NothingLikeTheHolidays Tagged Articles at Cinematical

The weekend's sole big-budget multiplex offering -- the sappy alien-invasion remake The Day the Earth Stood Still -- opened well with $31 million. But the bigger news lies under the top 10. This was the weekend that Doubt and Gran Torino began their elaborate platform releases, which Miramax and Warner Bros. (respectively) hope will result in multiple Oscar nominations. Doubt opened on 15 screens and grossed $525,000 for a $35,000 per-screen average. Gran Torino -- a goofy, entertaining little movie that's only an awards contender because of Clint Eastwood's involvement -- opened to $284,000 on 6 screens for $47,333 per screen.

Another piece of Oscar bait, The Reader, opened with marginally less fanfare, ending up with $170,000 on 8 screens ($21,250 per screen).

These sets of numbers are promising, but the real test for these movies is what happens once they expand beyond their ultra-limited initial releases. Slumdog Millionare, for example, is handling its slow expansion very well, with $13,000 per-screen on 170 screens, after five weeks.

There's not much to say about the other wide new releases. Nothing Like the Holidays, Overture's niche-y Christmas offering, was predictably lackluster, opening to $3.5 million. The computer-animated Delgo was another flop for Freestyle Releasing (which, as a commenter helpfully pointed out last week, is a for-hire distributor that has nothing to do with the production of its films) with less than $1 million on over 2000 screens.

The only other thing I want to point out this week is that Quantum of Solace may have trouble setting the all-time Bond franchise record I had expected it to set handily. It has not held up well after a strong opening, and is now $10 million shy of Casino Royale's $167 million. Its weekend gross was $3.8 million, so it's going to be close.

The full top 10 -- and then some -- is under the jump.

There are no ingredients in Nothing Like the Holidays that you're not already familiar with from other big-crazy-family Christmas movies. Then again, so what? The Christmas breakfast my mom makes every year never has anything new either -- in fact, there would be open rebellion if it did -- and that suits everyone just fine.

Nothing Like the Holidays is warm and comfortable in that way, mostly pleasant, mostly well acted, and moderately entertaining. Directed by Alfredo De Villa (Washington Heights), it boasts a luminous ensemble of Latino actors as two generations of Puerto Ricans living in Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood. It captures the cultural flavor of their yuletide festivities and intra-family squabbling without being so specific that non-Latino audiences can't appreciate it. Details aside, anyone with a family can relate to most of what happens here.

What happens is that the Rodriguez family gathers for Christmas. Edy (Alfred Molina) and Anna (Elizabeth Peña), married for 36 years, own a neighborhood bodega and eagerly anticipate the reunion of their three children. Their oldest, Mauricio (John Leguizamo), is married to a Jewish girl, Sarah (Debra Messing), and they both work for a law firm in New York. The youngest, Roxanna (Vanessa Ferlito), has been trying to break into showbiz in Hollywood. The middle child, Jesse (Freddy Rodriguez), is a Marine who has been discharged after three years in Iraq, just in time for the holidays. Buffoonish lothario and electronics store owner Cousin Johnny (Luis Guzman) is there, too, and so is Ozzy (Jay Hernandez), a former thug who now works for Edy.

Welcome back to another edition of Insert Caption -- the game that squeaks its mousy way into your heart every Friday. Last week we asked you to show your holiday spirit and give us your bestest captions for a photo from the new flick Nothing Like The Holidays. Congrats to our three Ho-Ho-Homies on their most glamorous win.

1. "The scene shortly before the tragic "Lead Pillow of '78" incident." -- Matt H.

2. "Wait, wait! This isn't cliché enough! Let's turn up the stereo and sing into hairbrushes instead!" -- Jonathan K.

3. "Pillow Fighting with my Ho-Ho-Homies" -- Jason F.

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This week we're hanging with a mouse, a rat and a servant girl whose fates are intertwined with that of the castle's princess. I'm talking about The Tale of Despereaux, of course, and the three folks behind our most favorite cheesy captions will slip away with one The Tale of Despereaux youth t-shirt, one The Tale of Despereaux adult t-shirt, one The Tale of Despereaux youth hat, one The Tale of Despereaux adult hat, one The Tale of Despereaux bookmark, one The Tale of Despereaux croxs shoe decoration, one The Tale of Despereaux mask, one The Tale of Despereaux Princess Pea mask and one The Tale of Despereaux picture frame magnet. You know what to do next ...



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Welcome back to another edition of Insert Caption -- the game Santa obsesses over during his off time. Last week we asked you to celebrate Caption-Gate by churning out a little funny for a photo from the new film Frost/Nixon, in theaters this weekend. Congrats to our three winners, who reminded us of the warped nicknames that plagued the Nixon era.

1. "I know they call him Tricky Dick, but that's just inappropriate." -- Don P.

2. "The De-Evolution of Sideburns" -- Joshua B.

3. "Frost, Woodward, and Bernstein look up in dismay as Nixon finally puts it together and figures out who Deep Throat was. Of course, having their secret conversations in the television studio was probably a bad idea." -- Kathi F.

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This week we're loosening our belt buckles, hiding the scale and waitin' for Santa to bring us all sorts of goodies because there ain't nothin' like the holidays. And whaddya know, the film we're highlighting this week is called Nothing Like the Holidays (in theaters December 12), and those folks behind the three naughtiest (but tasteful) captions will prance away with one Nothing Like the Holidays soundtrack, one Nothing Like the Holidays cookbook, one Nothing Like the Holidays scarf, one Nothing Like the Holidays notepad, one Nothing Like the Holidays poster, one Nothing Like the Holidays flask and one Nothing Like the Holidays grocery bag. So start shopping for the best caption, folks, and sound off below ...



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Feel that chill in the air? That's because you left the kitchen window open -- go on, I'll wait -- but that secondary chill you're feeling would be the multiplex yuletide season turning in our direction, ready and waiting to melt the bleep out of your heart. Last year, it was This Christmas and The Perfect Holiday begging to be mistaken for one another (in title, not in quality).

This year we've got at least two winter-themed family-minded dramedies waiting in the wings. First out the gate is Nothing Like The Holidays (the trailer's now up at Apple), in which a Hispanic-American family gathers for what might be their last Christmas spent together. Sooooo ... it's basically This Christmas, with the casting emphasis on a different minority. However, for all that film's familiar beats, I found myself surprisingly won over, so here's to hoping that something similar might come of Holidays on November 21st.

In the other corner, we have Four Christmases, in which Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon find themselves shuffling off to visit each of their parents on X-Mas Day. If this (embed-less) TV spot on YouTube is any indication, Vaughn's creaky neurotic shtick and infant spewage will be par for the course, not to mention the last thing I might expect to come from the non-doco directorial debut of Seth Gordon (The King of Kong). As the Hollywood gods have decreed it, Christmases is set to open just before Thanksgiving on November 26th. Ah, the smell of leftovers...