BOX OFFICE 10/04-10/06: 'Gravity' Soars to Record Breaking Heights

Gravity took off in a huge way this weekend, debuting with $55.55 million, the biggest October opening of all time (passing Paranormal Activity 3's $52 million in 2011). It also marks the biggest opening weekend of Sandra Bullock and George Clooney's careers (although funnily enough, not director Alfonso Cuaron, whose Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban did $93 million back in 2004). The film overperformed with audiences and made 80% of its money from 3D screens, along with $11 million from IMAX, but the real sign of strength came from the 32% increase from Friday to Saturday, which means word of mouth is extremely strong, and spread across the board among all ages. The movie played 59% over the age of 35 this weekend, and  split 54% male, 46% female, which shows that it's going to have real legs, and the success solidifies its surefire Oscar frontrunner status in multiple categories, including Picture, Director, and Actress. Audiences also issued the film a great "A-" Cinemascore.

The other new release, Runner Runner did not fare well despite stars Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake, earning just $7 million and getting a weak "C" from audiences, while Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 held on ok with $21 million, but also seemed to lose some steam to Gravity. It's going to be an interesting fall as we see how Gravity holds up against competition from other adult targeting films in the coming weeks, like Captain Phillips and 12 Years a Slave, but I have a feeling the "event movie" nature of the film is going to keep this one going for while.

TOP 5: 

1. Gravity- $55.55 million
2. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2- $21.5 million
3. Runner Runner- $7.6 million
4. Prisoners- $5.7 million
5. Rush- $4.4 million

Prisoners and Rush filled out the rest of the Top 5, but Prisoners' $46 million total so far shows how hard it's been for that film to hold onto its audience with the arrival of direct competition, while Rush has severely underperformed despite excellent reviews, and will not make back its budget in the end. Next week, it's Captain Phillips, which had sneak previews this weekend to 75% full audiences and played with a mostly older crowd, so that could start well, and the camp sequel Machete Kills, with Danny Trejo. 

POSTERS: "American Hustle"

The character posters for David O. Russell's new movie are out. Combining the casts from The Fighter (Christain Bale, Amy Adams) and Silver Linings Playbook (Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence), the highly anticipated film is coming out nationwide on Christmas Day. 

TRAILER #2: "Out of the Furnace"

The second trailer for the Scott Cooper directed ensemble drama Out of the Furnace has been released. The movie is set to come out in limited release over Thanksgiving and expand on December 6th. The knockout cast includes Christian Bale, Casey Affleck, Forest Whitaker, Willem Dafoe, Woody Harrelson, Zoe Saldana and Sam Shepard.

TRAILER: "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit"

The new Jack Ryan movie finally has a trailer. Starring Chris Pine and Keira Knightley, and directed by Kenneth Branagh, it's set to come out on Christmas Day and serve as the holiday action movie choice when there's mostly just adult dramas in release. It's also appropriate timing, given that Tom Clancy just passed away recently at the age of 66. 

Halloween Month on Screen It Now!

It's tradition to load up on scary movies for October, and here we've dubbed it the month of "Creature Features" over on the Movies of the Month page. Head over to check out the description for our selection of monster movies this month, and click here to see the ten horror movies we've picked out for Halloween this year. Some perennial favorites of mine are Shaun of the Dead, American Werewolf in London and as always, the original Exorcist. It really can't be beat. Happy horror movie watching!

TRAILER: "Lone Survivor"

The trailer for Peter Berg's Lone Survivor, which happens to be the first war movie about Afghanistan, based on a true event that took place in 2005. Berg has a mixed track record (he did Friday Night Lights but also Battleship), so let's hope this is one of his hits. The movie's coming out in limited release Dec. 27th.

FEATURETTE: "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire"

Behind the scenes video about Catching Fire and the IMAX experience. The movie comes out Nov 22nd. 

Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "The Little Mermaid" (1989)

One of my all time favorite Disney movies is out on blu-ray today, and you just have to check it out. Of course you've already seen it, but hey, you can always show it to a kid who hasn't yet become acquainted with the film that kicked off the Disney "renaissance" era (otherwise known as the movies that defined my childhood), that great run from The Little Mermaid through The Lion King (1994), when they were just hitting one home run after another. Trust me, even in this age of CG animation, the look, the story, the characters and especially the music- it's timeless and it all holds up. This is one of the great ones.

Trailer (it says it's the original but it's actually from the 1997 re-release, which is a better one): 

TRAILER #2: "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug"

New trailer for Part 2 of Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy, coming out December 13th. 

POSTER: "Catching Fire"

The new UK poster for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is out today. The movie is coming out in November, the week before Thanksgiving. 

BOX OFFICE 9/27-9/29: "Cloudy 2" Tops the Chart

It was well past time for a family film to hit the marketplace, with Disney's poorly received Planes holding on as long as it did simply because there was a complete dearth of family films in release.  So unsurprisingly, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2  topped rather easily with a strong $35 million debut, higher than the original's $30 million bow 4 years ago. It should also do well going forward, as it received an "A-" Cinemascore and benefits from another lack of upcoming kiddie flicks, until Free Birds comes out in November.

Another wide release this weekend was Ron Howard's Rush, which expanded to 2,300 screens and only earned about $10 million, which is pretty middling for the extremely well reviewed film, but I was expecting that, given the lack of interest in Formula One racing in the United States. It did get an "A-" from the audience though, and could possibly hold on strong, but it's facing big competition in the coming weeks from other films targeting adults, like next weekend's Gravity. Joseph Gordon Levitt's directorial effort Don Jon also opened wide to just $9 million and a terrible "C-" Cinemascore (despite good reviews), so that one's probably a non-starter, and the Paula Patton starring comedy Baggage Claim got $9.3 million and another A- rating, but given the low budgets of both these films, they won't be considered flops and may even be profitable after their respective theater runs.

Top 5: 

1. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2- $35 million
2. Prisoners- $11.3 million
3. Rush- $10.3 million
4. Baggage Claim- $9.3 million
5. Don Jon- $9 million

In the holdovers, Prisoners held relatively well in second place, but like Rush, is facing massive competition next week and the weeks after that could limit its final take, and Instructions Not Included passed Pan's Labyrinth this weekend to become the highest grossing Spanish language film of all time in the U.S. Next up, it's Alfonso Cuaron's long awaited Gravity, starring Sandra Bullock (yay- I finally get to see it!) against the Ben Affleck-Justin Timberlake movie Runner Runner. 

REVIEW: "The Great Gatsby" (2013) Leonardo Dicaprio, Carey Mulligan. Dir. Baz Luhrmann

Baz Luhrmann is something of an acquired taste for most people. You either love him or hate him, and I happen to be one of those who usually loves him, so I admit I may be someone who's more susceptible to the charms of this movie, which I think are many. I appreciate his bombast and theatricality, and I always look forward to it as something fundamentally different and unlike what typical filmmakers produce. This version of The Great Gatsby is everything you expect from a Luhrmann production (loud, excessive, highly stylized), but maybe also something you don't- it's surprisingly faithful to the classic story itself. It's also a hell of a lot of fun.

Luhrmann clearly loves the novel, so much so that he lifts text straight out of the book and spreads it across the screen in various typeface- an example of the kind of fanciful indulgence that some label as over the top and silly, but I happen to enjoy immensely. There is always plenty to look at on the screen in his films, perhaps never more so than in this one, which is packed from wall to wall with crowded details in the ravishing sets and elaborate costumes (this is this year's costume and maybe production design Oscar winner for sure), but luckily that's not all there is, and the thing that makes The Great Gatsby work the most is Leonardo Dicaprio in the title role. Not since Titanic has he been in a movie that strives more to showcase his natural charm and movie star charisma, and it comes so easily to him here that we are reminded once again that Leo's a romantic leading man in his bones, no matter how hard he tries to hide behind all those grim character roles and autobiographical parts. He's completely natural and fully embodies the enigmatic and secretly tormented Gatsby- there's virtually none of the strain I can sometimes see in his attempt to bury his movie star shine in films like J. Edgar and Blood Diamond.

Faring less well however, is Carey Mulligan as Daisy. She's filmed beautifully in every frame, but she's just too sweet and sincere for the role. Daisy Buchanan's ultimate actions make more sense in the finale if you sense a hollow and materialistic center under the perfect exterior- she's a good actress but here she seems miscast. The other actors all turn in good performances- Tobey Maguire serves his function as Nick, our narrator and entry point into Gatsby's world, but Australian actors Joel Edgarton and Elizabeth Debicki are especially good as Daisy's husband Tom and her friend Jordan Baker, bringing a real urgency to what could be minor parts.

Luhrmann's taste for pure spectacle is indulged here in every way you can imagine, from the lavish parties of the rich and famous meshed with a modern hip-hop soundtrack to CGI sets and cartoony visions in the night sky of human images tearing up letters- if this kind of thing is too much for you than I would presume you've never warmed to Luhrmann's style overall, but I think his fantastic theatricality enhances the fun and I was surprised to see how much substance there actually is in the end- with an extremely faithful climax and high stakes dramatics raised for the  Gatsby character in particular. All in all, this is a very fun and over the top version one of the great American novels, and if it serves to bring more exposure and awareness to classic literature by reinventing it for a modern age, no matter how radical a manner in which it's done, what could possibly be the harm in that? Luhrmann pays tribute in his own way, and it's a big, bombastic blast from beginning to end.

* * *