Box-office experts predict ‘Breaking Dawn — Part 2’ to break ‘Twilight’ records with a debut of at least $150 million. By Ryan J. Downey Kristen Stewart, Mackenzie Foy and Robert Pattinson in “The Twilight Saga – Breaking Dawn, Part 2” Photo: Summit Entertainment
Thrash metal god Frank Bells says Penn Badgley nailed his portrayal of the late singer Jeff Buckley in Greetings From Tim Buckley — and he’s one to know. As unlikely as it may seem, the Anthrax bassist, who plays punk icon Richard Hell in the movie, is, as he put it, “a Jeff Buckley diehard forever.” And after seeing the film for the first time at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday night, Bello was singing Badgley’s praises. At a post-screening dinner at Bloke & 4th on King Street, Bello told me he was initially skeptical when he learned the Gossip Girl actor would be playing the sui-generis singer, but any lingering doubts he had were dispelled in Toronto. “I hadn’t seen any dailies or anything before tonight, and Penn blew me away.” Bello said. The Anthrax bassist added that he was particularly impressed by what will probably become the most talked-about scene in the movie: in which Badgley does an extended octave-jumping a cappella singing improvisation in a New York City record store. “When Penn did that record-store scene, I was like fucking go for it dude. And he literally went for it. He let go. He became that character, ” Bello said. “And, as a Buckley fan, that’s all I could ask of somebody who played him. Penn went for it. And he got it.” Directed by Daniel Algrant ( People I Know ), Greetings From Tim Buckley is about Jeff’s attempts to get out from under the shadow cast by his late father, singer/songwriter Tim Buckley, who’s portrayed by Ben Rosenfield in the picture. Buckley pere died from a drug overdose at the age of 28, but, despite his short life, left behind a substantial, mostly critically acclaimed body of work, including nine studio albums. Jeff Buckley was working on his second album in Memphis, Tenn. when he drowned while swimming in the Wolf River there. He was 30. Toronto festival goers who attended the screening gave it a big round of applause at the end, but saved their most raucous cheering for Badgley, who gives a break-out performance in this picture. At the party, Bello, who also makes memorable use of his screen time in Greetings , told me that his plan is to do more acting next year when Anthrax will be off writing a new album. “I always wanted to be a character actor,” the theatrically trained Bello told me. “I love the process.” Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Woe is the poor, lonely Henry Cavill actioner Cold Light of Day , which opened in wide release and climbed its way to the bottom (well okay, #13) with a paltry $1.8 million take. As in, TOTAL. Not screening a film and giving it virtually no promotion will do that, even with the future Superman holding a gun and Bruce Willis and Sigourney Weaver posing like the T-800 on the poster. But it was also a terrible movie-going weekend all-around, with the bleakest numbers in recent memory spreading across all comers. Hit it for the Debbie Downer of Weekend Receipts and let’s all look to Finding Nemo and Milla Jovovich’s leather pants next week for salvation. 1. The Possession Gross: $9,500,000 (Cume: $33,349,000) Screens: 2,834 (PSA: $3,352) Weeks: 2 (Change: -46.4%) Lionsgate’s supernatural horror-thriller held the top spot with just $9.5 million in receipts – yikes. Expect the Jeffrey Dean Morgan – dybbuk picture to drop next week when real competition from genre sequel Resident Evil: Retribution muscles its way into the box office. 2. Lawless Gross: $6,002,000 (Cume: $23,520,000) Screens: 3,138 (PSA: $1,913) Week 2 How refreshing to see a movie for grownups zooming up the charts! Even with a less-than-stellar $1,913 per-screen take, the violent, sweater-filled Shia LaBeouf-Tom Hardy period drama is still director John Hillcoat’s biggest opener to date, behind 2009’s The Road ($8.1M gross) and 2006’s The Proposition ($1.9M gross). 3. The Words Gross: $5,000,000 Screens: 2,801 (PSA: $1,785) Week: 1 Despite a concerted marketing push, CBS Films notched a dud with this Bradley Cooper drama about a writer and a book and his lady and something something something … which goes to show that if your target audience doesn’t quite get what your film is about, they won’t show up in droves to see it. The Words was acquired at Sundance for $2 million, so at least it’s not a huge wash, but don’t expect this one to break out in the coming weeks. 4. The Expendables 2 Gross: $4,750,000 (Cume: $75,417,000) Screens: 3,260 (PSA: $1,457) Week: 4 (Change: -47.4%) Sly Stallone & Co’s old dudes kicking ass sequel made a splash this summer but suffered a -47.4% drop off. Could it be the testosterone-seeking set stayed home to watch beefy men hit each other on the football field instead? 5. The Bourne Legacy Gross: $4,000,000 (Cume: $103,700,000) Screens: 2,766 (PSA: $1,446) Weeks: 5 (Change: -44.7%) At least the terrible weekend put Bourne Legacy into the $100 mil club. (Worldwide take to date: $165 million.) Just a few weekends more and Universal should make back its costs + P&A! 6. ParaNorman Gross: $3,830,000 (Cume: $45,098,000) Screens: 2,856 (PSA: $1,341) Weeks: 4 (Change: -41.7%) The technically amazing (but pretty damn dark ) stop motion/CG kids tale earned some of the highest critical praise of late, matching The Dark Knight Rises with an 87 percent Tomatometer ranking. Fingers crossed more kids and parents seek it out next week as the much fluffier Finding Nemo 3-D re-release barrels into theaters. 7. The Odd Life of Timothy Green Gross: $3,650,000 (Cume: $43,007,000) Screens: 2,717 (PSA: $1,343) Weeks: 4 (Change: -41.8%) The tree-child-made-of-wishes picture suffered its biggest decline in week 4, on par with most of the weekend’s contenders. Was this odd fantasy not what children everywhere were jonesing for as they began their intrepid march back into the classroom? Did parents the nation ’round not clamor to see a weird-ass movie about infertility and magical babies as they re-acclimated to the grinding realities of sending their young back to school?? 8. The Campaign Gross: $3,530,000 (Cume $79,473,000) Screens: 2,542 (PSA: $1,389) Weeks: 5 (Change: -38.2%) Well, we had more interesting ( and comical ) political entertainment to watch on TV last week. 9. The Dark Knight Rises Gross: $3,285,000 (Cume: $437,849,000) Screens: 1,987 (PSA: $1,653) Weeks: 8 (Change: -46.3%) I love it when huge blockbusters with record-breaking box office tallies still sneak their way into the Top 10 with tiny returns. Are these repeat viewings or first-time TDKR -watchers? Who waits two months to see The Dark Knight Rises ?? So many questions. 10. 2016 Obama’s America Gross: $3,281,000 (Cume: $26,088,000) Screens: 2,017 (PSA: $1,627) Weeks: 9 (Change: -41.5%) Despite a significant -41.5% drop-off from last week (when it ranked #9), the polarizing partisan doc has reached its widest release, hitting 2,017 theaters nationwide. It’s now the longest in-theater release in the Top 10, with a $26 million cume to date. — 13. The Cold Light of Day Gross: $1,800,000 Screens: 1,511 (PSA: $1,191) Weeks: 1 WOW. Despite starring Bruce Willis, Henry Cavill, and Sigourney Weaver, poor little Cold Light of Day – the first wide release of its kind to not be screened for critics in a while – opened in wide release outside of the Top 10. The cold shoulder from Summit Entertainment helped the thriller on its way to an early theatrical grave. [Source: Box Office Mojo ]
The Bourne Legacy and The Campaign opened over the weekend with enough gusto to topple The Dark Knight Rises from its box office throne, though the final installment in the Christopher Nolan-directed Batman trilogy still held solid in the third spot in the overall box office rankings. Hope Springs gained momentum after its mid-week bow, while Total Recall lands soft in its second frame. 1. The Bourne Legacy Gross: $40,265,491 Screens: 3,745 (PSA: $10,752) Week: 1 The latest Bourne easily snatched the top spot in the overall box office in its debut, ending the long reign of The Dark Knight Rises . But compared to its most immediate predecessor, the latest installment came in a bit thinner. The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) landed at just per $69.28 million in its opening weekend in 3,660 theaters, averaging $18,929. The pic went on to gross over $227.47 million in the domestic box office. Legacy also opened in 13 small territories, grossing $7.8 million, bringing its worldwide total to $48.1 million. 2. The Campaign Gross: $27.44 million Screens: 3,205 (PSA: $8,562) Week : 1 The comedy touched the funny bone for audiences, grabbing the second spot in the box office. It is the biggest weekend opener for Will Ferrell since 2010 comedy The Other Guys , which came in at over $35.5 million in 3,651 theaters. 3. The Dark Knight Rises Gross: $19.54 million (Cume: $390,149,000) Screens: 3,690 (PSA: $5,295) Week: 4 (Change: – 45%) The Christopher Nolan-directed Batman finale held the top spot for three weeks in the domestic box office, but has likely crested Stateside. The blockbuster dropped 552 theaters from the previous week and its screen average came in at $5,295 vs the previous weekend’s $8,590. Its worldwide cume is now well over $835.4 million. 4. Hope Springs Gross: $15.6 million (Cume: $20,053,000 – Opened Wednesday) Screens: 2,361 (PSA: $6,607) Week: 1 The Meryl Streep-starrer opened quietly mid-week, but received a flurry of audience attention as the weekend hit. Streep’s Julie & Julia , for comparison sake, debuted on 2,354 theaters in 2009, grossing just north of $20 million, averaging $8,508. 5. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days Gross: $8,200,000 (Cume: $30,554,008) Screens: 3,401 (PSA: $2,411) Week: 2 (Change: – 44%) The comedy added just 10 locations in its second weekend. Its worldwide gross is now over $36.55 million. 6. Total Recall Gross: $8.1 million (Cume: $44.188 million) Screens: 3,601 (PSA: $2,249) Week: 2 (Change: – 68%) The Total Recall reboot stayed in the same number of theaters and in its second round, the title appears to be sputtering with a 68% decline in gross compared to its tepid opening weekend of $26 million. Overseas, the pic has grossed an additional $27.5 million.
Brava to the dewy-cheeked Kristen Stewart , who opened Snow White and the Huntsman , the weekend’s number one movie, by swinging a sword and championing girl power without having to kiss a single vampire! (Those two hunky human suitors and the riveting fabulosity that was Charlize Theron didn’t hurt either.) Nice to see girls ruling while boys drooled over the box office — well, their male-driven movies ( Men in Black 3 , Avengers , Battleship ), anyway. Tell us what you saw this weekend as we go to the receipts! 1. Snow White and the Huntsman Gross: $56,255,000 (new) Screens: 3,773 (PSA: $14,910) Weeks: 1 Well, well, well. Stewart’s first big non- Twilight movie made a strong showing over the weekend, outdoing Men in Black 3 ’s debut with the one-two-three punch of KStew, Chris Hemsworth, and Charlize Theron. Coming in with the fourth biggest opening of the year, the dark fairytale soared on dazzling visuals even if audiences only gave it a “B” CinemaScore rating. 2. Men in Black 3 Gross: $29,300,000 ($112,300,000) Screens: 4,248 (PSA $6,897) Weeks: 2 (Change: -46.3%) Foreign tallies will help Will Smith and Co. get over their 46.3 percent drop-off – even at only $112 million domestically, the sci-fi threequel has topped $386 million globally, and counting. Still, it’s not quite time to get MIB4 in gear, seeing as the reported production budget was a whopping $225 million alone. 3. The Avengers Gross: $20,273,000 ($552,737,000) Screens: 3,670 (PSA: $5,524) Weeks: 5 (Change: -44.7%) $1.35 billion worldwide and counting. That is all. 4. Battleship Gross: $4,810,000 ($55,123,000) Screens: 3,144 (PSA $1,530) Weeks: 3 (Change: -56.5%) Say bye bye to Battleship as it continues sinking ever faster down the Top 10. Universal’s thanking their lucky stars for the foreign markets right about now, as domestic take has totally a paltry $55.1 million in three weeks. 5. The Dictator Gross: $4,725,000 ($50,835,000) Screens: 2,649 (PSA $1,784) Weeks: 3 (Change: -49.1%) Still just the third-best performing Sacha Baron Cohen movie to date. N/A Piranha 3DD Gross: $179,000 (new) Screens: 86 (PSA $2,081) Weeks: 1 Well, they tried . Kinda . [Figures via Box Office Mojo ]
Brava to the dewy-cheeked Kristen Stewart , who opened Snow White and the Huntsman , the weekend’s number one movie, by swinging a sword and championing girl power without having to kiss a single vampire! (Those two hunky human suitors and the riveting fabulosity that was Charlize Theron didn’t hurt either.) Nice to see girls ruling while boys drooled over the box office — well, their male-driven movies ( Men in Black 3 , Avengers , Battleship ), anyway. Tell us what you saw this weekend as we go to the receipts! 1. Snow White and the Huntsman Gross: $56,255,000 (new) Screens: 3,773 (PSA: $14,910) Weeks: 1 Well, well, well. Stewart’s first big non- Twilight movie made a strong showing over the weekend, outdoing Men in Black 3 ’s debut with the one-two-three punch of KStew, Chris Hemsworth, and Charlize Theron. Coming in with the fourth biggest opening of the year, the dark fairytale soared on dazzling visuals even if audiences only gave it a “B” CinemaScore rating. 2. Men in Black 3 Gross: $29,300,000 ($112,300,000) Screens: 4,248 (PSA $6,897) Weeks: 2 (Change: -46.3%) Foreign tallies will help Will Smith and Co. get over their 46.3 percent drop-off – even at only $112 million domestically, the sci-fi threequel has topped $386 million globally, and counting. Still, it’s not quite time to get MIB4 in gear, seeing as the reported production budget was a whopping $225 million alone. 3. The Avengers Gross: $20,273,000 ($552,737,000) Screens: 3,670 (PSA: $5,524) Weeks: 5 (Change: -44.7%) $1.35 billion worldwide and counting. That is all. 4. Battleship Gross: $4,810,000 ($55,123,000) Screens: 3,144 (PSA $1,530) Weeks: 3 (Change: -56.5%) Say bye bye to Battleship as it continues sinking ever faster down the Top 10. Universal’s thanking their lucky stars for the foreign markets right about now, as domestic take has totally a paltry $55.1 million in three weeks. 5. The Dictator Gross: $4,725,000 ($50,835,000) Screens: 2,649 (PSA $1,784) Weeks: 3 (Change: -49.1%) Still just the third-best performing Sacha Baron Cohen movie to date. N/A Piranha 3DD Gross: $179,000 (new) Screens: 86 (PSA $2,081) Weeks: 1 Well, they tried . Kinda . [Figures via Box Office Mojo ]
You might guess most folks flocking to theaters this weekend for Snow White and the Huntsman are the legions of diehard fans of Twilight ‘s Kristen Stewart , who stars in the fantasy adventure as the sword-swinging Snow White. Maybe, even, they’ll come for co-star Chris Hemsworth — he of Thor and Avengers fame. But surprise, surprise — who’d have thought the big draw, at least for folks who hit opening day today, would be neither of SWATH ‘s up-and-coming talent? PMC Studios’ Beyond the Trailer (owned by Movieline’s parent company PMC) caught up with some early Snow White adopters at the AMC E-Walk today, and they told Grace Randolph they were there to see the Evil Queen — Charlize Theron . What’s more: At least one woman says she actually saw the film despite K-Stew. Also: Props to the older lady at 3:50 dropping truth bombs about dead ugly people, who wants to buy presents for Hemsworth’s children (even though they’d most certainly be impossibly beautiful Hems-spawn, but whatevs). Surprised at all the Charlize love? Agree with the consensus that KStew’s performance pales in comparison to Theron’s near-camp extravaganza? Or are you REALLY in it just to see Hemsworth swing that axe around a forest? For more movie news, commentary, and reviews, check out Beyond the Trailer on YouTube.
The last weekend before summer blockbuster madness ensues proved to be a wrenching one for Hollywood, which watched as four new openings stumbled out of the gate behind tested literary thoroughbreds Think Like a Man and The Lucky One . Is the Apatow comedy machine broken? Has America lost its taste for the Stath? Your Weekend Receipts are here. 1. Think Like a Man Gross: $18,000,000 ($60,868,000) Screens: 2,015 (PSA $8,933) Weeks: 2 (Change: -46.5%) Congratulations go out once more to the team at Screen Gems, which has finally learned that when it comes to box-office gambles, a king still beats a queen 10 times out of 10. 2. The Pirates! Band of Misfits Gross: $11,400,000 (new) Screens: 3,358 (PSA: $3,395) Weeks: 1 3. The Lucky One Gross: $11,325,000 ($39,927,000) Screens: 3,175 (PSA: $3,567) Weeks: 2 (Change: -49.7%) In the battle of adorable clay figurines going through the narrative motions, the Aardman Animation effort Pirates narrowly edged out Zac Efron and Taylor Schilling’s second lukewarm week of getting their Sparks on . 4. The Hunger Games Gross: $11,250,000 ($372,455,000) Screens: 3,572 (PSA $3,149) Weeks: 6 (Change: -23.3%) OK, let’s have a contest: With a terrific week-to-week hold yet with The Avengers , Dark Shadows and Battleship en route over the next three weekends, on what date will The Hunger Games break $400 million domestic? The person who guesses closest without going over gets to direct Catching Fire . 5. The Five-Year Engagement Gross: $11,157,000 (new) Screens: 2,936 (PSA $3,800) Weeks: 1 Despite generally good reviews and its Apatow imprimatur, Engagement joined the likes of Speed Racer , Whatever Works , United 93 and The Interpreter to become the latest Tribeca opening-night selection to underwhelm at the domestic box office. Only the franchise entries Shrek Forever After really delivered after such a distinction, prompting the question on everyone’s my tongue this morning: Is there such a thing as a Tribeca curse? Discuss! Or… not. 6. Safe Gross: $7,720,000 (new) Screens: 2,266 (PSA $3,406) Weeks: 1 7. The Raven Gross: $7,250,000 (new) Screens: 2,203 (PSA $3,291) Weeks: 1 Whatever. Wal-Mart awaits, thanks for playing. [Figures via Box Office Mojo ] Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Don’t let the overseas Battleship hype fool you: “Allen’s Rome-set pic, consisting of four non-intersecting vignettes, one of which starring Roberto Benigni — making a rare appearance in a film not directed by himself — pulled more alone than the total weekend gross of the five titles that follow it in Italy’s weekend box office chart: Battleship , Titanic 3D , Street Dance 2 , Mirror Mirror and The Intouchables , which together totaled $3.54 million this weekend. ‘The combined effect of Allen and Benigni proved to be huge magnet,’ said one Italo exhibber.” Related: I am totally calling my next band Italo Exhibber. [ Variety