Thursday, September 8, 2011 3:07PM - By Damon Houx
After a couple of weeks of super weak titles, Contagion is the first A-lister vehicle in quite some time. You’d think summer would be loaded with them, but you can’t really call The Help or Rise of the Planet of the Apes star vehicles. Then again, look at the business Larry Crowne did. That is to say – very little. Forty years ago, a film like this would be a huge event picture ala The Towering Inferno. Now it’s a borderline art film. So let’s talk box office, shall we?
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Friday, September 2, 2011 1:53PM - By Damon Houx
Summer officially ends this weekend as Labor Day signals that kids are going back to school, and that temperatures will begin dropping. This was a big summer for movies, with Harry Potter 7.2, Transformers 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean 4 making more than a billion dollars worldwide. Much of the big money titles were franchise starters or sequels, but there were a few surprises. Check out the top ten (sorta) list…
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Thursday, August 18, 2011 4:32PM - By Damon Houx
It’s the dog days of summer. This weekend four movies are coming out and – realistically – only one has a shot at taking the top slot. Last weekend saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes hold well enough to fend off The Help, but this weekend it’s more than likely that The Help will take the top slot. Conan the Barbarian, Fright Night, Spy Kids 4, and One Day are all going wide with only One Day not in 3-D. With Final Destination 5 underperforming, and an audience wary of 3-D (in general), we’ve seen studios beg off 3-D for some of their event films, but with international numbers of Pirates of the Carribean 4 propelling the film to an over billion dollar gross, you can’t count out the third dimension just yet.
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Monday, August 15, 2011 9:58AM - By Laura Aguirre
Rise of the Planet of the Apes isn’t giving up easily. The sci-fi thriller clung to the No. 1 spot for a second weekend leaving behind new films like The Help, Final Destination 5 and 30 Minutes of Less. The Tate Taylor 60′s Southern film fell a few million short from Apes, and came in at No. 2 with $25.5 million. Unlike what we predicted, Final Destination 5 was far from the top spot. The horror franchise followed The Help with $18.4 million. The Jesse Eisenberg comedy had a humble opening of $13 million; while Glee The 3D Concert Movie didn’t even break into the top ten. Somethings are just better left on television. Check out the numbers…
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Wednesday, August 10, 2011 1:20PM - By Damon Houx
For the past couple days the lead stories have been America’s market downturn, and the rioting and looting that has been happening in London. Like many more recent national tragedies, the footage recalls the films that try to recreate similar circumstances, and while many celebrities have tweeted about being safe, and concerned for what’s been going on, it’s hard to say how this is going to effect their cinema. Here’s what we know:
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Monday, August 8, 2011 8:12AM - By Laura Aguirre
It was a fairly good weekend, for the Apes though everything came in lower than we predicted. The prequel Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which got surprisingly good reviews (even though it didn’t deserve them) made it through its opening weekend, grossing $54 million. James Franco and company stayed way ahead of all other movies including Universal’s new release The Change-Up. The Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman film had a slow start, grossing only $13.5 million. Finally The Smurfs untied with Cowboys and Aliens, by landing at No. 2 and grossing $21 million (Cowboys and Aliens grossed $15.7 million).
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Friday, August 5, 2011 11:00AM - By Travis Woods
Curious as to whether or not you should plunk down your hard-earned dollars on a movie about James Franco dealing with some peskily sentient and maybe sorta kinda revolutionary apes that might just one day really piss off Charlton Heston? Well, if so, dig our round up of what the critics thought of Rise of the Planet of the Apes below—we’ve laid out a representative of critical pros and cons concerning the new ape flick.
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Thursday, August 4, 2011 5:07PM - By Damon Houx
This weekend James Franco and Andy Serkis hope to defeat Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds for the top slot at the box office. If Bateman and Reynolds look familiar it’s because they’ve both top-lined movies earlier this summer. And they star in The Change Up with Olivia Wilde, who just appeared in Cowboys and Aliens. Emma Stone seems the champ of the summer, with two starring roles in Crazy, Stupid, Love and The Help, along with a cameo in Friends with Benefits, all opening within a month of each other. It’s the end of the movie summer, even if the real summer has a couple of weeks left.
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Friday, June 17, 2011 5:56PM - By Damon Houx
One of the most exciting-looking movies of the summer is Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Though 20th Century Fox hasn’t always treated the franchise with respect – either in the original run or in it’s re-imagined Tim Burton fiasco – but the story is durable because man’s relationship to nature and meddling scientists are an evergreen subject. Now there’s a new teaser for the film starring James Franco, and it plays like gangbusters. Check it out…
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