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Critics Not Invited To 'Prom Night'
11 April 2008 (StudioBriefing)
You won't be reading any reviews for it, but Sony Screen Gems's horror flick Prom Night is the favorite among box-office analysts to win this weekend's movie competition. Today's (Friday) Los Angeles Times reported that tracking surveys indicate that the film will take in $18-22 million, about the same as it cost to produce. The likely No. 2 film, according to the analysts, is the Keanu Reeves-Forest Whitaker drama Street Kings, which analysts figure will bring in $10-12 million. But Daily Variety pointed out that, with the exception of Cloverfield, horror films have performed weakly this year. It suggests that Street Kings could best it. Also opening this weekend, but in only about 1,100 theaters, is Miramax's Smart People, with Ellen Page of Juno, Dennis Quaid and Sarah Jessica Parker. In limited release, France's controversial award winner Persepolis, an animated film -- it now has an English soundtrack -- about a girl's experiences growing up in Iran at the time of the Islamic revolution, is due to open in 136 theaters.

Movie Reviews: 'Diary of the Dead'
15 February 2008 (StudioBriefing)
Zombies in tow, George A. Romero returns to the screen with Diary of the Dead, with a plot and hand-held-camera technique that several critics note are much like Cloverfield. The difference, says Manohla Dargis in the New York Times, is that Romero's film is "a lot cheaper-looking, generally smarter-sounding and a whole lot funnier." Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune also observes that while the shaky "syndrome kept Cloverfield on the run," Romero's film is "more provocatively handled ... and is funny and sad and rather sweet as zombie pictures go." But Liam Lacey in the Toronto Globe & Mail isn't buying it. "Cloverfield is slick, immersive and gone in 88 minutes," he writes. "Romero's indie film is shambling, rough-edged and challenging in ways that go beyond audiences' tolerance for shaky cameras." Likewise Roger Moore writes in the Orlando Sentinel: "Where Cloverfield felt 'real, ' with its amateur camera work and unedited, un-narrated narrative of a monster attack on New York, Diary is a slapdash, dully narrated, badly acted attempt at capturing that same look of 'found video.'" And Ty Burr sums up in the Boston Globe: "The movie plays like Cloverfield for grad students." Clearly critics are deeply divided over this latest Romero film, his fifth. While Peter Howell in the Toronto Star calls it "one of the best of the bunch," Carina Chocano in the Los Angeles Times describes it as Romero's "least successful vision of the zombie apocalypse."

"Best?" And How!
5 February 2008 (StudioBriefing)
Disney underestimated just how many parents on Super Bowl Sunday would drop off their kids at theaters showing Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds 3-D.After predicting that the movie would earn $29 million, the studio learned Monday that Sunday's actual sales came in at $2 million more than it had estimated -- bringing the weekend total to $31.12 million. Playing on just 683 3-D screens, it averaged $45,561 per theater -- a record for any wide-release film and far surpassing the previous record of $35,540 set by Spider-Man 3. As word of the sales results came in, Disney announced that it would extend the release of the film on a market-by-market basis. Numerous 3-D theaters currently showing the Cyrus concert film have already been lined up by distributors of U2's upcoming 3-D concert film, due to open next week. However, several major cities now boast several 3-D theaters, including Los Angeles, where the El Capitan Theatre announced Monday that it would extend the run of the Cyrus film through March 1. (Disney owns the theater.) "We don't want to turn away kids from the theaters who couldn't get into the [live] concerts," Disney distribution chief Chuck Viane told USA Today.

The top ten films over the weekend, according to final figures compiled by Media by Numbers (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date): 1. Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds 3-D, Disney, $31,117,834, (New); 2. The Eye, Lionsgate, $12,425,776, (New); 3. 27 Dresses, 20th Century Fox, $8,529,845, 3 Wks. ($57,245,093); 4. Meet the Spartans, 20th Century Fox, $7,336,595, 2 Wks. ($28,543,340); 5. Rambo, Lionsgate, $7,120,649, 2 Wks. ($29,918,795); 6. Juno, Fox Searchlight, $7,014,579, 9 Wks. ($109,828,029); 7. The Bucket List, Warner Bros., $6,725,460, 7 Wks. ($67,546,573); 8. Untraceable, Sony, $5,076,537, 2 Wks. ($19,127,089); 9. Cloverfield, Paramount, $4,842,031, 3 Wks. ($71,915,658); 10. There Will Be Blood, Paramount, $4,6541,62, 6 Wks. ($21,038,955).

Cyrus Best of Non-Super Bowl World
4 February 2008 (StudioBriefing)
The only thing harder than a Super Bowl ticket to get hold of over the weekend was one to a screening of Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert. The movie, which played on only 683 screens, took in an estimated $29 million, or an average of $42,500 per theater. Analysts could not recall any film opening in fewer than 1,000 theaters performing as well. It was also the best opening for any film over a Super Bowl weekend. The box office take was boosted by the near-doubling of ticket prices and the elimination of children's discounts in many theaters. Moreover, Disney announced that it would (as expected) extend its run through Valentine's day -- and said that it expected repeat business. Media by Numbers President Paul Dergarabedian told Bloomberg News, "It's amazing to witness the incredible box-office clout of young women. Girls rule this Super Bowl weekend." Debuting in second place, Lionsgate's horror film The Eye, starring Jessica Alba, brought in about $13 million. However, Over Her Dead Body, the only other movie to open wide over the weekend, tanked with just $4.6 million, failing even to make the top ten. Last week's winner, Meet the Spartans, plummeted to fifth place in its second weekend, with just $7.1 million. With a combined take of $102 million for the top 12 films, the box office was up more than 40 percent from last year's Super Bowl weekend. Thus far for the year, sales are up 15 percent; attendance, 10.8 percent.

The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Media by Numbers: 1. Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert, $29 million; 2. The Eye, $13 million; 3. 27 Dresses, $8.4 million; 4. Juno, $7.5 million; 5. Meet the Spartans, $7.1 million; 6. Rambo, $7 million; 7. The Bucket List, $6.9 million; 8. Untraceable, $5.4 million; 9. Cloverfield, $4.9 million; 10. There Will Be Blood, $4.8 million.

'Spartans' Has the Edge Over 'Rambo'
29 January 2008 (StudioBriefing)
When final box-office figures were counted up, only about $300,000 separated the take of the No. 1 film, Meet the Spartans, from the No. 2 film, Rambo, according to box-office trackers Media by Numbers. Spartans took in $18.5 million over the weekend, compared to Rambo's $18.2 million. Both films performed according to expectations, but several box-office gurus had predicted that Rambo would edge out Spartans, instead of the other way around. The Romantic comedy 27 Dresses held up well in its second week, to place third with $13.4 million, but last week's top hit, Cloverfield, suffered a monstrous setback, dropping more than 70 percent to $12.7 million. A third new release, the horror-thriller Untraceable, placed fifth with $11.3 million.

Rambo Meets the Spartans, Loses
28 January 2008 (StudioBriefing)
The low-budget Meet the Spartans, a spoof of last year's 300 from Warner Bros., earned as much as it cost to produce at the domestic box office over the weekend, taking in an estimated $18.7 million and edging out Rambo, from Lionsgate and the Weinstein Co., which finished in second place with about $18.2 million, according to box-office trackers Media by Numbers. The two films knocked last week's winner, Cloverfield to fourth place. After grossing $44.3 million over the four-day Martin Luther King Day holiday, Cloverfield garnered just $12.7 million in its second weekend, a 72-percent drop. It was beaten by the film it trounced a week ago, 20th Century Fox's 27 Dresses. Debuting in fifth place was Sony's Untraceable, which took in a better-than-expected $11.2 million. Continuing to amaze was Fox Searchlight's Juno, which passed the $100-million mark an upped its gross from last week despite losing some 100 theaters.

The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Media by Numbers: 1. Meet the Spartans, $18.7 million; 2. Rambo, $18.2 million; 3. 27 Dresses, $13.6 million; 4. Cloverfield, $12.7 million; 5. Untraceable, $11.2 million; 6. Juno, $10.3 million; 7. The Bucket List, $10.2 million; 8. There Will be Blood, $4.9 million; 9. National Treasure:Book of Secrets, $4.7 million; 10. Mad Money, $4.6 million.

Rambo, Charging Back Into Theaters, Faces Monster
25 January 2008 (StudioBriefing)
This weekend will provide a box-office test of whether the public will turn out to see a 61-year-old former action star in a role that he first made popular as a much younger man. Sylvester Stallone first introduced the character of John Rambo in 1982 in the movie First Blood. He last appeared as the character in 1988, helping rebels in Afghanistan oust the Soviet Union. (In the interim most of those rebels turned against the U.S.) "Hopefully, what our advertising has done is introduce Rambo to a whole new generation of younger males," Lionsgate distribution chief Steve Rothenberg told today's (Friday) Los Angeles Times. The question among box-office analysts was whether it could top Cloverfield, which had a spectacular opening last weekend. While Rambo is expected to take in $15-20 million, that figure would merely come close to equaling what Cloverfield would bring in if its ticket sales fell by 50 percent. It's also being challenged by the debuting comedy Meet the Spartans, a spoof of last year's 300, which has also been garnering considerable buzz in recent weeks. (Spartans was not screened for critics.)

Moviegoers Flock to Theaters on Martin Luther King Day
23 January 2008 (StudioBriefing)
The box office posted solid results on Monday, the Martin Luther King Day holiday, with the top 12 movies recording $27 million in ticket sales, according to final figures released Tuesday by Media by Numbers. Paramount's Cloverfield led the pack with a gross of $6.09 million. It also set a record for the four-day holiday with a total of $46.1 million. It's three-day total of $40 million set a weekend record for January, erasing the previous record of $35 million set by Star Wars (Special Edition) in 1997. Paramount says that the total budget for Cloverfield was just $25 million, although it was assumed that the studio spent far more than that to promote it. In a successful effort at counter-programming, Fox's 27 Dresses came in second with $27.4 million for the holiday, $4.43 million of which was earned on Monday.

The top ten films over the four-day Martin Luther King Day holiday weekend, according to final figures compiled by Media by Numbers (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date): 1. Cloverfield, Paramount, $46,146,546, (New); 2. 27 Dresses, Fox, $27,442,040, (New); 3. The Bucket List, Warner Bros., $16,664,347, 5 Wks., $44,223,780; 4. Juno, Fox Searchlight, $11,966,082, 7 Wks., $87,092,615; 5. National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Disney, $9,606,326, 5 Wks., $199,489,171; 6. First Sunday, Sony Screen Gems, $9,504,908, 2 Wks., $30,170,510; 7. Alvin and the Chipmunks, Fox, $9,433,049, 6 Wks., $198,813,230; 8. Mad Money, Overture Films, $9,273,645, (New); 9. I Am Legend, Warner Bros., $5,905,443, 6 Wks., $248,482,867; 10. Atonement, Focus, $5,528,377, 7 Wks., $32,653,183.

'Cloverfield' Grows Greener
22 January 2008 (StudioBriefing)
Paramount's Cloverfield added another $4.9 million to its record-setting (for January) weekend gross, to bring its total over the four-day Martin Luther King Jr. holiday to $44.3 million, according to Media by Numbers. Equally impressive -- if not more so -- Fox's 27 Dresses added $4 million to its gross, bringing it to $26.8 million for the four days. And with kids out of school for the holiday, Alvin and the Chipmunks rose to third place as it took in $2.4 million and put itself just an acorn's throw away from hitting the $200 million mark. (Its gross now stands at $198.7 million.) Warner Bros.' The Bucket List continued to perform solidly with $2.1 million on Monday to bring its gross to $43.7 million, while Fox Searchlight's Juno rounded out the top five with $1.7 million. Its total gross now stands at $86.7 million

'Cloverfield' Is a Godzilla of a Hit
21 January 2008 (StudioBriefing)
Cloverfield turned out to be not quite the equal of 1998's Godzilla in its opening weekend, but the monster movie nevertheless became the biggest hit of the year as it took in $41 million domestically. By contrast, Godzilla earned an estimated $55.7 million, but that was during the Memorial Day holiday. Moreover, ticket sales for Godzilla quickly trailed off, and the movie wound up with a domestic gross of $136 million. Cloverfield is now expected to exceed that figure. What's more, Godzilla had a budget of $130 million; Cloverfield was made for just $25 million. Debuting in second place was 20th Century Fox's 27 Dresses, which also exceeded prediction with sales of $22.4 million. Two other newcomers did not fare as well. Mad Money took in $7.7 million. Opening in limited release, Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dream performed reasonably well, given generally unfavorable reviews. The movie earned about $501,000 in 107 theaters, for an average of $4,700 per screen. Surprisingly, the film with the highest per-screen average was the French animated film Persepolis which took in $281,000 in 30 theaters, or an average of $9,400 per theater. The overall box office was up 39 percent over the same weekend a year ago with ticket sales of $135.3 million for the top 12 films.

The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Media by Numbers: 1. Cloverfield, $41 million; 2. 27 Dresses, $22.4 million; 3. The Bucket List, $15.2 million; 4. Juno, $10.3 million; 5. National Treasure: Book of Secrets, $8.1 million; 6. First Sunday, $7.8 million; 7. Mad Money, $7.7 million; 8. Alvin and the Chipmunks, $7 million; 9. I Am Legend, $5.1 million; 10. Atonement, $4.8 million.

Movie Reviews: 'Cloverfield'
18 January 2008 (StudioBriefing)
Cloverfield, the latest giant monster movie, is getting some surprisingly decent reviews from critics who usually love to lay in to disaster movies of any sort. Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times, for example, concedes that it "is actually pretty scary at times." Ebert complains mostly about the hand-held footage, which he says was shot in "Queasy-Cam." (It's supposed to represent home movie footage taken by the monster's victims.) Kevin Crust in the Los Angeles Times observes, "Cloverfield is adept at wringing maximum suspense and might have reached the heights of the Korean monster film The Host but for the limitations of the camcorder ploy. While it injects the film with a run-and-gun urgency, the device grows tiresome and ultimately leaves the film shortchanged." Manohla Dargis in the New York Times, however, suggests that even at 84 minutes, the movie may run too long: "The film is too dumb to offend anything except your intelligence," she writes, "and the monster does cut a satisfying swath through the cast, so your only complaint may be, What took it so long?"

YouTube Axes Trailers for 'Cloverfield'
10 July 2007 (StudioBriefing)
YouTube has complied with a request from Paramount to remove copies of a trailer for the forthcoming Cloverfield. The trailer for the J.J. Abrams-produced movie made its first appearance last week with the debut of Transformers in movie theaters. The following day copies of the trailer, apparently shot with a camcorder, began appearing on YouTube, but they were soon replaced by a notice saying "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Paramount Pictures Corp." Paramount is a unit of Viacom, Inc., which has filed a $1-billion copyright-infringement lawsuit against YouTube. Writing on the TechDirt site, one blogger commented that the studio was obviously trying to generate buzz with the trailer. "Why is it that the studios wanna ruin their buzz?" he asked. Another blogger replied, "It makes perfect sense -- when you let lawyers run your entertainment company. Perhaps we should just be thankful that Paramount hasn't tried to have the people who filmed the trailer arrested."

Trailer Without Title Leaves Audiences Desperate for More
10 July 2007 (WENN)
A new movie trailer which fails to reveal the film's title is leaving U.S. cinema audiences desperate for more information. The strange promo, which is being shown across the country before screenings of America's number one film Transformers, features a bunch of New Yorkers enjoying a dinner party before the lights go out and fireballs drop all over the city. The trailer contains no title, but reveals a release date of January 18, 2008 and that the movie is produced by Lost co-creator and Mission: Impossible III director JJ Abrams. The film is known as Cloverfield, although Hollywood studio Paramount Pictures insists that will not be the movie's title.