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• 'Rogue One' Opened Huge, but Could It Have Opened Bigger?
• Box Office: 'Rogue One' Scores Massive Opening Weekend
• 17 Things You Never Knew About 'A Clockwork Orange'

'Rogue One' Opened Huge, but Could It Have Opened Bigger? Posted: It's not like anyone at Disney is complaining (publicly, at least) about the estimated $155.0 million that "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" earned this weekend during its domestic debut. After all, distributors of most would-be blockbusters would kill for an opening weekend that huge. It's the 12th biggest domestic debut of all time and the second biggest December debut ever, behind only last year's "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." By the time the movie leaves theaters -- around the time you're starting your summer beach-body diet -- it will probably have earned close to $600 million in North America, which would make it one of the top six movies of all time. There were several factors that could have made a difference in boosting "Rogue One"'s numbers toward "Force Awakens" heights. Here are a few of them. 1. It's a Spinoff It's possible that audiences weren't as emotionally invested in this self-contained side story, especially since its ending was something of a foregone conclusion (we all know what became of the stolen Death Star plans from having seen the opening minutes of "Star Wars: Episode IV -- A New Hope"). It also contained a roster of almost completely new characters, not the familiar heroes (or the stars who played them) that fans have loved for 39 years. With the notable recent exception of "Minions," spinoffs seldom do as well as the films that spawned them. (Recent exhibit A: "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.") That doesn't mean they're not still a license to print money, just not as much money. 2. Make 'em wait George Lucas used to give fans a typical wait of three years between installments, and sometimes as long as 16 years. Coming exactly one year after "Force Awakens" (which ended a 10-year "Star Wars" drought), "Rogue One" didn't have much time to build up anticipation or make us miss the "Star Wars" universe enough to pine for its return to the screen. 3. The Weather Arctic blasts in much of the country could have kept viewers at home. Anecdotally, however, there were plenty of tweets from fans who insisted that they were braving the cold to go see "Rogue One." 4. School Isn't Quite Out Yet This was Disney's own excuse for the smaller audiences, that not enough kids had Monday off to lift Sunday's numbers. True, "Force Awakens" was released on the same weekend last year, but the school calendar was different, and more kids could see the movie Sunday night without having to worry about being bright-eyed and bushy-tailed enough for class on Monday. Even so, Disney's own tracking assumed that this student drop-off would result in a weekend around $135-$145 million, yet the movie managed to improve upon that lowball guess by about $10 million. 5. 3D A full 38 percent of ticketbuyers ponied up for glasses-rental surcharges to see "Rogue One." Among those were the 12 percent of viewers who paid extra to see it on a giant IMAX screen. Those are excellent numbers for those formats, about the best that can be expected for any domestic debut with a 3D or IMAX option. Indeed, with "Rogue One" playing on more than 400 IMAX screens in North America, it's the widest IMAX release ever, resulting in the most lucrative IMAX premiere of 2016 ($19 million) and the second most lucrative December IMAX debut ever (after "Force Awakens"). 6. Gender Appeal "Rogue One" is the second straight "Star Wars" movie with a kick-ass female protagonist, so you'd think that would have helped draw more women to the film. Yet exit polls say that the film's audience was still about 59 percent male. The opening could have been worse. Like, "Collateral Beauty" bad. By Warner Bros. and New Line releasing his newest movie opposite "Rogue One," they embarked on a mission that evokes the title of his last movie, "Suicide Squad." Certainly, it could not have engendered much good will toward his new holiday tearjerker, which opened in fourth place and scored just an estimated $7.0 million, below even the modest $10 million pundits had predicted. That's the lowest wide-release opening of Smith's career. This was the movie, like such past Smith year-end releases as "The Pursuit of Happyness" and "Seven Pounds," that was supposed to draw the female, adult audience that was presumably avoiding "Star Wars." (Indeed, that strategy worked last year for the R-rated comedy "Sisters.") But terrible reviews (just 14 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) may have scared away the grown-ups, who, as we've seen, were predisposed to see "Rogue One" anyway. Those who bought tickets actually liked "Collateral Beauty" a lot, giving it an A- at CinemaScore, but that positive word-of-mouth wasn't enough to overcome the reviews or the power of the Force. Even if "Collateral Beauty" didn't end up causing any collateral damage to "Rogue One," the absence of female and adult viewers from the multiplex has been a mystery that has vexed the industry for much of 2016. So far, sales for this year are about four percent ahead of what they were at the same point in 2015, but "Rogue One" falling short of selling tickets as fast as "Force Awakens" means 2016's total take could fall behind last year's. Could the relative lack of movies with female and adult appeal this year, compared to 2015, have made the difference? This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Box Office: 'Rogue One' Scores Massive Opening Weekend Posted: By Brent Lang LOS ANGELES, Dec 18 (Variety.com) - "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" sold out multiplexes around the world and brought fanboys and fangirls out in force over the weekend. The "Star Wars" prequel scored the second-largest December opening in history, the second-largest launch of the year, and one of the top debuts in history, opening to a massive $155 million in North America. Globally, the film has earned $290.5 million, after touching down in nearly every major foreign market save for China and South Korea. "This is the king of all franchises," said Jeff Bock, a box office analyst with Exhibitor Relations. "No other franchise is even close." Disney, which shelled out $4 billion to buy George Lucas' Lucasfilm in 2012, had been trying to downplay expectations for "Rogue One." Executives noted that the film is the first "Star Wars" movie to exist outside of the main Skywalker clan storyline. It's also a darker, war-themed tale; one that has an unusually high body count for a popcorn flick. The film follows a group of rebels on a suicide mission to steal plans for a deadly space station. Disney is planning to do more "Rogue One"-style spinoffs. The company is already working on a film about the early years of Han Solo that will star Alden Ehrenreich. Most studios steered clear of "Rogue One," but Warner Bros. and New Line offered up "Collateral Beauty" as counter-programming for audiences unmoved by tales of Jedi knights. The drama about a grieving ad executive (Will Smith) was savaged by critics, and only managed to eke out a paltry $7 million debut for a fourth place finish. That's a rough start for the picture and continues Smith's bumpy period at the box office. The actor scored with last summer's "Suicide Squad," but struck out with the likes of "Focus," "After Earth," and "Concussion." This latest failure raises questions about his popular appeal. "Collateral Beauty" cost a reported $36 million to produce. Village Roadshow also backed the picture. The opening weekend crowd skewed female and older, with women comprising 59% of the audience and 58% of ticket buyers clocking in over the age of 35. Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros. domestic distribution president, acknowledged that the poor reviews hurt the film, but stressed that its A-minus CinemaScore indicated that audiences were enjoying "Collateral Beauty." "I'm disappointed," he said. "But the film plays well with an older audience, and we hope that, over Christmas, they'll have more free time available to go out and discover it." Disney's "Moana" snagged second place, picking up $11.7 million and pushing its stateside gross to $161.9 million. Paramount's "Office Christmas Party" nabbed third, earning $8.4 million and bringing the raunchy comedy's total to $31.5 million after two weeks of release. "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" rounded out the top five, picking up $5 million to push the Harry Potter spinoff's domestic total to $207.7 million. "Rogue One" loomed large over all of them. The film cost $200 million to make and attracted a great deal of media attention for its reshoots. Whatever the cause of the extra filming, audiences didn't seem to find fault with the finished product. They came out in droves, even shelling out for extra bells and whistles. Domestically, the film earned $19 million in Imax screenings and $17.9 million in premium large formats, with 3D accounting for 38% of all tickets sold. Outside of the galaxy far, far away, Oscar-frontrunner "La La Land" performed nicely in its expansion. The acclaimed musical picked up $4 million after moving from five to 200 theaters. That brings its total to $5.3 million. Lionsgate is backing the film, which stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone as two Angelenos in love. Amazon and Roadside's "Manchester by the Sea" capitalized on a slew of Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations, adding $4.2 million to its $14 million haul while moving from 356 to 1,200 theaters. In limited release, "Fences" picked up $128,000 in two theaters. Paramount is backing the adaptation of the August Wilson play, with Denzel Washington directing the film and co-starring opposite Viola Davis. It cost just over $20 million to make. "Rogue One" galvanized the box office, but overall ticket sales still fell sharply. That's because of tough comparisons. Last year, this period hosted "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," which shattered records when it opened to $248 million. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

17 Things You Never Knew About 'A Clockwork Orange' Posted: "A Clockwork Orange" was Stanley Kubrick's most controversial movie, and that's saying something for a career that included "Lolita," "Dr. Strangelove," "The Shining," "Full Metal Jacket," and "Eyes Wide Shut." Today, 45 years after its release (on December 19, 1971), the futuristic fable -- about an ultraviolent thug (Malcolm McDowell, in his star-making performance) who becomes even more soulless after behavior modification therapy -- seems more and more prescient about the way we live now. Still, as influential and imitated as "Clockwork" has been, there's plenty you may not know about it, from the real-life tortures McDowell endured to the film's unlikely "Star Wars" connection, to the movie's notorious afterlife. Cue up some Beethoven and read on. 1. Kubrick was going to follow up his landmark sci-fi hit "2001: A Space Odyssey" with a movie about Napoleon, which never got off the ground. Instead, his wife brought to his attention Anthony Burgess's 1962 novel "A Clockwork Orange," a book whose provocations punched all of the dark-humored director's buttons. 2. Kubrick cast McDowell as the protagonist, Alex, after seeing him in his starring role as the rebellious schoolboy in the movie "If..." 3. McDowell claims he helped come up with Alex's famous costume, including the bowler hat, the single fake eyelash, and the all-white outfit, inspired by the actor's own cricket uniform. He credits Kubrick with the idea of wearing the jockstrap outside his pants. 4. But McDowell also suffered for Kubrick's art, enduring injuries that mimicked those Alex received on screen. During the sequence when Alex's eyelids are pried open to force him to watch the behavior-modification films, McDowell's cornea was scratched, and he was temporarily blinded -- even though the actor playing the doctor was a real doctor. His true purpose on the set was to administer eye drops to the star and protect his eyes. 5. McDowell also suffered cracked ribs during the sequence where Alex is beaten and humiliated on stage to demonstrate the effectiveness of the therapy. 6. Nonetheless, the star took his lumps without complaint. "I didn't really mind doing it in the end," he told Collider upon the film's 40th anniversary, "because I knew it was a good cause and I knew that the film was going to be extraordinary in many ways, simply because of my own stuff, because, I was in practically every frame of it. So, as an actor, I was doing things that I had only dreamed of." 7. The notorious rape scene, during which Alex dances and belts out "Singin' in the Rain," came about through improvisation. Kubrick and the cast had been rehearsing the scene for five days and had been unable to make it work until the director suggested that McDowell dance and sing. The actor chose the cheery theme from the classic musical because "it was the only one I sorta half knew the words to." 8. Kubrick's adaptation was based on the American edition of the novel, which left out the final chapter, in which Alex matures and finds a measure of redemption on his own. That chapter wasn't published in America until 1986, a quarter-century after the novel's initial printing and 15 years after the movie. McDowell claimed that final chapter was a concession forced on Burgess by his British publishers, a sop to conventional morality that the author knocked off in a couple hours, and that the version with the ironic ending filmed by Kubrick is more authentic. 9. That beefy guy playing Julian, the writer's bodyguard and manservant, is David Prowse (above), still six years away from originating the role of Darth Vader in "Star Wars." 10. Kubrick achieved the point-of-view shot of the approaching ground from Alex's attempted suicidal leap by putting a camera in a box, lens down, and dropping it out a third-story window. The camera managed to survive six takes. 11. Despite Alex's stated fondness for Beethoven, there are actually more pieces in the score by Rossini than by old Ludwig van. 12. After the extravagant "2001," Kubrick made a concerted effort with "Clockwork" to prove he could keep to a modest budget. As a result, almost all of the film was shot in existing locations within a quick drive of the filmmaker's home outside London. Only three sets were built from scratch. "Clockwork" also marked the shortest shoot in the notoriously perfectionist director's career, just 113 days. As a result, he was able to keep the film's costs down to a mere $2.2 million. 13. The movie was a financial success all over the world, including North America, where it grossed $26.6 million. 14. "Clockwork" was initially rated "X" in the United States, back when that rating wasn't automatically considered pornographic. Indeed, the ratings board thought Kubrick was trying to put one over on them with the sped-up sex scene and worried that porn filmmakers would follow suit in the hopes of earning a less restrictive rating. Later, however, when "Clockwork" was re-released in theaters and on home video, Kubrick cut some 30 seconds of sexually explicit footage, and the board reduced the rating to an R. 15. The film was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing. It's the only X-rated film, along with 1969 winner "Midnight Cowboy," ever to earn a Best Picture nomination. 16. After a series of alleged copycat crimes in Britain and death threats against Kubrick and his family, the director called for the film to be pulled from circulation in the United Kingdom. It was unavailable there for 27 years, until Kubrick's death in 1999. 17. About a year after the movie came out, McDowell claims, he was at a Hollywood party where he was introduced to Gene Kelly. He says the "Singin' in the Rain" star looked him over, then walked away without saying a word. McDowell says he understood the musical legend's hard feelings over the way he'd ruined Kelly's song in "Clockwork" and didn't blame him for the snub. It was only in 2011, 40 years after the film's release, that McDowell says he learned from Kelly's widow that the song-and-dance man's grudge wasn't against McDowell himself but against Kubrick, for allegedly stiffing him on royalties from the film's use of his recording. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

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