Box Office: Russell Brand Stays on Top

Posted by K.C. Morgan Categories: FOCUS, Sony, Universal, Warner Bros, Action, Adaptation, Adventure, Animation, Biopics, Family, Horror, Remakes, Comedy, Box Office, New Releases,

UPDATE: Final numbers prove Sunday estimates were wrong. Get the updated -- and accurate -- box office results below.

Even Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman can’t compete with family-friendly Easter-themed animation. Hop has retained its number one box office position, and Portman’s lowbrow comedy flick suffered a dismal opening weekend.

Hop, which cost around $63 million to make, has already earned a cool $68.2 million from box office revenue ($21.7 million this weekend). Thanks to his new comedy flick, Russell Brand is in the top two positions on the box office list for the weekend. Arthur earned $12.6 million to gain the second top slot. His voice is behind the leading bunny in Hop, and Brand plays the title character in the number 2 flick.

Action flick Hanna just barely got pushed into third, earning $12.3 million in its opening weekend. Soul Surfer scored $11.1 million to lock down a fourth place opening. Insidious is still on the top five list (barely) with $9.7 million. Natalie Portman, James Franco and Danny McBride proved to be a dismal box office combination, earning a combined $9.5 with Your Highness to land in sixth place.

UPDATED: Hanna actually earned second place at the box office with $12.4 million. Arthur slid into third place with its $12.2 million box office take.

Read More | Entertainment Weekly

Box Office: Animated Flick Gets Filmgoers Hopping

Posted by K.C. Morgan Categories: 20th Century Fox, Universal, Action, Animation, Drama, Family, Horror, Comedy, Box Office, New Releases,

Box office figures have been down lately (so much so that some have been predicting a filmmaking apocalypse), but one newcomer hopped into the top slot with this weekend’s opening. The animated film Hop managed to score the biggest opening weekend of the year, earning $38.1 million.

The Jake Gyllenhaal-led, big-budget action flick Source Code, which cost an estimated $32 million make, earned a modest second place with $15.1 million. Horror flick Insidious enjoyed a huge return on its $1.5 million budget, scoring third place and $13.5 million at the box office. Diary of a Wimpy Kid fell all the way to fourth to earn $10.2 million, and Limitless is hanging on at first place ($9.4 million).

Read More | E! Online

Cinema Scene: Kim Cattrall Gains Weight, 50 Cent Loses Tattoos

Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: New Line, Warner Bros, Horror, Independent, Romance, Sequels, Comedy, Casting, Celeb News, Celebrity Gossip, Filmmaking,

-Kim Cattrall said she had to gain 15 pounds to play a washed-up prostitute in Meet Monica Velour. Great - now 115 pounds is the new “washed-up” point.

-Speaking of Cattrall, advance tickets to Sex and the City 2 have already been selling like hotcakes. That movie doesn’t even open until May 27!

-Afraid True Blood‘s June 13th return won’t have enough “action” for you? Then maybe you should be checking out Tru: A XXX Parody. (The hilarious clip’s got language, no nudity.)

-Lindsay Lohan was cut from The Other Side because financiers didn’t deem her to be “bankable.” But did they take into account how cheap she probably is?

-50 Cent is working hard to get less noticed. The rapper/actor has started removing his tattoos to help his growing film career. What? Men don’t like makeup?

New Moon Sells Out Record-Breaking 63 Shows

Posted by Robin Paulson Categories: Action, Adaptation, Drama, Romance, Thrillers, Box Office, Upcoming Releases,

Online ticketing sites Fandango and MovieTickets are not wasting any time when it comes to jumping on the sequel to Twilight—the fans have made it quite worth it.

Marking the record for selling out screenings earlier than any other film, fans of New Moon have gobbled up 63 shows!

While one may point out that ticket sales have been offered earlier than most for the film, James Cameron’s highly-anticipated Avatar had tickets selling earlier than New Moon and has not yet sold out a show.

Fear not, frantic Twihards—Fandango and MovieTickets are selling a total of 24,912 shows (that leaves you 24,849). The film hits theaters on November 20.

Read More | LA Times

IMAX Tickets for Avatar Already on Sale

Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: 20th Century Fox, Action, Adventure, Science Fiction, Thrillers, Upcoming Releases,

It’s never too early to start buying Christmas presents…or ordering movie tickets.

Avatar is not even scheduled to open for another four months, but those eager to get good seats can guarantee their spots now. AMC has already begun selling tickets to midnight showings at 75 theaters. Most of those locations are IMAX venues.

James Cameron’s 3D sci-fi entry received good worth of mouth after an extended preview on IMAX screens last week. (You can view a teaser trailer here.) It was this overwhelming interest that prompted the theater chain to begin advance purchases.

“They said that if all these people are going to come to our theater to see 16 minutes of a film that doesn’t open until December, let’s give them an opportunity to buy tickets to the first performances of the show itself,” Chris Aronson, Fox’s Senior VP of Distribution, said.

Since the film’s running time hasn’t been confirmed, only midnight viewings are available at this time. Avatar opens on December 18.

Read More | Hollywood Reporter

Friday Showings for Twilight Fill Up

Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: Adaptation, Drama, Thrillers, Box Office,

If you’re hoping to catch a showing of Twilight this Friday, it might not hurt to check ahead. Even though Thanksgiving is still over a week away, many are planning to start their holiday early.

As of Monday night, ticket agencies were already reporting a number of sellouts for opening day. Of the 700 sold out showings via Fandango, 500 were for midnight screenings. (Will this mean a spike in school absences at the end of this week?) Meanwhile, MovieTickets had registered 400 sold out showings for times throughout the day.

Click to continue reading Friday Showings for Twilight Fill Up

Read More | Hollywood Reporter

Vin Diesel and Paul Walker to return for The Fast and the Furious 4?

Posted by K.C. Morgan Categories: Action, Sequels, Box Office, Casting, Celeb News, Upcoming Releases,

Well, audiences waited long enough (through two sequels), and now The Fast and the Furious franchise will reward the faithful with an installment several years in the making. That’s right: Vin Diesel and Paul Walker will finally reunite and reprise their original Fast roles. Maybe. The two are in talks to reprise their roles as Dominic Toretto and Brian O’Conner, which launched Vin Diesel as a major action star and helped the movie gross more than $200 million worldwide. Walker appeared in 2 Fast 2 Furious, which out-grossed the original, though Diesel could not be swayed from his other movie engagements at the time. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, the third installation in the movie series, featured Diesel only briefly and Walker not at all. The fourth movie will feature more cars, more dirty deals, and hopefully more ticket sales than the third (which nearly grossed $160 million but was considered disappointing to Fast fans). The film, yet to be titled, will begin shooting in LA, Mexico and the Dominican Republic next spring. Diesel and Walker are both currently tied to unrelated movie projects, and neither has confirmed accepting a role in the fourth Fast flick.

Read More | E! Online

Zombie’s Not-So-Hollow Remake

Posted by K.C. Morgan Categories: MGM, Horror, Box Office, New Releases,

I’m not a fan of remakes. Being a big advocate of the “create your own——script” philosophy, I turned my nose up when I heard Rob Zombie was re-making Halloween, the movie that launched the career of Jamie Lee Curtis and frightened little child on a night made for scares. But the movie made a whopping $26.5 million in US and Canadian ticket sales over the weekend, and MGM couldn’t be happier. The new version of the 1978 horror classic broke the 2005 Memorial weekend record previously set by Transporter 2. The movie is being touted not as a remake, but as Rob Zombie’s personal version of the story – as if Jamie Lee’s version never existed in the first place. Gar. Wrap it up all you want – you do the same story, you’re doing a remake. But, at least, the second time around has been successful.

Read More | LA Times