New Line Cinema’s “The Conjuring” Crosses $100 Million at the Domestic Box Office
BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--One of the most talked about hits of the summer, New Line Cinema’s “The Conjuring” has surpassed $100 million at the domestic box office on only its third weekend in theatres, it was announced today by Dan Fellman, President, Domestic Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures. The film crossed the $100 million mark on Saturday, August 3, and has earned an estimated $108.6 million domestically to date, and still climbing.
“The Conjuring” is also off to a great start internationally, opening in just 13 markets thus far. The film opened in the UK this weekend, taking the #1 spot on Friday and Saturday, and it is also holding extremely well in other early release markets, particularly in Australia and Spain. The international total to date is an estimated $28.6 million, with many major markets yet to open, including France, Italy, Belgium, Holland and Mexico.
The terrifying supernatural horror thriller, from director James Wan, opened to rave reviews from critics, as well as audiences, a fact that was reflected in the film’s A- CinemaScore—an extremely rare mark for the genre. “The Conjuring” had an extraordinary $41.9 million opening weekend at the domestic box office, the largest opening ever for an original horror film.
In making the announcement, Fellman said, “James Wan has created a film that stays with moviegoers long after they leave the theatre, resulting in terrific word-of-mouth that should carry it through the rest of the summer. Surrounded by tentpole summer movies, ‘The Conjuring’ has become the must-see film of the season.”
Sue Kroll, President, Worldwide Marketing and International Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures, added, “‘The Conjuring’ is performing beyond all expectations, breaking barriers as not just a great genre film, but a great film of any genre. The phenomenal results in the U.S. are also starting to be seen globally as ‘The Conjuring’ expands its reach, with tremendous worldwide potential. We congratulate James Wan, the remarkable cast and everyone involved in the film.”
New Line Cinema President and COO Toby Emmerich stated, “We’re excited that ‘The Conjuring’ continues to have such a big impact on fans and that they are sharing their enthusiasm with friends and family. James Wan made a fantastic movie and audiences clearly agree, as is evident in the film’s great CinemaScore, social media engagement and theatre attendance.”
Based on the true life story, “The Conjuring” tells the tale of how world renowned paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren were called upon to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in a secluded farmhouse. Forced to confront a powerful demonic entity, the Warrens find themselves caught in the most horrifying case of their lives.
From New Line Cinema comes a feature film drawn from the case files of married demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren. “The Conjuring” stars Academy Award® nominee Vera Farmiga (“Up in the Air,” TV’s “Bates Motel”) and Patrick Wilson (“Insidious”) as the Warrens, and Ron Livingston (“The Odd Life of Timothy Green”) and Lili Taylor (TV’s “Hemlock Grove”) as Roger and Carolyn Perron, residents of the house. Joey King, Shanley Caswell, Hayley McFarland, Mackenzie Foy and newcomer Kyla Deaver play the Perrons’ five daughters, and Sterling Jerins is the Warrens’ little girl, Judy. Rounding out the cast are Marion Guyot, Steve Coulter, Shannon Kook, and John Brotherton.
James Wan (“Saw,” “Insidious”) directed the film from a screenplay by Chad Hayes & Carey W. Hayes (“The Reaping”). The film is produced by Tony DeRosa-Grund, Peter Safran and Rob Cowan, with Walter Hamada and Dave Neustadter serving as executive producers.
New Line Cinema presents a Safran Company / Evergreen Media Group Production of a James Wan Film, “The Conjuring.” The film is being distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.
This film has been rated R for sequences of disturbing violence and terror.
www.theconjuring-movie.com
Monday, August 5, 2013
Review: Marilyn Monroe and Don Murray Still Heat Up "Bus Stop" (Remembering Marilyn Monroe)
Bus Stop (1956)
Running time: 96 minutes (1 hour, 36 minutes)
DIRECTOR: Joshua Logan
WRITER: George Axelrod (based on the plays of William Inge)
PRODUCER: Buddy Adler
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Milton Krasner (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: William Reynolds
COMPOSERS: Cyril J. Mockridge and Alfred Newman
Academy Award nominee
ROMANCE/COMEDY/DRAMA
Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Don Murray, Arthur O’Connell, Betty Field, Eileen Heckart, Robert Bray, and Hope Lange
The subject of this movie review is Bus Stop, a 1956 romantic comedy and drama from director Joshua Logan. Bus Stop is based on two plays, People in the Wind and Bus Stop (1955), by American novelist, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, and Oscar-winning screenwriter, William Inge. Bus Stop the movie focuses on a naive but stubborn cowboy (he’s a virgin) and a saloon singer whom the cowboy tries to take against her will back to his ranch in Montana.
An innocent (and infantile) rodeo cowboy named Beauregard “Bo” Decker (Don Murray) temporarily leaves his Montana ranch to attend a rodeo in Phoenix, Arizona. His surrogate father Virgil (Arthur O’Connell), who travels with him, thinks it time for the sexually inexperienced 21-year old to find a wife. What Virgil didn’t have in mind was for Bo to fall in love with Cherie (Marilyn Monroe), an abused bar singer with a lot of man mileage on her. Bo, used to having his way and naively regarding women as if they were nothing more than life stock, stalks and kidnaps Cherie in order to bring her back to the ranch. It’s at the titular bus stop where Bo finally gets him comeuppance, but does love still bloom?
Many people consider Bus Stop, based upon a well-known stage play of the time, to be the film in which Marilyn Monroe showed that she could act and that she wasn’t just a hot, blond tart. Although her performance is a bit over the top (wildly over the top in some places to the point of giving a performance that verges on hysteria), she seems to really fit this film. Don Murray, however, steals Bus Stop, in his first movie role after getting recognition for his stage work. He earned an Oscar® nomination as a supporting actor for Bus Stop, but he is really the lead, as the film and story revolves around Murray’s Bo and Arthur O’Connell’s Virgil. The thoroughly handsome Murray is a lightning bolt and a ball of boundless energy. He really does sell the notion that he is a virginal cowboy who knows nothing about women, and he also makes the father-son relationship with O’Connell feel real.
Bus Stop is an odd and quirky film that is equally parts romance and comedy, more of a comic romance than a romance comedy. Joshua Logan (Picnic, 1955) does a fine job with what could have been a curious film disaster by keeping the pace fast, never letting us focus on the story’s logical missteps. He makes the audience laugh with the characters, and he turns up the romance just at the proper moments.
8 of 10
A
NOTES:
1957 Academy Awards, USA: 1 nomination: “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” (Don Murray)
1957 BAFTA Awards: 1 nomination: “Most Promising Newcomer to Film” (Don Murray-USA)
1957 Golden Globes, USA: 2 nominations: “Best Motion Picture - Musical/Comedy” and “Best Motion Picture Actress - Comedy/Musical” (Marilyn Monroe)
Updated: Monday, August 05, 2013
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Johnny Knoxville Returns in "Bad Grandpa"
Real people. Real reactions. Real messed up.
Johnny Knoxville is back as Irving Zisman in JACKASS PRESENTS: BAD GRANDPA
Watch now: http://youtu.be/_MSrAwfagG4
Make your own GIFs using the Bad Grandpa GIF Creator: www.BadGrandpa.com (You know you’re going to.)
ABOUT THE FILM: 86 year-old Irving Zisman is on a journey across America with the most unlikely companions, his 8 year-old Grandson Billy in "Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa.” This October, the signature Jackass character Irving Zisman (Johnny Knoxville) and Billy (Jackson Nicoll) will take movie audiences along for the most insane hidden camera road trip ever captured on camera.
Along the way Irving will introduce the young and impressionable Billy to people, places and situations that give new meaning to the term childrearing. The duo will encounter male strippers, disgruntled child beauty pageant contestants (and their equally disgruntled mothers), funeral home mourners, biker bar patrons and a whole lot of unsuspecting citizens.
Real people in unreal situations, making for one really messed up comedy.
In theaters everywhere October 25th, 2013.
Official website: www.BadGrandpa.com
Facebook : www.facebook.com/jackass
Twitter: www.twitter.com/jackassworld
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Review: Something for Everyone in "Amazon Women on the Moon" (Happy B'day, John Landis)
Amazon Women on the Moon (1987)
Running time: 85 minutes (1 hour, 25 minutes)
MPAA – R
DIRECTORS: Joe Dante, Carl Gottlieb, Peter Horton, John Landis, and Robert K. Weiss
WRITERS: Michael Barrie and Jim Mulholland
PRODUCER: Robert K. Weiss
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Daniel Pearl
EDITORS: Malcolm Campbell, Marshall Harvey, and Bert Lovitt
COMPOSER: Ira Newborn
COMEDY
Starring: Arsenio Hall, B.B. King, David Alan Grier, William Bryant, Roxie Rocker, Rosanna Arquette, Steve Guttenberg, Ed Begley Jr., Carrie Fisher, Sybil Danning, Michelle Pfeiffer, Griffin Dunne, Henry Silva, Andrew Dice Clay, and Russ Meyer
The subject of this movie review is Amazon Women on the Moon, a 1987 satirical comedy and parody anthology film. The film spoofs 1950s sci-fi movies by featuring a fake 50s sci-fi movie called “Amazon Women on the Moon.” In between segments of “Amazon Women on the Moon,” the movie offers 21 comedy sketches meant to parody the experience of watching low-budget movies and infomercials on late-night television.
Amazon Women on the Moon is kind of a sequel to The Kentucky Fried Movie, the cult classic spoof film comprised of several skits lampooning TV news, commercials, and films. Amazon Women on the Moon does much of the same thing – using short comedy sketches to spoof late night porn, commercials, infomercials, and educational films. The movie also spoofs 1950’s sci-fi films in the form of the title skit, Amazon Women on the Moon. The tale of three astronauts who travel from the Earth to the moon and discover a race of superwomen led the buxom Queen Lara (Sybil Danning). The Amazon Women skit not only pokes big fun at the super low production values of old science fiction films, it even makes fun of the technical difficulties that occasionally plague late night TV and old movies.
Perhaps, the subject that the film best skewers is tabloid news fodder, the kind of sensational human interest stories one would find in tabloid magazines because of their shock value. Some of Amazon Women on the Moon’s best moments include skits about a doctor loosing a couple’s newborn son (featuring Michelle Pfeiffer), a woman who uses a credit card machine to download a consumer dating report on her blind date, a funeral home that uses a celebrity roast in lieu of a funeral service to send off the recently departed, and a man who is killed by his rabidly malfunctioning household appliances (featuring Arsenio Hall).
I found Amazon Women on the Moon not quite as funny as I did the first time I saw it about 16 or 17 years ago, but it’s best moments are still quite hilarious and irreverent, even jaw dropping and surreal, at times. Imagine “Saturday Night Live” or “Mad TV” with a harder edge or with a more brutal sense of humor. It’s wacky, wild, and weird, and I heartily recommend it. Even those who won’t like it much will still find at least one skit that strongly assaults their funny bone.
7 of 10
B+
Updated: Saturday, August 03, 2013
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Surf Drama "Drift" Now Playing in Select Cities
LIONSGATE Presents
DRIFT
Runtime: 113 min; Rating: R
A film by Morgan O’Neill and Ben Nott
Starring: Myles Pollard, Xavier Samuel, Sam Worthington
DRIFT Will Open in Select Theatres Nationwide On August 2, 2013
DRIFT Will Open in the Following Los Angeles Area Theatre on August 2nd
Laemmle’s Monica 4 Plex (1332 2nd St, Santa Monica)
DRIFT Will Open in the Following New York Area Theatre on August 2nd
AMC Empire 25 (234 W 42nd St)
ABOUT THE FILM: After their mother escapes from Sydney to Margaret River in the 1970’s, the two Kelly brothers spend their youth searching for the perfect wave. Out of necessity the family launches a backyard surf business ‐ re‐thinking board design, crafting homemade wetsuits and selling merchandise out of their van.
Battling big waves, small town conservatism and criminals, the brothers give rise to a global brand. A story of passion, corruption, friendship and loyalty, deadly addictions and fractured relationships, DRIFT tells a tale of courage and the will to survive at all odds.
DRIFT is directed by Morgan O’Neill and Ben Nott and written by Morgan Oneil. Starring Myles Pollard, Xavier Samuel, Sam Worthington, Robyn Malcolm, Lesley-Ann Brandt, Aaron Glenane, Steve Bastoni, Maurie Ogden, Sean Keenan, Kai Arbuckle, and Harrison Buckland-Crook. DRIFT is produced by Tim Duffy, Michele Bennett, and Myles Pollard. Executive Producers are Joan Peters and Peter Lawson.
Friday, August 2, 2013
Review: "Chasing Amy" is Worth Chasing (Happy B'day, Kevin Smith)
TRASH IN MY EYE No. 107 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux
Chasing Amy (1997)
Running time: 113 minutes (1 hour, 53 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong graphic sex related dialogue, language, sexuality, and drug content
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Kevin Smith
PRODUCER: Scott Mosier
CINEMATOGRAPHER: David Klein (D.o.P.)
EDITORS: Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier
COMPOSER: David Pirner
Golden Globe nominee
COMEDY/ROMANCE/DRAMA
Starring: Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, Jason Lee, Dwight Ewell, and Jason Mewes
The subject of this movie review is Chasing Amy, a 1997 romantic comedy and drama from writer-director Kevin Smith. It is the third movie in Smith’s world of films known as the “View Askewniverse.” The film follows two young men who are comic book artists and a third comic book artist, a young woman, who catches the attention of one of the young men.
Writer/director Kevin Smith wowed audiences with his debut film, Clerks, and promptly stumbled with the problematic follow up, Mallrats. The promise of the first film was more than met with Smith’s third film, the frankly sexually political Chasing Amy.
Comic book artist Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck) has been looking for the perfect woman and falls for Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams, who received a 1998 Golden Globe nomination for “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical”), who, much to his disappointment, turns out to be a lesbian. Still, Holden and Alyssa build a special relationship, but it threatens to come tumbling down when Holden’s long-time friend and comic book collaborator, Banky Edwards (Jason Lee, 1998 Independent Spirit Award “Best Supporting Male”), digs up some awful dirt on Alyssa.
It would be easy to call Chasing Amy (Independent Spirit Award for “Best Feature”) outrageous because of its subject matter, and though some of the humor is outrageously funny, the film takes a painfully intimate and detailed look at sexual politics. Same sex relationships, sexual experimentation, promiscuity, gender roles, stereotypes, role playing, bigotry, double-standards, and pretty much everything related to the world of intimate relationships Kevin Smith throws on the table in his delightfully written, delectable, engaging, and witty script. The acting is good, and Smith’s direction is unobtrusive, allowing the cast to gradually warm up to their roles and make the film their own. The cast is at ease with the material and understands it shocking well; they make this story work on the screen. However, in the end, the strength is in Smith’s thoughtful script (Independent Spirit Award for “Best Screenplay”), which unashamedly looks at the minefield that is love between a man and a woman in a time when so many go into new relationships with a lot of sexual experience and/or a lot of hang-ups about what is right and true. This is brilliant work.
8 of 10
A
NOTES:
1998 Golden Globes, USA: 1 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical” (Joey Lauren Adams)
Thursday, July 7, 2005
Updated: Friday, August 02, 2013
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