hollywood reporter Tagged Articles at Cinematical
R-Rated Comedies Fare Poorly at the Box Office
Filed under: Comedy », Horror », New Releases », Box Office », Distribution », Exhibition »
According to a report conducted by Nielsen PreView published today in The Hollywood Reporter, R-rated comedies don't do so hot at the box office. The timing of these findings seems odd, considering that Step Brothers made a solid $30 million last weekend, while analysts are predicting that another summer comedy slapped with the restricted label, Tropic Thunder, will collect at least that much. Right in the middle of those two releases comes Pineapple Express, which, like Step Brothers and Tropic Thunder, has a built-in core audience interested in raunchy masculine humor. The findings of this report suggest that larger audiences don't want to attend R-rated movies, but it's sort of a pointless observation because R-rated comedies are only made for people who want to see them. Everyone else can check out You Don't Mess with the Zohan.
Of course, there is the occasional R-rated comedy with cross-over appeal, such as Knocked Up, but studios are probably hesitant to make many of those when a safely PG-13 Juno will suffice. Anyway, it's usually not difficult for Hollywood movies to trim a few vulgarities or the fleeting shot of exposed skin in order to knock down the rating a notch and maximize turnout. Horror films are a different story: They usually make bank with the R-rating intact.
Speaking to the 18 and over audience here: Do ratings play any role in the movies you choose to see?
After Images: Batman (1966), (1989), (2008)
Filed under: Fandom », Comic/Superhero/Geek », After Image », Columns »
On a cloudless January day in 1966, Los Angeles was such a dull small town that children could be alerted to something as small a skywriter at work. My parents must have been watching the Rose Bowl, as they did every New Year's Day. In those days we lived five miles or so away from the arena, on the heights over the Arroyo Seco. They saw the plane on TV buzzing the big game and urged me to go outside and have a look. Up in the sky, the small plane, low enough that you could hear the drone of the engine, spelled out the words in smoke B-A-T-M-A-N I-S C-O-M-I-N-G.
Video of the Day: Honoring Judd F**king Apatow
Filed under: Comedy », Awards », Fandom », Trailers and Clips »
Last Friday, Judd Apatow was presented with the Visionary Award at The Hollywood Reporter's Key Art Awards. So, before Apatow took the stage to accept his award, they played a pretty fun reel celebrating the man's work. Sure, it's kinda your typical clip montage, but when you're talking about the films of Judd Apatow, said montage will not only be filthy and funny ... but also come with a nice helping of heart. But because of the harsh, R-rated language, we've included the video after the jump. Did you hear that work people? Harsh, R-rated language. You've been warned ...
P.S. If you look real close about halfway through, you'll see they used a Cinematical post written by yours truly in the montage. Thanks THR!
The Rocchi Review: Online Film Community Podcast -- with Special Guest Anne Thompson of Variety
Filed under: Cannes », Newsstand », Movie Marketing », Cinematical Indie », The Rocchi Review: Online Film Community Podcast »
Do the trades really focus on business at the expense of show? Do people now get what you mean just by saying you're a "blogger?" And what killed Premiere dead -- and why isn't there a glossy, mass-market movie magazine in America? The Rocchi Review, our bi-weekly look at the online film community, is joined this week by Variety's Anne Thompson -- a veteran journalist, commentator and blogger -- and Anne and I talk about all the topics above, and much more. You can download the entire podcast right here -- and we hope you enjoy.
Film Clips: Is Super-Spending By Studios Hurting Hollywood?
Filed under: Action », Independent », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Fandom », Scripts », Insert Caption », Comic/Superhero/Geek », Columns », Film Clips », Cinematical Indie »
Over at her Risky Biz Blog, the ever-on-top-of-things Anne Thompson has a great write-up on the indulgent spending of Hollywood studios on films like Superman Returns, X Men: 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Thompson loves the FX, but hates the over-spending on cool effects extravaganzas at the expense of solid execution. If you're really into reading lots of detail on the FX, stuff, though, Thompson also has a really good piece on all the digital effects that went into making Bryan Singer's vision of Superman come to life. Bottom line, though: Thompson bemoans the huge box office returns on these flicks, because they just encourage studios to keep cranking out more of the same-old, same-old.
The Truth About An Inconvenient Truth
Filed under: Documentary », Independent », Paramount Classics », Movie Marketing », Politics », Cinematical Indie »
Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeff Wells opened up a politely-worded can of whup-ass the other day all over MCN's David Poland for what he called Poland's slamming of the Al Gore-global-warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, as a film "no one really wants to see" (note: I tried to find the actual piece where Poland wrote this and couldn't, so perhaps Poland said this in a private conversation). At any rate, as Mark noted the other day, Gore has been everywhere promoting his film, which he calls the "ultimate action flick", but Poland's not the only one questioning whether people really care enough about the issue of global warming to shell out their cash to see the flick, much less make major lifestyle changes as a result.
The Hollywood Reporter's Anne Thompson wrote a piece the other day on the filmmakers' tireless promotion of the doc, which will be showing at Cannes in spite of having already opened at other fests, and how Paramount Classics is taking a risk opening a documentary about global warming against X-3 on Memorial Day weekend.
Jeremy Renner Wants To Be An Avenger
Directors We Love: Jim Jarmusch
Indie Roundup: 'Sweetgrass,' 'Clarkworld,' 'Broken Embraces'
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Watch: Famous 'Matrix' Scene Re-Created with LEGOs
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