Cannes: Theft Leads China Film Group VP To Bow Out Of Keanu … 
UPDATE: Yahoo Board OKs $1.1B Deal To Acquire Tumblr … 
‘Epic’ Toon Begins $14.5M Overseas Rollout 
Cannes: Sony Classics Wins Stateside Rights To Asghar … 
‘Fast & Furious 6′ Breaks Records In … 
Specialty Box Office: ‘Frances Ha’ Triumphs As … 
‘Saturday Night Live’ Season Finale Posts … 
‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ $164.5M Global: Lower … 
Cannes: Backup Media, Memento Bring Heat To Fest Helmer Jim … 
Cannes: Sundance Selects Acquires Dardenne Brothers’ … 
Cannes: Wrekin Hill Acquires U.S. On Gabriele … 
Bill Hader’s ‘SNL’ Stefon Farewell: Video 
Cannes: The Weinstein Co. Books ‘Suite … 
BBC Confirms ‘Doctor Who’ Season 8 
Finally, Cannes Dealing! Radius-TWC Nabs Director’s … 
Hammond On Cannes: Wet Fest’s Official Competition … 
‘Vampire Academy’ Adds ‘Modern … 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Shark Tank’ Finale Up, … 
Cannes: Worldview Options Andrew Dominik’s Marilyn … 
UPFRONTS 2013: The Overachievers 
‘Mike & Molly’ Creator Mark Roberts To … 
SATURDAY PM/SUNDAY AM, 4TH UPDATE: This weekend’s numbers bounced around, especially after Rentrak, the box office reporting service, sent out the following advisory: “We wanted to make you aware that a possible 1,000 theatres could be affected by the weather on the East Coast. We’ve been hearing about closures at many theatres and wanted to advise you that both Saturday and Sunday grosses will be affected.” This is turning into the worst moviegoing weekend of 2011, 
in a race with only Super Bowl weekend, because of the expected miniscule $80M expected for total North American box office grosses. Theater chains like AMC, Regal, and Clearview Cinemas were closing, location counts were dropping, and major releases were finding cover. Hurricane Irene came ashore along the Atlantic Seaboard on Saturday starting in North Carolina and heading due north. Mass transit was suspended in many areas while heavy rains and high winds pounded the region, causing one studio exec to complain to me, ”Business is in the crapper right now. Any way you slice it business is getting creamed this weekend.” The storm, at one point bigger than the size of Europe, created a state of emergency up the East Coast from North Carolina to Massachusetts and will depress box office by 10%, 20%, or more. Considering that this weekend’s 3 major opening movies were only expected to debut modestly even in fair weather, studios and distributors have a Mother Nature excuse when their films underperform at the North American box office. So I can’t humiliate them for not hitting double digits. Drats!)
1. DreamWorks/Disney’s The Help is a lock again for #1 with $4.4M Friday and $5.9M Saturday for a $14.3M weekend as the bestselling book-turned-pic enters its 3.5th week into 2,778 originally booked theaters. The cume is estimated at $96.6M and should pass the $100M plateau mid-week.
2. Sony Pictures/TriStar’s Luc Besson-produced and co-written PG-13 actioner Colombiana starring Zoe Saldana as the female assassin. It did the best of the newcomers opening to $3.7M Friday and also $3.7M Saturday to a $10.3M weekend with an original booking into 2,614 theaters. It earned an ‘A-’ CinemaScore from audiences. “Given the devastating weather system on the East Coast, the film performed better than expected and is off to a solid start and should hold well for the coming holiday weekend and into the Fall,” the studio said. Sony Pictures did a distribution deal for Colombiana which was fully financed by EuropaCorp and partners TF1 Films Production, Grive Productions with the participation of Canal+ and Cinecinema. They also put up the P&A for this title. For the media and promo campaign, Sony tied into the revenge theme of the movie with custom branded promotions and tie-ins with outlets like BET where there was “back to payback” stunt. The studio placed sneak peaks of the film in programming blocks where the cable channel was broadcasting revenge-oriented titles like Romeo Must Die and A Man Apart. Zoe Saldana shot custom interstitials. On channels like G4, a sweepstakes gave the winner time with Zoe’s trainer and to remake a scene from the film. Activities also specifically targeted urban audiences and Spanish language press. TriStar Pictures and Stage 6 Films present a coproduction EuropaCorp. Directed by Olivier Megaton, Colombiana gave writing credits to Luc Besson & Robert Mark Kamen, and produced by Luc Besson and Ariel Zeitoun.
3. FilmDistrict’s Guillermo del Toro-written and co-produced haunted house movie Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark, starring Katie Holmes and Guy Pearce was originally booked into 2,760 theaters. It debuted with $3.6M Friday and $2.9M Saturday and will make $8.6M this weekend. It earned an unfortunate ‘C-’ CinemaScore from audiences. “All things considered, not a bad Saturday and ultimately the weekend total was good despite the hurricane,” said FilmDistrict’s Bob Berney. ”Our key large urban East Coast markets were really killed.” Females under 25 responded strongest to Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark and in markets with large Latino populations. Berney has known Guillermo since distributing his Academy Award-winning Pan’s Labyrinth at Picturehouse. that’s also where Berney released The Orphanage which del Toro exec-produced. Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark had been in the works for some time ever since del Toro made Mimic for the original Miramax. Guillermo based the new movie on a 1973 TV pic that had “scared the crap” out of him as a kid in Mexico. Del Toro chose director Troy Nixey from his work in comic books and a short film that Guillermo really responded to. Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark was shot while Guillermo was in New Zealand preparing The Hobbit (remember that?) and would fly over to Melbourne where Nixey was shooting and remained very involved in the $28M production. After Disney sold Miramax to the Colony Capital/Ron Tutor group, FilmDistrict acquired Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark around Sundance this year. It was the closing night pic at the LA Film Festival and put together a Comic-Con panel with del Toro and Guy Pearce. Attendees called it the most highbrow discussion of the Con steeped in both film history and profanity. Guillermo has a “Presents” credit on the film and his pedigree has been one of the key marketing points of the film. “Jeanne and I were really happy to be working with Guillermo again,” Berney emailed me. “He really is the ’hardest working man in show business’ and the most generous and nicest guy as well. Not to mention that he holds the record for ‘F bombs’ at Q&As and panels around the world.”
4. Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (Fox) Week 4 [3,374? Theaters]
Friday $2.6M, Saturday $3.6M, Weekend $8.6M, Cume $148.4M
5. Spy Kids 4D (Dimension/Weinstein Co) Week 2 (3,305? Theaters)
Friday $1.5M, Saturday $2.5M, Weekend $5.7M (-51%), Cume $21.7M
6. The Weinstein Co’s not-so-raunchy R-rated comedy Our Idiot Brother showcasing Paul Rudd surrounded by Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel and Emily Mortimer originally booked into 2,555 theaters. It opened to $2.3M and $2.5M Saturday for a $5.7M weekend. It earned a disappointing ‘C+’ CinemaScores from audiences. This film was acquired by TWC and Ron Burkle’s YUK Films at the Sundance Film Festival for $6 million in exchange for U.S., Germany, France, Japan, and Benelux rights. Alliance has Canada via their recent acquisition of Maple Films. Directed by Jesse Peretz from a script he wrote with his sister Evgenia, he reached out to producer Anthony Bregman (Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind) who in turn enlisted producer Peter Saraf (Little Miss Sunshine) and they put the whole deal together in a few weeks. TWC’s marketing campaign involved not only the traditional media buys but a lot of extras on the Internet as well — like the Funny Or Die video with Harvey Weinstein and Paul Rudd. Rudd went on MLB.com talking sports. There also was a ’Search for Willie Nelson’ (the dog’s name in the film) viral campaign. And an Idiot Photo Booth social campaign. Our Idiot Brother gave writing credits to Evgenia Peretz and David Schisgall and producing credits to Stefanie Azpiazu, Caroline Jaczko, Aleen Keshishian, Anthony Bregman, Peter Saraf, and Marc Turtletaub.
7. The Smurfs - 3D (Sony Pictures) Week 5 [2,861? Theaters]
Friday $1.2M, Saturday $2M, Weekend $4.7M, Cume $125.9M
8. Conan The Barbarian - 3D (Lionsgate) Week 2 [3,015? Theaters]
Friday $950K, Saturday $1.2M, Weekend $3.1M (-69%), Cume $16.5M
9. Fright Night - 3D (DreamWorks/Disney) Week 2 [3,114? Theaters]
Friday $971K, Saturday $1.2M, Weekend $3M (-70%), Cume $14M
10. Crazy, Stupid, Love (Warner Bros) Week 5 [1,577? Theaters]
Friday $1M, Saturday $1.2M, Weekend $2.9M, Cume $69.5M
FRIDAY: I’ve just learned that AMC which operates the Empire 25 in NYC’s Times Square — the top grossing theater in the country — is closing all New Jersey theaters Saturday at 6:00 PM for the weekend as well as a bunch in states like New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina. Regal is leaving it up to individual managers to make the call unless otherwise instructed by local authorities but Hollywood distributors expect them to follow suit. Clearview Cinemas already announced all theaters are closed for Saturday and Sunday. “Out of concern for the safety of our guests and staff, all Clearview Cinemas will be closed on Saturday August 27 and Sunday August 28. We plan to reopen on Monday August 29. Wishing you and your family a very safe weekend,” read a statement on the circuit’s website.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
Loading ...
Typical of the degenerate executive class in this country to think of nothing but their pocket books during an event that may potentially cost people their lives.
There’s a reason that this country, and much of Europe, is rapidly going down the tubes. Unchecked greed…
degernate exec class? wow… what did your dad/mom do throw your focus…
“to” throw your focus… sorry, i’ve been drinking… where is my exec assistant when i need it… him/her
He is cynical but his point is well-taken. Even the liberals are starting to say we need a moral injection.
Do you have the mistaken notion that movie making is not a for profit business? I will wager that all retail business as well as entertainment outlets are having meetings about the damage from this storm on their balance sheets. The film industry just has sites like this one which discusses it openly.
How do you come to that conclusion from this article?,
This is a website about the movie business. What was the article supposed to be about? A prayer?
Using that logic, you really shouldn’t be on a hollywood industry website reading about box office at a time like this.
@Troublemaker. I understand your point. But this is Deadline. Their job is to report the entertainment industry news. This isn’t MSNBC. Yes the movie box office isn’t the most important thing in the country right now. But on this site, it’s news. If you don’t like it, go to a different site.
Ha! You’re funny! And stupid. What did you think H’wood runs on, lattes? Muffins? Wait…are you my idiot brother? Speaking of which perhaps that film should have been called “My Idiot Sunshine Brother” in order to rake in those sunny Sundance bucks.
Funny I remember when several movies came out during those horrible winter storms.. and their BO numbers were affected; I don’t recall any articles about that.
The thing is most people have seen the films in the top..and the new ones coming out this weekend are not interesting enough to get people to the theater..
such is life.
Debra, I’d like to point you to Nikki’s January 2010 b.o. weekend links, where she discussed the winter storms affecting “Avatar”‘s weekend grosses.
Thing is, a winter storm isn’t as potentially devastating as hurricane-force winds, plus heavy downpours in New York. Coupled with the fact that it’s supposed to hit NY when it’s high tide, that’s even worse. That’s why Nikki is giving this special attention.
The entire mid-atlantic into New England is being affected by Irene, it isn’t just NYC. New Yorkers think all box office success begins and ends with them. Debra points out that the new films for this weekend probably weren’t going to have much box office draw anyway… uninteresting and wouldn’t be pulling all that many people into theaters across the country. I know I’m not going, and the weather here is great.
Actually, I’ve barely gone to the movies at all this summer… just not interested in most of this season’s films.
I could feel bad but I liked Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark when it was called Paranormal Activity 1 & 2, The Shining, The Haunting, Insidious or Colombiana when it was Aeon Flux, Tank Girl or the Bourne Identity.
If Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark follows the original pretty closely, you can’t say that since the original preceded all of those movies.
Yes, because THE BOURNE IDENTITY is so like COLUMBIANA in that it was about a hitwoman seeking revenge for the death of her family ….well, maybe it was, I fell asleep, so I wouldn’t know.
The original film came before the paranormal activities and insidious though. Besides that’s like saying The shining and the haunting are the same movie because they involve ghosts.
The movie bored me to tears. I actually liked “Paranormal Activity.”
You liked Tank Girl?!
You saw Tank Girl?!
Touche’
Say what you might about the film, but Guy Pearce is a badass and the reason I’ll probably see it.
Even when he’s in a crappy movie (which is rare) he brings his A-game.
Proof positive, once again, that Hollywood studio execs live in their own world, whining about lost revenue while people’s lives could be at risk.
And shame on you for even reporting this.
Yes, because how dare an entertainment industry website report news on the entertainment industry?
Please, it’s an industry website, not weather.com. Get off your high horse before you get blown off.
Translation: I’m a plant but I’m too chicken sh-t to admit it so I’ll just resort to ad hominem attacks because I have nothing intelligent to say!
How dare you make that kind of blanket statement — there is no one that is saying that they are not concerned about the people affected by the hurricane. Proof positive, that’s absolutely insulting — it’s just reporting the facts that the hurricane with the closure of many theaters — caused lost revenue.
and shame on YOU sir, for perusing an entertainment website when you should be out there filling sandbags and helping to board up windows!
SHAME ON YOU.
I saw “Higher Ground” at the Angelika tonight in NYC and it was packed. I know the IFC theater in the Village sent out emails that they are open tomorrow.
Saw “The Interrupters” today at IFC. Great film and another packed audience. My friends tell me that the Cinema Village in NYC had a sold out showing they attended of “Point Blank”. Does anyone read this site in NYC who is a film fan and works in the film business?
We are closely monitoring Hurricane Irene and want to keep our guests and associates safe. The most up-to-date closure information can be found here:
http://www.amctheatres.com/hurricaneirene/
– Sun Dee Larson, VP, Film Marketing & Communications, AMC Theatres
Thank you for this–really nice Sun and AMC.
I wonder how much the box office lost during and after Hurricane Katrina? Well I rode through that one and Hurricanes aren’t pretty. Well about the cinemas in Philly,Baltimore,Washington DC are going to be adversely affected by Irene? I’d see those studio suits ride out a hurricane like a lot of people have done in the Caribbean,Bahamas.
unless a tyler perry movie was in theaters when katrina hit, the box office was not affected.
Racist much, Steve?
Ironically, you read racism into his post. And no race was described. Who’s racist?
“Who’s racist”
Steve is. Please try and keep up.
He’s racist, you’re dim.
The Gulf Coast isn’t as densely populated as the North East, so it would have less impact.
Re: Hurricane Irene’s effect on this weekend’s grosses.
It goes without saying that one hopes and prays the weathermen’s hysteria proves to be a false alarm, and Irene diminishes to a warm summer rain and drifts out to sea, inflicting no serious damage or casualties. And that even the hardiest moviegoers will be prevented from forking over $10 for any one of the three new stinkeroos the studios intended to infect the plexes. Now is the perfect time for the enforced East Coast stay-at-homes to sample a superb alternative to the dreck the studios have been subjecting us to all summer–Turner Classic Movies. With only a few days left of TCM’s “Summer Under the Stars” festival, Saturday offers a feast of Linda Darnell movies (don’t miss “A Letter to Three Wives” at 8 PM) and Sunday salutes the unforgettable Carol Lombard. I guarantee you’ll cut your visits to the plexes rain or shine (and, in the process, save a pile of money). And you’ll be sending a message to the major studios they desperately need to hear: No more crappy remakes or else I’ll watch the glorious originals on TCM.
Have a safe weekend everybody!
Scott,
Thank you for your great movie suggestions. It’s nice to read an upbeat post here that’s not filled with vitriol. And kudos for posting under (I assume) your real name.
Why not a reality “movie?” Straight camera feeds!
Watch live coverage with roaring sounds of the hurricane!
Might be better than typical media coverage!
With the right price, disaster could be even sold as for charity help.
Poor Fright Night. It absolutely does not deserve this fate. Really fun, outside the norm horror movie.
“outside the norm horror movie.”
It’s a remake.
Of a horror comedy.
I agree that “Fright Night” deserves better numbers. It’s not a great film by any means, but it is solid entertainment.
Honestly though, even in the best of circumstances, how much was this particular slate of films ever gonna make? Another 13 Mil for The Help — fantastic. How could it have earned more? Colombiana and Don’t be Afraid of the Dark straddling 10 — right on target. Attendance is probably up everywhere else in the country where people are heading into the Air conditioned theaters to avoid the heat.
IT COULD HAVE EARNED MORE BECAUSE THEY CLOSED MOST EAST COAST THEATERS!!!!!!
Business is in the crapper because of the Hurricane? Well, that may be one factor. The other would be the selection of films out right now (“The Help” and “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” aside).
I find it strange that you call Our Idiot Brother a “raunchy R-rated comedy”. It wasn’t raunchy at all — if anything, it was a subdued character study dramedy. I liked it once I realized about 15 minutes in that it was advertised completely wrong. (Maybe Nikki’s “raunchy” comment is a result of that?)
It was a hilarious film, at least to me. Hoped to see it do better this weekend.
When does Jesse Peretz run out of chances? And will Paul Rudd still have a career when it happens?
congrats on the dumbest post in weeks! Take your beef with jesse peretz and shove it up your bitter behind.
You obviously don’t work in the comedy business because if you did, you’d know that every single comedy filmmaker would love to work with Rudd. He’s one of the best actors in the business. You should go see Idiot before commenting on Jesse or Paul, it’s a great movie.
People don’t really take CinemaScore seriously, do they? I mean it seems like the most primitive way to judge a film and I’m saddened to see a journalist like Finke even give it validity. Especially with comedies and horror films, where the average moviegoer will judge the film they just saw by saying “not funny” or “not scary”. It’s sad.
People take CinemaScore very seriously because it’s a better predictor of a movie’s legs than reviews from paid critics. The people who turn out for opening weekend are the hardcore fans. Most of them *want* to like the movie which is why they paid for it opening weekend.
Cinemascore may be imperfect but its good information. For one thing, you can’t tell from ticket sales how many millions of people are pissed off and want their money back.
I absolutely agree that cinemascore should be reported since they don’t report it themselves to anyone — it’s a better indicator than what critics say because these are the people who actually went to see the movie and were excited to see it. It certainly was a great indicator for Our idiot brother. Rango getting a c as well is a bit of an oddity.
was Colombiana expected to do 11M? seems extremely low considering it opened on 2K+ screens. but the overseas numbers look pretty solid. i like zoe saldana. her agent has been good about getting her top billing in stuff. hopefully one day she will click better with audiences.
i loved “Our Idiot Brother” and heartily recommend it. The cast is excellent and the music is perfect.
This wouldn’t be as devastating if the studios knew how to make a movie that was interesting and entertaining enough to sustain a reasonably long run at the theater.
The hit it and quit it strategy to recoup production costs in the first week or two relies on the ability to lure the public into seeing a movie before they realize it sucks.
If it isn’t in the theater a month or two after its release, it probably wasn’t worth wasting your family’s hard earned money. Dodged a bullet by missing yet another forgettable crapfest!
Sadly, even a great movie doesn’t last long in theaters.
I would love to see a horror film in which the people being attacked get smart about halfway in, and the monsters end up crushed, humiliated, and blown-up in the final scenes. No more of these downer endings.
BATTLE: LA fits the bill you’re looking for, among others. This is hardly new.
What the heck are you actually talking about?
He’s *think* he’s talking about how horror as a genre relies too much on the stupidity of the victims.
Dead villain = no sequels
“Dead Villain = no sequels”?
It does make it a bit more difficult.
If the death of the villain made it was impossible to make a sequel, the Friday the 13th and Die Hard franchises would have died out a generation ago.
“My Idiot Brother” looked like a cinematic masterwork from the ads, I’m surprised it opened so weakly. I for one would brave any hurricane to experience a work of art like that.
Bill – if you think that sarcasm was funny, then I know why you can’t sell a script.
But “Our Idiot Brother” is funny. And sweet.
I agree.
And I think the ads were desperate and off. Nikki labeled the movie “raunchy,” I think, because the ads suggested it was out of the Apatow Wheelhouse of Fun. But it isn’t.
Funny and sweet is what it is.
I’ve never tried to “sell a script”; was merely commenting on the fact that the movie looked horrible and unfunny, who cares if it was “sweet”? Also, I wouldn’t put a lot of faith in the quality of comedy scripts that are greenlit in Hollywood, whoever is greenlighting these things seems to be far too stupid to be any sort of accurate judge of quality.
I don’t get why fright night is doing so bad — it’s a great movie, solid story, great casting, great fun.
I thought our idiot brother was well received at sundance(?), that’s why it was bought, so why did it get such a low cinemascore.
Why did it go wide?
Because Sundance audiences are old farts and industry insiders – not exactly the best judges of comedy. Industry insiders wouldn’t know funny if Lewis Ck walked up and bitch slapped them with it. That’s why these Sundance quirkfests rarely spell success at the BO and usually only when they have a solid story to go along with them. But the filmmakers still have Harvey and a few other soon to be out business groups buying them anyway.
I’d agree that Sundance Quirk-Love can get in the way of judging movie potential well.
But I think something else went wrong here: You don’t sell the audience one thing and then hand them something else That cause disappointment and that leads to bad audience feedback.
This was a low-key farce sold with the few moments of comic-raunchiness they could scrounge up fro the movie for the trailer. It was sold as a broad comedy about an idiot. But that’s not what it was at all.
And that’s always going to be a problem.
It worked for Inglourious Basterds.
Gold!
I saw Our Idiot Brother an found it to be very funny. I don’t really understand what constitutes it as “raunchy”, a few f-words, brief nudity?
Raunchy? Have you seen “My Idiot Brother?” Clearly not. it’s about as raunchy as “The Help.” Nice work, though.
Harvey made it look raunchy.
The Help is psychological masturbation for those who like it, and on the level of kiddy porn.
It’s “success” says more about America in 2011 and the mentality of the people who like it than it does the merits of the film, because it has none.
….i guess racism is alive and well in the 21st century usa with posts like this:
JaySmack wrote_
“The Help is psychological masturbation for those who like it, and on the level of kiddy porn.”
“It’s ‘success’ says more about America in 2011 and the mentality of the people who like it than it does the merits of the film, because it has none.”
so why isnt is a success?
pathetic that people can even think like this about a movie thats based on truth.
but lets ignore the reality that people of all racial backgrounds are going to see it.
astonishing post using a metaphor that this movie is kiddie porn and shows a poor cultural climate.
so hollywood shouldnt show movies like this?
I am astonished at the level of hate being shown by certain members of our society. these “kiddie porn” posts reflects more on their own “perversions” then the rest of the usa. I noticed none of these anger-challenged posts can mention one thing wrong about these movie from a historical perspective. but heck, these posters dont care about truth anyway or they wouldnt show so much anger at something that doenst hurt our society but only builds it up.
its success can & will only bring more films like the Help, so beware of the flood. it doesnt suffer fools.
I hope Help continues being number 1 for another month. just so the haters like JaySmack suffer from fear just like all racists fear that which they do not want to know about or care about.
so Jay Smack, in place of Help what kind of movie would you rather see at number 1?
I’m happy that Colombiana is doing well. Zoe Saldana is an amazing actress. While the movie wasn’t so great, her acting and stage presence definitely made up for it. I don’t understand all the hate towards her by some of the ugly, racist nerds on the internet? A lot of them were even refusing to see the movie. It’s a shame that in the 21st century, racism is alive and well.
They might be refusing to see it because it has crap reviews? I mean 34% on Rotten Tomatoes is not exactly promising.
Does your life revolve around what the critics think? I have a friend that is just like you, and it’s pathetic. He will base his opinion on a movie based on what the critics think. He cannot make his own mind up and say, “I like this movie, I don’t care about what the critics think!” He has a film degree and believed for a while that he would break into the movie business, but so far, that has failed.
Do you enjoy movies, or do you want to pretend you are somehow a part of Hollywood’s film elite your entire life? Get real and come back down to Earth, this was not a bad movie at all.
Going to the movies cost money and time. There is nothing pretentious about checking to see if it’s worth your time and money. Critics are paid to watch movies, so other people don’t have to waste money to find out a movie is bad. Most critics assess movies for what they are, they don’t compare action movies to prestige dramas.
I find it interesting that you’re criticizing the poster for taking account critics’ reviews before shelling out his hard-earned cash for a movie in a period where the studios produce crap and more crap without qualms. Do you take into account what your friends say after seeing a movie? Word-of-mouth is, effectively, reviews. I’m not saying that critics’ are the end-all when it comes to movies, I disagree with a lot of critics about movies I like/dislike and sometimes so do a lot of other people, but if a person is apprehensive (and rightly so) about coughing up cash and possibly regretting it, there’s nothing wrong with listening to a second opinion.
well. i personally like zoe saldana. but i would say this, it doesn’t make sense that sony set up promos with BET for colombiana. zoe saldana is latino and BET standd for black entertainment television. which proves that the marketing people in the studios are absolutlely clueless when it comes to niche marketing.
also. latinos are not a monolithic block.i know a guy whose father was a journalist in chile. he got turned down for a job with la opinion because he wasn’t mexican.
Zoe is a Black Latina, she’s never hidden either fact. FYI: Latino/as can be any race.
i should be more specific. she is NOT african-american. BET is basically the african-american entertainment network. have you ever looked at BET? it would appear that she has no street cred with this particular community. and from what i’ve been told a lot of african-american actresses are a bit fed up that hollywood is replacing them with latinas. and i would imagine this might cover other women outside the actress demo.
i’m just being honest. it’s why her films don’t do well. because the studios are barking up the wrong tree.
She can be considered African-American, since technically she was born in New Jersey. But whatever Zoe chooses to describe herself, she did a good job and this movie opened at a promising number. Hopefully she does increasingly well in the future.
Psst…there are black latinos.