15: 'Fifty Shades' Dominates; 'Kingsmen' Strong Second

Unsurprisingly, the much hyped Fifty Shades of Grey opened in first place, bringing in over $80 million for the three day (and an estimated $90 million for the four day) weekend, despite terrible reviews, and a surprisingly terrible Cinemascore of C+. I mean seriously, what exactly did people think they were seeing here? It got a boost from Valentine's Day of course, and it may be end up being pretty frontloaded, as a decrease of 60-70% (maybe even 80%) wouldn't shock anybody next weekend. In second was Matthew Vaughn's action movie Kingsmen, which surpassed expectations, earning over $35 million for the three days, a number it was predicted to pull in over the four day President's Day weekend. Probably worked as counter-programming for the guys.

SpongeBob took third place, falling 44% from last week, which is the exact same pattern of the first film ten years ago, while American Sniper had another good hold, crossing $300 million total, and ensuring that it will become the top movie of 2014 when it finishes its run. Jupiter Ascending rounded out the top five, declining by about 50% from last week's debut, another disappointing film from the Wachowski's, who I'd be very surprised to see make another movie at this point- I mean, what studio is going to trust them after all these flops?

Top 5:

Fifty Shades of Grey- $81.7 million
Kingsmen: The Secret Service- $35.6 million
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water- $30.5 million
American Sniper- $16.4 million
Jupiter Ascending- $9.4 million

All in all, it was a very big weekend at the box office this week, with the top three films all earning over $30 million, while the Oscar movies continue to creep on in limited release. Best Picture favorite Birdman has now brought its total to $36 million, closing in on last year's 12 Years a Slave gross at about this point in the race. But with just one more week before the Academy Awards, any more boosts will be minimal, because most of the films will be releasing on DVD or Blu-Ray very soon. Next week are several smaller releases, with Hot Tub Time Machine 2 and The Duff coming out, along with Kevin Costner's McFarland, USA. Tune in for Oscar weekend next time!

'Birdman' Wins Again with Makeup & Hairstyling, Cinema Audio Society, and Cinematographers

A couple more guilds late last night handed Birdman some more hardware, making it the overwhelming favorite inside the industry apparently. The Cinema Audio Society, or the Sound Mixers Guild, went first:

Motion PIcture Sound, Live Action: Birdman
Motion Picture Sound, Animated: Big Hero 6

Birdman is nominated for the sound awards at the Oscars too, so this could potentially signal a win in one of them, but I still think this guild isn't much of an indicator there, since the whole Academy is voting, and not just the sound mixers- they'll probably just look at what's the loudest. Birdman also won the top prize at the ASC awards tonight for Emanuel Lubezki, which paves the way for its impending Cinematography win at the Oscars. Meanwhile, the Makeup & Hairstyling guild also liked Birdman, but gave out a few trophies in different categories.

Contemporary Makeup: Guardians of the Galaxy
Contemporary Hairstyling: Birdman
Period and/or Character Makeup: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Period and/or Character Hairstyling: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Budapest's two here ensure it the Oscar it already had in the bag for this category.

'Imitation Game' and 'Grand Budapest Hotel' Win at 2015 WGA Awards

The last of the four major guilds handed out their prizes tonight, and the results came in as follows:

Best Adapted Screenplay: The Imitation Game
Best Original Screenplay: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Documentary Screenplay: The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz

So, these awards solidify a couple of things. One, that The Imitation Game is still the frontrunner for the Adapted Screenplay Oscar, despite losing the BAFTA last week. It faces Whiplash and Theory of Everything for the Oscar, but being the only film of the three with 8 nominations, including director (and with the USC Scripter award behind it as well), I think it's a pretty safe bet for the category. And two, that Boyhood's loss to Budapest here means it was shut out of the four major industry guild awards- SAG, PGA, DGA, and WGA. I don't think that bodes well for its Best Picture chances at all. But Birdman was not eligible for the WGA, which means it goes head to head with Wes Anderson's Grand Budapest in Original Screenplay at the Oscars, and with Birdman being the heavy Best Picture favorite, I think it's going to beat it. Best PIcture usually takes a writing or an acting award, it's rare that it could win without either one, so I'm still thinking Birdman in Original Screenplay.

Movie of the Day: "The Strawberry Blonde" (1941)

In honor of Valentine's Day, I first direct you to our February movie page of course, where you'll find ten of my favorite romances for the occasion, but today I'm also putting out a bonus choice, and that's the underrated musical from 1941 starring James Cagney and Olivia de Havilland. This is a pure romantic comedy, which was not really the typical choice for either of the stars (he was known for gangster movies, while she was most often in period swashbucklers at this point), but it worked out perfectly, because they're both much funnier and more relaxed than you would ever see them in anything else. Set in the 1890's (can you believe there was once a time where nostalgia for that era was in vogue?) Cagney is a wannabe dentist in love with a rich, snobby society girl (Rita Hayworth), and only just friends with her less sophisticated pal (de Havilland). But of course, Olivia is really the girl for him all along, and the two have sensational chemistry in their scenes together as they work out a plan to falsely "settle" for each other while he keeps trying to land Hayworth. It all works out as it should, but it's a lovely, breezy and surprisingly funny romantic comedy that you should check out on this February 14th. Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Original 1941 Trailer:

TRAILER: "Crimson Peak"

Boy, it's been quite a week for new trailers, hasn't it? I'm so there for this one though- It's Guillermo Del Toro's latest, and it looks to be an old fashioned, gothic horror movie, or at least his attempt to imitate one. Not so sure about Jessica Chastain's accent (and we thought Brits did American voices bad- I'm getting flashbacks to Angelina Jolie's Tomb Raider voice here), but the costumes look great and the whole look and atmosphere is cool. I can't wait- coming out October 16th, just in time for Halloween.

TRAILER: "Hot Pursuit"

I'm almost embarrassed to admit parts of this trailer did make me chuckle. It reminds me of The Heat, in that these two leads might be perfectly cast together. But it could also be horrible (the director's last movie The Proposal, was hit but it was also not good). It looks like the perfect part for Reese, but Vergara's schtick can be really, really grating (she kinda reminds me of Fran Drescher- remember when there was an attempt to make her into a movie star?) We'll see- it comes out May 8th.

TRAILER: "Run All Night"

At some point you have to wonder how many of these movies Liam Neeson can make, but he seems to be staying in house, once again working with the director of Unknown and Non-Stop for yet another revenge thriller, this time battling an equally grizzled and scowling Ed Harris for the life of his son. Scheduled as counter-programming to come out on the same day as Cinderella, it'll probably be another hit for the action star, who's kind of created his own genre of film by now, don't you think?

TRAILER #3: "Cinderella"

Like with last year's Maleficent, Disney is out to completely oversaturate the market with an abundance of trailers for this movie, but this is the first one that makes it look non-disastrous (if not exactly brilliant). It does a weird thing though- when I first saw the teaser I immediately recommended 1998's Ever After as an alternative to this, which was sort of a non-magical, feminist reworking of the Cinderella story that's actually really good, and this trailer makes it look like the movie actually does go the Ever After route, down to her first accidental meeting with the Prince. Other than that it's still cartoony and magic filled, and Cate Blanchett looks to be hamming it up like nobody's business. It's coming out March 13th- I just hope it's better than Maleficent, and this is the first ad that gives me some hope for that.

TRAILER: "The Man From U.N.C.L.E."

Hmm- could this be a fun, late summer hit? We haven't had a reboot of a 60's TV series in a while, so here comes the new Man From U.N.C.L.E., which keeps the early 60's Cold War setting, as Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer step into the roles made famous by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum. Guy Ritchie is a lot more miss than hit to me, but his breezy, jokey style could maybe suit the kind of tone a movie like this needs to work. It's nice to see Hugh Grant showing up in movies again.

TRAILER: "Aloha"

Speaking of directors who haven't made a good movie in a long time, here's Cameron Crowe with his latest romantic comedy. Even though We Bought a Zoo was okay, I gotta say that his last really good movie was Almost Famous, fifteen years ago. And the recent Sony leaked emails fiasco revealed a long exchange between producers about the many, many ways this movie (which was untitled for over a year) was borderline unfixable, so this final cut they came up with has been through the wringer, to say the least. Judging by how it looks though, and not any of the behind the scenes drama, I can already say that it's way too predictable and that the Rachel McAdams character may as well be jettisoned right off the bat. Seriously, there's no way Bradley Cooper and Emma Stone aren't headed right towards each other's arms and pretending otherwise looks like a real big waste of time. Aloha comes out May 29th- we'll see if it turns out any good.

TRAILER: "Trainwreck"

Will Judd Apatow's new movie make a star out of Amy Schumer? Frankly, I just hope it's good, considering his last couple, Funny People and This is 40, were misfires. This one looks like a step in the right direction though (or maybe I just love anything with Bill Hader in it). It's coming out July 17th.

Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "Don't Look Now" (1973)

A classic horror film is out now on Criterion Collection, and it stars '70's icons Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie as a couple haunted (literally) by the death of their child, as they adjust to a new life in Venice. This is actually less of a horror movie than a psychological thriller, but the atmosphere and setting is still effectively creepy. For a long time it was actually most known for a graphic sex scene between Sutherland and Christie, but don't get too excited for that- it's a little tame now, looking back on it. The best part is the acting and the haunting imagery of the mysterious shadows of their little (ghost?) girl. It also has one of the best final scenes in any scary movie ever made.

Original 1973 Trailer: