More news this week saw Fox Searchlight Studios finish a survey for fans to choose their favorite movie poster design from three different movie poster images for the upcoming film “Notorious”. The film is a biopic chronicling the life and tragic premature death of “Notorious B.I.G”, Biggie Smalls. The film stars Jamal Wollard in the starring role and Derek Luke (Sean “P Diddy” Combs) and Anthony Mackie (Tupac Shakur) co-star.
Notorious Movie Posters Coming Soon >>
Shia LaBeouf continues to mine gold, as his latest flick, the action thriller "Eagle Eye" took the top spot at the box office this past weekend, pulling in just over $29 million despite facing competition Friday from the presidential debate.
Richard Gere and Diane Lane had a solid opening in second spot with $13.6 million, as the romantic drama "Nights in Rodanthe" managed to draw support from the older female moviegoers. Meanwhile, the Samuel L. Jackson thriller "Lakeview Terrace" had a modest drop in its second week, posting $7 million in ticket sales - good enough for third place.
In fourth place was a movie we missed on our new release list last week - "Fireproof", a Christian-themed firefighting drama starring Kirk Cameron which benefited from advance bookings by church groups. Spike Lee didn't fare as well, as his World War II drama "Miracle at St. Anna" languished in ninth place with $3.5 million.
Last weekend's full top 10 was as follows:
1. Eagle Eye - $29.2 M
2. Nights in Rodanthe - $13.6 M
3. Lakeview Terrace - $7 M
4. Fireproof - $6.5 M
5. Burn After Reading - $6.2 M
6. Igor - $5.5 M
7. Righteous Kill - $3.8 M
8. My Best Friend's Girl - $3.8 M
9. Miracle at St. Anna - $3.5 M
10. Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys - $3.2 M
Hollywood and the world lost another screen legend, as Paul Newman died last Friday after a long battle with cancer at his farmhouse near Westport, Connecticut at the age of 83. Newman, who was nominated for 10 Oscars during his career, won two honorary ones as well as best actor for his role of pool shark Fast Eddie Felson in "The Color of Money."
With an acting career that spanned over 50 years, Paul Newman had some of the most memorable performances in modern film. His roles included his breakout performance in 1956 playing Rocky Graziano in "Somebody Up There Likes Me" as well as heroes, anti-heroes, scoundrels and true villians in films like "The Long Hot Summer," "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," "Hud," "The Hustler," "Hombre," "Cool Hand Luke," "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "The Sting," "The Hudsucker Proxy," "Road to Perdition," "Slapshot," "Absence of Malice" and "The Verdict."
Known for his unselfish philanthropy, Newman is survived by his wife of 50 years, actress Joanne Woodward and five children. To the blue-eyed devil we say - definitely not "a failure to communicate."
Audiences turned out to watch bad neighbor, Samuel L. Jackson, take out his angst on the couple next door as the thriller "Lakeview Terrace" pulled off the number one spot at the box office, in what was yet another lacklustre September weekend. It was easily the best opening for director Neil LaBute ("The Wicker Man") as the movie brought in just over $15 million. The movie also featured up and coming star, Patrick Wilson who will appear in next spring's buzz movie "Watchmen" which will be directed by Zack Snyder ("300").
Last week's box office winner, "Burn After Reading" dropped into second place with $11 million, while Dane Cook and Kate Hudson opened in third place with their new comedy, "My Best Friend's Girl" which debuted with $8.3 million.
The other two new releases were the family animation, "Igor" with John Cusack which opened in fourth place with $7.8 million and "Ghost Town" starring Ricky Gervais which opened with just $5 million.
Last weekend's full top 10 was as follows:
1. Lakeview Terrace - $15 M
2. Burn After Reading - $11 M
3. My Best Friend's Girl - $8.3 M
4. Igor - $7.8 M
5. Righteous Kill - $7.4 M
6. Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys - $7.3 M
7. The Women - $5.4 M
8. Ghost Town - $5 M
9. The Dark Knight - $2.9 M
10. The House Bunny - $2.7 M
After the fizzle and no sizzle of last week, this weekend at the box office it was all new releases pulling the top four spots, as Ethan and Joel Coen snapped up the top spot with "Burn After Reading," registering their their best opening weekend ever. After the commercial and critical success last year of "No Country for Old Men," the brothers seem to have garnered attention from a much broader audience.
Tyler Perry continued with his winning formula, as "The Family That Preys" locked down the number two spot, while the big star pairing of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino certainly helped "Righteous Kill" get third place.
In fourth spot with just over $10 million, was Diane English's "The Women" which suffered from some poor reviews, despite having a high powered cast of actresses which included Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Eva Mendes, Candice Bergen, Cloris Leachman, Bette Midler and Carrie Fisher.
Last weekend's full top 10 was as follows:
1. Burn After Reading - $19.1 M
2. Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys - $17.4 M
3. Righteous Kill - $16.3 M
4. The Women - $10.1 M
5. Tropic Thunder - $4.2 M
6. The House Bunny - $4.2 M
7. The Dark Knight - $4.1 M
8. Bangkok Dangerous - $2.6 M
9. Traitor - $2.1 M
10. Death Race - $2.1 M
In what is historically a slow weekend at the box office, this past one was particularly bad - in fact, the worst one in five years. The top movie was "Bangkok Dangerous" starring Nicolas Cage in an action thriller directed by Danny and Oxide Pang. The remake of the original 1999 Hong Kong received a drubbing from critics, and moviegoers responded by saving their money for something else. With an estimated $7.8 million, "Bangkok Dangerous" barely edged out "Tropic Thunder", the box office champ the previous three weekends, which claimed second place with $7.5 million - edging it even closer to $100 million. With this latest flop, Cage has proven to be a bit of a wild card at the box office, mixing blockbusters like last December's "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" with more than his fair share of duds.
In third place, the bunny beat the bat, as "a href="http://www.moviegoods.com/movie_product.asp?master_movie_id=37670&mgaid=MG+blog">The House Bunny" picked up $5.9 million in its third week, and "The Dark Knight" added another $5.7 million to its total.
Staying relatively strong amongst the chaos was the political thriller "Traitor" starring Don Cheadle. Two movies that really got drubbed however, were "College" and "Hamlet 2" - way down the charts in 18th and 21st spots respectively and with per theatre averages of around $500 per theatre. Ouch!
Last weekend's full top 10 was as follows:
1. Bangkok Dangerous - $7.8 M
2. Tropic Thunder - $7.5 M
3. The House Bunny - $5.9 M
4. The Dark Knight - $5.7 M
5. Traitor - $4.7 M
6. Babylon A.D. - $4 M
7. Death Race - $3.6 M
8. Disaster Movie - $3.3 M
9. Mama Mia! - $2.7 M
10. Pineapple Express - $2.4 M
Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black held on to the top box office spot over the weekend as "Tropic Thunder" coasted with just over $16 million. In what is traditionally a slowing down period before all the back to school action next week, the The Paramount-DreamWorks release raised its 12-day total to $65.7 million.
The biggest surprise was "The House Bunny" in second place with around $15 million, which pumelled the other prominent new release, "Death Race" which pulled third spot with around $12.3 million. The PG-13 comedy stars Anna Faris as an outcast Playboy bunny who becomes house mother to a sorority of campus misfits.
The other new releases for the weekend were the family comedy, "The Longshots" which had a mediocre opening of $4.3 million in eighth place, and "The Rocker" which failed to crack the top ten, opening in 12th place with just $2.7 million from 2,784 theatres.
As the summer winds down, it looks like Hollywood will have a record breaking year as far as revenue goes with over $4 billion in ticket sales, but with higher admission prices, ticket sales are probably down about 3% over last year.
Last weekend's full top 10 was as follows:
1. Tropic Thunder - $16.1 M
2. The House Bunny - $15.1 M
3. Death Race - $12.3 M
4. The Dark Knight - $10.3 M
5. Star Wars: The Clone Wars - $5.7 M
6. Pineapple Express - $5.6 M
7. Mirrors - $4.9 M
8. The Longshots - $4.3 M
9. Mama Mia! - $4.3 M
10. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - $4.1 M
Twentieth Century Fox is currently scrapping with Warner Brothers in a copyright lawsuit related to the release of "The Watchmen", which is is slated for release on March 6, 2009. Judge Gary Feess ruled last week that the copyright lawsuit against Warner could go forward, and that Fox could hold some of the rights to the material, even if it did not hold all rights. Fox is arguing that even though it relinquished certain rights to the material in 1991 it held onto the right to distribute the first movie.
The highly anticipated movie, which is based on a DC Comics graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons, is directed by Zack Snyder of "300" fame.
Buy The Watchmen posters and memorabilia here >>
After four weeks at the top, "The Dark Knight's" reign at the box office finally ended this past weekend as "Tropic Thunder" debuted at number one with an estimated $26 million. The R-rated comedy, which was a Ben Stiller project (director, writer, star) had a solid weekend after opening earlier in the week because of the Olympics.
"The Dark Knight", with an estimated $16.8 million increased it's total to $471.5 million, which now makes it the number two movie on the all-time domestic charts, behind only "Titanic" with $600.8 million.
Meanwhile, George Lucas' "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" had a decent opening as well with $15.5 million, given that it was basically an introduction to the television series which will begin to air on network TV next month. Following it in fourth place was "Mirrors", a horror story starring Kiefer Sutherland.
And popping onto the charts in tenth place was a new Woody Allen romantic comedy, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" which had a limited opening in 692 theatres. Opening with around $3.7 million, the movie stars Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz, Rebecca Hall and Javier Bardem.
Last weekend's full top 10 was as follows:
1. Tropic Thunder - $26 M
2. The Dark Knight - $16.8 M
3. Star Wars: The Clone Wars - $15.5 M
4. Mirrors - $11.1 M
5. Pineapple Express - $10 M
6. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - $8.6 M
7. Mama Mia! - $6.5 M
8. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 - $5.9 M
9. Step Brothers - $5 M
10. Vicky Cristina Barcelona - $3.7 M
Harry Potter fans are going to have to wait a little longer to catch the next installment, as it was announced by distributor Warner Bros. yesterday that "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," is moving from its planned November 21, 2008 release to July 17, 2009.
The sixth film in what has turned into a global blockbuster franchise, is apparently on schedule, it's just that the move was made to take advantage of an open weekend in Hollywood's busy summer season. Alan Horn, Warner Bros. president and chief operating officer, is quoted as saying, "The picture is completely, absolutely, 100 percent on schedule, on time. There were no delays. I've seen the movie. It is fabulous. We would have been perfectly able to have it out in November."
The last two movies in the series, which are based on book seven, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," are due out in November 2010 and summer 2011.
Buy Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince posters and memorabilia here >>
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| Updated Weekly | |
| 1. | Twilight |
| 2. | The Dark Knight |
| 3. | The Express |
| 4. | Quantum of Solace |
| 5. | Bolt |
| 6. | High School Musical 3 |
| 7. | Appaloosa |
| 8. | Eagle Eye |
| 9. | Miracle at St. Anna |
| 10. | Watchmen |
