SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN: FAIREST OF THEM ALL

Snow White and the Huntsman dwarfed everything else at the box office over the weekend, taking in an estimated $56.3 million, well ahead of industry forecasts. The result will no doubt come as considerable relief to Universal executives, who saw their last release, Battleship, sink out of the dock three weekends ago. Winding up in […]

EVERYTHING’S COMING UP MARIGOLDS FOR FOX SEARCHLIGHT

Fox Searchlight’s The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which has done gangbuster business overseas — it has taken in $81.2 million abroad — brought its domestic total to $19.4 million on Tuesday, thereby crossing the $100-million mark at the worldwide box office. It is currently playing on just 1,233 screens in North America — about a […]

THE AVENGERS IS NOW DISNEY’S TOP FILM EVER

The Avengers set yet another record over the weekend. With $55.6 million in domestic ticket sales, it lifted its total to $457.7 million, while its worldwide earnings rose to nearly $1.2 billion — making it in just three weekends the highest-grossing Disney film in history. But what was good news for Disney was depressing news […]

THE ARTIST RETURNS — BUT NOBODY CARES

Oscar winner The Artist did OK at the box office in its initial run, earning $44 million, even without ever hitting the top ten. But it earned nearly twice that amount overseas. So executives at the Weinstein Co. figured that there must be a bigger audience for the movie at home, too, and they decided […]

AVENGERS‘ FINAL OFFICIAL TALLY: $207.4 MILLION

Disney reported today (Monday) that ticket sales on Sunday for The Avengers was higher than its earlier estimate and that the final weekend tally came to $207.4 million. The Avengers thereby becomes the first movie ever to exceed $200 million over its first Friday-through-Sunday period. Disney further observed that the worldwide total for the Marvel […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL

It has been said that older women are more “review sensitive” when it comes to selecting a film than, say, most of the moviegoers who will be massing to see The Avengers this weekend. If that is the case, then The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which will be screening at about 27 locations, should pack […]

WILL OLDER MOVIEGOERS TURN OUT FOR MARIGOLD HOTEL?

The only new film due to open opposite The Avengers this weekend is the comedy The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which Fox Searchlight hopes will bring out older moviegoers the way Cocoon did nearly 30 years ago. Only 27 theaters will be screening the comedy, which stars such British acting veterans as Judi Dench, Maggie […]

COUNTERPROGRAMMING BOX OFFICE — IT HARDLY EVER WORKS

An analysis by the Los Angeles Times of the box office of films released as “counterprogramming” to major tentpole movies has concluded that while the counterprogramming idea may seem logical in theory, “in the real world, it’s borderline suicide.” The newspaper tracked the recent history of such a release tactic, concluding that “the results have […]