‘Miss Sloane’ Has One of the Worst Opening Weekends Ever
Posted: December 13, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Self Defense | Tags: Allen Dulles, Americans, anti-gun, Bomb, Box office, Brady Campaign, Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Dud, Gun control, Jessica Chastain, Michael Stuhlbarg, Miss Sloane, Movies, propaganda Leave a comment
Seventy-ninth worst opening of the past 35 years
“Miss Sloane marks another chapter in Brady’s partnership with Hollywood to integrate the realities of gun violence into entertainment. We’ve consulted on scripts for powerhouse television shows including ‘The Good Wife’ and ‘Grey’s Anatomy.’”
— Brendan Kelly, press secretary for the Brady Campaign
The movie pulled in $1,167 on average at the 1,648 theaters across the country it was shown in. It made $1,922,300, meaning it was the 11th-highest grossing movie in the country. It is number 79 on Box Office Mojo’s list of Worst Opening Weekend by Per-Theater Average since 1982.
“Gun owners always knew the movie was—pardon the pun—a dud.”
— Alan Gottlieb of the Second Amendment Foundation
That means Miss Sloane earned less money per theater than Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Shaun the Sheep Movie, Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace, and Gigli.
“Unless Jessica Chastain ends up with a Golden Globe nomination and/or an Oscar nomination in a robustly crowded ‘Best Actress’ field, this one is finished.”
— Scott Mendelson, at Forbes
Industry observers criticized the movie’s performance on Monday. Time said the movie “fizzled in its wide expansion.” Fortune described it as struggling. The Los Angeles Times said Miss Sloane failed to meet “an already lackluster” projection of $5 million for the weekend.
“EuropaCorp expanded the terrific Jessica Chastain vehicle Miss Sloane into 1,648 theaters over the weekend, with just tragic results,” Scott Mendelson wrote at Forbes. “Unless Jessica Chastain ends up with a Golden Globe nomination and/or an Oscar nomination in a robustly crowded ‘Best Actress’ field, this one is finished.” Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Johnny Depp Heads List of World’s Most Overpaid Paid Actors, 2015
Posted: December 23, 2015 Filed under: Economics, Entertainment, Global, Mediasphere | Tags: Adam Sandler, Box office, Cinema, Denzel Washington, Forbes, Hollywood, Johnny Depp, media, Money, Movies, Show Business Leave a comment
Box Office: ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ Opens to Record $33.9M in China Tuesday
Posted: May 13, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, China, Comics, Entertainment | Tags: AMC (TV channel), Avengers (comics), Box office, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, Iron Man 3, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Comics, Marvel Studios, Opening Day, The Hollywood Reporter, The Walt Disney Company, Ultimate Marvel, Ultron Leave a comment
Furious 7 finally pulled to the side of the road in China to make way for JossWhedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, which opened to a record-breaking $33.9 million on Tuesday, the biggest weekday opening of all time.
It’s also Disney and Marvel’s biggest opening day ever in China, exceeding the first two days of The Avengers in May 2012. All told, Age of Ultron commanded nearly 96 percent of the marketplace. Read the rest of this entry »
‘Avengers’ Overpowers the Box Office
Posted: May 3, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Comics, Entertainment, Mediasphere | Tags: Age of Ultron, Avengers (comics), Box office, California, Captain America, Chris Hemsworth, Emeryville, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Marvel Studios, Movies, Pixar, Robert Downey, Thor 3 Leave a comment
Sequel ‘Age of Ultron’ pulls in $187.7 million domestically, but falls short of record set by the original film
“Avengers: Age of Ultron” opened to a phenomenal $187.7 million in the U.S. and Canada, according to studio estimates, the second-biggest debut of all time. But many in Hollywood were surprised it came in 9% lower than the record set three years ago by the original “Avengers,” which also opened the first weekend of May and kicked off summer moviegoing season.
Saturday night’s boxing match between Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, along with the Kentucky Derby and NBA and NHL playoff games, undoubtedly depressed grosses a bit for “Age of Ultron,” from Walt Disney Co.’s consistently successful Marvel Studios. What’s not yet clear is whether the decrease in ticket sales indicate any audience weariness for Hollywood’s accelerating pace of big-budget “event” films.
[Read the full text here, at WSJ]
The movie industry is expecting a blockbuster summer at the box office, thanks primarily to highly anticipated sequels such as “Jurassic World,” “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation,” “Ted 2” and “Minions,” as well as Pixar Animation Studios’ “Inside Out.” If even a portion of the population is growing tired of such films, that could be bad for major studios.
In good news, however, there are no signs of fatigue overseas. “Age of Ultron” has collected $439 million internationally after opening in many countries last week. Compared with the first “Avengers,” it has grossed 7% more in U.S. dollars and 31% more in local currencies in the same markets over the same period of time, said Dave Hollis, Disney’s executive vice president of distribution.
The most successful foreign country is South Korea, where the “Avengers”sequel has grossed $55.4 million. Part of the movie was shot and takes place in that country. This weekend, “Age of Ultron” set a record for the biggest opening of all time in Mexico, with $25.5 million. Read the rest of this entry »
Notes on ‘American Sniper’
Posted: January 25, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, U.S. News, War Room | Tags: Anti-Americanism, BBC, Berlin International Film Festival, Biographical film, Box office, Chris Kyle, Clint Eastwood, Gran Torino, United States, Wide release Leave a comment
Like many movie goers I prefer to avoiding reading detailed reviews of movies before I see them, then enjoy reading a series of them right after. With the controversy surrounding American Sniper, it’s almost impossible to avoid exposure to what’s being said and written (and we’ve covered plenty of that controversy in the last few weeks) so it made even more of a challenge to stay away from reviews until I had an opportunity to see it myself.
A few hours ago, I finally saw American Sniper. I’ve only read a few reviews so far–and I plan add some of our own commentary soon–but this New Yorker review immediately struck me, because I prejudged the source. Admittedly unfair, but I don’t see the island of Manhattan as a place to expect anything but veiled score for Clint Eastwood, dislike of war films in general, and snarling distaste for this movie in particular. I’m happy to be completely wrong. Though it’s a short capsule double-movie review, given second-billing to Selma, all due credit to New Yorker film critic David Denby, for a positive, respectful, and insightful review of American Sniper.
Denby‘s first sentence nails it:
“Clint Eastwood’s ‘American Sniper‘ is both a devastating war movie and a devastating antiwar movie, a subdued celebration of a warrior’s skill and a sorrowful lament over his alienation and misery.”
The following comment is one of the most admiring things a critic can say about a filmmaker:
“Eastwood’s command of this material makes most directors look like beginners. As Kyle and his men ride through rubble-strewn Iraqi cities, smash down doors, and race up and down stairways, the camera records what it needs to fully dramatize a given event, and nothing more.”
And this characterization of Eastwood’s skill and talent as a director is perfectly summarized:
“There’s no waste, never a moment’s loss of concentration, definition, or speed. The general atmosphere of the cities, and the scattered life of the streets, gets packed into the action…” Read the rest of this entry »
[PHOTO] Chris Kyle: Straight Shooter
Posted: January 21, 2015 Filed under: Guns and Gadgets, Self Defense, War Room | Tags: Academy Award, American Sniper, Autobiography, Box office, Chris Kyle, Clint Eastwood, Guns, Iraq, Navy SEAL, Photography, Rifle, Sniper, U.S. Military, U.S.A. Leave a comment
[VIDEO] Chris Kyle Defends His Record
Posted: January 19, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News, War Room | Tags: @janefonda, Academy Award, Box office, Bradley Cooper, Chris Kyle, Clint Eastwood, Hollywood, media, Military history of the United States, news, United States, United States Navy SEALs Leave a comment“The ideal thing would be if I knew the number of lives I saved, because that’s something I’d love to be known for. But you can’t calculate that.”
At The Corner, Brendan Bordelon writes:
Michael Moore called him a “coward.” Peter Mass of Glenn Greenwald’s the Intercept slammed him for calling Iraqis “savages.” Former Daily Beast reporter Max Blumenthal described him as a “mass murderer” — a sentiment later echoed on a defaced billboard that’s advertising the most popular movie in America.
The American Left is frothing at the mouth over Clint Eastwood’s portrayal of decorated Navy SEAL Chris Kyle in American Sniper.
Murdered by a mentally ill veteran he was counseling in February 2013, Kyle is no longer here to defend himself. But a C-SPAN video from April 2012 does a pretty good job of putting the lie to the Left’s portrait of a remorseless sociopathic killer. Read the rest of this entry »
‘Interstellar’ Tops $100 Million in Imax Box Office
Posted: December 15, 2014 Filed under: Entertainment, Mediasphere, U.S. News | Tags: Adventure, Box office, Christopher Nolan, Cinema, IMAX, Interstellar, Movies, Science fiction 1 Comment
