NEW STAR TREK FALLS FAR SHORT OF FORECASTS

There had been virtually unanimous predictions that Star Trek Into Darkness would debut with the biggest opening ever for the Paramount franchise — at least $80 million for the three-day weekend and $100 million for the four-day holiday. It didn’t happen. Paramount now expects the movie to earn $70.5 million for the weekend and $84 [...]

WHERE TO WATCH MOVIES ONLINE LEGALLY? THE MPAA SHOWS YOU

In an apparent effort to direct people away from pirate websites and toward legitimate websites where they download or stream movies and TV shows, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has launched a website, www.WheretoWatch.org, that lists all the legitimate video websites, with a link to each of them. Twenty-five websites are listed, 11 [...]

GATSBY GREAT; IRON MAN GREATER (Updated)

The Great Gatsby raked in an estimated $51.1 million over the weekend, bowling over analysts’ predictions of $35-40 million. But it was not enough to displace Iron Man 3 as the No. 1 film at the box office. The Disney/Marvel “threequel” collected another $72.4 million in its second weekend, nearly half of it on Saturday. [...]

GATSBY TAKES ON IRON MAN

Online ticket sellers Fandango may be reporting that The Great Gatsby is driving 65 percent of its weekend ticket sales, but box-office forecasters figure that it won’t come close to unseating Iron Man 3 from the No. 1 position when all sales are counted. Iron Man 3 opened with $174.1 million last weekend, making it [...]

IS HOLLYWOOD SPENDING ITSELF INTO DISASTER?

Hollywood is preparing to release some 22 big-budget movies this summer versus 15 a year ago and 12-15 during the previous three summers, the Wall Street Journal observed today (Friday), noting that the release schedule poses considerable risks, especially given the fact that during seven weekends two big-budget films will be opening against each other. [...]

MOVIE REVIEWS: 42

Older moviegoers often complain that they don’t make movies like they used to. But judging from the reviews of 42, a biography of Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier in baseball, this is a movie made exactly the way they used to. Robinson’s image in the film, critics say, is virtually faultless. That’s OK [...]

HYUNDAI’S OSCAR ADS NAMED “MOST EFFECTIVE”

Hyundai, which scored strongly for overall effectiveness for its Super Bowl ads at the beginning of the month, drew much praise for its ads during the Oscars. The Korean automaker ran seven ads during the ceremony, receiving Ace Metrix’s highest score for its ad “Stuck,” which also ran during the Super Bowl. “Hyundai’s aggressive moves [...]

SNITCH CAN’T DETAIN IDENTITY THIEF

Identity Thief returned to the top of the box office as it edged out the debuting Snitch on a lackluster weekend at the box office. The Universal comedy starring Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman took in an estimated $14 million topping the Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson thriller with $13 million — the high end of [...]

ON SUPER BOWL WEEKEND WARM BODIES HAS BIG KICKOFF

On Super Bowl weekend, Warm Bodies showed a bit of life; everything else was sluggish as a zombie. While it is difficult to estimate ticket sales on Super Bowl Sunday, Lionsgate/Summit Entertainment figured that the zombie movie would earn about $19.51 million over the weekend, largely (about 60 percent) from teenage girls. Last week’s winner, [...]

EXHIBITOR DROPS SHOWTIME LISTINGS; NEWSPAPER FIGHTS BACK

Malco Theaters, a 32-theater chain in the Southeastern U.S., has decided it no longer wishes to pay the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette to list the times its movies play on its screens in Little Rock, Arkansas. And the newspaper is fighting back. Romenesko.com has displayed a “house ad” in which the newspaper says that the Malco decision [...]

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