classifica sottostante.

Zona The Pazuzis - Hell of Piss - 51/62

Come in un inferno dantesco, i concorrenti finiti in questa terrificante fascia della classifica sono condannati ad essere intrappolati nel piscio ghiacciato per l'eternità, un gelido deserto fatto da gente con mezzo roster, senza roster, artisti del fallimento e Eenzo, capace di finire dietro anche a un tizio che aveva comprato solo tre film.

Dicono che quelle lande desolate siano talmente ostili che persino Eddie Murphy si rifiuti di solcarle.

Filippo

Inserite al fotofinish le ultimissime release, ora disponibili per essere acquistate:

Donnie

No Impact Man, la cui uscita era prevista per il 4 settembre, è stato posticipato all'11 settembre.

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, la cui uscita era prevista per il 13 ottobre, è stato posticipato al 27 novembre.

Walt & el Guapo, la cui uscita era prevista per l'11 settembre, è stato anticipato al 9 settembre.

*plin plon*

Dubbi? Incertezze? Perplessità? Avevate fondato uno studio di produzione di grandi prospettive e vi ritrovate con una pagina vuota e un chiosco sulla tangenziale?

Tranquilli, non è la crisi economica, stiamo semplicemente aggiornando il sito e sono state fatte alcune modifiche alla gestione degli studios.

Se siete iscritti ad entrambe le MMG War, tutti i vostri studios sono stati riassegnati all'account che avete usato nella prima War.

Effettuate il login con quelle credenziali e troverete i vostri uffici, il personale e i ficus benjamin, tutto intatto e senza un filo di polvere.

Le vostre utenze registrate per la seconda War, al momento senza studios, verrano potate a breve.

Ricordiamo inoltre alla gentile clientela che con la tessera fedeltà è ancora possible acquistare bibite e stuzzichini a metà prezzo.

Armando, una cassa di naturale alla cassa cinque, per cortesia.

*plin plon*

Quentin Tarantino, con Inglourious Basterds, non solo si piazza primo ma supera se stesso ed ogni aspettativa mettendosi in saccoccia la bellezza di 38milioni, 5 punti Top5, 5 PTA ed un punteggio Imdb di ben 8.7 con una solidissima base di quasi 19mila votanti. Una manna dal cielo sia per i Weinstein che per i pochi che hanno aspettato il penultimo weekend di gioco per sparare le loro cartucce migliori.

Per il resto, davvero ben poco da segnalare: le altre quattro posizioni della classifica sono occupate dagli "holdovers", che si sono dimostrati ancora tutti piuttosto stabili.

District 9 porta a casa altri 4 punti Top5, 18milioni e 3 punti PTA, 12milioni e 3 punti Top5 per G.I. Joe, The Time Traveler's Wife incassa quasi 10milioni e 2 punti Top5 mentre Julie & Julia può contare su 8.8milioni, 1 punto Top5 ed 1 punto PTA.

Il redivivo Adam riesce a grattare in extremis 2 punti PTA, mentre, sempre sul fronte "limited", It Might Get Loud porterà al concorrente Moliva altri 4 punti PTA che lo sposteranno da un tenebroso giallo-rame ad un più salubre giallo paglierino.

La settimana sarà memorabile soprattutto per chi ama ospitare oggetti nell'ultimo tratto di intestino: più che un weekend al cinema, questo del 21 agosto è stato una fiera dell'inculata.

Ce n'è per tutti i gusti: i principianti impazziranno per le piccole ed agevoli dimensioni di Shorts (nomen omen), lubrificato da un incasso di quasi 6milioni e mezzo ma all'occorrenza tosto e gagliardo grazie a zero Top5, zero PTA e ad un anello vibrante di calibro 4.6 Imdb.

Chi non è nuovo a questo tipo di esperienze e non ha tempo per carezze e preliminari troverà di suo gradimento Post Grad, che va dritto al sodo con 2.6milioni di incasso, zero Top5, zero PTA ed un 5 all'Imdb.

Agli amanti dell'estremo, infine, brilleranno gli occhi nel vedere i 30 centimetri di Casi Divas, che nello spazio brevissimo di un saluto di presentazione avrà già pompato all'interno dei suoi fan 27mila turgidi dollari e - incurante dei gemiti di perverso piacere misti a lamenti di sincero dolore dei suoi amanti - zero brutali punti Top5, che verranno coronati da uno schizzo di zero punti PTA diretto al volto; un amante rude che mostrerà un po' di tenerezza soltanto alla fine, con l'offerta di una sigaretta di marca 6.1 Imdb.

A wild & wet weekend, only on MMG WAR!

Filippo

Bella pe' chi ce l'ha of the Week: Inglourious Basterds

Inculata of the Week: Casi Divas

La classifica della MMG War è stata aggiornata alla dodicesima settimana di gioco.

Donnie

La classifica della MMG War è stata aggiornata alla undicesima settimana di gioco.

A due settimane dal termine della lega gli alieni negri di Neil Blomkamp spaccano culi ed equilibri portando un po' di ossigeno ad un sacco di concorrenti da tempo sommersi dal piscio, proprio nel momento in cui la classifica comincia ad avere un significato ed ogni dollaro conta.

District 9 incassa 37milioni, 5 punti Top5, 4 PTA ed un voto di ben 8.9 sull'Imdb, bottino che influenzer� senza dubbio le posizioni di molti MMG Warriors.

Al suo secondo weekend di programmazione G.I. Joe subisce un calo netto ma riesce a contenere i danni portandosi in seconda posizione, che equivale a 22milioni di incasso (98 totali), 4 punti Top5, 2 PTA ed un voto di 6.1 Imdb.

The Time Traveler's Wife esordisce in terza posizione portando a casa buoni numeri, ottimi se si considera il prezzo di vendita (5 euri): 18milioni e rotti, 3 punti Top5, 3 PTA ed un Imdb di 7.6.

E mentre le giovini sono a sospirare sulle vicissitudini sentimentali di Eric Bana e Rachel McAdams, le vecchie galline mantengono Julie & Julia nella top 5 portando al film con Meryl Streep altri 12milioni (43 totali), 2 punti Top5, 1 PTA ed un voto di 7.8 all'Imdb.

A chiudere la Top 5 troviamo ancora G-Force ed i suoi stupidi criceti tridimensionali, che si sono rivelati dei cazzi per il culo di proporzioni epiche: dopo 4 settimane riescono ancora a strappare un punto Top5 e l'incasso arriva ad un passo dai 100milioni.

Sul fronte "Limited" il vincitore della settimana � It Might Get Loud che, privo di acquirenti, getta nel vuoto i suoi 5 punti PTA e il suo 7.0 preso all'Imdb.

Delude in parte le aspettative l'uscita americana di Ponyo: l'incasso di 3milioni e mezzo � notevole, ma il numero di sale a disposizione ha castrato le potenzialit� PTA del film.

A chiudere il resoconto questa settimana troviamo ben due campioni di sodomia violenta.

La prima Inculata of the Week � senza dubbio The Goods, che a fronte di un costo di 10 soldi porta a casa poco pi� di 5milioni e mezzo, un voto di 6.0, zero Top5, zero PTA e neanche un tubetto di Preparazione H in bundle.

Gli amanti dell'estremo, quelli a cui piace prenderlo balls deep, per�, impazziranno per Bandslam, che oltre ad un incasso miserabile (2milioni e spicci) pu� contare soltanto su un voto di 5.1 all'Imdb, oltretutto risalito dopo un preoccupante esordio a 4.2.

� tempo di lubrificarsi sia davanti che di dietro: 2 weeks to go!

Filippo

Bella pe' chi ce l'ha of the Week: District 9

Inculata of the Week: Bandslam

Donnie

La classifica della MMG War è stata aggiornata alla decima settimana di gioco.

Donnie

Funny People bla bla bla mezzo flop bla bla bla nella lega ce l'ha uno soltanto bla bla bla Top5 PTA incassi bla bla bla 'sti cazzi.

Al secondo posto, l� per meno di 400mila dollari guadagnati grazie alle sale Imax lasciate libere da Transformers, che ha finalmente concesso al novellino di farsi un giro con le sue puttane ormai sfiancate, lo studente di prestidigitazione dall'orientamento sessuale incerto evita per un pelo il terzo posto mettendosi in tasca 4 punti Top5 e portando l'incasso complessivo a 255milioni (7.7 il punteggio Imdb).

Con altri 3 punti Top5 (per un totale di 8) e 67 milioni, gli stupidi criceti tridimensionali ripagano ampiamente la spesa di 10 soldi nonostante il pessimo 4.2 sull'Imdb. Richard Gere si � dichiarato orgoglioso di loro.

A fronte di un costo di soli 5 soldi, invece, The Ugly Truth guadagna altri due punti Top 5, porta l'incasso totale a 54 milioni e si accontenta di un dignitoso 6.3 all'Imdb.

Non si potr� lamentare troppo chi ha speso 5 euro per Aliens in the Attic: l'unico risultato degno di nota � un solitario punto Top5, vero, ma viste le apocalittiche previsioni del gioved� (e l'inqualificabile trailer) non si pu� far altro che ringraziare la madonna per aver evitato il D I S A S T E R Eddie Murphy style.

Ice Age 3, The Proposal, The Hangover, Transformers 2 e Orphan sono tutti ufficialmente fuori dal cazzo senza possibilit� d'appello.

Nel settore "limited" il vincitore della settimana � Adam, che porta a casa 5 punti PTA e un bel 7.3 all'Imdb.

Altrettanto ottimo � il risultato di The Cove; chi sperava che una bella busta di plastica soffocasse quei delfini da froci rimarr� deluso: 4 punti PTA e un potente 8.5 Imdb sono il bottino di questo documentario ecologista (trad.: "gay").

Lo sbertucciatissimo Le Silence de Lorna, infine, dimostra di aver meritato tutte le infinite prese per il culo ai danni dei coglionazzi che hanno avuto l'ardire anche solo di PENSARE di comprarlo: al di l� di un buon 7.3 di Imdb, infatti, i punti raccolti dalla moretta francese sono pari a zero in tutte le categorie (34mila dollari d'incasso: LOL).

Filippo

Bella pe' chi ce l'ha of the Week: -

Inculata of the Week: Le Silence de Lorna

La classifica della MMG War è stata aggiornata alla nona settimana di gioco.

Donnie

La classifica della MMG War è stata aggiornata alla ottava settimana di gioco.

Donnie

La classifica della MMG War è stata aggiornata alla settima settimana di gioco.

Il bimbo speciale che fa le MAGGIE � riuscito a riportare al cinema orde di ciccioni senza vita che sublimano il loro fallimento con le vittorie di un ermafrodito con problemi di vista; cos�, Harry Potter e il (qualcosa) domina il weekend con un incasso di quasi 78 milioni (158 in totale), 5 punti Top5, 4 PTA ed un ottimo voto di 8.1 all'Imdb.

I concorrenti che hanno puntato su Potter potranno gioire pubblicando immagini di Harry con lo sguardo serio e minaccioso, che incute un timore leggermente inferiore a quello che potrebbe suscitare Shirley Temple adagiata su una nuvola di zucchero filato rosa.

L'assenza di un concorrente degno di questo nome ha paradossalmente favorito tutti gli altri film gi� presenti in classifica, che dalla seconda posizione � quasi una fotocopia di quella della scorsa settimana: Ice Age 3D e Transformers 2 si confermano, rispettivamente, in seconda e terza posizione mentre The Proposal riesce per un pelo a rimanere nella top 5 ai danni di The Hangover, che gli "estimates" davano per quinto classificato.

L'unico crollo lo ha sub�to Brüno, che da attivo � diventato passivo accogliendo all'interno del suo corpo un calo di incassi pari al 73%, che si traduce in 2 punti Top5, un voto di 7.1 all'Imdb e un incasso totale di quasi 50 milioni.

Nel settore "indie" a farla da padrone � stato 500 Days of Summer, che oltre a 5 punti PTA (ottenuti con una media per sala devastante) si porta a casa un penetrante 8.3 all'Imdb e d� un po' d'ossigeno al concorrente M.I.A. Motosega.

Con una tenacia senza limiti, nel frattempo, The Hurt Locker guadagna altri 3 punti PTA (portando il totale a 17), ma il vero shock della settimana � un altro...

Premessa doverosa: la difficolt� dei calcoli (fatti per forza di cose a occhio) non mi permette di essere certo al 100% di quello che sto per affermare ma, se non vado errato, questa settimana lo spernacchiatissimo Surveillance dovrebbe incredibilmente mettersi in saccoccia 1 punto PTA, trasformandosi da "inesistente" a "inutile", che � comunque un passo avanti.

Ma ripeto: potrei sbagliarmi.

Filippo

Bella pe' chi ce l'ha of the Week: Harry Potter Soncazzo

Inculata of the Week: -

Donnie

La classifica della MMG War è stata aggiornata alla sesta settimana di gioco.

5 punti Top5, 5 PTA, 30 milioni di incasso e uno stratosferico voto temporaneo (destinato a calare) di 9.4 sull'Imdb: � quanto � riuscito a fare Brüno al suo primo weekend di programmazione; gli ANAListi dicono che il Borat frocio non briller� troppo a lungo, e non solo per via della ormai imminente uscita di Harry Potter. Godetevela finch� dura.

Per il resto, davvero ben poco da segnalare: come era ampiamente prevedibile il secondo posto va a L'era glaciale 3 (4 Top5, 3 PTA, 120 milioni e 7.4 all'Imdb), il terzo a Transformers 2 (3 Top5, 2 PTA, 340 milioni di incasso e 6.4 Imdb), il quarto a Public Enemies (che nonostante non stia particolarmente brillando riesce a mettersi in tasca altri 2 punti Top5, 1 PTA, 66 milioni e 7.7 Imdb) e il quinto a The Proposal, che nonostante la presenza di quel relitto degli anni '90 che � Sandra Bullock � arrivato a 113 milioni e questa settimana porta a casa un altro punto Top5 (7.2 Imdb).

Tra le uscite a distribuzione limitata, Soul Power, l'unico nuovo titolo che era disponibile per la lega in corso, ha fallito in ogni campo senza per� lasciare morti e feriti: nessun concorrente ha avuto l'ardire di comprarlo.

Chi invece resiste e divora PTA come un f�o de 'na mignotta � ancora The Hurt Locker, che dopo tre settimane ed una notevole espansione nel numero delle sale che lo proiettano (passate da 9 a 60) guadagna il suo primo milioncino, porta il voto Imdb a 7.7 da 7.6 e riesce ancora a prendersi 4 punti di PTA, portando il totale a 14. Se con la prevista ed ulteriore espansione in programma per il 24 luglio riuscir� anche ad incassare bene (e chiss� che la prossima settimana non riesca a far qualche altro punticino PTA...), il film della Bigelow diventer� ufficialmente la duchessa della lega e l'unica cosa che continuer� ad espandere saranno i culi dei gonzi come la concorrente Jontom.

Infine, per l'angolo del R I D E R E, ecco l'Inculata of the Week, I love You Beth Cooper, che per 15 euro di spesa frutter� ai suoi acquirenti la bellezza di zero punti Top5, zero PTA, un incasso comico di neanche 5 milioni e un voto di 4.9 all'Imdb.

Hayden, chiama il tuo agente, fatti mettere sotto contratto con la Vivid, inizia a lucidare aste di carne e goditi l'assegno, tanto la strada � quella...

Filippo

Bella pe' chi ce l'ha of the Week: Brüno

Inculata of the Week: I Love You Beth Cooper

The Perfect Getaway, la cui uscita era prevista per il 14 agosto, � stato anticipato al 7 agosto.

Donnie

La classifica della MMG War è stata aggiornata alla quinta settimana di gioco.

Con una manciata di dollari, dopo un weekend di suspance, i Transformers strappano ufficialmente la prima posizione agli scoiattoli coglioncioni de L'era glaciale 3 e si mettono in tasca altri 5 punti Top5 e 3 di PTA, mantengono inalterato il voto Imdb (6.5) e raggiungono la ragguardevole cifra di 293milioni. Di questo passo non � escluso che possano chiudere a 400milioni ed � davvero difficile che se ne possano andare dalla top 5 prima di un paio di settimane.

Allora maghetto bi-curious, dov'� il tuo Dumbledore adesso, eh???

L'era glaciale lo ha un po' preso ar culo ma fornisce comunque un'ottima performance: al di l� di un incasso di quasi 67milioni, da non trascurare sono i 4 punti Top5, i 4 di PTA e il notevole 7.5 all'Imdb, dati che - se tutto va bene - potrebbero subire soltanto un lieve calo la prossima settimana, quando il pubblico di riferimento continuer� a non avere altre scelte.

Quello che stupisce � che il concorrente DOM si sia fatto sfuggire una simile prelibatezza per bambini speciali preferendole Aliens in the Attic, per ritardati di ogni et�.

In terza posizione il barzotto Public Enemies: il prezzo richiesto era nella media (23 euri) e adeguato ai risultati, ovvero un incasso di 40 milioni, 3 punti Top5, 2 PTA e un bell'8 tondo all'Imdb. La prossima settimana, per�, a contendergli il pubblico dell'R-Rated arriva quel frocio di Bruno, e saranno cazzi amari (LOL).

Per quanto riguarda gli avanzi delle scorse settimane, quasi tutti scomparsi senza lasciare traccia a parte The Proposal (94milioni, 2 Top-5, 7.3 Imdb) e quel gigantesco cazzo per il culo di The Hangover, che ormai pu� essere indicato come la discriminante che permetter� a qualcuno di vincere la lega.

Sul fronte Limited si segnala soltanto la spettacolare seconda settimana di The Hurt Locker, che nonostante l'espansione in pi� sale continua a macinare PTA come se non ci fosse un domani. Altri 5 punti PTA ed un voto Imdb stabile (7.6) compongono il bottino di questo ottimo acquisto.

Per lo spazio Le Nostre Grosse Grasse Risate Greche torniamo a parlare di un cesso ellenico che si crede che basta una gigantesca botta di culo irripetibile per permettersi di continuare a fare film: Nia Vardalos, dopo My Life in Ruins, continua a far cacare a fischio con I Hate Valentine's Day (incassa gli spicci che ci� in tasca, zero punti Top5, zero PTA e un voto di 5.6 di Imdb), che le permette un primato riservato a pochissimi: ben DUE inculate mostruose in una stessa lega.

Non era facile, ammettiamolo.

Filippo

Bella pe' chi ce l'ha of the Week: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Inculata of the Week: I Hate Valentine's Day

Donnie

Alzatevi dalla sedia.

Andate alla finestra.

Sentite quel "CrAcKCrAcKCrAcKCrAcKCrAcKCrAcKCrAcK"?

Sono tutti i culi sfondati da Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, che in soli 5 giorni ha strupato i botteghini di tutto il mondo ammassando - negli USA - 200 milioni e spicci, 4 punti di PTA, 5 di Top5 e un rispettabile 6.7 sull'Imdb.

Se fra tre settimane il piccolo mago bi-curious vorr� essere all'altezza, beh, sar� meglio che lucidi per bene quella sua ridicola bacchetta e che Hermione si prepari a mostrare some puffy nipples.

Michael Bay ha divorato il weekend lasciando le briciole alla seconda settimana di The Proposal, che con altri 18 milioni si porta a un totale di quasi 70, riuscendo contemporaneamente a rubare altri 3 punti di PTA, 4 di Top5 e un ottimo 7.3 sull'Imdb.

Dalle altre nuove uscite di un certo calibro solo performance deludenti: il "counterprogramming" � stato bruciato da Sandra Bullock a scapito di Cameron Diaz, che con My Sister's Keeper riesce a malapena a strappare un punticino Top5, zero PTA, un incassino di 12 milioni e un pi� che buono 7.2 dall'Imdb. Certo, per una spesa di 8 euro non ci si pu� troppo lamentare.

Per quanto riguarda Year One c'� ben poco da dire: � gi� stato sfanculato dalla Top5 e alla sua seconda settimana � gi� completamente inutile.

A piangere quattro fontane di lacrime sono anche gli stolti che hanno affidato 6 sudati euro a Ch�ri, che porta a casa soltanto 400mila dollari e un inaspettatamente medio 6.5 dall'Imdb.

Chi ride forte � invece chi ha avuto fiducia in Kathryn Bigelow, che col suo The Hurt Locker (7.6 all'Imdb) ha ownato il PTA riuscendo a battere (e neanche di poco) persino Transformers.

Sempre nell'ambito "limited" buone notizie anche per Woody Allen e Moon, ancora in grado di fare punti PTA (rispettivamente 3 e 1) e mantenere il voto Imdb su un ottimo 8.2 e 8.1.

Sul fronte "derisione totale" il getto di piscio scorre potente in faccia al mare di stronzi che ha buttato 4 euro per Surveillance, che al di l� di un 6.5 all'Imdb porta a casa un incasso talmente ridicolo che mi vergogno pure a scriverlo.

A far scuotere i diaframmi ci pensa anche quell'unico minchione della lega in corso che ha comprato Nanni Moretti, che pu� contare soltanto su un buon 7.1 all'Imdb.

Filippo

Bella pe' chi ce l'ha of the Week: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Inculata of the Week: Surveillance

La classifica della MMG War è stata aggiornata alla quarta settimana di gioco.

Taking Woodstock, la cui uscita era prevista per il 14 agosto, � stato posticipato al 28 agosto.

The Boat that Rocked, la cui uscita era prevista per il 28 agosto, � stato spostato a novembre 2009 e quindi rimosso dalla lista dei film disponibili per la MMG War.

ahahah... ma che estimates volete?!
gli estimates, dicono
ahahahahah

Se di debutto si pu� parlare per una vecchia ben stagionata, � un debutto di tutto rispetto quello di Sandra Bullock che con la commedia The Proposal conquista la vetta del boxoffice, 33 milioni e passa di dollari, 4 punti PTA e una pi� che degna media-voto di 7.4 su IMDB. Complimenti ai nostalgici de La casa sul lago del tempo accorsi ad applaudire Sandra con ancora il fazzoletto bagnato di lacrime e ai fidanzati americani pronti a soddisfare i sensibili desideri cinematografici delle loro donne ("Va bene cara, questa settimana scegli tu il film. Ma il prossimo week end tocca a me...ehehehehe!!!")

Intanto, The Hangover continua la sua brillantissima corsa, mantenendo salda la seconda posizione (davanti al solidissimo Up) con un totale di oltre 150 milioni di dollari incassati, ancora un paio di punti PTA e un�ottimo indice di gradimento su IMDB (8.4). Dopo quasi un mese dall�uscita, anche se col destino segnato dalle prossime uscite, si pu� dire che The Hangover abbia superato di gran lunga le migliori aspettative rivelandosi un vero affare per chi lo ha acquistato.

Year One, invece, conferma che sono tempi duri per la Preistoria: con meno di 20 milioni di dollari riesce a piazzarsi soltanto al 4� posto, raccogliendo due miseri punti Top5, nessun punto PTA e il triste votaccio di 5.5 su IMDB.

Anche The Taking of Pelham sembra aver prematuramente esaurito il suo potenziale, raggiungendo solo l�ultima posizione della Top5 e mantenendo la pi� che buona media del 7 pieno.

Per il resto, possiamo dare l�estrema unzione a Imagine That e a Land of The Lost, avviati con disonore verso l�oblio e superati, questa settimana, persino dall�inossidabile Star Trek.

Sul fronte PTA, come era ampiamente prevedibile, Woody Allen vince a mani basse con Whatever works, che ottiene anche un ottimo voto di 8.3, mentre Moon e Tetro resistono bene e riescono a ottenere ancora qualche punticino (3 e 1, rispettivamente). I nazizombies (Dead Snow) devono essere morti per davvero: un solo schermo di proiezione � stato loro fatale, estromettendoli dalla zona PTA e rendendoli un acquisto praticamente inutile, se non fosse per il voto di 6.9.

Infine, l�aumento del numero di schermi fa male alle mucche (Food, Inc.) che escono dalla zona PTA, ma anche al pseudo "mostrodivoratoredipta" Away we go che ora galleggia nel limbo dei film "wannabe indie" col cartello appeso al collo "Chi sono? Dove vado? Che devo fare?".

Direi che al momento possiamo anche sederci ad aspettare un vero Mostro di PTA della stagione, perch� ancora non s'� visto.

Sempre che i Robot in arrivo non abbiano intenzione di devastare ogni cosa.

Donnie

Bella pe' chi ce l'ha of the Week: The Proposal

Inculata of the Week: Year One

La classifica della MMG War è stata aggiornata alla terza settimana di gioco.

Donnie

I Sell the Dead, la cui uscita era prevista per il 14 agosto, � stato anticipato al 7 agosto.

All Good Things, la cui uscita era prevista per il 24 luglio, � stato spostato a data da destinarsi e quindi rimosso dalla lista dei film disponibili per la MMG War.

Di nuovo una vittoria risicatissima, ma � sufficiente a The Hangover per sodomizzare nuovamente il boxoffice del weekend e portarsi a casa altri 5 punti Top5 e altri 32 milioni e rotti di dollari, che portano il totale ad un rispettabilissimo 104,768 milioni mentre il voto Imdb cala di appena 0.1 punti e il PTA guadagna un altro punto.

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 � terzo, dietro un indistruttibile Up, con 23 milioni di incasso, 3 punti Top5, zero PTA e un ottimo voto Imdb di 7.1. Dato il prezzo, lo si pu� ritenere una scorreggia che non puzza: non d� fastidio, ma � comunque aria che esce da un culo.

Mentre Nia Vardalos continua a galleggiare come uno stronzo nelle parti basse della classifica (undicesima, con poco meno di due milioni per il weekend e un totale di 6,371 milioni) e Land of the Lost (1 punto Top5, zero PTA, 8,994 milioni di incasso e 5.5 Imdb) si avvia a scomparire nelle nebbie della trishtezza, tra le uscite a distribuzione limitata il nuovo divoratore di PTA si � rivelato essere Food Inc., un documentario sull'alimentazione che far� la felicit� dei vegetariani (ironia della sorte a livelli MONSTRO, qui...) e che ha scopato la faccia a tutte le altre, quotatissime uscite "indie" della settimana: il film delle mucche ottiene 5 punti di PTA, un incasso magro (huhuhuhu) di 60mila dollari ed un bell'8 tondo tondo come voto Imdb; per 9 euro si � rivelato un affare.

Moon incassa pi� del doppio (136mila dollari) del documentario salutista e si mette in tasca anche 4 punti PTA e un voto Imdb di 8.0; sicuramente un buon acquisto.

A deludere parzialmente le aspettative � Tetro, che non va oltre i tre punti PTA e un incasso di 30mila dollari, ma che si riscatta con un potente 8.5 di voto Imdb.

Tra le altre uscite a distribuzione limitata, ben poco da segnalare per quanto riguarda Call of the Wild 3D, che fallisce in ogni campo tranne quello del voto Imdb (7.6), mentre Sex Positive si deve accontentare di un voto barzotto di 6.8 dagli utenti dell'Imdb, zero PTA, zero Top5 e un ridicolo incasso di 3mila dollari e spicci.

Ciliegina sulla torta (di merda) lasciata dalle mucche sulla testa di Away we go (che non si � certo dimostrato essere una nuova Duchessa) � l'inculata maxima of the week: gli stronzi che non hanno imparato nulla da Meet Dave salutino con una salva di rutti Imagine That, che vede come protagonista il re indiscusso delle inculate of the week, Eddie Murphy, che fa sorridere molto con un incasso straccione di appena 5,5milioni, zero PTA, zero Top5 ed un voto Imdb di 5.2.

K-Y Jelly anyone?

Filippo

Bella pe' chi ce l'ha of the Week: The Hangover

Inculata of the Week: Imagine That

La classifica della MMG War è stata aggiornata alla seconda settimana di gioco.

When in Rome � stato spostato al 29 gennaio 2010 e quindi rimosso dalla lista dei film disponibili per la MMG War.

Shorts, la cui uscita era prevista per il 7 agosto, � stato posticipato al 21 agosto.

Questa settimana sar� una bella gara. Le prime tre posizioni sono assolutamente in bilico tra i due campioni della scorsa settimana e la nuova uscita di Tony Scott, l�action movie The taking of Pelham 123.

Voglio credere che la coppia Travolta-Washington riesca a piazzarsi in corsa ma � difficile prevedere chi, tra Taking, Up e The Hangover, possa ottenere il primato.

1�, 2� e 3� posto incerti, dunque, con Taking esordiente, The Hangover in leggera flessione infrasettimanale e Up in grado di tenere il passo.

In coda alla Top5 �I want to believe� che non potr� essere un altro Meet Dave per Eddie Murphy: voglio pensare che questo film avr� una buona resa. Certo, in questo momento dell'anno tutto questo risulter� abbastanza inutile, in quanto non sar� in grado di spazzare via la concorrenza di The Taking of Pelham e dei sempre in corsa Up e The Hangover. Pertanto mi pare abbastanza certo un piazzamento fuori dal podio dei primi 3.

Meet Dave si piazz� 7�, � comunque un passo avanti.

Land of The Lost, infine, scivoler� mestamente in ultima posizione Top 5 (se gli va bene), incamminandosi verso un doloroso tramonto di incassi di merda e oblio, dopo sole due settimane. Un pessimo affare davvero.

Vivace situazione per i punti PTA. I candidati pi� certi dovrebbero essere The Taking of Pelham e Away we go, mentre � abbastanza incerto (data la difficolt� di reperire unanimi informazioni sul numero delle sale in cui verranno rilasciati) l�esito di Tetro, Moon, Food e The Call of the Wild. I lupi in 3D potrebbero stupire, cos� come il film di Coppola, se il mostruoso voto su IMDB � effettivamente il riflesso dell�interesse per questo film (o solo della solita coglionaggine degli utenti).

Le mie previsioni di questo week end, quindi sono:

Donnie

La classifica della MMG War è stata aggiornata alla prima settimana di gioco.

Anche se la vittoria � stata ottenuta per un pugno di dollari, The Hangover vince il weekend con poco meno di 45 milioni rivelandosi un ottimo affare per tutti quelli che l'hanno comprato, che porteranno a casa 5 punti top5, 4 PTA, un ottimo incasso e un voto Imdb temporaneo di ben 8.5, fatto che conferma che i lettori di quel sito sono una massa di teste di cazzo incline ai facilissimi entusiasmi (prendere nota). The Hangover �, anzi, l'unico vero affare del weekend; per tutti gli altri, bruciori di culo: Land of the Lost � terzo per miracolo con un magrissimo incasso di 18,837 milioni, zero punti PTA, 3 punti Top5 e un cacoso 5.6 dagli utenti dell'Imdb, mentre quel cesso di Nia Vardalos arriva nona con un miserabile incasso di 3,223 milioni e un voto di 5.9.

Con un Up pi� che mai a cazzo dritto, un Ben Stiller ancora fumante e uno Star Trek che continua a rompere culi a tutta callara, era inevitabile che qualcuno finisse col farsi male.

Buone notizie per gli omosessuali: Away we Go si porta a casa il migliore punteggio PTA del weekend e un rispettabilissimo 7.6 sull'imdb che aspetta soltanto di essere blastato dalle decine di account multipli di alcuni giocatori disonesti. Seraphine e Unmistaken Child portano a casa qualche puntarello PTA (rispettivamente 2 e 1) e ottimi voti dall'Imdb (7.4 e 8.0); visto il prezzo pagato, nessuno potr� lamentarsi troppo.

Filippo

Bella pe' chi ce l'ha of the Week: The Hangover

Inculata of the Week: Land of the Lost

Box office

1. Up: 40.000.000
2. Land of the Lost: 30.000.000
3. The Hangover: 22.000.000
4. Night at The Museum: 15.000.000
5. Terminator Salvation/Star Trek: 7-8.000.000
6. My life in ruins: 5.000.000

1. Away we go
2. Land of the Lost
3. Tennessee
4. The Hangover

Donnie

Goose on the loose, la cui uscita era prevista per il 21 agosto, � stato spostato a data da destinarsi e quindi rimosso dalla lista dei film disponibili per la MMG War.

It might get loud, la cui uscita era prevista per il 21 agosto, � stato anticipato al 14 agosto.