>X-Men: First Class now has an accurate screen count and updated critical response.  The prequel has been adjusted downward a tick but will still lead the weekend, which will be up significantly over the same weekend last year. Opening at about 3,641 theaters, X-Men: First Class should average a strong $18,700 per theater (for $68 […]

  Pending the arrival of this week’s finale, Mike Newell’s 2005 HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE may be, on balance, the most satisfying of the series.  It combines first-rate moviemaking with one of J.K. Rowling’s most ingeniously constructed, emotionally rich stories–capped, of course, by the unveiling of Ralph Fiennes as the finally fully […]

> UPDATE: Deadline has a clearer picture of the day’s boxoffice, and THE HELP is already having a superb weekend, leading the day with $5.7M, down a tiny 25% from last week.  If this number holds, its full weekend could reach $19-20M, which would give it a total of $70M+ and a clear path to […]

> If you were going to describe the films of Terence Davies (Distant Voices, Still Lives, The Long Day Closes, The House of Mirth) in one word, that word would not be “dynamic.”  Or “kinetic.”  Or, well, “exciting.”  Davies directs stately tableaux, impressive and sometimes moving, but rooted in nostalgia and regret. Which is why […]

> Los Angelenos will have a chance to get advance looks at some of this year’s Oscar candidates at the AFI Film Festival, which begins in just about 2 weeks.  Today the Festival announced the Gala and Special Screenings, which typically make up the bulk of the high-profile titles, and they include quite a few […]

> HUGO: The boxoffice story of the holiday was undoubtedly Martin Scorsese’s quasi-family film.  While almost every other film of the day fell steeply or at best held around even, Hugo zoomed an astonishing 40%  This probably reflects to some extent the older audience for the picture, but The Descendants, which has a similar appeal, […]

> The holiday celebrations at the studios may have been a bit premature.   Traditionally, the Tuesday after Christmas sees a 10-20% drop from Monday, and that number becomes the template for the rest of the holiday period.  But yesterday, aside from the films aimed straight at the family crowd, the drops were much worse. MISSION: […]

> I write this as a fairly obsessive fan of Stanley Kubrick, back since I desperately wanted to see A Clockwork Orange in its original X-rated release but was too young to get in. So the very idea of ROOM 237, a feature-length film by Rodney Ascher constructed of the theories and interpretations that have […]