ChickenLittle Tagged Articles at Cinematical

What to make of Twilight's $70.5 million bow? Well, it's not quite Harry Potter, whose first-weekend outings have ranged from $77 million to $102. But when you consider that Twilight is basically a niche film -- certainly it has a lot less cross-demographic appeal than Harry Potter -- its success starts to seem pretty remarkable. Are there any teenage girls who didn't see it this weekend? And what will happen to it next weekend? All the fans may have seen Twilight already -- then again, many of the die-hards may grace it with repeat viewings. Given the incessant shrieking at the screening I attended, that wouldn't surprise me.

Disney's Bolt didn't take despite favorable reviews. The studio continues to have trouble getting its non-Pixar animated features off the ground as tentpoles. Its best go was Chicken Little three years ago; Bolt looks to land about on par with Meet the Robinsons. Disappointing.

What else. Quantum of Solace remains on track to be the top-grossing Bond film of all time. Just below the top 10, Slumdog Millionaire is riding a deserved wave of great word-of-mouth to a $31,000 per-screen average on 32 screens. It'll continue to expand in the coming weeks, and should hit the top 10 before long.

The full estimates after the jump.

I don't believe the hype that 3-D will dominate the movie world in the near future, but it does seem like a lot of movies are using the technology these days. The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Disney will release the animated feature Bolt, (once called American Dog) in Digital 3-D next year. Bolt features the voices of John Travolta, Woody Harrelson, and Susie Essman (who had better curb her Curb Your Enthusiasm language!). It tells "the story of a TV star dog named Bolt (Travolta) who is accidentally shipped from his Hollywood soundstage to New York, where he begins a cross-country journey through the real world." Chris Williams directs the film.

Disney has been one of the biggest supporters of 3-D. In recent years, Chicken Little, Meet the Robinsons, and the sweet, sweet Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas were all released in the format. Speaking of Nightmare, as Monika told you earlier this month, Tim Burton has signed to produce and direct 3-D versions of Alice in Wonderland and his own terrific short film, Frankenweenie for Disney. On the opposite end of the cool spectrum, Disney's next 3-D release is the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour, which will play in theaters Feb. 1-7. Start scalping those tickets now!

Before I get to the meat of this week's column, I have a little appetizer of an issue to discuss. The other day, I went to see American Gangster at a Regal theater and once again participated in the Guest Response System. But unlike my first experience, I actually had to use the thing this time. While pressing the "Other Disturbance" button over and over and over because of a loud toddler, then finally after too long a time receiving responses in the forms of, first, a security guard and, second, a crew of ushers, I eventually realized that there is no way to communicate what exactly is the disturbance you're alerting the staff about. I don't want to say the parents of the toddler were covering the kid's mouth each time a Regal employee scoped out the auditorium, but coincidentally there was no disturbance whenever someone was monitoring the audience. And so, despite my having the little complainer pager, I put up with two-and-a-half hours of a sporadically loud child who should have never been brought to American Gangster in the first place.

Okay, now that I've got that off my plate, it's time to address the main topic of the week:

Beowulf.

On Friday, Robert Zemeckis' new performance-capture "animated" film hits 2,800 screens across the U.S. More than 700 of those screens will show the film in digital 3-D, via IMAX, Real D or Dolby systems (yes, there's three different 3-D systems). It's apparently the largest rollout of a 3-D release ever, and it could mean big things for both Hollywood and the exhibition industry. Or it could be just another 3-D movie, no more an event than when Disney's Chicken Little came out a couple years ago touted as the first digital 3-D release to hit regular cinemas.