mongol Tagged Articles at Cinematical

What's the formula for success? Teens, drugs, Ben Kingsley kisses and 90s nostalgia, evidently. Jonathan Levine's The Wackness scored the best per-screen average of the weekend -- $24,166 -- at six theaters in New York and Los Angeles, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo.

On the other hand, French thriller Tell No One packed them in without any of those elements, earning $20,120 per-screen at eight theaters, according to Leonard Klady's estimates at Movie City News. As somebody once said: C'est la vie.

At the one theater in Los Angeles where it opened, the box office went Kabluey for the film with the same name ($7,900 in receipts) while Alex Gibney's entertaining, if schematic, doc, Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, made $7,307 per screen at 26 theaters celebrating independence across the nation.

Not as many were interested in Holding Trevor ($3,400 per-screen at 2 theaters) and audiences declined interest in Diminished Capacity ($2,830 per-screen at 4 theaters). You can read more about all these releases in Indie Spotlight, the new column by Eric D. Snider.

Notable holdovers include Trumbo ($4,233 per-screen average, 6 theaters, 2nd week of release); Mongol ($3,490 per-screen, 253 theaters, 5th week); Brick Lane ($3,451 per-screen, 31 theaters, 3rd week); Roman de Gare ($2,400 per-screen, 37 theaters, 11th week), and The Visitor ($2,017 per-screen, 176 theaters, 13th week).

Kit Kittredge: An American Girl broke into the overall top 10, expanding to more than 1,800 theaters and drawing $1,953 per screen -- but that's a very disappointing figure after the gangbusters box office of its very limited first two weeks of release. The film has grossed more than $6.1 million so far.

Despite dropping more than 50% in its second week of release, Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (Picturehouse) outdrew all other specialty releases over the weekend, earning $21,200 per screen at five theaters, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo.

Directed by Canadian indie veteran Patricia Rozema (I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, When Night is Falling), Kit Kittredge has clearly benefited from a devoted fan base that convinced thousands of their parental units to fork over $20 per ticket -- which, to be fair, includes a limited-edition t-shirt -- to see the movie in advance of its wide release tomorrow. That's a very good performance when you consider its main competition was not, actually, a French-language flick that skewed very adult, but actually a heavily-advertised animated film.

Catherine Breillat's The Last Mistress (IFC Films), starring Asia Argento, took in $17,600 per screen at two locations, which probably owes as much, if not more, to the name recognition of Argento as that of the often-confounding Breillat.

I noticed an unusual number of young girls clutching dolls at a multiplex on Saturday afternoon. This made me very nervous. I know it's summer and school's out, but the early Saturday crowd tends to be non-teenage people like me who try and catch up with the latest Hollywood releases without the distractions of the Friday/Saturday night teen crowd. What were all the young girls coming to see? Kung Fu Panda? Get Smart? Sex and the City?

Nope, the hordes of girls were lining up politely to see the latest trendy indie release: Kit Kittredge: An American Girl. One of the last three releases from distributor Picturehouse, which is due to shut down completely very soon, Kit Kittredge may be based on a doll, yet has further indie cred thanks to Little Miss Sunshine star Abigail Breslin. And maybe all those little girls will grow up to write their own Juno some day? In any case, the film opened in five theaters in five cities, two weeks in advance of a wide release, and grossed a super impressive $44,600 per screen, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo.

Picturehouse also scored with another one of their last-gasp releases, the Mongolian war-mongering Mongol, which expanded to 94 screens and turned in a muscular performance of $7,914 per screen.

An epic tale of a famed warrior edged out the modern explorations of a Bavarian filmmaker. Sergei Bodrov's Mongol (Picturehouse) earned $21,400 per screen in its second week of release at five theaters, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo. Does this prove that indie film lovers like their blockbuster-style movies, too? If nothing else, I think it shows that people like a wide variety of movies, no matter if they're heading to the arthouse or the multiplex.

Unlikely as it seems, Werner Herzog has made a G-rated film, suitable for the entire film. Encounters at the End of the World (ThinkFilm) moved Jeffrey M. Anderson to write: "Herzog's film is something closer to art; it has a direct line to its creator's soul. If you see a lot of documentaries and that tired, old PBS format with the talking heads, narrator and clips has started to wear thin, Herzog's open, honest film is as refreshing as an icy breeze." The film grossed $17,500 at one theater in Manhattan.

Opening at two theaters in Austin, rather than the tired old Manhattan and Hollywood, Baghead (Sony Pictures Classics) did very nicely, thank you, earning $4,450 per screen. Jette Kernion commented recently on the unusual release pattern. At Sundance, Eric D. Snider reviewed it ("a blast of fresh air"). James Rocchi interviewed filmmakers Jay and Mark Duplass. We even premiered the poster. All I'm saying is: Go Baghead!

Genghis Khan rules! Sergei Bodrov's Mongol (Picturehouse), the first installment of a planned trilogy covering the Mongolian military leader, cleaned up at the indie box office, taking in $25,360 per screen, according to estimates compiled by Leonard Klady at Movie City News. Our own Jeffrey M. Anderson didn't even like the battle scenes -- "polite and observant rather than reckless or exciting" -- much less the movie as a whole. Eric D. Snider was more admiring, if not wildly enthusiastic, as were most critics (per Rotten Tomatoes).

Two films that opened at one theater each performed quite well. Take Out (Cavu Pictures) earned $9,900. Directed by Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou, the film depicts a day in the life of an illegal Chinese immigrant who must pay off a large debt to his smugglers or face the consequences. The only way to pay the debt? Get good tips from his wealthy delivery route. Both the New York Times and Village Voice were complimentary.

Eric Guirado's Grocer's Son (Film Movement) made $9,500. The titular character must leave the city to return to the country and care for his sick father's duties. Gradually he finds that the villagers are not so gruff after all, and romance might be blooming too. Slant Magazine and Variety published positive reviews, though noting various flaws.

In an early scene in Iron Man, one of the evil terrorists makes a speech about Genghis Khan, explaining how impressive it was that he managed to take over so much of the world given the technological drawbacks of his time. That one moment says a lot more about the real Genghis Khan than the entire, bloated 126 minutes of Mongol. Directed by Sergei Bodrov (Prisoner of the Mountains), Mongol does a lot of "sweeping." It moves from sweeping vistas to sweeping battles and when it stops sweeping, it really has no idea what to do; it merely waits for the next opportunity to sweep. In one scene, our hero, Temudjin (Tadanobu Asano), returns to his family after some time in captivity, and he has brought his new bride with him. Bodrov films a quiet dinner scene inside a tent, but he's so impatient and restless over such an "ordinary" scene that the dialogue mainly consists of, "isn't it great to have Temudjin home again?" The film can't wait to get back outside and start sweeping again.

Cinematical was just handed this exclusive clip from the film Mongol, which finally arrives in theaters in limited release on June 6 after being nominated for a Best Foreign Language Oscar. Mongol comes from the award-winning Russian filmmaker Sergei Bodrov (Prisoner of the Mountains), and it follows the early years of Genghis Khan -- before he took on that name, through his perilous childhood to the battle that sealed his destiny. Cinematical's Eric D. Snider reviewed the film when it played the Portland Film Festival, and said: "The battle scenes, in particular, are thrilling and visceral without being too nauseating, and Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano's performance as Temudjin has the stoicism and dedication you need for an effective biopic hero." I think it goes without saying that we all love a film with a few good battles in it, and Mongol looks to give us just that ... and then some. Check out the clip above, then the poster, then get your asses to the theater when it arrives on June 6.

Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for the Oscar-nominated film Mongol, from the award-winning Russian filmmaker Sergei Bodrov (Prisoner of the Mountains). The film follows the early years of Genghis Khan, before he took on that name, through his perilous childhood to the battle that sealed his destiny. Filmed in the very lands that gave birth to Genghis Khan, Mongol transports us back to a distant and exotic period in world history; to a nomad's landscape of endless space, climatic extremes and ever-present danger. In his review from the Portland Film Festival, Cinematical's Eric D. Snider said of Mongol: "The battle scenes, in particular, are thrilling and visceral without being too nauseating, and Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano's performance as Temudjin has the stoicism and dedication you need for an effective biopic hero."

Mongol is set to arrive in theaters on June 6.

As my wife said, it's just not the Oscars if there's nothing to complain about. However, I was impressed that two of the year's toughest films, Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood (389 screens) and Joel and Ethan Coen's No Country for Old Men took the most nominations. Typically, the Academy is attracted to much less challenging and easy-to-categorize films (like Atonement). Both films are fairly bleak in their vision, but I suspect There Will Be Blood will sneak out ahead for two reasons: it's an epic, and epics almost always win. And, to quote a character from Sunset Boulevard, it "says a little something" about the current sociopolitical climate.

One of the biggest controversies cropped up over the foreign film category, which came up with five nominations that no one has ever heard of. (The Counterfeiters opens sometime next month and Mongol opens in June.) Not to mention that they ignored top contenders like 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (opening this week) and Persepolis (30 screens). Thankfully the outrage has begun discussions on changing the stupid, ancient rules for the category. Currently these rules require each country to submit one film, and multi-national films, such as The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (107 screens), to be disqualified. A small group of "specialists," rather than the Academy as a whole, votes on the small list of films. The documentary category was less obscure, and although I saw 19 documentaries in 2007, I only managed to see two of the five nominees, No End in Sight and Sicko. I have an Academy screener for Operation Homecoming that I hope to catch soon, and Taxi to the Dark Side (1 screen) is screening for Bay Area press next week.