Tag: movies

Box Office Predictions: January 31-February 2

It’s very early in the year but this upcoming weekend at the box office is a good candidate for one of the dullest we’ll see all year. The Zac Efron comedy That Awkward Moment and Kate Winslet/Josh Brolin drama Labor Day are the only debuts and neither seems to be garnering much excitement. You can find my individual prediction posts on each here:

https://toddmthatcher.com/2014/01/26/that-awkward-moment-box-office-prediction/

https://toddmthatcher.com/2014/01/26/labor-day-box-office-prediction/

If neither of those titles breaks out above double digits, the chance are high that the Kevin Hart/Ice Cube comedy Ride Along could top the box office for the third week in a row. There is, however, another factor. Disney’s megahit Frozen is expanding its theater count with a sing-along version of the film and that just might cause it to see an increase from this past weekend. I’m predicting it’ll be extremely close between those holdovers for #1 in a weekend sure to overshadowed by a certain football game capturing the nation’s attention.

With that, my predictions for the weekend’s top five:

1. Ride Along

Predicted Gross: $11.3 million (representing a drop of 47%)

2. Frozen

Predicted Gross: $10.7 million (representing an increase of 19%)

3. Labor Day

Predicted Gross: $8.8 million

4. That Awkward Moment

Predicted Gross: $8 million

5. The Nut Job

Predicted Gross: $7.5 million (representing a drop of 36%)

BOX OFFICE RESULTS FROM LAST WEEKEND: I correctly called Ride Along being #1 for its second weekend and it made $21.2 million, just below my $22.7M prediction. However, I was off with my I, Frankenstein estimate. The critically reviled pic bombed badly with only $8.6 million for a sixth place showing. I gave it way too much credit and said it’d be #2 with $16.6M. Oops. Lone Survivor was second with $12.9 million (in line with my $13.6M prediction) and The Nut Job was third with $12.9 million (in line with my $12.1M prediction). Once again, I made the mistake of leaving Frozen out of the top five. It was fourth with $9.1 million. This left Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit at fifth in its second weekend with $9 million – on pace with my $9.5M estimate.

That’s all for now! I’ll have updates on the blog’s Facebook page Saturday with final predictions and results Monday.

This Day in Movie History: January 26

On This Day in Movie History – January 26 – twenty four years ago, Driving Miss Daisy reached number one at the domestic box office. Bruce Beresford’s drama spanning the decades long relationship between an elderly widowed Georgia woman (Jessica Tandy) and her driver (Morgan Freeman) struck a major chord with audiences and grossed $106 million stateside. Additionally, Academy voters would honor it with Best Picture and Actress for Tandy. Interestingly, Daisy would be the rare movie to win the top Oscar prize without its director even being nominated. That wouldn’t occur again for 22 years when Argo won the award with director Ben Affleck not being recognized.

As for birthdays, today would have marked the 89th birthday of Paul Newman. The iconic star was nominated for ten Oscars yet won just once for 1986’s The Color of Money. In that picture, he reprised his role as Fast Eddie Felson that he made famous in 1961’s The Hustler. Among his many notable pictures: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Sweet Bird of Youth, Hud, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, The Towering Inferno, Slap Shot, The Verdict, Nobody’s Fool, Road to Perdition, and Pixar’s Cars. Newman passed away in 2008.

Scott Glenn turns 73 today. The great character actor has appeared in many high-profile pictures working with Robert Altman in Nashville, Francis Ford Coppola in Apocalypse Now, and Oliver Stone in W. He appeared as astronaut Alan Shephard in The Right Stuff and costarred in Urban Cowboy, The Hunt for Red October, The Silence of the Lambs, Backdraft, Courage Under Fire, and the last two features in the Bourne franchise.

As for Six Degrees of Separation between Mr. Newman and Mr. Glenn:

Paul Newman was in Message in a Bottle with Kevin Costner

Kevin Costner was in Silverado with Scott Glenn

And that’s today – January 26 – in Movie History!

Labor Day Box Office Prediction

After it played the film festival circuit last fall it became clear Jason Reitman’s Labor Day was not going to be the awards contender the studio hoped for. Starring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin, the pic generated mostly positive but unspectacular reviews. It was given a late qualifying limited run for Oscar consideration and ignored.

Director Reitman is mostly known for comedic dramas like Juno, Up in the Air, and Young Adult. This one is on the more serious side and Paramount is hoping the romantic plot between its stars will bring females out. Labor Day may follow in the direction of another Winslet drama that the Academy mostly ignored five years ago – Revolutionary Road. That title only managed $22 million domestically in its entire run. And it had Kate’s Titanic costar Leonardo DiCaprio in it.

Labor Day is opening on over half as many screens as Road did so its opening weekend should top the $5 million that it managed. However, passing double digits seems unlikely to me though it should come close.

Labor Day opening weekend prediction: $8.8 million

For my prediction on That Awkward Moment, click here:

https://toddmthatcher.com/2014/01/26/that-awkward-moment-box-office-prediction/

That Awkward Moment Box Office Prediction

And so begins one of the more dull weekends of the year historically at the box office and 2014 seems no different. While moviegoers may catch up on some January leftovers or Oscar hopefuls, audience attention will likely be focused on another activity: the Denver Broncos vs. the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday.

This leaves only two modest openings which aren’t expected to rustle up much business. First off is That Awkward Moment, an R-rated rom com headlined by Zac Efron, Fruitvale Station‘s Michael B. Jordan, and Miles Teller. The film’s marketing campaign has been rather muted and that indicates a dearth of confidence from Focus Features.

That Awkward Moment stands a chance at a double digit premiere, but I think it’ll be lucky to reach the $8.7 million opening that 21&Over (a similarly themed title) reached in March 2013. I think Moment falls just under that.

That Awkward Moment opening weekend prediction: $8 million

For my prediction on Labor Day, click here:

https://toddmthatcher.com/2014/01/26/labor-day-box-office-prediction/

This Day in Movie History: January 25

Six years ago Today in Movie History – January 25 – Sylvester Stallone returned to one of his most iconic roles in Rambo, the fourth installment of the franchise which came 20 years after the third. Directed by it star, Rambo opened to #2 at the box office with a solid $18.2 million on its way to a domestic take of $42 million. We haven’t seen Sly in the role since but he did start yet another successful franchise afterwards with The Expendables.

As for birthdays, Dean Jones is 83 today. He’s best known for starring in a number of Disney live-action features in the 1960s and 1970s including That Darn Cat!, The Love Bug, and The Shaggy D.A. In more recent years, Jones was seen in Beethoven and alongside Harrison Ford in Clear and Present Danger.

Director Tobe Hooper is 71 on this day. He made a major impact in the horror genre directing the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 1974. The director would return to direct 1986’s sequel. Hooper would have another huge hit in 1982 with Poltergeist.

As for Six Degrees of Separation between Mr. Jones and Mr. Hooper:

Dean Jones was in Clear and Present Danger with Harrison Ford

Harrison Ford was in Anchorman 2 with Will Ferrell

Will Ferrell was in Blades of Glory with Craig T. Nelson

Craig T. Nelson was directed by Tobe Hooper in Poltergeist

And that’s today – January 25 – in Movie History!

This Day in Movie History: January 24

28 years ago Today in Movie History – January 24 – Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple would rise to #1 at the box office. At the time, Spielberg was really only known for popcorn blockbusters like Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and E.T. and Purple would be classified as his first “serious” picture. Focusing on the plight of African-Americans in the U.S. during the early 20th century, Purple starred Danny Glover, Margaret Avery, Oprah Winfrey, Rae Dawn Chong, and Whoopi Goldberg in her first film role. It would be a rousing box office success with a domestic tally of $98 million. Purple earned 11 Oscar nominations yet won none of them. Based originally on a novel by Alice Walker, it would later be made into a Broadway play.

As for birthdays, John Belushi would’ve turned 65 years old today. One of the original cast members of “Saturday Night Live”, Belushi would make a huge splash in film as Bluto in the iconic comedy National Lampoon’s Animal House. Two years later, further success would follow with The Blues Brothers. Other film roles: Goin South, 1941, Neighbors, and Continental Divide. Dan Aykroyd wrote the role of Dr. Venkman in Ghostbusters for Belushi, but the star would die in 1982 from a drug overdose.

Ed Helms is 40 today. Known to many for his supporting role on TV’s “The Office”, Helms found box office success in The Hangover trilogy. Other notable roles include Cedar Rapids, Jeff, Who Lives At Home and We’re the Millers. Helms is currently attached to headline a reboot of the Vacation franchise.

As for Six Degrees of Separation between them:

John Belushi was in The Blues Brothers with Dan Aykroyd

Dan Aykroyd was in Trading Places with Eddie Murphy

Eddie Murphy was in Meet Dave with Ed Helms

And that’s today – January 24 – in Movie History!

This Day in Movie History: January 23

10 years ago today in Movie History – January 23 – Ashton Kutcher headlined the sci-fi thriller The Butterfly Effect to surprisingly robust box office results. Claiming the top spot in its opening weekend, Effect took in $17 million on its way to a $57 million domestic run. Kutcher would go onto other successful pictures including Guess Who, What Happens in Vegas, and No Strings Attached before settling back to TV replacing Charlie Sheen on “Two and a Half Men”. The pic would spawn two direct to DVD sequels without Mr. Kutcher’s participation.

As for birthdays, martial arts legend Sonny Chiba is 75 today. His big breakthrough came in 1974 with The Street Fighter and he would star in many genre pics. He came out of retirement in 2003 via Quentin Tarantino costarring as sword maker Hanzo Hattori in Kill Bill: Volume 1.

Rutger Hauer is 70 today. He’s been perhaps best known as the villain from Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. Hauer has many high-profile films to his credit including Nighthawks, The Hitcher, Ladyhawke, Sin City, and Batman Begins.

The two birthday performers have an interesting distinction in common: they are both mentioned in Quentin Tarantino screenplays. Chiba is talked about extensively by Christian Slater’s character in True Romance while Samuel L. Jackson name checks Hauer in Jackie Brown.

As for Six Degrees of Separation between Mr. Chiba and Mr. Hauer:

Sonny Chiba was in Kill Bill: Volume 1 with Uma Thurman

Uma Thurman was in Pulp Fiction with Bruce Willis

Bruce Willis was in Sin City with Rutger Hauer

And that’s today – January 23 – in Movie History!

This Day in Movie History: January 22

32 years ago Today in Movie History – January 22 – On Golden Pond opened wide in theaters on its way to a number of Oscars. It had a limited opening in late 1981 to qualify for Oscar consideration. Pond would be the final film role for legendary actor Henry Fonda and he would win Best Actor for the part. Too sick to accept the award, his daughter and costar Jane spoke for him. Fonda would die just months later. His counterpart in the picture, Katherine Hepburn, would win her fourth Oscar as Best Actress – setting a record that’s yet to be surpassed. Pond would earn a fantastic $119 million domestically and ranked as the second top grosser of 1981 behind Raiders of the Lost Ark.

As for birthdays, two actresses known primarily for their roles in classic horror flicks celebrate today. Piper Laurie is 84. She received an Oscar nomination as the title character’s crazy mother in 1976’s Carrie. She had been nominated 15 years prior as Paul Newman’s girlfriend in the classic The Hustler. Laurie received a third nomination in 1986 for Children of a Lesser God.

And Linda Blair is 55 today. She received an Oscar nomination in 1973 as demonic child Regan in The Exorcist, perhaps the greatest horror title of all time. She would also appear in Airport 1975 and reprise her famous role in the 1977 Exorcist sequel. In more recent history, she had a cameo role in 1996’s Scream.

As for Six Degrees of Separation between the scream queens:

Piper Laurie was in Carrie with John Travolta

John Travolta was in Face/Off with Nicolas Cage

Nicolas Cage was in The Wicker Man with Ellen Burstyn

Ellen Burstyn was in The Exorcist with Linda Blair

And that’s today – January 22 – in Movie History!

This Day in Movie History: January 21

Rapper turned actor/director Ice Cube currently has the #1 film in America with Ride Along, which set the all-time record opening for the month of January over the weekend. He also held the top spot nine years ago Today in Movie History – January 21 – with Are There We There Yet?, which turned the once controversial gangsta rapper into a family friendly movie star. Opening to $18.5 million, the pic ended up with a domestic haul of $82 million. A sequel in 2007, Are We Done Yet?, would follow as would a TV series that began in 2010 and is still airing.

As for birthdays, actor Telly Savalas would have turned 92 today. An Oscar nominee for Supporting Actor in 1962’s Birdman of Alcatraz, Savalas would go onto huge TV stardom with the 1970s crime series “Kojak”. Other notable film appearances include The Dirty Dozen, as Bond villain Blofeld in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and alongside Clint Eastwood in Kelly’s Heroes. Mr. Savalas passed away in 1994.

Geena Davis is 58 today. She won a Supporting Actress Oscar for 1988’s The Accidental Tourist. Her debut was in 1982’s smash hit Tootsie. Davis would turn into one of the more high-profile actresses in the 80s and 90s with pictures such as The Fly, Beetlejuice, Earth Girls Are Easy, Thelma&Louise, A League of their Own, and The Long Kiss Goodnight.

As for Six Degrees of Separation between Mr. Savalas and Ms. Davis:

Telly Savalas was in Kelly’s Heroes with Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood was in Unforgiven with Morgan Freeman

Morgan Freeman was in Outbreak with Dustin Hoffman

Dustin Hoffman was in Tootsie with Geena Davis

And that’s today – January 21 – in Movie History!

Arbitrage Movie Review

What if a Gordon Gekko type figure was in the midst of the largest financial deal of his career and then goes and gets his mistress killed? This is the central concept of Nicholas Jarecki’s Arbitrage, which boasts an impressive performance from Richard Gere and its fair share of flaws.

Gere is Wall Street hedge fund tycoon Robert Miller and the picture opens with him celebrating his 60th birthday with his wife (Susan Sarandon) and family. He’s got a girl on the side too (Laetitia Casta) and it’s this relationship that comes into focus when he dozes off driving with her. They crash – he lives, she dies. Miller is forced to immediately decide whether the incident will jeopardize the impending sale of his company that’s worth hundreds of millions. He enlists Jimmy Grant (Nate Parker), a young man with a criminal past whose father served as Miller’s driver for many years to help. Jimmy picks him up from the scene of the accident before the police arrive and becomes an accomplice to the cover-up.

It is Jimmy who the police focus on, led by Detective Bryer (Tim Roth, overacting a bit) and this leads to Miller having to choose how the situation plays out. While his actions were accidental, some of Miller’s handlings of his company’s finances turn out to be downright illegal which strains his relationship with daughter (Brit Marling), who serves as CFO for the fund. We go back and forth as Miller tries to be one step ahead in his personal and financial problems. In essence, he looks at managing the accident cover-up just as he would managing an investment deal – carefully and often coldly.

Arbitrage opened in 2012 to mostly rave reviews, especially for Gere. He deserves a lot of that credit. Over the past few years, Gere has turned in one solid performance after another. The role of Miller is similar in some ways to the character he played in Unfaithful. Or at least those characters find themselves in similar storylines. Gere gives this part his all and it’s because of him that Arbitrage is often involving and interesting.

That being said, I was underwhelmed by the picture as a whole. The relationship between Miller and Jimmy is central to the story and yet it feels curiously underwritten. While Nate Parker shows promise in the role, the underdeveloped nature of his connection to Miller begs for more fleshing out. Sarandon is saddled with a fairly one-note role as the wife who may know more than her husband figures. And as mentioned before, Tim Roth hams it up a bit much as the detective determined to see the filthy rich boy fall.

We gets scenes that show Miller’s mastery of negotiation and it gives Gere a chance to shine – even if the scenes themselves feel familiar. For a movie about multi-million dollar investments, I had a hard time investing myself in the storyline.

**1/2 (out of four)