MELANCHOLIA WINS TOP HONORS AT EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS

Lars von Trier’s Melancholia beat out a host of impressive contenders, including Oscar winner The King’s Speech, as it was named Best European Film at the 24th European Film Awards. The award caps a roller-coaster year for the Danish director, who was declared persona non grata by the Cannes Film Festival last May when, at […]

SLOW HUGO ROLLOUT “UNUSUAL,” ANALYSTS SAY

Producer/financier Graham King is making a risky move by rolling out his $150-170-million 3D production Hugo in a limited number of theaters, the Los Angeles Times observed today, noting that while such a strategy has proved successful for such relatively low-budget movies as The King’s Speech, it is “highly unusual” for a big-budget one. “I […]

VON TRIER, WHO JOKED ABOUT HITLER, IS HAILED IN BERLIN

Lars Von Trier, who was declared persona non grata by the Cannes Film Festival last May after joking about Hitler and the Nazis at a press conference, became the leading contender at the 24th European Film Awards over the weekend, when his end-of-the-world film Melancholia was nominated in eight of the competition’s nine categories. Five […]

BRITISH FILMS HAVING THEIR BEST YEAR

The British teen comedy The Inbetweeners, which set a U.K. box office record for a comedy film when it opened three weeks ago, has continued to hold the top position, making it the country’s third highest-grossing movie of the year, behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and The King’s Speech. Its total […]

PG-13 VERSION OF KING’S SPEECH FAILS TO ATTRACT

Cleaning up the king’s speech in order to permit The Weinstein Co. to rerelease their R-rated film with a PG-13 rating instead did not pay off at the box office as the company had hoped. Today’s (Monday) Los Angeles Times observed that the recut version of The King’s Speech collected only $1.2 million in ticket […]

WHAT’S UP (AT THE MOVIES), DOC?

Easter may be more than three weeks away, but the teenage son of the Easter Bunny is arriving early at movie theaters this weekend and capturing the family audience until the real holiday comes along. Hop — a hybrid live/computer-generated film, is expected to earn around $25 million, despite dismal reviews. Box-office forecasters say that […]

IN 15TH WEEK, KING’S SPEECH REMAINS NO.1 ABROAD

After 15 weeks in theaters, Oscar winner The King’s Speech remained the top overseas attraction last week, according to media measurement company Rentrak Corp. The film added $18.02 million to its international gross, which now stands at $309.85 million. Disney’s Rango debuted in second place abroad with $14.76 million. Black Swan, which had its premiere […]

WEINSTEIN: “THINGS CAN TURN AROUND REALLY FAST”

Harvey Weinstein is celebrating his return to the upper echelons of movie moguldom after years of failure following his departure from Miramax and Disney in 2005, interrupted only by the success of Inglourious Basterds in 2009. Today’s (Tuesday) Los Angeles Times observed that The Weinstein Co.’s The King’s Speech, which was the big winner at […]

CRITICS ON 83RD OSCARS: SAME OLD, SAME OLD

One would be hard-pressed to blame Deadline.com’s Nikki Finke’s early release of the full run-down of Sunday night’s Oscar telecast for the fact that not a single surprise materialized during the entire show. “Predictable” was the description used by many TV columnists in their assessment of the affair. Virtually all of the favorites won: best […]

WHEREFORE ART GNOMEO NO. 1?

Box office analysts were puzzling over the “whys and wherefores” of a wreck of a weekend that saw the two newest releases unable to fulfill even their worst forecasts. Most of the bewilderment was about the “wherefores,” as Disney’s animated Gnomeo & Juliet took over first place in its third week. The movie, which was […]

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