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 […]

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 […]

ICAHN BOOSTS HIS BID FOR LIONS GATE

Shares in Lions Gate Entertainment jumped 10 percent to $7.14 Tuesday — catapulted not so much by news that its latest movie release, The Last Exorcism, which it acquired for $1 million, had earned 20 times that amount on its opening weekend, but by word that Carl Icahn had renewed his takeover bid for the […]

TAKERS TAKES FIRST

Fewer moviegoers turned up at theaters on Sunday than the studios had expected — and far fewer decided to take in The Last Exorcism. While the movie opened strongly on Friday, well ahead of the pack, it lost steam on Saturday, and by the time Sunday’s returns were counted, it had fallen to second place […]

LOW-BUDGET FLICKS MAKE IMPRESSIVE DEBUTS

Far exceeding analysts’ expectations, Lionsgate’s The Last Exorcism topped the weekend box office with $21.3 million, according to studio estimates. The film, which cost just $2 million to produce (the studio reportedly acquired it for half that amount), marks the second hit of the month for Lionsgate, whose corporate parent, Lions Gate Entertainment, has been […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: THE LAST EXORCISM

Compared with the no-budget likes of The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity, The Last Exorcism, which cost $2 million to make, is a spendthrift affair. For the most part, critics aren’t impressed. Roger Moore in the Orlando Sentinel calls it “modestly chilling.” Sean O’Connell in the Washington Post describes it as “unnerving.” Other critics […]

AVATAR RETURNS FROM THE BLUE YONDER

A slightly longer Avatar returns to 811 3D and IMAX theaters this weekend, and some box-office forecasters are predicting that it will outperform two new movies that are opening on nearly three times as many screens. Other movie gurus aren’t so sure, making the case that everyone who has wanted to see the movie already […]