> Behold Liam Neeson, King of January. OPENINGS:  THE GREY (Open Road) will easily take the weekend, albeit at a lower level than prior Neeson early-year thrillers.  Given that this one features killer wolves and hypothermia rather than gunfights and car chases, that’s not unexpected, and the picture should hit a decent profit.  ONE FOR […]

> Moral of the weekend:  If you’re going to spend $250M+ on a movie, check first whether anyone wants to see it. OPENINGS:  With a probable $27-28M opening, just how big a flop is JOHN CARTER (Disney) going to be?  Hard to tell until full weekend and international numbers are in.  But its sheer cost–probably […]

> First at your boxoffice and first in your hearts:  Katniss Everdeen. THE HUNGER GAMES:  The juggernaut of The Hunger Games (Lionsgate/Summit) rolls on, with what should be a $20M+ weekend that should bring it to $335M by its 24th day in release.  That puts it ahead of all the Twilights and every Harry Potter […]

  WAR HORSE:  Watch It At Home –  Spielberg’s Beautiful Muzak   Earlier this year, audiences were presented with Super 8, J. J. Abrams’s pastiche of Steven Spielberg’s classic sci-fi adventures from the 1970s and 80s (Spielberg was a producer on the project).  Now with WAR HORSE, we have Spielberg’s own pastiche:  of John Ford, […]

    WHAT’S YOUR NUMBER? – Worth a Ticket:   The Number’s Higher Than You’d Think   Romantic comedies that are actually romantic and comic are so rare these days, it doesn’t matter so much that WHAT’S YOUR NUMBER? is in many ways thoroughly second-rate.  It delivers some laughs and a likable couple to root for, […]

  THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO:  Worth A Ticket – David Fincher Meets Lisbeth Salander   The most remarkable thing about David Fincher’s version of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (written for the English-language screen by Steven Zaillian) is that while remaining, for the most part, scrupulously faithful to the best-selling novel by […]

    MIRROR MIRROR:  Not Even For Free – 7 Years Bad Luck     When it was announced that 2012 would bring two big-budget movie versions of the Snow White story, not to mention TV’s Once Upon A Time, in which Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin) is a central character (and that’s not counting Grimm, another […]

A brief update this week.  Team Salem had the biggest week, up $81 million to $371 million through Sunday for the slate. A full week of Brave was the main driver for the gain.  The first Monday-Thursday period combined with the second weekend of Brave totaled $65 million, exactly matching the opening weekend number — a very good […]