Author Archive
 

 

ZOOM IN: Saoirse Ronan in Joe Wright’s “Atonement”

> Saoirse Ronan stars in Joe Wright’s HANNA, opening April 8. See It On Any Screen Saoirse Ronan only appears in the first 50 minutes or so of Joe Wright’s film of the Ian McEwan novel ATONEMENT, playing the young B...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

TRUST: Tangled Interweb

> Worth A Ticket. Of all the “Friends” who kept America company in its collective living room for a decade, David Schwimmer has taken the most concerted step away from the work that made him famous.  While Cour...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

WEEKEND STUDIO ESTIMATES APR 1-3: Hop Shines But Weekend Sags

> Based on actual box office numbers Friday and Saturday (and studio projections for Sunday), Hop is now looking like a $38 million weekend, far exceeding the ShowbuzzDaily forecast.  Source Code now exactly...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

Box Office Footnotes – 4/1/11

> Hop will be–by far–Russell Brand’s biggest opening as a featured performer:  both Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Me To the Greek opened to around $17M.  All of which makes this week’s open...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

FRIDAY APR 1 NUMBERS: Hop Surprisingly Strong

> Based on Friday’s numbers, Hop is blowing past the ShowbuzzDaily Forecast, according to preliminary weekend estimates.  While not quite the $56 million opening for Despicable Me and certainly no...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SHOWBUZZDAILY REVIEWS: “In A Better World,” “Rubber” & “Super”

In recent years, the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film has come to stand for not much more than a fair level of craftsmanship and a comfortable pitch of moral predicament (The Secret In Their Eyes, Departures, and The Counte...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

MOVIE SCHEDULING: Method to the Madness

> So how do certain movies end up on certain weekends?  There is an art and a science to the scheduling of approximately 150 wide-releases each year.  This is the first in an occasional look at the scheduling of movie...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

HOP: Easter Egg Over Easy

> Watch It At Home People complain that Hollywood doesn’t take risks, but Universal went and hired the director of Alvin and the Chipmunks to make a movie about a musical-minded, free-spirit digitally animated character w...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SOURCE CODE: If At First You Don’t Succeed…

> Worth a ticket. They say that the definition of madness is repeating the same action with the expectation of a different result.  But that diagnosis doesn’t allow for this:  a man (Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes up an...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

INSIDIOUS: What’s That Noise?

> Worth a ticket. The director and writer of Saw, James Wan and Leigh Whannell, combine again to bring us–hey, where are you going?  No, seriously:  don’t run away.  Leaving aside that Saw is rather u...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

DIARY OF A WIMPY KID–RODRICK RULES: Shortbus

> Not Even For Free It was a feel-good story last weekend when the expensive shambles called Sucker Punch went down, defeated by the relatively low-budget family comedy DIARY OF A WIMPY KID:  RODRICK RULES.  (Mitch Me...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

TUESDAY MAR 29 NUMBERS: Limitless Back on Top

> Limitless moved back to #1 Tuesday and increased a healthy 12% from Monday (significantly better than the average 4% increase for March movies on their second Tuesday).  Sucker Punch drops to #2 with a 4% decli...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

MONDAY MAR 28 NUMBERS: Sucker Punch Sneaks Into First

> Sucker Punch moved into the #1 spot, declining 68% percent, in line with the 67% average decline for March movies on day four.  Limitless declined 68% (also in line with the 69% average for March films on day 11, the sec...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

ARCHIVE REVIEWS: “Prince of Persia” and “Moon”

> SOURCE CODE is this weekend’s major live-action opening, so here’s a look at some recent work by its star Jake Gyllenhaal and its director Duncan Jones. Gyllenhaal has had a curious Hollywood career thus far, and ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

WEEKEND ACTUALS: In Line with Studio Estimates; Week Better than Forecast

>Compared to the ShowbuzzDaily Forecasts (which called for a tie between the movies opening this weekend), Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules slightly exceeded the forecast and Sucker Punch slightly missed the forecast (t...
by Mitch Salem