Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Tagged Articles at Cinematical
'New Moon' Smashes 'Dark Knight's' Opening Day Record!
Filed under: Drama », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Box Office », Fandom », Newsstand »
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According to ERC, The Twilight Saga: New Moon sold roughly $71 million (Variety is reporting $72.7 million) worth of tickets on its opening day -- a number that, if correct, far surpasses the current opening day box office record of $67 million set by The Dark Knight back in 2008. With its $26 million take in midnight showings, that gives the second installment in the Twilight franchise two pretty giant records: Best Midnight Opening and Best Single Day Opening. Next up for the franchise is the three-day opening weekend record, also held by The Dark Knight with $158 million.
So what does this say about us? Well, while it's not as critically acclaimed as, say, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (previous midnight opening record holder) or The Dark Knight, these numbers do show just how much of an impact the female audience can have on a box office take. Sure, when The Dark Knight broke records everyone wanted to single out the teenage male audience as having won that film its titles, but polls showed females were responsible for upwards of 50% of that film's opening box office too. And now, with New Moon breaking records attracting a younger female audience, here's hoping studios wake up and realize that, yeah, the female audience is a damn powerful force.
So kudos to all you Twi-hards for showing up to support the property you love. Is the film truly worthy of its new records? Probably not. Will another film break those records within the next year? Yeah, most likely. But dammit if the folks at Summit Entertainment aren't partying their asses off this weekend. They just won the World Series at the box office. Congrats!
Walmart, Target and Amazon Slash DVD Prices
Filed under: Deals », Fandom », Home Entertainment »
If you are the type of person who likes to get their Christmas shopping done early, I've got some good news for you, because now is your chance to buy some seriously cheap DVDs. Variety is reporting that the online stores for Walmart, Target, and Amazon, have gotten into a DVD pricing war and passing those savings on to you. But don't worry, these aren't your usual discount bin selections, instead, big name titles like Star Trek, Night and The Museum 2, and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will be going for the low price of only $10 each. It all started when Walmart announced last Thursday that they would be offering titles like Angels & Demons, Julie & Julia, and Terminator: Salvation at a lower price (but you were only guaranteed the discount price if you shopped online). The reason for the discount according to Walmart was to, "help families holiday shop during this difficult economic environment.", but most have just speculated that the retailer was suffering online and this sale is just the latest attempt to drum up flagging business.
It didn't take long before Target and Amazon jumped into the fray and now an all out 'pricing war' has begun between the three retailers. But before you get too excited, keep in mind that this isn't a shift to a new price scale for DVDs, and the discount is simply to drive new customers to shop online. Prices are expected to go back to normal by the time these titles go into wide release later this month -- so if you love a bargain, you're going to need to act fast.
Have Yourself a Spectrespec Halloween
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Fandom », Remakes and Sequels »
In the summer of 2008, we got to see what the wonderful Luna Lovegood looked like in her spectrespecs. The image made me wonder if we'd be lucky enough to find spectrespec-shaped 3D glasses in the theaters when Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince hit, but alas, no such luck. However, now the WB store is offering Luna Lovegood Spectra Specs. (I guess spelling them with the proper "re" was too confusing. It's Philosopher's Stone/Sorcerer's Stone all over again!)Anyway... The specs are quite like the ones in the film, but as an added bonus, they're also "UV 400 100% protection against ultra-violet rays." I'm not sure what pink and blue hues with psychedelic patterns do to one's eyeballs, but the store is definitely right in that these would make a killer addition to a Luna Lovegood costume. It's a really added bonus that these suckers are only $11.96.
It makes me wish these movies came out years earlier, so my young, long-haired, tow-headed self could have gone wild with Luna costume magic. As it stands, I don't think my adult self can resist picking up a pair. Anyone with me?
[via The Leaky Cauldron]
Weekend Box Office: 'District 9' Rides Buzz to $37 Million
Filed under: New Releases », Box Office »
Sometimes you need neither big-name actors nor a ginormous budget -- just a cool high concept and some nifty advertising that knows how to get the pitch across. The sci-fi-action-allegory District 9 knocked G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra off its short-lived perch with a $37 million weekend. Word-of-mouth appears to be strong, so this one has a chance to make something of itself in a market that will grow less crowded over the next few weeks. G.I. Joe fell just under 60%, which was as expected; it's roughly at $100 million after two weeks.The weekend's other high-profile newcomer was The Time Traveler's Wife, which grossed $19 million, beating out the last time-traveling romance to hit theaters, the Keanu Reeves/Sandra Bullock weepie The Lake House. (That one opened to $13 million but held up well thereafter). Then there were a few relative dumps: Jeremy Piven's The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard landed in 6th place with $5.4 million; Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo wound up in 9th place with $3.5 million (about par for the course for a US Miyazaki release); and the pretty damn good Bandslam turned into one of the year's biggest flops, grossing $2.3 million on over $2000 screens. Figures that the rare attempt to appeal to the Disney Channel demographic without force-feeding it Disney Channel garbage does absolutely no business.
Among non-G.I. Joe holdovers, Julie & Julia did reasonably well, which makes sense given the extent to which it's targeting older audiences not likely to run out to the theater on opening weekend. And Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, creeping toward $300 million domestic, is now assured second place in the franchise.
The full top 13 (!) after the jump.
Weekend Box Office: 'Funny People' for the Modest Win
Filed under: New Releases », Box Office »
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.
Weekend Box Office: 'Harry Potter' Takes a Tumble
Filed under: New Releases », Box Office »
Sometimes -- more often than I'd care to admit -- I'm wrong about just how the weekend's box office will play out. But I'm rarely gobsmacked like I am this week. I expected G-Force to be part of the Disney live action also rans -- at best, I thought it would put up Race to Witch Mountain-type numbers; maybe $24 million. And I thought that it would handily be beaten by the well-liked Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, coming off a franchise record opening. That is not how the estimates have it. As of Sunday, the guinea pig spy movie is ahead of Half-Blood Prince by just over $2 million: $32.2 to Potter's $30. Potter tumbled over 60% from its opening -- actually not the biggest drop-off in series history, which honor belongs, strangely, to Prisoner of Azkaban. Though I wouldn't shed any tears for the folks at Warner Bros., what with the film's worldwide gross breaking $600 million, the drop is a bit of a disappointment for the well-reviewed sixth film. G-Force, I guess, is a triumph for talking CGI animals and 3D.
Fan Rant: Harry Potter and The 'Heroes' Effect
Filed under: Fandom », Fan Rant »
A lot of things can bug movie fans, whether it's bad acting, cliches, or poor continuity, but there's one that annoys me beyond all others -- The Heroes Effect. Basically, the movie or television show hints and titillates at upcoming, impending conflict, battle, and awesome action. You anticipate it, wait for it, and then just as it's about to appear ... WHOOSH! It's gone. It's happened off-screen, or behind that door that just closed.Heroes is darned good at it, making you yearn for the action, and only barely following through -- even in the finales. But when this same trend hits the big screen as well, the irks increase. This experience has been paid for; the expectations are higher. And in the case of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, it comes after a number of hours of dealing a packed, antsy theater of prepubescents. <spoiler alert>
Eric's already mentioned one of the big changes between the book and the film -- just how Harry watches the Snape/Dumbledore confrontation unfold. But what about the fight downstairs? Hogwarts wasn't picking their noses when this all went down. And most importantly -- Rowling had finally let Professor McGonagall get her fight on as she Ginny, Tonks, Lupin, Neville, etc battled the Death Eaters. Surely that's better than Bellatrix tromping around? Surely room could've been made for it. Take out a snog or two. There still would've been plenty to giggle about. The gem of the final books is seeing everyone get their due, whether that be revenge or the chance to finally see them fight and come into their own.
There's no reason for The Heroes Effect. If action is hinted, if cool things are happening -- show them! If the book's got a great scene of fighting that has McGonagall as a robe-clad Ripley, show it! If you can't ... why bother?
Weekend Box Office: Let's See What This Mr. Potter Can Do
Filed under: New Releases », Box Office »
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is only the second Harry Potter film to open on a Wednesday, after 2007's Order of the Phoenix. By the Sunday of its opening weekend, Order of the Phoenix was looking at a pretty impressive $140 million, on its way to being the year's 5th highest grosser, and a solid #2 in the franchise. By the Sunday of its opening weekend, Half-Blood Prince has $160 million in its coffers, as well as a slew of rapturous reviews and positive fan responses. (Well, mostly. There will always be whining from Rowling purists who don't know what an adaptation is.)That raises a real possibility that Half-Blood Prince could dethrone current domestic franchise king Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which holds the top spot with $317 million. At the very least, it looks like it might be the only movie other than Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen to break the $300 million mark in 2009. (Transformers itself is already at $363 million -- #13 of all time! Christ!* -- and is looking unbeatable.)
Brüno took the tumble that its front-loaded opening weekend suggested (it made more than half its first weekend gross on the Friday of its release), dropping over 70% to fourth place. It will end up with around half of Borat's $129 million final number. The other summer comedies in circulation, The Hangover and The Proposal continue to hold up very well, with the former boosting from #6 to #5 in its seventh week of release.
(500) Days of Summer, opening on 27 screens in advance of a steady expansion in the coming weeks, got off to a promising 12th place start with a per-screen average over $30K.
The full top 12 after the jump.
'Half-Blood Prince' Changes the Book -- for the Better
Filed under: New Releases », Harry Potter »
The release of a new Harry Potter film always means a deluge of complaints about how it failed to exactly duplicate every single word of J.K. Rowling's sacred text, and Half-Blood Prince is no different. (Adam Quigley from Always Watching tweeted this amusing screenshot of the IMDb message boards Wednesday morning that sums it up pretty well.) Not having read the book since it came out four years ago, I didn't remember it in great enough detail to notice any major changes in the movie -- until the climactic scene in the tower, when something did stand out. And it stands out as an improvement over the book. Spoilers for the book and the movie follow!
As readers well remember, that scene has Draco Malfoy confronting Dumbledore with the intention of killing him, as ordered by Voldemort. In the book, Harry is under the invisibility cloak at this point, so no one knows he's there, and Dumbledore has stupefied him so he can't act. Then the Death Eaters and Snape come along, and Snape finishes the job that Draco can't muster the courage to perform. Harry is powerless to do anything until Dumbledore is dead, which cancels the stupefying spell.
The movie plays out essentially the same way but with one key difference. Instead of being stupefied and invisible, Harry is hiding silently below the floor where the action is happening. Why? Because Dumbledore told him to, having already extracted from Harry a promise that he would obey whatever directions Dumbledore gave him.
Read the rest at SciFi Squad
Box Office: Who is the Half-Blood Prince?
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Family Films », Box Office Predictions »
Bruno topped the box office this past weekend, ending the Transformers two-week reign while pushing the giant robots all the way down to third place. America was not feeling the love for Beth Cooper which debuted in seventh. Here's the top five:
1. Bruno: $30.6 million
2. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs: $27.6 million
3. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: $24.2 million
4. Public Enemies: $13.7 million
5. The Proposal: $10.6 million
Just one new release this week and it's rolling out on Wednesday.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
What's It All About: The adaptation of the sixth and penultimate novel in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. The threat of Voldemort's return and raging teenage hormones make for an interesting year at Hogwarts.
Why It Might Do Well: Apparently the first trick they teach the kids at Hogwarts is how to conjure up currency as the series has proven to be a license to print money. A 95% rating at Rottentomatoes.com suggests the trend will probably continue.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Rowling's books got quite a bit longer as the series progressed. The film version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix felt like a Cliff's Notes version of the novel, hitting the highlights but not quite jelling in my humble opinion. Might the Half-Blood Prince do the same?
Number of Theaters: 4,250
Prediction: $96 million
1. Bruno: $30.6 million
2. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs: $27.6 million
3. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: $24.2 million
4. Public Enemies: $13.7 million
5. The Proposal: $10.6 million
Just one new release this week and it's rolling out on Wednesday.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood PrinceWhat's It All About: The adaptation of the sixth and penultimate novel in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. The threat of Voldemort's return and raging teenage hormones make for an interesting year at Hogwarts.
Why It Might Do Well: Apparently the first trick they teach the kids at Hogwarts is how to conjure up currency as the series has proven to be a license to print money. A 95% rating at Rottentomatoes.com suggests the trend will probably continue.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Rowling's books got quite a bit longer as the series progressed. The film version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix felt like a Cliff's Notes version of the novel, hitting the highlights but not quite jelling in my humble opinion. Might the Half-Blood Prince do the same?
Number of Theaters: 4,250
Prediction: $96 million
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