‘Sully’ Soaring to $32 Million Opening Weekend

Courtesy of Warner Bros. 

 by Dave McNary Film Reporter

September 9, 2016 | 12:41PM PT Tom Hanks’ “Sully” is dominating the box office as the thriller-biopic heads for a $32 million weekend at 3,525 locations, early estimates showed Friday.

That’s well above recent forecasts, which had placed the Warner Bros. film in the $25 million range. Warner Bros. maintained that estimate for “Sully” on Friday — even though it was heading for a $12 million opening day, including $1.4 million from Thursday night previews.


Sony-Screen Gems drama “When the Bough Breaks” also appears to be outperforming the studio’s estimates, which had been in the $10 to $12 million range. Early estimates from rivals indicated that the Morris Chestnut-Regina Hall starrer would come in with a $6 million Friday and between $18 and $20 million at 2,246 sites for the weekend.


Lionsgate’s launch of animated comedy “The Wild Life” was generating only modest interest with an opening day in the $900,000 range at 2,493 locations for a weekend of around $3.5 million. Relativity’s horror film “The Disappointments Room” was even less attractive with about $650,000 on Friday for a weekend of $2 million at best.

“Sully” is opening seven years after Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger successfully landed a damaged U.S. Airways jet in the Hudson River after it hit a flock of geese shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport. Clint Eastwood directed from a script by Todd Komarnicki, based on the autobiography 

“Highest Duty” by Sullenberger and Jeffrey Zaslow.

“Sully” premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on Sept. 2 and has received largely laudatory reviews with a current 81% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Aaron Eckhart, Laura Linney, Anna Gunn, Autumn Reeser, Holt McCallany, Jamey Sheridan, and Jerry Ferrara are in supporting roles.

“Sully” appears to be on track to outperform the opening of Hanks’ 2012 hostage drama “Captain Phillips,” which opened with $25.7 million on its way to a domestic total of $107 million; and Denzel Washington’s 2013 airline drama “Flight,” which launched with $24.9 million and grossed $93 million domestically.

Hanks’ most recent film, “Bridge of Spies,” debuted in mid-October with a $15.4 million opening weekend at 2,811 sites and wound up with a $72 million domestic total.

“Sully” has a production budget of about $60 million, so it will need to show holdover strength in the following weekends to make it into profitable territory. Village Roadshow Pictures is a co-producer and co-financer with Warner Bros.

“When the Bough Breaks,” which has modest $10 million production budget, stars Chestnut and Hall as a couple who desperately wants a baby. They hire a surrogate, played by Jaz Sinclair, who develops a psychotic fixation on the husband as the pregnancy progresses.

“When the Bough Breaks” is directed by Jon Cassar from a script by Jack Olsen. Former New Line toppers Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne are producing through their Unique Features production company.

“The Disappointments Room,” starring Kate Beckinsale and Lucas Till, debuts at 1,554 sites amid  forecasts of a dismal $2 million launch. It’s the first Relativity title to hit the market since the mini-studio emerged from bankruptcy in April.

Sony’s third weekend of “Don’t Breathe,” which has led in the last two frames, will probably wind up in third place after taking in a surprisingly strong $58 million in its first 13 days.

Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst with comScore, noted that  “Sully” offering up the first Oscar contender of the season with the pairing of Hanks and Eastwood poised for a solid takeoff this weekend. He said “When The Bough Breaks” is likely to continue in the guilty-pleasure tradition of last year’s “The Perfect Guy,” 2014’s “No Good Deed” and “Addicted” and  2013’s “Temptation” as another profit-maker for Sony.

Sony has seen better than expected grosses for “Don’t Breathe” and “Sausage Party.”

Year-to-date domestic grosses hit $8.13 billion as of Wednesday, up 5% over 2015 at the same point, following a summer season that matched last year’s summer at $4.48 billion, according to comScore. 

Will Smith's 'Concussion' Drama: NFL Plots Embrace-the-Debate Strategy

Courtesy of Sony Pictures

by Tatiana Siegel

9/3/2015 3:22pm PDT

The league says it would even entertain the prospect of working with Sony on raising awareness about football safety.

Facing an onslaught of potentially damaging PR, the National Football League has drafted its own game plan for dealing with the upcoming Sony film Concussion.

The league will host a series of discussions, conferences and scientific strategy meetings about player safety over the coming months in the run-up to Concussion’s release Christmas Day. In fact, the NFL says it welcomes the Will Smith-led film’s ability to spark dialogue on the subject, despite being portrayed as an organization that tried to conceal findings about the long-term effects of football-related head trauma.

“When something like this movie comes up and people want to talk about concussions or football or 
the future of the sport, that’s an opportunity for us to engage,” Jeff Miller, NFL senior vp health and safety policy, told The Hollywood Reporter. “We intend to do just that over the course of the movie and long after that.”

Among the events planned are a convening of concussion experts at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center that is being funded by a grant from the NFL Foundation (beginning Oct. 15) and the International Professional Sports Concussion Research Think Tank in London (Oct. 23-25).

The NFL isn’t shirking from the media glare in the wake of Monday's Concussion trailer debut, which prompted major news coverage from networks and national outlets. Miller says the NFL will speak to any press outlet that wants to know about the health and safety questions in football and what the league is doing to reduce concussions. Perhaps more intriguing, the NFL would even entertain the prospect of working with Sony on raising awareness.

“The studio hasn’t asked,” Miller added. “And if they were to and it gives us the opportunity to talk about the health and safety of our sport, we would do that. But there hasn’t been any communication to this point.”

Sony declined comment.

To date, no one from the NFL has been invited to see the film, which has been screened mostly for sports journalists, including writers and editors at Sports Illustrated, which made the film its cover story this week.

Meanwhile Sony is scrambling in the aftermath of a New York Times article — citing a series of hacked emails — that claims the studio softened the film’s take on the NFL. In response, the studio has put the film’s director Peter Landesman on the record for a number of news outlets including THR in an effort to reverse the perception that it caved to pressure. The NFL, too, is bristling at the suggestion that it applied any pressure to alter the film. THR could find no evidence in the trove of leaked emails from last year that the studio and the NFL had any contact regarding Concussion beyond a brief email exchange between Landesman and NFL communications chief Paul Hicks in which the director requested a meeting that never materialized (Hicks asked for and was denied a copy of the script).

“It’s probably something that we, the league, need to do a better job of in terms of talking about the things we do [to educate] as well as continuing to do the things we do to improve the [safety of the] game,” Miller added. “If this [movie] presents an opportunity to engage in that conversation, then that’s terrific for us."

And while Sony and the NFL are waging their own PR campaigns over the film’s treatment of the league, Dr. Christopher Giza, director of UCLA's Steve Tisch BrainSPORT Program, offered up an outside perspective on the Concussion debate.

“One concern I have is that the film might paint too dire a picture of a post-concussion prognosis,” Dr. Giza said. “People who have suffered concussions need — and should have — hope because there’s a lot that can be done, and we are learning more every day.”

by Todd McCarthy

The Bottom Line: After a long absence, Mad Max is back and in fine form

Opens: May 15 (Warner Bros.)

Cast: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult

Director George Miller

 

Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron headline George Miller's reboot of his cult postapocalyptic franchise.

Thirty years after surviving Thunderdome, the reluctant warrior of modern movies' first and most memorable postapocalyptic action-fantasy series is finally back and ready for more in Mad Max: Fury Road. George Miller has directed only five films in that time ― three of which starred pigs and penguins ― but it can safely be said that this madly entertaining new action extravaganza energetically kicks more ass, as well as all other parts of the anatomy, than any film ever made by a 70-year-old — and does so far more skillfully than those turned out by most young turks half his age.
 
Although the earlier entries were made before the target audience for this one was even born (its new leading man was just a baby when the first one was released), Mad Max has lingered in the zeitgeist through the years, and a fair portion of the international public that has just wound down from Furious 7 will be happy to suck in the fumes from this equally action-packed and infinitely superior film.
 
One could plausibly observe that Fury Road is basically The Road Warrior on a new generation of steroids, and no doubt some critics will leave it at that; like the second and best film in the series, this one is mostly devoted to maniacal anarchic goons chasing Max and his small group of rebels across a scenically parched desert and leaving some spectacularly destroyed vehicles in their dust. The new film certainly boasts a higher percentage of flat-out amazing action than any of its predecessors, and that's probably enough said for most of its potential audience.
 
Perhaps the long gestation period served it well. While very similar to its predecessors in almost every way, the film has devilishness in its details: the tribal-style makeup, the endlessly inventive vehicles and armaments, the wild costumes and facial adornments, radiantly scorched locations that resemble ― and yet go beyond ― the series' previous wasteland evocations, and a society equally lawless but more entrenched than those seen in earlier films (one that is, in fact, presided over by the same imposing actor who played the chief bad guy in the original Mad Max in 1979).
 
And then there's the new leading actor, Tom Hardy, who's so ideal a replacement for Mel Gibson that one wouldn't want to imagine anyone else having taken over the role. Rewatching the initial two installments today, it's striking to see how little Max Rockatansky (whose name is uttered just once, in the first film) actually does during long stretches of them, and so it is here; at the outset he's captured by soldiers of the Citadel and detained in a rocky hellhole where thousands of wailing captives perform slave labor while awaiting small rations of precious water dispensed by their tyrannical captor from his looming cliffside headquarters.
 
When the time comes to hit the road, Max, his face confined behind a trident-like mask, is strapped like a grille ornament on the front of a marauding car, a predicament he is not expected to survive. But emerge from it he does, of course, and slowly the man behind the victim emerges — first to exciting, then to ultimately touching effect in the final scene. It's as if Hardy was cast for his brawn, but ultimately used for his soul.
 
Except for its mechanized details, the heavy chains, pulleys and steam-punk/heavy metal aspects of which lend a certain 19th century feel, the world on display here is straight out of dire early biblical times. Presiding over the Citadel is the fearsome Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne, the nasty Toecutter in Mad Max), who has grotesque offspring, sports flowing gray locks and wears a toothsome facemask fed by large oxygen tubes. The slaves are covered in ashen white powder and live in a state of starvation and terror enforced by violent punks known as War Boys.
 
The story cooked up by Miller and co-screenwriters Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris is no more complex than this: Entrusted by Immortan Joe with driving the large War Rig truck across the desert to an oil-producing outpost, tough ruling-class babe Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron, with close-cropped hair and raccoon eyes) instead diverts it across the desert with an illicit cargo — Immortan's harem of breeding wives, who have memorable names such as Capable, Cheedo the Fragile and, best of all, Toast the Knowing. When first glimpsed, they look like a bunch of supermodels strewn across the desert for an exotic fashion shoot, although one of them, the Splendid Angharad (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, a real-life supermodel), is soon due to give birth.

The first two Max features ran barely 90 minutes, and it takes guts and real confidence to dare push a straight chase film with very little dialogue to two hours. But Miller has pulled it off by coming up with innumerable new elements to keep the action compelling: the pitiless mindset of a brutish society; bending poles sticking up from vehicles that allow marauders atop them to be lowered into enemy trucks for hand-to-hand combat; an insane heavy metal guitarist affixed to one of the Citadel's rigs, whose raucous wailing and flame-throwing ability perfectly express this world's extremity; and a central woman, missing one arm, who's as tough-minded as any man but also retains a special link to a remote society of women she intends to find.
 
During the first extended, high-speed, jaw-dropping chase of Furiosa by the goon squad, which only ends when it's engulfed by an enormous desert dust storm, Max remains frustrated by the chain linking him to his tormentors' rig. But developing any trust with Furiosa takes considerably longer; she wants to kill him immediately and be done with it. They are, it would seem, potential soul mates, but the world they inhabit is not exactly conducive to developing trust, much less anything of a more amorous nature. Life is, in this world, not only cheap but almost assuredly very short.
 
If one wanted to map out a chronology of Max's life and adventures, it would no longer make any sense in terms of the man's age, nor does it matter at all. Miller recently absolved himself of any need to somehow explain the character's newfound youthfulness by comparing him to James Bond; Max just goes on and on, with perennial access to rejuvenation via new actors.
 
The difference between this and Bond and many other such durable series is that it's so palpably the product of one man's imagination, a man who also possesses the skill, discipline and energy to put it all up on the screen so convincingly. Mad Max films are known for the moments when the cars' superchargers are engaged for surges of speed, and it's clear that Miller's personal superchargers are in excellent working order. The colors are bold, the Namibia locations look like Arizona on steroids, virtually all the action looks real (thoughts of CGI only intrude with the massive dust clouds and certain personal and vehicular wipeouts), cinematographer John Seale's cameras are everywhere they need to be to record the action maximally, and Junkie XL's score hammers and soars. Second unit director and stunt coordinator Guy Norris clearly deserves major credit for delivering much of what's most eye-popping onscreen, and the film never sits still for more than a moment or two.

Miller originally spoke of filming a sequel called Furiosa back-to-back with this one, so presumably he has material more or less ready to go, and Hardy has claimed he's signed for three more installments. In other words, the world may not have heard the last of Mad Max.
 
Production company: Kennedy Miller Mitchell Productions Cast: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough, Zoe Kravitz, Abbey Lee, Courtney Eaton, Josh Helman, Nathan Jones, John Howard, Richard Carter, iOTA, Angus Sampson, Jennifer Hagan, Megan Gale, Melissa Jaffer, Melita Jurisic, Gillian Jones, Joy Smithers Director: George Miller Screenwriters: George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, Nico Lathouris Producers: George Miller, Doug Mitchell, PJ Voeten Executive producers: Iain Smth, Chris deFaria, Courtenay Valenti, Graham Burke, Bruce Berman, Steve Mnuchin Director of photography: John Seale Production designer: Colin Gibson Costume designer: Jenny Beavan Editor: Margaret Sixel Music: Junkie XL Makeup/hair designer: Lesley Vanderwalt Second unit director/stunt coordinator: Guy Norris
Rated R, 120 minutes

‘Furious 7′ Racing to Huge $140 Million Opening Weekend

Courtesy of Universal

April 3, 2015 | 05:25PM PT

Dave McNary

Film Reporter @Variety_DMcNary

Universal’s “Furious 7″ is speeding toward a record-setting opening weekend of nearly $140 million at 4,004 U.S. locations, according to revised Friday estimates.

“Furious 7″ blasted off with $58 million to $60 million on Friday — including $15.8 million in 3,069 Thursday-night showings that started at 7 p.m. in the U.S.

Recent estimates had placed the Friday-Sunday number at $115 million, which were revised upward early Friday to as much as $125 million. But Friday’s afternoon numbers — based on West Coast matinees and East Coast early evening screenings — indicated that the Easter weekend would finish between $135 million and $138 million.

The film, starring Dwayne Johnson, Vin Diesel and the late Paul Walker, will easily set a record for an April opening weekend should the estimates hold. The current April record holder, Marvel-Disney’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” opened with $95 million on the same weekend last year.

All signals now suggest that the “Furious 7″ opening will easily exceed that of “Fast and Furious 6,″ which grossed $97 million in its domestic debut weekend two years ago on its way to $238 million. It will also become the 29th movie with a $100 million-plus opening weekend in the U.S. and the first to do so since “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1″ opened in November with $122 million.

At $138 million, “Furious 7″ would tie “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1″ as the 11th highest domestic opener of all time. And it will exceed what had been the top opening of 2015 — the $85 million three-day launch of Universal’s “Fifty Shades of Grey” — by over 60%.

“Furious 7″ opened internationally with $60 million in its first two days on Wednesday and Thursday and will expand to 10,500 sites. It should take as much as $250 million from foreign moviegoers by the end of the Easter weekend.

The movie — replete with its trademark spectacular automotive stunts — is set in Los Angeles, London, Tokyo, Russia, Abu Dhabi and the Dominican Republic. Michelle Rodriguez, Jordanna Brewster, Tyrese Gibson and Chris “Ludacris” Bridges reprise their roles.

Critical reception for “Furious 7″ has been strong, with an 82% “fresh” rating on the Rotten Tomatoes aggregator site.

The durable franchise, which launched in 2001, generated more than $2.4 billion in worldwide box office from the first six movies. “Fast and Furious 6″ has been the best performer, with $238 million in domestic grosses and $550 million internationally.

Rival studios held off on launching another major release this weekend. DreamWorks’ second weekend of animated comedy “Home,” released by Fox, should lead the rest of the pack at roughly $30 million to lift its 10-day U.S. total to the $100 million vicinity.

Warner Bros.’ second session of Will Ferrell-Kevin Hart comedy “Get Hard” will likely see much of its core male audience opt for “Furious 7.″ The R-rated prison comedy has been forecast to decline 50% from its opening weekend numbers to finish around $17 million.

Disney’s fourth frame of “Cinderella” and the third weekend of Lionsgate’s “The Divergent Series: Insurgent” should each pull in around $10 million.

With “American Sniper” and “Fifty Shades” overperforming and “Furious 7” delivering at the high end of expectations, 2015 is shaping up as a considerable improvement over 2014. First-quarter U.S. box office rose 3% to $2.47 billion, and Disney-Marvel’s “Avengers: The Age of Ultron” is the next blockbuster set to launch, on May 1.

Filed Under:

• Furious 7
• Paul Walker
• Vin Diesel

‘American Sniper’ Targets Record Jan. $105.2M

by Anthony D'Alessandro
Update, 8:12AM: Sunday: 
Warner Bros. is reporting that American Sniper is set to post a Friday-through-Sunday of $90.2M with a cume to date of $93.6M.  By tomorrow, with the MLK holiday, the Village Roadshow co-prod cume is looking to post a four-day of $105.2M and an overall cume of $108.6M. Unheard of for any wide release at this time of year. What record did the movie American Sniper NOT break?

Among three-day bows, it’s the best posted by a January or February release, beating Passion of the Christ‘s (which opened on a Wednesday) FSS of $83.8M.  It’s the largest January weekend ever, beating Avatar‘s $68.5M during its third session (Jan. 1-3, 2010) and it’s looking to be the largest R-rated four-day ever, beating 2011’s The Hangover 2, which made $103.4M.

A+ CinemaScore across the board among males, females and over/under 25.  Everyone always knew the film was going to be the highest opening for an MLK release, beating last year’s opening record set by Kevin Hart‘s Ride Along ($41.5M 3-day, $48.6M 4-day). Audience make-up was 57% guys/43% women with 63% over 25. American Sniper also earned the best take for an R-rated IMAX film with an estimated $11.5M over the four-day, beating Fox’s Prometheus, which made $9M.  

American Sniper’s per theater: an amazing $25,374 over three days and $29,592 over four-days. 
While the competition did well this weekend against the titan American Sniper, some executives griped that the Eastwood film shaved off dollars off their initial projections.

“It felt like we opened against a Marvel movie,” said one studio executive about Sniper‘s presence. 

“The people portrayed in American Sniper – these are real-life heroes to people in the same way that Marvel characters are heroes to fanboys. But it’s the Marvel concept for adults.”

Given its prime spot on MLK weekend, Paramount’s Selma held very well, bolstered by a best picture Oscar nomination (it also received one for best song) with the studio reporting a 26% dip, to an $8.3M three-day and a $10.3M four-day. The movie’s domestic cume by tomorrow will stand at $27.96M.

While this would have seemed the prime weekend to go wide, Paramount smartly did so a week earlier, counter-programming Taken 3, and dodging the market power of The Wedding Ringer, another African-American-oriented movie that, like Selma, drew mostly females.

Said Warner Bros. domestic distribution chief Dan Fellman on Sniper’s success: “The film played from small towns to big cities, red to blue states. The story touched on so many things dear to the American public – patriotism, service to your country. It hit that core.”

Warner Bros. saw an early cut of the film last year. VFX weren’t even ready, but execs were blown away. Commenting on why the studio chose to go wide in January versus December, Fellman said, “It gave us an opportunity to let the movie breathe.”

Warner Bros. implemented a very textured and layered marketing campaign for Sniper. In a time when an even a low-budget political comedy can create an international furor, Warner Bros. always felt they had a film that cut through the politics of war.

“It can be a very compelling, often sad or cathartic experience for people” said Sue Kroll, Warner’s president of worldwide marketing and international distribution.  “The film completely connects with people at this point in time in our culture. With the horrors of war every day in the news, this film hits closer to home.”

The trailers and TV spots were specifically made to emphasize the emotional tones of Chris Kyle’s story. While some focused on the intense scene featuring Kyle taking a slow aim at an Iraqi woman and child, 60-second TV spots featured soundbites from Chris Kyle’s widow Taya Kyle, actress Sienna Miller and screenwriter/executive producer Jason Hall talking about NAVY seal hero Chris Kyle. 

There were longer featurettes on line as well.

“With everything that was going on, they made people stop and take notice,” said Kroll.

Further making American Sniper compelling and more real were Taya Kyle’s eloquent interviews with such outlets as Fox News and TODAY. Screenwriter Hall’s experiences resonated with trade publications during awards season regarding the film’s path to the screen; how he was working on the script prior to Kyle’s murder – and how Chris Kyle’s murder on a Texas gun range impacted the story.

The studio tapped Glover Park Group, a leading DC-based marketing and PR group with deep experience in government affairs work. They created the military press program and screenings.

“It’s always tricky when you have a movie that’s about war, but after the first screening, we were all moved at the studio and quickly rolled it out on a limited basis before the end of the year,” Kroll said. 

“The movie is a soldier’s story and the universality of the toll that war takes on the soldier and those he left behind. That perspective in American Sniper differentiates it from other war films. It has made it more mainstream and relatable. And more emotional.”

In second place, Sony’s Screen Gems launched their fourth straight hit with more than $20M in The Wedding Ringer, starring Kevin Hart. The studio is reporting the film at $21M in 3,003 hubs with per theater of $6,993 and a four-day take of $25M. The crowd was 58% female, and mostly young, with 49% under 30. Among R-rated January comedy openings, The Wedding Ringer is the best, beating Paramount’s 2011 kinky romantic comedy No Strings Attached with Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher. That film posted a $19.65M weekend.

Paddington in third is the first title to go out through the TWC/Dimension label, a combined brand intended for higher-end commercial fare. The $55M budgeted Canal Plus production, which TWC/Dimension acquired domestic on, played very strong in Middle America and suburbia, grossing a studio-reported $19.287M for the FSS and a $25.6M for the four-day, drawing 60% women, and  42% of the crowd parents with kids.

Legendary’s Blackhat distributed by Universal, the frame’s fourth wide bow, grossed $4M per the studio in 2,567 locales. Industry estimates below see the film slotting 11th for FSS. The crowd for the Michael Mann cyber-thriller was 59% male and 18% under age 25. The studio wasn’t on the hook for P&A, and the film was around before Universal’s deal with Legendary went into place.  It’s an R-rated adult-male drama, and when it was placed on the schedule, no one, including Universal, saw American Sniper coming around the corner.

20th Century Fox’s Taken 3 held the best it could against American Sniper with a studio reported $14M three-day at 3,594 and a cume of $62.8M. While that’s a 64% drop from its opening, again peg it to American Sniper picking off male moviegoers in particular.

Deadline’s top 10 films per industry estimates show the three-day and four-day weekend as follows:
1). American Sniper (WB), 3,555 theaters (+3,551)/ $30.4M Fri./ $34.7M Sat. (+14%)/ $22.9M Sun. (-34%)/ 3-Day cume: $88M (+15,085%)/4-Day cume:$99.1M /Total cume: $102.5M/ Wk 4
2). The Wedding Ringer (Sony), 3,003 theaters/ $6.99M Fri./ $8.4M Sat. (+20%)/ $5.2M Sun. (-37%)/ 3-Day cume: $20.7M/ 4-Day cume: $24.6M /Wk 1
3). Paddington (TWC), 3,303 theaters / $4.6M Fri./ $8.3M Sat. (+80%)/ $M Sun. (-%)/ 3-Day cume: $19.3M / 4-Day cume: $24.1M /Wk 1
4). Taken 3 (Fox), 3,594 theaters (0)/$4.2M Fri/ $6.6M Sat. (+55%)/ $3.2M Sun. (-51%)/ 3-Day cume: $14M (-62%)/4-Day cume: $16.9M /Total cume: $65.6M/ Wk 2
5). Selma (Par), 2,235 theaters (+56) /$2.3M Fri./ $3.7M Sat. (+56%)/ $2.2M Sun. (-41%)/ 3-Day cume: $8.4M (-26%)/4-Day cume: $10.3M /Total cume: $27.9M / Wk 4
6). The Imitation Game (TWC), 1,611 theaters (+45) / $1.8M Fri. / $3.2M Sat. (+71%)/ $2M Sun. (-38%)/ 3-Day cume: $7.3M (-2%)/4-Day cume: $8.9M /Total cume: $51.6M / Wk 8
7). Into The Woods (DIS), 2,758 theaters (-75) /$1.6M Fri./ $3M Sat. (+80%)/ $2.1M Sun. (-30%)/ 3-Day cume: $6.8M (-29%)/4-Day cume: $8.9M /Total cume: $116.7M / Wk 4
8). The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies (WB), 2,220 theaters (-1182)/$1.1M Fri./ $2.2M Sat. (+89%)/ $1.4M Sun. (-35%)/ 3-Day cume: $4.8M (-49%) /4-Day cume: $5.9M /Total cume: $245.6M/ Wk 5
9). Unbroken (UNI), 2,602 theaters (-699) / $1.2M Fri. (-51%)/ $1.9M Sat. (+56%)/ $1M Sun. (-47%)/ 3-Day cume: $4.2M (-49%)/4-Day cume: $5M/Total cume: $109.4M / Wk 4
10). Night At The Museum: Secret Of The Tomb (FOX), 2,437 theaters (-934) / $859K Fri./ $1.7M Sat. (+105%)/ $1.3M Sun. (-25%)/ 3-Day cume: $3.9M(-41%)/4-Day cume: $5.2M /Total cume: $106.5M / Wk 5
11). Blackhat (UNI), 2,567 theaters / $1.3M Fri./ $1.5M Sat. (+15%)/ $983K Sun. (-37%)/ 3-Day cume: $3.7M/4-Day cume: $4.8M / Wk 1
Birdman (FSL) 471 theaters (+243)/$403K Fri./ $715K Sat. (+77%)/ $443K Sun. (-38%) / 3-day cume: $1.5M (+160%)/4-day cume: $1.8M/Total cume: $28.5M/Wk 14
Wild (FSL), 764 theaters (-522)/ $398K Fri./ $651K Sat. (+64%)/ $408K Sun. (-37%) / 3-day cume: $1.4M (-47%)/4-day cume: $1.7M/Total cume: $33.1M / Wk 7
Spare Parts (LGF) 440 theaters/$397K Fri. / $516K Sat. (+30%)/ $413K Sun. (-20%) /3-day cume: $1.37M/$4-day cume: $1.7M/ Wk 1 1
Foxcatcher (SPC), 759 theaters (+522)/ $274K Fri./$449K Sat. (+64%)/ $276K Sun. (-37%) / 3-day cume: $979K (+82%)/4-day cume: $1.1M/Total cume: $10M / Wk 10
The Theory of Everything (FOC), 509 theaters (+101)/ $247K Fri./ $434K Sat. (+75%)/ $282K Sun. (-35%) / 3-day cume: $950K (+41%)/4-day cume: $1.1M/Total cume: $27.5M / Wk 11
Whiplash (SPC) 189 theaters (+120)/$92K Fri. /$172K Sat. (+87%)/ $107K Sun. (-38%) /3-day cume: $362K (+154%)/4-day cume: 425K/Total cume: $6.6M/Wk 15
Boyhood (IFC), 136 theaters (+116) / $55K Fri. /$103K Sat. (+87%)/ $64K Sun. (-38%) / 3-day cume: $222K /4-day cume: $264K /Total cume: $24.6M/ Wk 28
Still Alice (SPC) 12 theaters/$52K Fri. / $89K Sat. (+71%)/ $65K Sun. (-28%) /3-day cume: $206K/$4-day cume: $249K/ Wk 1
Two Days, One Night (IFC) 15 theaters (+10) / $26K Fri. /$48K Sat. (+85%)/ $31K Sun. (-35%) /3-Day: $105K (+158%)/4-day cume: $129K/ Total cume: $300K / Wk 4
Grand Budapest Hotel (FSL), 46 theaters (+30) /$6K Fri. /$16K Sat. (+166%)/ $11K Sun. (-31%) / 3-day cume: $33K /4-day cume: $40K / Total cume: $59.3M / Wk 46

'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Teaser Trailer Debuts

Walt Disney Studios

"There has been an awakening — have you felt it?"

by THR Staff 

The first Star Wars: The Force Awakens teaser has finally arrived.

"There has been an awakening — have you felt it? The dark side, and the light," says an ominous voice, just before Hans Solo's Falcon soars into view and the franchise's iconic theme song plays.

For days, speculation has swirled about when and where the first look at the next Star Wars would debut. On Monday, Bad Robot's Twitter accounttweeted a note from the filmmaker confirming that that 88 seconds of footage would be debuting in theaters this Friday. Disney later revealed that the footage would be screening in just 30 theaters across the U.S. and Canada, with the teaser showing before every single showing of every single movie in the select theaters throughout the weekend.

Read more 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Teaser: Perfectly Potent Nostalgia Strikes Back

In addition to the theatrical showings this weekend,the official Star Wars Twitter account also revealed that the teaser would arrive online on Friday. Watch it below.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is set to hit theaters on Dec. 18, 2015.

Film Review: ‘Glen Campbell … I’ll Be Me’

by Alissa Simon

photo's by Ray Tharaldson

all rights reserved 2014

A poignant look at country singer-songwriter Glen Campbell's 'Goodbye Tour' and his battle with Alzheimer's disease.

In 2011, while country crooner and legendary guitarist Glen Campbell prepared to tour in support of his latest album, his family revealed that he had received a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. Remarkably, the Campbells not only proceeded with a “Goodbye Tour,” but also allowed filmmaker James Keach to document the progression of Glen’s illness and its effect on their lives and work. “Glen Campbell … I’ll Be Me” blends intimate and unflinching medical details, poignant performance footage and a survey of its subject’s place in musical history through well-chosen archival footage and interviews with other iconic performers. A limited release through U.S. distributor Area23a begins Oct. 24 and will expand in the weeks to come, while festival kudos at Nashville and Vancouver could spell more awards attention down the road.

Just as the “Goodbye Tour” repped the last chance for Campbell’s multitudes of fans to see him live, this observational docu offers a final opportunity to witness the singer in lucid moments, with his artistry movingly intact. He was moved into a specialized Alzheimer’s treatment facility in March 2014, three years after filming began in 2011. At that time, Campbell was 75 years old and had been married for nearly 30 years to his fourth wife, Kim, a bedrock of strength 23 years his junior. The couple has three children, talented musicians Cal, Shannon and Ashley, all of whom are in his backup band.

Kim’s commentary about what’s going on (sometimes directly to the camera) functions in lieu of narration. In one early scene, Glen and Kim watch documentary footage chronicling his salad days and superlative achievements — among them five Grammys; induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame; his own TV series, “The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour”; and a co-starring role in the original “True Grit.” When Kim has to tell Glen who’s who, the moment not only epitomizes the sad losses of an Alzheimer’s sufferer and the patience required of a caregiver, but also cleverly provides background about the musician’s life and career.

As members of their medical team explain to Glen and Kim, Alzheimer’s is a progressive type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior as the hippocampus shrinks and atrophies. Yet the doctors can only marvel at the extraordinary wiring of Glen’s brain, which allows him to continue performing complicated guitar solos and sing with perfect pitch even while he suffers more typical symptoms.

Although Glen quickly becomes, in the words of Kim, “unrehearseable,” the family and band members decide to go on the road for as long as the good outweighs the bad. We see the strain this causes every member of the tour, not least Kim, but it’s is trumped by the palpable love that surges from the audience toward the stage. Even if Glen at times doesn’t appear to know where he is or what he’s doing, he feels the emotion and gains energy and focus.

Even as they go through the emotional and professional wringer, Campbell’s offspring don’t regret participating in the tour. Son Cal notes, “When he connects to something that gave him joy, it’s like he’s himself again.” Daughter Ashley, who performs a lively dueling guitar/banjo riff with her father onstage, also accompanies her parents to Capitol Hill and makes a touching appeal before a Congressional committee for more funding to fight the disease, which is growing exponentially. Director Keach also recruits a slew of top musicians, including Bruce Springsteen, the Edge, Chad Smith and Kathy Mattea, whose own lives have been touched by Alzheimer’s, to comment on Campbell’s courage.

As the tour extends over nearly two years to 151 concerts, we begin to observe its diminishing returns, particularly as Campbell moves into the later phases of the illness, characterized by frustration, anger and paranoia. But even as he suffers a complete meltdown onstage, the audience is with him and for him. A scene of Campbell’s final recording with members of his former crack session band, the Wrecking Crew — the song his “Not Gonna Miss You,” a ballad he wrote for Kim — heartbreakingly demonstrates the man’s profound understanding of the disease, something that does not always come across in the filmed footage.

Stylistically, “Glen Campbell … I’ll Be Me” is nothing special; indeed, the homevideo shots are mostly pedestrian. Yet the sheer joy, even magic, captured in the concert footage preserves the artist’s sublime musicianship and the ineffable relationship between performer and audience. In the end, his family’s willingness to document his decline, in the hope that it will draw more attention and resources to fighting the disease, burnishes and extends Campbell’s legacy in enduring fashion.

Film Review: ‘Glen Campbell ... I’ll Be Me’

Reviewed at Vancouver Film Festival (Arts & Letters), Oct. 1, 2014. Running time: 105 MIN.  

Production

(Documentary) An Area23a release of a PCH Films production in association with Volunteers of America. Produced by Trevor Albert, James Keach. Executive producers, Scott Borchetta, Susan Disney Lord, Jane Seymour, Stanley Schneider, Julian Raymond. Co-producer, Kayla Thornton.

Crew

Directed by James Keach. Camera (color, HD), Alex Exline; editor, Elisa Bonora; music, Julian Raymond; sound (5.1 surround), Milos Zivkovic, Logan Aries, Alex Exline, Dwight Chalmers, Marianna LaFollette, Cody Peterson, Carlos Pulido; associate producers, Jeff Pollack, Debra Pearl, Carl Jackson, Cindy Sinclair.

With

Glen Campbell, Kim Campbell, Ashley Campbell, Cal Campbell, Shannon Campbell, T.J. Kuenster, Ry Jarred, Siggy Sjursen, Kiefo Nilsson, Dr. Ronald Petersen, Bobbie Gale, Jay Leno, Jimmy Webb, Brad Paisley, The Edge, Clancy Fraser, Bill Maclay, John Carter Cash, Sheryl Crow, Kathy Mattea, Scott Borchetta, Dr. Hart Cohen, Chad Smith, Keith Urban, Steve Martin, the Band Perry, Blake Shelton, Paul McCartney, Bill Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Hal Rogers, Chris Smith, Richard Shelby, Bruce Springsteen, Richard Landers, Stanley Schneider, the Wrecking Crew, Gerald Campbell, Jane Campbell, Sandy Campbell, Kelli Campbell, Debby Campbell-Cloyd, Sandie Gillard, Richard Landers.

I met with Glen after photographing his concert during the summer of 2012. We talked about how the tour was going and his plans to meet with his friend George H. Bush the following week. Glen could not have been more down to earth and gracious with his time.

FILED UNDER:

 

• Glen Campbell
• Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me
• James Keach