Moviegoers in the U.K. continued to send Prometheus , Men in Black 3 , and Snow White and the Huntsman into the top three spots of the box office, while ’80s hair metal pic Rock of Ages , which landed at number four though its numbers actually suggested a softer opening than its U.S. equivalent , according to figures from The Guardian. Red Lights , which will not open in the U.S. until mid-July and starring Sigourney Weaver, Cillian Murphy and Robert De Niro, performed “landed limply.” With the U.S. number one release Madagascar 3 not in the mix yet in the U.K., Prometheus held supreme in the British box office, grossing £2,009,955 ($3,163,614) from 522 sites. That’s a PSA that’s roughly on par with its U.S. counterpart, though it’s been in theaters an extra week. Men in Black 3 took in £1,544M ($2.429M) from 495 sites. Snow White and the Huntsman stayed at number three, taking in £1,297M ($2.041M) at 496 locations, while Rock of Ages managed just over £1M ($1.57M) at 479 sites. Converted to dollars, its Per Screen calculates to about $3,278 compared to its opening $4,340 Stateside. Rock of Ages placed fourth on the U.K. box office. Red Lights landed sixth behind Sundance 2012 title The Pact , which will open in the U.S. on July 6th (it took in £475,936 -$749,433 – from 317 sites and has totaled just under £2 million since bowing June 8th there). Red Lights grossed £445,109 ($701,031) for a PSA around $2,434. Marvel Avengers Assemble (as it is called over there) placed 7th with £376,991 ($593,592) from 276 sites. Its U.K. £50.963M ($80.257M) cume is the 17th overall biggest so far. The pic opened there late April. [Source: The Guardian ]
Many of us who were alive in the 1980s claimed not to listen to heavy metal or its almost indistinguishable twin, hard rock. But we did listen, or at least we heard it — it was unavoidable, an omnipresent aural beast slithering out of car radios, grungy bars and retail-establishment stereo systems. Even if you were more attuned to punk or jazz or just about anything else, it was part of the background noise of your life whether you liked it or not. If nothing else, Rock of Ages — adapted from the Broadway show of the same name, in which ’80s metal hits from the likes of Def Leppard, Foreigner and Night Ranger were woven into a rudimentary boy-meets-girl love story — reminds us just how good many of those songs we were pretending not to listen to really were. The picture has a good-natured, if self-conscious, spring to its step, at least until you-know-who shows up in a bejeweled devil’s head codpiece. The movie almost doesn’t survive his slurpy tongue bath. Seeing Tom Cruise swathed in leather pants and fake tattoos, as Axl Rose-style metal god Stacee Jaxx , is supposedly Rock of Ages ’ big draw. But the movie is much more fun when he’s not around, partly because the story has been retooled from the stage show to give his character a dose of much-needed redemption. Why can’t he just be bad? The appeal of rock’n’roll is that it’s supposed to be disreputable. The rejiggered plot of Rock of Ages also involves a family-values crusader, played by Catherine Zeta-Jones, who vows to make the streets of Los Angeles “safe for teenagers” by killing the most popular rock club. That’s a tangled irony the writers of the exceedingly tame Rock of Ages — Justin Theroux, Chris D’Arienzo and Allan Loeb, riffing on the original book by D’Arienzo — can’t worm their way out of. But it’s probably futile to hold Rock of Ages up to such close scrutiny. The point, mainly, is to watch two young people, good-girl Oklahoma metalhead Sherrie Christian (Julianne Hough, of Dancing with the Stars ) and mild-mannered aspiring rock musician Drew Boley (Diego Boneta) meet, fall in love, break up over a misunderstanding, and then get together again. As the movie opens, Sherrie arrives in Los Angeles with a suitcase full of dreams (or record albums, which pretty much amount to the same thing) that’s promptly stolen. Drew, a barback at a rock’n’roll watering hole known as the Bourbon Room, tries to get it back for her but fails. Still, the sparks fly immediately, and Drew helps Sherrie get a job at his club, which is managed by an aged rocker whose leather vest barely reaches around his tubby belly. His name is Dennis Dupree, and he’s played with a great deal of shrewd glee by Alec Baldwin . Dennis runs the Bourbon Room at a deficit; his right-hand man is the scrawny, reasonably helpful Lonny (Russell Brand, who appears to be running out of tricks outside of just being Russell Brand-y). Dennis thinks he may be able to turn his club’s fortunes around by booking Stacee Jaxx, who got his start thanks to Dennis. Unfortunately, Jaxx’s manager — Paul Giamatti in a baldy-man ponytail and a succession of comically broad-shouldered suits and patterned sweaters — cheats Dennis out of any profit he might have made. Meanwhile, Patricia Whitmore (Zeta-Jones), the Tipper Gore-ish wife of the city’s mayor elect, tries to put Dennis out of business in other ways. Through it all, or through most of it, Drew and Sherrie make moo-moo eyes at one another and duet their way through the catalogs of Foreigner, Extreme and Warrant, dusting off songs like “More Than Words,” “Heaven Isn’t Too Far Away” and “I’ve Been Waiting for a Girl Like You.” Did I mention that Malin Akerman shows up as a poodle-haired, half-brainy half-horny Rolling Stone journalist? Actually, there’s a lot going on in Rock of Ages , probably too much. The simplicity of the stage show (which originated way off-off-Broadway, in a Hollywood club, in 2005) put the spotlight on the music, for better and sometimes for worse. The movie, made by longtime choreographer-turned-director Adam Shankman (also the man behind the 2007 Hairspray ) is often busier than it needs to be. All that extra business detracts from the modest appeal of the leads: Boneta has some of the scrappy charm of the very young Matt Dillon, and Hough is sunny in a wind-up doll sort of way. Unfortunately, their musical numbers are shot and cut in such a way that it’s hard to actually watch their bodies move — why cast a dancer like Hough if we don’t really get to see her move? Then there’s the Tom Cruise problem. He’s fun to watch in his first few scenes, hamming it up as a spoiled rock’n’roll satyr. But the role quickly becomes a retread of the one he played in Magnolia , only in a different costume. Cruise can’t hide his cockiness — it’s in his blood. But even when he tries to kick back and poke fun at himself, he takes the job so seriously that it becomes a sort of grind. There’s nothing sexy about him, unless you find studied posturing erotic. That said, he does strut quite ably through a version of “Pour Some Sugar on Me” — it’s his best moment, and one of the liveliest bits in the movie. Zeta-Jones might have been used to better effect, considering how dazzling she is in her one big number, a rendition of “Hit Me with Your Best Shot” which she performs in the unsexiest of costumes, a boxy pink suit. Zeta-Jones gets her revenge later, though, when she shows up in one of the sleekest, foxiest getups I’ve seen all year, at long last giving the movie some bite. You’ll get just a glimpse or two, so enjoy it while it lasts. The rest of Rock of Ages is a sprawl whose cheerfulness feels more than a bit calculated. It’s a fake tattoo with the volume turned way, way up. Follow Stephanie Zacharek on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Many of us who were alive in the 1980s claimed not to listen to heavy metal or its almost indistinguishable twin, hard rock. But we did listen, or at least we heard it — it was unavoidable, an omnipresent aural beast slithering out of car radios, grungy bars and retail-establishment stereo systems. Even if you were more attuned to punk or jazz or just about anything else, it was part of the background noise of your life whether you liked it or not. If nothing else, Rock of Ages — adapted from the Broadway show of the same name, in which ’80s metal hits from the likes of Def Leppard, Foreigner and Night Ranger were woven into a rudimentary boy-meets-girl love story — reminds us just how good many of those songs we were pretending not to listen to really were. The picture has a good-natured, if self-conscious, spring to its step, at least until you-know-who shows up in a bejeweled devil’s head codpiece. The movie almost doesn’t survive his slurpy tongue bath. Seeing Tom Cruise swathed in leather pants and fake tattoos, as Axl Rose-style metal god Stacee Jaxx , is supposedly Rock of Ages ’ big draw. But the movie is much more fun when he’s not around, partly because the story has been retooled from the stage show to give his character a dose of much-needed redemption. Why can’t he just be bad? The appeal of rock’n’roll is that it’s supposed to be disreputable. The rejiggered plot of Rock of Ages also involves a family-values crusader, played by Catherine Zeta-Jones, who vows to make the streets of Los Angeles “safe for teenagers” by killing the most popular rock club. That’s a tangled irony the writers of the exceedingly tame Rock of Ages — Justin Theroux, Chris D’Arienzo and Allan Loeb, riffing on the original book by D’Arienzo — can’t worm their way out of. But it’s probably futile to hold Rock of Ages up to such close scrutiny. The point, mainly, is to watch two young people, good-girl Oklahoma metalhead Sherrie Christian (Julianne Hough, of Dancing with the Stars ) and mild-mannered aspiring rock musician Drew Boley (Diego Boneta) meet, fall in love, break up over a misunderstanding, and then get together again. As the movie opens, Sherrie arrives in Los Angeles with a suitcase full of dreams (or record albums, which pretty much amount to the same thing) that’s promptly stolen. Drew, a barback at a rock’n’roll watering hole known as the Bourbon Room, tries to get it back for her but fails. Still, the sparks fly immediately, and Drew helps Sherrie get a job at his club, which is managed by an aged rocker whose leather vest barely reaches around his tubby belly. His name is Dennis Dupree, and he’s played with a great deal of shrewd glee by Alec Baldwin . Dennis runs the Bourbon Room at a deficit; his right-hand man is the scrawny, reasonably helpful Lonny (Russell Brand, who appears to be running out of tricks outside of just being Russell Brand-y). Dennis thinks he may be able to turn his club’s fortunes around by booking Stacee Jaxx, who got his start thanks to Dennis. Unfortunately, Jaxx’s manager — Paul Giamatti in a baldy-man ponytail and a succession of comically broad-shouldered suits and patterned sweaters — cheats Dennis out of any profit he might have made. Meanwhile, Patricia Whitmore (Zeta-Jones), the Tipper Gore-ish wife of the city’s mayor elect, tries to put Dennis out of business in other ways. Through it all, or through most of it, Drew and Sherrie make moo-moo eyes at one another and duet their way through the catalogs of Foreigner, Extreme and Warrant, dusting off songs like “More Than Words,” “Heaven Isn’t Too Far Away” and “I’ve Been Waiting for a Girl Like You.” Did I mention that Malin Akerman shows up as a poodle-haired, half-brainy half-horny Rolling Stone journalist? Actually, there’s a lot going on in Rock of Ages , probably too much. The simplicity of the stage show (which originated way off-off-Broadway, in a Hollywood club, in 2005) put the spotlight on the music, for better and sometimes for worse. The movie, made by longtime choreographer-turned-director Adam Shankman (also the man behind the 2007 Hairspray ) is often busier than it needs to be. All that extra business detracts from the modest appeal of the leads: Boneta has some of the scrappy charm of the very young Matt Dillon, and Hough is sunny in a wind-up doll sort of way. Unfortunately, their musical numbers are shot and cut in such a way that it’s hard to actually watch their bodies move — why cast a dancer like Hough if we don’t really get to see her move? Then there’s the Tom Cruise problem. He’s fun to watch in his first few scenes, hamming it up as a spoiled rock’n’roll satyr. But the role quickly becomes a retread of the one he played in Magnolia , only in a different costume. Cruise can’t hide his cockiness — it’s in his blood. But even when he tries to kick back and poke fun at himself, he takes the job so seriously that it becomes a sort of grind. There’s nothing sexy about him, unless you find studied posturing erotic. That said, he does strut quite ably through a version of “Pour Some Sugar on Me” — it’s his best moment, and one of the liveliest bits in the movie. Zeta-Jones might have been used to better effect, considering how dazzling she is in her one big number, a rendition of “Hit Me with Your Best Shot” which she performs in the unsexiest of costumes, a boxy pink suit. Zeta-Jones gets her revenge later, though, when she shows up in one of the sleekest, foxiest getups I’ve seen all year, at long last giving the movie some bite. You’ll get just a glimpse or two, so enjoy it while it lasts. The rest of Rock of Ages is a sprawl whose cheerfulness feels more than a bit calculated. It’s a fake tattoo with the volume turned way, way up. Follow Stephanie Zacharek on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Hollywood.TV is your source for all the latest celebrity news, gossip and videos of your favorite stars! bit.ly – Click to Subscribe! Facebook.com – Become a Fan! Twitter.com – Follow Us! As the worldwide release date for “Rock of Ages” draws near, the cast of the Broadway production of ‘Rock of Ages’ attended a special screening of the film in New York on Monday. Broadway stars Michele Mais, Ashley Spencer, Cody Scott Lancaster, and Joel Hoekstra talked about their favorite aspects of the Broadway show, and their involvement with the film. Hollywood.TV is one of the top celebrity news providers in the world. Since 2008, Hollywood.TV has been bringing all the latest celebrity news, interviews, gossip, and candid videos to viewers all over the world. HTV is on the job 24/7, and at all the best festivals from Sundance to Coachella, as well as on the streets every day to cover the hottest celebs in Hollywood, New York, and Miami. Hollywood.TV is currently the third most viewed reporter channel on www.youtube.com YouTube with almost 400 million views, and our footage is seen worldwide! Tune in daily for all the latest Hollywood news on www.hollywood.tv and http like us on Facebook!
The labs at Movieline’s parent company PMC are always developing cool and creative ways to improve their comprehensive entertainment-media machine, and so it should come as no surprise that the TV and streaming video realms would receive a visit sooner or later. Thus ENTV, or Entertainment News Television, a new, regularly updated initiative featuring stories from around the PMC network — sites like Deadline , TVL ine , Hollywood Life and, of course, this very site as well. Coolest of all? We’re going to cable!
You’ve already seen Tom Cruise , Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand , Catherine Zeta-Jones and Sebastian Bach in character on the set of Adam Shankman’s upcoming Rock of Ages , but this pic is sure to get you really excited for the musical adaptation. Constantine Maroulis — who originated the Rock of Ages lead role of Drew on Broadway, and earned a Tony nomination for his performance — officially has a small part in the film as well!
While speaking with Vulture on Monday night, Alec Baldwin revealed that he will be hiring a vocal coach to prepare for his role in Rock of Ages , Adam Shankman’s adaptation of the Broadway musical which will require the actor to sing alongside Tom Cruise and Mary J. Blige. This revelation was surprising, both because the 30 Rock star seems capable of excelling at everything — and because he has already appeared multiple times on Broadway. But that was before Movieline stumbled upon the following video of Baldwin singing at Carnegie Hall.
Swapping 30 Rock for classic rock, Alec Baldwin has been announced to join the star-studded cast of Rock of Ages as Dennis Dupree, the aging rocker still holding on to shreds of his former glory. Will Ferrell and Steve Carell were both offered the role, but I think Baldwin will bring a nice, understated subtle touch to the part, rather than going broad and huge like Ferrell and Carell might’ve. Baldwin joins Julianne Hough, Tom Cruise, Anne Hathaway and probably at this point tomorrow, your Aunt Millie in the Broadway adaptation directed by Adam Shankman. [ THR ]
Right, I know: There’s no way anyone can ruin Rock of Ages . After all, the Adam Shankman-directed film is based on the trashy, Tony-nominated musical (!) of the same name — the only Broadway show where a person can walk down the aisle carrying four cans of Coors Light without drawing a second glance. (Not that I know anything about that particular example.) It’s basically ruin-proof. Unless, of course, you decide to load up the supporting roles with some of the most famous stars in the world.
