race to witch mountain Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Weekend Box Office: 'Witch Mountain' Outpaces 'Last House on the Left' as 'Watchmen' Falls
Filed under: New Releases », Box Office »
It's a rule that big blockbusters with big openings take big hits their second weekend, but Watchmen's 67% drop is more akin to notoriously frontloaded horror films than to tentpole releases. Look for $120 million in North America at the end of the day, which is shy of the $150 million production budget -- though the foreign number, already up to $50 million, should help. Elisabeth has more on the implications of this here.Race to Witch Mountain won the weekend with $25 million, which is strong but not outstanding: didn't everyone think that the Rock would be a huge superstar draw by now? He didn't open this film; Witch Mountain's success is due to Disney's shrewd (and accurate) marketing of it as breezy family sci-fi -- and the only new family offering since Coraline.
The Last House on the Left opened to $14.6 million and third place, which won't put it in the horror remake pantheon, but probably makes Universal happy -- the film was cheap, and it opened on under 2500 screens (chump change these days). The goofy sex comedy Miss March opened to a meager $2.4 million, squeaking into the top 10. And in its seventh weekend of release, the Liam Neeson actioner Taken continues to groove along, dropping under 10% and passing $125 million.
The full top 10 after the jump.
Review: Race to Witch Mountain
Filed under: Action », New Releases », Disney », Theatrical Reviews », Family Films », Remakes and Sequels »
In fulfillment of the prophecy that Disney will eventually remake every single one of its live-action movies, here is Race to Witch Mountain. It bears a passing resemblance to 1975's Escape to Witch Mountain, but it's more reminiscent of a tiresome carnival ride whose operator abandoned it and left it to run for 90 minutes. Whatever fun there is in it quickly gives way to tedium.
Appropriately, it's set in loud, gaudy Las Vegas, where Jack Bruno (Dwayne Johnson) works as a cab driver. In the past he has freelanced his services for one Mr. Wolf, a shady underworld figure whose goons regularly visit Jack trying to re-enlist him. Maybe I shouldn't bother mentioning that, though, because it ultimately has nothing to do with the story. For that reason, I'm also not going to mention Jack's lifelong desire to own a particular Ford Mustang, since that detail was clearly added only after someone read a screenwriting book and paused at the chapter that talked about giving your characters hopes and dreams. It's extraneous.
But back to the actual story. Jack encounters two strange preteens, a brother and sister named Seth (Alexander Ludwig) and Sara (AnnaSophia Robb). They are extraterrestrials whose spaceship crashed in the desert when they came to Earth in search of a MacGuffin, and now they must get the item and return to the ship -- which is problematic, because the U.S. government, led by heartless Henry Burke (Ciarán Hinds), has recovered the craft and hidden it away somewhere. There's also an alien assassin pursuing the kids, though that's another thing that's ultimately not particularly relevant.
'Coraline' Returns to 3D Screens This Friday
Filed under: Action », Animation », Music & Musicals », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Disney », RumorMonger », Exhibition », Focus Features », Family Films », Dreamworks »
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.
Box Office: Do You Smell What The Rock is Bewitching?
Filed under: Horror », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Family Films », Box Office Predictions »
Who watches the Watchmen? Quite a few people apparently. The R-rated super hero epic was last week's only new release, beating out its nearest contender by about $47 million. Here's the top five:
1. Watchmen: $55.2 million
2. Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail: $8.5 million
3. Taken: $7.3 million
4. Slumdog Millionaire: $6.8 million
5. Paul Blart: Mall Cop: $4.1 million
Three new releases this week:
The Last House on the Left
What's It All About: Remake of Wes Craven's disturbing sleaze-fest from 1972 which borrowed its plot from Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring. Two young women are brutally assaulted by a prison escapee and his gang. The criminals take refuge in what turns out to be the home of one of their victims and find themselves on the receiving end of her parents' revenge.
Why It Might Do Well: 2008's home invasion horror flick The Strangers struck me as very similar to Craven's original Last House, so there may be a market for this kind of movie.
Why It Might Not Do Well: The original was a dark and disturbing product of its time. How much will the story have to be de-fanged for a major release today?
Number of Theaters: 2,300
Prediction: $17 million
1. Watchmen: $55.2 million
2. Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail: $8.5 million
3. Taken: $7.3 million
4. Slumdog Millionaire: $6.8 million
5. Paul Blart: Mall Cop: $4.1 million
Three new releases this week:
The Last House on the LeftWhat's It All About: Remake of Wes Craven's disturbing sleaze-fest from 1972 which borrowed its plot from Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring. Two young women are brutally assaulted by a prison escapee and his gang. The criminals take refuge in what turns out to be the home of one of their victims and find themselves on the receiving end of her parents' revenge.
Why It Might Do Well: 2008's home invasion horror flick The Strangers struck me as very similar to Craven's original Last House, so there may be a market for this kind of movie.
Why It Might Not Do Well: The original was a dark and disturbing product of its time. How much will the story have to be de-fanged for a major release today?
Number of Theaters: 2,300
Prediction: $17 million
Star Wars: Superbowl Commercial and Freaky New Posters
Filed under: Action », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Fandom », Newsstand », Movie Marketing », Trailers and Clips », Posters »
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It amazes me how much Star Wars junk pops up online each day, and while this post started out about one thing, it's now grown large enough to house a few galactic tidbits. First off, MTV landed a look at our first movie-related Superbowl commercial, and it involves the flick Race to Witch Mountain, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson ... and Storm Troopers? Check out the trailer below to see what I mean ...
Next up we have a trilogy of very cool Hungarian Star Wars posters for each of the original three films (courtesy of Superpunch), and tell me these don't freak you out. Especially the one for Empire Strikes Back, and those alien-like At-At Walkers -- or even the one for Return of the Jedi makes it look like some creepy underwater adventure ... or something. Check them out in the gallery below.
Also in the gallery below we have a poster for the book Deathtroopers, written by Joe Schreiber, which promises to be the first Star Wars horror story. Talk about creep-tastic, Shreiber added this about the book over on his blog: "I'm doing the final edits now, and I've tried to make it into exactly the kind of book you'd want to read if you were a child of the 70s who grew up with the original Star Wars trilogy and really digs horror in the vein of The Shining and Alien, with a little dose of William Gibson mixed in." Um, awesome? That's part of the poster up above; you can see the rest of it -- along with the Hungarian posters -- in the gallery below. [via StarWars.com and Slashfilm]
Discuss: The Action Flicks of 2009
Filed under: Action », Comedy », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Thrillers », Mystery & Suspense », Disney », Paramount », Sony », Universal », Warner Brothers », Fandom », 20th Century Fox », The Weinstein Co. », Quentin Tarantino », Johnny Depp », Harry Potter », Comic/Superhero/Geek », Remakes and Sequels »
So Erik-with-a-k covered the coming comedies of 2009, Scott was all over the horror picks (though his inclusion of Race to Witch Mountain still boggles my mind), Eric-with-a-c nabbed the family-friendly fare, and Elisabeth went over the geek fodder that awaits. But while I respect their calendar years and made-up math alike, I've opted to divide my list of 2009's action and adventure flicks into four categories: Action Flicks I Couldn't Care More About, Action Flicks I Couldn't Care Less About, Action Flicks That I Hope Surprise Me, and Those Which Fell In Between. Enjoy!Action Flicks I Couldn't Care More About: First and foremost -- Watchmen (March 6th). It's one hell of a graphic novel and looks to be one hell of an adaptation (with or without the Giant Blank), but the only problem is it may not hit theaters on time if 20th Century Fox has anything to say about it. Both Fox and Warner Brothers are fighting over who actually owns the rights, and if a judge favors Fox comes January 20th (when the court date is set), we're looking at a delayed release and a whole ton of angry fans. Then there's Public Enemies (July 1st), which has me sold on not the subject matter, but sheer pedigree: Michael Mann directs Johnny Depp and Christian Bale as '30s gangsters. (It doesn't hurt that the earliest word ranges from damn good to great.) On the skimpier side, I can only hope that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (July 17th) streamlines its source material as the previous one had, and I can only hope that Crank 2: High Voltage (April 17th) lives up/down to the depravity of its predecessor. There's one last action movie that I couldn't care more about because, well, I've already seen a version of it. The international cut of Taken (January 30th, though reportedly opening with some R-dodging trims) is about as brisk and butt-kicking as one might hope out of a man-on-a-mission kidnapping thriller, and if you disagree, I'll send Liam Neeson to change your mind.
Trailer Park: Wrestling With The Truth About Trek
Filed under: Action », Animation », Comedy », Drama », Foreign Language », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Trailer Trash », Family Films », Trailers and Clips »
Trailers? Oh yeah, we got your trailers here.
Star Trek
Like a lot of people, I got my first glimpse of this one when it played with Quantam of Solace last weekend. While this will obviously play hell with Star Trek continuity, I am one Trek geek who is looking forward to the J.J. Abrams take on the franchise. It opens on May 8.
Astro Boy
Here's a teaser for the CGI animated adaptation of the classic anime about a robot boy built by a scientist to replace the son he lost. The trailer doesn't give us much to go on, but the impressive voice cast includes Freddie Highmore, Nicolas Cage, Kristen Bell, Donald Sutherland, Eugene Levy, and Nathan Lane. Things get cosmic on October 23.
Coraline
I find it odd that Neil Gaiman's name isn't mentioned in the trailer, since the film is based on his novella. Gaiman isn't a household name but I would have figured he was well enough known to catch a few people's attention. Nevertheless, this stop-motion animated feature from Henry Selick, the director of A Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach, deals with a young girl who finds a pathway to a parallel world in which duplicates of her parents sport buttons for eyes. This deliciously creepy looking film will be in theaters on February 6.
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
All of our favorite characters return for this third installment of the series, and this time it's in 3-D. The only one we see in this new trailer is Scrat, on the trail of not just another acorn but apparently romance as well. The one hits on July 1.
The Rock Races to 'Witch Mountain' in New Trailer
Filed under: Action », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Disney », Family Films », Remakes and Sequels », Trailers and Clips »
From the star, director and studio behind The Game Plan comes... another movie pairing up Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson with kids! Okay, this one -- Race to Witch Mountain, a remake of Disney's own Escape to Witch Mountain from 1975 -- seems a fair bit more tolerable than that one was, as cab driver Johnson is forced to team up with UFO expert Carla Gugino on an unexpected mission to get two unique children (AnnaSophia Robb and Alexander Ludwig) to the above-mentioned location of their spaceship.A couple of things should be said for the trailer, which we've included after the jump.
- There is an unavoidable watermark on it, but other than that, it seems to be a fully digital trailer and not bootlegged from sneaks of Bolt this past Saturday. (Okay, I get it: Star Trek is Star Trek... and you know who else pulls a very similar 'letting a vehicle crumple around you' trick? Bolt does.)
- Said watermark and the YouTube premiere suggests that this hasn't been officially released by the studio yet, so I'd be willing to bet that this trailer gets taken down by the end of the day. Good luck!
- More power to Johnson for throwing himself wholly into work like this, even if we can already see his character growing out of skepticism and towards accountability over the course of these two minutes. (Besides, Brendan Fraser can't hold a monopoly on all the family adventure hero roles.)
SDCC Panel: Disney's 'Escape to Witch Mountain' and 'Tron 2'
Filed under: Festival Reports », Remakes and Sequels », ComicCon »
This was a real accidental panel for me to have attended. The lines proved impossible to navigate for Fox and Summit, and I lacked the studio credentials to bypass the Hall H morass -- so I ducked in as soon as it was quiet and prepared to relax to Disney. But the Race to Witch Mountain panel was anything but relaxing. It wasn't full, but those who were there were serious diehards of the original, so the questions thrown at director Andy Fickman, and stars Carla Gugino and Dwayne Johnson were a little intense. Here's the key points, gleaned from the Q&A:
-- Race is not a sequel or a remake, but a re-imagining. They went back to the original book for inspiration, and tried to incorporate everything, but while writing a new mythology.
-- All were huge fans of the original, which drew them to the project. Johnson is particularly fond of Disney projects due to his young daughter, Gugino jumped at the chance to do a departure from the original.
-- Delving deeply into the UFO movement, essentially a UFO story.
-- More action packed to keep with the book, and also to keep up with the likes of the Harry Potter movies. Fans of the original will find Winnebagos to delight them, new fans won't have to have seen the old ones to get the story.
-- Gugino plays a "discredited astrophysicist" and Johnson a cab driver. The kids are aliens. Much ass is kicked by all the characters.
-- The original kids, Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann, are in it. People went absolutely crazy at this, and it's hinted their part is large, but no other details were forthcoming.
-- Fickman said the closest comparison to the movie was 48 Hrs or the Bourne movies. Seriously.
Tron is back ... and after the jump ...
-- Race is not a sequel or a remake, but a re-imagining. They went back to the original book for inspiration, and tried to incorporate everything, but while writing a new mythology.
-- All were huge fans of the original, which drew them to the project. Johnson is particularly fond of Disney projects due to his young daughter, Gugino jumped at the chance to do a departure from the original.
-- Delving deeply into the UFO movement, essentially a UFO story.
-- More action packed to keep with the book, and also to keep up with the likes of the Harry Potter movies. Fans of the original will find Winnebagos to delight them, new fans won't have to have seen the old ones to get the story.
-- Gugino plays a "discredited astrophysicist" and Johnson a cab driver. The kids are aliens. Much ass is kicked by all the characters.
-- The original kids, Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann, are in it. People went absolutely crazy at this, and it's hinted their part is large, but no other details were forthcoming.
-- Fickman said the closest comparison to the movie was 48 Hrs or the Bourne movies. Seriously.
Tron is back ... and after the jump ...
Discuss: Dwayne Johnson, Philanthropist
Filed under: Documentary », Foreign Language », Independent », Celebrities and Controversy », Fandom », DIY/Filmmaking », Politics », CineVegas »
There's no way around it: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson owes at least some of his fame to the way his dominating figure fits the blockbuster action stereotype with near-mechanical sleekness. However, he also offers an alternative to that reductive perspective. Looking sharp in a business suit and speaking with the relaxed professional discipline of a CEO, Johnson showed up at a screening of Get Smart on Sunday at the CineVegas Film Festival displaying sheer confidence. The screening took place at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino, where Johnson had recently acted in Race to Witch Mountain ("We just added to the chaos," he said), but on this visit, Johnson got a chance to remind people that he's not just a one-note performer, but someone who plays an active role in the international film community (not to mention the health community, since The Rock Foundation pushes obesity prevention).
Outside of his supremely meta performance in Richard Kelly's Southland Tales, Johnson has made his interests in adventurous cinema increasingly clear, and boldly champions independent artists. You can get a small glimpse of this aspect of his personality in Operation Filmmaker, documentarian Nina Davenport's account of an Iraqi filmmaker named Muthana Mohmed whose aspirations tragically fall short of the expectations surrounding him. Landing the opportunity to work for Liev Schreiber on the set of Everything is Illuminated, the 25-year-old Mohmed grows increasingly frustrated with the boring tasks given to him, and continually blows opportunities as a result of his unbalanced work ethic.
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