In Contention

Tag: The Hangover

  • SUNDAY CENTS: ‘G-Force’ hits the G-spot

    G-Force*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    $32.2 million worth of Americans needed to see what happens when talking guinea pigs are entrusted with saving the world this weekend and have made “G-Force” our number one movie at the box office. Since I predicted $35 million last week, I can’t say this was unexpected, even if it is depressing. With yet another solid performance, the days of talking CGI critters interacting with cash-strapped human actors are just beginning.

    Second place goes to “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” which dipped a now standard 61% to $30 million. It was only eight years ago when the first film opened but its 36% second weekend drop is already a figure from a bygone box office era. In 2009, if you open above $50 million and drop under 50%, then you are a word of mouth sensation.

    “Potter” has $221.8 million in the bank after 12 days, which is third best in the series at this point but I think we’re still looking at the second lowest total grosser when it’s all said and done.

    Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler tried to convince Americans that no matter how repulsive or reprehensible you find someone, if you spend a little bit of time with them you will fall in love – providing they are attractive, of course – in “The Ugly Truth” and $27 million worth of patrons took the bait. That’s not quite “The Proposal” numbers but it won’t do either star any harm in landing their next awful projects.

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  • SUNDAY CENTS: Photo finish on ‘Ice’

    Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs*Historical figures quoted are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    It was another close race at the box office this weekend with estimates calling it an exact tie between “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” but Monday actuals might tell a different story.

    The third entry in the animated series (only the second major animated franchise to reach three films) earned $42.5 million for the three-day weekend and $67.5 million since opening on Wednesday.  Independence Day falling on a Saturday was always going to hurt but given the fact that the first two “Ice Age” films opened with $57.2 million and $74.6 million respectively, this is a bit on the low side.

    There really wasn’t enough material with these characters for one movie, let alone three, so it’s not surprising that the shine is wearing off.  But Fox will still cross $400 million worldwide with this sucker so it’s no big deal to them.

    Hot on its heels was “Transformers.”  A 62% dip to $42.5 million gives Michael Bay’s magnum opus $293.5 million after 12 days.  Uptight movie nerds need not worry though because at 12 days “The Dark Knight” had already amassed $333.9 million, so there’s no chance of Shia rubbing elbows with the bat’s total gross.  It does have a great chance of becoming the 12th film from this decade to cross $400 million though, and that’s a damn shame.

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  • 6/26 Web Round-up

    (from left) Johnny Depp and Michael Mann on the set of Public Enemies• Hey, why isn’t Christian Bale on the “Public Enemies” posters, too?  Money, silly. [E! Online]

    • Kyle Buchanan interviews Sid Ganis to get the skinny on the Academy’s big Best Picture announcement this week. [Movieline]

    • The 50 greatest trailers of all time.  Intriguing #1 pick.  #12 really stuck out to me back in the day. [IFC]

    • Kathryn Bigelow on the anatomy of a “Hurt Locker” scene. [New York Times]

    • Patrick Goldstein thinks a Best picture nomination for “The Hangover” would be “fantastic.” [The Big Picture]

    • John Hiscock talks “Public Enemies” with star Johnny Depp. [Daily Telegraph]

    • A considerably more in-depth discussion of the film with Micahel Mann. [Roger Ebert]

    • Looking back over Tim Burton’s stylistic career, for no real reason. [Empire]

  • SUNDAY CENTS: Audiences accept Bullock’s ‘Proposal’

    The ProposalWith absolutely nothing targeted towards the date crowd yet this summer, Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds took the stalest looking romantic comedy all the way to the top of the box office with $34.1 million. That’s far and away Bullock’s best debut as she’s used to figures in the high teens and then leggy runs after that. For Reynolds, well, it’s not even his biggest opening this summer but he now has thousands of Grandma’s to count as new fans. Given the dearth of direct competition, I think this has enough gas in the tank to get to $100 million.

    Way past that figure is “The Hangover,” dropping a microscopic 18% in second place for $26.9 million and $152.9 million total. There’s not much left to say here except that this is a film that tapped into the zeitgeist and there’s no duplicating or explaining it. Moving on.

    “Up” also held well, passing the domestic total for “WALL-E” and it’s still in the top three. While the film certainly stands on its own, some of that success is due to “Ratatouille” and “WALL-E” building the company’s reputation amongst adults. They set ‘em up, and Carl Fredricksen knocks ‘em down.

    Fourth place is where you’ll find the other new release, “Year One.” Plagued with bad buzz from vitriolic internet users, a $20.2 million opening isn’t actually half bad. The Friday to Saturday drop is, however, and this will be lucky to get to $50 million total. It may not make it’s money back until way down the line but nobody’s getting fired over this one and Michael Cera will live to see another painfully awkward day.

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Enemies’ surfaces, Edinburgh launches

    Johnny Depp in Public Enemies• Michael Mann’s much-awaited “Public Enemies” finally peeked out from behind the covers, generating much early discussion, if no permitted reviews.

    • A rumor circulated that Christopher Nolan might leave the Batman franchise, prompting heated speculation over a potential replacement.

    • Across the pond, we kicked off our coverage of the Edinburgh Film Festival, with Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker” chief among the early highlights.

    • Speaking of which, we wondered whether Bigelow’s film could be one of those that prove their legs when awards season rolls around.

    • “The Hangover” maintained its hold on the box-office, securing its position as the surprise of the season.

    • Meanwhile, the newly released trailer for “2012” carried the scent of a more traditional summer blockbuster.

    • While we’re talking about money, Harrison Ford is still apparently making more of it than any other actor.

    • And finally, ahead of Sunday’s paternal celebrations, this week’s list paid tribute to the joys of father-son moviegoing.

  • 6/16 Web Round-up

    Bengt Ekerot in The Seventh Seal• Tom O’Neil ponders the awards prospects of comedy box office hit “The Hangover.” [Gold Derby]

    • Eugene Hernandez talks to Dennis Hopper at CineVegas. [indieWIRE]

    • Joe Flint, meanwhile, chastises Heather Graham for again playing the girl with the heart of gold from the wrong side of the tracks. [Company Town]

    • Miki Turner talks “Whatever Works” (which doesn’t really work) with Larry David. [MSNBC]

    • Nathaniel Rogers runs an early screening review of “Brüno.” [The Film Experience]

    • A.O. Scott takes a look back at “Dog Day Afternoon.” [New York Times]

    • Detroit’s woes didn’t keep bad-ass muscle cars from the screen in “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.” [USA Today]

    • As the film makes its way to Blu-ray, Glenn Kenny dives back into “The Seventh Seal.” [Some Came Running]

  • SUNDAY CENTS: Bad ‘Hangover’ for new openers and holdovers

    The Taking of Pelham 123After denying “Up” the bragging rights of a repeat at the top of the box office at the last minute, “The Hangover” has accomplished that feat itself.

    The R-rated comedy dropped a minuscule 26% to add another $33.4 million to the bank and give it a very real shot at $200 million-plus. That’s a benchmark reserved for very few comedies and only the best of the best like “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” and “Crocodile Dundee.”  Speaking of those two, it’s a pity Nia Vardalos didn’t look to Paul Hogan’s career for a glimpse at the dangers of repetitive ethnic-centric comedy. If there’s a bigger success story than “The Hangover” this summer, we are in for some big shockers.

    Speaking of shockers, I saw the movie this week and I didn’t like it at all. Aside from some fresh stuff from Zach Galifianakis, it was pretty stale to me. It’s no “Wedding Crashers,” that’s for sure.

    “Up” also held up extremely well, dropping only 31% and staying in the runner-up spot with $30.5 million. It now seems likely to pass “Cars” and wind up the sixth highest grossing Pixar film when all is said and done.* I’ve always said that miscarriages in cartoons equals big bucks and finally somebody listened.

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Island’ sighted, ‘Ghostbusters’ quoted

    Leonardo DiCaprio in Shutter IslandA quiet week round these parts — and everywhere else, for that matter:

    • The week’s biggest talking point was the unveiling of the first trailer for Scorsese’s “Shutter Island.” Still mopping the drool from the floor.

    • We celebrated the quarter-century (!) anniversary of “Ghostbusters,” listing the most quotable lines from that eminently quotable film.

    • Our poll of the most influential films of all time finally wrapped … in rather muted fashion. But hey, democracy rules.

    • We had the privilege of interviewing the great Francis Ford Coppola.

    • This week’s Page to Screen examined “Playing the Enemy,” the inspiration for Clint Eastwood’s upcoming “Invictus.”

    • In a rare last-minute coup, “The Hangover” stole “Up’s” thunder at the box office.

    • The 30th anniversary of John Wayne’s passing provided the impetus to wallow in The Duke’s finest screen moments.

    • And finally, yours truly dipped his toe into the murky waters of Oscar predictions.

  • 6/8 Web Round-up

    Golden Gate Bridge• “Tonight Show” drummer Max Weinberg splits his attention between his new west coast late night gig and his east coast responsibilities with the E Street Band. [New York Times]

    • Nikki Finke reveals the real life Hollywood story that inspired the spec script for “The Hangover.” [Deadline Hollywood Daily]

    • Todd Leopold talks to “Hurt Locker” director Kathryn Bigelow. [CNN]

    • Noah Forrest questions the motivations of studios hoping to cash in on sequels nobody asked for. [Movie City News]

    • As “Land of the Lost” tanks at the box office, Chris Nashawaty asks what most of us have been wondering for a while: “Is America over Will Ferrell?” [MSNBC]

    • Patrick Goldstein treads similar territory, wonders whether Ferrell’s “movie-star credentials should be revoked.” [The Big Picture]

    • On the emo dorks actresses find appealing these days. [The Independent]

    • The Golden Gate Bridge: a sci-fi director’s favorite target. [The Guardian]

  • Dr. Ken Jeong gets his day in the media sun

    Ken JeongI think it’s safe to assume that if you saw “The Hangover” this weekend (tell us what you thought), you caught Ken Jeong’s performance as a Korean Vegas crime lord.  Jeong has been on the rise ever since his first big screen cameo in Judd Apatow’s “Knocked Up” two years ago, but according to this Chris Lee profile in the Los Angeles Times, there’s an unlikely backstory to all of this.  “Before a casting coup landed Jeong an enviable spot on the batting order for some of movie comedy’s heaviest hitters…[his] day job didn’t involve making people laugh at all,” Lee writes.  “Unless prescribing pain medication for, say, an angry patient with a herniated disc is your idea of funny.”

    North Carolina native Jeong was practicing internal medicine at Kaiser in Woodland Hills before Hollywood came knocking.  Comedy, it turns out, was just a hobby to keep him loose and sane away from the job.  Now he’s landing the most laughs in what will surely be the summer’s biggest comedy:

    “I practiced internal medicine at Kaiser in Woodland Hills,” Jeong said over lunch near his home in Calabasas. “Comedy was a hobby. It was like my golf. I had another life.”

    According to “Hangover” director Phillips, Jeong’s defining characteristic is his “fearlessness” — something put on prominent display in the bawdy R-rated comedy…

    “He just comes in and crushes those little parts in films,” Phillips said. “That’s what you look for: a guy who can come in and just destroy it. He’s crazy!”

    It’s hardly the career path Jeong, 39, set out for himself. The North Carolina-born Korean American attended Duke University (major: pre-med, with a minor in drama) then attained his MD from the University of North Carolina. It was around that time he began going to open-mike nights at local bars and delivering his earliest stand-up routines.

    “It was just goofy Asian stuff,” Jeong recalled. “Definitely high energy, but I was too afraid to say I was in medicine. I’m just an educated idiot: I took that as my persona.”

    Moving to New Orleans for his medical residency, Jeong didn’t let a 90-hour workweek keep him from the comedy clubs. “It was grueling, but I had a work-hard, play-hard mentality,” he said. “Everyone has something to keep them sane outside medicine. Mine was comedy.”

    This is the first I’m hearing of Will Ferrell’s used car comedy “The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard,” by the way.  Make it stop.  Anyway, check out the rest at the LA Times.  And a taste of Jeong’s stand-up after the jump.

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  • SUNDAY CENTS: Dark clouds ‘Hangover’ Ferrell

    The Hangover(6/8 UPDATE: Variety is reporting this morning that, in a rare occurrence, “The Hangover” topped “Up” once actual numbers rolled in.  “Final figures will show that ‘Hangover’ grossed $45 million from 3,269 runs,” Pamela McClintock writes. “‘Up’ should finish at $44.3 million to $44.4 million from 3,818 theaters.)

    “Up” has now joined “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” and “Madea Goes to Jail” as the only 2009 releases to spend more than one week at the top of the box office. (EDITOR’S NOTE: Strike that.  See update above.) A slim drop of 35% led to a weekend gross of $44.2 million and kept Carl Fredrickson floating above the competition en route to what surely will be one of the highest grossing totals of the summer. With $137 million in the bank already, it is pacing ahead of the 10-day tallies of “WALL-E,” “Ratatouille” and “Cars.” Anybody willing to bet on “Toy Story 3” breaking Pixar’s hot streak next summer? Didn’t think so.

    Coming in a close second is “The Hangover.” Starring a bunch of nobodies (relatively speaking) and from a director five years removed from his last hit, there’s no reason this should have made $43.3 million this weekend. But it did and the only explanation is that audiences loved it. Test screenings started the word of mouth and it rolled all through the marketing campaign and what many of us saw coming as a possible sleeper hit of the summer has turned into something else entirely: a bona fide blockbuster. Even if it fails to double its debut (doubtful with word of mouth so good), it would still be a massive success for Warner Bros. No word yet on how much of the gross came from people so hungover that they forgot they already paid to see the movie the previous night as well.

    Third place went to “Land of the Lost,” an unmitigated disaster. $19.5 million is what Universal would have hoped for in one day when they greenlit this sucker with a budget north of $100 million. Will Ferrell and dinosaurs seem like a smart combo to me but the trailers and buzz for this one labeled it a stinker long ago and nobody could decipher whether it was for kids or young adults. Director Brad Silberling has now sunk two potential franchise starters in a row (with “Lemony Snicket” being the other) and has to be sweating his career right now. And Danny McBride deserves better.

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  • Tell us what you thought of ‘The Hangover’

    The Hangover

    I figured I’d wait until Saturday to see what most folks are paying to see this weekend, and it appears “The Hangover” is taking the new release crown.  I never got around to a review of the film, though I offered some fleeting comments last weekend.  Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below.

  • 6/2 Web Round-up

    Alien• With “The Hangover” on the way next weekend, Dave Itzkoff talks to director Todd Phillips. [New York Times]

    • Tom O’Neil remembers Jay Leno’s 12-year Emmy losing streak as the host exits “The Tonight Show.” [Gold Derby]

    • Hey, proper use of the word “exclusive” for a change (and a few days late linking).  Steve Weintraub talks to Tony Scott about the recently announced “Alien” prequel. [Collider]

    • Another late-to-link piece, but it seems Blockbuster Video will dip into the movie memorabilia racket to steer clear of fiscal life support. [Hollywood Reporter]

    • With “Revolutionary Road” making its way to DVD and Blu-ray, a quick Q&A with Oscar-nominated Michael Shannon. [Premiere]

    • 15 pages of silliness to jack up the traffic numbers: “Where are they now?” with the cast of “Friday.” [New York Daily News]

    • A list of…wait for it…the top 10 best movie punches.  Think that’s terribly specific?  Wait until tomorrow’s requisite arbitrary list link. [Rope of Silicon]

    • “Coraline” makes its way to Broadway, with analysis from the Financial District. [Wall Street Journal]

    • First look at James Cameron’s “Avatar”: screenshots from the accompanying video game?  Lame. [/Film]

    • Glenn Kenny writes up the DVD release of Michelangelo Antonioni’s “Zabriskie Point.” [Some Came Running]

  • SUNDAY CENTS: Stocked ‘Up’

    UpIn the biggest non-shock of the year, Pixar has released a unanimously acclaimed new film and it has topped the box office. What is a little surprising is that “Up” managed to make $68.2 million despite a distinct lack of anthropomorphism. While Disney suits will have to continue to sweat over how they are going to make money out of Pixar on dolls and theme park rides, they certainly don’t have to worry about making money at the box office. This is their fifth biggest debut yet and puts “Up” in a very good position to out-gross both “WALL-E” and “Ratatouille” by the end of its run (but not “Cars” — go figure). That certainly won’t hurt it when the inevitable Best Picture discussion pops up at the end of the year.

    Sam Raimi returned to his horror roots and debuted in third place with $16.6 million. Obviously, that’s a disappointing figure in a world where “The Haunting in Connecticut” and “The Unborn” can each hit $20 million. It may seem like the world is one big “Evil Dead” fan but the truth is that it’s a rather small pocket and they alone can’t guarantee good business. The film got better reviews than normal for the genre but alarming declines from Friday to Saturday and Saturday to Sunday seem to have pegged this one as a quick burnout. Summer continues to be the worst place to open a horror film and Universal may have been better off waiting till October.

    Last week’s champ “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” took a hit from “Up” and dropped 54%. That’s not great for a family film but it should rebound in the next few weeks and slowly work towards $175 million or so. Fox can’t be too disappointed with that since they essentially remade the same film, adding the bare minimum in terms of new characters or settings. With a cast of comedy legends old and new, you shouldn’t have a trailer relying on laughs from Hank Azaria.

    “Terminator Salvation” fell a harder 62% and cemented its status as a misfire. It’ll take another half-week to hit $100 million and not much more can come after that. Continuing the franchise without James Cameron or Arnold Schwarzenegger seems to have eliminated most of the target audience and an unwatchable product has done the rest.

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  • Red band ‘Hangover’ trailer

    I saw Todd Phillips’s “The Hangover” last night at The Grove here in Los Angeles and really, you can’t ask for a lot more out of a summer comedy.  It doesn’t rank as high as Peter Berg’s “Very Bad Things” on the stag movie meter by any means and it probably squeezed two or three too many musical cues in there, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I had a blast.

    No rush to review it or anything.  It’s a lot like “Drag Me to Hell” in that way.  Just a slightly unexpected good time.  Go see it next weekend.  (Oh, and speaking of musical cues, I’m glad someone finally used Danzig’s “Thirteen” in a film.  And it works so well against the anticipated comedy of the piece here as merely an opening credits lay-over.  Now if someone would put Johnny Cash’s cover in a western, we’d be set.)

    The red band trailer for “The Hangover” hit the web recently.  Here it is, courtesy of IGN, via Thompson on Hollywood: