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UPDATE: ‘Last Airbender’ Opens To $16M Thursday, Including $3M Midnights

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Thursday July 1, 2010 @ 10:31am PDTTags: 3D, M. Night Shyamalan, Paramount, Reviews, The Last Airbender, The Last Airbender Box Office, Tracking

thelastairbender-movie-aang-poster-550x814UPDATE: Sources tell me that Paramount’s The Last Airbender opened to $16+M Thursday, including the $3 million from its midnight shows. The pic based on the Nickelodeon animated TV series should be on its way to $60M for the 5-day July Fourth Holiday and a shot at 2nd place.

Hard to believe but there’s another movie opening this weekend besides the Twilight Saga’s Eclipse. It’s Paramount’s The Last Airbender 3D from M Night Shyamalan, and I’ve just learned it quietly opened to a solid $3 million in Thursday midnight screenings because of the studio’s counterprogramming strategy. Paramount says that’s the highest midnight gross this summer for a non-sequel. Unfortunately, the studio is stuck with a high price tag of $145M, including the 3D conversion costs of this actioner based on the animated TV series from Nickelodeon called “Avatar: The Last Airbender”, and what rival studios are telling me is at least a $50+M marketing campaign. But the movie has been tracking well with males of all ages and kids and now looks to break M Night’s recent drought at the box office. That’s despite horrid reviews — only 6% positive on Rotten Tomatoes, worse than this summer’s biggest bomb Jonah Hex. It should come in 2nd this weekend neck and neck with Disney’s Toy Story 3 but far behind Summit’s Eclipse with between $50M and $60M for the 5-day July 4th holiday thanks to help from higher 3D ticket prices. Remember that Sunday’s theatrical grosses will be way down because that’s when Independence Day falls this year. But The Last Airbender is expected to make most of its money internationally.

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CANNES: ‘Fair Game’ Gets Mixed Reaction

By TIM ADLER in London | Friday May 21, 2010 @ 3:10am PDTTags: Actors, Film Festivals, Movies, Reviews

Naomi Watts Fair Game CannesAfter some initial good press, there were boos as well as applause for the only American movie In Competition at its first screening at Cannes. Critics here feel it’s too conventional to be … Read More »

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CANNES: UK Critics Review ‘Wall Street 2′

By TIM ADLER in London | Saturday May 15, 2010 @ 4:10am PDTTags: Film Festivals, Media, Movies, Reviews

Wall Street Money Never SleepsUK reviews on Oliver Stone’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps have come in after its Cannes debut. “Utterly gripping. It’s been 23 years but it was worth the wait,” says London tabloid the Daily … Read More »

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CANNES: Not All Aquiver For ‘Robin Hood’?

By TIM ADLER in London | Thursday May 13, 2010 @ 4:19am PDTTags: Actors, Movies, Reviews, Studios, Tracking

UPDATE: ‘Robin Hood’ Opens To $6M In 3 Countries

crowe cannesThe 63rd Cannes Film Festival opened with Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood. Stars Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett (but not director … Read More »

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UPDATE: First ‘Avatar’ Reviews Crashing Websites; Great Buzz On Blockbuster

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Thursday December 10, 2009 @ 3:47pm PSTTags: 3-D, Buzz, James Cameron, Movies, Reviews, Trades


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BREAKING NEWS! So much for the accuracy of tracking. There’s obviously huge online curioisty about James Cameron’s 3-D latest. The Hollywood Reporter‘s glowing early review of Avatar released just now has crashed the trade paper’s website because of a Drudge Report … Read More »

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First Reviews Of Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Inglourious Basterds’ Shown At Cannes: “Gott-Awful”, “Grisly-Comic”, “Camp-Operatic”, “Subverts Expectation”

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Wednesday May 20, 2009 @ 9:03am PDTTags: Movies, Reviews

There was an audience screening at noon Cannes Time. Great reaction from the general audience with a huge ovation. But the reviews range from good, to mixed, to really rotten. The real question is how Inglourious Basterds will do at the box office when it opens in August and how it will … Read More »

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Longtime Dubya Reporter Reviews ‘W.’ As “Remarkably Accurate Portrait”

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Saturday October 18, 2008 @ 11:50am PDTTags: Movies, Politics, Reviews

Few journalists have covered George W Bush for as long or as in depth as The Dallas Morning News‘ senior political writer Wayne Slater who was at the epicenter of Dubya’s two campaigns for Texas governor, his tenure in Austin, … Read More »

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Roger Ebert Leaves The Lede For Last

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Friday October 17, 2008 @ 2:30pm PDTTags: Reviews

The long respected film critic really stepped in it this week when he wrote a long negative review of a movie without revealing until the very end that he only saw the beginning of a 99-minute film before he stopped watching. (Ebert … Read More »

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Israel’s Oscar Bid: ‘Waltz With Bashir’

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Tuesday September 23, 2008 @ 3:02pm PDTTags: Critics, NY Times, Reviews, Scandal

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You may recall that last year the Israeli Academy of Motion Pictures chose The Band’s Visit as the country’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar only to see it disqualified by the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences for having too much English … Read More »

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2008 Emmy Winners (…analysis coming)

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Sunday September 21, 2008 @ 8:29pm PDTTags: Internet, Ratings, Reviews, Studios

Emmy By The Biz
HBO  10
NBC  4
AMC  3 
ABC  3
FX  2
CBS  2
Comedy Central  2
PBS  1
FOX  1

Emmy By The Win
COMEDY SERIES
30 Rock (NBC)
 
DRAMA SERIES
Mad Men (AMC)

MINISERIES
John Adams (HBO)
 
ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Alec Baldwin – 30 Rock (NBC) 

ACTOR IN A DRAMA
Bryan Cranston – Breaking Bad (AMC)
 
ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Tina Fey – 30 Rock (NBC) 

ACTRESS IN A … Read More »

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2008 Emmy Events, Parties & Lounges

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Tuesday September 16, 2008 @ 12:55pm PDTTags: Agents, Reviews

Sunday, September 14th
1-7 PM Connected Gift Rooms Emmy Awards Celebrity Gift Lounge
Sofitel Hotel, Beverly Grand Ballroom, 8555 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles

6-9 PM ATAS hosts Emmy Producers Nominee Party
Citrus at Social Hollywood, 6525 W Sunset Blvd, Hollywood

Monday, September 15th
1-7 PM Connected Gift Rooms Emmy Awards Celebrity Gift Lounge
Sofitel Hotel, Beverly Grand Ballroom,

… Read More »

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Wkd Prediction: Robot $70M, Angie $40M

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Friday June 27, 2008 @ 5:36am PDTTags: Actors, Advertising, Agents, Awards, Blogs, Box Office, Broadway, Critics, Digital, Directors, Distribution, Guilds, Hollywood, Internet, Managers, Movies, NY Times, Oscars, Reviews, Scandal, Sopranos, Studios, Summer Movies, Toons

wanted_nyccgalleryposter.jpg  walle_galleryteaser3a.jpg

I’m told that not only is Pixar/Disney internally hoping for a $70+ million dollar opening for Wall-E, but also a Best Picture Oscar nomination for the L’il Robot. It’s possible with 100% great reviews from top … Read More »

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‘Wall-E’ Orbiting Best Picture Oscar Nod?

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Friday June 27, 2008 @ 1:07am PDTTags: Agents, Awards, Big Media, Blogs, Broadway, Directors, Hollyweird, Hollywood, Movies, NY Times, Oscars, Pellicano, Ratings, Reviews, Scandal, Sopranos, Studios, Summer Movies, Toons, Writers

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I’m told that Disney and Pixar are going to push hard for a Best Picture Oscar nomination for Wall-E on the basis of its anti-toon moody darkness and rave reviews by critics who matter. Certainly many toons have tried for that high honor over the years, … Read More »

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Los Angeles Press Club Awards…

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Monday June 23, 2008 @ 9:23am PDTTags: Agents, Awards, Hollywood, Journalism, LA Times, Other Media, Reviews, Trailers

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Last year the Los Angeles Times‘ Patrick Goldstein graciously handed off the Los Angeles Press Club’s Entertainment Journalist Of The Year title for print, broadcast or online to me, and now I fittingly hand it off to the L.A. Times‘ John Horn after Saturday’s 2008 … Read More »

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R.I.P. George Carlin

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Sunday June 22, 2008 @ 10:06pm PDTTags: Actors, Agents, Awards, Comedy, Hollywood, Internet, LA Weekly, Marketing, Politics, Reviews

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I’ve just been told by a source that George Carlin died this evening. This is indeed shocking. Last week, it was announced that on November 10th the veteran comic whose infamous “Filthy Words” routine reached all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court would be the 11th person inducted into … Read More »

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Thank You, Vanity Fair…

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Friday June 13, 2008 @ 12:07pm PDTTags: Awards, Blogs, Buzz, Celebrity, Fashions, Internet, Magazines, Media, Reviews, TV

blogopticonblog.jpg 

Vanity Fair magazine has created a Blogopticon which charts the tone and content of what it considers ”the most influential or amusing blogs” vying for the attention of the world’s billion-plus Web surfers. The sites are categorized along four attributes: “news” vs “opinion”, “earnest” vs “scurrilous”, … Read More »

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Two 1st Places: 2008 AltWeekly Awards

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Sunday June 8, 2008 @ 3:58pm PDTTags: Awards, Journalism, LA Weekly, Media, Reviews, Sports, Trailers, TV

The winners of the 2008 AltWeekly Awards were announced yesterday in Philadelphia at a luncheon held as part of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies’ annual convention for alternative newsweeklies across the United States and Canada. The contest administered by Northwestern University’s Medill School Of Journalism seeks to … Read More »

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Jorge Camara Re-Elected HFPA President

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Thursday June 5, 2008 @ 1:50pm PDTTags: AFTRA, Agents, Awards, Critics, Finance, Foreign, Guilds, Hollywood, Media, Movies, Reviews, Scandal, TV, Writers Strike

It’s been the most challenging year on record for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association — well, if you don’t count 1982′s uproar over naming Pia Zadora best “New Star Of The Year” — that saw the cancellation of its Golden Globe Awards dinner … Read More »

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Live-Blogging IFC’s Indie Spirit Awards…

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Saturday February 23, 2008 @ 1:45pm PSTTags: Awards, Box Office, Indie, Reviews

ifc-2008.JPGJuno won. All the winners below:

First, some background: this year’s 23 Annual IFC Spirit Awards, hosted by The Office‘s Rainn Wilson who has a small role in Juno, was the first event event to honor independent film exclusively and is the premier awards … Read More »

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