BedtimeStories Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Attempting to market Funny People as a typical Adam Sandler comedy was quixotic, and as another laugh riot from the Apatow factory only marginally less so. Still, the combination of Sandler and Apatow (and, probably, Rogen) was enough to get the off-kilter, two-and-a-half-hour dramedy off to a $23 million start -- not one for the record books, but hey, not too far off the opening numbers for Apatow's Knocked Up and Sandler's Bedtime Stories. There are shades of M. Night Shyamalan in Judd Apatow, in the way that he appears to be moving from blockbuster crowdpleasers to more personal, slightly odd films that not everyone "gets."

Aliens in the Attic, hidden from critics and not really sold as any sort of event, unsurprisingly ended up with a middling $7.8 million -- a minor opening for a minor flick. The independently-distributed horror film The Collector, from some of the folks behind the Saw franchise, debuted in 11th place and $3.6 million; not great either, but probably above expectations, and perhaps an indication of how many ticket buyers are willing to see a horror movie, any horror movie, on a given weekend. (500) Days of Summer continues to do very well in limited release, with the highest per-screen average in the top 20. Next week, when the film expands to over 1000 screens, will be the real test.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince found its footing a bit in its third weekend after last week's big tumble; it won't wind up atop the franchise, but may make a run for second place. And I was glad to see Orphan hold up at least semi-respectably after a weak start. That's one summer movie that deserves better than it got.

The weekend's top 12 after the jump.

I began to focus more attention on Mary-Louise Parker back in 2005, when she wrote a feature for Bust on Justin Theroux. In one opening paragraph, she slid from cross-pollinating blueberry bushes and pet pit bulls to a description of the actor himself: "His hair is ice-pond black, he could wash my windows with his eyelashes, and he has that rangy skateboarder's body that girls never grow out of going hormonal after." I was reading a lot of magazine intros that year, and hers was the first that didn't reek superfluous scene-drawing.

Now she's getting literary again, this time with Esquire. The site is doing a new weekly series of bedtime stories and seeing that they say "straight from the bedroom of a Woman We Love," I'm assuming every installment will feature the lovely Ms. Parker. She kicks off with Alice in Wonderland, and you can watch it for yourselves after the jump.

Oh, how I wish that all mens' magazines' treatment of sexy women had them natural, lounging, and reading classic literature. And really, I think Parker is in her element when words are involved. Which, one can hope, will mean wonderful things for Howl. (Although she's playing Gail Potter, a woman brought in to speak against the famous work.)

Will you be tuning in for Parker's bedtime stories?

I will keep it brief this week, as the box office took a break -- at least as far as new releases are concerned -- for the first weekend of the new year.

Marley & Me maintained its lead on Adam Sandler's Bedtime Stories, despite the latter holding up a bit better. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button's staying power doesn't seem terribly impressive, as it took a tumble comparable to the other big Christmas releases. All else equal, it looks like it will end up at around $110 million. If it gets a slew of Oscar nominations on the 22nd, that could change things.

Slumdog Millionare didn't expand this weekend, but saw a 10% bump in ticket sales anyhow. That's because it's great and everyone loves it.

That's it. I said I'd keep it brief. Here's the full top 10:

1 - Marley & Me (Fox) - $24.05 ($6,862) - $106.51
2 - Bedtime Stories (Sony) - $20.32 ($5,515) - $85.35
3 - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount) - $18.40 ($9.036) - $79.01
4 - Valkyrie (MGM/UA) - $14.04 ($5,055) - $60.69
5 - Yes Man (Warner Bros.) - $13.85 ($4,033) - $79.41
6 - Seven Pounds (Sony) - $10.00 ($3,626) - $60.04
7 - The Tale of Despereaux (Universal) - $7.02 ($2,271) - $43.74
8 - Doubt (Miramax) - $5.03 ($3,909) - $18.73
9 - The Day the Earth Stood Still (Fox) - $4.85 ($2,075) - $74.30
10 - Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) - $4.77 ($7,794) - $28.78

Numbers courtesy of Box Office Mojo

Next week sees the first official 2009 releases: Bride Wars and the David S. Goyer horror film The Unborn go wide, while Not Easily Broken opens on 600 screens.

Christmas fell on a Thursday this year, leading to a very lucrative four-day weekend for all but one of the Christmas Day openers.

The pattern has always been to open one, maybe two big films around Christmas. This year we got five. Marley & Me was the best family option, and led the pack with $51.7 million over the long weekend, setting a Christmas Day record in the process. Good word-of-mouth is likely -- the audience reaction at the showing I saw can only be described as "epic." I think I may have actually caught some inanimate objects crying toward the end. Scarves, handbags, etc.

Adam Sandler's Bedtime Stories was next, underperforming slightly with $38.6 million. Sandler is somewhat untested in the PG family film arena, but I had expected Bedtime Stories to land somewhere in the vicinity of Click, which grossed $40 million on a three-day weekend in June. Bedtime Stories' $28 million three-day is the lowest for a film headlined by Sandler since Eight Crazy Nights in 2002, or if you think that doesn't count, since Little Nicky in 2000. Of course since Bedtime Stories opened on a Thursday, using the three-day number isn't quite fair. In any event, the fact that Marley took off certainly didn't help.

The third-place, $39 million finish for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a draw. That the heady, nearly three-hour drama was able to compete in this marketplace is surely a relief to Paramount, but the movie is so expensive ($150 million) that people were probably hoping for more. On the other hand, $30 million for Valkyrie -- which people had written off as a stinker after some release date shuffling and an upswing in general Tom Cruise negativity -- is cause for some high-fiving at MGM/UA.

The pre-Christmas weekend was good to Jim Carrey, Will Smith and an animated mouse. The rest of the top five was filled out by holdovers from previous weeks, including Four Christmases in its fourth week of release. Here's the top five:

1. Yes Man: $18.2 million
2. Seven Pounds: $14.8 million
3. The Tale of Despereaux: $10.1 million
4. The Day the Earth Stood Still: $9.9 million
5. Four Christmases: $7.7 million

Santa is leaving five presents under the tree for movie fans. Whether they contain coal or a GI Joe with Kung Fu Grip remains to be seen. All five of these are opening on Thursday, Christmas day, rather than the usual Friday.

Bedtime Stories
What's It All About: Adam Sandler stars in this comedy about a man who realizes that the fanciful tales he's telling his niece and nephew are coming true.
Why It Might Do Well: This seems tailor-made for people who liked Sandler's 2006 film Click which had a $40 million opening weekend and went on to earn $237 million worldwide.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Rottentomatoes.com is currently rating the film 21% rotten.
Number of Theaters: 3,500
Prediction: $36 million

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
What's It All About: Brad Pitt stars in a film based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald story about a man who is born at the age of 80 and ages in reverse.
Why It Might Do Well: Mr. Pitt carries some serious box office clout, the trailer looks intriguing and Rottentomatoes.com give the film 78%.
Why It Might Not Do Well: It is to laugh.
Number of Theaters: 2,900
Prediction: $22 million

You really expect a movie headlined by Will Smith -- the consensus Biggest Movie Star in the World -- to at least break $20 million in its opening weekend. You'd have to go back to 2001's Ali to find one that didn't. Instead, Seven Pounds -- poorly reviewed and marketed to emphasize the central mystery in a way that turned out mystifying -- played second fiddle to Jim Carrey's Yes Man, pulling in $16 million to Yes Man's $18.1 million.

The Seven Pounds result is actually not terribly surprising, even given the Will Smith factor -- the movie is a morose downer, with none of the uplifting, holiday-appropriate draw of 2006's affable The Pursuit of Happyness (another Smith-Gabriele Muccino collaboration), and the people looking for that sort of thing have a lot to choose from this time of year, most of it carrying more cred. I'm a bit more taken aback by Yes Man's relatively weak opening. For a high-concept Jim Carrey comedy, opening a good three weeks after the last big light-hearted offering, $18 million is uninspiring. It's in the same ballpark as Fun with Dick and Jane, opening around the same time three years ago, but that one went up against three other comedies opening the same weekend, and was harder to market. I wonder if Jim Carrey's draw might be waning a bit.

So you remember those rumors a few weeks back that Russell Brand was signing up as Johnny Depp's 'heir apparent' in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise? Well, it looks like Brand might be playing a charming drunk, but it's not going to be as part of the Sparrow clan. The Hollywood Reporter announced that Brand has started putting together a remake of the 1981 Dudley Moore comedy, Arthur, for Warner Brothers (with an eye of making it a starring vehicle).

The original starred Moore as a boozy playboy who will only inherit his massive fortune on the condition that he marries an heiress selected by his family. When he falls for Liza Minnelli (in the form of a working class woman) he turns to his valet (John Gielgud) for help when forced to choose between money and love.

After making a splash in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Brand started lining up plenty of projects for 2009, including, Bedtime Stories, Julie Taymor's The Tempest, and Get Him to the Greek (which reunites him with the Sarah Marshall crew). The timing really could not be better for Brand to take a little vacation stateside since he seems to be having a tough time in his native land.

When Arthur was first released, the film was a bit hit, and snagged Oscars for Supporting Actor and original music. But, I would be willing to guess that a lot of Brand's fans weren't born when the original was released and won't know the difference. Although, for me, the only true love able drunk on the big screen is Nick Charles..if anyone can make this remake work, it's Brand.

I can't throw these up for you to conveniently click on right in the post (fie embedding disabled!), but read on for links to two funky new television spots.

First up is Adam Sandler's Bedtime Stories. We've seen the gumballs rain down on Sandler, and now there's a cute TV spot to get the whole gist of the picture. Basically, Mr. Zohan plays an architect who concocts bedtime stories for his niece and nephew. They begin coming true, but it's not only raining sugar and fantastic tales of a dude named Skiacus (or Skeetacus? I don't know..). The kids throw dangerous, awe-inspiring feats into the mix, and Sandler must face them in real life. It's a cute premise and I've got to say, a thoroughly enjoyable trailer. Sandler is the perfect guy to match ridiculous feats with real incredulity, and this is the first time I've been excited for a Sandler film in eons. I just hope he doesn't decide to take the Eddie Murphy route and get stuck in the goofy family film rut.

Meanwhile, there's also a new spot for the James Bond extravaganza, Quantum of Solace. It's got all you need to get excited for the film -- Bond music, toughness, and lots of quick clips of action. This is going to be one gorgeous movie that I'm dying to see on the big screen. (And I say this as one of the few who wasn't thrilled with the first installment.) Only 58 days to go!

I think I need to befriend Adam Sandler's new character...

No, I'm not talking about Zohan. I'm talking about Skeeter Bronson in Bedtime Stories. He's a hotel handyman who discovers that the bedtime stories he's telling his niece and nephew are starting to come true. When Skeeter realizes his talent, he tries to take advantage of the situation by improving his life, "but it's the kids' unexpected contributions that turn Skeeter's life upside down."

In the picture above (which Disney sent around yesterday as a part of their fall/holiday preview), he finds himself in a shower of what looks like a whole slew of gumballs. I'm betting that he's thanking all the powers-that-be that he didn't tell stories about it raining cats and dogs... While most of Sandler's current work has not even begun to pique my interest, this sounds like it could be a cute holiday film. But is a storm of candy enough to get you to the theater?

After presenting The Spirit at last month's New York Comic-Con, Lionsgate feels good enough about Frank Miller's solo directorial debut to move it from its January 16th dead zone of a release date to Christmas Day, 2008. So instead of going up against Mall Cop, starring Kevin James as a wacky security guard, and the Notorious B.I.G. biopic, The Spirit will face off against Adam Sandler's Bedtime Stories, the supposedly ultra-heartwarming Marley & Me, The Tale of Despereaux, and the aftershocks of Twilight and The Day the Earth Stood Still.

"Adult" Christmas counterprogramming has not traditionally fared too well. Last year's Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem actually did okay, but remember Black Christmas? No? What about Darkness? The move is indeed a vote of confidence, but it might up throwing the film to the wolves. The key is to position it as a prestige picture rather than a throwaway. There's been enough fanfare around the promotional materials released thus far to make that look like a possibility. If Lionsgate can put it on people's radar in advance as a Christmas Movie to See, rather than have it randomly show up to compete against the holiday heavy-hitters, it could work.

Take a look at the trailer for The Spirit here.