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Hammond On Cannes: Weinstein Brings Out Stars For 2013 … 
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‘The Great Gatsby’ Starts With $5.4M … 
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SATURDAY PM/SUNDAY AM: Here are the weekend numbers (Sunday estimates):
1. The Final Destination 3-D (NL/WB) NEW, Fri $10.9M, Sat $10.2M, Wkd $28.3M
2. Basterds (Weinstein/Uni) WK 2, Fri $5.8M, Sat $8.1M, Wkd $19.5M, Cume $73.2M
3. Halloween II (Weinstein) NEW, Fri $7M, Sat $5.6M, Wkd $17M
4. District 9 (Sony) WK 3, Fri $3M, Sat $3.9M, Wkd $10.7M, Cume $90.8M
5. G.I. Joe (Paramount) WK 5, Fri $2.2M, Sat $3.5M, Wkd $8M, Cume $132.4M
6. Julie & Julia (Sony) WK 4, Fri $2.1M, Sat $3.2M, Wkd $7.4M, Cume $70.9M
7. Time Trav Wife (WB) WK 3, Fri $2.1M, Sat $2.8M, Wkd $6.7M, Cume $48.1M
8. Shorts (WB) WK 2, Fri $1.2M, Sat $2.1M, Wkd $4.8M, Cume $13.5M
9. Taking Woodstock (Focus) NEW, Fri $1.1M, Sat $1.4M, Wkd $3.7M
10. G-Force (Disney) WK 6, Fri $710K, Sat $, Wkd $2.8M, Cume $111.8M
As the summer winds down, studio execs needing a vacation are getting punchier (and their quotes to me snarkier). But even Hollywood is embarrassed by the fact that this weekend’s Top 4 competing films featuring horror, death, gore, mayhem, war, Nazis, aliens, and sci-fi all did so well at the box office. “What a sad statement on movie-going humanity,” a top studio exec emailed me. “And let’s look at the ratings for the top 4 movies at the box office tonight: ‘R’, ‘R’, ‘R’, and ‘R’. Yikes.” While Final Destination 3-D and Halloween II were playing in almost the same number of theaters (3,121 vs 3,025), 3-D made the big difference in gross receipts at 1,678 outfitted dates. 
Sure, The Weinstein Company has been claiming that the sequel to its Rob Zombie horror reboot cost half ($15M) what New Line/Warner Bros’ suspense thriller did ($30M). But the fact that these two movies stayed on the same weekend to battle for the same horror fans stunned marketing experts — especially when this Friday through Sunday is traditionally weak moviegoing-wise as college kids head off to school again. ”How stubborn/stupid can two distributors be?” one promotion pro asked me. (It’s Chinatown, Jake…) And it’s just as inexplicable why The Weinstein Co would compete one week later with its own Inglourious Basterds; the Quentin Tarantino World War II pic wound up beating Halloween II for second place because of a better-than-expected -49% hold — hardly the -70% expected. But The Weinstein Co has been in such dire financial straits that it couldn’t even hold Halloween II until October. Ang Lee’s comedic Taking Woodstock for Focus Features platformed in 2 theaters — NY and LA — Wednesday but opened in 1,393 venues Friday. Nice bit of upcoming Labor Day weekend counter-programming; then again it was co-written by Focus chief James Schamus so he’s especially protecting the pic.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Rob Zombie is the biggest hack in Hollywood. He fails at filmmaking on every conceivable level.
[SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!] Serves RZ right in the effect that he made a half-assed film. I’m sorry, even his first attempt in 2007 was pretty bad, but this was far worse.
People were slack-jawed at the premiere last monday night. After RZ’s rant at the beginning, cursing like Courtney Love every other word…to paraphrase:
“This was a badass mutherfucker to make…some days we looked at the script and were like WTF are we doing…”
I sat through IRREVERSIBLE twice in the theatre because through the brutality, Gasper Noe created a beautiful film. Sitting in Grauman’s 5 days ago, I was so disgustedly repulsed at what Zombie put on the screen. Beyond the horrible dialogue, watching the violence was like – well, I’ve never experienced this before – but the violence was comparable to being skullfucked by your retarded Uncle Curly err Zombie.
Beyond the laughter of Sheri walking around with a white pony through most of the film, laughter flooded the theatre at the worst times – unintentional of course – along with people gasping and whispering WTF is this?
Outside the theatre, the cast was pretty quiet. People stared at each other as if they were at a funeral. Yes, Rob Zombie massacred a cinematic legend and robbed fellow cinema goers at the same time (beginning today). Everything that Carpenter created from inception to conception, RZ knocked up the Weinstein’s and ABORTED the film at the end of term.
I’m sorry for the vulgarities. Being a fan of House of a 1000 Corpses, I was let down by ‘Rejects’ and disappointed by Halloween 2007 (especially the scene with young Michael wearing the mask, chasing Hanna Hall – he looked like Mini-Me.)…with this film, RZ has raped my youth. He took the boogeyman and made him a trailer trash talking homeless man that eats dogs.
EPIC FAILURE.
The premiere for FD4 last night in Westwood was a helluva good time. The audience loved every second of it.
I pray that Zombie does NOT reboot the Blob. I cannot sit through 95 minutes of seeing his wife Sheri run around the screen, flashing her ta-ta’s and saying ‘WTF is the OOZE doing in my trailer park” and seeing her high school sweetheart, played by Bill Mosely, run out in a wife beater and make ooh-lala in it with her.
How come The Weinstein’s can’t make a single successful movie anymore? What has happened?
Yeah, horror movies did well…what else came out this weekend? If you want “family films” to do well, someone’s going to have to release something that isn’t as totally unappealing as “Shorts.”
H2 which was doing add photo and tr shots up until a few weeks ago is well north of 20 mil now; not to mention the 30 plus ad push…BW and HW are way out of luck and time. Don;t even get into the omney they had to put down to get prints done…rest in no peace you jerks. Mhy only regret is the filmmakers and hard working people you have screwed for so long.
Horror, Nazis, aliens, and Julia Child. What a weekend, indeed.
And why did The Weinstein Company drop “Halloween II” onto “Basterds” second weekend?
best part is BW fired Zombie off of the Crow years ago for his horrible script…it comes round doesn’t it…and to be fair Rob would be better without that tool.
Pretending that Inglorious’s drop was better than expected? 60% drop is still horrible, no film should ever be expected to drop ~70% opening friday to the following friday. Inglorious didn’t have the luxury of a massive midnight opening number which could attempt at justifying a horrible decline.
“What a sad statement on movie-going humanity,” a top studio exec emailed me tonight. “And let’s look at the ratings for the top 4 movies at the box office tonight: ‘R’, ‘R’, ‘R’, and ‘R’. Yikes.”
Wah, wah, wah. Quit your bitching, execs. You made the films. Live with them.
“What a sad statement on movie-going humanity.”
So a studio executive is now blaming the public for all the creatively-bankrupt films that open week after week? Way to perform in a leadership role.
Do these “top” executives recognize that they are on watch while the poison is pouring into the well?
Consumers once bought Ford Pintos too. And smarmy Ford executives counted the money and quietly laughed behind the backs of their stoopid customers.
That was a great business model. Yeah, keep emulating it…
Yeah I know Nikki. All movies should be made for the mantality of a 14c year old. The studios almost completely stopped making rated R movies for trhe last three years, but if you have your way we will all be sucking on our thumb and having conversations about plastic balls and play dates while all the imature people talk about philosophy and culture>GOO GOO GA GA
“What a sad statement on movie-going humanity,”
Compared to what? Garbage based off of toylines like Transformers 2 (with racist robots!) and GI Joe have been box office smashes. At least Inglorious Basterds and District 9 are good movies. Why the prudish attitude toward R rated movies. What is this, 1970?
FD=$45mil (not $30mil)
Agreed that RZ is the worst filmmaker in Hollywood, but really, is this quote really justified? “What a sad statement on movie-going humanity.”
What are we supposed to watch, agenda-driven nostalgia like SAVING WOODSTOCK? If Hollywood would give us another Gladiator, or a Braveheart we would go. But FINDING WOODSTOCK–Yeesh!
I believe the sole purpose for The Final Destination 3-D estimated victory is, Halloween is basically “Friday The 13TH”.The kids have already seen “Halloween” once this year, so when it came down to which of the two horror films to see, they chose the movie they haven’t seen already.Friday the 13th came out in february and it’s still fresh in the horror fans minds, and as any horror fan would know, Jason, the main character from the Friday the 13th franchised is a cheap Knockoff of Mike Myers from Halloween.Why would anyone want to see the same quiet slasher stalking the clueless teens storyline twice in a 7 month span?
“How come The Weinstein’s can’t make a single successful movie anymore? What has happened?”
Two successful movies in two weeks says otherwise.
Staying Home, you took the thoughts right outta my brain with that final comment. nice sleight of hand there, eh?
I love all this hating on RZ and the Weinstein’s! They are truly deserving of the vitriol. They are despicable, rude, disloyal, greedy pigs, and don’t deserve an ounce of respect or $1 in profits. I wish H2 made even less than it did, but hopefully it will never make a profit. Until Weinstein Co starts making better films in a more professional manner, I wish them the worst.
I loved “Halloween 2!” I thought the first one was just awful – a really terrible film – but the second one was great. I double-featured it with “Final Destination” and though it was fun to see, it feels like with every new “FD” sequel, they hunt for worse and worse and worse actors – almost like it’s a joke to cast the worst auditioners as the filmmakers know it’ll make the movie funnier (the “FD” movies have always been odd black comedies, not really horror films).
It’s nice to have good films in the theater, though – I loved “Julie & Julia,” “District 9,” “Basterds,” etc. The first half of the summer really had nothing for me!
There’s nothing wrong with “R’ ratings, or “horror” films (despite the hypocritical moralizing of the “insiders” who profit from them); but when your 2 top films are a sequel to a sequel to a sequel and a REMAKE of a sequel, it becomes impossible not to choke on the sheer creative backruptcy of it all.(It doesn’t help that all Rob Zombie’s films are the same- Rob, if you’re that intent on imitating Tobe Hooper, at least remember that HE could tell the difference between the backwoods and the suburbs…)
Work at a local theater and saw these two films today. “Halloween 2″ is just a travesty, even people who liked the first RZ remake will hate this. I’m not a RZ fan but this film was chock-full of misogny, violence for no particular reason (especially in the strip club/whore house scene) and awful acting.
FD4 is a different story. If you loved the first three movies, you’ll probably like this one. If you didn’t, there’s no changing your mind the fourth time around. And unlike H2, it didn’t make its audiences go to actively hate it. And it runs a short 82 minutes, so it’s over before it has time to grate the nerves.
eff the executives for crapping on all the R rated movies. At least the recent successes are all ORIGINAL. No sequels or remakes seen in D9 or Basterds! Complain all you want about all the R ratings. There is still an audience that thrives on those and doesn’t want (a crappy) one put in there just because.
Bad or not, this further emphasizes how Weinstein put all their eggs in the Nazi basket. I must’ve seen two or three commercials a day for Basterds, but I think all month I probably saw three for Halloween II. It never had a chance of reaching the first installment’s $26mil opening.
Down 60 is the new Down 70, Nikki. It must be all those “women” who love the movie
What really surprises me is with so much on the line for Inglorious basterds, why on earth would the Weinstein Brothers put another R rated, male skewing film that they controlled in the marketplace to compete against inglorious?
“What a sad statement on movie-going humanity,” a top studio exec emailed me tonight.
WTF does a studio exec know about humanity?