‘High School Musical 3′ Dances Past Rivals To Worldwide #1 And $82 Mil Opening! ‘Saw’ Top Grossing Horror Franchise Ever; Oliver’s Biopic ‘W.’ Drops Like A Stone

COMMENTS (121)

• Nikki, what’s the last horror movie you liked?

  Comment by Gerald — Saturday October 25, 2008 @ 1:23pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I always suspect people who throw around the term “torture porn” have not actually seen most of the movies they’re talking about. It’s as though they actually believe it’s two hours of watching people get tortured without regard to story, character, theme, etc. I’ve seen the first “Saw” movie and thought it was neither great nor terrible. It was certainly more clever than most horror movies.

  Whether or not women like seeing them on date night is irrelevant. They clearly go whether they like it or not. Maybe you need to encourage women not to continue going to movies to please their significant others rather than wasting your breath railing at Hollywood for a blatant cash grab.

  Comment by Cobalt — Saturday October 25, 2008 @ 1:45pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Why should anyone defend Nikki on her incredibly wrong-headed attacks of the SAW franchise? We all know she’s a good reporter on most subjects, but when she has a bias about something, she has a very hard time seeing past it. (Anyone remember her propping up the flop THE WOMEN?) The fact is the SAW franchise makes alot of money so they must be tapping into some audience consistently. They are better than average horror films, not sexist “torture porn” movies. I would at least respect Nikki’s position if she took the time to see these films rather than just condemn them from a position of ignorance.

  Comment by anonymous — Saturday October 25, 2008 @ 2:01pm PDT  Reply to this post

• CinefileX said:

  “There are still some truly scary films out there and they don’t need to lop off a head to unsettle you:
  MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN (Fantastic!)”

  …ummm, in MMT they DID literally lop off a head (among other gory scenes).

  Nice try, though.

  Comment by Brian M — Saturday October 25, 2008 @ 2:16pm PDT  Reply to this post

• W sank like Stone?

  Who knew. NIXON cost $55 million in ’95 and made $13 million. ALEXANDER tanked. Oliver Stone is the last person on earth anyone would turn to for historical accuracy and credibility.

  And yet W got made and released. How? What Hollywood moron would invest in that? No one. Stone financed his hit job with Chinese money. Maybe Stone’s next movie can be a conspiracy picture about the CIA trying to bankrupt China by using their money to finance Hollywood propaganda bombs.

  Comment by The JuRK — Saturday October 25, 2008 @ 2:40pm PDT  Reply to this post

• You people in Hollywood simply have no idea how many out here in the hinterland despise and loath the leftists in Hollywood. Since 90% of your city are socialists, Marxists, traitors, appeasers, pacifists, hedonists, and America haters, except, of course, you don’t hate the American dollar, a strong detest for you and your movies has grown out here.

  When someone like Oliver Stone loses money on one of his leftists propaganda pieces, we are happy.

  Comment by walter — Saturday October 25, 2008 @ 2:45pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Keep bashing down these disgusting horror flicks, Nikki! They create depraved thoughts and feelings in young people. They’re the sort of filth that plants the seeds of future Jeffrey Dahmers and John Wayne Gacys. It’s great to see someone connected to Hollywood whose aesthetic tastes aren’t 100% corrupted.

  Comment by Jack Brooks — Saturday October 25, 2008 @ 2:45pm PDT  Reply to this post

• “Everyone was in the aisles dancing and singing”

  Luckily, I will be spared of witnessing such retarded behavior, because I’m not planning on seeing HSM 3. I’d rather have my teeth pulled without any anesthesia.

  Disney must be really happy, though. I bet they’ve already greenlighted High School Musical 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10. It’s like their own version of the Saw franchise. Saw is about torture and HSM is a torture to watch.

  Comment by Satan's PA — Saturday October 25, 2008 @ 2:48pm PDT  Reply to this post

• CinefileX you clearly have NEVER watched a Saw film. With the exception of 5 minutes in III and an unfortunate subplot in IV (which was exacerbated on the otherwise superior DVD release) these films are completely devoid of sexualized violence.

  And lets stop and think here for a moment. The vast majority of slasher films are about sexual awakening. They feature various modes and models of female sexuality and the dangers that come with each. Then in the finale, the “survivor girl” defeats the killer (usually after traveling through a yonic tunnel) and self actualizes into the ultimate version of herself.

  It is of note that the audience for these films is primarily young women.

  And yet you have unilaterally determined that they are “demeaning”? So what? Women are supposed to like RomComs? An entire genre dedicated to the hypothesis that women are incomplete without men?

  Comment by Hunter D. — Saturday October 25, 2008 @ 2:58pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Is it surprising a film like “W” would fade fast? Stone and Moore make these kinds of films to satisfy their liberal elite friends. We see how mainstream America treats this drek. Its those idiots who are out of touch.

  Comment by NickVa — Saturday October 25, 2008 @ 3:02pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Jack Brooks

  Keep bashing down these disgusting horror flicks, Nikki! They create depraved thoughts and feelings in young people. They’re the sort of filth that plants the seeds of future Jeffrey Dahmers and John Wayne Gacys. It’s great to see someone connected to Hollywood whose aesthetic tastes aren’t 100% corrupted.

  Yeah sure, except for the fact that there is not a SINGLE statistic to support this. Sure, “I Spit on Your Grave” was arousing to convicts, but that is also basically the only movie ever made that doesn’t “sexy up” rape to make it palatable. And the fact of the matter is that fictitious violence is totally separate from the real thing.

  Hell, teen violence began its decline in the same year that the ultra violent Doom II was released. If you wanna make a link between media and violence you could just as likely say that Doom II made people LESS violent.

  Correlation without causation.

  Comment by Hunter D. — Saturday October 25, 2008 @ 3:06pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Well “W” bombs at the box office. Another anti-Bush, anti-USA movie from Hollyschmucks that will lose a ton of money. When are these Hollywood leftists going to get it….NO ONE CARES ABOUT THERE POLITICAL AGENDA!!!!!

  Comment by Nick — Saturday October 25, 2008 @ 3:14pm PDT  Reply to this post

• If The Messiah, The Number One Brother, wins the presidential election, Hollywood will make damn sure the “right wing” watches its movies, by forcing them into theatres, taping their eyelids open, and making them watch lefty movies til they “get it”.

  Just like in “Clockwork Orange”.

  Comment by Anna Keppa — Saturday October 25, 2008 @ 3:21pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Hollywood will continue to bleed money until people begin losing their jobs and the right people come in and make entertaining films. You can start with Earnest Ed Norton. If his family wasn’t filthy rich, he wouldn’t be bombing in crappy movie after crappy movie. He’s well respected because most of the people in Hollywood are uneducated.

  For those of you looking for entertainment, look outside Hollywood to foreign films or rent old movies you’ve never seen.

  Comment by Me — Saturday October 25, 2008 @ 3:30pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Aw man, I don’t want to live in a world where HSM 3 and SAW V take the top two slots at the weekend box-office!

  Ultra-violence and musical numbers? *vomits*

  Comment by Drew — Saturday October 25, 2008 @ 3:38pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Oliver Stone hasn’t made a good film since “Platoon.”

  And that was how many years ago?

  Maybe if he’d put down the coke spoon and get his head
  outta his leftist ass, he could remember how to make
  movies for “the people” instead of all his commie
  buddies at the Polo Lounge.

  Comment by JIM WHITTAKER, Hemet, CA — Saturday October 25, 2008 @ 3:39pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Walter — you’re drinking the kool-aid pal, and you don’t even realize it.

  First – 90% of Hollywood are Socialist – I laugh in your face. Probably the biggest discrepancy in wealth in the entire nation is right here in Hollywood. Yeah, there’s lot’s of millionaires. But there’s an even bigger boat load of poor people trying to make it in this business who don’t earn crap, and aren’t getting any handouts. Trust me, socialism is NOT BREATHING out here.

  Traitors – Hmmm…didn’t Karl Rove actually give out an undercover CIA operatives information to the press in order to compromise her identity???? And if you’re gonna go Ayers on that – please note – OBAMA was a kid when that shit happened. I don’t care if they were drinking buddies from 95′ til today, OBAMA still never had anything to do with comprimising this nations security (which is a traitor).

  Appeasers – paaa-leeeze. Mccain, circa this summer, has insiders up the wazoo saying – it’s gonna be a landslide, and not us. Let’s appease the christian right and get a nutcase on the ticket with you. Done. Palin. APPEASER.

  America Haters – sorry pal, you couldn’t more off the mark here. Most people out here want to see America restored to the place it was when we were all coming up. A place of progressive thinking. Of freedoms. Rights. WE’VE LOST MORE RIGHTS in the last 8 years then we have in any presidents reign over this country. And not to mention our ECONOMY SUCKS.

  WALTER – You’re close minded. All you’re doing is hating on people who are sick of the state that we’re in. And yes, we’re blaming the current administration and who the hell wouldn’t.

  I am still envious of you on one thing. You’re in a better situation then me. Mccain wins, you’re happy. Obama wins, you’re better off in four years then you are now. So I’d be a little more grateful if I were you.

  Comment by ahh...walters nuts — Saturday October 25, 2008 @ 3:40pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Go Nikki! I’m with you. These horror flicks are devoid of redeeming qualities. They are made by sickos for sickos. They negatively influence the minds of impressionable young people. They appeal to man’s baser instincts. Too bad the money used to make this garbage can’t be used for uplifting purposes. But as long as there are people our there willing to plunk down ten bucks to be grossed out, they’ll keep making them. And we’ll keep sliding a little further down the slippery slope. Don’t expect SAW lovers to care or think about such things. Their only interest is self.

  Comment by Nikkofly — Saturday October 25, 2008 @ 3:50pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Wow Nikki, you are being a little harsh on Horror flicks aren’t you? They are way better than that pop crap Disney turns out (which is the real horror, to the music industry)

  Are you going to be saying the same for My Bloody Valentine and Friday the 13th? When they come out next year?

  I don’t do Horror flicks, all that often.. Most of the time because the plot sucks, and the acting sucks! But at least they are more entertaining than High School Musical. *GAG*

  As usual I will wait for the DVD, cheaper just to buy it than go to the movies, pay for parking, pay to get in, and pay for popcorn and coke. Sheesh a night out costs like $40.00 for two, and that’s not counting dinner.

  Comment by TV Fan — Saturday October 25, 2008 @ 3:56pm PDT  Reply to this post

• OK, kiddies…want the real snuff?

  Ever since I was 16 years old, the best way to get a gal a bit gooey was to take her to a horror flick, coitanly a drive-in movie if possible.

  Something about being on edge that transfers to a woman’s level of excitement as she reacts to an all-of-a-suddie scene.

  That is Mom Nature at work, so you idiots who are criitcizing the value of such entertainment, ask any 17 year old guy…and then stand back…

  As long as there are hormones there will be horror & slash-n-gore garbage to feed this needy market…

  

  Comment by Elmo — Saturday October 25, 2008 @ 4:27pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Matt C:

  Hold me accountable for my “Twilight” and “Watchmen” predictions, but be reasonable.

  I think “Twilight” will underperform. The production cost is under $40 million. If the overall cost stays under $60 million, the movie opens with $25 million or more, and the second weekend doesn’t drop more than 50%, it will do okay. Only one of those three things is likely to happen.

  “Watchmen” has a “massive” fanbase? Oh, please.

  Diamond Comic Distributors is the world’s largest distributor of comics in North America. About 1/4 of total comic sales are from direct market retailers that receive distribution from Diamond. These are Diamond’s Watchmen sales to those retailers in 2008:

  01/2008 – 2,601
  02/2008 – 1,806
  03/2008 – 2,075
  04/2008 – 3,115
  05/2008 – 2,383
  06/2008 – 3,213
  07/2008 – 19,104 (confusing trailer released)
  08/2008 – 43,370
  09/2008 – 8,133

  This equates to about 330,000 sales so far in 2008 which is over three times the total sales in 2007 and almost 15 times the total sales for Watchmen in an average year. In July and August 2008, DC printed one million Watchmen copies.

  What can we learn from this?

  1. Even when graphic novel sales are great, they’re still relatively low.
  2. DC is not immune to its own hype. It printed one million copies of Watchmen because of demand resulting from the trailer. Demand that began to dissipate significantly in September 2008.

  When you write “we’ll see in a few weeks whether your ‘prediction’ holds true for Twilight,” I would agree that attention should be paid to the grosses for that movie.

  Because Watchmen isn’t beating that number.

  Oh, look! Even Watchmen-friendly sites are beginning to express doubts – http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=15&id=61133 .

  I don’t agree with all of those reasons in that article, but a lack of familiarity (hurts generally), a lot of exposition (hurts foreign sales), and long runtime (hurts grosses) are all valid.

  Comment by Harold — Saturday October 25, 2008 @ 4:52pm PDT  Reply to this post

• After ripping on Ebert for reviewing a film he didn’t watch in its entirety, it’s a bit hypocritical to call Saw V “(a) revolting torture porn gorefest” and “crap” — unless, that is, you actually saw it?

  Personally, I think HSM is far more revolting, gruesome and scary than any horror movie could ever be.

  Comment by To each his own — Saturday October 25, 2008 @ 5:12pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Well, “W” may not have done well here, but that’s okay…maybe it will do better with our enlightened friends in Europe. Soon our “O” will be in the “WH” and the revolution will begin! If Stone makes a movie about “O” in 2012, I bet it rivals the top records.

  Comment by Cornelius M.T. — Saturday October 25, 2008 @ 5:52pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Nikki, although I haven’t read your rants on horror films, I agree with you that they are bad…and serve to inspire those who are sick among us, thusly harming our society as whole–in one way, or another, it manifests. Although most people don’t act on what they see in movies, many do…just look at all the people who are attracted to the porn industry and copy the acts that they see in those films…and I can’t say that I haven’t been influenced by the latter in my sexuality…the truth is I have, and it is hard to unring the bell once you see it??? But I digress, back to the subject at hand.

  In regard to horror films or graphic violence in general, I have no interest in blood and guts gore, on screen, or off…as I am a non-violent person. However, I have written several scripts, all spec…and none have made it to the screen, or even to an agent’s desk, still among them, is a fully completed script for a scary movie, and another, lost through a computer crash midway…some years ago. I wrote them because they are cheap to produce with high profit potential, something most producers or studios would be quickly interested in; still, I wanted something more, something better.

  In terms of my latest full script, it plays on scares, but I wrote it to steer away from the blood and guts gore fair, although it is implied, it is not shown, the implication of violence being far scarier and more dramatic. I am a big fan of Rod Serling, the creator of the Twilight Zone, and the most frightening writer of all time, as he could scare you with shadows…and a play on the unknown. The scares were often generated in our, the viewers’…collective minds, Serling just provided the breadcrumbs for us to follow our own inborn psychological prejudices and impulses, which often proved wrong, and we, the audience, became the villains, or the fools of the piece…even those whom are intelligent among us. His works were about smart suspense, and the big “I didn’t see it coming!!!” story twists. All this, absent the chronic misogyny…and sex and pornography dressed as violence, as seen in modern television and films. That is how I write, like Serling, and how I hope any films that I may be fortunate enough to be involved with or make, including in the suspense/fright genre, would be executed, in the most responsible fashion…as scary films that avoid all of the blood, guts and rape that populate todays films and tv series, the latter, forced sex (rape), often transposed as slashings and torture scenes targeting women, and or, children!!!

  I’d rather press for more toward fantasy and thriller elements, like classic fair from the 30s and 40s, or even my favorite of the master works, a television series, again, that being Rod Serling’s original Twilight Zone–not the irresponsible Horror, Gore, and Torture Porn trash that has been produced over the last 35 plus years…which, as I said before, only serve to give sick minds ideas…not that they don’t have sick ideas of their own, but we don’t need to give them something extra…that they haven’t already thought of yet!!!

  Comment by Media Messiah — Saturday October 25, 2008 @ 6:09pm PDT  Reply to this post

• With all of the continued advertising and raving reviews,it is great to see the Results of the pitiful box office receipts of W. Who really cares about seeing our President whom has kept this great nation safe these last years get hammered. The libs that want to see it are still waiting at home for their free tickets.
  And what about that idiot Bill Maher and his movie Rigulusosy? We also had to suffer through his continued advertising and it also BOMBED.
  Oh Well.

  Comment by don — Saturday October 25, 2008 @ 6:39pm PDT  Reply to this post