Oz: The Great and Powerful earns $2 million at 10pm/midnight.

Let's do the quick midnight math, shall we?  Sam Raimi's Oz: The Great and Powerful earned an impressive $2 million at 10pm/midnight last night.  Now this isn't a geek-friendly comic book sequel or young-adult literary property in the vein of The Hunger Games, so midnight frontloading should be pretty limited.  That's a bit less than the $3.5 million earned by Alice In Wonderland and larger than the $1.6 million earned by Snow White and the Huntsman.  If we were talking about Thor 2: The Dark World, a $2 million 10pm/midnight number would mean around $40 million for the weekend, with an expected 5% of the weekend represented in advance showings, with potential for even harsher front-loading   But for a 'normal' movie, we're usually looking at between 2% and 4% representing the midnight number.  And let's be honest, this thing is going to explode on Saturday if only due to the lack of family films in the marketplace.  So offhand I'd wager a 3% 10pm/midnight take for a $66 million Fri-Sun debut, as Alice in Wonderland also did 3% of its $116 million weekend at midnight (as did Snow White and the Huntsman in a $56 million debut).  But the lack of family fare could mean an even bigger growth during weekend matinees and the film arguably has less 'must see now' factor due to the fact that Burton is a more mainstream name than Raimi.  So let's just call it 2.5% at 10pm/midnight for a $80 million weekend take.  But don't be too surprised to see it flirting with $100 million by Sunday.

Scott Mendelson  

Second time's the charm part 01: When X-Men, not Batman, spawned a golden age of comic book movies.

This is one of three pieces that delve into something that has frankly puzzled me over the years.  In brief, we've seen occasions where a massively, seemingly influential blockbuster that completely failed to spawn successful imitators.  Yet some years later, another somewhat similar film would end up unleashing a wave of proverbial copycats.  What is it about the second successful at-bat that spurred the studios (and of course paying audiences) in a way the first time did not?  The first of these three pieces will deal with the comic book film in the aftermath of Batman. Remember all of those smash-hit comic book adaptations brought on by the success of Tim Burton's Batman back in June of 1989?  Oh right, there weren't any.  Yes, I will always argue that Batman changed the movie industry and basically kick-started the whole idea of shaping various non-traditional properties for big-screen adaptations (something I'll touch upon yet again in a later essay), but it did not usher in a new golden age of comic book films.  

Just in time for Halloween: some classic horror films for kids!

I'm not the only one who noticed a somewhat odd trend this fall, with three would-be spooky stories pitched directly at the younger audiences.  While the actual level of would-be horror varied from picture to picture (Hotel Transylvania didn't even try to terrify while ParaNorman was downright disturbing in its morose sense of tragedy), it did give me an idea for the Mendelson's Memos annual Halloween essay.  This time around, we're looking at horror films that, if not specifically targeted at kids, are nonetheless appropriate for younger audiences and in-fact may serve as a gateway drug to the world of the homicidal macabre.  I'm sticking to seven that I think deserve to be highlighted, I've purposely avoided the ones that everybody knows (IE - Poltergeist or Ghostbusters) or older films that are merely appropriate for today's jaded kids (think The Birds or Jaws).  As always for the sake of my sanity, these will be in alphabetical order.  So without further ado, let's dive right in!

Weekend Box Office (10-07-12): Taken 2 scores $50m while Frankenweenie stumbles and Pitch Perfect stays on-note.

As always, check out John Gosling's insanely informative 'preview' of this weekend's new releases HERE.

Taken 2 basically pulled a Bourne this weekend, as a prime example where a well-liked and leggy original film capitalized on said goodwill with a massive opening weekend for the second installment.  Taken 2: The Takening earned a massive $50 million this weekend, which is more than double the $24 million debut of the first Taken over Super Bowl weekend 2009.  If the numbers hold, it will be the third-biggest opening in October, behind only last year's $52 million debut of Paranormal Activity 3 and $50.4 million debut of Jackass 3D.  The trajectory is most similar to the Bourne series and yes the last two 007 films.  The Bourne Identity had a $27 million debut in June 2002, which was followed by a leggy run to $121 million and a sterling performance on DVD as a top-rented title.  Two summers later, The Bourne Supremacy debuted to $52 million and ended its US run with $176 million.  While Casino Royale was technically the 22nd 007 film, it played like a reboot/fresh start to the franchise and it too parlayed a solid $40 million opening into a leggy $167 million run and massive critical and audience approval.  Two years later, Quantum of Solace opened with $67 million and quick-killed its way to a $168 million domestic gross.

It's Frankenweenie versus Taken 2 as John Gosling previews the week's new releases (10-05-12)

Along with Tim Burton's Frankweenie and the return of Liam Neeson in Taken 2, last weekend's surprise chart entry, Pitch Perfect expands into wide release. Frankenweenie's origins stretch right back to 1984, when Tim Burton worked at Disney. The young director got his first break thanks to a short film he made while at college, entitled Stalk of the Celery Monster. The short drew Disney's attention, who offered him an animation apprenticeship, where he would work on The Black Cauldron and The Fox and The Hound, amongst others. In 1982, he made his first stop-motion short for Disney, an ode to his childhood hero, Vincent Price. 'Vincent' played the Chicago film festival and was followed up by the director's first foray into live action in the guise of Hansel and Gretel. Burton gave the Grimm fairy-tale a Japanese spin, culminating with the titular heroes in a kung fu battle against the evil witch. The film aired just once and prints have since become so scarce that for a number of years many thought the project was a myth. By 1984, the young director/animator was ready for his next live action short, a tale of a boy whose dog is killed by a car and his attempts to bring it back to life. A homage to Frankenstein, Frankenweenie ended up getting Burton fired from his job at Disney, who felt he had squandered time and money on a film that was too scary for children (It had been set to debut with the re-release of Pinocchio).  

Comic Con catch-up - Tim Burton's Frankenweenie gets a charming 1950s-style trailer.

There was a surprising lack of trailers leaked out of Comic Con, with several of the big guns (The Lone Ranger, Iron Man 3, etc.) being shown exclusively to the Comic Con audience (no, I'm not posting any alleged Man of Steel bootlegs, we all can wait until Friday).  But the best spot of what was released has to be this charming and amusing 1950s-style trailer for Tim Burton's Frankenweenie.  After two genuine disappointments in a row, Tim Burton arguably has to prove that it was just a blip on the radar and not some kind of a late-career rut.  As is, it's no secret that animation is where Burton puts most of his original ideas anyway, since nearly all of his live action films, even his best ones (Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Sweeney Todd, Batman Returns, etc.) are variations on someone else's work.  With the exceptions of Edward Scissorhands and Beetlejuice, all of Burton's live-action films have been adaptations of some kind, which makes this project somewhat of a conundrum.  Yes, it's a full-length animated remake of a 25-minute live-action short he directed back in 1984, but whatever ideas hes cribbing from were his own in the first place.  Odd.  As it is, the once novel idea of doing a somewhat scary animated film has long become accepted, with the successes of Monster House and Coraline as well as the upcoming ParaNorman.  On the plus side, it's the first Tim Burton project since Mars Attacks! way back in 1996 not to feature Johnny Depp and/or Helena Bonham Carter.  Anyway, Frankenweenie opens in 3D(!) on October 5th.  As always, we'll see.

Scott Mendelson

June 18th, 1992 - Twenty years later, how backlash against Batman Returns changed the blockbuster business.

Three years ago, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Tim Burton's Batman, I wrote a piece detailing seven ways in which the film changed the movie business.  What was meant to be a celebratory piece turned a bit dark as I realized that the film (which I still love) had far more negative effects than positive effects.  Now we sit on the 20th anniversary of Batman Returns, which is divisive enough as to cause fights over its relative quality.  It's either an overstuffed mess or possibly the best Batman film ever made, you can guess which side of the fence I'm closer to.  The sequel opened on June 18th, 1992 to mixed-positive reviews.  There is no laundry list of the ways the sequel altered the cinematic landscape like its predecessor.  But it did indeed have two massive effects on mainstream movie-going, both of which are quite negative, that still reverberate to this day.  And without further ado, here are three (3) ways Batman Returns changed the industry, one relatively unimportant and two quite unfortunate.

Weekend Box Office (05/13/12): Dark Shadows no match for The Avengers as the Marvel pic earns $103m in weekend two.

I've long said that, generally speaking, any would-be blockbusters slotted for the second major weekend of summer are doomed to somewhat under-perform, unable to break out of the spotlight hogged by whatever film kicks off the summer.  Since 1996 (when Warner Bros. officially kicked off summer with Twister in the first weekend in May), only two times has a film debuting on this very weekend actually topped the box office, and both times were due to a Hugh Jackman franchise film so disappointing audiences that moviegoers were more-than-ready to lap up whatever came next.  In 2004, Troy opened with $44 million against the second weekend of Van Helsing while Star Trek rode a wave of good publicity to $79 million against the crash-and-burn second weekend of X-Men Origins: Wolverine.  Other than that, the second weekend of summer is littered with either smaller films that didn't need to reach blockbuster status (The Horse Whisperer, Daddy Daycare, Monster-In-Law, Bridesmaids, etc) or would-be blockbusters that crashed hard on opening weekend (Dragonheart, Battleship Earth, Poseidon, Speed Racer, etc).  Falling into the 'close-but-no cigar' category would be Robin Hood from 2010 (which opened with a solid $37 million but still needed massive overseas dollars to recoup its $200 million budget) and this weekend's Dark Shadows.

Review: Confused, rambling Dark Shadows (2012) sucks the life out of longtime Tim Burton/Johnny Depp fans.

Dark Shadows

2012
113 minutes
rated PG-13

by Scott Mendelson

Dark Shadows is a movie with pretty much nothing to say.  It uses its culture-clash and fish-out-of-water narrative not for any kind of social meaning or parable, but purely for cheap offhand laughs.  It is filled with wonderful actors who all look spectacular but have little or nothing to do.  The film tries to play around with mixing supernatural horror, cheap comedy, and genuine soap opera theatrics, but nothing really meshes as it should.  It looks gorgeous as most Burton films do, the actors do what they can with very little, and the 70s soundtrack is filled with a mix of well-known classics and lesser-known hits.  Whether it is better or worse than Planet of the Apes or Alice In Wonderland is a moot point, it's simply yet another very bad Tim Burton film.  In short, Tim Burton's Dark Shadows can best be described in the same manner in which Alfred Hitchcock derogatorily referred to Ingrid Bergman: So beautiful... so stupid.

A whole bunch (9) o' character posters for Tim Burton's Dark Shadows...

I think Empire got these posters first, but thank you to Bohemea for making all nine into one easily-pasted image (Blogger is terrible with trying to line-up multiple pictures in an orderly fashion).  Anyway, above is the final theatrical one-sheet and below are the nine visually-striking character posters.  With just six weeks to go, Warner Bros has finally started the marketing campaign.  And I say good on them for waiting!  Now all they need to do is not release another trailer and not saturate the Internet with clips two weeks prior to May 11th and they can prove that studios don't have to spend a gazillion dollars on a year-long ad campaign for major releases.  Anyway, enjoy.

Scott Mendelson

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter gets a second silly trailer.

I never got around to posting the first teaser because I couldn't bring myself to care, so I'm posting both here.  Yes, I've heard that the novel is somewhat clever and that it's somewhat political (vampires are basically Confederates who were draining the life from the nation by continuing slavery) as well as a genre mash-up.  But in film form, especially by the brain-dead razzle-dazzle idiot who gave us Night Watch and Wanted (not a Timur Bekmambetov fan, folks), I can't imagine this actually being a 'real movie' as opposed to some wanky absurdity.  Am I being unfair?  Perhaps. But there is something disheartening about a concept that basically amounts to three seven year old boys exclaiming 'gee, wouldn't it be cool if...' not only becoming a bestselling novel but a big budget would-be franchise film.  On the plus side, the film allegedly cost just $69 million so it doesn't have to break box office records to make a profit (which in turn leaves more room for eccentricity).  Anyway, star Benjamin Walker allegedly kicked ass on Broadway in Bloody Andrew Jackson, so this isn't too much of a stretch for him, and the rest of the cast (Dominic Cooper, Anthony Mackie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jimmi Simpson, Robin McLeavy, Alan Tudyk, and Rufus Sewell),  is solid.  20th Century Fox debuts Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter on June 22nd.  As always, we'll see, and I'll be the first to gladly eat crow if this turns out to be a thing of substance.

Scott Mendelson

Tim Burton's Dark Shadows gets a quirky and goofy trailer.

Well, this looks like somewhat of a return to a smaller scale for Tim Burton.  Yes there are stars galore, period decor, and various vampire/witch-related special effects, but this is a lighter and smaller picture that feels more like Beetlejuice than Sleepy Hollow.  Most of the 'fish out of water' humor falls flat, although Chloë Moretz earns the biggest laugh with her deadpan reaction to the climactic drug joke.  I could carp about a somewhat generic 'evil woman scorned' narrative, but I don't know enough about the original television show to protest what may be a faithful plotline.  Besides, if I may speak pruriently, Eva Green looks absolutely drop-dead gorgeous (pun intended I suppose), even if I prefer brunettes.  Frankly, the idea of a single and unattached bachelor spending an entire movie trying *not* to have sex with Eva Green verges on the ridiculous, but the movie does seem to have a goofy offbeat charm.  The best news is that this looks like less of a studio product and more of a somewhat idiosyncratic little flick.  It's still Tim Burton playing in someone else's sandbox, but it feels far-less mechanical than Alice in Wonderland (or Planet of the Apes for that matter).  Warner Bros. opens this one on May 11th.  Cursed release date aside, we'll see.

Scott Mendelson

Déjà vu all over again. Warner Bros hides Tim Burton's Dark Shadows just as they hid Tim Burton's Mars Attacks!. And why it's a good thing...

There's a new Tim Burton coming out from Warner Bros. in just over two months.  Aside from a couple stills and some half-hearted interview statements from the cast and Mr. Burton, we haven't heard or seen a thing from it.  No posters, no trailers, no TV spots, nothing.  It's October of 1996, and I'm of course referring to Mars Attacks!.  Many of my readers are too young to remember way-back-when, but the near-absence of marketing materials for Tim Burton's $80 million private-joke (which today plays like half-blockbuster deconstruction and half-right wing political fantasy) was a source of frustration for a 16-year old Tim Burton fan who was eagerly awaiting that first preview.  Today we stand in the same boat with another Warner Bros-funded Tim Burton 'comedy'.  But just over fifteen years later, what was a source of frustration is now a pleasant surprise.  Nine weeks to go, and I really don't need to see an onslaught of spoiler-filled marketing materials for the upcoming Dark Shadows.  Ten weeks to go, and I have absolutely no idea what kind of film Tim Burton and his merry band have delivered.  I don't know what it looks like, what the tone is, or all-that much about the plot.  And in this era of 'spoil the movie a year in advance', that's a special thing indeed.

Tim Burton's stop-motion Frankenweenie remake gets a trailer.

It's beyond ironic that Disney is giving Tim Burton money to make a stop-motion animated feature based on a live-action short film that he helmed back in the early 1980s that more-or-less got him canned from Disney.  For those who don't remember, Burton made a 25-minute black-and-white feature about a young boy who brings his dead dog back to life.  It was intended to be shown before the 1984 re-issue of Pinocchio, but was pulled after Frankenweenie got slapped with a PG rating.  After that, Burton left Disney, ended up getting a shot at Warner Bros directing Pee-Wee's Big Adventure the next year and the rest is history.  

A cast photo for Tim Burton's Dark Shadows.

From left to right, we have... Helena Bonham Carter as Dr. Julia Hoffman; Chloe Moretz as Carolyn Stoddard, Eva Green as Angelique Bouchard, Gulliver McGrath as David Collins, Bella Heathcote as Victoria Winters, Johnny Depp as Barnabus Collins, Ray Shirley as Mrs. Johnson, Jackie Earle Haley as Willie Loomis, Jonny Lee Miller as Roger Collins, and Michelle Pfeiffer as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard.  

Anyway, it looks pretty sharp, and Depp's make-up certainly looks less weird than the paparazzi photos that made him look like Michael Jackson.  I know nothing of the Dark Shadows television show and would prefer to keep it that way so as to judge this picture as open-mindedly as possible.  It's no secret that I'm not the world's most optimistic Tim Burton fan at the moment, but the horror-fan has never actually dabbled with vampires before, so it would seem that this is something more than a paycheck job.  It is probably too much to hope that Warner Bros. lets this out with an R-rating, but that would certainly be a step in the right direction.  Come what may, the picture will be released on May 12th, 2012 (alas, the second weekend-of-summer death slot), so we'll see.

Scott Mendelson

How 2001 was a film game-changer III: Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes 'reimagining' invents the modern reboot.

This is one of a handful of essays that will be dealing with the various trends that were kicked off during the 2001 calendar year, and how they still resonate today.

At the time, the term 're-imagining' was ridiculed and mocked in the entertainment press.  20th Century Fox, Tim Burton, and those involved with the 2001 redo of Planet of the Apes refused to call it a remake, instead calling it a re-imagining of the classic 1968 sci-fi adventure that itself was a groundbreaking venture in several important ways (it was the first ongoing continuity-laden franchise from a major studio, the first sci-fi franchise, the first to do an 'origin' story, the first prequel, etc).  While the film was massively successful, the critical aftertaste (read - mixed/negative reviews quickly turned into general dissatisfaction) caused Fox to do, what is now a rare thing.  They quit while they were ahead.  They took their $362 million in worldwide grosses (off a $100 million budget) and closed shop on the Planet of the Apes franchise.  Despite a near-record opening weekend ($69 million) and a $180 million domestic gross, Burton was openly annoyed at the final result (it was among the first films to earn Fox a reputation as a micro manager among the big studios) and vowed not to return for a sequel.  Audiences too didn't care for the somewhat flat narrative, the blank-slate Mark Wahlberg performance, or the seemingly arbitrary shock ending.  Anyway, the film was a smash hit, but it was a classic quick-kill blockbuster that closed the book on the franchise until this very week, when 20th Century Fox is releasing Rise of the Planet of the Apes.  Positioned as part-prequel, part quasi-remake of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, the film is indeed a reboot of the beloved franchise.  Because reboots are all the rage now...

How 2001 was a film game-changer I: When Opening Weekends Attack! (or How the Mummy Returns kick started the modern blockbuster!)

This is one of a handful of essays that will be dealing with the various trends that were kicked off during the 2001 calendar year, and how they still resonate today.

When 2001 started, there had been exactly one $70 million+ opening (The Lost World: Jurassic Park, with $72 million over the Fri-Sun portion of the Memorial Day 1997 weekend), and one $60 million+ opening (Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, with a $64 million Fri-Sun weekend take). There had only been a handful of $50 million weekends, and they were pretty much all from the biggest of big franchise pictures. Jurassic Park ($50 million, including Thurs-night sneaks), Batman Forever ($53 million), Independence Day ($50 million), Men in Black ($51 million), Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me ($54 million), Toy Story 2 ($57 million), X-Men ($54 million), Mission: Impossible 2 ($57 million), and How The Grinch Stole Christmas ($55 million). Of those nine weekends, three of them had occurred in 2000. So getting to $50 million was a reasonable objective if you were one of the biggest franchises around. But 2001 was the year when everything went nuts. Back in the day, I still talked with my father about box office with him on a somewhat regular basis. That slowed down over the years, as we found arguably more important things to talk about and he started just reading my blog. I distinctly remember the phone call to my father on Saturday morning, May 5th of 2001. The Mummy Returns had just opened with $24 million on its first Friday, and I knew right then that, in terms of box office, nothing was going to be the same.

Rise of the Conquest of the Battle of the Planet of the Apes part 6 gets a trailer.

I'm not sure whether the world needs another Planet of the Apes film. Although I was sure that the Tim Burton 'reimaging' ten years ago was going to bomb for just that reason (had I not been a Tim Burton fan, I would have had NO interest). Instead, it opened with $69.5 million, the second biggest opening weekend of ever at that time, so there obviously is a mainstream interest in this universe. As for this new film, slotted to open at close to July 27th as Fox could muster (Cowboys and Aliens and The Smurfs open on July 29th), it looks like an artier variation on (I think?) Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, before it descends into I, Robot. James Franco is actually kind of terrible in this trailer, with overly arch delivery (Franco isn't usually someone accused of overacting), but this remains an interesting and surprisingly arty piece of marketing. It's good that Fox is, at the moment, selling atmosphere and set-up over nonstop action. Whether or not there remains a mainstream audience for yet another chance to monkey around will be determined on August 5th. Until then, as always, we'll see...

Scott Mendelson

Catherine Hardwicke's Red Riding Hood (with Amanda Seyfried) gets a terrible second trailer, with a stunningly stupid musical choice.

On one level, this second look at Hardwicke's Red Riding Hood is a pretty generic trailer, a plot-centric piece that basically gives away the majority of the film in chronological order. It also achieves the impossible, as it makes Gary Oldman boring, as his endless narration explicitly spells out the plot of the film in bland generalities. Two trailers in, and the film doesn't feel the least bit original or inspired behind the all-star cast and a hope for some of the self-depreciating humor that made Twilight so much more fun than its morose sequels. Sleepy Hollow had the visual brilliance of a re-energized Tim Burton, the kooky lead performance of Johnny Depp (back when that was still a bit fresh), and a cavalcade of British all-stars. The Wolfman at least had the promise of grown-up horror fare for adults with adult actors at the helm. Both prior films also had the allure of R-rated violence and gore. The film comes out in just under two months, so we'll see as always.

Catherine Hardwicke's Red Riding Hood (with Amanda Seyfried) gets an underwhelming trailer and a snazzy poster.

While most pundits have razzed on this trailer for its similarities to the first Twilight film, the immediate comparison I got was Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow. It's an ages-old fairy-tale, redone as an adult horror story with a bit of gothic romance thrown in. Alas, Catherine Hardwicke is no Tim Burton when it comes to visuals, and the initial tease lacks the knowing humor that made the Johnny Depp vehicle such a kick and a half. Still, the conventional sell is not necessarily the movie. Hardwicke has lined up an impressive cast (Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman, Shiloh Fernandez, Virginia Madsen, Lukas Haas, Julie Christie and Billy Burke) and even said first Twilight film had a gentle self-mockery that the sequels lacked. I do like the sparse and moody poster, along with the low-key tagline 'Who's afraid?'. Click on the poster to enlarge. This one comes out March 11th, 2011.

Scott Mendelson