Oscar Week

We are finally here. This Sunday night, March 7th, is the big night: Oscar Night. I for one am extremely excited for the Oscars. I think it’s the best of the entertainment award shows probably due to the magnitude of what is on the line. The past couple years might have been a little dull in terms of the show itself, but I am extremely excited nonetheless. I guess the media does a good job at promoting the show.

The Oscar’s is where history is made and trivia questions are created. My friends and I often try to list backwards the past 10 best actors, 10 best pictures etc. You guys know what I mean. We all have those great trivia questions to see who knows the most useless movie knowledge. For example, can you name the 5 best picture films since 1985 that start with the word “The.” No cheating.

Anyways, this year we have some interesting battles. The first, the battle of the ex’s. Kathryn vs Cameron – former husband and wife go head-to-head for best director. Cameron got the Globe but the Bigelow got the DGA. What will the Academy have to say?

The other big matchup involves the same movies. The Hurt Locker takes on Avatar as a real-life war movie takes on a fantasy war movie. Again, both movies have received awards during the season, so it is still a toss up. I think the Academy will lean towards the Hurt Locker here, but we shall see.

Then we have plenty of locks. Waltz is a lock for Best Supporting Actor for Inglorious, Bridges is a lock for Best Actor for Crazy Heart, Mo’Nique seems to be a heavy favorite for Best Supporting Actress, and Bullock is a lock for Best Actress. Also, UP is a complete lock for Best Animated Feature.

The media build up is all for this Sunday night. The big show is upon us. It should be one hell of a night.

Will you be watching this Sunday?

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Comments : 2 Comments | Category : Oscars, Rants | Tags : Avatar,Oscars,The Hurt Locker

Live Streaming Movie Premieres Allow Fans to Walk the Red Carpet

Posted by Craig Kessler on February 26, 2010 at 2:30 am

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Hollywood studios are always looking for the next place to reach out to in order to gain awareness for their movies. Movies not only rely on reviews, but word of mouth buzz to gain traction which could lead to ticket sales for their movies. With social media, the doors are more open than ever for studios to become creative with online strategy to attract fans and help spread the word about their movies. The potential reach is limitless, and now studios are beginning online campaigns months prior to the release of a movie.

Alice in Wonderland the upcoming 3D blockbuster starring Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, and directed by the amazing and quirky Tim Burton comes out next Friday on March 5^th. Disney has spent months pushing this movie online and engaging fans with their Alice and Wonderland Facebook Fan Page and more. Recently they just had their movie premiere in London on February 25^th and live streamed the event to the world.

A few movies like Avatar have used live streaming techniques with their promotions, and this method which currently can be seen as a trend, will slowly become the standard. Live streaming a premiere is a great way for a movie studio to give a fan a personal front and center red carpet experience right from their home computer. It allows fans the opportunity to be part of the major event and see their favorite actors and actresses live, really making them fully part of the event. While watching the premiere through the Alice and Wonderland Facebook Page, fans also had the opportunity to connect in real time with other fans about the live events going on, making this a special and interactive event.

This strategy is a great way for studios to allow fans access which will only help spread the viral buzz for the movie, and likely lead to increased sales. Expect to see this become the norm for all big movie releases in the future.

Comments : Post a Comment | Category : Movie Marketing | Tags : Alice and Wonderland,Avatar,Facebook

2/16/10 Box Office Results: Lots of Love for ‘Valentine’s Day’

Posted by Nick Ondras on February 15, 2010 at 10:42 pm

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This President’s Day weekend (as well as the Valentine’s Day break) was the highest-grossing on record, people spending an estimated $238 million at the movies. Leading the pack was Garry Marshall’s Valentine’s Day, opening with $66.9 million over the four-day vacation. Promising a star-studded fiasco of celebrities such as Julia Roberts and Ashton Kutcher, it’s really no wonder the pic did so well. It also benefitted from Sunday being Valentine’s Day, couples in the mood for a good romancer. Critics weren’t, though. The interchanging love story earned itself a rotten 16% score on poll site Rotten Tomatoes. Could Valentine’s Day stay on top next weekend? I doubt it. Holiday-themed flicks like this usually start with a bang and broodingly end quickly.

Next up at #2 was Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, the first of a five-part series of children’s fantasy novels. Chris Columbus’s two-hour action/adventure about a boy who discovers his father is Poseidon raked in $38.8 million. Impressive, but due to poor reviews (49% on Rotten Tomatoes) I don’t think David Yates and the Harry Potter franchise have too much to worry about.

Joe Johnston’s awaited The Wolfman began with $36.5 million over the duel holiday weekend. Johnston has had trouble with his horror reboot about a man in Victorian England who finds himself transforming into a strange beast under moonlight after being bitten by a werewolf, having The Wolfman’s release date pushed back several times. It looks like we may be seeing a bit more of Benicio del Toro and Emily Blunt in the box office in the coming weeks, as I believe this out of the other two debuts this past weekend has the strongest staying power. James Cameron’s sci-fi epic Avatar continues to do amazingly well, grossing $30 million over these past four days with a grand cume of well over $600 million domestic and over $2 billion worldwide.

Dear John rounds us out with an estimated $18.8 million in fifth place. Another film that profited from Valentine’s Day crowds, but still dropping four spots from last weekend.

Out of the top five-

Post 9/11 drama My Name is Khan opened with $1.9 million on 120 screens.
Grisly documentary October Country debuted with $7,000 on one screen.

Here are the box office results according to studio estimates Sunday-

1. Valentine’s Day…$66.9 million
2. Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief…$38.8 million
3. The Wolfman…$36.5 million
4. Avatar…$30 million
5. Dear John…$18.8 million
6. Tooth Fairy…7.7 million
7. From Paris With Love…$6.8 million
8. Edge of Darkness…$5.7 million
9. Crazy Heart…$5 million
10. When in Rome…$4.2 million

Comments : Post a Comment | Category : Box Office | Tags : Avatar,Box Office,Percy Jackson,Valentine's Day,Wolfman

Oscar Movies – Best Picture Run Down

Posted by Matt Rosenberg on February 8, 2010 at 12:30 am

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The month of February is commonly considered a dark period for movies. Nick mentioned that it is the graveyard for film. New releases are basically overshadowed by the award season. In fact, Oscar nominated films get a distribution boost in February in order to milk the buzz they get from the nomination.

So, we know that you are not going to hit up the theaters for new releases. Instead, we know that you all are going to try to catch up on the Oscar movies that you didn’t get to see the first time around. Get this, “An Education” went from 100 theaters before being nominated for the award, to over 700 after receiving the nod for Best Picture. However, Summit’s “The Hurt Locker” was sent to DVD, which went from being in theaters to being completely removed. Theaters will not show movies that get sent to DVD FYI. So, Summitt messed up.

As we are in the Oscar season, there is trophy talk everywhere. We have a year where 10 films got nominated and lots of movie hooplah to go through. Since we know you all are trying to play Oscar catch up, we wanted to help you out. Here are the 10 films nominated for Best Picture and our review for each one.

1. The Hurt Locker

2. Avatar

3. Up in the Air

4. Precious

5. Inglorious Basterds

6. The Blind Side

7. District 9

8. An Education

9. UP

10. A Serious Man

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Comments : Post a Comment | Category : Movie Reviews, Oscars | Tags : A Serious Man,An Education,Avatar,District 9,Inglorious Basterds,Precious,The Blind Side,The Hurt Locker,UP,Up In The Air

2/07/10 Box Office Results: ‘Dear John’ Trumps Cameron, Award-Centrics Get Their Due

Posted by Nick Ondras on February 7, 2010 at 10:29 pm

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Oscar season is among us, and like I previously mentioned people are finally giving the nominations a chance. However, if you didn’t see any of them odds are you saw Dear John, the latest adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel. It knocked Avatar off its seven-weekend #1 spot to debut in primary with $32.4 million. The romantic drama starring Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried as a couple who communicate with each other through letters trumped Nights in Rodanthe’s opening weekend of $13.4 million, the last book-turned-movie of Sparks. It also topped The Notebook’s bow of $13.5 million in 2004.

Not so far away from Dear John, James Cameron’s Avatar took a 24.6% dive to second place with $23.6 million. Its domestic total last week finally beat Titanic’s lifetime of $600.8 million with a massive $630.1 million cumulative. The next film from Taken director Pierre Morel From Paris With Love opened with $8.1 million. The action/thriller starring John Travolta may have suffered from the fact that its targeted audience of men was too busy preparing for Sunday’s Super Bowl game, with no time to go to the movies.

In fourth place, Martin Campbell’s Edge of Darkness fell a steep 59.3% from first place with $7 million. The revenge thriller’s total is up to $29.1 million in ten days, trying to make back an $80 million budget. Tooth Fairy finishes us up at #5 with $6.5 million, falling 35% from last weekend. The Dwayne Johnson-starrer has a grand sum of $34.3 million in three weeks.

Out of the top five-

Like I said, the Oscar baits are finally getting the cash they rightfully deserve. Scott Cooper’s Crazy Heart, starring a likely win Jeff Bridges, increased 58.1% over football weekend and entered the top ten, expanding onto 580 more screens. The country-western weeper has a total of $11.2 million.
It was funny seeing Lone Scherfig’s An Education came back to the marquees in Connecticut this weekend. The coming-of-age flick, with best actress nominee Carey Mulligan (deserving a win), found its weekend total go up 668% as it amplified an extra 686 screens. The two-day expedition total: a healthy $915,000. Its complete epitome: $9.8 million.
Tom Ford’s A Single Man was playing on another 137 more screens, resulting in a weekend total of $631,000, a 14.1% increase from last weekend.
Michael Hoffman’s Leo Tolstoy biopic The Last Station came onto 42 more screens and inherited $371,000, 337.8% more than its last check-in.
Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon entered four more theaters and came out with $132,000, a 12.9% increase.
IFC’s Red Riding Trilogy, three films from author David Peace following an English serial killer in the ‘70s and ‘80s, debuted with $15,500 on one screen.
Henrik Ruben Genz’s drama Terribly Happy, about a relocated cop after a mental disruption, managed $13,000 on one screen.
Meanwhile, The Hurt Locker was sent to DVD by Summitt, which removed it from theaters. Summit, revenue wise, messed up.

Here are the box office results according to studio estimates Sunday-

1. Dear John…$32.4 million
2. Avatar…$23.6 million
3. From Paris With Love…$8.1 million
4. Edge of Darkness…$7 million
5. Tooth Fairy…$6.5 million
6. When in Rome…$5.5 million
7. The Book of Eli…$4.8 million
8. Crazy Heart…$3.7 million
9. Legion (2010)…$3.4 million
10. Sherlock Holmes…$2.6 million

Comments : Post a Comment | Category : Box Office | Tags : Avatar,Box Office,Crazy Heart,Dear John,From Paris With Love

Avatar Will Win Best Picture Because of Patrick Ewing

Posted by Craig Kessler on February 5, 2010 at 2:30 am

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Patrick Ewing entered the 1985 draft as the best player in the country. this also happened to be the first year that the NBA turned to their new ping pong ball style way to determine the order for the draft. Sure enough out of nowhere, the New York Knicks, a struggling team, ended up with the #1 overall pick and selected Patrick Ewing who went on to have a Hall of Fame career with the Knicks. A lot of people thought that in 1985 that there was a conspiracy behind the fact that the biggest market “somehow” got the #1 pick in order to select Ewing.

Now it’s 2010 and Oscar season. This was a very weak year of movies, so the Academy decided as a way to create more buzz to extend the Best Picture category to 10 nominees. This isn’t out of left field being at times in the 20’s and 30’s there were years that had up to 12 nominees. But suffice it to say, there are more movies that although may be fun and entertaining, have no shot at winning.

So how does Patrick Ewing and Avatar have some sort of weird connection?

With a long running time for the Oscars, poor movies, the rise of MTV, and a viewership that cares more about the red carpet than the actual event, the Oscars have been hurting over the past few years with ratings. They have looked at ways to get the audience and generation Y demographic more interested, and even with hosts like Chris rock and Jon Stewart, they still failed.

I think The Hurt Locker should win the award for Best Picture. This little war movie that came out of nowhere has made a big push and has grown a huge following. The unique perspective of the war following a bomb squad in Iraq and the psychological repercussions they have unfortunately won’t win.

Avatar will win Best Picture.

It shouldn’t. Many believe it shouldn’t have been nominated, that it’s not an Oscar movie. Although it has unbelievable visuals and is an extremely fun and exciting movie, is it really in the realm of a Best Picture movie? Many think that if Avatar got a nomination, how come Star Trek got snubbed?

Because the Academy is going to use Avatar the same way the NBA, David Stern, and the NY Knicks used Patrick Ewing.

Avatar will win the Oscar to bring more buzz and controversy which will raise ratings for the show in future years, the way Patrick Ewing brought more attention and fans to the NY Knicks. Just the fact that it’s in the running, there have already have been tons of articles written about this, and more to follow. If it wins, this will be controversial, many believing it will be part of a conspiracy. Following the Oscars, articles, videos, and more will be posted on the internet, shared on multiple social networks and through email and will garner tons of PR. The Academy and Hollywood will benefit from all the buzz with increased DVD sales, and will lead to higher ratings for next years Oscars show. Because once they get away with this, they will certainly add another movie next year which will cause some sort of controversy, maybe even people will start calling it the “Avatar” affect. We may be having another conspiracy on our hand.

Do you think Avatar deserves to win Best Picture? Do you think it may be considered a conspiracy if it does?

Comments : Post a Comment | Category : Oscars, Rants | Tags : Avatar,Best Picture,Oscars,Rants

1/30/10 Box Office Results: No January Competition for Cameron

Posted by Nick Ondras on January 31, 2010 at 6:42 pm

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Seventh weekend. Avatar is #1 again. After covering this the past seven weeks, I have not much more to say other than James Cameron’s head must be enormous. It’s now the highest-grossing film worldwide, and according to Fox its domestic sum of $594.5 million will overtake Titanic’s $600.8 million haul by midweek. Buzz now is that it’s possibly going to win the Oscar for best picture; however I still believe that The Hurt Locker will take that award home. Director Kathryn Bigelow won the DGA award for directing Locker this week, and as film critic superstar Roger Ebert pointed out via Twitter, only six times in 60 years has the DGA ever given an award to a movie that hasn’t won best picture. Anyway, Avatar made $30 million this weekend.

Edge of Darkness, which was supposed to be Avatar’s first real competitor this month, grossed $17.1 million. That sure is a far cry away from Signs first weekend total of $60.1 million, Mel Gibson’s last movie in the starring role. Darkness will most likely not even touch Signs grand sum of $408.2 million. When in Rome, the Kristen Bell/Josh Duhamel vehicle about a New Yorker (Bell) who, after stealing pennies from a fountain in Rome is chased after by multiple lovers, managed $12.1 million. Impressive considering, but nowhere near director Mark Steven Johnson’s last two blockbusters Daredevil and Ghost Rider in their first weekends.

Disney’s The Tooth Fairy fell a steady 28.6% to fourth place with $10 million. Its domestic total is up to $26.1 million on a $48 million budget. Rounding out the top five is The Book of Eli, which dropped 44.3% with $8.8 million. The Hughes brothers’ apocalyptic tale now has a total of $74.4 million.

Out of the top five-

Crazy Heart enjoyed a 66.3% increase in profits thanks to another expansion, grossing $2.3 million more. Its total is $6.6 million.
Hue Rhodes directorial Saint John of Las Vegas opened with $22,400 on two screens. It enters expansion February 12^th.

Here are the box office results according to studio estimates Sunday:

1. Avatar…$30 million
2. Edge of Darkness…$17.1 million
3. When in Rome…$12.1 million
4. The Tooth Fairy…$10 million
5. The Book of Eli…$8.8 million
6. Legion (2010)…$6.8 million
7. The Lovely Bones…$4.7 million
8. Sherlock Holmes…$4.5 million
9. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel…$4 million
10. It’s Complicated…$3.7 million

Comments : Post a Comment | Category : Box Office | Tags : Avatar,Box Office,Edge of Darkness,When in Rome

Avatar Will Become the New Mac N’ Cheese of Hollywood

Posted by Craig Kessler on January 29, 2010 at 2:30 am

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Source: Flickr

Gone With the Wind, Titanic, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings are some of the biggest money making movies of all time. In a very short time span, one movie proved that it belongs at the top of that list, and no shocker…..it’s Avatar. The 10 year James Cameron sci-fi epic is going to surpass Titanic in ticket sales to become the biggest movie of all time.

Who the hell is this James Cameron guy everyone talks about? Oh yea, I think he had some small cameo in Entourage and convinced Vinny Chase to do Aquaman, which became the biggest selling movie of all time. This guy cannot be stopped, even in a fictional movie he manages huge success. This guy is a directing legend.

But Avatar did have some help to push it to become #1 of all time, even help that wasn’t around for Cameron’s predecessor Titanic 10 years ago in 1999.

This movie was made in 3D, a technology that was not around 10 years ago. Now it is becoming the standard but growing up 3D was a cheap gimmick that was cool to see on rides at Disney World, not something you thought would enhance your standard flick. Besides the fact that movie tickets are at an all time high, 3D tickets are usually at least $2 more than a standard movie ticket. this obviously helps out the box office numbers especially when 80% of US gross and 65% of overseas grosses are from 3D box office sales.

Social Media is no longer a gimmick and trend but an automatic strategy for a movie when it comes out. It’s guaranteed that there will be online promotions for it. To capitalize on the success of past movies with their online campaigns, Avatar hit the web in full stride and utilized multiple social media channels to promote the movie. There was even a chat with James Cameron and some of the actors through Facebook, a live streaming video of the red caret event, and massive amounts of blog posts, contests, and tweets that were generated toward Avatar. The build up worked like a science and when it went viral online it stuck because people have the ability to share things with others through links, multiple social networks, and good old fashion email that you can’t do with traditional advertising.

Even in 1999 with Titanic, the web was still a baby with social networking. Things like Facebook and Twitter did not exists yet and blogs were in their infancy. Imagine if Titanic came out now, or Star Wars? The online promotion and buzz potential is endless and sci-fi movies seem to do a great job of establishing and building viral buzz online. Maybe that’s because the geeks who are active on the internet (banterers included) are the main demographic who see these sci-fi movies to begin with. There is no on reason but probably a combination of a few that will lead Avatar to surpassing Titanic to become the biggest movie of all time.

Do you think social media played a large role in Avatar’s sales or would it have been as successful prior to Facebook, Twitter, and social networking?

Comments : Post a Comment | Category : Movie Marketing | Tags : Avatar,Facebook,Twitter

Rant: The January Graveyard

Posted by Nick Ondras on January 27, 2010 at 2:30 am

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The month of January is widely known as the crap month, where movie studios dump the flicks with the most uncertainty. Movies like Legion and The Lovely Bones are dug their own graves, while the studios are forced to sit back and watch them be buried under the mess of bad critic reviews, bad audience reaction and bad box office.

This past month nothing has even caught my eye to make me want to actually go out and spend $11 on a two-hour train wreck, and the movies I did see in January 2010 were major bombs (The Lovely Bones, cough cough). January is never a good month for Hollywood overall. It’s the month between December, the slate set for epic end-of-the-year blowouts (Avatar, Sherlock Holmes) and the last real bid for Oscar consideration; and February, ready for romantic comedies (Valentine’s Day, Dear John) and the nearly-departed (Shutter Island, for reasons unknown). In January, we were graced with Legion, The Spy Next Door and Leap Year for wide releases. This Friday doesn’t look too good either, with the release of When in Rome and Edge of Darkness. Though I’m hoping Mel Gibson and Martin Campbell are able to prove me wrong.

Despite the moronic trash playing at your local cinema, we were rather lucky this year: we had Avatar. On Monday it broke the all-time world record that Titanic previously shattered to become the highest-grossing movie of all time. Because of its success, nobody is talking about Legion or Tooth Fairy; everyone’s been raving about CGI blue people. There’s nary been a movie nearly as gargantuan as this in the January Graveyard. If you haven’t seen Avatar yet (which I’d be really surprised if you haven’t), I highly suggest you do. Lucky for us, the movie that’s banking more than six zeros on its worldwide sum is actually good.

Of course, there’s also the Little Movies That Could in January, the tiny little indies playing in remote theaters nowhere near the giant AMC with the ticket line out the door. Yes, these are the movies such as The White Ribbon, Fish Tank, and Youth in Revolt. (I know, Revolt had a wide release this month, but come on, did you go to see that or “Avadon” again, as the California governor so sweetly butchered its title at the Golden Globes.) The flicks never do too well with delivering distributors the cha-ching, but they’re the ones that critics recommend you see over the famed Legions out there.

Say you are an invested filmgoer. January is the time of month to catch up on movies you didn’t have time to see when they were originally released, or maybe just want to see again. This could explain Avatar’s success, but it could also explain why Fish Tank was so popular a few weekends ago. There are no real event films to weigh it down. So pass the lines for When in Rome this weekend and spend time with The White Ribbon for a change. Don’t worry, in a few weeks we can all go back to obsessing over whether Channing Tatum leaves or stays with Amanda Seyfried.

Comments : 4 Comments | Category : Rants | Tags : Avatar,January Graveyard,Legion,Rant

1/25/10 Box Office Results: Angels, Apocalypse and (more) Blue People

Posted by Nick Ondras on January 25, 2010 at 10:35 am

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