BOX OFFICE FALLS TO LOWEST LEVEL IN 4 YEARS

The fourth iteration of Sony/Screen Gems’s Resident Evil franchise wound up with $26.68 million over the weekend, according to final box office figures released on Monday. The figure was about $1 million lower than the studio’s $27.7 million estimate on Sunday. After opening with $10.74 million on Friday, then raking in another $9.81 million on […]

RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE RESIDES AT NO. 1

Aided by 3D surcharges and the fact that it was the only film opening in wide release this weekend, Resident Evil: Afterlife opened at No. 1 at the box office with $27.7 million, according to studio estimates. The film surpassed analysts’ expectations and eclipsed the $23.1 million hauled in by the third installment of the […]

LABOR DAY BOX OFFICE HIGHER THAN USUAL

Final box-office figures for the four-day Labor Day holiday released on Tuesday indicated that the studios’ original estimates were right on target. The results were the fourth-highest for the holiday. Focus Features’s The American, starring George Clooney, ended up on top with $16,662,333, well ahead of forecasts. Its gross, including Wednesday and Thursday receipts, came […]

HOLLYWOOD TO BE WELL REPRESENTED AT LONDON FILM FEST

Although Hollywood films have been given short shrift at several leading overseas film festivals in recent years, they dominate the lineup announced today (Wednesday) for this year’s London Film Festival. Of 197 feature films being screened at the festival, which runs from Oct. 13-28, 34 are from the U.S., plus several restored prints of U.S. […]

AUDIENCES GIVE THE AMERICAN A ONE-FINGER SALUTE

Suggesting that word-of-mouth may be highly overrated when it comes to predicting a movie’s success, the George Clooney movie The American performed well above expectations over the four-day Labor Day weekend despite polls indicating that audiences loathed it. The film ranked No. 1 at the box office (after opening on Wednesday), earning an estimated $16.4 […]

THE AMERICAN CLAIMS VICTORY ON LABOR DAY WEEKEND

Although Fox’s Machete took an early lead at the box office on Friday, Focus Features’s The American cut it down on Saturday and Sunday to wind up as the weekend winner, according to studio estimates. The results for The American were nothing to hoist a flag over, however. The film earned just about $12.3 million […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: THE AMERICAN

On the Wednesday before Labor Day, the only major holiday that regularly produces lackluster box-office returns, Focus Features, Universal’s specialty division, has chosen to debut The American, starring George Clooney. The thriller is receiving widely disparate reviews. On the one hand is the Chicago Sun-Times‘s Roger Ebert, who remarks that it is “so rare to […]