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Sunday, November 8, 2015

Latest Movie News From Moviefone

Latest Movie News From Moviefone

How James Bond and Charlie Brown Saved the Box Office

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As expected, James Bond and Charlie Brown conquered the box office this weekend.

After the slump of the last few weeks, including the catastrophic finish a week ago that marked one of Hollywood's worst weekends in seven years, audiences returned in droves and put the 2015 box office back on track for a record-breaking year. So why is there still a sense that the other shoe is waiting to drop?

On the surface, it seems like there should be nothing to complain about regarding this week's box office. The Bond franchise proved it's alive and well in its 53rd year with "Spectre," whose estimated $73.0 million debut is just about equal to the entire box office from last weekend. It's the second biggest opening ever for a 007 movie, after the $88.3 million earned by 2012's "Skyfall." Daniel Craig may be tired of playing the super-spy, but audiences clearly aren't tired of seeing him.

At No. 2, "The Peanuts Movie" also opened big, with an estimated $45.0 million. That $118 million total for the top two movies is very strong, showing that there's plenty of room in the marketplace for both an action film that plays to all ages and a family film based on a beloved franchise at the same time. "Peanuts" scored even better audience word-of-mouth than "Spectre," earning an A grade at CinemaScore.

Even the remaining top five movies -- holdovers "The Martian," "Goosebumps," and "Bridge of Spies" -- did well this weekend. None lost more than 30 percent of last weekend's business, an indication that all three movies are holding up well, even after four to six weeks of release. Overall, this week's box office receipts totaled an estimated $164.5 million, a jump of 122 percent from last weekend's crater. It's the best weekend at the multiplex since "Ant-Man" opened in July. Plus, the year-to-date box office stands at $9.1 billion, nearly 5 percent ahead of this time last year and 1.3 percent ahead of 2013, the biggest box office year ever.

That said, there are still some caveats to this weekend's results.
As well as "Spectre" did, it was widely expected to do better. Distributor Sony gave an absurdly lowball prediction of $65 million that allowed it to spin this weekend's results as outperforming expectations, but most tracking services predicted the movie would open between $80 and $85 million. Adjusting for ticket price inflation, "Spectre" actually opened below 2008's "Quantum of Solace," ($78.1 million at 2015 prices), a movie that most Bond fans found disappointing.

Reviews of "Spectre" have been okay (62 percent fresh at Rotten Tomatoes, compared to 93 percent for "Skyfall"), and given the nostalgic appeal of the franchise to older audiences who still trust critics, that less-than-enthusiastic response could have discouraged some viewers.

As for "Peanuts," its $45 million debut falls at the low end of expectations, which ran from $45 to $55 million. Some older viewers have grumbled that they found the 3D computer animation off-putting after half a century of watching Charlie Brown and Snoopy in hand-drawn 2D.
This is supposed to be the season when adult-oriented dramas open strongly in art-houses, generate strong reviews and word-of-mouth, then platform to wide release and enjoy modest nationwide success. That hasn't happened this year with most award-hopefuls, with movies like "Steve Jobs" opening with strong reviews and high per-screen averages in a handful of theaters, only to stumble as they expand into general release. Only the crime thriller "Sicario" has done well this fall on the traditional platform pattern.

This weekend saw strong limited art-house openings from "Spotlight," "Brooklyn," and "Trumbo," but except for period romance "Brooklyn," it's hard to imagine these movies doing much better in wide release. Like this fall's other platform flops, "Spotlight" and "Trumbo" deal with difficult, uncommercial topics, and they're not so obviously cinematic that people feel they need to see them on the big screen instead of waiting until they're available at home.

The big lesson here, from both the art-house failures and the big-budget bombs, is that you can't force people to see movies they're not interested in.

Even well-marketed, highly-anticipated films like "Spectre" and "The Peanuts Movie" can draw only so big an audience if they're flawed in execution. People have too many other entertainment options to mandate that they come to the multiplex for any movie that sounds like a less-than-compelling big-screen experience. There'll be a handful of such event-movies over the next couple of months, but the Hollywood business plan of letting a handful of such events make up for slates of mostly lackluster movies isn't sustainable forever.

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Box Office: 'Spectre' Shoots to $73 Million, Misses 'Skyfall's' Mark

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daniel craig as james bond 007 in SPECTRELINDSEY BAHR, AP Film Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- It took the combination of James Bond and Charlie Brown to save the box office after a disastrous few weekends of flops. Both "Spectre" and "The Peanuts Movie" reinvigorated moviegoers who turned out in droves to check out the new fare, including buzzy limited-release titles like "Spotlight."

"Spectre" took an easy first-place spot with an estimated $73 million, according to Rentrak estimates Sunday, to become the second-biggest Bond opening of all time. The 24th film in the 53-year-old series stars Daniel Craig as the dapper spy and cost a reported $250 million to produce.

But "Spectre" failed to live up to the record-breaking standard set by "Skyfall," which debuted to $88.4 million in 2012 and went on to become the first film in the franchise to earn over $1 billion worldwide.

"We never expected it to open to the level of 'Skyfall.' It was a very different scenario. The competition was different, the weekend was different," said Rory Bruer, Sony's president of worldwide distribution. "One thing I am certain of is that the Bond franchise is as healthy and strong as ever."

Distributor Sony, who co-produced the film with Eon Productions and MGM, tried to manage expectations going into the weekend, predicting an opening in the $60 million range.

"It's still a great number," said Paul Dergarabedian, Rentrak's senior media analyst. "For a franchise that's over 50 years old, it's really an astounding achievement. Bond is still compelling and exciting to audiences."

The film has been playing internationally for two weeks, breaking records in the U.K. Reviews have been mixed stateside, and "Spectre," unlike "Skyfall," had competition in its first weekend in theaters with another beloved set of characters -- Charlie Brown and Snoopy.

"The Peanuts Movie" provided a family-friendly alternative to James Bond's guns and martinis and took second place with a strong $45 million. The film cost around $100 million to make.

Audiences, 70 percent of whom were families, gave "The Peanuts Movie" a strong A CinemaScore, suggesting that word of mouth will be strong for the animated pic.

The cross-generational appeal was no accident for the Fox marketing team, who were looking to appeal to all ages.

"I think it's a combination of connecting with moviegoers who grew up with and were familiar with the Peanuts property coupled with getting kids excited about and introduced to Charlie Brown and Snoopy in a big screen way," said Chris Aronson, Fox's president of domestic distribution. "We were everywhere. That's what we thought we had to do to get through the noise of Bond to connect with moviegoers from 8 to 80 which I think we really were successful in doing."

Holdovers "The Martian," ''Goosebumps," and "Bridge of Spies" rounded out the top five, while new opener "Miss You Already," staring Drew Barrymore and Toni Collette, opened in 384 theaters to only $572,160.

Three possible awards contenders also made their debut in limited release to mixed results -- "Spotlight," ''Brooklyn," and "Trumbo."

"Spotlight," director Tom McCarthy's film about the Boston Globe's Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, was the strongest of the pack, opening to $302,276 from only five theaters.

"Brooklyn," a 1950s-set immigrant story starring Saoirse Ronan, took in a respectable $181,000 from five theaters this weekend after opening Wednesday. "Trumbo," starring Bryan Cranston, took in $77,229 from five theaters.

Overall, things are looking up at the box office. The final installment of "The Hunger Games" franchise opens in two weeks, and "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" bows in just over a month.

"We certainly needed this infusion of excitement into a marketplace that has been just lying there doing nothing almost for the past few weeks," Dergarabedian said. "This is good news for Hollywood to get things back on track."

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. "Spectre," $73 million.

2. "The Peanuts Movie," $45 million.

3. "The Martian," $9.3 million.

4. "Goosebumps," $7 million.

5. "Bridge of Spies," $6.1 million.

6. "Hotel Transylvania 2," $3.6 million.

7. "Burnt," $3 million.

8. "The Last Witch Hunter," $2.7 million.

9. "The Intern," $1.8 million.

10. "Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension," $1.7 million.
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Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by 21st Century Fox; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.
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Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/ldbahr

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Daniel Craig's Top 10 Performances Ever

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Top 10 Daniel Craig Performances
Daniel Craig may be best known for his role as James Bond in movies like "Casino Royale" and "Skyfall," but did you know he's played other characters? He has! While he gives a great performance as 007, he's also great when he doesn't have a license to kill. These are Daniel Craig's 10 best performances ever.

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The 15 Biggest 'Grey's Anatomy' Deaths, Ranked From Sad to Utterly Devastating

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"Grey's Anatomy" is no stranger to killing off people. Since it's a hospital show, patients are dying left and right (if you need medical attention, don't go to Seattle's Grey-Sloan Memorial) -- but the show's main characters aren't safe either. Even though Shonda Rhimes has been killing the people we love for 12 seasons now, we keep coming back for more.

Here, then, are the 15 biggest "Grey's Anatomy" deaths so far, ranked from "kinda sad" to "we can't stop crying." Somebody sedate me!

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