Archive for the ‘Movies’ Category
February 5th, 2012 | 
Author: In the 84-year history of the Academy Awards, there has been one African-American Best Actress winner (Halle Berry for Monster’s 
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The found footage craze isn’t over yet! Chronicle, Fox’s teen superpower adventure, flew higher than any other movie on Friday, 
Chronicle and The Woman in Black both over-performed on Friday, though Chronicle wound up with a slight lead. Big Miracle wound up more in line with low expectations, though it could save face up against the Super Bowl on Sunday. The Top 10 was up 29 percent from the same Friday last year, indicating that this weekend should be the latest in a positive 2012 trend.With an estimated $8.65 million, Chronicle flew to the top of the box office on Friday. That opening is lower than most found foo…
The 2012 box office continues to show strong signs of life as two new genre films overperformed in a close race for the No. 1 spot on Friday. 20th Century Fox’s found footage superhero film "Chronicle" just barely topped CBS Films’ spooky "The Woman in Black" on Friday, but the race is too close to call for the whole weekend.http://www.hitfix.com
The new Government working party to address fathers’ rights is long overdue, says Jenny McCartney.
"Chronicle" and "The Woman in Black" fueled an unexpectedly potent Super Bowl weekend frame with $22 and $21 million respectively. "Big Miracle" didn’t get one with just $8.5 million.http://www.hitfix.com
Even with most people distracted by the Giants or Patriots or whatever elaborate gameday dish they’ve been working on, this weekend still marked the first time in history that two movies opened above $20 million against the Super Bowl. Based on studio estimates, Chronicle held off The Woman in Black to take the top spot this weekend, though Daniel Radcliffe’s first post-Potter outing was impressive in its own right. The weekend’s other opener, Big Miracle, was a tad disappointing, but it st…
Chronicle sacked The Woman in Black at the box office on Super Bowl weekend, but both modestly-budgeted films exceeded industry 
Ordinarily going to a movie theater on Super Bowl weekend is like attending a wake for a particularly unlikable relative — not many others are in attendance. Not this weekend, however. According to studio estimates, 20th Century Fox’s Chronicle earned $21 million, edging out CBS Films’ The Woman in Black with $21 million — surprisingly strong results. Those estimates are based on actual ticket sales for Friday and Saturday and an educated guess on how the two films will do on Super Bowl Sunday, when audiences are overwhelmingly composed of women and children. A few analysts have suggested that Woman could very well overtake Chronicle when final figures are released on Monday inasmuch as the Daniel Radcliffe horror film is particularly female friendly. In any case, each film performed far better at the box office than even the most sanguine forecasts had indicated. (Based on previous box-office returns on Super Bowl Sunday, several analysts had figured that they would be lucky to earn $10 million apiece.) Their surprising strength pushed overall sales up 36 percent over last year’s Super Bowl weekend. A third new film, the family friendly Big Miracle opened with an estimated $8.5 million, in line with projections. Among holdovers,last week’s champ, Open Road’s The Grey, dropped a respectable 52 percent, to place third with about $9.5 milliion.
Rango – the animated hit starring Johnny Depp as the eponymous ne’er-do-well chameleon — won the award for Best Animated Feature at the 
Avatar and Titanic film director James Cameron has spoken of his heartbreak after two Hollywood filmmaker friends died in a helicopter crash.
American and Australian filmmakers die in helicopter crash during shoot in eastern Australia
Scarlett Johansson, Denzel Washington get Germany’s Golden Camera Awards as best actors
The way we raise our children has become a source of conflict among today’s increasingly judgmental parents. Julia Llewellyn Smith reports.
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"Hugo" bested one of its Oscar rivals for Best Art Direction, "The Artist," when it won the Period Film prize at the 16th annual Art Directors Guild Awards on Saturday. Another Oscar nominee, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2," claimed the Fantasy Film award while "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" won the Contemporary kudo. The other two Oscar nominees — "Midnight in Paris" and "War Horse" — failed to contend at these kudos which signals almost certain disappointment for them at the Academy Awards. In the first 15 years of these kudos, the eventual Oscar champ has always been found among the nominees in the various categories. With his work on "Hugo," Dante Ferretti finally won over the ADG after five losing bids. For two of those, he picked up nice consolation prizes as he won Oscars for both "The Aviator" (2004) and "Sweeney Todd" (2007). The "Harry P… |
Madame Defarge, from A Tale Of Two Cities, is a one of Charles Dickens’s meanest characters and is the fifth in the Telegraph pick of the best Charles Dickens characters.
Dante Ferretti wins his first prize ever from the grouphttp://www.hitfix.com/blogs/in-contention
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"Rango" won four Annie Awards including the big prize of Best Animated Feature while one of its Oscar rivals, "Kung Fu Panda 2" won two races and another, "Puss in Boots," lost all of its bids. "The Adventures of Tintin" also took home two trophies at the 39th annual kudos held Saturday. (See full list of winners here.) "Kung Fu Panda 2" had led with 12 bids while "Rango" and "Puss in Boots" were tied with nine bids for these awards handed out by the International Animated Film Society. Besides the top honor, Paramount's "Rango" also won for writing, editing and character design. However director Gore Verbinski was bested by Jennifer Yuh Nelson who helmed the sequel to "Kung Fu Panda" While the original DreamWorks production swept the Annies in 2008 with 10 wins, the sequel had to settle for just two (the other being production design). PREDICT OSCAR WINNERS: Wha… |
The 39th annual Annie Awards were held this evening at UCLA’s Royce Hall in West Los Angeles and it was Gore Verbinski’s "Rango" that came out on top.http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/in-contention
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Jean Dujardin courts controversy with a racy movie poster: "'The Artist' star appears in a series of posters for French film 'Les Infideles,' which is made up of shorts about male infidelity. A number of the posters, which appear as billboards and in magazines, are sexually suggestive, including one in which Dujardin is holding up the legs of a woman, and another where it appears co-star Gilles Lellouche is receiving oral sex. There are also posters that show Dujardin and Lellouche bare-chested, watching scantily clad women pass by." MOVIEFONE
See a new trailer for Oscar-nominated documentary "Undefeated": "This documentary feature chronicles an inner-city Memphis high school’s struggle to win its first football playoff game in the school’s 110-year history. Directed by Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin, The Weinstein Co. release opens February 17th." DEADLINE Bruce Springsteen will perform at the Grammys: "Bruce Sp… |
Zalman King, the filmmaker behind a string of popular and steamy erotic thrillers in the ’80s and ’90s, died on 
Yesterday I sat down with "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" star and Oscar nominee Max Von Sydow for about a half hour to talk about this and that but mostly his and his film’s surprising Academy goodwill. Warner Bros. has him in town for a few days for some TV here, some radio there, plenty of interview opportunities and a fair share of post-screening Q&As. Perhaps they smell a window of opportunity.http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/in-contention
Brad Pitt’s “Moneyball” stumping this week amid an air of uncertainty around the Best Actor race makes you wonder: could he pull off a big surprise.http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/in-contention
