The movie of Christopher Nolan and Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio “Inception” bagged the number one spot at the close of the weekend box office, opening with $60.4 million as estimated last Sunday. The sci-fi movie offering of Warner Bros is Leonardo’s biggest weekend opening which beat his previous best opening in the movie “Shutter Island” which topped $41.1 million last winter. But for director Christopher Nolan, it fell short for his best movie, the Batman hit “The Dark Knight”.
The said blockbuster movie grossed $158.4 million when it opened with the same number of days about a couple of years ago. A lot of positive reviews have helped the movie “Inception” bag the number one spot which stars Leonardo DiCaprio who plays a leader of a group of individuals that get inside dreams of other people and steal their thoughts and secrets. Later on, the team has been assigned to do the exact opposite, which is to give an idea to the subconscious mind of a wealthy heir. Coming off in the number two spot is the former number one movie - Steve Carell’s movie “Despicable Me”. The movie released by Universal Studios has grossed a total of $118.4 million in its 10 days of showing.Meanwhile, the movie “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, the latest offering of Walt Disney Pictures ended the week landing at the number three spot grossing only $24.5 million.
Leonardo Dicaprio got asked to be moved from his seats twice during movie date with his girlfriend Bar Rafaeli. The pair were attending a movie showing of the Iron Man 2 and where seating in the wrong seats. They were asked to move twice, once during his own move preview of Inception.
Dicaprio kept his cool and obliged to move both times. Most other celebrities would have lost their temper and been upset with the incident.
A witness stated: “They were gracious and Leo was smiling at the irony of it. He clearly didn’t realise you could reserve seats.”
This year could be a breakout year for some directors, and the following have the best chance to do so.
J Blakeson - His debut “The Disappearance of Alice Creed” is a kidnap thriller shot on a shoestring budget. The plot is very twisty but the story will keep you engaged. The movie was screened at the London Film Festival in 2009.
Scott Cooper - “Crazy Heart” opened in mid-December and has had a decent reception from critics. Written, directed and produced by Cooper, the movie is based on a novel by Thomas Cobb. The plot revolves around a washed up country music singer trying to turn his life around.
Rodrigo Cortes - His first big movie is a daring attempt, which features one actor in one location. The plot of “Buried” is about a civilian contractor buried alive in a coffin with nothing but a cell phone, a knife and a Zippo. Surprisingly, the movie cost $3 million to make.
Tom Ford - “A Single Man” is a fascinating look at the last day of one man’s life. The movie is loosely based on a novel set in the 1960’s about a gay professor, written by Christopher Isherwood. The main feature of the movie is the changing color and environment, which constantly match the chief character’s mood swings.
Luca Guadagnino - He is a self-taught director with a point to prove. The third offering from him is titled “I am love” and is about a reserved woman in society who breaks out of a loveless marriage. The movie has so far been met with moderate approval.
Avatar is now the highest grossing movie of all time, pushing aside Titanic, which previously held the top spot.
Figures from 20th Century Fox indicate that Avatar’s global rakings in six weeks were recorded at $1.859 billion compared to Titanic’s $1.843 billion. Keep in mind though that these figures are as is, and are not adjusted to take into account, factors such as inflation or the more expensive 3D movie tickets.
The fight for top spot however, keeps James Cameron still in top spot, but even better, making him the director of both the world’s top grossing movies.
Starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, Titanic established a new box office record when it was released in 1997-1998. The movie also secured an Oscar for Cameron, earning him the title of Best Director.
With inflation taken into account, the biggest movie in North America is ‘Gone with the Wind’, a 1939 production starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh. The movie brought in $1.5 billion worth of ticket sales, based on statistics by Box Office Mojo, a tracking firm. If the same inflationary adjustments are made for Avatar, then the movie stands at the 26th spot.
At the Golden Globes in January 2010, Avatar won two awards, and expectations are that it would bring in an Oscar nomination as well. This month, Avatar also won the title of being the fastest movie to earn $1 billion in ticket sales in the world. The movie has also proved to be widely popular across the world, with Avatar proving to be a success in even countries such as China and Russia.
Avatar is also the most expensive film to be produced with a reported budget of approximately $300 million.
Twentieth Century Fox’s Avatar brought in a worldwide figure of $1.02 billion - making it the most profitable Christmas season ever. The movie is also the fourth highest grosser in history, right behind James Cameron’s Titanic ($1.8 billion), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ($1.12 billion) and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest ($1.07 billion). Experts say Avatar could surpass the latter two with its widespread popularity and buzz.
The domestic box office over the New Year’s weekend raked in an estimated $68.3 million from 3,461 runs - which is the best figure ever for a movie running into its third weekend. Avatar, on its 17th day earned a whopping $352.1 million.
Foreign figures for the 3D science fiction fantasy brought in $133.5 million, bringing a foreign total of $670.2 million in three weeks of release. The global cumulative figures include $66.4 million from IMAX theatres.
Avatar while being in top spot as a mega-grosser - also made room for other movies to unleash their fury over the holidays.
Warner Bros.’ Sherlock Holmes featuring Robert Downey Jr. dropped by 38% to $38.4 million of 3,626 runs to bring in a domestic total of $140.7 million in its initial ten days. In foreign markets, the movie grossed around $37.6 million, bringing its global figure to $229 million.
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, another production by Fox recorded domestic figures of $157.3 over the weekend, bringing worldwide figure to $256.4 million.
The global figures of Universal’s romantic flick, It’s Complicated stood at $72.9 million while Paramount’s Up in the Air, starring heart throb George Clooney grossed approximately $11.4 million in domestic figures.
The numbers are in and movie tickets sales have overtaken the retail sales of movies on video, an occurrence that has not been witnessed since the mid 1990s. A recent report released by Adams Media Research confirmed the change in trend, which is mainly attributed to the recession. “…the reversal of fortunes of the theatrical and retail businesses can be laid at the feet of the recession” said AMR president Tom Adams. The theory is quite acceptable, as it seems that American consumers were interested in getting “more bang for their buck” in the face of the ongoing recession.
Theatrical ticket sales ended on $9.87 billion representing a 9.8 % growth, while DVD and Blu-ray movie sales ended on $8.73 billion representing a drop of 13.3 %. Although Blu-ray sales rose by 100 %, it failed to help the dwindling DVD movie market in 2009. But even though it was down in the movie category, DVD sales as a whole (movies, TV series, etc) still heads the entertainment category with a whopping $13 billion.
Rentals seem to be another preferred alternative to purchases; DVD and Blu-ray rentals were up 0.5 % raked in $8.15 billion, while cable, satellite and Telco rentals recorded a 16.3 % growth, totaling up to figures of $1.27 billion. Online movie purchases went up by 72.8 % and online rentals were up with a 60.1 % growth bringing in $250 million and $111 million respectively.
Whether the balance will be restored between the box office and movie disc sales as the recession ebbs is unclear. For the moment the cinema rules supreme.
Summit entertainment plans on releasing Roman Polanski’s latest film in the US sometime in early 2010. The film originally titled “The Ghost” will now be released as “The Ghost Writer.” Polanski is the director behind great films like “Chinatown” and “Rosemary’s Baby.”
Polanksi has been in Sweden on house arrest while awaiting an extradition hearing. He is expected to be extradited to face charges of having sexual intercourse with a minor. The alleged offense happened in 1977. He has avoided the US since the charges were first filed. If he is convicted, 77-year old Polanski will most likely face prison time ending his career as a successful film director.
The film stars Pierce Brosnan, Ewan McGregor, and Kim Cattrall. The screenplay was adapted from the novel, “The Ghost” written by Robert Harris. The book won the International Thriller Writers’ Award for best novel of 2008 setting this up to be a great film.
The movie will be focused around Brosnan’s character, Adam Lang a former British Prime Minister, writing his memoirs. His aide drowns, and he hires a ghostwriter (Ewan McGregor) to help finish the book. The story quickly evolves into a mystery that includes political and sexual intrigue, and the threat of Lang facing a war crimes trial. A mystifying secret is hanging over Lang that threatens to damage fragile international relations.
Summit Entertainment was originally only a sales agent for the film, but after seeing a cut of the film, they have decided to handle distribution. The entertainment group is the distributor of the Twilight teen vampire films.
The Motion Picture Academy recently unveiled its list of 15 visual effects contenders for next year’s Academy Award. Notably missing from the list this year are “Night at the Museum 2″ and “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”, both of which are visual effects heavy films and were expected to be in contention.
Heavily represented on the list with five pictures is Lucas Film’s Industrial Light & Magic with “Avatar,” “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince,” “Star Trek,” “Terminator Salvation” and “Transformers 2.” Digital Domain, who won the coveted prize last year with “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” comes in a close second with four films in contention “2012,” “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra,” “Star Trek” and “Transformers.”
Three of the films in contention this year are in stereoscopic 3D. “Avatar,” “Coraline” and “G-Force.” Stereoscopic 3D is a technique that creates an illusion of depth and you need special 3D glasses to be able to view it properly.
Below is the entire list of 15 films in contention:
Angels & Demons
Avatar
Coraline
Disney’s A Christmas Carol
District 9
G-Force
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Sherlock Holmes
Star Trek
Terminator Salvation
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
2012
Watchmen
Where the Wild Things Are
The executive branch of the visual effects committee will select seven finalists from the current list of contenders. The winner of the much sought after statue will be announced at the Academy’s Goldwyn Theater on January 21, 2010.
