12/02/10

Opening This Weekend: With both the Potter flick and Tangled having just opened, none of the studios have anything too big coming out this week. In fact, only director Sngmoo Lee’s Warrior’s Way, staring Kate Bosworth and Geoffrey Rush, opens wide this week, playing in 1,500 theaters across the U.S. - about 1,425 more theaters than anything else opening this weekend. Looks like a dud. Darren Aronofsky’s latest, Black Swan, will begin to test, playing in a handful of big cities across the country (19 total screens, to be exact). Swan has been our pick for movie of the year since we first saw the film’s details and watched the amazing trailer. Should be pretty damn great. Also beginning to test are All Good Things (which has been available on iTunes for about a month already), I Love You, Phillip Morris, Dead Awake, documentary Bhutto, Meskada and Night Catches Us. Also, Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours should finally see a decent expansion, as should the much-buzzed-about The King’s Speech, Doug Liman’s Fair Game and Nowhere Boy (which played at the Huntington Theater for seven quiet days a few weeks ago, believe it or not). Hopefully a couple of those movies will make their way to town sooner than later.  

ScreenRant: On that note, rather than rant this week, we figured we’d take to talk about some of the more exciting indie films from 2010 that may or may not ever make it to Fort Wayne screens. First and foremost is Tiny Furniture, the debut Woody Allen-inspired dramedy from Judd Apatow protégé Lena Dunham, who also stars in the movie. The movie looks like a mixture of Juno and Miranda July’s excellent Me and You and Everyone We Know; check out the trailer for this SXSW Film Fest “Best First Feature” winner for some solid laffs and a bit of style. French director Claire Denis’ (35 Shots of Rum) new film, White Material, staring the always incredible Isabelle Huppert is looking like a very great film and most likely a “Best Foreign Film” Oscar candidate. The critics rave loudly for both Denis and Huppert, always, as they should. Olivier Assayas’ Carlos, originally a 5 ½ hour TV series in France, is seeing a lot of love from critics and cinephiles alike while Yorgos Lanthimos’ second feature, Dogtooth, is getting called “the best film of 2010” by a number of ScreenTime’s most trusted film snob writers. Others we’re looking forward to in a big way: Zhang Yimou’s A Woman, A Gun and a Noodle Shop (a rethinking of the Coen Brothers’ Blood Simple); Todd Solondz’ Life During Wartime; Catherine Breillat’s Bluebeard; Noe’s Enter the Void; and Damien Chazelle’s musical-meets-French New Wave debut Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench (which we’re very excited about!). Oh, and last but not least, we at the ScreenTime offices recently saw Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop and found it to be not just one of the best movies of 2010, but one of the best documentary films we’ve ever set eyes on. An amazing film, for sure, and available for rent now on iTunes for less than the cost of a single movie ticket!

Tops at the Box: Not surprisingly, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pt. 1 took the No. 1 spot for a second straight week, edging out the hairy competition by less than a million in sales, bringing in another $50 million over its second week. With a 10-day total of over $220 million in the U.S. and over $610 million worldwide (!!!), Pt. 1 stands a chance to be the top grossing Potter flick yet, keeping the series a major success and further building anticipation for the conclusion, next summer’s Deathly Hallows, Pt. 2. As far as wintertime blockbusters go, Pt. 1 is one heck of a flick, especially if you’re a fan of the other films (or, ya know, the books).

More From the Box: Animated fairytale Tangled took the No. 2 spot last weekend, bringing in about $49 million over its first thee days in the U.S. and another $20 million during its two early holiday release days. Thus far the very well reviewed film has already made great strides towards topping its budget, bringing in over $82 million worldwide in just five days. That other well reviewed animated film currently in theaters, Megamind, continues to roll, taking last weekend’s No. 3 spot with another $13 million towards its so-far gross of $130 million in the U.S. and $162 million worldwide. Burlesque, staring Cher and Christina Aguilera, opened soft, bringing in a disappointing $17 million over its first three days. Looks awful, so we at ScreenTime don’t mind the weak opening numbers. Rounding out the Top 5 at last week’s five spot was the Tony Scott-directed action flick Unstoppable, bringing in just under $12 million during its third weekend, bringing its 17-day total to over $60 million. We hear it’s a pretty tight little action flick with lots of solid moments. We’ll see about that.

New to Home Video: Not much, really. Okay, we’re lying; there’s not much, aside from two of the year’s biggest films. Christopher Nolan’s Inception and Shrek Forever After will lead the charge on Tuesday, December 7, while most of the studios prepare for all their upcoming Christmas season releases. So yes, we should have much more coming soon as far as December DVD and Blu-ray releases are concerned.