If, like me you’re horribly old and ready to be sent by the farmer to the local dog food factory, you might remember a 1981 science fiction book called ‘ After Man: A Zoology of The Future ,’ by Dougal Dixon. Now sadly out of print (I still have a battered copy with a half-torn cover, because bragging rights), it featured fantastic naturalist illustrations of creatures extrapolated, evolutionarily, from modern fauna 50 million years after humanity had gone extinct. Wolf-like beasts descended from rats and ungulates descended from rabbits are the least weird creatures you’ll see, and it’s a crime no one has ever seen fit to make a half-decent movie based on concepts from the book. We’ll have to wait much longer for that, but based on the new international trailer, we can at least see something of the book’s influence on M. Knight Shyamalan’s next film, After Earth . The Will Smith and Jaden Smith-starring sci fi movie concerns the adventures of “legendary general” Cypher Raige* (Will) who, along with his young son Kitai (Jaden) crash land on planet Earth a thousand years after humanity abandoned it and moved out into the stars. Critically injured in the crash, the General is in desperate need of help; now Kitai must venture out alone into a completely re-forested home-world teeming with creatures, so we’re told in the trailer, that have all evolved to kill human beings. The glimpse of what looks like slightly evolved baboons is promising, and I’m actually shocked to admit this thing looks good. Shyamalan has not earned any benefit of the doubt, however, and I am confident that by film’s end we’ll be treated to some kind of clunky twist. Maybe it’ll turn out that they’re on the Planet of the Apes and that Jaden is actually Cypher’s father. Here’s the trailer. Let us know what you think in comments. * Dear science fiction filmmakers: please, dear god, please stop with the ridiculous naming conventions. Ross Lincoln is a LA-based freelance writer from Oklahoma with an unhealthy obsession with comics, movies, video games, ancient history, Gore Vidal, and wine. Follow him on twitter Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Introducing a sneak peek at the first nine minutes of Star Trek Into Darkness in a special IMAX 3-D presentation for press Sunday night, director J.J. Abrams warned of the “doom and gloom” throughout his May 2013 sequel. “There’s a lot of intensity in this, and a little bit of gloom,” he admitted, “but it’s also fun.” In true Abrams fashion, that’s about all he said before he exited the theater, taking the truth about who the heck Benedict Cumberbatch is playing in Star Trek 2 with him. (The first nine minutes will debut in theaters on December 14, attached to select IMAX screenings of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey . Read on for details, speculation, guesstimates, and wild theorizing about what’s in store in Star Trek 2 based on the tease.) What’s revealed in the first nine minutes of Star Trek Into Darkness isn’t so much telling as it is intriguing, moreso for the Trek fans out there who’ll get every little familiar line of dialogue and nod to the O.G. Trek series, of which there are many. But fair warning, Trekkies: Judging from this tease and the footage Paramount has already released, Abrams knows that you’re reading into every little clue — and he’s playing you like a violin. Here’s why: Star Trek Into Darkness opens in a prologue, in a beautifully shot, blue-tinged London, Stardate 2259.55. A couple (Noel Clarke and Nazneen Contractor) wake up and drive their hover car to visit their child in the hospital. We don’t know their names, or hear them speak, but we wonder; could their last name possibly, just possibly, be Singh? Maybe, maybe not. Their sick child is a daughter (strike that, it’s not a young Khan — or is it ??*), bedridden by an unspecified illness. The father is approached by a stranger whose voice we hear first: “I can save her.” It’s Benedict Cumberbatch, and he’s the villain, which we know because the camera closes in until his face fills the IMAX screen as Michael Giacchino’s score swells with tense, ominous notes. Cut to the crew of the Enterprise, who we find in the middle of their latest mission on the Class-M planet Nibiru, where Bones and Kirk are racing through vivid red-tinged forests being chased by members of a chalk-faced, spear-chucking indigenous race. From a cruiser flying in the skies above, Spock drops into an erupting volcano to save the planet as Uhura looks on. Regrouping with the rest of the crew on the Enterprise — which is parked discreetly underwater in the middle of an ocean — Kirk wrestles with a familiar-sounding quandary: Save Spock by taking the Enterprise out of hiding, therefore violating the Prime Directive by exposing the inhabitants of Nibiru to technology they’re not ready for, or sacrifice Spock because, as one character indeed utters, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” Kirk asks what Spock would do if their situations were reversed. “He’d let you die,” Bones replies, and the opening sequence closes with a cliffhanger. More previously seen trailer-y shots close out the nine-minute sneak, with Cumberbatch growling lines like “You think you’re safe? You are not ” and “Is there anything you would not do for your family?” Alas, it doesn’t offer any further details of the hands-on-glass shot that had Trek -watchers a’flutter watching the recently-released Japanese trailer. At this point I’ve heard about a thousand differing theories as to whom exactly Cumberbatch’s villain will turn out to be. My first thought during the nine-minute prologue was Khan, because YOU GUYS THEY QUOTE WRATH OF KHAN , but there’s something about that idea that seems just too easy. I’m leaning toward an amalgam of Gary Mitchell and Khan, an idea so crazy it might just work in this new Abrams era of playing in the Trek sandbox without having to stay within previously established canon. Why not make the ‘Batch some sort of Mitchell-Khan hybrid? Try this on for size: Benemitchell Khanderbatch . Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? It’s worth noting that, while Star Trek Into Darkness was post-converted to 3-D, the 3-D footage went over well. There are a good many close-ups and scenes featuring brilliantly vivid, swirling pieces of debris and lava and even, at one point, a barrage of spears raining down around Kirk and McCoy as they run through the jungle in a sequence that so calls to mind Raiders of the Lost Ark that it’s probably safe to call it homage. *This is completely wild, “What if?” speculation, but how cool would it be if Abrams’ Trek films did introduce Khan — only as a woman? Discuss . Star Trek Into Darkness is in theaters May 17, 2013; look for the nine-minute preview attached to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in select IMAX screenings, full list here . Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Quentin Tarantino wants you to know that if his depiction of slavery in Django Unchained disturbs you, the reality was much grislier. “I’m here to tell you, that however bad things get in the movie, a lot worse shit happened,” the filmmaker told a British Academy of Film and Television Arts crowd after screening his hotly anticipated spaghetti western in London. Judging from a report in London’s Guardian newspaper, Tarantino intends Django Unchained to be a visceral, in-your-face depiction of slavery in America. “We all intellectually ‘know’ the brutality and inhumanity of slavery, but after you do the research it’s no longer intellectual any more, no longer just historical record — you feel it in your bones,” Tarantino said. “It makes you angry, and you want to do something.” As was the case with Tarantino’s Nazi revenge fantasy, Inglourious Basterds , the title character of Django Unchained , who’s played by Jamie Foxx , gets to exact a great deal of cinematic retribution against the movie’s slave owners and their accomplices. But Tarantino told the BAFTA crowd that his movie is about more than payback: “When slave narratives are done on film, they tend to be historical with a capital H, with an arms-length quality to them,” he said. “I wanted to break that history-under-glass aspect, I wanted to throw a rock through that glass and shatter it for all times, and take you into it.” “I did a lot of research particularly in how the business of slavery worked, and what exactly was the social breakdown inside a plantation: the white families that owned the houses, the black servants who worked inside the house, the black servants that were in the fields, and the white overseers and workers that were hired to work there.” Of special interest to Tarantino was the southern aristocracy which he called “an absurd, grotesque parody of European aristocracy.” From that same Q&A session, the website Bleeding Cool is reporting that Tarantino told the audience “I could conceive maybe someday doing a 30′s gangster picture, or something like that.” He also said that he could do “another Western, actually.” [ The Guardian , Bleeding Cool ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Steven Spielberg will screen his Oscar contender in the U.S. Senate. Also in Thursday’s round-up of news, Casey Affleck is eyeing a crime thriller; Tron is making another return; records were released surrounding TDKR Colorado shooter James Holmes; and Glenn Beck & Vince Vaughn are developing a documentary filmmaker competition. Lincoln Invited to Screen U.S. Senate Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has invited Steven Spielberg to screen Lincoln in the Senate chamber later this month. The film screened by invitation of President Obama at the White House on November 15th, Deadline reports . Casey Affleck Eyes Boston Strangler Pic Affleck hopes to star in the thriller about the desperate search to find the mass murderer who gripped Boston in fear in the early ’60s. Warner Bros. picked up the thriller, Deadline reports . New Tron Back in Development A Tron 3 sequel to 2010 reboot Tron: Legacy is back on track. Plot details are being kept secret, but Joseph Kosiniski, who directed Legacy is attached to direct the new pic, THR reports . TDKR Shooter’s Records Released as Theater Is Set to Re-open The documents reveal a romantic relationship accused killer James Holmes had and one of his professors feared for her students’ safety. The theater where the shooting occurred is set to reopen January 17th during a ceremony that will be attended by Colorado’s governor, THR reports . Glenn Beck and Vince Vaughn Teaming for Documentary Filmmaker Competition Show The conservative personality is working to start a reality show called Pursuit of the Truth with Vince Vaughn in which 20 documentarians will compete for financing and distribution of their films and is accepting “filmmakers of all walks of life,” Indiewire reports .
Fans stormed London’s Leicester Square to join the revolution on Wednesday night: the world premiere of Les Misérables . The barricades were up, not to hold back National Guardsmen but to restrain fans who who turned up to salute the movie’s lead Hugh Jackman , Londoner (and the movie’s Marius), Eddie Redmayne and the rest of the main cast. Lovely Ladies Anne Hathaway , Amanda Seyfried and Samantha Barks ,who has played Eponine both on stage and, now, on screen, were all smiles as they stalked the red carpet, the dark days of their Parisian revolt a distant dream. Master of the House, director Tom Hooper , accompanied comrade and legendary theater producer Sir Cameron MacKintoshto the premiere, as well as Russell Crowe , who portrays the saga’s relentless Inspector Javert. The cast confirmed that the movie’s multi-camera, live-recorded singing made filming more laborious than usual, at times resulting in dozens of takes. Some malfunctioning mechanical butterflies didn’t help either. Redmayne said that while he and Amanda Seyfried were filming their “A Heart Full of Love” duet, “Tom became obsessed with the stunt butterflies. There were moments where Amanda and I would do these incredibly intense takes of newfound love, and Tom would say, ‘Yeah, it was great, but the butterflies…'” Barks recalled enduring many sodden takes of singing ” On My Own ” in the rain. “There was a big rain machine which followed me around for a lot of the film. Sometimes I’d arrive on set and they’d have to hose me down,” she recalled. “After the rain, you get so cold, your teeth start to chatter and they say, ‘We’re picking up on a weird sound, what’s that?’ So I’d chatter, ‘It’s my teeth!’” When Hooper wasn’t preoccupied with the butterflies, he devoted plenty of attention to the rain machine, presumably from his eternally dry director’s chair, “The geek in me enjoyed having to come up with the solution of how to do silent rain” so it wouldn’t interfere with the live singing, the director explained, adding: “By the end the rain was quiet.” Hooper said it took “six months of researching to do rain with with no noise” and after finally achieving “our dream,” as he put it, “we had to put the rain sound back in during the sound mixing.” After their near-freezing stint on the red carpet, all guests stepped inside the warm sanctuary of the Leicester Square Odeon for the movie, after which Hooper invited everybody to drink with him in North London, at Camden’s Roundhouse until late. Related Stories: Early Reaction: Oscar Race Heats Up As NYC Screening Of ‘Les Miserables’ Prompts Cheers & Tears Handicapping The Performances Of ‘Les Misérables’ — Who Will Dazzle In the Movie Musical? Follow Movieline on Twitter.
The Sexiest Man Alive is looking to take an acting break. 21 Jump Street and Magic Mike star Channing Tatum is planning to put the acting gigs on hold next year in favor of working on his directing chops with production partner, Reid Carolin. “[Reid and I] have about three to four ideas that we love that are all in the hopper. By the end of next year, we’re going to shut things down and write the first thing that we’re going to direct,” Tatum told EW . “We’re going to be like, alright, no more acting parts for a minute, let’s take a few and really get caring about that section of our career.” Tatum and Carolin are in the midst of developing a Magic Mike sequel – and with a nearly $166 million worldwide gross from the first installment and a production budget only a fraction of that – then why not? They’re also developing a pic on 1970s daredevil, Evel Knievel. Still, Tatum won’t be absent from the big screen in 2013. He’s set for Steven Soderbergh’s Side Effects in addition to action pic White House Down along with Jamie Foxx and Maggie Gyllenhaal as well as drama Foxcatcher from Bennett Miller. “I love the steps that I’ve taken acting-wise. That has been a wild sort of exploration,” Tatum said. “But I don’t want to just keep putting [directing] off for these fun and incredible opportunities.” Tatum gave a shout-out to Soderbergh for showing him and Carolin the filmmaking craft. “I don’t think Reid and I would have the balls to try to make a movie without learning what we did from Soderbergh and [assistant director] Greg Jacobs,” Tatum said about the Magic Mike director. “It was like a crazy crash course Cliff Notes on directing and how to make movies, literally get them done. We had a Matrix -style download, like a plug in the back of the head and bloop! I know Kung Fu now.” People magazine named Tatum its 2012 Sexiest Man Alive last month. [ Source: EW Inside Movies ]
The biggest question surrounding Peter Jackson ‘s Lord of the Rings prequel The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey , has nothing to do with its strength of story, its Oscar chances, or whether or not Tolkien fans will embrace yet another uber-ambitious adaptation of their beloved fantasy world, but rather: How does it look? Specifically, how will Jackson’s 48 frames-per-second gamble play after months of talk and one particularly disastrous Cinema Con debut ? I’ll tell you this: The grumblings and rumblings after my screening of The Hobbit – in bold, daring, frustrating 48 frames-per-second 3-D – were decidedly not raves. And that’s a very bad sign for Jackson & Co. One colleague couldn’t believe how poor the 48 fps presentation looked, insisting – or hoping, more like it – that something must have been wrong with the projection. Jackson’s big, game-changing crusade for a frame rate that would part the heavens and open humankind’s hearts and minds and brains to a new way of watching film couldn’t possibly look so unpleasant. Could it? I was curious if, back in April when The Hobbit ‘s 48 fps preview bombed at Cinema Con, the journalists and industry folk who recoiled from the hyper-clarity of the picture onscreen were just overreacting to Jackson’s new cinematic order. “After a minute or two of adjusting,” wrote The New York Daily News’ Ethan Sacks in his embargo-skirting first review , “the higher resolution is eye-popping, similar to discovering HD television for the first time.” HD TV did look rather freaky at first, I’ll give him that, and there’s a shared quality of too much visual information that The Hobbit ‘s 48 fps shares with high-def television. But it didn’t take a few minutes of adjusting to get used to it; even two hours and 40 minutes later my brain was rejecting the look of it. It felt like watching daytime soaps in HD, terrible BBC broadcasts, or Faerie Tale Theater circa 1985, only in amazingly sharp clarity and with hobbits. Part of the problem is there’s too much detail in every frame that the magical filter of cinema that makes most 24 fps film so pleasing to the eye is gone; every prop on a set too clear, and even a performance by someone like the very fine Ian McKellen looks embarrassingly, unnaturally theatrical. Moving images, especially walking Hobbits and dwarves – not as much the CG creatures, for what it’s worth – flit at odd speeds that just never look right. With the exception of a handful of scenes, mostly enhanced by CG vs. shot on interior sets, the 48 fps had me imagining how gorgeous everything might look in 24fps. Those who’ve seen it in 24fps seem much happier with the visual presentation, even if 3-D feels superfluous. As Bilbo made his way along his adventure through Middle Earth, the look of The Hobbit and the accelerated barrage of information prompted a flurry of other films and shows to pop into mind, none of them flattering comparisons. Here, in no particular order, are some of them: Fraggle Rock Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood of Make-Believe Shining Time Station Star Trek colony planets The opening POV shot of Dinosaurs (On the plus side, The Hobbit also inspired me to Google “Galadriel-Gandalf fan fiction,” which I guarantee will be a thing after The Hobbit comes out.) As early reviews continue to hit the web, it appears that I’m not in the minority on the frame rate issue. 48 fps may be D.O.A. even before The Hobbit opens in wide release on December 14. Maybe that’s a good thing; save your dollars and see it in regular ol’ 24 fps. The future may well be 48, but it hasn’t arrived yet. READ MORE: ‘The Hobbit’ 3-D Early Review: Back Again, But Not Quite There ‘Hobbit’ First Review: 48 FPS Is ‘Eye-Popping,’ But Watch Out For The Jar Jar Binks Of ‘LOTR’ The Hobbit 48 FPS Preview Divides Audiences at CinemaCon Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Fanboy movie news is out of control today. If this were the 1930s we’d need a massive montage of spinning newspaper headlines. First, talk of Darkseid in Justice League , then the (extremely uninspired) poster from Star Trek Into Darkness , and new art from Man of Steel . Not to be outdone, Marc Webb , readying The Amazing Spider-Man 2 , has thwipped a tweet our way with the first glimpse of our new Harry Osborne – Dane DeHaan. Dane DeHaan, whose ten letter name makes economic a mere three consonants and two vowels, was said to be in the running for Spidey’s new foe against other young men like Alden Ehrenreich (a good actor, but too many letters), Brady Corbet, Eddie Redmayne , Boyd Holbrook, Douglas Booth and Sam Claflin . DeHaan, if you recall, was the main character in the surprisingly effective found-footage superhero (or was it supervillain ?) film Chronicle . Harry Osborn, the son of OsCorp’s Norman Osborn, was played by James Franco in the original Sam Raimi trilogy. DeHaan certainly has that weight-of-the-world sulk down pat, which is a key part of Webb’s Spider-Man aesthetic. The gals who flock to see skinny high school aged white boys will have their needs met, despite DeHaan actually being nearly 27. (That’s okay, Andrew Garfield will be over 30 when The Amazing Spider-Man 2 comes out, which leads me to think that I should probably be rubbing some of that sticky, milky Spidey substance all over my pores.) In the first Amazing Spider-Man 2 look Tweeted today by Webb, DeHaan has a bit of a scrappy look (don’tcha just want to tussle his hair?) but there’s something ominous in his eyes… as if off in the distance he sees an epic climax involving well known New York City landmarks and an inordinate amount of computer generated imagery. Be sure to follow @MarcW for more surprise news about The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ! Follow Jordan Hoffman on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Fifteen docs advanced to the final stages for Oscar consideration Monday. While the films making the cut are, of course, notable, some others that did not are also. Today’s winner of the New York Film Critics Circle for Best Non-Fiction film of 2012, Central Park Five , which made headlines recently because New York City officials attempted to gain access to the film’s outtakes related to a pending civil suit, did not make the cut. Other high profile docs also left out were Toronto’s West of Memphis and Sundance’s Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present as well as Magnolia’s The Queen of Versailles . While distributor IFC Films will likely be disappointed by the CP5 omission by the Academy, it will celebrate the inclusion of How To Survive a Plague , an AIDS doc that opened quietly, but to acclaim for its bravery. The distributor also had its Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry in the list. [ Related: Movieline’s Central Park Five coverage ] Tribeca’s Bully , which opened to controversy for its R-rating from the MPAA to pushback from distributor The Weinstein Company, also made the cut. The 15 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production companies (information provided by AMPAS): Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry , Never Sorry LLC Bully , The Bully Project LLC Chasing Ice , Exposure Detropia , Loki Films Ethel , Moxie Firecracker Films 5 Broken Cameras , Guy DVD Films The Gatekeepers , Les Films du Poisson, Dror Moreh Productions, Cinephil The House I Live In , Charlotte Street Films, LLC How to Survive a Plague , How to Survive a Plague LLC The Imposter , Imposter Pictures Ltd. The Invisible War , Chain Camera Pictures Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God , Jigsaw Productions in association with Wider Film Projects and Below the Radar Films Searching for Sugar Man , Red Box Films This Is Not a Film , Wide Management The Waiting Room , Open’hood, Inc.
Newcomers Killing Them Softly and The Collection bowed soft over the weekend, with the latter barely making it into the top ten. Holdovers including Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 , Skyfall and Lincoln remained the top three pics domestically. The Weinstein Company’s Silver Linings Playbook , meanwhile, placed just outside the top ten over the weekend, though the Oscar hopeful played in comparatively far fewer locations and is showing strength as it continues to roll out slowly. 1. Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 Gross: $17,410,000 (Cume: $254.6 million) Screens: 4008 (PSA: $4,344) Week: 3 (Change: – 60%) Number one for three weeks, the final Twilight scored the top spot after a weak showing from newcomers. The feature dropped 62 locations from its second weekend and its $4,344 average was significantly lower than its $10,723 showing in week 2. Still, it is a bit better off than its previous installments and is within $1 million from matching New Moon . 2. Skyfall Gross: $17 million (Cume: $246 million) Screens: 3,463 (PSA: $4,909) Week: 4 (Change: – 52%) The highest grossing Bond film continues to show strength one month into its U.S. run. The pic averaged a solid $4,909, compared to Twilight ‘s $4,344 average in its third week, though it is in 545 fewer theaters. Globally, Skyfall has grossed over $869 million, a good return for its $200 million budget. A $300 million domestic run is not out of the question. 3. Lincoln Gross: $13,509,000 (Cume: $83,698,000) Screens: 2,018 (PSA: $6,694) Week: 4 (Change: – 47%) Steven Spielberg’s big Oscar contender remained in the same number of theaters in its third weekend, though its per screen average was almost halved from the previous weekend’s $12,724. Still, it had the highest PSA in the top 10 for the weekend. Its nearly $83.7 million gross is outpacing the filmmaker’s 2011 movies The Adventures of Tintin ($77.6 million) and War Horse ($79.9 million). 4. Rise of the Guardians Gross: $13,500,000 (Cume: $48,947,253) Screens: 3,672 (PSA: $3,676) Week: 2 (Change: – 43%) The Paramount/Dreamworks animation added 19 theaters and remained fourth in the overall top ten. Still, it will struggle to reach $100 million. 5. Life of Pi Gross: $12 million (Cume: $48,361,141) Screens: 2,018 (PSA: $4,098) Week: 2 (Change: -46.6%) The Ang Lee 3-D feature added just one location over the weekend, rounding out the top 5, though. Globally, it has grossed nearly $109 million ($60,500,000) abroad and is said to be performing well. 6. Wreck-It Ralph Gross: $7,020,000 (Cume: $158,257,000) Screens: 3,087 (PSA: $2,274) Week: 5 (Change: – 57.6%) The animated feature remained at the sixth position, though dropped 172 locations and had a fairly steep 57-plus percent drop from the week prior. Its $2,274 average compares to $5,085 last week and $5,131 the week before that. Still, it’s had a good run and combined with foreign box office of $44 million, it topped the $200 million mark over the weekend. 7. Killing Them Softly Gross: $7 million Screens: 2,424 (PSA: $2,888) Week: 1 The Cannes 2012 feature is one of Brad Pitt’s worse performing openings ever, though not as bad as The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford which only made $3.9 million. The pic should fade from theaters soon. 8. Red Dawn Gross: $6,550,000 (Cume: $31,322,708) Screens: 2,781 (PSA: $2,355) Week: 2 (Change: – 54%) The film had a relatively steep 54% decline in gross compared to its first weekend, though it added 57 more venues. Its $2,355 average compares to its $5,241 opening. It may struggle to match its $65 million production budget domestically. 9. Flight Gross: $4,540,000 (Cume: $81,526,836) Screens: 2,603 (PSA: $1,744) Week: 5 (Change: – 46.3%) Flight shed 35 theaters in its fifth week after adding locations over the past month. Still, the Denzel Washington-starrer has performed well at the box office with a domestic come over $81.5 million vs its $31 million production budget. It may be a reach to hit the $100 million mark. 10. The Collection Gross: $3,409,224 Screens: 1,403 (PSA: $2,430) Week: 1 In its debut, The Collection barely made it into the top ten and its nearly $3.41 million opening is slightly off from its predecessor, The Collector ‘s 2009 $3.57 million bow. 11. Silver Linings Playbook Gross: $3,341,000 (Cume: $10,990,981) Screens: 371 (PSA: $9,005) Week: 3 (Change: – 23.8%) Though not in the top ten, The Weinstein Company’s Oscar hopeful Silver Linings Playbook has continued to gain traction after an opening that was a bit of a disappointment. It ranked 11th for the weekend, though it is in far fewer theaters than titles in the top ten and its $9,005 average was far better than any in the top ten. Word-of-mouth is clearly driving the title.
