By Jeff Rosz | December 24th, 2012  A production budget does a lot of things for a film. It makes things shinier, pays for the best actors, and serves as the bar for any studio attempting profitability at the box office. Because of that last part, many have jumped to criticize this year’s crop of blockbusters, calling them simply overpriced at times as they sometimes made it very tough for studios to actually make money in a relatively difficult climate. Ultimately, most of the bigger bets paid off this year which should provide a huge sigh of relief for those who could not keep a lid on the coffers.
Here is a list of the priciest bets that Hollywood placed this past year. For those not in the know, the general rule is two times production cost plus marketing to make it into the black. While studios seldom give details specific to marketing, you can assume $60 to $125 million for most of the following.
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By Jeff Rosz | December 4th, 2012  Screen Junkies has finally released their Honest Trailer for The Dark Knight Rises. Usually these things come late so that they could analyze the Blu-Ray (or more likely the pirated copies online) and steal extra footage for their pieces, but whatever gets the job done is fine by us because these are pretty insightful to watch. Go ahead and hit the jump for the view which reminds us about Christian Bale’s gross depression beard. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | October 15th, 2012 If you thought we were done talking about The Dark Knight Rises, you would be wrong. The Blu-Ray is still yet to release and while it is not nearly as anticipated (or legally challenged) as The Avengers release, it is still expected to be one of the holiday’s hottest gifts, thus why it is worth mentioning. As for the reason to buy instead of rent, the disc has 17 featurettes and a Batmobile documentary. Also included is a two-screen experience app available for mobile download. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | September 3rd, 2012 It may have taken a lot longer than initially expected, but The Dark Knight Rises has passed the billion mark, becoming the thirteenth film (eleventh when ignoring re-release tallies) to ever cross the milestone. In doing so, the Christopher Nolan trilogy-capper cemented itself as the Batman franchise’s top draw to date and by far its best performer in foreign markets. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | August 19th, 2012  The official studio estimates are now out for the box office weekend ending August 19, 2012 which gives us something beyond what we saw on Friday. For the most part, it would appear that the movies each stayed on course. The Expendables 2 won the weekend easily and the other new arrivals threw in some modest returns.
The Expendables 2 is perhaps the biggest story as it shows a contraction over the film’s predecessor despite glowing reviews. This Simon West-directed effort found only $28.8 million, down from $34.8 million two years prior suggesting the low grade of the franchise launcher played a big factor in these results. What also might have hurt was that The Bourne Legacy opened the weekend prior. That film banked another $17 million, bringing its total to nearly $70 million. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | August 15th, 2012  Beginning his press tour for the Manhattan bicycle thriller Premium Rush, Joseph Gordon-Levitt took to Jimmy Kimmel Live last night for an extremely fruitful interview. Not only did he explain his two-part last night, but he also divulged some information on a potential Robin spin-off with him at the center. The actor insists that any additional effort in the series is above his pay grade (he sold it well); however, at the same time we are not hearing a ‘no’ which means he is certainly up for another turn at John Blake.
The way he answered these questions, it sounds as if the theory about him taking Bruce Wayne’s spot in the in-development Justice League movie might be a reality. Given how that movie is definitely in the early planning stages, it is not entirely too surprising that this is not even getting so much as a nod at this point in time from the actor. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | August 12th, 2012  The studio estimates have come in and it is official: Jeremy Renner has delivered the goods as The Bourne Legacy debuted over $40 million. While this is a bit behind its immediate predecessors, the gimmick and leading men were both changed which had many suspecting an entry closer to $30 million. However, the last two Matt Damon-led installments of the series debuted north of $50 million, creating an aura of disappointment.
Given that this was Tony Gilroy’s directorial debut for Bourne (he previously only wrote them) in combination with the circumstances mentioned, not achieving such a feat seemed like an inevitability especially in light of the Aurora theater shootings last month–an event that is being blamed for a 10-20% contraction in overall box office revenue. It might also be worth mentioning that the competition was rather tough because right now there are currently three PG-13 big-budget actioners at the box office. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | August 11th, 2012  Numbers are already being revised down from those early box office estimates that hit the web yesterday as Friday’s results show a much bleaker picture for America’s top movie: The Bourne Legacy. The fourth installment of the Bourne saga hit theaters yesterday and it definitely looked like a sure fire bet to breach $40 million for the weekend. Now, Hollywood is not so sure as its Friday take came in at $14 million as opposed to the $18 million that the industry initially anticipated.
While that is still good enough for number one, it is going to make a $45+ million weekend nearly impossible baring some sort of miracle. As to what exact happened, nobody knows for sure even though speculation has the Olympics possibly impacting these figures once primetime hit. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | August 7th, 2012  While the latest Funny or Die Bane parody certainly does not reconcile what happened in The Dark Knight Rises, it does get points for creativity as it shows what has become of the film’s chief antagonist seven years following the events of Christopher Nolan’s trilogy capper. To get the point, he quit working out and is now a frequenter of drive-through restaurants.
Perhaps even better than the plot is the starring role it gave Saturday Night Live alum Chris Kattan who currently can be seen in a recurring role on the ABC comedy The Middle. Hit the jump for the view. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | August 5th, 2012  Not much has changed since Friday in regards to the weekend box office rankings for August 3-5. The Dark Knight Rises won the period easily over Total Recall ($36.4 million versus $26.0 million) and Wimpy Kid 3 came in third with a franchise worst opening ($14.7 million.) The story mostly resides with Recall which cost Sony $125 million to produce, but there of course is an extra nod to The Dark Knight Rises for finally showcasing some week-to-week retention.
We begin today’s look at the results by concluding that the Total Recall reboot was more than likely a big mistake on Sony’s part. The first weekend barely edged out the debut of its predecessor over two decades ago despite a bigger budget and the benefits of advanced special effects work. The studio believed that they could attach Colin Farrell to the project and possibly drive up a strong international box office haul to pay for their $125 million production budget, but that remains to be seen. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | August 4th, 2012  Friday featured the domestic debut of Len Wiseman’s Total Recall reboot which many expected to be handily beaten by The Dark Knight Rises (now in its third week.) Strangely enough, it did not go down that way at all as the remake of the Arnold Schwarzenegger classic made a few more waves than originally anticipated.
The $125 million-actioner managed to gross $9.2 million compared to Batman’s $10.4 million on the day. Anything close to eight figures for Recall was considered a win as many perceived this one to be a dud and therefore a big write-off for Sony who backed the Colin Farrell-led effort. This will no longer be the case assuming the reason the studio accepted the actor for the lead pays off–his international bankability. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | August 1st, 2012  The Dark Knight Rises continues to do well at the box office despite the competition from the Summer Olympics. The film is actually continuing to bank close to $10 million each passing day with over $8 million on Monday and Tuesday which is pretty nice to have in week two. This continued strength is the cause for major benchmark number one which was achieved today as the final Batman movie from Christopher Nolan has now passed the $300 million mark in twelve days. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | July 31st, 2012  Earlier today, the first full trailer came out for Skyfall–the 23rd James Bond film. Fans of the series were treated to a darker, grittier vibe that seemed awfully familiar to a lot of moviegoers. In fact, one director specifically comes to mind when looking at Sam Mendes’ version of Bond: Christopher Nolan. Audiences already got that feel from the teaser trailer released a little while ago, but now that plot details are beginning to unfold the comparison looks even more uncanny.
While we are judging a complete film against a mere trailer, there are certain to be enough mirrored themes in the finished products of both franchises to warrant such a comparison. Just a heads up before you keep reading, there are some Dark Knight Rises spoilers. You have been warned. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | July 29th, 2012  In a bit of continuation on the news that The Dark Knight Rises found $64 million in its second weekend (sixth all-time) at the box office, word has broken that the superhero blockbuster has struck it rich abroad as well. After ten days in full roll-out mode (eleven internationally,) the film has passed the $500 million milestone with over $537 million according to studio estimates released late Sunday afternoon.
This is pretty phenomenal and indicates that the film will have runaway success at the foreign box office above that of its predecessor, suggesting that DKR might be able to gross north of $1 billion worldwide. Furthermore, such a feat would undoubtedly rank the Christopher Nolan-directed film as Batman’s best performance to date which is something Warner Bros. might be able to hang its hat on in light of a diminished American footprint. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | July 29th, 2012  Apparently, the London Opening Ceremony (watched by a record-breaking 40 million viewers,) was the principal cause behind Friday’s absurdly low box office figures. The numbers have been adjusted up significantly for The Dark Knight Rises and a few other films from what we saw just yesterday; however, for the most part DKR appears to have been affected the most as is the way with blockbuster features.
That said, The Dark Knight Rises led a weekend that is down double digits from last year with $64.1 million. While that number is noticeably off from its predecessor’s $75.2 million second weekend, this is still very respectable as it qualifies as the sixth biggest week two intro on record. Continue Reading
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