The weekend box office was anything but stellar over the weekend. Expendables 2 and The Bourne Legacy remained the top two earners in the final weekend of August. One bright spot, however, was conservative doc 2016 Obama’s America , which went wide after spending the first three weeks with limited runs. Its gross jumped over 400% and it landed in 8th place in the overall box office despite remaining in far fewer theaters than compared to other titles in the top 10. Newcomers Premium Rush and Hit and Run bowed softly. 1. The Expendables 2 Gross: $13.5 million (Cume $52,313,944 Screens: 3,355 (PSA: $4,024) Week: 2 (Change: $- 53%) Despite a drop of 53%, The Expendables 2 remained the weekend’s top earner at the box office. The feature added 39 runs over its debut and averaged $4,024 vs. last weekend’s $8,670. Adding $22.4 million from overseas and the film has so far cumed over $74.71 million. 2. The Bourne Legacy Gross: $9,281,160 (Cume: $85,467,375) Screens: 3,654 (PSA: $2,540) Week: 3 (Change: – 46%) The Universal Pictures release again took second place now in its third weekend of release. Abroad, the title has taken in $28.1 million. Last weekend in the U.S., the feature averaged $4,535 from 3,753 showings and had dropped 55% from its debut. This weekend’s drop was not as steep despite playing in less theaters, giving the release some momentum in an otherwise dismal box office weekend. 3. Paranorman (3-D, Animation) Gross $8,545,883 (Cume: $28,274,234) Screens: 3,455 (PSA: $2,473) Week: 2 (Change: -39%) Again, Paranorman landed in the third spot over the weekend. Its 39% drop is respectable given its second go-around. Focus Features only added 26 theaters for the film in its second weekend. 4. The Campaign Gross: $7.44 million (Cume: $64,543,000) Screens: 3,302 (PSA: $2,253) Week: 3 (Change: – 43%) The comedy added 47 theaters in its third weekend. Last weekend it averaged $4,112 in 3,255 theaters. It has also drummed up an additional $2.1 million abroad. 5. The Dark Knight Rises Gross: $7.155 million (Cume: $422,188,000) Screens: 2,606 (PSA: $2,746) Week: 6 (Change: – 35%) Worldwide the finale in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy has amassed $941,188,000. It’s sixth week domestic drop of 35% compares to the previous weekend’s 41% decline vs. its fourth weekend run, showing the feature is still holding well now in its sixth weekend of release despite losing 551 venues from the previous week. 6. The Odd Life of Timothy Green Gross: $7,125,000 (Cume: $27,080,000) Screens: 2,598 (Average: $2,742) Week: 2 (Change: – 34%) The title actually went up one spot from the previous weekend’s seventh place showing though that is more a result of a lack of openers that caught audiences attention. Still, its revenue only dropped 34% and it remained in the same number of theaters as the previous weekend. 7. Premium Rush Gross: $6.3 million Screens: 2,255 (PSA: $2,794) Week: 1 The feature opened softly with only $6.3 million and a disappointment after a big sports-related promotional. Also a disappointment for Joseph Gordon-Levitt who has otherwise had a stellar year. 8. 2016 Obama’s America Gross: $6,237,517 (Cume: $9,075,393) Screens: 1,091 (PSA: $5,717) Week: 4 (Change 401%) The anti-Obama doc went wide after three weeks in limited release. Box office watchers were a flutter Friday that the title would even out-gross Expendables 2 , though it ended up in fourth place that day. Still, a strong showing for the title the feature has a strong shot at being the top grossing non-fiction film of the year. 9. Hope Springs Gross: $6 million (Cume: $45 million) Screens: 2,402 (PSA: $2,498) Week: 3 (Change: -34%) Hope Springs ranked eighth last weekend. Its $2,498 average compares with its second weekend average of $3,854. The title added 41 screens. 10. Hit and Run Gross: $4,675,026 Screens: 2,870 (PSA: $1,629) Week: 1 The newcomer made it into the top 10, but it was otherwise a weak showing with a $1,629 average. Still, the production budget was around $2 million, but its otherwise weak opening likely indicates it will have a rough road ahead. [Sources: Hollywood.com , Box Office Mojo ]
The Expendables 2 once again took a machine gun to its box office competitors this weekend, taking in the most money for a second consecutive Friday and Saturday, this time by about $4 million over The Bourne Legacy . But it was a mostly quiet weekend in Hollywood, with few new films opening and Sylvester Stallone’s sequel winning the weekend with a haul of just $13.9 million. The major movie news instead centered around 2016: Obama’s America , a conservative documentary that cracked the top 10 overall, earning $6.2 million and enjoying an impressive per-theater average of over $5,700.
‘Bourne Legacy’ also holds on to its spot at #2, due to feeble newcomers ‘Premium Rush,’ ‘Hit and Run’ and ‘The Apparition.’ By Ryan J. Downey Sylvester Stallone in “The Expendables 2” Photo: Lionsgate
Premium Rush is about speed. So let’s not pussyfoot around and get right to the action. The action flik, which led this week’s box-office newcomers with a reported $6.5 million take, features Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Wilee, a bike messenger being pursued through the streets of New York City on his brake-less “fixie” — fixed-gear — rig. Among those chasing Wilee is corrupt detective Bobby Monday, played by Michael Shannon , who is hell-bent on intercepting the package that Wilee is carrying. In advance of the film’s release, Movieline sat down with director and co-writer David Koepp and his writing partner John Kamps ( Ghost Town ) to talk about writing a white-knuckle action movie without killing anyone and how cyclists are the most responsible travelers on the street. Why did Premium Rush need to be told? David Koepp: It needed to be told because John and I have seven children between us and they’ve got to go to school. [Laughs] I had had this idea kicking around in my head for a while because I live here and see cyclists. I wanted to do a chase movie on bikes, which I hadn’t seen. You follow the idea , and see how long it lasts. I realized at a certain point, Well, I’ve had this idea in my head for a while now. The only way to get it out of there is to just do it. So, for peace of mind, this had to become a film. Did you write this script with Michael Shannon and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in mind? DK: No, we always try to keep the characters the characters at first. Did either of them surprise you in terms of their performances? DK: I was pleasantly surprised by Joe’s fearlessness. Not because I’d heard he was a pussy or something — because, just to be able to be willing to put yourself on a bike in a lot of traffic and in that kind of danger, while acting, is really courageous. So, I was pleased and surprised by how much he wanted to do and how aggressively he was willing to do it. And, Shannon — you’re surprised every day by his performance because it comes out of this Michael Shannon place that only he has. And you just think, I never would have thought to deliver that line that way. That’s fascinating. What are the pros and cons of directing versus screenwriting? DK: I’ll make it succinct. With directing, you have tons of control. But, you have tons of control, which means you have tons of decisions to make and you have to be there. And you have to have an incredible level of input and your life doesn’t really belong to you so much. With screenwriting, you get a lot more quiet. You go to an office every day. Maybe you work with a collaborator. That’s nice. It’s a life that’s in here [pointing to his head]. I like to mix it up. You get crazy being in the room alone for too long and you certainly get crazy directing on the streets of New York. What was it like, logistically, to be filming people on bikes on the streets of New York City? I feel like few filmmakers have approached anything like this. DK : It was one of the most logistically difficult movies of the last 20 years. And I’m not overstating, because it’s not cars; it’s people exposed to cars. But they’re moving at car speed. And, because so much of the action was on the street, we needed total street closures. The city went out of its way to be accommodating. The cops were great. And it still was a mess because people, surprisingly, don’t like to have streets closed. [Laughs] You largely avoided CGI and relied on human stunts, yes? DK: That was important. This movie was about what human beings can do–not about what computers can do. I mean, clearly there’s some computer stuff: like when he’s picturing what would happen if he went to the right and he ends up getting hit by three cars and run over by a truck. Clearly, that wasn’t a person. Everybody knows it’s a joke. So, I’d say 95-96 percent of it is really people doing that. I read about Joseph going through the back of a cab and getting 31 stitches. DK: Yeah, a guy with diplomat plates cut into our shooting lanes right in front of him. Joe had to swerve to avoid him and ended up going through the back of a taxi. It was really scary. There were lots of crashes, but his was the worst. Of course, he’s the star, so he’s got to have the worst crash and get the most stitches. [Laughs] Our biggest fear [while] writing it was: Fuck, I hope somebody doesn’t get killed on this movie. Ya know? Absolutely. So, what was the motive behind Joseph’s character paying little regard to the welfare of other people on the road? DK: I don’t think he’s really out of line. I would say that the most responsible people on the street are cyclists. They may not obey all the rules, but they stay out of the way really well if you just leave ’em alone. Cars are second, because drivers are notoriously distracted. They feel safe inside their bubble and they’re often texting and that’s no good. And then the worst &mdash: the scum of the streets — are pedestrians. We’re awful because we don’t follow logical patterns. We’re definitely texting. Nobody’s looking where they’re going. Nobody . And they make irrational decisions, like in crosswalks. And that’s not good. How does this compare to L.A. traffic? John Kamps : It’s very different. With pedestrians, it’s like: You have the audacity to walk? DK: I think it’s legal to hit them. JK : Pedestrians are completely on the defensive in L.A. because people are flying down the street at 60 miles an hour. So, it’s not like someone’s going to stop and honk at you. They’re going to take you out. DK: There’s a pedestrian attitude in New York, which is, if you’re crossing the street and you cut in front of a car and you don’t look at the car, he has to stop. That’s just not really coherent. What was behind your decision to use a visual mapping element in this film to show where the characters are in relation to each other? DK: When John and I were writing it, we were saying, We want to know where everybody is, exactly, and at what time and how far [Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character Wilee] has got to go and how he’s going to get there. JK: A lot of the action you see doesn’t make sense geographically. It’s like, he’s on the building. Now he’s over there on the car. You have no idea what his goal is, how he’s getting from point A to point B. DK: Then, you’re editing it. And you think, Well, let’s see. We should move the bathroom scene up a little. And you can’t. You can’t move anything, because you’ve gone to great pains to say who’s where when. So, we cursed the script many times in the edit room. How long did Premium Rush take to shoot? DK: Fifty-one days — with about 30 days of second-unit shooting, concurrent. The wardrobe never changes. How many red shirts do they you through? DK: Dozens! To get the right red shirt was a big deal. That’s the other thing about a movie in contained time: you’re a one-wardrobe movie. You have to really fall in love with what people are wearing. What did you think of The Amazing Spiderman given your involvement in the first iteration? DK: I think they did a great job. It’s hard to do something new that’s just been done, and I thought that they came up with a tone and a look that I hadn’t seen or expected. Great performances. I felt like it was sort of old school—the way the high-school scenes played out and the relationship between Peter and Gwen. It seemed very… DK: John Hughes? Yeah. Nell Alk is an arts and entertainment writer and reporter based in New York City. Her work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal , Manhattan Magazine, Z!NK Magazine and on InterviewMagazine.com, PaperMag.com and RollingStone.com, among others. Learn more about her here. Follow Nell Alk on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Action flick’s #1 spot will likely not be threatened by the debuts of ‘Premium Rush,’ ‘Hit & Run’ or ‘The Apparition.’ By Ryan J. Downey Sylvester Stallone in “The Expendables 2” Photo: Lionsgate
Action flick’s #1 spot will likely not be threatened by the debuts of ‘Premium Rush,’ ‘Hit & Run’ or ‘The Apparition.’ By Ryan J. Downey Sylvester Stallone in “The Expendables 2” Photo: Lionsgate
Also in Friday morning’s round-up of news briefs, Martha Marcy May Marlene director is heading for a TV gig. The Kids Are All Right director eyes her next project. And a British television star eyes joining the cast of August: Osage County . No More Lance Armstrong Biopic? News that the 7-time Tour de France winner will be stripped of his titles poses what will be the ultimate outcome of a planned biopic of Armstrong by Sony Pictures. The story might have been straightforward had it been made a few years ago, but now it could go forward – or not – in a different way, Deadline reports . Expendables 2 Set for Box Office Repeat There are no new superhero films newcomers Premium Rush and Hit and Run are not expected to take the top spot from last weekend’s top earner, Expendables 2 . The pic is expected to gross around $14 million, Reuters reports . Sean Durkin to Direct Channel 4 Mini Southcliffe Martha Marcy May Marlene director Sean Durkin will make his British TV debut with the U.K.’s Channel 4 drama Southcliffe based on a script by Tony Grisoni who wrote the Red Riding trilogy. The story revolves around the aftermath of a series of shootings in an English market town told through the p.o.v. of a journalist and the victims, Deadline reports . Lisa Cholodenko Eyes November Criminals The Kids Are All Right director is in talks to direct November Criminals for Santa Monica-based Indian Paintbrush. Set in Washington, D.C., the story revolves around a student who goes inside D.C. society while investigating the mysterious death of a fellow student, The Wrap reports . Benedict Cumberbatch Eyes August: Osage County The actor who stars on the BBC’s Sherlock is in talks to join the cast of The Weinstein Company’s adaptation of the Tony Award-winning play that stars Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts and George Clooney, THR reports .
In the latest installment of ARRIVALS , spotlighting breakthrough performers, Movieline chats with Dania Ramirez, who cycles to stardom opposite Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Michael Shannon in this week’s Premium Rush . As Vanessa, the tough bicycling beauty of David Koepp’s adrenaline-fueled Premium Rush , Dominican-born Dania Ramirez ( X-Men: The Last Stand , Entourage , Heroes ) bursts onto the screen with such vitality that it’s no wonder director Spike Lee gave Ramirez her big break, years ago, after recognizing her as a former extra on one of his shoots. Ramirez, a onetime college volleyball star, credits her career to Lee (she appeared in his Subway Stories , The 25th Hour , and She Hate Me before carving out a career in TV and film; she’s got Marc Cherry’s Devious Maids series lined up for 2013). She spoke further with Movieline about her career beginnings, the artistic impulse behind her short spoof “Ass and Titties,” her real life job history (McDonalds to Rollergirl!) and her bicycling horror stories from the set of Premium Rush , in which fellow NYC bike messenger Joseph Gordon-Levitt woos her while they both tangle with a crooked cop (Michael Shannon). In a lot of movies it’s a little disappointing to see cutaways in action scenes that make it obvious that the actors are not doing their own stunts, but in Premium Rush it’s at least clear that you guys knew your way around a bicycle. The good thing about this movie is that a lot of the movie takes place on the bikes, so we had to get good at riding, and to a certain extent doing stunts. [Laughs] But don’t get me wrong, this is not to take credit away from the amazing, talented stunt people that were on set helping us out. There’s a fall that I take where I jump into the air and I could never have done that. Thank God for my stunt double! Joe [Gordon-Levitt] had four other people coming in and helping out. But we trained for six weeks in L.A. prior to shooting – to make sure our endurance was up, but also learning how to jump curbs and skid the bike and stop and turn so that we could do most of the cool sort of riding within the scenes and not have to have a stunt person come in. This not a movie full of CGI and effects, it’s a movie that you feel we’re really in danger and the ones doing everything. That’s what’s cool about it. That’s what makes it authentic. During the end credits there’s a neat but kind of horrifying video of [Joseph Gordon-Levitt] bleeding profusely after smashing his bike into the back of a cab. Yeah! He got 31 stitches. He went through a cab’s windshield! We had been filming for, I think, a month and a half, and that was definitely a moment when Joe and I looked at each other and said, ‘Maybe we should let the stunt people come in and do the stunts.’ [Laughs] We were so committed to wanting to be these people, and sometimes as an actor you wind up feeling invincible… That you have your characters’ abilities? Yes – you feel like you are this bad ass bike messenger and the truth is, we’re actors. Did you have any spills yourself? I fell every single day I worked, almost. I had bruises everywhere. I had these two gouges on my leg while I was riding, when I hit the mirror off the cab because my chain went into my wheel and I hit a pothole and hit the ground hard. We hit the ground all the time! I needed make-up all over my legs to cover up my bruises on a regular basis. But I like it. I like the adrenaline. And you’re a former athlete, which probably helped. I played volleyball at Montclair State – I did not ride a bike prior to doing this movie, I actually had a bike phobia. I fell down when I was like seven years old, really hardcore, and I did like three flips in the air with my bike. So this was an opportunity for me to sort of face my fear. And I did, and now I love it! I have two bikes now that I own and I’m training for the Malibu triathlon on September 16, I believe. So I’ve been training! Well, I feel that I can now share with you my secret: I still can’t ride a bike. You have to try! Now that you’ve watched the movie doesn’t it inspire you to go learn? Maybe you can start by the beach, with a beach cruiser. I’ll give it a shot. I think you should! Even if I should learn, at long last – how does one master the art of looking sexy while working up a sweat on a bike? You do that well, along with the rest of the cast. What is the trick to that? You’re the second person to call that sexy – I was not trying to be sexy! I don’t know how that came across sexy! I honestly was sweating, it was New York City in the summertime… Joe and I both were sweating bullets as the cameras were rolling, having to change shirts on a regular basis because we were so sweaty. But I think that’s what makes it so hot! The fact that we were sweaty, and raw, and it’s New York City. [Laughs] Now, let’s take it back to the beginning. Legend has it you were discovered by Jay-Z… My first time on camera ever I did Streets Is Watching , a compilation of music videos that he was doing. It was sort of like a mini-movie. An interesting part about me is that I didn’t grow up in this country and acting wasn’t something that I knew anything about, or something that I grew up thinking I could actually do for a living. So when I got cast in that I took it really seriously – and then came to find out that it was just a music video. [Laughs] But I don’t regret anything I’ve done in my life, and I love the fact that that was the first thing I’d ever done. I went from that to then walking into a featured extra situation with Spike Lee that led to my first starring role in a film, in Spike Lee’s She Hate Me . Spike was actually the first to discover me, as far as giving me respect within the industry. How did that happen? I was 16 years old and I went in for Subway Stories , a little mini-series he did for HBO, and I was a featured extra but it was the first time I got a SAG card. Right after that I started taking acting classes in New York City at the Actor’s Workshop studio and then I took a few years off to go to school. When I came out I did a commercial that Spike Lee directed for Kmart that led to him writing a part for me in 25th Hour and a few months later I went in and auditioned for She Hate Me , to play Alex opposite Kerry Washington. You must have made a great impression at 16. When I did the Kmart commercial he remembered me from Subway Stories ! I remember him remembering me while I was shooting the commercial, he brought it up. That was the last time before I got kicked out of my house that I walked into my dad’s house, we were shooting nights so I got home at like 6 o’clock in the morning and it was the day before I started college. My dad was like, ‘You’re either going to do this and be a lawyer or you’re going to do [acting].’ So I just never went back home. Spike is a very influential part of why I’m here today. Wow. It’s fantastic that he saw that something in you so early. Now, there’s a line in Premium Rush in which your character says she works as a bike messenger because she hates waiting tables. I’ve done every kind of job there is, from working at McDonald’s to doing a music video to roller blading at the Roxy. [Laughs] I was Rollergirl for a while! But I don’t act because I hate to wait tables, I actually act because I think it’s what I was always meant to do. Random question: What’s behind your Instagram handle, @markofthebeast? Mark of the beast! I’m a beast, and I want to leave my mark on everybody that dares to look. [Laughs] I remember watching you in a short film spoof , playing Nicki Minaj… It wasn’t so much a spoof of Nicki Minaj, that was more of a parody of America. To be honest with you, it was a way deeper message than what people took away from it. It’s called “Ass and Titties” and it’s about how in America these days you sort of get paid more for shaking your ass and titties than for your talent. That’s what the parody was about. Why Nicki Minaj? I had to choose – I’m not a rapper! I had to choose someone to channel the song through, so I chose Nicki Minaj. But I think everyone had a good response to it. You know, I’m an artist and I was just being an artist about my views in life, and if you have a good sense of humor about yourself it’s great. I don’t have anything against Nicki Minaj, or anybody that’s [parodied] in it! Premium Rush is in theaters today. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
‘You gotta bleed for the art,’ Joseph Gordon-Levitt tells MTV News at film’s NYC premiere. By Kevin P. Sullivan Joseph Gordon-Levitt at the premiere of “Premium Rush” Photo: Getty Images
The indomitable bike messenger played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Premium Rush is named Wilee, as in Wile E. Coyote, the less successful half of Looney Tunes’ eternal desert chase duo. A few minutes into the movie, however, it becomes clear he’s more like the Road Runner: Wiry and whippet thin, Wilee darts through Manhattan traffic on his fixed gear bike — chain lock wrapped around his waist — thumbing his nose at the NYPD and evading the dogged pursuit of corrupt detective Bobby Monday ( Michael Shannon ). No Chamois Ass is he. Though Wilee is introduced via a spectacular slow-motion crash set to the sunny opening strains of The Who’s “Baba O’Riley,” he carries himself through most of the film with a cartoonish sense of imperviousness that could be interpreted as a death wish even before he gets entangled with dirty cops and Chinese gangsters. A favorite trick of the film — directed by David Koepp ( Secret Window , Stir of Echoes ) from a screenplay he wrote with John Kamps— has Wilee mentally projecting different paths through tight situations until he susses out the one that doesn’t leave him smeared on the sidewalk. It’s a device that underscores the character’s precarious vulnerability as he jockeys with all of the heavy metal vehicles careening through the streets of New York. This fuels the chase sequences with excitement and a looming sense of consequence. It’s a good thing too, since the bulk of the film consists of one kind of heart-pounding pursuit or another. Premium Rush is a half-entertaining, half-exasperating movie — one that sells you on the notion of New York bike messengers as great fodder for cinema but then doesn’t know how to build a feature around them. It barely has enough forward motion to make it through its 91-minute run time and spins its wheels — pun totally intended — with sequences (like one in an impound lot) that feel like blatant filler. Premium Rush bobs and weaves stylistically using backward jumps in time to fill in plot details and cuts to a Google Maps-style city grid that establishes the locations of the characters — but ultimately there’s only so much you can do on a bike. The movie tends to get muddled and laggy when the characters hop off their two-wheelers to actually talk, because they’re not good at talking. This is the kind of film in which you constantly find yourself thinking that a particular bit of trouble could have been avoided by characters either coming clean about their problems or yelling for help when the bad guys roll their way. Wilee turns out to be a Columbia Law School grad who chooses to ride all day rather than take the bar exam because, he explains in voiceover, “I can’t work in an office.” (The crushing student loans he has to be shouldering apparently aren’t burdening his free spirit.) He’s got a fellow messenger girlfriend named Vanessa (Dania Ramirez) and a professional and romantic rival in the muscular Manny (Wolé Parks), who dares to have gears on his bike. The main action in Premium Rush takes place from around 5pm to 7pm, as Wilee heads uptown to his alma mater to pick up a package from Vanessa’s roommate Nima (Jamie Chung) that Bobby is very anxious to intercept. What’s in the package isn’t worth going into — it’s a means for the film to travel to a number of distinctly New York locations. Premium Rush depicts the city as vibrant and lived-in, from the dive bar where bike messengers gather (to watch an extremely intimate live show by the band Sleigh Bells) to a plant-lined street in the flower district, to the back-room Chinatown gambling den where wry bookies and hoods watch the impulsive Bobby dig himself a deep hole playing pai gow. Shannon has a great time chewing the scenery as the off-the-rails detective, and Gordon-Levitt continues to prove that he’s an intriguingly unconventional action hero, albeit one who comes across as a little smug in this movie. That said, he brings a sweaty substantiality to the scenes of Wilee diving through traffic against a light or hitching a ride on a cab. Like seasoned Manhattan cyclists, Gordon-Levitt rides as if his bike is an extension of his body. While the film’s pop psychologizing about Wilee’s choice of wheels would make even the most devoted of fixie fanatics roll their eyes — he doesn’t want to stop, and he can’t, because he doesn’t believe in brakes — there’s definite romance to be found here in the whirling of spokes, the communing of man and machine, and the crazy freedom of cutting through a dense urban landscape like sleek fish easily navigating the currents of a stream. Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
