With the exception of the overlooked Young Adult and Martha Marcy May Marlene everything seems pretty much in order this week. Chronicle goes straight in at number one, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island pulling in the family audience and Jack and Jill gaining a well deserved and generous haul of almost a million pounds. Wait, what? Jack and Jill is the worst thing ever committed to celluloid since Grown Ups. And people are watching it? Oh God…Where are the codes to the nukes?

The Winner – Chronicle

So, it’s finally happened. After three weeks at the top War Horse has finally fallen out of the top three so if you had an each-way bet on for it this week you’re fresh out of luck I’m afraid. Stepping into the top spot however is Chronicle, Josh Trank’s superb and relatively low budget superhero thriller that’s tailor-made for the MTV loving teenager in all of us. However not to sell it short it is an impressive piece of film making. The found footage thing may have the been there, done that, got the motion sickness feel to it but it’s employed to great effect.

Opening to first weekend receipts of £2,193,072 it hasn’t fared nearly as well as contemporary pieces Cloverfield (£3.49 million), District 9 (£2.29 million) and Paranormal  Activity (£3.59 million) but add into the equation the great word of mouth the film is sure to be getting and that Britain was buried under a blanket of cold, white, box office hindering snow at the time of release and next week’s performance is already looking promising.

The film’s performance also marks a new milestone in UK box-office history with the 26 year old Trank becoming the youngest director ever to direct a chart topping movie. The screenwriter – John Landis’ son Max – isn’t all that senior either.

I think Roger Ebert put it best when he wrote that, “sometimes a movie arrives out of the blue that announces the arrival of considerable new talents”. Chronicle has done just that and it’s box-office haul will won’t harm their chances of gainful future employment either. A resounding success I think you’ll agree.

The Loser – Young Adult

Yet again it’s not so much a week for losers as a week for the sadly overlooked.

First up we have Martha Marcy May Marlene, an excellent film and a sadly overlooked one seemingly clocking up only £106,967 from a paultry 100 sites after having critical praise heaped on it seemingly like the dirt onto a box-office grave. Even so it’s worldwide is nearing the $3 million mark so I’m sure Sean Durkin has done ok for himself.

However it’s got to be the poorly distribute Young Adult that takes the crown this week. Written and directed by the team that brought us indie sensibilitied sensation Juno way back in 2007, Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody’s follow-ups (Up in the Air and Jennifer’s Body respectively) were received with varying degrees of critical warmth. Now they’ve teamed up again and their decently reviewed latest has found its way onto a measly 157 sites totting up an underwhelming £137,284. Very disappointing. Especially when you compare it to this:

The Rubbish – Jack and Jill

This week over at Rotten Tomatoes I bet you’ll never guess what the worst reviewed film of the week is. Anyone for Jack and Jill? Well apparently so since the film which  garnered a positive review score of only 3% on the review aggregator managed a hugely undeserved haul of £848,814 from 324 sites that should quite frankly be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

Someone else who should be thoroughly ashamed is me as I donated a full £6.20 to the cause with nothing but hope against hope in my heart and a head full of commitment to HeyUGuys’s reviewing integrity. That I wrote last week; “is it wrong that I’m contemplating going to see Jack and Jill (and thus paying for it) just so I can kick it to death in writing and be justified in doing so?” is neither here nor there. Intregrity it was. Well, that and my all consuming desire to “kick it to death” of course.

You’d think that with a budget of $80 million such terrible fare would find it hard to turn a profit but do you know what? If you’re thinking like that you need to stop thinking, because with box-office receipts now totalling well over $100 million it seems thinking is swiftly going out of fashion.

The Film About A Man On A Ledge – Man on a Ledge

Yes this week’s best candidate for threatened suicide jump thriller is Man on a Ledge. Even so it hasn’t gone down all that well taking only £697,394 over the weekend past from a sizeable 389 sites. Also it’s not that much about a man standing on a ledge at all. I heard something about a diamond. And thieves. Diamond thieves. And money. Insurance money. And intrigue. Meh. Not so much intrigue. It’s not going down a storm in the US either.

Next Time:

The Muppets are back and according to critical opinion they’re apparently on top form once more. The studios have clearly gone about promoting the film with a money hammer what with all of the saturation advertising that’s being going on. I can’t remember the last time I went to he cinema without seeing Miss Piggy in a leotard. At least it’s not that bloody video call advert for Rio that Orange assaulted millions with over the summer. Good God that was bad.

The Woman in Black will also be arriving with much hype, most of which for me consists in the definitive ‘Daniel Radcliffe cannot act’ statement that it will surely constitute. Why? Because he can’t act. Fact. And he’s creepy in interviews.

Other than that we’ve got George Lucas milking the Star Wars franchise to the point of parody, Channing (the jaw clench) Tatum and Rachel (my cameo in Sherlock 2 was completely without narrative merit) McAdams facing off in the most immediate sense in romantic romance heavy romance-fest The Vow and last but not least David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method in which Michael Fassbender will get a bit kinky again and occasionally find the time to do a bit of psychoanalysis in between. Oh and there’s a film about a whale that isn’t Free Willy.

However with the box office running extremely low takings recently it’s hard to hold out for any  opulent displays of box office intake any time soon. The top 5 films this time last year grossed over £10 million over the weekend. This week they struggled to reach £6 million. Maybe next week can turn things around.

1. Chronicle, £2,193,072 from 397 sites (New Entry)
2. Journey 2 The Mysterious Island, £1,200,587 from 431 sites (New Entry)
3. The Descendants,£1,112,964 from 407 sites. Total: £4,169,946
4. War Horse, £889,687 from 492 sites. Total: £15,333,104
5. Jack and Jill, £848,814 from 324 sites (New Entry)
6. Man on a Ledge, £697,394 from 389 sites (New Entry)
7. The Grey, £521,188 from 348 sites. Total: £2,209,907
8. A Monster in Paris, £474,941 from 440 sites. Total: £1,666,446
9. The Artist, £374,889 from 195 sites. Total: £5,314,327
10. Carnage, £298,733 from 112 sites (New Entry)

Other New Releases

• Young Adult, 157 sites, £137,284
• Martha Marcy May Marlene, 100 sites, £106,967
• Bombay Beach, 2 sites, £2,361 (+ £3,160 previews)
• Best Laid Plans, 6 sites, £362

Top Film This Time Last Year: Tangled

2011 was such a good year for film, and the British Film Institute have released the year’s final tally at the box office that reflect just how good a year it was. The figures show an increase of 5% from 2010, taking a total of £1.04bn., marking the first time the UK box office has surpassed the £1bn.-mark.

The year saw a release of so many great films, judging from both critical and commercial measures, including the likes of The King’s Speech, Fast Five, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Inbetweeners, and of course, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, which was the year’s most successful film across the world, taking £73m. at our box office, and a total of $1.3bn. from cinemas around the globe.

The total number of tickets sold was also up 1.4% from 2010 to 171.6 million, and the independent British film industry also had its best year to date in terms of market share, recording a figure of 13.5%.

The BFI note that the strong performance last year was fuelled both by independent British films like The Inbetweeners as well as blockbusters made in the UK with British talent, crew, and services, like the Harry Potter finale and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (though Robert Downey, Jr. is of course an American in the lead, but that’s neither here nor there, because he’s so damn cool).

The report notes that the year also saw a drop in the number of films made, however, reduced from 262 in 2010 to 169 last year, a drop of roughly 35.5%.

“It’s still a challenging time for filmmakers trying to raise finance to make independent British films in this tough economic climate,” said the BFI’s Amanda Nevill.

“As we enter 2012, many challenges remain but today’s figures clearly show that keeping audiences at the heart of everything we do will help the British film industry to enjoy even greater success in the future and continue to be an important contributor to the UK economy.”

The BFI’s director general, Liz Bales, added further,

“It’s great to see film fans’ enthusiasm for the fantastic creative output of the British film industry… The BFI figures provide further evidence that the overwhelming majority of people are willing to pay for film, TV and video content.”

Though there has been talk of the Olympics this year providing competition for the box office this summer, I’m remaining hopeful and optimistic that it won’t have a significant negative impact. The Olympics will be running from 27^th July to 12^th August, during which time the main films currently scheduled for release include Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, which should be able to draw a strong young audience along with their parents; Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, which should pull the teen and young-adult audience; Seth MacFarlane’s feature debut, Ted, which is going to be awesome; and Step Up 4 at the tail-end of the Olympics, which will no doubt draw teens and fans of the earlier franchise.

Provided it does well (which everyone’s expecting it to), The Amazing Spider-Man will probably also be in cinemas at the start of the games, with its release on 4^th July. And of course The Dark Knight Rises will be hitting cinemas a week before the Games kick-off on 20^th July, and I’ll take the Nolan brothers’ conclusion to their Batman trilogy over the Olympics any day of the week, and I’m sure there’ll be plenty of others who’d do the same.

So here’s to hoping that this time next year, we’ll be bringing you a similar report saying that 2012 has been even better than 2011 was, getting even further past the £1bn.-mark, which will hopefully become a benchmark in the years to come.

Source: BBC, who note that the figures account for UK cinemas, not including the Republic of Ireland.

There may be a worldwide recession on but that hasn’t stopped fans of Twilight flocking to the cinema in their droves to see the fourth and penultimate movie based on the Stephanie Meyer book, Twilight Breaking Dawn: Part 1. Summit Entertainment have reported that they have now surpassed the $500m at the global box office in just 10 days and no doubt in the run-up to Christmas, the Twihards will be continuing to go back to see it again and again.

Have you seen the movie, will you be going again? Tell us in the comments below.

If you’ve missed our coverage of all things Twilight, you can catch up right here.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -Part 1 is directed by Bill Condon and stars Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner​, Jackson Rathbone​​​​​, Ashley Greene​​​​, Nikki Reed​​​​, Kellan Lutz​​​​​, Anna Kendrick​​​​​, Elizabeth Reaser​​​​, Billy Burke, Dakota Fanning, Michael Sheen​​​​​, is directed Bill Condon​​​​​ and based on the books by Stephanie Meyer​​​​​.

Source: Deadline

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn–Part 1 which stars Taylor Lautner, Kristen  Sterwart, Robert Pattinsion and is based on the books by Stephanie Meyer has opened over the weekend to a rather impressive opening weekend bringing in a MASSIVE $283.5m according to info from our friends at THR. In the US, the movie brought in $139.5m with the rest of the planet bringing in $144m. Although the US opening was smaller than New Moon (which brought in $142.8m), it’s still rather an impressive total for the movie which hasn’t done amazingly well in the review stakes (although our Laura gave it ****~ (4/5)!).

THR tell us that the movie also set two ‘key’ records becoming the fifth largest opening ever at the domestic (US) box office and the tenth largest worldwide opening ever! Nuts!

The movie opened on Friday to 54 different countries (one of which was the UK) and it seems that the Twihards across the globe have voted with their feet. Twihards forever!

We got to chat with the cast of Breaking Dawn at the UK premiere which you can see here and we also spoke with Taylor one to one here.

You can keep track of our extensive Twilight coverage here.

UPDATE: We’ve also just found out that this opening weekend has been the biggest opening in the UK for a US film. Press release below:

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING ‘RECORDS’ DAWN PART 1

BIGGEST UK OPENING FOR THE FRANCHISE SO FAR

UK and Irish distributor Entertainment One is pleased to announce that the fourth and penultimate film in The Twilight Saga, BREAKING DAWN PART 1 broke records this weekend as it recorded the biggest all time opening for an American film in the UK grossing £13.9 million.

BREAKING DAWN PART 1 has set the record with £6.35 million as the biggest non-3D opening Friday figure of all time, eclipsing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, which grossed £5.9 million.  Including 3D films, this Friday figure has charted as the 2nd highest ever.

The film has become the biggest 2D opening of 2011 beating the previous record set by The Inbetweeners Movie which took £13.2 million over 5 days.  BREAKING DAWN PART 1 has scored the biggest Twilight opening so far and the fifth biggest three day figure ever behind well established British franchises Harry Potter and James Bond.

Alex Hamilton, Director of Film, Entertainment One says: “We have the highest 3 day opening ever for an American Film in the UK. I’d like to thank all the fans of Twilight that have given this three year old independent distributor a weekend to remember.”

The Twilight Saga follows the story of the relationship between a mortal and a vampire, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). The final instalment will be released in cinemas on November 16th, 2012 by Entertainment One UK.

On its third week of release, Nicholas Winding Refn’s much-praised, pseudo-80’s neon noir Drive has slipped out of the US box office, having made a relatively modest $27m so far.

In many ways this is a frustrating figure for a film which has been almost universally praised by critics, but it’s perhaps unsurprising why it hasn’t made that breakthrough to a huge mainstream crowd. It isn’t the action-heavy delight fans of the Fast & Furious series may have been expecting, and its bursts of ultra violence, coupled with a sometimes languid, studied pace, means it clearly sits outside of that traditional Hollywood model.

Similar cineaste-friendly fare has often stumbled at the box office (last year’s Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is a recent example) but sometimes a film comes along which manages to appease both camps and against all odds, rakes in the big bucks whilst satisfying those who have ventured to experience the more obvious esoteric delights on offer. Below is a small selection of those films:

Black Swan

It’s safe to say that no one could have predicted the huge financial success and audience love attributed to Darren Aronofsky’s twisted psychosexual thriller earlier this year. It was a film which the director struggled to scrape the money together for (leaving plenty of time for star Natalie Portman to train like crazy) and watching the beautiful young star’s decent into a Polanski-esque spiral of madness and schizophrenia (all framed within the rather cold and austere world of ballet) hardly screams “audience-friendly” either. But ultimately the film did find a rather substantial crowd, and which went on to gross an unprecedented $329 million worldwide.

Part of this must be attributed to Portman’s riveting, nervy performance snagging her an Oscar nod and ultimate win, added to that all-important (in the studio’s eyes, at least) prestige to the project. This was also the director behind the resurrection of Micky Rourke the previous year, giving audiences a refreshingly open and ego-free glimpse at a seasoned performer who had struggled to make any real impact on screen for a while (which to a certain extent, mirrored Portman’s own career trajectory prior to Black Swan).

Memento

For a film entirely constructed of a narrative told in reverse chronological order, the challenges faced in initially winning over a cinema-savvy audience must have proved pretty high, let alone eliciting the interests of the traditional popcorn crowd. It’s to Memento’s great success that many fans of the film hailed from both ends of the cinematic spectrum, and even if some were initially confounded by the material, a great many were unanimous in their praise of it (the film sits at 31 in the independent, fan-led IMDb Top 250).

The film opened the Hollywood floodgates for director Chris Nolan, and like his huge hit from last year, Inception (another film which has a rightful place on this list), the many themes and ideas which the director explored in his sophomore feature were every bit as prevalent in that slice of big-budget action-tinged escapism.


Napoleon Dynamite

Ostensibly, Napoleon Dynamite may have looked like another quirky, coming-of-age teen comedy, but its kitsch, DayGlo aesthetic and deliciously off-kilter humour wasn’t necessarily appealing to the types of cinemagoers who were flocking to the latest American Pie incarnation at the time. Nevertheless, the film found a healthy-sized audience (it earned over $40 million in the US) which is all the more impressive when compared against its initial production budget of just $400,000.

A large part of it’s success was certainly derived from the outstanding performance by lead Jon Heder as the socially-awkward, perpetually perplexed-looking protagonist, but a strong supporting cast of comic characters and eminently quotable dialogue helped to propel the film into the big league, causing vast numbers of fans across the land to purchase ginger perm-like wigs for fancy dress parties and sport the now iconic ‘Vote for Pedro’ t-shirts. 

Produced by MTV Films (it’s hard to imagine the company taking a punt on similar material nowadays), news that an animated TV series in now in the works from Fox, featuring many of the original cast members (including Heder, Efren Ramirez as Pedro and Jon Gries as the wonderful Uncle Rico) is a testament to the enduring charm of the film.

Pan’s Labyrinth

A post-Spanish civil war, fairytale-infused adult fantasy yarn probably doesn’t sound like an easy sell, but Pan’s Labyrinth became that rare beast – the foreign art-house genre crossover hit. Critics positively gushed (Mark Kermode hailed it “the Citizen Kane of fantasy cinema”) and both fans of foreign language cinema and fantasy film enthusiasts came together to sample the wondrous meshing of a real-world political struggle with a gothic fable (perfected, arguably to a greater degree, in director Guillermo del Toro’s earlier work, The Devil’s Backbone.)

 It says everything about the currently financial state of Hollywood when a master like del Toro is forced to abandon his James Cameron-backed dream project (an adaptation of  H. P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness) due to budgetary concerns, while this modest Spanish creature feature went on to gross $80 million worldwide.

Pulp Fiction

Nowadays it’s easy to forget the success and influence Pulp Fiction had over the industry following it’s release, but the fact is, this was a low-budget crime flick ($8.5 million) which went on to make over $200 million at the world-wide box office and singlehandedly enabled the Weinstein Brothers to establish their powerhouse indie-centric studio, Miramax (or as eldest sibling Harvey would put it, “the house that Quentin built”).

Again, Pulp was another film which refused to play by the traditions of the genre, and made audiences put a little work in between being thrilled and entertained by the lovingly-crafted dialogue and career-defining performances on offer. Its convoluted narrative jumps and unconventional approach to storytelling proved to be a huge draw, even building to a ‘Gimp Vs Gump’ stand-off during the 1995 Oscars, when the film was up against the more obviously appealing mainstream Forrest Gump. It was the perfect example of audiences being able to embrace a film outside of the norm and celebrate that fact.

This is rather amazing and further cements my argument for why a sequel may be on the way as news breaks that The Inbetweeners Movie has become the biggest opening week box office earner for a comedy EVER in the UK taking (at present) £27,715,177!! This is an amazing number for a movie which according to various sources cost £3.5m to make. The numbers continue to rise for the movie which continues to break records all over the place. Just wait for the DVD to come out!

No doubt this figure will continue to rise as more and more people flock to the cinema to see Simon Bird​, James Buckley, Blake Harrison, Joe Thomas, Emily Head​, Belinda Stewart-Wilson and Greg Davies​ all get up to some serious mischief! Massive congrats to everyone involved for making this such a success and above all, for making such a great movie! You can see our review here.

I’ve placed the press release below which has all the info.

THE INBETWEENERS MOVIE ACHIEVES THE BIGGEST OPENING WEEK EVER FOR ANY LIVE ACTION COMEDY

 

The film takes over £20million in opening week – a record for both British and American films

Current box office is £27,715,177

London, UK – Entertainment Film Distributors is delighted to announce that The Inbetweeners Movie has achieved the number one opening week of all time for a live action comedy.  This is a record for a film from any country, including America.  The Inbetweeners Movie broke the record for biggest live action comedy with an extraordinary £20,168,118 in its opening week and has continued its success over the weekend.  The current box office tally is a phenomenal £27,715,177.

The top spot was previously held by The Hangover Part II with £17,176,908 followed by Hancock on £13,095,568.  Other titles in the top ten include Meet The Fockers with £10,893,318 and 2011’s previous title holder Bridesmaids with £5,909,742

Following on from the previews figures that we saw last week, it’s no surprise that we’ve just heard that The Inbetweeners Movie (our review here) has raked in a massive £13.2m at the UK box office in the past 4 days breaking the previous record for a UK comedy which was previously held by Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason.

I’ve placed the official press release below for your viewing pleasure but with figures like this, does that mean that there could be room (or requirement?!) for a sequel to the extremely popular Channel 4 series movie? As an UK going audience, the answer would surely be yes!

During the Big Screen weekend last week, I attended The Inbetweeners panel which was attended by the writers of both the series and the movie, I asked that very question to the writers of The Inbetweeners, Iain Morris, Damon Beesley who categorically stated that this was the end of The Inbetweeners. Transcription below but now that we’ve seen these HUGE numbers, do you think they might find a way to carry it on or should they quit while they’re hugely ahead? During the panel, they also talked about working with Ricky Gervais and The Office and it struck me how Gervais ended The Office when it was at an all-time high and I guess the same thing could happen her.

HeyUGuys: Is The Inbetweeners Movie the end of the Inbetweeners?

Iain: No, that’s it?! Again even saying it out loud makes me feel a little bit sad.

Damon: This is a bit embarrassing but this happened! We finished two weeks ago and it’s been a very intense period finishing the third series and then getting the movie ready for the summer. We finished the final mix and it was a bit of a kick, bollock and scramble to get all the music cleared and done in time. We sat down and watched the final version of the film and the film with music and we put on the end the theme music which doesn’t feature in the film Morning Runner but it’s the track and it’s the last thing that comes up during the credits. We were sitting there in the dark. It was Iain and me and our Executive Producer, called Caroline Leddy who’s from Channel 4 and she’s a brilliant influence on the show, it wouldn’t haven’t happened without her. We sat there and had all been through this together.

As the lights came up, we just looked down the line and all of us have tears, and Caroline is opening bawling! it was an emotional moment and it did feel like the end.

So there you go! That IS the end…. or do Iain and Damon have something more up their sleeve? From the above transcript that is indeed that but I guess time will tell!

THE INBETWEENERS MOVIE  HAS THE BIGGEST OPENING OF ALL TIME FOR A UK COMEDY

Comedy takes over £13 million

London, UK – Entertainment Film Distributors is delighted to announce that The Inbetweeners Movie is the Number 1 film in the UK & Ireland and has had the biggest opening of all time for a UK comedy. The film has stormed to the top of the box office, taking £13,196,422 from 455 sites.

The number 2 biggest opening British comedy is Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason taking £10.43 million, number 3 is Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit with £9.37 million, Mamma Mia! takes the number 4 position with £6.59 million and Mr. Bean’s Holiday is number 5 with £6.44 million.

Producer Chris Young comments “We are thrilled that The Inbetweeners Movie is the biggest opening of all time for a UK comedy.  We really want to thank all the cinema goers out there who have made the film such a huge success.”

Will (Simon Bird), Simon (Joe Thomas), Jay (James Buckley) and Neil (Blake Harrison), have finished school forever, and are off on their first lads’ holiday. They’ve got two weeks in Malia with no parents, no teachers, no money, and little chance with the ladies.

From the creative minds that brought you the award winning TV show (creators and writers Damon Beesley and Iain Morris; producer Christopher Young and director Ben Palmer), the boys are joined on the big screen by Emily Head, Belinda Stewart-Wilson, and Greg Davies.  The film introduces Lydia Rose Bewley, Laura Haddock, Jessica Knappett, and Tamla Kari.

Join them in cinemas everywhere as they continue their outrageous adventures on the big screen.

This summer four boys become men.

As the dust settles and embers slowly die out in a troubled London it is with a big ‘well, duh’, that I bring you the news that this week’s box office numbers are looking a little uhealthy.

With the combination of punters understandably preferring to have a night in this week and a large number of cinemas closing in the capital, not to mention Manchester, Bristol and Birmingham, theatrical revenue dropped 16% on Monday and 27% on Tuesday compared to the same days last week Variety report.

This may be due, in part, to Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part Two’s lull in ticket sales as it moves into its fourth week of release, but with two huge blockbuster films in cinemas this week in the shape of Captain America: The First Avenger and Super 8 the chances are that the riots have taken their toll on the cinema-going public. After all, Odeon-UCI had 24 theatres closed across the country (19 being in London and the surrounding suburbs), including Odeon West End in Leicester Sq.

Let’s hope all this madness ends soon so the country can get back outside and into a darkened cinema room.

Report by Richard Parkin.

No surprises here people but Deadline hae just released this press release from Warner Bros. stating that the eighth installment of the Harry Potter franchise, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part has become the highest worldwide grossing movie of 2011. People are still going to see it at the cinema in droves and you can expect these figures to keep rising.

“As of August 8, the film had earned $344.8 million domestically and $801.5 million internationally, for an astounding worldwide box office gross of $1.146 billion, making Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2the third-highest-grossing film worldwide of all time.”

Crazy numbers but a crazy franchise! Will we ever seen numbers like this again in our life-time? I guess we’ll have to wait and see! – or just wait until J.K. Rowling brings out another book!

If you missed all our Potter coverage, you can go back and look at the multitudes of posts right here.

BURBANK, CA, August 9, 2011 – Warner Bros. Pictures’ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 has now become the top-grossing release of 2011 in all categories: domestic box office, international box office and worldwide box office. The announcement was made today by Warner Bros. Pictures President of Domestic Distribution, Dan Fellman, and President of International Distribution, Veronika Kwan-Rubinek. The last installment of the blockbuster motion picture franchise has broken numerous box office records around the world in just under a month since its July opening. As of August 8, the film had earned $344.8 million domestically and $801.5 million internationally, for an astounding worldwide box office gross of $1.146 billion, making Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2the third-highest-grossing film worldwide of all time.

Veronika Kwan-Rubinek stated, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 can truly be called a global phenomenon. The filmmakers and cast, who dedicated their talents to the success of these films for over a decade, share in this piece of cinema history. We congratulate and thank them all.”

Dan Fellman said, “This is another incredible milestone for the last chapter of this historic film series, and for the Harry Potter franchise as a whole. In a crowded and very competitive summer, it is a tribute to both the film and the people behind it that moviegoers are still turning out to enjoy it—whether for the first time or for a repeat viewing.”

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 is the final adventure in the Harry Potter film series. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson reprise their roles as Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. The film’s ensemble cast also includes Helena Bonham Carter, Robbie Coltrane, Warwick Davis, Tom Felton, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Gambon, Ciarán Hinds, John Hurt, Jason Isaacs, Matthew Lewis, Gary Oldman, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, David Thewlis, Julie Walters and Bonnie Wright. The film was directed by David Yates, and produced by David Heyman, David Barron and J.K. Rowling. Steve Kloves adapted the screenplay, based on the novel by J.K. Rowling. Lionel Wigram is the executive producer. It is the first Harry Potter film to be released in both 3D and 2D. Concurrently with its nationwide theatrical distribution, the film is being released in select IMAX® theatres. The film is being distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company. It has been rated PG-13 for some sequences of intense action violence and frightening images.

It has felt like a pretty slow year at the box office, but that has changed over the last several weeks. Fast Five and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides have both made huge amounts of money, but this weekend a box office record was broken. To be fair, we are not talking about a record as noteworthy as The Dark Knight’s highest ever opening, or Avatar’s highest grossing movie of all time.

For the team behind  The Hangover 2, however, it will be a good feeling.

With a Friday to Sunday total of $86m, The Hangover has broken the record for highest grossing opening for an R-rated comedy. More than that, it also beat the highest grossing opening weekend for a live-action comedy, and has the second highest opening for any R-rated movie, behind The Matrix: Reloaded. This is clearly a huge achievement, and everyone involved will be hoping it can go on to break the record of the first Hangover movie, which two years ago became the highest grossing R-rated comedy of all time.

So why would we have needed a cure for The Hangover? Reading through these facts, something struck me. The previous highest opening for an R-rated comedy was held by Sex and the City 2. Let’s see, SATC2, The Matrix Reloaded, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides? It is not a cure for The Hangover we need, it is a cure for inferior sequels.

In theory, a sequel should naturally improve on its predecessor. With a first film, valuable time is required to introduce characters, set-up their backgrounds and motivations. In a follow-up we already know, and hopefully like these characters. Without the need to win our sympathy or empathy, the characters should have more time and freedom to grow, to live, to develop. Also, thanks to the wealth of criticism now aimed at all movies, the screenwriters and directors should have a clear idea of what worked in the first film, and what didn’t, using this information to craft, ideally, the perfect movie.

Unfortunately, as we all know, sequels nowadays tend to be financially motivated, and not necessarily put together to capitalise on a great idea that has been fully developed. The Hangover Part Two comes two years after the first movie. Considering that bringing a movie project together from development to screen takes, usually, at least a year, it is clear that the latest film was a cash grab, brought to theatres as soon as possible before interest in the property was allowed to die down.

It can be argued, though, that the new Hangover film was an attempt to give audiences exactly what they wanted. The first one took everyone by surprise. No-one expected great things from it, much of its eventual audience had never heard of it when it was released. Great word of mouth for this unique and original comedy gave its box office performance long legs, and the money continued to roll in long after its opening weekend.

The problem seems to be that The Hangover Part 2 has followed the formula of the original too closely. Where the first film felt fresh and original, by all accounts the second is a lazy retread, the same characters doing much the same things, with very similar jokes. The budget has increased thanks to the first films success, allowing bigger action set pieces, but giving a film bigger, louder, more extreme treatment is not always the answer.

It is hard to see, of course, what really could have been done differently. The audience went in expecting more of the same, it was pretty clear from the trailers that this was what was on offer. So in this case, what is the solution? If a particular film is not really begging of a sequel, what is a studio to do? The obvious answer is to leave it alone. Some films are meant as a one-off piece of art, and maybe should just be left as that. We cannot expect a studio to take this view. The movie industry is just that. an industry. Filmmaking is a business, and that business is making money, as well as entertaining people. If there were no big tentpole films like The Hangover Part Two, Pirates of the Caribbean or The Matrix: Reloaded to bring the studios massive profits, they would not be in a position to take a gamble on more considered, critically acclaimed works that, as sad as it is, very often make a loss.

I’m interested to see what The Hangover’s drop-off is like next weekend. The film was obviously critic-proof, but where the first film’s financial power gathered steam thanks to great word of mouth, will the poor reaction to this new film put people off of going to see it? X-Men: First Class is enjoying a great critical reception, and is aimed at a similar demographic. It has the potential to make a lot of money, and with the underperforming Kung Fu Panda 2 looking to make amends this coming weekend, it is possible that The Hangover will take a big tumble.

The reasons for sequels like The Hangover Part Two are clear, and they are absolutely necessary for the industry wheels to keep on turning. Without them, we may never have got the first Hangover, which with a $35m budget and then-unknown cast would have been considered a financial risk itself. I just wish more time was put into these movies, waiting for genuine inspiration to hit rather than rushing them through to a hastily enforced schedule. More than anything, the first Hangover showed that if a film has real appeal, it will find an audience, whether that audience recognises the franchise or not.

Bazmann – You can follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/baz_mann

As soon as Avatar finished its super successful cinema run rumours emerged that the world hadn’t seen the end of the story, and that we were to expect a second chapter to Jake and Neytiri’s adventures in Pandora.

The Hollywood Reporter has now announced that director James Cameron is getting ready to film not one, but two sequels to his “biggest blockbuster of all time” masterpiece.

The two movies are scheduled to come out over the course of the next four years, the first in December 2014 and the second a year after that, and Lightstorm Entertainment (Cameron’s company) is now just starting to get into gear for the mammoth work that such a complex and motion capture technology advanced production will require.

Cameron is selling his old office building in Santa Monica (currently listed at $11.85 million), probably in an attempt to at least reduce the inevitable work-related stress by having his offices and studio consolidated into one location not far from his home, down the coast of Malibu.

It is likely that Wellington based WETA, the special effects company which looked after the visual effects in the Lord of the Rings saga as well as those in the first Avatar, will be employed again, although Cameron hasn’t confirmed as of yet whether live action scenes will take place in New Zealand as they were for the first Avatar.

While fans will have to wait quite a while, the buzz around the Avatar sequels production has already started and looks like it could rival that of Peter Jackson’s long awaited The Hobbit. More news to come soon…

Report by Margherita Pellegrino.

US cinemas experienced a quiet time indeed over the weekend. In fact (according to Box Office Mojo), it was the worst viewing figures for this February date in 15 years.

It’s almost as if there was some significant cultural event over the pond which managed to get the attention of the normal cinemagoing crowd. By the way, did anyone catch the Super Bowl last night?

College-set Single White Female knock-off The Roommate debuted at number one with $15.6m – a pretty average figure, but as the film’s budget was only $16m in total, this figure will probably be deemed a success. The executive-produced James Cameron feature, James Cameron’s Sanctum, opening with a paltry $9.2m at number two, despite having James Cameron’s name mentioned wherever possible, even though James Cameron how little to do with the end product, apart from the 3D aspect – a device favoured by Avatar director James Cameron.

Last week’s number one, No Strings Attached, rounds off the top three, having managed a so-so haul of $51.7m so far.

A slow weekend saw the Anthony Hopkins exorcism-based horror thriller The Rite head to the top of the charts with a very average $15m. The story of a priest who becomes involved in the darker side of his faith while studying at an exorcism school in Italy has made back nearly half of its budget, although it doesn’t really compare to the same box office results of this time last year (Avatar made $31 after seven weeks on release!)

Last week’s number one, No Strings Attached, has dropped down to second place, which a total so far of $39.7m. This result marks a return to form for director Ivan Reitman, whose previous film to this (2006’s abysmal My Super Ex-Girlfriend) only managed to scrape together a paltry $22m during its entire run.

The new Jason Statham vehicle The Mechanic is at number three with $11.5m – a less-than-explosive figure for the action star whose last film in The Transporter series managed to pull in over $1m more than this during its opening weekend in 2008.

Figures courtesy of Box Office Mojo

It may not have been a winner critically (43% on Rotten Tomatoes) but The Green Hornet topped the US box office this weekend with $33m. Given the time of year (this is when Hollywood starts to trundle out its lukewarm product) this result is a modest successful for Rogen and Co.

Ron Howard’s new comedy The Dilemma debuts in second place with a below-par $17m. Given that it star’s A-lister Vince Vaughan and with Howard’s box office touch (he managed a score a domestic gross of over $217m for the turgid ‘Da Vinci Code’), this is a big disappointment.

True Grit rounds out the top three with a very impressive tally so far of $127m. Having made over $50m more than No Country for Old Men’s total box office, it’s by far the Coen Brother’s biggest money-maker to date, which is an extremely positive result for these idiosyncratic filmmakers. It’s the kind of success which pretty much gives them carte blanche in terms of what they want to do next, although they’ve always done their own thing, with scant regard to box office figures.

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo.

Rounding off their hat-trick with 2010 tucked firmly under their belt, Warner Bros. have officially conquered the domestic box office for a third year running.

According to The Wrap, the studio – which released Inception and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I last year – has reported a domestic revenue approaching 1.9 billion for 2010.

Although the domestic market is in fact down $40-$50 million following 2009′s record breaking $10.6 billion haul, Warner Bros. remain triumphant, trouncing rival studios Paramount ($1.7 billion), Fox ($1.6 billion) and Disney ($1.4 billion) with 18.3% market share.

With international totals still being calculated, the battle for foreign box office supremacy is on; Warners and Fox very much leading the way.

As has been widely reported, Harry Potter made a massive impact at the box office in the last few weeks, and continues to do so. Success was inevitable, and the level of success predictable. Harry Potter is one of the most popular book series of all time, appealing to fans both young and old. All previous installments in the Harry Potter movie series have made hundreds of millions of dollars, and with the finale in sight, anyone with even a passing interest in the boy who lived wants to see how it all ends.

The success of Harry Potter financially, particularly in the case of Deathly Hallows, is also however part of a much bigger movie trend. We have seen, in the last year particularly, an apparent rise in the popularity of the family movie. Whilst in the past it has been big, effects heavy action movies that have been the big hitters, it seems there is now just as much interest, if not more, in family orientated, action adventure movies, in both animated and live action form.

It started at the beginning of the year with Alice in Wonderland. Directed by Tim Burton, and starring Johnny Depp, it was always going to have elements that would appeal to both children and adults alike. The novelty of the 3D experience was also just starting to become wildly popular thanks to Avatar, resulting in Alice setting the box office bar high early on in the year.

Then along came How to Train Your Dragon. The year’s first big animated movie, the original nature of the storyline, not based on a recognisable property, meant that How to Train Your Dragon started reasonably slowly at the box office. This Dragon however had long legs, and the combination of the 3D factor and fantastic word of mouth meant that it became a massive box office success.

The trend continued throughout the year, particularly with animated movies such as Shrek Forever After, and the big gun Toy Story 3. Toy Story 3 broke records to become the highest grossing animated movie of all time. Despicable Me enjoyed moderate success, and just a few weeks ago Megamind helped set a record for box office figures on the opening weekend of the Winter period.

There have been less live action success stories, but Prince of Persia broke the $100 million mark. With the recent success of Harry Potter, and the inevitable big money openings we can expect from the latest in the Chronicles of Narnia series and Disney’s Tron sequel, by the end of the year live action family movies will be nearly on a par with their animated peers financially.

Why, then, have family orientated films exploded in popularity recently? One factor that may have played a part is the recent global recession. Yes, you would expect that in a depressed economic climate, financial success would be more unlikely. However, with families forced to tighten their belts over the past couple of years, a lot of the entertainment budget for a typical family has been put to other uses. Now, instead of Mum and Dad going out for dinner, or on nights out with friends, and kids being taken to clubs and sports and the like, a family trip to the cinema looks to actually be a cheaper prospect. A £7 cinema ticket is cheaper nowadays than two pints of beer, or a bottle of wine, so is far more economically viable per person than a night on the town with friends. Combining everyone’s leisure time also means they can spend more quality time together.

Another part of the reason is that family movies are far more appealing now than they used to be to a lot of adults. Where once animated films were seen as childish and aimed solely at children, this perception has changed thanks in large part to the original Toy Story. Animated movies have become far more sophisticated. Pixar successfully combined adult humour with kid friendly slapstick action, and all the other studios began to follow suit. Now, it isn’t unusual for a an animated movie to be written with adults in mind first, and the kids second. Wall*E, for example, was actually quite boring to many young children, and achieved its popularity thanks to the appreciation of its adult audience.

With CGI now becoming more affordable, and available, live action family movies are also better equipped to sell to a broad audience. The action in family movies used to be confined to slapstick and pratfalls, but more affordable computer effects mean massive worlds can be used to entice adults and children alike. Films like Harry Potter would have been very difficult to make in a realistic way years ago, and the animatronics and plastic sets would have probably looked far too cheap and silly for a lot of the grown up audience to contemplate paying money to see. It is now far easier for the mature audience to buy into the worlds being created, as fantasy figures and locations are able to look much slicker and more realistic.

In the case of Harry Potter, it is also very much the themes explored and the richness of the original source material that have made the movies a must see experience. Adults were already engrossed in the novels before the first film was released, and in many cases the parents were looking forward to seeing the films as much, if not more than their offspring. This success has lead to similar types of book series being written, and adapted, like The Golden Compass and Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. It has also seen older works like The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe dusted off to capitalise on this newfound interest in magical family adventure.

Only time will tell if the family movie boom will continue on for an extended period of time. Certainly, there are many external factors that influence cinematic tastes and trends. A major upturn in the economy, another massive global event, or even just the introduction of a new favourite source material amongst movie makers could all change the dynamic overnight. For now, however, family films rule the box office. With Harry Potter and Megamind still going strong, Tangled now on release, and Voyage of the Dawn Treader and Tron: Legacy imminent, it is going to be a family affair in theatres this Christmas. Maybe that’s just as it should be.

Bazmann – You can follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/baz_mann

Last weekend saw the latest installment of the Harry Potter franchise surpass all the previous movies’ performances at the box office to lead the weekend with a US opening of around $125 million. This was a massive success for Warner Bros, making them the leading box office performing studio so far this year. With only Tangled offering any real competition the following weekend, the success is sure to continue.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is part one of a two part adaptation of JK Rowling’s source novel. Splitting one film into two parts has become an increasingly popular habit in recent years, and with part two of Deathly Hallows sure to match its predecessor financially, it looks like a winning decision. However, I have to ask the question – is this recent trend an attempt at providing the right platform for epic tales to be told, or is it a shameless cash-in employed by greedy studio execs?

There are clear reasons why using this technique is a good idea, particularly in the case of Deathly Hallows. It’s important to point out that as a film (or films) primarily aimed at children, there is a necessity to keep Harry Potter at a reasonable duration. The stories appeal to children as young as four or five. Expecting children of this age to sit still for an epic of Lawrence of Arabia proportions is unrealistic, and would even be irresponsible. Deathly Hallows is a very long book, and whilst adaptations of novels are frequently condensed for cinematic adaptation, as the last installment of the series there was a responsibility to the fans to encompass the whole of the source material.

The problem occurs if there is not a natural stopping point in the middle of the book. Chopping any coherent story halfway through the middle presents a very real problem. Books, like movies, tend to be written in three acts. By making a film based on the first 50% of a novel, you risk creating a movie with an unbalanced structure. If there isn’t an exciting cliffhanger somewhere around the midway point, as well as a tangible sense of character progression, a part one movie will end with a whimper rather than a bang. This can be very much subjective though, and depends on what your idea of a good ending for a first part is. Do you want to be left hanging, desperately wanting more? Or do you want some form of resolution to the events of the story up to this point? The ideal is, obviously, some combination of the two.

Cutting a movie up, or specifically choosing to make a particularly long movie so as to show it in two parts, can be far preferable to the ‘cash-in’ sequel. With Harry Potter, the filmmakers could be confident that the movie would be a big draw, so there was no financial risk involved in making two movies. It is a lot harder to make this kind of decision with an original property. You can have no real assurance that a single movie will recoup costs, so to spend the extra money on a longer shoot, and all that is involved, is a major risk. This is how we end up with the cash-in, the inferior sequel. All the good ideas are encompassed in the first movie, and a satisfying conclusion is provided. Then, when the movie experiences big box office success, attempts are made to tack more of the same on in a follow-up or two, as in the Matrix and Pirates of the Caribbean series.

I would much rather see a great idea split into two parts, thoroughly exploring all the different facets of the story, than be subjected to a mediocre attempt at a sequel. There is also a very practical aspect to shooting two films back to back. The sets, locations and cast are all in place, and well organised principle shooting can be completed in far less time than two full shoots would add up to. This makes it far more cost effective, and also helps avoid the inevitable continuity problems. Warner Bros have been very canny in producing the Potter films in short order, meaning the principle actors have not aged too far in advance of their characters, and therefore been able to portray their parts (reasonably) believably.

I think it is fair to say that the most prominent examples of ‘double dipping’ have actually been honest attempts at effective management. Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill was originally conceived as one movie, but being Tarantino, the screenplay ran very long. This led to the producers making the decision to show the film in two parts, so as to let the whole story be seen without audiences being put off by a butt numbing duration. The reverse was true with Tarantino’s Grindhouse collaboration with Robert Rodriguez. Originally meant to be shown as a double feature, Death Proof and Planet Terror were released separately in the end.

The story of Mesrine, the infamous French gangster, was wisely made in two parts rather than one movie, allowing sufficient length to tell as much of the man’s fascinating story as possible. The resulting Killer Instinct and Public Enemy No 1 were fantastic examples of cinematic storytelling. One film that could have benefited from being split into two parts was Red Cliff. The full feature is over five hours long, and was shown in its native land in two portions. Here in the West however we were given one movie, with an astonishing 90 odd minutes cut out to ensure that audiences could endure it. I would have much preferred to see the full story in two parts, as in Steven Soderbergh’s Che Parts One and Two.

Harry Potter has been very successful at the box office, and the vast majority of fans have been ecstatic with the quality of the movie. They will be overjoyed that they still have one more Potter film to enjoy, and will be eagerly looking forward to the final, final installment. I think that the decision to make two movies instead of cramming a rich and popular concluding story into one overlong film was the right decision, and one that was made for the right reasons. There is definitely a place for the two part movie, and as long as the technique is not overused, which up till now it has not, then I will continue to welcome this method of epic filmmaking.

Bazmann-You can follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/baz_mann

Last winter saw some unseasonably big box office numbers. Big budget disaster movie 2012 made over $700 million worldwide. Twilight: New Moon matched it. However, it was the Christmas period that was the big surprise. Sherlock Holmes surprised everyone with a great opening and long legs. I need not, of course, mention Avatar, the highest grossing movie of all time.

This winter kicked off with a record breaking weekend, as the triple threat of Megamind ($45 million), Due Date ($30 million) and For Coloured Girls ($20 million) combined to produce the biggest box office weekend opening for a November. Megamind carried that momentum through into the next weekend with another $30 million, meaning this looked to be just the beginning of a Winter that could almost be as hot as a traditional Summer.

The box office magic continued for the boy that lived, with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. The Potter franchise has been a box office juggernaut, running on the massive popularity of the book series and Warner Bros expert handling of the movie adaptations. Sequels have come regular as clockwork, meaning interest has never been allowed to die down, and the original cast have been able to effectively work right through the saga. There was no reason to think Deathly Hallows would be any different, and as part of the final installment, it was unmissable for a large number of movie goers. The decision to abandon 3D will hit the film’s final box office haul, with the extra revenue for the inflated ticket prices and the extra interest the format still draws capable of adding around a potential 20% to gross profits. The template for Harry Potter’s box office performance has been $70 million opening weekend, and a $300 million final domestic gross. Deathly Hallows shattered this with a US opening weekend of $125 million.

The next potential big hitter is Disney’s animated Rapunzel spin, Tangled. Animated family movies have made a killing this year, with How To Train Your Dragon, Shrek Forever After and Toy Story 3 doing particularly well, making hundreds of millions between them. Toy Story 3 on its own made history as the highest grossing animated movie of all time. Disney will hope to carry on the current trend, and build on the success of their last solo animated effort The Princess And The Frog. There’s no reason to think that Tangled won’t manage a similar opening to the aforementioned Megamind.

The third installment in the Chronicles of Narnia trilogy, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, should at least match previous outings with an opening of around $50 million. There is also the potential for the combined star power of Jonny Depp, whose profile helped lift the Pirates series to a billion dollar franchise, and arguably the biggest female draw in Hollywood Angelina Jolie to make The Tourist this year’s big box office surprise. To be fair, this is probably fairly unlikely, and an opening that rivals Salt’s $35 million can be seen as a success.

Next up will be Disney’s much hyped, over publicised Tron sequel. This is a really interesting one. Disney are trying desperately to match the success of their Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. They were only partially successful with Prince of Persia earlier in the year. The brand power of the videogame on which it was based didn’t prove strong enough to push it into the realms of their Pirates movies, as a reasonable opening led to a huge drop off. Tron is a sequel, so they will be hoping that the mixture of nostalgia, flashy effects and a huge promotional campaign will make Tron: Legacy this year’s Avatar. On the downside, their is no real star power attached, Jeff Bridges is a great actor but doesn’t have that box office cache. Add to this the fact that the original Tron was, in truth, actually not very good, and the outlook for Tron is hazy. It could fizzle out like Prince of Persia, but also has the potential to make similar numbers to the year’s first big box office hitter Alice in Wonderland.

Rounding out the year will be the Ben Stiller vehicle, Little Fockers. The third installment of the Meet the Parents series, Fockers could well match the £50 million + performance of its predecessors. Another comedy, Gulliver’s Travels starring Jack Black, has a chance of making an impact, but based on the performance of Black’s previous few movies hopes look pretty slim.

As we come towards the end of the traditional ‘Oscar contenders’ portion of the year, it certainly looks like the run up to Christmas will be a jolly period for the big studios hoping to cash in on peoples good cheer. There were only a few big winners financially speaking in the Summer, and this Winter has the potential to produce just as many, which will undoubtedly help give Hollywood producers a warm feeling inside during the cold snap.

Bazmann – You can follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/baz_mann

Skyline was released last weekend (read Dave’s rather comical review here), and only just made it into the box office top five. This weekend, it is all set to disappear, and will fast become a distant memory. I hope, however, it does not get so easily forgotten by aspiring filmmakers, or even the current movers and shakers in the business. You see, I think there are valuable lessons to be learnt from this experiment in cut-price filmmaking.

For years, we have been screaming out at Hollywood that big budget effects do not a great movie make. CGI heavy movies though do tend to make a big noise at the box office, so can be considered very effective. The likes of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen have championed big computer animated set pieces at the expense of competent acting and coherent plot, and continue to get away with it. The sizable budget usually extends to a big marketing push, which seems to be half the battle for box office success these days. We now seem to have reached a new level however. Skyline had the expensive looking effects, but didn’t even have the marketing push behind it. Consequently, it failed.

Except it didn’t. Sure, it has received a critical mauling, and the movie-going majority are avoiding it like the plague. But with a budget reported to be around $10 million, and an opening of $11 million, the movie is already set to make a profit, and on that basis can be considered (moderately) successful. To put it into a bit of perspective, I think it is important to point out that Skyline’s opening weekend total earnings matches almost exactly that of another much maligned alien invasion movie. The difference is that 2000′s Battlefield Earth cost a staggering $73 million to make, resulting in a $50 million loss. When all is said and done, Skyline could almost double it’s money. So what can we learn from the story of Skylines’s ‘success’?

There is a popular, and woefully misguided, belief that writing a science fiction movie is easy. On the surface, it does sound easier than writing a story confined by known physics and logic. If you create your own world, you can create your own rules, and therefore do anything you want. As a writer, you can let your imagination run wild, and no-one can queston the concepts you create. The reality, of course, is that to write a compelling sci-fi movie that audiences can buy into can be considerably harder than in other genres. It’s all very well designing fantastical alien ships and otherworldly beings, and casting them against a contemporary Earth setting, but if the logic of your character motivations are flawed, your actors are unconvincing at best, and the plot is nothing short of tedious, it is a massive waste of time.

You can see where the people involved were coming from. They clearly saw movies like Cloverfield and District 9, low budget sci-fi movies that made a big splash, and felt that with their effects background they could do just as good a job. The effects are good, but no consideration has been given to any of the other necessary elements. The characters in Cloverfield perhaps weren’t that likeable, but they at least had a plan, a motivation. The story had a good pace to it, the plot was structurally sound, and the overall effect was very entertaining. District 9 had very deep ideas at its heart, a fascinating political statement mixed with some laugh out loud humour and genuinely exciting action sequences made it the surprise package of last summer.

This, in a broad strokes, is the difference between a movie like Skyline and far better conceived films of the same genre. The starting base for any movie should be story and plot, and when you have gotten that right, only then can you add the shock and awe. It is a real shame, too, because the theory behind Skyline is actually pretty sound. Computer effects are getting cheaper and more accessible. It isn’t necessary to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on massive sets and overpriced actors. If just an extra $10 million had been spent getting better actors, polishing up the screenplay and building a couple of extra sets, Skyline could have BEEN this year’s District 9. It may have been panned by 99% of its audience, but Skyline does show that it will be possible for more talented and experienced filmmakers to make great looking action movies without a huge budget.

I hope, for this reason, that potential filmmakers are not put off of trying their own lower budget genre films. If the right level of effort is put into getting a compelling story laid out, and more thought is put into sketching out believable, likeable characters, independent filmmakers could start to rival the likes of Paramount and Sony at the box office. We’ve seen cheaply made movies like Paranormal Activity go supernova thanks to unconventional filmmaking techniques and the contagious buzz of viral marketing, and hopefully we will continue to see more of this kind of inventing filmmaking.

It will be a struggle. Inexpensive films like Buried can get all the positive reviews in the world, but without the marketing budget of more expensive studio pictures, the awareness just isn’t there. That is part of the importance of movie blogs like HeyUGuys. We help to bring these smaller films to the attention of the public. As more and more consumers make a habitual use of the Internet, our reach will increase, meaning we can hope to make more of an impact on movie going habits.

This only works, of course, if the films get screened for critics, and are actually good. Skyline fell down on both of these elements, and as a result is destined to the bargain basements of this world.

Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below…..

Bazmann – You can follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/baz_mann

Not long before fans of James Cameron’s Avatar get to spend a little more time in the world of Pandora and as the Extended Collector’s Edition readies itself for the Blu-ray and DVD launch on the 15th of November,  you can get a sneak preview of what to expect with this new clip from the film.

It’s basically a hunting scene and you can see why it found its way onto the digital cutting room floor, but it’s still nice to see more of the world.

Here’s everything you need to know about the new edition, and if you want  to see more (and you have the original Avatar Blu-ray) you can right now..

Click Here to see the clip, which must be considered a tease as the resolution is nowhere near what it needs to be to get the full effect, but for those desperate for more from the gushing box of Pandora this will do nicely.