Sunday, December 28, 2003
Weekend Report | Holiday hangover
1. Return of the King ($51.2 Million)
2. Cheaper by the Dozen ($28.2 Million)
3. Cold Mountain ($14.5 Million)
4. Something’s Gotta Give ($14.2 Million)
5. Paycheck ($13.9 Million)
6. Mona Lisa Smile ($11.5 Million)
7. Peter Pan ($11.4 Million)
8. The Last Samurai ($8.4 Million)
9. Bad Santa ($4.5 Million)
10. Elf ($4.3 Million)
There were a slew of new films opening over the Christmas weekend but none of them stood a chance against the King. The final Lord of the Rings film continued to rule the box-office with it’s second weekend in first place. The film has earned an estimated $223.7 million over 12 days, which puts it 12% ahead of its predecessor The Two Towers.
Among the new films entering the fray, Peter Pan is the big loser. With a budget of $100 million, the film flopped onto screens and earned a measly $10 million. The Ben Affleck vehicle Paycheck didn’t fare much better, scraping up $13.9 million. Ben, time to start thinking about that Daredevil sequel.
Cold Mountain opened in third place with $14.5 million which doesn’t seem all that terrible for a pretentious piece of Oscar-bait, but when you stop to consider the film is Miramax’s most expensive ever ($80 million), the gross doesn’t look so great.
Of all the new films opening, only the generic looking Cheaper by the Dozen could be considered a big success. The family friendly flick evidently took in a surprising $28.2 Million.
Other films of note:
• The Last Samurai at #8 looks to be the first film to break Tom Cruise’s $100 million streak.
• Bad Santa is still in the top 10! I love this movie, but I expected it to sink like a stone.
• Elf earned another $4.3 million bringing it’s cumulative gross up to $164.9 million.
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GARFIELD teaser and pics
This movie looks simply awful. The idea is awful. The execution looks terrible. And frankly, the comic strip it originates from isn’t all that great. Sure it may have been funny when you were in second grade and those dog-eared collections were the only comics available in the school library, but hopefully you realize by now that it sucks.
So why am I posting a news item about it? Because I’ve already whored myself out to Hollywood to help promote whatever trainwreck they are cramming into multiplexes on any given weekend… why should I draw the line at promoting a CGI cat? If there is a silver lining to this cloud, it’s that Jennifer Love Hewitt should be only a few years away from a nice career in direct-to-video erotic thrillers.
THE TEASER TRAILER
A waste of your precious time.
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Friday, December 26, 2003
VAN HELSING vampire cleavage
We already know that in VAN HELSING, Hugh Jackman teams up with Kate Beckinsale to fight the classic triumvirate of movie monsters: Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolf Man. But we didn’t know he’d be impaling big-bosomed vampired chicks as well. Awesome. Check out this pics nabbed from the site of actress Josie Maran. Pics are copyright Universal Studios.
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Natalie Portman in THE PROFESSIONAL 2
Natalie Portman recently spoke with People Magazine and confirmed that a sequel to LEON: THE PROFESSIONAL is indeed in the works. While she hasn’t signed on for the role yet, apparently she likes the script and is considering it.
"When Episode 3 finishes? I don’t know. To tell you the truth, I’d like to just relax for a while. Kick back with some friends. If anything, it might be something with Luc Besson, a follow-up to a film I did when I was younger called Leon. The script’s really great, and near worth delaying a vacation for. The only problem would be that I would have to hit the gym again - and at the moment I can’t even envision tying my own laces up."
Another rumor floating around out there about this sequel is that Jet Li will play a major role. No work yet if Jean Reno or Gary Oldman will have anything to do with this film.
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Tuesday, December 23, 2003
Star Wars Episode III photos
These were sent to us by an anonymous reader, so I’m not sure of the exactly source of these images. Based on the quality of the images, I’m assuming they were scanned in from a magazine. But they may be from the dorky pay-only Hyperspace thing that I am not a member of. Either way, this is our first glimpse of Natalie Portman from Episode III, followed by a shot of Hayden Christiansen who appears to be pretty far along the path to the Dark Side. The first sign of his Vader-ification is visible in his robotic hand. The last pic is depicts Samuel L. Jackson preparing to go out in a blaze of glory.
[Note: Images have been removed. Turns out that these images were indeed from HYPERSPACE. Our apologies to the bearded one.]
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