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Specialty Box Office: December 2-4
SATURDAY PM/SUNDAY AM : No major studio movies opened. Interesting that 6 of the Top 10 highest-grossing films are PG. But this weekend is looking like $82M, which is neck-and-neck for the lowest weekend of 2011 (September 9th’s $81M). Deadline begins its closer look at the specialty market. Fox Searchlight’s Shame played in 10 theatres in 6 cities and grossed $361K with a theatre average of $36,118. In a dismal down weekend, the film delivered the highest per-screen average this post-holiday period even with an NC-17 rating. The studio is hoping this Steve McQueen-directed film is receiving enough buzz for a long run through the awards season. Fox Searchlight’s The Descendants sticks the Top 10 despite a low theater count and became the first limited-platform film ever to hit $10M in the first 12 days of release. This Oscar-touted Alexander Payne/George Clooney dramedy expands next Friday into 850 theaters to keep up with continuing demand. The Weinstein Co’s My Week With Marilyn didn’t add theaters but held up well, down only 43% on Friday and 26% on Saturday. Already TWC’s badmouthing of the Oscar competition has begun: “This compares to Descendants which, while down 47% and 24% overall, added 33% more locations (141) theaters, and their actual drop in the existing theaters was down 56% and 37%. Paramount’s Hugo added 44% more theaters (563) and, while their overall drop was down 57% and 24%, their actual drop in the existing theaters was down 62% and 34% for Friday and Saturday. What all this says is that Marilyn is holding in better than the competition and that we have good word of mouth.” [UPDATE: The Weinstein Co's David Glasser called me strenuously denying that this was 'badmouthing' and said this was merely normal box office comping.] The Weinstein Co’s Academy Award Best Picture-heralded The Artist had its best day yet on Saturday in both NY houses. “And while LA took a hit on Friday, it was only down slightly from last week on Saturday with drops of 21% in Hollywood and 11% at the Landmark,” the indie said. “Obviously, we have fantastic WOM on this.” The European Film Awards just wrapped in Berlin, where Magnolia’s Melancholia from the looney Lars von Trier won top prize.
Top 10 highest grossing films:
1. Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 (Summit) Week 3 [4,046 Theaters]
Friday $5.5M, Saturday $7.2M, Weekend $16.9M (-60%), Cume $247.3M
2. The Muppets (Disney) Week 2 [3,440 Theaters]
Friday $2.7M, Saturday $5.2M, Weekend $11.2M (-63%), Cume $56.1M
3. Hugo 3D (Paramount) Week 2 [1,840 Theaters]
Friday $2M, Saturday $3.4M, Weekend $7.5M (-36%), Cume $25.1M
4. Arthur Christmas 3D (Sony) Week 2 [3,376 Theaters]
Friday $1.6M (-64%), Saturday $3.5M, Weekend $7.3M (-39%), Cume $25.1M
5. Happy Feet 3D (Warner Bros) Week 4 [3,536 Theaters]
Friday $1.4M, Saturday $2.8M, Weekend $5.8M, Cume $51.6M
6. Jack And Jill (Sony) Week 3 [3,049 Theaters]
Friday $1.5M, Saturday $2.5M, Weekend $5.5M, Cume $64.3M
7. The Descendants (Fox Searchlight) Week 3 [574 Theaters]
Friday $1.4M, Saturday $2.2M, Weekend $5.2M, Cume $18M
8. Immortals 3D (Relativity) Week 4 [2,627 Theaters]
Friday $1.3M, Saturday $1.8M, Weekend $4.3M, Cume $75.5M
9. Tower Heist (Universal) Week 5 [2,404 Theaters]
Friday $1.2M, Saturday $1.8M, Weekend $4M, Cume $70.6M
10. Puss In Boots (DreamWorks Anim/Paramount) Week 6 [2,750 Theaters]
Friday $700K, Saturday $1.4M, Weekend $3M, Cume $139.5M
Specialty
Shame (Fox Searchlight) NEW [10 Theaters]
Friday $110K, Saturday $139K, Weekend $361K, Per Screen $36,118
The Dirty Picture (FLM) NEW [48 Theaters]
Friday $76K, Saturday $120K, Weekend $268K, Per Screen $5,583, Cume $268K
Pastorela (Lionsgate) NEW [55 Theaters]
Friday $23K, Saturday $24K, Weekend $65K, Per Screen $1,191, Cume $65K
I Am Singh (Reliance Big Pictures) NEW [54 Theaters]
Friday $7K, Saturday $13K, Weekend $29K, Per Screen $539, Cume $29K
Kinyarwanda (Ind) NEW [9 Theaters]
Friday $8K, Saturday $7K, Weekend $21K, Per Screen $2,344
Answers To Nothing (Roadside Attractions) NEW [21 Theaters]
Friday $5K, Saturday $5K, Weekend $14K, Per Screen $712, Cume $15K
Sleeping Beauty (IFC) NEW [2 Theaters]
Friday $2K, Saturday $3K, Weekend $9K, Per Screen $4,770
Outrage (Magnolia) NEW [2 Theaters]
Friday $2K, Saturday $2K, Weekend $6K, Per Screen $3,080
My Week With Marilyn (The Weinstein Co) Week 2 [244 Theaters]
Friday $344K, Saturday $506K, Weekend $1.1M (-33%), Per Screen $4,836, Cume $3.8M
The Artist (The Weinstein Co) Week 2 (6 Theaters)
Friday $56K, Saturday $88K, Weekend $205K, Per Screen $34,263, Cume $495K
A Dangerous Method (Sony Classics) Week 2 [4 Theaters)
Friday $32K, Saturday $48K, Weekend $122K, Per Screen $30,629, Cume $415K,
Desi Boyz (ERO) Week 2 [103 Theaters]
Friday $55K, Saturday $82K, Weekend $182K, Per Screen $1,768, Cume $996K
Melancholia (Magnolia) Week 4 [110 Theaters]
Friday $72K, Saturday $101K, Weekend $238K, Per Screen $2,170, Cume $1.6M
Like Crazy (Paramount Vantage) Week 6 [152 Theaters]
Friday $84K, Saturday $108K, Weekend $251K, Per Screen $1,654, Cume $2.9M
Margin Call (Roadside Attractions) Week 7 [150 Theaters]
Friday $58K, Saturday $103K, Weekend $217K, Per Screen $1,451, Cume $4.7M
Martha Marcy May Marlene (Fox Searchlight) Week 7 [84 Theaters]
Friday $27K, Saturday $42K, Weekend $95K, Per Screen $1,095, Cume $2.7M
The Skin I Live In (Sony Classics) Week 8 [116 Theaters]
Weekend $165K, Per Screen $1,424, Cume $2.6M,
Take Shelter (Sony Classics) Week 10 [47 Theaters]
Weekend $45K, Per Screen $840, Cume $1.5M,
Midnight In Paris (Sony Classics) Week 29) [305 Theaters]
Friday $78K, Saturday $105K, Weekend $274K, Per Screen $900, Cume $55.9K
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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A few more solid weekends like this and Muppets has a real shot of making back its marketing budget!
Sarcasm?
You don’t seem to realize that the marketing budget bought Disney a hell of a lot more than movie tickets.
Licensing?
Muppets was really good, but I’m not convinced the marketing message or the release date were very well thought out. Perhaps: “Muppets: The Coolest Job Ever!” and four days before the release of the next Transformers picture would have worked better.
Lots and lots of talk on how “Muppets,” was going to win this weekend… Wow… I think only like “two” major box office predictors got that call right picking “Twilight”…
Just amazing…
Were they relying on the iTunes soundtrack sales?
Someone said that the forecasters all predicted that The Muppets would beat Twilight. But I looked at my 3 favorite sites, Boxofficemojo, Boxofficeprophets and Boxofficeguru and they all thought that Twilight would be number one. I get the feeling with this board that a lot of people are not exactly disinterested commentators–they have very definite financial interest in whether a picture is viewed as a success or a failure.
Yes! Yes! Yes! Omg. Omg. Omg. Breaking Dawn – Part 1 is going to be the biggest movie of the holiday season! I could, like, die. But I can’t cause I have to see Part 2! It’s going to be EPIC!!!!! I can’t waittttttt!
Please don’t die.
Man, that frog had short legs!!!
Pity about Arthur Christmas. A lovely wonderful movie. Unfortunately, it seems that Sony did to that film what Summit did to Astro Boy…
Astro Boy had a fairly big push?
No, astroboy was a terrible kids cartoon. That’s why it flopped.
Arthur Christmas is wonderful, and deserves to be doing better. Frankly, it’s doing better than I’d anticipated, seeing how poorly it was marketed.
It might pick up a bit at Christmas, as the only holiday-themed fare on offer.
Astro Boy was a very enjoyable kids cartoon that got overlooked, kinda like The Iron Giant. Arthur Christmas is suffering similarly due to a lousy ad campaign which doesn’t communicate the film’s ample charms.
We went on based on good reviews from friends and loved it. I plan on telling some friends about it. Arthur Christmas is a great little movie, even with the Justin Beiber X-mas song video that played prior to the show at our theatre.
That drop for The Muppets is brutal.
Agreed. Can’t wait to hear Nikki’s diagnosis because given the excellent reviews and great word of mouth, it’s scary to see it drop faster than Watchmen did.
I didn’t know Happy Feet was in it’s 4th weekend.
Saw Arthur Christmas yesterday. i was the only one in theater. the movie was great. i hope people are waiting to see it closer to christmas. Happy Feet is a disaster.
Arthur Christmas won’t even be in theatres anymore come Christmas.
My husband and I saw it together and then went back twice with our nieces/nephew. Absolutely loved it. I think all of these movies would’ve done better had they not opened on top of each other! Shame! Muppets was really well done, too!
Looks like Twilight 4 will finish its run a few millions behind Twilight 2, Twilight 3 and Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows part 1. I guess that’s good enough for Summit.
If I were someone at Summit, I’d seriously be looking at moving the premiere date for Breaking Dawn, Part 2 up to May or July-ish, assuming that the VFX can be completed without any decrease in quality. At this point, a full year is ridiculous and, as much as I *don’t* object to the Twi-Hards being at Comic-Con (The Con needs girls! Duh!), the franchise doesn’t need another year’s Comic-Con panel to boost the anticipation. Release Part 2 around July 4th (plus or minus a week) and use the Con panel as a victory lap.
Couldn’t agree more. I am one of those rare male fans of Twilight. I know. Don’t kill me. And I can hardly wait another year for the part 2. But, financially speaking, I don’t think the franchise will lose steam even if it releases after a year. It’s core fan base is immune to external factors.
What other 3D movies are getting released soon? Tintin will be in 3D, and the 3D-ization of Beauty and the Beast will be out in mid-January, but what else is coming up anytime soon?
If the Hugo folks play things right, I can imagine that film settling in for extended engagements at 3D halls all the way through Oscar night.
(This doesn’t mean that it will be able to earn back its production costs here in the states, but Hugo might do steady business for a significantly longer stretch of time than most 3D movies these days.)
With a (nearly) 50% increase in theaters leading to a 50% drop in box office, I don’t think that’s going to happen…
“What other 3D movies are getting released soon?”
tintin, alvin and the chipmunks 3, the darkest hour
I saw the film on Saturday evening in a theater with two 9-year-old girls.
The theater was pretty fully, but not many theaters in my area playing the film, so I assume the box office will be fairly low.
The 9-year-olds didn’t come out of the theater loving the film quite as much as they loved the new Karate Kid or Despicable Me, but they loved it and are both planning to buy and read the book.
I think Hugo will do well on DVD for a long time, and that the audience will divide into people who think the film is too slow, people who think it’s a little too schematic and trying too hard to be smart for its own good, and people who love it the way people love Titanic.
The Darkest Hour on Christmas Day, but that’s it.
I’m still at a loss for why three family films of exceptional quality came out on the same weekend and the only other family movie the entire holiday season (minus “Tin Tin”) is “Alvin” in two weeks (which, of course will outgross them by a landslide). Arthur, Hugo, Kermit et. should all end up just fine with the one-two punch of great word of mouth and lack of new competition (every college kid on my campus is raving about “The Muppets” and how they can’t wait see it after finals). This is just a bad weekend for non-niche films (football championships, college finals, post-holiday fatigue, pre-holiday fatigue, holiday decorating, school plays, etc.)
I’m still at a loss for why people on here seem so adamant to position “The Muppets” and “Hugo” as failures. They’re optimistic yet subversive, entertaining yet smart movies that make people enjoy a trip to the theatre.
Uh…check the box office numbers…that should clue you in…
people love failure, it makes them feel better about their own shortcomings.
Exactly. This Muppet movie has made the most of any Muppet film & remember it doesn’t have 3D propping it up like others here.
So what? The Muppets is apparently collapsing. Looks like the big comeback has turned into a last hurrah.
So what? well, for one thing, it’s a damn shame. It’s a good family movie, and it’s just sad American audiences flock to see dreck like the Chipmunks and decide to skip a quality, thoughtful movie that talks up to kids instead of down to them. Then people have the nerve to complain that Hollywood doesn’t deliver good entertainment. Audiences have themselves to blame.
It also had 3x the P&A spend of any of those previous Muppet films, as well as the usual benefit of being a re-boot, rather than yet another in a long string of movies with diminishing returns. For that, it should be making much more than it has. The push has been enormous.
Last weekend a few posters commented that the production budget for The Muppets was 45 million. Does anyone know what Disney shelled out for P&A? I would think it was a considerable amount.
Reboot because it’s called The Muppets, not The Muppets: Baby Geniuses 2?
Hate to break it to you, but “The Muppets” isn’t any more of a reboot of the Muppets franchise than Men In Black III will be a reboot of the MIB franchise. Both are no more and no less than sequels, the next installment in their already existing storylines. Yes, they’re sequels that hit the theaters much later after the previous film in their respective franchises than most sequels do but they’re sequels nonetheless.
Here’s a guide:
SEQUEL: Any continuation of an existing franchise that remains within the franchise’s already-established universe/storyline. Examples — The Muppets, any movie that’s the title of another movie except that the title is followed by a roman numeral, a subtitle or both.
PREQUEL: A type of sequel whose storyline takes place before the events of the movie produced in its franchise.
REBOOT: Any franchise that restarts with a new continuity/universe. Sometimes described by lazy marketing flacks as a “re-envisioning” of the source material. Example — J.J. Abrams’s Star Trek.
REMAKE: A type of reboot in which a single specific story is retold. All movies made from public domain material are remakes. (NOTE: Sequels and prequels are NOT remakes of the original source material, even when they shamelessly recycle plots because they do not recycle/reset the *continuity,* the timeline.) Examples: Gus Van Sant’s slavish, inert recreation of Psycho. Rob Zombie’s Halloween. Set of examples from the public domain: Olivier’s Hamlet, Branagh’s Hamlet, Gibson’s Hamlet, Ethan Hawke’s Hamlet.
REVAMP: Often mistakenly used as a synonym for Reboot or Remake. A revamp is a rethinking — sometimes a radical rethinking — of an existing franchise *without rebooting it.* Example: Star Trek: The Motion Picture was a revamp of the original television series, but when everybody realized that it sucked, Trek was revamped again with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which defined the storytelling and design styles for the rest of the movies within the original Trek franchise (ie: through Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country).
REVISION: Any re-editing of a movie to change any aspect of its content), whether authorized or unauthorized by the movie’s director. Examples: Directors’ and extended cuts (Ridley Scott and Oliver Stone’s love affair with doing new cuts of their movies), George Lucas’s butchering of the original Star Wars trilogy, colorization of black-and-white movies.
Saw Hugo Friday night prime time 7:30 in Los Angeles. Theater was only 20%. I can see why the critics loved it, but it’s definitely not a crowd pleaser. The story meanders. Movie definity won’t have legs.
Hugo is hugely mediocre. The 3D is immersive and well-done, but so what? The story is empty and weak; the performances perfunctory.
But the stuff in black and white toward the end was beautiful and moving, and the 9-year-olds with me were mesmerized.
Those are brutal numbers all the way around except for Twilight. And please stop spinning Hugo. I assume you people are either Scorcese fans or studio plants because a 56% drop after adding 600 3-D theaters is not good at all. A 56% drop would have been about standard for the average film, but when you add 66% more screens and fall like that. What would it have been otherwise, like 80%. No way this film is showing legs. It’s a big time bomb.
I meant 50% more screens. Still you get the picture. Hugo will struggle to make 40 mil even with the added price of 3-D. It isn’t going to be the Polar Express. No way, no how.
Hugo will break 100mil. I have a feeling that it will pick up a Best Picture nomination. It already won the Bational Board of Review’s Film of the Year. Moviegoers are curious and there’s not much to see for a couple of weeks.
Plus, when final numbers for the weekend are in, I bet you that Hugo will have only fallen about 35%. That’s an incredible week-after-Thanksgiving hold.
I am a Scorsese fan, I will admit. And HUGO is a “good” Scorsese film. It is very Scorsese in it’s character development. Basically what he did was make a $100 million+ art film for kids, which in my book is a great accomplishment. I think it will continue to gain praise overtime and will unfortunately probably find a larger audience on DVD than in the theater.
When I say a “good” Scorsese film, it’s not one of his best b/c it has pacing issues. Thelma didn’t do quite as good of job with this one – it needed better editing. But on that note, a “good” Scorsese film is 100 times better than most of the crap Hollywood makes, so I give the film kudos.
I think if I were a young kid I would have loved this movie. The probably is, it’s aimed at intelligent kids (and adults) who like to think in their films, and feel, and have an emotional connection. Rather than just a bunch of machines blowing each other up. So for most of America’s kids, this film ain’t for them.
I bet it will do (or is doing?) better overseas.
I doubt that you as a child would have enjoyed Hugo. I’m so sick of the smug arrogance that permeates Hollywood. Most of the time the problem is not the “stupidity” of the audience but rather the talent level of the writers, directors, actors, etc. “Hugo” is a self-indulgent sort of film that very few children anywhere will enjoy.
Also, a large reason why children may expect explosions and these sorts of things is that this is the garbage that money-grubbing Hollywood keeps shoving down their throat. You can’t have it both ways ie. make fistfuls of cash with awful films like Transformers and than pretend that you are some sort of serious “artiste” making important films!
Who’s trying to have it both ways? I don’t recall seeing Scorsese’s name or any of his producers’ on the TRANSFORMERS films.
I’m sick of the smug arrogance by so many ignorant people posting here lately, so I guess we’re all unhappy. You’re lumping Scorsese in with Transformers? Hugo (although I personally loved it) may have asked for too much patience and thought from its attention-deficit audience while Transformers expects none. Not the same people making those movies. Not the same problem at all. Sounds to me like you simply have a “hollywood” axe to grind, and you just throw up nonsensical, unrelated examples to see which sticks.
Bill H. -
I’d disagree with your comment that –
“Hugo” is a self-indulgent sort of film that very few children anywhere will enjoy.
As near as I can tell, Hugo as a VERY close adaptation of the award-winning children’s Best Seller “The Invention of Hugo Cabret”. The book is heavily illustrated (in a very cinematic way), and Scorsese’s 3D adaptation looks compltely faithful to the visual style of the book, except it’s in color and 3D. The script dialogue is often directly taken from the book, too.
It’s always a challenge for a for a filmmaker to create a successful movie adaptation – while at the same time remaining reasonably faithful to the source material. I don’t think it’s at all fair or accurate to describe a serious and sincere adaptation like “Hugo” as being an example of the “smug arrogance that permeates Hollywood”. You could find much better movie examples if that’s the criticism that you want to make.
Check out the book sometime. It’s an interesting approach to introducing movie history to a younger generation (and it probably makes a great gift).
Slow boring garbage?
Ha you definitely fit the “demographics” of the typical ADD moviegoer.
the saying good things come to those who wait applies to most
Masterpieces and walking out 30 mins in obviously states
Your white trash mentality by calling a film garbabge.
Jack and Jill is garbage. Hugo is not..ever heard of Rotten Tomatoes?
Must be nice to throw away the cost of FIVE 3D admissions …
get a job and don’t complain
The 9-year-olds I went with are huge fans of Sponge Bob and the Barbie movies (which have Robert McKee as a consultant but are not exactly Shakespeare), and they really liked the movie. I think the last part of the movie is a lot different from the first part, so, if you walked out, you don’t understand the movie and don’t know if you would have liked it.
I can understand that some people will think it’s slow and too self-consciously symbolic, but I think other people will like it.
I loved Hugo. It reminds me of Bringing Out The Dead and Kundun.
I also just saw the Specialty BO on another site and it looks like the Harvey “magic” may really be running dry. The Artist did 9,000 a screen on 6 screens, whch may end up 35 to 40 thou per screen for the weekend. If you look at comps that doesn’t bode well. It will never play wide, nor should it. It is very overrated. Bad script, lousy score and seriously, if you want to watch a great silent film why not re-issue Chaplin, The General or He Who Gets Slapped with Lon Chaney.
Also, My Week With Marylin is pancaking on 244 screens. Has about the same per screen average as Twilight in it’s 3rd week. It won’t make 10 mil for it’s entire run. Or about the average publicity costs these days for the Best Actress Oscar run that TWC will be chasing for Michelle Williams.
TO BILL
nobody is spinning hugo and frankly nobody has to because everybody knows that the weekend after thanksgiving is one of the worst weeks for movies and its the main reason nobody releases movies on this week.
Oh, puhleese. Go back this week and last and look at all the cries about how Hugo will be the next Polar Express. A film which by the way opened with 30 mil at the BO during it’s first week. Yes, it was considered a disappointment at the time because it was supposed to be a tentpole pic, but it made 10 mil the first two days on 500 screens in the middle of the week which is almost as much as Hugo made for Fri., Sat. and Sunday on Thanksgiving weekend on 1200 3-D screens.
It’s not going to be the Polar Express. It’s not going to be successful in any way shape or form. And thinking it will somehow have legs through to Christmas is either the spinning of fans and plants or the delusional cries of an investor watching his money go down the toilet.
I went back to look at POLAR EXPRESS’ figures instead and found it was actually on three times as many screens as HUGO from its very first day. And it had a huge star name (Tom Hanks) fronting all its publicity.
You are correct sir, I misread the BO notes. Hugo still isn’t going to approach those number, however. It will be at 25 mil after this weekend and if you think it’s getting anywhere near 100 il you’re kidding yourself. But you know what? We’ll know in the next couple of weeks. And then there won’t be any doubt about who is correct.
Exactly, those brutal drops for the family films are pretty standard for the weekend after Thanksgiving. Nothing exceptional here.
Getting ready to see My Week With Marilyn. Not certain how that film is faring overall. Definitely plan on seeing Hugo again in the next few days
Bill,
$35-$40K per screen for the platforming of THE ARTIST is a perfectly fine number.
Stop being such a douchebag.
Hugo still hasn’t even opened in Europe where it’s getting really good press. None of these films have, beside Twilight and Tower Heist, I think, which have played out already here, pretty much. So wait and see… The domestic market isn’t everything anymore.
I think people are burned out of CGI movies. To many to deal with.
No….audiences are burned out on BAD CGI movies. The medium isn’t the problem. The writing and direction are. A cartoon like range, which flopped at the box office, is a perfect example of how NOT to make one of these.
Rango?
I think it’s Bill who is doing the spinning. If Nikki’s weekend estimates hold up, these would be the drops from last weekend:
Hugo -38%
Breaking Dawn -60%
The Muppets -62%
alarming percentage drops across the board for the holiday movies. they need to improve the quality of films or drop ticket prices to bring people back into the theaters in large numbers.
Both the Muppets and Hugo are exceptional films. No problem with quality this time around.
I saw Arthur Christmas yesterday and it’s much better than either of them. My whole family enjoyed it, whereas my kids (teens and a 6 year old) were bored stiff by Muppets and a little puzzled by Hugo.
Exactly, it’s not a question of quality at all. American audiences are getting dumber by the minute and that’s a fact. Families turn out in droves for shit like the Chipmunks and The Smurfs, skip excellent films like the Muppets and Hugo and then have the audacity to complain that Hollywood gives them stinky product. Meanwhile, execs look at those numbers and pressure writers and directors to turn out more CGI retreads of TV shows from the 80′s and discourage creative storytelling that’s frankly just too smart and not frenetically paced enough for audiences to appreciate.
it’s rather disheartening that some people on here are happy and lampooning some great films for not making enough money. These are probably the same people that complain about the lack of quality in current films, yet as soon as they come out they jump on the chance to bury it. In a few years when you’re on this very site again complaining about Transformers 4 or Pirates 5, look in the mirror because they’re the ones to blame.
To the poster who said that ‘Hugo’ is slow, boring garbage: garbage? You can take a glance at any one shot from that film and know that the film looks amazing and will be standard-setting. I don’t care if you were bored or your kids wanted more muppets – using the word garbage to describe this film is – well, rubbish.
HUGO was gorgeous to watch, expertly crafted and acted but the story itself just wasn’t that engaging. The way it was told was engaging but the story itself… meh. Other than to watch how shots were crafted or how many references to film history were made, I have no reason to watch this movie again.
THE MUPPETS was a nice love letter to the nostalgia of the muppets themselves, it had alot of heart and some fun songs (with dance numbers) but that was about it. No new ground was broken (technically or narratively), nothing was done that hadn’t been done before (seeing them walking… eh… so what). Nothing really stuck. I forgot about it about an hour after I left the theater. It wasn’t made for kids or a family audience but for thirty year olds and their fond memories of the films and tv shows.
THE ARTIST was great. Watching a silent movie in 2011 makes the theater experience so much more intimate and actually fun. I was completely invested and drawn into it all because of the excellent performances, direction, story telling and overall charm of the picture. That movie deserves all the acclaim it’s gotten (and will hopefully get). I don’t think it’ll start a trend. Movies like this are only special and effective because there’s nothing else like it.
Went to see The Muppets today. There were only about ten people in the theater. But everyone seemed to love it. It’s one of my favorite pictures – and my favorite comedy – of the year.
Favorite “pictures”. How old are ya, grandpa?
25. How old are you, smartass?
Al, stop being a dick.
I’m 19 and I use the word “pictures”. The MPAA stands for Motion PICTURE Association of America. After all, once a year the academy does give out an award for BEST PICTURE!
All the haters,
Hugo, The Muppets, and Arthur Christmas are all exceptionally well-made family pictures. Yes, it is unfortunate that they were released at the same time (I guess). If you’ve ever clamored for better films/complained about bad films and decide not to support these movies, you’re doing yourself and cinema a huge disservice.
I also meant to include “The Artist” in that list of motion pictures!
They are called “pictures” or “shows” not movies. AMPAS awards “best picture” not “best movie”. I’m 40, and I’ve made 14 “pictures” over the past 16 years. My son isn’t old enough to have children yet – so I will let you know when I am a grandpa, Sonnie (aka putz).
I’m so happy for Twilight! But now I’m fearful hollywood will get the wrong message and start shoving Taylor Lautner on us even more. Spoiler: Nobody gives a crap about Taylor Lautner, not even Twilight fans.