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Box Office Breakdown: Valentine’s Day Has Rosy Four-Day Weekend

Valentine's Day

Despite receiving less than enthusiastic reviews, Valentine’s Day remained the point of attraction for many romance-minded ticket buyers this weekend. Garry Marshall’s romantic comedy wooed audiences over the holiday period while simultaneously breaking records in the process.

Warner Bros.’ ensemble cast combined their efforts to pull in $63.1 million over the past four days ($56.2 million for just the first three). The feature became the highest-grossing film during any President’s or Valentine’s Day frame while also topping the studio’s list of four-day debuts.

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Box Office Breakdown: Dear John Brings Down Avatar

Amanda Seyfried in Dear John

Dear John—And they didn’t think we could do it. Take that, blue people! XOXO, Savannah

After an exhausting seven weeks at #1, found itself in entirely new territory: sitting back at #2. Although the film had broken nearly every record in the history books (and padded another $22.9 million to its domestic total), the 20th Century Fox feature ended its win streak nine weeks shy of E.T.‘s mark.

Taking the lead from James Cameron was the latest weeper from author Nicholas Sparks. - starring Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried - was the counterprogramming winner during Super Bowl weekend. The romantic drama earned an impressive $30.5 million and came narrowly close to besting the record set during the same sports frame in 2008. (That was when Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour generated $31.1 million.)

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2010 Academy Award Nominations

Academy Award nominations 2010

After the list of nominees were announced this morning, two movies rose to the top of the pack. Avatar and The Hurt Locker - helmed respectively by James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow - both lead the field with nine nominations each. Thankfully, the formerly married directors still get along.

Even though this will be the first time since 1943 (when Casablanca won) that ten films will go up for Best Film, this year’s list only revealed a handful of surprises. Those who have been following other ceremonies during this awards season saw very little changes in the acting categories.

Here are some of the noteworthy mentions/omissions from today’s nominations:

  • Many had hoped The Hangover, Star Trek and/or (500) Days of Summer would go up for Best Picture. Many were left disappointed.
  • Is this the first time Daniel Day-Lewis wasn’t nominated for simply breathing?
  • Acting queen is up now up for her sweet 16th nomination for her role in Julie & Julia. (I believe I will one day see her 20th.)
  • Speaking of leading women, there will be three newcomers going up against vets Streep and (The Last Station): Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side), Carey Mulligan (An Education) and Gabourey Sidibe (Precious)—someone who wasn’t even an actress to begin with!
  • Disney/Pixar’s will be double-dipping it this year. The feature has been nominated in both the Best Film and Best Animated Film categories.

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In Theaters This Weekend (12/18)

Did You Hear About the Morgans?

Here are a few selections in theaters this weekend:

  • Avatar (PG-13): starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver (directed by James Cameron)
  • Did You Hear About the Morgans? (PG-13): starring Hugh Grant, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sam Elliot (directed by Marc Lawrence)
  • Crazy Heart* (R): starring Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Colin Farrell (directed by Scott Cooper)
  • Nine* (PG-13): starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard (directed by Rob Marshall)

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Maggie Gyllenhaal Confused by Paparazzi

Maggie Gyllenhaal with daughter and husbandMaggie Gyllenhaal felt “important” when she was “swarmed” by photographers - before realizing they were looking for Tom Cruise.

The Dark Knight star and husband Peter Sarsgaard are usually able to walk around New York unnoticed so were amazed when “tons” of paparazzi came into a cafe where they were enjoying coffee, only to then be ignored.

“There were a ton of paparazzi in the cafe with their huge cameras and laptops. I was like, ‘Peter, oh my God, they are so into us. They’re swarming us. We are so important.’ It turns out Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise were living on that street. It was the winter, so the photographers would go into the cafe to download their pictures.”

Maggie is currently promoting Crazy Heart, the first movie she worked on after giving birth to daughter Ramona three years ago, and admits she finds it difficult to balance parenthood with her career: “Every night you can’t put your kid to sleep, that’s pretty intense. In my family, that’s a big kind of get-together time - dinner, bath and stories and then bed.”

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Maggie Gyllenhaal Puts Kids On Hold

Maggie Gyllenhaal puts more kids on hold due to her current roleNew mother Maggie Gyllenhaal‘s new movie has put her off having more children.

The Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang actress, who plays a struggling mother in the 2010 comedy, found working with five young co-stars and animals exhausting.

“I’m playing a mom at her wits end—tripping over things, with things falling on my head. That kind of physical comedy is exhausting. Especially working with five kids and sometimes animals.”

The 31-year-old beauty, who has two-year-old daughter Ramona with her husband Peter Sarsgaard, loves being a mother, but admits that it is very different from how she expected.

She told British Marie Claire: “Before my daughter was born, I was all, ‘I’m only going to feed her organic food, I’m only going to give her cloth diapers…’ And then, once you have a real child who is starving on a plane, you give them a bag of potato chips because that’s all there is, and they’re OK and it’s fine.”


Box Office Breakdown: Burn After Reading Smokes Past Competition

Burn After Reading

Around this same time last year, Tyler Perry was beating George Clooney in a battle at the box office. Now the Sexiest Man Alive is having his day.

This past weekend, cineplexes were kept busy with a handful of new releases. Although each film had a chance of reaching #1, - starring Clooney, Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand - emerged as the eventual winner. But the news wasn’t so bad for the other three contenders. Theatergoers clearly starving for fresh material placed all four wide release entries into the chart’s four top slots.

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Variety


Box Office Breakdown: Bangkok Dangerous Tops Dismal Weekend

Bangkok Dangerous

Eek. And I thought a $14 million weekend was bad.

Seven days ago, Tropic Thunder reached the #1 spot despite an unimpressive box office turnout. This week, accomplished that same achievement—with only $7.7 million dollars.

While number crunchers weren’t expecting stellar numbers (kids are back in school, football’s back gone), the underwhelming response to ‘s latest film was a bit surprising. Not only did the film industry have its worst weekend of 2008, Bangkok had the lowest take for any first-placed flick in five years. (Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star topped with $6.6 million in 2003.)

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Variety


Box Office Breakdown: Tropic Thunder Makes It Three for Three

Disaster Movie

At any other time of the year, a $14 million take would probably get you a decent ranking in the Top Ten. This holiday weekend, that box office total was enough to put into first place. Again.

Despite a new Vin Diesel entry, the Ben Stiller comedy led the top of the pack for the third weekend in a row. (If it reaches that mark a fourth time, it will have officially reached Dark Knight territory.) Meanwhile, Babylon A.D. settled for second place with only $11.5 million in ticket sales. I’m guessing the sci fi film’s reviews - in particular, the one from the movie’s own director - might have had something to do with the disappointing turnout.

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Yahoo! Movies


Box Office Breakdown: Tropic Thunder Wins the Death Race

Jason Statham in Death Race

Although it was widely believed that (hunky) Jason Statham would emerge as this weekend’s winner, somehow managed to hold its ground. The comedy, which only raked in $16.2 million during this outing, became the third movie this year to make a repeat appearance at #1. (The other two films were those giant blockbusters called Iron Man and The Dark Knight.)

Overall, this was an unimpressive weekend for films. Theatergoers probably confused (like me) by Joan Allen’s participation only poured $12.6 million of their dollars into . Meanwhile, The House Bunny became this week’s highest-grossing chick alternative (Sorry, Sisterhood!) with its $14.5 million gross.

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Variety


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