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SUNDAY AM: Analysis coming…
1. Meatballs (Sony) Week 2, Wkd $24.6M (-19%), [3,119] Cume $60M
2. Surrogates (Disney) NEW, Wkd $15M [2,951]
3. Fame (MGM) NEW, Wkd $10M [3,096]
4. The Informant (WB) Week 2, Wkd $6.9M (-34%) [2,505] Cume $20.9M
5. I Can Do Bad All By Myself (LG) Week 3, Wkd $4.7M [2,120] Cume $44.5M
6. Pandorum (Overture) NEW, Wkd $4.4M [2,506]
7. Love Happens (Universal) Week 2, Wkd $4.3M (-46%) [1,898] Cume $14.M
8. Jennifer’s Body (Fox), Week 2, Wkd $3.5M (-49%) [2,738] Cume $12.3M
9. 9 (Focus), Week 3, Wkd $2.8M [2,025] Cume $27.1M
10. Inglourious Basterds (Wein/Uni) Week 6, Wkd $2.7M [1,960] Cume $114.4M
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Thank G_D GOD!
How many times are they going to use the same special effects which are no longer special? Surrogate stinks.
Fame – enough with the remakes already. I SAID ENOUGH!
Thank you.
So are you gonna pronounce the death of Bruce Willis’s career the way you did with Julia Roberts? He’s been given the latitude of 12 more years and more flops and still no one’s called him too old, etc. He IS too old to star in action films. And casting bald fossils with extra young actresses is a formula that might vicariously thrill old executives, but really creeps people out.
“He IS too old to star in action films”
Your statement is ridiculous.Willis is 54, two years ago he starred in the nearly 400 million dollar grossing “Live Free Or Die Hard”, so his age really isn’t a factor.
“He IS too old to star in action films.”
No…I would argue that be should smart enough at is age not to be starring in BAD action films. And Surrogates was /barely/ an action film – more of a sci-fi thriller (a bad one…yes)
Surrogates is an excellent film. It is thrilling scary and profound. I was totally surprised as it exceeded my expectations. And Willis gives a performance that is bold, gritty and ultimately touching. I remembered all the reasons he’s a movie star. I hope people find it.
But WHO in the hell decided to remake Fame and give the film to another fake wunderkind who can’t even begin to know how to tell a story. Now they’ve tanked the franchise and this id’s career.
Nice going assholes.
“Surrogates is an excellent film. It is thrilling scary and profound. I was totally surprised as it exceeded my expectations. And Willis gives a performance that is bold, gritty and ultimately touching. I remembered all the reasons he’s a movie star. I hope people find it”
Good Grief, can you make it more obvious you are a studio plant?
@redmenace
I am a regular poster to this site, you idiot. And I have blasted my share of movies. This is one they got right. End of story.
Love the meatballs! Hader rules.
To be fair – Mary Parent didn’t remake FAME. It was handed it her by Harry Sloan and Rick Sands. She never would have chosen Lakeshore. She never would have chosen that director. Mary would have picked a better producer, someone who knows youth films, and would have had a tighter rein on story and budget (true budget was $28 million and marketing budget was $30 miil). They are not going to EVER make that back. But again, Mary did do a good job selling it. Just like she did on Valkerie.
She needs to find strong producers and directors to help her carry out her vision. Don’t blame her for this one folks.
Unfortunately it’s guilt by association. Joe Q. Public doesn’t care about the disclaimers. MGM = Fame = Flop. It could only eke out 10M on 3000+ screens. How tone deaf can Hollywood get?
I am stunned that MGM managed to spend $28m on a FAME remake.
This sums up the slowly disintegrating (or imploding depending on who you talk to) remains of MGM perfectly.
The studios single theatrical release this year and it’s not just a miss but a big one.
And why? Because your target audience was at home watching Glee or endless reruns of High School Musical.
Boy, do you have your facts wrong. Mary Parent, in fact, led the development process at the end when it counted. She had disrespect, if not outright disdain, for the original Fame, seeing it merely as a title to plunder — no matter how desperately people pleaded with her to the contrary. When it was explained to her that to desecrate its legacy with something geared only to kids would create a firestorm of criticism, she scoffed. Her approach to the original material was cynical to the extreme.
It was her decision alone to make it a kid’s movie. Did she do a great job selling it? Absolutely yes, but the product is all hers. She must own it now.
God that explains it. Parent is certainly not the kind of person who have done this. I thought maybe she popped a vessel.
$60 million for a crap remake? Somewhere someone has a great little film that will never get made.
Nice going assholes.
The only money maker Bruce Willis did was the Die Hard series. He can’t headline a movie and yet producers keep showering him with money. I think he makes a better co-star than a leading man. Hes a good actor but the story’s he picks are bad choices. Then again, hes making movies and I am not. So its easier said than done.
(i’ll cover for you, nf.)
here’s the analysis: this weeks crop of movies was so pathetic it isn’t even worth’s nikki’s time to analyze. guys and gals, how much detail do you really want on meatballs week 2 b.o.? do you think fame was robbed of 2nd place? were you expecting some drama from the release of surrogates? are you the guy who heard of pandorum? or the one friend of jennifer’s who saw love happens?
After Fame, maybe they should change the Lion roaring to him saying “WTF.”
That was actually a pretty nice hold by the Informant. It will make back its shooting budget in just two weeks.
Informant! holding well despite Nikki’s laments last week (C- CinemaScore = death, to paraphrase). Warners’ exposure was minimal and along with foreign grosses (especially Europe) and ancillary this thing will make at least a few bucks for both WB and Participant.
Since when is 15 million for a sci fi film in the month of September considered a Flop?????
Fame has found a star in Natori — the lead singer who played the irene cara role. great voice.
BRUCE WILLIS HAS BEEN OVER FOR A LONG TIME. BUT FOR SOME REASON FINANCIERS ARE THE LAST TO KNOW. I DOUBT THAT ANYONE WOULD GIVE HIM HIS FEE, AND A STARRING ROLE AGAIN. HE BEHAVES BADLY. HE BADMOUTHS EVERYONE HE’S WORKED WITH, HE REWRITES SCREENPLAYS, (TEARS OF THE SUN ANYONE????) BULLIES DIRECTORS (16 BLOCKS, PERFECT STRANGER) AND IS UNGRATEFUL TO THE CREW (EVERY MOVIE HE’S MADE). HE THINKS HIS SHIT DON’T STINK. AND BRUCIE – LOOK AT YOUR BOX OFFICE – IT STINKS BAD. YOU MARRY A DEMI LOOK A LIKE WHO’S 25 YEARS YOUR JUNIOR, AND YOU THINK THAT MAKES YOU HOT? IT JUST MAKES YOU OBVIOUS. SHE HAS ASHTON SO YOU GET YOURS? C’MON, IT DOESN’T MAKE YOU ANYTHING BUT WHAT YOU ARE, A STAR ON THE WANE WHO DOESN’T BRING THEM IN ANYMORE.
KARMA’S A BITCH, MAN. AND YOU HAVE BURNED SO MANY BRIDGES THAT THEY’RE LINING UP TO SEE ANYTHING BUT YOUR MOVIES. DO US ALL A FAVOR AND GO BACK TO TURKS AND KAKOS.
EVEN A SURROGATE COULDN’T SAVE YOU.
Fame…. do we have to remake **everything?**
They should have had someone like Lady GAGA (who I don’t like myself)sing a kickass title track for FAME, it would have been on peoples radar at least. It’s like the studio forgot how much of a hit the actual music was for the 1980 version.
There was a movie called Nick and Nora’s Infinte playlist, there was a movie called Bandslam, there was a movie called Adventureland. All three of these films were far superior to FAME. Perhaps Mary Parent should look to those filmmakers next time she’s making a youth oriented movie.
I never saw more ads. They must have spent a fortune. Too bad their buck had no bang.
Perhaps you should look to logic and reason and realize that none of those filmmakers would have been available to make film because of their involvement in the very films you just mentioned.
Yes Michelle, Mary Parent should look to the filmmakers of three films that failed to make money.Next she can replace all her staff with the flying monkeys from the The Wizard of OZ (I think MGM still own the rights), who can make decision on what best for the company by dropping shit on celebrities,writers, and directors houses.
Nick & Norah made money sweetie.
I doubt it.Nick and Nora had a budget in the 10-15, not including marketing.It grossed about 30 millions, so depending on the market budget, Nick and Nora was either a flop, or it may have broke even.
FAME opened to similar numbers to NICK AND NORA and well beyond either ADVENTURELAND or BANDSLAM. So i’m not sure that pointing Mary to those examples is all that relevant.
“There was a movie called Nick and Nora’s Infinte playlist, there was a movie called Bandslam, there was a movie called Adventureland. All three of these films were far superior to FAME.”
Yeah, and they all bombed too.
Took the kids to ‘Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs’ and it was very funny, way better than I was expecting. The 3D was used to much better effect than Up or Ice Age 3 and was less distracting. And who knew Mr. T had that in him? More fun and creative than Monsters vs. Aliens as well.
My daughter saw Fame and said it was a) terrible and b) not at all appropriate for kids even though it’s rated PG (she’s 14 so she survived the experience). She’d been waiting through 6 months of ads to see it. How do you blow that simple a premise?
fame is not about Mary it’s about a marketing campaign that was so problematic. the TV spots sucked. The print look was all over the place. There was an arrogance about the campaign. There was no real positioning. The spots meant nothing. Spending seemed to be out of control. This was a marketing failure. There was no understanding that simply exposure is not enough. It’s about intrigue and relevance and promise. MGM marketing delivered NONE of this and it’s been their only movie for ages.
For the love of Mike–are studios in a race to see who can hire the most unqualified folks imaginable to direct difficult/dicey projects? Why would anyone think the guy responsible for eps. of the Pussycat Dolls reality show could handle material as tricky-to-update (and not handled all that well the first time around) as FAME? What this movie needed was a script stronger and more focused than the original–not just a coat of AMERICAN IDOL-gloss. Sheesh.
Fork wrote:
And casting bald fossils with extra young actresses is a formula that might vicariously thrill old executives, but really creeps people out.
Slight reality check–both lead actresses in SURROGATES seem to be on the other side of 30, particularly Radha Mitchell, who’s been in the business at least a decade.
Doesn’t count as “extra young” to me.
But the truth is that there was Fame the 1980′s TV series and the Fame Reality TV series from a year or so ago. Both of them flopped though Fame the movie was lucky to make $10 million.
‘Fame’ should never have been remade. The original ‘Fame’ is like ‘Jaws’- it’s reminiscent and evocative of a certain era and was made with heart and grit. There was no need for it to be remade and everyone knew this reboot was going to tank. I’m not blaming any one person for the remake but in this economy people need to think really hard and be able to justify remakes.
We all need remakes to flop. Nadly. If original ideas are going to have a chance than the cowards who are obsessed with remaking past hits because they don’t know what else to do, need to go. And they will only go when the dollars dry up at the box office.
As an aside, my local radio gave the studio line in its promotion of Fame, saying it was a grittier version. Grittier? Fame in its day was stunningly gritty. Do these studios even watch the original versions before they butcher it?
Are they still planning on re-making Poltergeist? When the originals are that good, they shouldn’t be touched.
If we’re going to mention all the flop remake, why not mention the one that really worked…INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS!