jonas brothers Tagged Articles at Cinematical

In a move that comes as little surprise to anyone who saw the opening weekend grosses for You Guys Are No Hannah Montana: The 3D Concert Experience, it appears that most 3D-equipped screens will be bringing back the critically acclaimed and fairly successful Coraline as a proper theatrical experience starting this Friday. (Make that one less excuse for the animation-savvy likes of Mr. Weinberg. Guy lurves the stuff.)

According to Box Office Mojo, seventy percent of Coraline's $17 million opening weekend was from 3D venues, and the film managed to gross nearly $54 million as a whole before the Jonas Brothers landed three weeks later. However, their $12.5 million opening weekend (compared to Miley Cyrus' twice-as-high opening on half as many screens) and subsequent 77% drop in attendance last weekend suggests that the remaining fortnight before Monsters vs. Aliens lands would be best suited to a film that might still draw a crowd, one of a significantly broader demographic appeal.

Okay, so all numbers aside, families who haven't seen it yet should find it considerably more inventive than the likes of Race to Witch Mountain (though I still wouldn't take the youngest tykes), and anyone else interested now has a chance to catch it proper before it's replaced by another 3D offering that I can only presently assure you will be equally worth your while and dollar.

Last November, around the time that Bolt came out, I was offered with a night's notice a phone interview with Miley Cyrus. Despite my completist habit of seeing pretty much all theatrical releases in a given year, I decided to make an exception with Miley's 3D concert movie, an exception which had now come to haunt me in the most unexpected of ways. To my luck, the film happened to be instantly available through Netflix, and so I sat at my computer for 75 minutes, confirming all that I had been told the previous spring: it was a fine flick for her fans, and equally harmless and pointless to anyone else.

Anyhow, Ms. Cyrus stood me up, but I bring up that story for two reasons: one, to pad my word count, and two, to assure you that I know I am not the ideal audience for Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience, that I know that you know this, and that you know already whether or not you're interested, pumped, and/or psyched -- and chances are that if you are any of those things, then you won't be disappointed.

We just got a press release saying that the Jonas Brothers are teaming up with Marquis Jet to cross the country and pop up in random cities over this weekend to celebrate the release of their 3D concert film. We really interpret this press release to say that ticket pre-sales aren't as gonzo as those for Ms. Miley Montana were this time last year, and here's a gimmick that'll make sure the kids turn up just in case the Brothers decide to.

Just imagine, though: Kevin, Joe and Nick show up at your theater. They sit right behind you, kicking your chair and asking each other how awesome they were at this part and that part. They couldn't text behind you and spill popcorn on your lap at just any old concert now, could they?

The 3D experience will kick Coraline off of those digitally-dedicated screens this Friday (so hurry up already if you haven't gone!), and the IMAX experience in particular will only last for a week after that before getting booted in favor of a movie that only two of the three brothers are actually old enough to see...

Tyler Perry is undeniably an enormous cash cow for Lionsgate. His films are inexpensive to produce (though no doubt Perry himself is commanding a steadily bigger paycheck with every film), and the least of them (the non-Madea-related Daddy's Little Girls) grossed $30 million; Madea's Family Reunion made upwards of $60. As a pure brand-name draw, I thought Perry might be fading a bit; his two 2008 offerings, one of which featured the profane, drag-tastic powerhouse Madea, both ended up toward the bottom of his filmography. Nothing doing. Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail made an eye-popping $41 million on a slow weekend, handily toppling the previous Perry opening record held by Family Reunion. Has there ever been another film (or set of films) with such niche popularity (in this case: African-American, Christian) but such minimal crossover appeal?

(By the way: I haven't seen any of Perry's films, but I find the photo that accompanies this post so inexplicably funny I'm almost tempted to go watch this one.)

Screen Gems' Fired Up!, the only other film to go wide this weekend (perhaps as part of a conspiracy to make people watch the Oscars) made $6 million and landed in 9th place, which actually isn't wretched for the cheap, low-expectations release.

The other notable story from the charts is Friday the 13th, which lost an awesome 81% of its opening-weekend gross and dropped from first place to sixth. Horror films with big openings are notoriously susceptible to big second-weekend drops, but 81% is almost unprecedented -- the only wide release this decade to suffer worse is the infamous Gigli. Among horror films, only Captivity (77% in 2007) came close.

Next week, we'll see what kind of "Oscar bump" Slumdog Millionare gets, but it doesn't need much help: with a slight screen count boost, it rose to #5 this weekend and is almost at $100 million.

The full top 10 after the jump.

If it hasn't happened already, within the next year or so Disney and 3-D technology should become BF4EVAH (or Best Friends For Ever). Just today two whoppers of announcements have been made: First, that Disney will release its classic Beauty and the Beast in Disney Digital 3-D on the big screen in 2010. Joining Beast that same year in Disney Digital 3-D will be the re-release of Toy Story 2, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, Toy Story 3, Rapunzel and Step Up 3D (from Touchstone). Wait, we're not done -- that was just the honeymoon. In 2009, we're looking at Jonas Brothers 3-D Concert Movie, Pixar's Up, G-Force, the re-release of Toy Story and Robert Zemeckis' A Christmas Carol.

Oh, and regarding that last film -- A Christmas Carol -- well, Disney also just announced a deal where Carol will kick off a five-picture arrangement with IMAX Corporation, meaning you will soon be seeing Disney on an even bigger screen in 3-D. Of course, this all leads to the biggie: Pirates of the Caribbean 4, and a continuation of their most popular live-action franchise right now. Those brilliant minds over at Variety seem to think it'd be a no-brainer for Disney to bring Pirates into 3-D territory, and when we asked Jerry Bruckheimer about going 3-D with Pirates recently while visiting the set of Prince of Persia (which we imagine will be one of those five films hitting IMAX screens), he said "Absolutely. I'd love to do it, so let's just see if we can work it through the production schedule with everything else."

But what do you fans of the franchise think? Would you want Pirates 4 to go the 3-D route, or do you feel the technology would take something away from the franchise? Sound off below ...

Quick, name two things you've always wanted to see in a movie on the big screen ...

If you answered the Jonas Bros. and a farting dog, then I have some hella good news for you. 20th Century Fox has seduced the much sought-after Jonas boys (think: this generation's Hanson) into starring in their first feature, and it's called ... Walter the Farting Dog. Okay. What's creepier: That these three boys wanted this project to be their big film debut or that thousands of pre-teen girls will eventually jam and smash their way into theaters for a movie with the word 'farting' in the title? Wait, don't answer that.

All kidding aside, though, my dog churns out some seriously stinky surprises on a daily basis, and so I wholeheartedly sympathize with anyone whose animal likes to spread his or her most delicious fragrance all throughout the house. Interestingly enough, Walter the Farting Dog is based on a very popular series of books about a fat farting dog who joins a family of musicians (hey, the Jonas Bros. are musicians!) when the dog's owner (their aunt) falls sick and passes away. Oh, and here's the cherry for the top of this scrumptious cake: Peter and Bobby Farrelly (There's Something About Mary) might direct the thing. I guess if you're looking for a couple of dudes who do fart jokes for a living, you can't really go wrong with those Farrelly boys ... except if you want your movie to turn out good. Ouch. I still love ya Mary!

What say you Jonas fans? Is this the perfect project for these boys, or should they seek out something a tad less icky?

[via Variety]

It seems most TV series can be watched online for free now, so why not also stream episodes of a program like ABC's Wonderful World of Disney? Sure each episode is actually a feature-length Disney-made film, but a TV show is a TV show. Fortunately, Disney seems to agree, as they're putting this summer's crop of WWoD films online for free. Typical of Disney, though, and unlike ABC.com's library of episodes, each film will only be available for a limited time. Basically, each title will screen on ABC on Saturday night, then it will be up on Disney.com (specifically the WWoD page) the following week, from Monday through Friday only. Currently, Finding Nemo, which appeared on WWoD June 7, is being offered.

Other movies on the schedule this summer include Monsters Inc., Freaky Friday, The Haunted Mansion, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. Peter Pan will be the last to air and then stream, during the first week of August. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the one movie making its world premiere on the program, Camp Rock, will also (or is it only?) stream for 24 hours on June 23, on a separate page, after airing a few times on ABC and ABC Family the weekend prior.

Whoo, I bet you couldn't have seen this coming: after bringing in a whopping $29 million on just 683 screens and selling out shows left and right, the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour has added another week to its one-week limited engagement. This will be great news to all the Hannah fans out there who weren't able to score a ticket the first time around, or who just want to enjoy another week of Hannah-mania. Variety's Pam McClintock noted that the concert's take is the highest Super Bowl weekend gross of all-time, outscoring even mega-hit Titanic*.

My oldest daughter contributed to Titanic's box office by seeing the film something like 20 times with her friends when it was in theaters, and now I expect her 10-year-old sister is going to want to see the Hannah Montana concert at least that many times. The first thing she said on the way out of the theater Friday night was, "Can we go again?" Superbowl weekend is typically heavy on the estrogen, but Disney really scored big with the tween set by making the wildly popular Best of Both Worlds concert available in theaters.

*Typo corrected, thanks to reader Ler for pointing it out. - ed.

True confession: I had more fun at the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus Concert Tour than I've had in a long time at the movie theater. I think it's safe to say that we're seeing the beginning of a new wave in movie theaters; bringing concerts to fans in 3-D in the comfort of a movie theater, for a fraction of the ticket prices of a live concert, is going to be the Next Big Thing -- so long as it's done as well as Disney has pulled off the Hannah Montana concert.

Here's the backstory, in case you haven't heard. Hannah Montana is the Disney Channel's huge hit show among the tween set. It's more than a show, it's a phenomena, spawning everything from Hannah Montana dolls to Hannah wigs and dress-up clothes to a sing-and-dance-along video game that teaches girls (and boys, let's not be gender-specific here) all Hannah's cool moves. Part of the enormous appeal of Hannah Montana is the show's central conceit: Hannah Montana, a famous pop star, is the secret superstar identity of Miley Stewart, an ordinary, dorky girl struggling to get through her freshman year of high school.