Screen Rant » moneyball: the art of winning an unfair game

Screen Rant Goes to the 2012 BAFTAS (Winners List)

Niall Browne — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:10:19 +0000

Sunday the 12th of February 2012 saw the BAFTA Awards held in London. Screen Rant corespondent Niall Browne was on the Red Carpet to bring you coverage of the event, and fill you in on some behind the scenes action:

My BAFTA journey started with a train ride into central London, on a bitterly frosty morning. After meeting with a selection of members of the press, I was ushered onto the red carpet, having to walk the full length of the crimson material, past a selection of appreciative and adoring fans – yes, admittedly they weren’t there for a group of film bloggers – but were patiently waiting, hoping to catch a glimpse of some acting legends. I got to the press pen, took my position and waited.

Now picture this: the time was approximately 3pm, it ...

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Weekend Box Office Wrap Up: November 6th, 2011

Niall Browne — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 21:00:45 +0000

This week:

Puss in Boots steals the top spot from Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller; Harold and Kumar have a flat 3D debut and Paranormal Activity 3 continues to scare audiences.

Word of the week: Disappointment.

Puss in Boots led the way at the box office – beating the combined star wattage of Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy. The animated film dropped just 10% from last week, grossing an impressive $33 million. The Shrek spin-off now has $76.6 million in the kitty, with more on the way as the holiday season approaches.

$24.6 million is quite a disappointment for director Brett Ratner’s Tower Heist, as the film was expected to steal the top spot. The Ben Stiller/Eddie Murphy film has had decent reviews (read ours), but it failed to connect with audiences. The heist caper ...

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Weekend Box Office Wrap Up: October 30th, 2011

Niall Browne — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 22:05:18 +0000

This week:

Puss In Boots animates the box office as the Spanish voiced kitty tops the chart, Paranormal Activity 3 continues to scare audiences and Justin Timberlake’s In Time is out of luck.

Shrek spin-off Puss In Boots (read our review) topped the box office over the weekend with an estimated $33 million take. The Antonio Banderas voiced ‘toon banked roughly 50% less than Shrek Forever After, which brought in $70 million worth of green on its debut last year. That film went on to gross over $258 million at the US box office and $752 million worldwide – pretty good considering that it was the second lowest grossing film in the series (the first film holds that honor). Now, Puss In Boots won’t scale the dizzy heights of the other ...

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Weekend Box Office Wrap Up: October 23, 2011

Niall Browne — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 18:57:23 +0000

This week:

Paranormal Activity 3 scares away the competition at the box office; it’s not all for one and one for all for The Three Musketeers - and Johnny English may be Reborn but he’s not topping the box office chart.

The Paranormal Activity franchise is the gift that keeps on giving to Paramount – the films are cheap to produce and they make back some serious coin. This latest installment is budgeted at $5 million, but it should gross over ten times that ($54 million) by Monday morning. The first Paranormal Activity cost just $15,000 (yeah – you read that right) and went on to score $107 million ($193 million globally) – while the sequel opened to $40 million on its way to $84 million ($177 million worldwide) from a $3 million budget.

Poised for a run ...

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Weekend Box Office Wrap Up: October 16th, 2011

Niall Browne — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 20:38:59 +0000

This week:

Real Steel knocks out the competition to retain the top spot; Footloose shows fancy footwork to come a close second; The Thing leaves audiences cold and The Big Year is a huge disaster.It was a close call, but according to early estimates Hugh Jackman’s Real Steel held on to the top spot during a very weedy weekend. The robot boxing movie dipped around 40% for a weekend take of almost $16.3 million. That figure ups the gross to $51.7 million – a decent number, but not spectacular given the films $100 million-plus budget. It’ll struggle to get near the century mark on its domestic release, so it’ll need strong foreign grosses to be profitable.

Paramount Picture’s Footloose remake (read our review) failed to kick-off its Sunday shoes; ...

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Weekend Box Office Wrap Up: October 9th, 2011

Niall Browne — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 00:22:33 +0000

This week:

Hugh Jackman doesn’t pull any punches as Real Steel opens at number one; George Clooney gets political in The Ides of March and holdover hits Dolphin Tale and Moneyball continue to do well.

Hugh Jackman’s big budget extravaganza Real Steel topped the box office over the weekend, grossing $27.3 million. The debut was in line with studio expectations and a decent way of showing that Hugh Jackman has some star power outside of playing Wolverine in X-Men. Real Steel has had solid reviews (read ours here) and Jackman has been on a strong promotional push, so it might crack $100 million and make some serious money around the globe. The debut of Real Steel is way behind the $85 million of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, although that ...

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Weekend Box Office Wrap Up: October 2, 2011

Niall Browne — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 16:30:22 +0000

This week’s newcomers failed to make an impact as Moneyball and Dolphin Tale fought it out for the top spot over the weekend.

However, it looks like the fishy tale will capture the number one slot.

The fishy family film should see the weekend out with $14.2 million after declining roughly 25% from its debut last weekend. That would give the film a solid $37.5 million total, with more to come in the future.

Brad Pitt’s latest film, Moneyball, dipped nearly 40% for a weekend take of $12.5 million. The adult orientated drama has grossed over $38 million – not a bad figure considering the subject matter (a turn off for non-sports fans). It should end its run with a respectable number before grossing serious money on DVD if (when?) Pitt gets ...

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SR Underground Ep. 6: ‘Moneyball’

Ben Kendrick — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 18:33:43 +0000

The Screen Rant editorial team is back with episode six of the Screen Rant Underground.

Join host Ben Kendrick as well as fellow SR editors Rob Keyes, Anthony Ocasio, and special guest/Screen Rant news writer extraordinaire, Sandy Schaefer as we discuss this week’s most popular Movie/TV news and review Moneyball, based on the non-fiction book, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis, directed by Bennett Miller and starring Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, and Philip Seymour Hoffman – which opened in theaters this past weekend.

Screen Rant Underground is available in the iTunes Music Store but if you’re not near your home computer, check out our sixth episode in the player below. As mentioned in previous posts, we’re still in the early stages of developing the show – so cut us a little slack as ...

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Weekend Box Office Wrap Up: September 25th, 2011

Niall Browne — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 18:46:57 +0000

The Lion King topped the box office for a second weekend – beating out the likes of Brad Pitt and Taylor Lautner for the privilege. The 3D re-release of the classic Disney ‘toon banked another $22.1 million and upped its gross to over $61.6 million.

Not bad for a film that was first released seventeen years ago.

Brad Pitt used his star power to open Moneyball to $20.6 million. The baseball drama’s launch was the highest opening (non-adjusted) for a baseball themed film, and about average for a Pitt starrer. The well reviewed Moneyball (read our review here) which co-stars Jonah Hill, was written by heavy-hitters Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian. It went through a troubled production, with director Steven Soderbergh being dropped from the film and replaced by ...

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‘Moneyball’ Review

Ben Kendrick — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 14:00:50 +0000

Screen Rant’s Ben Kendrick reviews Moneyball

Moviegoers can be pretty skeptical of sports films – especially films about a real-life team’s championship bid. Often, these movies follow a standard, and predictable, format that fails to capitalize on behind-the-scenes drama without resorting to cringe-inducing melodrama.

However, Moneyball isn’t just another Hollywood sports story adaptation – especially considering Academy Award winner Aaron Sorkin rewrote the film’s script followed by Steven Zaillian (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). Moneyball‘s director Bennett Miller is no slouch either – responsible for helming the critically acclaimed, true-life-story to film, Capote. Interest in Moneyball, among non-sports types, was furthered by the casting of Brad Pitt (who continues to rack up one impressive dramatic role after another) and interestingly, Jonah Hill – who aside from a few turns in low-profile ...

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Steven Soderbergh Prepares To ‘Knockout’ Audiences

Ross Miller — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:49:49 +0000

After all the drama surrounding Moneyball earlier this year, Steven Soderbergh (Ocean’s trilogy, The Informant!) has shrugged his shoulders of it and is moving onto another project, the bluntly titled Knockout. The film is a spy thriller that will see the true acting debut of female MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fighter, Gina Carano, and is described as being closer to La Femma Nakita and Kill Bill than Million Dollar Baby.

Knockout will be directed by Soderbergh, produced by Gregory Jacobs (Soderbergh’s long-time collaborator) written by Lem Dobbs (who’s written a couple of Soderbergh movies before) and financed/produced by Relativity Media.

Carano’s big-screen debut will see her playing, “a girl from the wrong side of the tracks who is given a second chance to use her skills for constructive purposes.” Soderbergh considers it an action film in ...

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Sony Pulls Plug on Pitt/Soderbergh Project, Moneyball

Kofi Outlaw — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:03:34 +0000

Like just about everybody these days, Hollywood is tightening its belt to weather the economic downturn, which basically translates to cutting loose any and every project that is not a guaranteed cash-cow, or doesn’t seem likely to strike gold.

Well, Sony Chairman Amy Pascal is flexing her executive muscle and showing that she isn’t afraid to make the hard choices for the (perceived) good of the studio: Pascal has pulled the plug on Moneyball, an adaptation of Michael Lewis’ baseball bestseller, starring $uperstar leading man Brad Pitt, and helmed by Ocean’s Eleven franchise director, Steven Soderbergh.Did I mention that Pascal brought the ax down on Moneyball mere hours before the film was supposed to start shooting today??? Talk about a reality check: Pitt and Soderbergh have been big power player$ in Hollywood for at LEAST the last half decade, ...

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Movie News Wrap Up: February 8th, 2009

Niall Browne — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 21:33:29 +0000

Yes, we’re a day late this week – blame it on flakey internet connections – moving on…

This week:

Brad Pitt plays Ball; Mangold looks for thrills; does Nottingham have its Marian? Mickey Rourke attaches himself to St Vincent – with an old friend.

Box Office

Audiences were really into He’s Just Not That Into You. The all-star movie featuring Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston and Scarlett Johansson grossed an impressive $27.5 million showing that female powered movies keep making money at the box office.

Liam Nesson’s Taken continues to impress with a slight 18% drop with a gross of $20 million.

Coraline grossed a solid $16 million showing that stop motion animation isn’t dead. The really good news is that The Pink Panther 2 crashed and burned managing a poor $12 million weekend. Considering that the first movie made $10 million more on its debut – it looks like we may have seen the last ...

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: October 19, 2008

Niall Browne — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 16:33:44 +0000

Sunday again and that means that it is time for the Weekend Movie News Wrap Up.

This week:

We see who is top of the box office; Kevin Smith ups his budget and goes into space; Brad Pitt goes on an Odyssey and plays an Unfair Game; Liam Neeson and Christina Ricci do Life and Ronin zooms to the small screen.

Box Office

Marky Mark Wahlberg is the box office champion with Max Payne. The film should manage about $20 million over the weekend giving 20^th Century Fox their first solid hit in months.

Oliver Stone’s W bucked the political movie trend by making a solid bit of cash. Grossing around $12MM for the weekend the film should be a modest hit. Considering the current political overkill going on in the press this is a considerable coup.

The Secret Life of Bees had a modest opening too, and should match the gross of the Bush ...

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