Box Office Results and Weekly Movie News

Movies coming out this week!

Sex and the City 2 - Carrie, Miranda, and Charlotte join Samantha for a trip to Morocco, where Samantha's ex is filming a new movie.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - Set in medieval Persia, a rogue prince (Gyllenhaal) joins a mysterious princess (Arterton) in an effort to prevent a dark force from obtaining an ancient dagger that allows its handler to rule the world.

Survival of the Dead - National Guardsmen, thinking they have found refuge from a zombie army on an island off the coast of Delaware, soon realize they've wedged themselves between two warring families who differ on what should become of the undead.

Movies coming out on DVD and Blu-ray!

Dear John
The Road
Stagecoach: Criterion Collection
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Box Office results for the weekend!

1 Shrek Forever After$71.2 M

2 Iron Man 2$26.6 M

3 Robin Hood $18.7 M

4 Letters to Juliet $9.1 M

5 Just Wright $4.2 M

6 MacGruber $4.1 M

7 Date Night $2.8 M

8 A Nightmare On Elm Street $2.2 M

9 How To Train Your Dragon $1.8 M

10 Kites $1.0 M

"Shrek: The Final Chapter" (or "Forever After"") dominated the box office its opening weekend just like all the previous "Shrek" movies did. The problem is it is a lower opening than both "Shrek 2" and "Shrek 3." Maybe kids and their parents are tiring of the "Shrek" franchise? Though about 61 percent of the film's haul came from 3D showings.

Wanna know what was a big surprise? How "MacGruber" TANKED. Though I haven;t featured it on this blog, I wound up seeing it and can say it is extremely raunchy - but also pretty darn funny. Was not expecting that from a movie based off an unfunny SNL skit. But it is enjoyable and should be seen.

But "MacGruber," which opened on 2,551 screens, made only $4.1 million. Wanna know how bad that is? It's so bad, that a Queen Latifah movie, on its 2nd week of release, and in only 1,831 screens, made more money. When a Queen Latifah movie beats you, you know you're in trouble.

Do yourself a favor and go see "MacGruber" instead of "Shrek" or "Robin Hood" this week. It really is that funny. You'll be saving cinema from Hollywood believing Queen Latifah can just roll out a stupid comedy every six months and make a buck.

"Iron Man 2" and "Robin Hood" continue to rake in some cash, with the former now at over $500 million worldwide, but the latter still in some financial trouble (for now). And yeah, there's that Amanda Seyfried chick flick out as well. Didn't it. Though I did see her film "Chloe" where she gets naked. Now that was worth a buck.

And "Kites" came out of nowhere. A type of Bollywood film edited for American audiences by Brett Ratner of all people. Huh...

Anyway, next weekend its brawn vs. botox, sands of time vs. ravages of time and any other funny vs. quips out there dealing with "Prince of Persia" and "Sex and the City 2." Which will win the weekend. Judging by the amount of guys who will have to see a certain film...eh, you can guess.
(Latino Review)

Box Office Results and Weekly Movie News

Movies coming out this week!

Shrek: The Final Chapter - A bored and domesticated Shrek (Myers) pacts with deal-maker Rumpelstiltskin to get back to feeling like a real ogre again, but when he's duped and sent to a twisted version of Far Far Away -- where Rumpelstiltskin is king, ogres are hunted, and he and Fiona (Diaz) have never met -- he sets out to restore his world and reclaim his true love.

MacGruber - Ex-special operative MacGruber (Forte) is called back into action to take down his archenemy, Dieter Von Cunth (Kilmer), who's in possession of a nuclear warhead and bent on destroying Washington, D.C.

Movies coming out on DVD and Blu-ray!

Invictus
Valentine's Day
Extraordinary Measures
The Messenger
The Spy Next Door

Box Office results for the weekend!

1 Iron Man 2$53.0 M

2 Robin Hood$37.1 M

3 Letters to Juliet $13.7 M

4 Just Wright$8.5 M

5 How To Train Your Dragon $5.1 M

6 A Nightmare On Elm Street $4.7 M

7 Date Night $4.0 M

8 The Back-Up Plan $2.4 M

9 Furry Vengeance $2.3 M

10 Clash of the Titans $1.2 M

"Iron Man 2" continued to dominate theaters. The film's business dropped almost 60 percent but still made a nice $53 million. So far it has made over $428 million worldwide. But it has a ways to go if it hopes to catch up to the 2010 leader "Alice in Wonderland", which made $980 million dollar worldwide. Even I'm shocked that Alice made almost a billion dollars worldwide (kids and 3D, unstoppable forces - and you know that a sequel is coming).

"Robin Hood" did okay in the domestic box office, coming in 2nd with $37 million. Internationally it did great and has already made over $100 million worldwide.

"Letters to Juliet" did ok with $13.7 million. I didn't bother to see it (and so did many others). Same goes for "Just Wright."

"How to Train Your Dragon" is still flying high in the top ten. It came in 5th with an estimated $5.1 million and has grossed over $415 million worldwide.

The rest of the movies are starting that long walk towards DVD-Land.
Expect "Shrek: The Final Chapter" to probably knock "Iron Man" down a slot or two (kids and 3D again).
More news to come! Catch ya' later!
(Latino Review)

Box Office Results and Weekly Movie News

Movies coming out this week!

Robin Hood - The story of an expert archer (Crowe) who travels to the town of Nottingham toward the end of the 12th century, where the acts of a despotic sheriff (Macfadyen) and the presence of a beautiful widow (Blanchett) inspire him to assemble a gang of mercenaries bent on raiding the upper class as a way to correct the sheriff's injustices.

Letters to Juliet - A young woman (Seyfried) on vacation in Verona, Italy finds an unanswered "letter to Juliet" -- one of thousands of missives left at the fictional lover's Verona courtyard. Inspired by the volunteers who respond to the notes, she goes on an adventure to unite the author of letter (Redgrave) with her beloved.

Just Wright - A physical therapist (Latifah) falls for the basketball player (Common) she is helping recover from a career-threatening injury, though he's drawn to her best friend (Patton), who has her sights set on being an NBA trophy wife

Movies coming out on DVD and Blu-ray!

Legion
Daybreakers
Edge of Darkness
Toy Story: Special Edition
The Karate Kid/The Karate Kid Part II: Box Set
M: Criterion Collection

Box Office results for the weekend!

1 Iron Man 2 $134M

2 A Nightmare on Elm Street $9.17M

3 How to Train Your Dragon $6.76M

4 Date Night $5.3M

5 The Back-up Plan $4.34M

6 Furry Vengeance $4M

7 Clash of the Titans $2.31M

8 Death at a Funeral $2.1M

9 The Losers $1.8M

10 Babies $1.58M

Despite a number of so-so reviews, "Iron Man 2" earned $133.6 million in domestic gross its opening weekend, a 35 percent rise over the first film.

It added a further $57.2 million from overseas markets and now has a worldwide total of $327.6million.

The film has had the fifth-highest three-day opening weekend in the US, leaping above "Shrek The Third" to sit below "The Dark Knight" (in top place), "Spider-Man 3," "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."

"Iron Man 2" has also beaten last year's "Star Trek" to claim the 2D IMAX opening weekend record and is already this year's fourth highest-grossing film, according to Box Office Mojo.

The remake of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" proved no match for Robert Downey Jr's metal-clad crimefighter and plunged by 72 percent. That doesn't bode well for the future of horror, or at the very least expectations are now set.

Other films on the list also made some money, with the documentary "Babies" even making the Top Ten though it only opened in 534 theaters (as compared to "Iron Man 2" in 4,380 theaters).

Will Iron Man take next weekend as well or will men in tights steal the victory and give it to the audience? We'll have to wait and see.

'Robin Hood' Featurette

Universal Pictures has released a first look featurette for Ridley Scott's "Robin Hood" starring Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Mark Strong, William Hurt, and Matthew Macfadyen.

It is an interesting featurette with interviews from Scott, Crowe and Blanchett discussing the origins of Robin Hood and how they depict his transformation from soldier to hero in the upcoming new adaptation of the classic tale.



"Robin Hood" hits theaters May 14, 2010.

Final 'Robin Hood' Trailer

The final full-length trailer for Ridley Scott’s "Robin Hood" has been officially released and it is truly epic. The teaser trailer and international trailer for the retelling of the story of the prince of thieves left viewers with mixed reactions and a lot of fair comparisons to "Gladiator," the previous period piece epic that the pairing of Scott and star Russell Crowe worked together on.

While I certainly saw the close similarities in style and characters between "Robin Hood" and "Gladiator," this new trailer has completely sold me as a must-see film of the summer.

We finally find out what the story is all about and we also get to see more Robin Hood-specific action, which looks quite awesome (like when they're sneaking through the woods) and not as much like "Gladiator" any more.

The trailer provides plenty of story elements and a lot more of the supporting characters including Mark Strong’s Sir Godfrey, Cate Blanchett’s Maid Marian and Oscar Isaac’s Prince John.



The trailer's accompanying official synopsis tells us:

"In 13th century England, Robin and his band of marauders confront corruption in a local village and lead an uprising against the crown that will alter the balance of world power. And whether thief or hero, one man from humble beginnings will become an eternal symbol of freedom for his people.

"Robin Hood chronicles the life of an expert archer, previously interested only in self-preservation, from his service in King Richard's army against the French.

"Upon Richard's death, Robin travels to Nottingham, a town suffering from the corruption of a despotic sheriff and crippling taxation, where he falls for the spirited widow Lady Marian, a woman skeptical of the identity and motivations of this crusader from the forest.

"Hoping to earn the hand of Marian and salvage the village, Robin assembles a gang with lethal mercenary skills and they begin preying on the upper class to correct injustices under the sheriff.

"With their country weakened from decades of war, embattled from the ineffective rule of the new king and vulnerable to insurgencies from within and threats from afar, Robin and his men heed a call to ever greater adventure. This unlikeliest of heroes and his allies set off to protect their country from slipping into bloody civil war and return glory to England once more."

The film stars Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Matthew Macfadyen, Mark Strong, Kevin Durand, Danny Huston, William Hurt and Max von Sydow.

"Robin Hood" hits theaters May 14, 2010.
More news to come! Catch ya' later!
Sources: First Showing, Screen Rant, The Geek Files

Movie News Mash 30

Fast and Furious 5
Vin Diesel and Paul Walker have signed deals to return for a fifth film in the "Fast and Furious" street-racing series.

The Universal Pictures movie - so far known as "Fast Five" - will see Dominic Toretto (Diesel) and Brian O'Conner (Walker) as fugitives being pursued by relentless lawmen.

Director Justin Lin and writer Chris Morgan will be back to direct and write "Fast Five," respectively, after working on the third and fourth movies together.

The film will begin filming later this year for a 2011 release, says Variety.

Are you a fan of the "Fast & Furious" films? Are you looking forward to a new one? Anyone have a better title for it?
(Screen Rant, The Geek Files, Live for Films)

The Lost Symbol
Dan Brown's best-seller "The Lost Symbol" - the third book in his "Da Vinci Code" series - is to be turned into a film by Columbia Pictures.

British writer Steven Knight, whose screenplay for 2002's "Dirty Pretty Things" earned him an Oscar nomination, is to adapt the book, reports Variety.

Tom Hanks is expected to reprise his role as Robert Langdon who, in this latest tale, is summoned to Washington to decode the symbols of the Freemasons.

Even if "Angels & Demons" didn’t hit the same level of financial success that "The Da Vinci Code" did ($486 million and $758 million, respectively), the studio still has high hopes for "The Lost Symbol" movie. Neither Tom Hanks
nor director Ron Howard have signed on to star and direct again, but it’s likely they will after being given a very hefty checks.
(Screen Rant, The Geek Files)

Wanted 2
Mark Millar has been talking about the sequel to one of 2008's surprise hits, "Wanted", based upon his comic miniseries with artist J.G. Jones. The film, staring James McAvoy as Wesley Gibson and Angelina Jolie as Fox, made about $340 million worldwide on a budget of $75 million, making a sequel inevitable. And according to an interview by IGN with Millar, "Wanted 2" may finally be close to going in front of the cameras.

More Wanted 2 Videos

(Screen Rant, MTV News)

Superbowl TV Ads

Some movie TV spots for the Superbowl have been put online early. One is another look at "Shutter Island" while another is a look at Ridley Scott's "Robin Hood." My favorite though is the first glimpse at the action of M. Night Shyamalan’s "The Last Airbender." Dare I say that commercial is filed with epic awsomeness (though I am biased because I love the show).

New 'Robin Hood' Trailer

Another trailer for Ridley Scott's "Robin Hood" has appeared and this one is definitely better than the teaser trailer released last week. More story is given as well as more dialogue, which help sets the dark tone for this film.



"Robin Hood" hits theaters May 14, 2010.
More news to come! Catch ya' later!

'Robin Hood' Teaser Trailer

An international teaser is now online for Ridley Scott's "Robin Hood" starring Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Mark Strong, William Hurt, and Matthew Macfadyen.

Oscar winner Russell Crowe stars as the legendary figure known by generations as "Robin Hood," whose exploits have endured in popular mythology and ignited the imagination of those who share his spirit of adventure and righteousness. In 13th century England, Robin and his band of marauders confront corruption in a local village and lead an uprising against the crown that will forever alter the balance of world power. And whether thief or hero, one man from humble beginnings will become an eternal symbol of freedom for his people.

The film chronicles the life of an expert archer, previously interested only in self-preservation, from his service in King Richard's army against the French. Upon Richard's death, Robin travels to Nottingham, a town suffering from the corruption of a despotic sheriff and crippling taxation, where he falls for the spirited widow Lady Marion (Oscar winner Cate Blanchett), a woman skeptical of the identity and motivations of this crusader from the forest. Hoping to earn the hand of Maid Marion and salvage the village, Robin assembles a gang whose lethal mercenary skills are matched only by its appetite for life. Together, they begin preying on the indulgent upper class to correct injustices under the sheriff.

With their country weakened from decades of war, embattled from the ineffective rule of the new king and vulnerable to insurgencies from within and threats from afar, Robin and his men heed a call to ever greater adventure. This unlikeliest of heroes and his allies set off to protect their country from slipping into bloody civil war and return glory to England once more.



The soundtrack to this reminds me of the rock played during the "Clash of the Titans" teaser trailer. It also appears that director Ridley Scott is taking a darker approach to the Robin Hood tale than the light approaches from directors in the past.

What did you think of the "Robin Hood" teaser trailer?

"Robin Hood" hits theaters May 14, 2010.
More news to come! Catch ya' later!
Sources: Screen Rant, Latino Review

Crowe Gives First 'Robin Hood' Interview

Live News visited the film set of Ridley Scott's "Robin Hood" in Guildford, Surrey, UK, speaking to Russell Crowe and revealing information about the production.

The project had earlier being called "Nottingham" when the screenplay was more revisionist and focused on the Sheriff, depicting him in a more favorable light. When the story was rewritten, the production became "Robin Hood."

This will be the last post having a tag referring to the name of "Nottingham" and any tags now relating to this film will be under "Robin Hood."

"It's unbelievable. We're dealing with a movie of some considerable scale", Crowe said while on a 200-acre rural estate where different areas have been transformed into Sherwood Forest, 11th century Nottingham, a French castle, a man-made bog from which Maid Marian (Cate Blanchett) is rescued by Robin Hood (Crowe), and fields of crops which have been grown exactly as they would have been in that bygone era.

Asked if he could finally nail down the name of the movie, Crowe said: "I think it's just going to be 'Robin Hood.' There were lots of other ways of calling it and some different ideas. Prior to Christmas, the studio were talking about 'Nottingham' as a title being well-known now, having been discussed for 18 months at the highest levels of press and marketing and stuff like that and it was a good - what they called a solid gold - name.

"And the question came up: But is it better than Robin Hood? And everybody just shook their head and said: No, it's not."

Crowe later explained why he felt the name of any movie was vital to its success. He said calling his 2005 film "Cinderella Man" had been an unwise decision because the title had a "certain effeminacy" about it; calling it Braddock (the lead character played by Crowe) would have been much better, he argued.

The actor was speaking just after shooting a scene where, he said, "the evil Sir Godfrey has put all the good people of Nottingham inside the corn exchange, boarded up the doors and set it aflame. We [Robin and his men] are back from a meeting of the northern barons because I think rebellion is in the air, we find this situation and have to chase Sir Godfrey off."

And it is definitely set to be a gritty portrayal of the legendary outlaw. Crowe said the battle scene he had just shot featured him "chopping one guy through the chest through his crossbow, hacking another guy through the back, spinning the horse, telling Little John to duck cos he's about to get a pike in the back of the neck, burying my sword in that man's chest, turning to find another pike man coming at me, taking the pike off him, using that to uppercut another soldier, then actually throwing it through the chest of another guy."

Filming will later move to Pembrokeshire in Wales and is expected to be finished in August. "Robin Hood" is set for release on May 14, 2010.

More news to come! Catch ya' later!
Sources: Dark Horizons, Live News, The Geek Files