Screen Rant » night at the museum 2

GROAN… Summer 2009 Sets Box Office Record

Kofi Outlaw — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 16:55:02 +0000

So we just finished telling you why the Summer of 2009 was the season of bad movies. Now, as if to validate our point (sarcasm alert) Variety has just announced that the Summer of ‘09 has set a new record as the highest grossing summer of all time at the U.S. domestic box office.

So there you have it, folks, it’s official: Hollywood has no reason to ever hire good writers, produce good scripts, or offer us anything better at the multiplex than what Michael Bay can half-envision.

Awesome.

The numbers of course tell a deeper tale than that, so if you’d like to find out just how the heck this summer managed to break the box office bank, here’s the breakdown:

Top earners for the season were Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ($399.4 million), Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince ($294.3 million), and Disney/Pixar’s Up ($289.6 million). We all know why the franchise players made bank (it certainly wasn’t because the newest installments were great films in and of themselves) and Pixar is a proven brand that happened to offer a truly exceptional film. Other crap sequels that helped fill the piggy bank: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs ($193.3 million), Angels and Demons ($133.4 million) and Night at the Museum 2 ($176.5 million)

There were also some unexpected boosts to the box office this year, thanks to Warner Bros.’ breakout hit The Hangover ($270.2 million) and the Sandra Bullock / Ryan Reynolds rom-com, The Proposal ($160.2 million).

Rounding out the Summer ‘09 box office cash pile were reboots/relaunches of popular franchises. On that front you had Star Trek ($256.7 million), Wolverine ($179 million), Terminator Salvation ($125.3 million) and G.I. Joe ($133.4 million and counting).

This really must be just a cruel joke being played by God, IMHO. You have he Writers Guild of America strike back in 2007, during which the scripts for a lot of these films were forced to go into production half-cooked (or less), and what’s the moral of the story? What’s the grand example that the talented writers in Hollywood can hold up to the studios? “Hey, you better treat us right, otherwise we’ll stop working and you’ll end up making more money than you ever have before!”

Pretty short soapbox to be standing on.

It’s also arguable evidence of the (snooty) stereotype that the average American moviegoer has the cerebral capacity of a third grader. Just looking at the numbers I have to wonder just how so many people could be so entertained by so much crap. It once again raises a question one of our readers put to us back in June, after the release of Transformers 2: Is there really a difference between movies like The Dark Knight and TF2 when both films start pulling in crazy bank? How much does quality count?

It was an intriguing topic before, but after hearing that the Summer of 2009 will go down as a the “best” summer at the movies ever (from a profit standpoint), it’s now a raging debate. Expect Screen Rant’s post about it soon.

Source: Variety

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: May 31, 2009

Niall Browne — Sun, 31 May 2009 22:34:07 +0000

In the Wrap Up this Week:

The box office is UP; Robert Downey Jr might still saddle up for Cowboys and Aliens; Lucy beats Nicole Kidman to the Punch; Natalie Portman, Danny McBride and James Franco salute Your Highness; Seann William Scott and Adam Brody are A Couple of Dicks and Chevy Chase dips his toes in the Hot Tub Time Machine and he may return as Fletch.

BOX OFFICE:
The summer season is now well and truly here. Pixar’s Up shows that family films and the Pixar brand are hugely profitable. The animated film banked a huge $68 million over the weekend. For a film that sells most of it’s tickets in half price matinees that’s a lot of attendance.

Last week’s champion Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian had to settle for the runner up spot with a weekend take of $25 million. With a total now over $100 million it looks like we might be in for a third installment.

Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man stop-gap, Drag Me To Hell, opened to a disappointing $16 million. It probably cost about $20 million to produce, so it’ll be profitable, but I’m sure Raimi wanted more.

Speaking of more – will we ever get to see any more Terminator films? With a weekend take of just $16 million for Terminator Salvation it looks like McG might not get to finish his proposed trilogy. Maybe international grosses will help. It looks like the franchise needed Schwarzenegger’s charisma and not just a grumpy looking Christian Bale.

Star Trek flew past the $200 million mark with a weekend gross of $12 million. Angels & Demons has crossed the $100 million milestone, but will the film be profitable to warrant a sequel? Doubtful.

Dance Flick made another $4 million giving the spoof a total gross of almost $20 million. Who pays money to see that?

X-Men Origins: Wolverine made just under $4 million this weekend bringing the Hugh Jackman starrer’s total to $170.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past hit $50 million and Beyonce Knowle’s Obsessed is closing in on $70 million.

MOVIE NEWS

1. Everyone wants Robert Downey Jr in their movie these days. It’s funny how times have changed. Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have spoken about how they still hope to snag the Iron Man for their upcoming adaptation of Cowboys and Aliens.

Speaking to Sci-Fi Wire the duo said that they‘ve been speaking to Downey Jr about the film but that scheduling is the issue:

“We’ve been talking to him about that. He’s one of the busiest men on the face of the Earth. If the schedule can line up, we’d absolutely love it.”

The pair also said that they’re finishing up scripting duties on the film:

“We are just about to finish our draft of Cowboys and Aliens, which we are writing with Lost’s Damon Lindelof. For Cowboys and Aliens, we got an amazing first draft from Mark Fergus, who wrote Iron Man, and now we are continuing on with Damon. We are in the middle of the second draft.”

*Please note that Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman do speak separately.
They’re also incredibly in demand with Transformers 2 and Star Trek out this summer alone!

Source: Sci Fi Wire

2. Nicole Kidman has dropped out of Woody Allen’s forthcoming film. The Aussie star will be replaced by British actress Lucy Punch.

The plot and title for the film are unknown but sources believe:
“Punch will play a high-priced call girl similar to Ashley Dupre, who was at the center of the scandal that brought down New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer.”

The cast for the film is pretty darn good – even for a Woody Allen film. Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Antonio Banderas, Naomi Watts and Slumdog Millionaire’s Freida Pinto have roles in it.

Source: Variety

3. Natalie Portman will join Danny McBride and James Franco in Your Highness for Pineapple Express director David Gordon Green.

According to Variety:

“McBride, who wrote the script with Ben Best, plays an arrogant lazy prince who with his brother (Franco) must complete a quest to save the kingdom and his brother’s fiance. Portman will play a warrior princess that the lazy prince falls in love with.”

The Princess Bride with pot anyone?

Source: Variety

4. Seann William Scott and Adam Brody know A Couple of Dicks. The pair will join Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan in Kevin Smith’s forthcoming detective comedy.

“Scott plays a thief known as the Sh**t Bandit for the souvenirs he leaves at his robberies. Brody is an abrasive detective not happy to be working with Willis and Morgan.”

A Couple of Dicks starts shooting this Monday in New York.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

5. Chevy Chase seems to be on the comeback trail. Not only has the 80’s icon scored a role in John Cusack’s Hot Tub Time Machine but the Weinstein Company have apparently approached him with a script for a third Fletch movie.

With regards to Hot Tub Time Machine:

“Chase plays a mysterious repairman who dispenses pearls of wisdom and may or may not be behind the metaphysical road trip.”

Now, a Fletch film has been in the works for almost a decade. Kevin Smith originally wanted to make a Fletch film with Jason Lee, and then Scrub’s Zach Braff was attached to the project for a while, but nothing ever came of it. This new script is passing of the baton-type film where Chase’s Fletch advises his journalist nephew on his career.

With a bit of luck this will mean that we get to see more of the criminally underused Chase on the big screen.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

That’s it for now. See you at the movies.

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Night at the Museum 2 Review

Vic Holtreman — Tue, 26 May 2009 01:54:50 +0000

Short version: Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian is a mildly funny and harmless family film about on par with the first movie.

Screen Rant reviews Night at the Museum 2

What’s there to say about the the sequel to the first Night at the Museum? It’s a bit of fluff, something to take the kids to where you might be mildly entertained without having to worry about anything offensive where your kids are involved.

The story picks up a few years after the first film, with Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) now a successful businessman. He has a knack for infomercial-type inventions and is doing very well – financially anyway. He still visits the museum from time to time to visit with his night-animated buddies, but not as often as he used to. It turns out that most of the museum pieces are being replaced by newfangled holographic projection versions, with the current ones being shipped off to storage at the Smithsonian, to be crated forever.

He attempts to intervene but it’s a case of too little, too late – but of course the day is not lost. One thing leads to another and Egyptian prince Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria) is awakened with thoughts of world domination on his mind. In the process we once again meet Robin Williams as Teddy Roosevelt, Owen Wilson as Jebediah Smith the pint sized cowboy, along with new characters General Custer (played well by Bill Hader) and Amelia Earhart (played by the forever cute and perky Amy Adams).

This film seemed to be more about the performances than the actual story, and there was an interesting conglomeration of characters here. The oddest of the bunch had to be Hank Azaria as the Egyptian prince… he was quite the odd combination here – being just a bit older than him and with the fact he’s always been known as a comedic character actor, I was struck by how he buffed out for the role. What made it weirder was the fact that for some reason the voice they chose for his character was a bad Boris Karloff impersonation with a lisp thrown in for good measure.

Funny? Maybe. Weird? Most definitely.

Beyond that Amy Adams was perky to the point of annoyance (for me, anyway) but the old style skin-tight pants she wore kind of made up for that (what can I say?). I enjoyed Bill Hader’s performance as Custer and brief cameos by Ricky Gervais and Jonah Hill were both quite funny. However as usual (for me) Ben Stiller just seemed… odd. He has a flavor of humor that while I don’t hate it, I just don’t get it and it doesn’t work for me.

Thankfully it’s a fairly short film, clocking in well under two hours. It’s not awful, but nowhere near great – kind of take it or leave it film. But if you’re a parent with some little ones and you’re hungry for movies to take the family to without worrying about anything offensive, it’s a good one to go see. For anyone else, you’ll need to be a Ben Stiller fan – otherwise it’s a definite rental.

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No Salvation For Terminator at the Box Office

Kofi Outlaw — Mon, 25 May 2009 13:37:19 +0000

It appears that Terminator Salvation is going to be (pun alert!) terminated at the box office on its opening weekend, by none other than the family-friendly Ben Stiller comedy/adventure sequel, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.

The final numbers from the Memorial Day long weekend have yet to be tallied, but as of now, it appears that Night at the Museum 2 has a clear lock on the no. 1 spot at the U.S. box office.

Here are the numbers for the weekend:

Night at the Museum 2 grossed $53.5 million from 4,096 theaters between Friday and Sunday. Terminator Salvation grossed approx $43 million from 3,530 theaters, making Night at the Museum 2 the clear winner of the weekend domestic box office race.

Of course those figures exclude Terminator Salvation’s opening day earnings: Salvation premiered at midnight on Thursday (instead of the usual Friday opening) and earned $13.6 million that day, bringing its cumulative total to $56.4 million from Thurs to Sun.

However, that extra bit of earnings isn’t going to be enough: Night at the Museum 2 also came in no. 2 at the international box office, earning $50.1 million from 8,100 theaters in 93 overseas markets, setting the film’s worldwide gross earnings at approx $103 million. Terminator Salvation won’t open in international markets (or see those kinds of earnings) for another two weeks.

Suffice to say these current box office figures are a disappointment for Terminator Salvation director McG and studios Sony and Warner Bros., who invested $75 million and $50 million respectively in T4 (not including marketing costs). Doesn’t look like that investment is going to pay off like they hoped.

A second week resurgence for Terminator Salvation seems unlikely. Screen Rant’s review of Terminator Salvation is mixed at best, and if our Terminator Salvation discussion forum is any indication, audiences are echoing that mixed reaction. It’s Watchmen all over again. And, with Pixar’s UP hitting theaters next weekend (in Disney digital 3-D no less!), moviegoers both young and old are going to have the perfect excuse for not checking out Terminator Salvation.

Will this underwhelming performance at the box office affect McG’s plans for Terminator 5? (Let’s hope so, if he still plans to go ahead with that ridiculous time travel plot he’s been hinting at. The plot of T4 was shotty enough…)

Terminator Salvation and Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian are both currently in theaters.

Source: Variety

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Mid-Week Movie News Wrap Up – Jan. 15, 2009

Niall Browne — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:13:08 +0000

It’s that time of the week again!

In this week’s wrap-up:

Verbinski forgets Pirates and heads to dry land; Jim Sheridan has a Black Mass; get (d)ready for A Night At The Museum; Jolie “flips” for Salt and Henry Selick knows how to Count.

1. Pirates of The Caribbean director Gore Verbinski is mulling over directing an untitled script by Michael Gilio.

According to Variety:

“The drama focuses on a retired rancher who responds to a phone solicitation swindle that wipes out his savings.”

Sounds low key, but don’t be surprised if Universal Pictures contacts Verbinski’s Pirate pal Johnny Depp.

Source: Variety

2. Irishman Jim Sheridan will direct a film adaptation of Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob. The true story follows two childhood friends – one a criminal and the other an FBI agent.

The film was originally in development at Miramax as a possible movie for Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Remember those guys?

Source: Variety

3, The official title for A Night At The Museum 2 is Night At The Museum: Battle of The Smithsonian. It opens May 22, 2009.

I’d recommend that you book a holiday or something on that date. Just to be sure!

4. All systems are go for Salt starring Angelina Jolie. Apparently Jolie “flipped” over the new draft by Brian Helgeland. According to Moviehole:

“Angelina apparently flipped for Brian’s new script,which she absolutely adored. Crew off to Russia next week to scout locations for the scenes involving the training of the Russian sleeper spys.These scenes are set in the 1970s and 80s. The ending is rumoured to have been changed from a White House setting to Camp David. Shooting still on course for early March start in NYC.”

Philip Noyce will call the shots on the thriller that was originally going to star Tom Cruise.

Source: Moviehole

5. Coraline and Nightmare Before Christmas director Henry Selick is working on an adaptation of Philip Pullman’s Count Karlstein. When speaking to Joblo Selick said:

“have a couple of other things, but the primary one is an older Philip Pullman kids book called Count Karlstein. I’ve got a film story worked out and I’ll eventually write a screenplay and start designing.”

Source: Joblo

That’s it for now. See you at the movies.

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