Author: Edward

#1 Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail from Lionsgate debuts at #1 this weekend earning $41 million in 2032 theaters. Budget for Madea is unknown.

#2 Coraline from Focus rises to #2 this weekend earning $11.4 million, bringing total earnings to $55.7 million. Coraline showed in 2155 theaters. Budget for Coraline is unknown.

#3 Taken from Fox holds at #3 this weekend earning $11.2 million, bringing earnings for Taken to $95 million, in 3102 theaters. Budget for Taken is unknown.

#4 He’s Just Not That Into You from Warner Bros. drops to #4 this weekend earning $8.5 million in 3050 theaters. Budget for Not That Into You is unknown.

#5 Slumdog Millionaire from Searchlight. climbs back into the top five this weekend earning $8.3 million. bring total earnings to $98 million. Slumdog showed in 2244 theaters, thats 610 more screens than last week. Budget for Slumdog was $15 million.

Rounding out the top 10 are:

#6 Friday the 13th Weekend Gross: $7,942,472, down 80% / Theaters: 3105 / Gross $55,119,663 / Budget: $19 million

#7 Paul Blart: Mall Cop Weekend Gross: $6,821,377, down 37% / Theaters: 2835, down 130 / Gross $121,200,930 / Budget: $26 million

#8 Confessions of a Shopaholic Weekend Gross: $6,742,778, down 55% / Theaters: 2507 / Gross $27,378,049 / Budget: unknown

#9 Fired Up Weekend Gross: $5,483,778 / Theaters: 1810 / Gross $5,483,778 / Budget: $20 million

#10 The International Weekend Gross: $4,463,916, down 52% / Theaters: 2364 / Gross $17,031,200 / Budget: $50 million

A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.

Sources:

Box Office Mojo

Adam Green’s Frozen has attracted its three leading actors. According to THR, Kevin Zegers ( Dawn of the Dead ), Shawn Ashmore ( The Ruins ) and Emma Bell will star as college students stranded on a chairlift on a New England ski slope that has closed. The trio are forced to make life and death decisions or risk freezing to death. Green will direct from a script he penned. Shooting begins next week in Utah. Peter Block and Cory Neal of GreeneStreet Films/A Bigger Boat are producing.

Adam Sandler and his former Saturday Night Live cohorts Chris Rock, David Spade and Rob Schneider, along with Kevin James, are planning to join forces for an all-star comedy flick due out Independence Day 2010. The film, cowritten by Sandler, follows five high school friends who reunite after 30 years for a July 4 holiday weekend, per Variety. Dennis Dugan (You Don’t Mess With the Zohan) will direct, with cameras slated to roll this summer.

According to THR Pierce Brosnan’s firm is developing a story about famed Hungarian photojournalist Robert Capa, attaching Paul McGuigan to direct. Born Andre Friedmann in early-20th century Budapest, Capa memorialized many conflicts, including the Spanish Civil War and World War II. The colorful journalist also helped found Magnum Photos and traveled in glamorous circles that included a friendship with John Steinbeck and an affair with Ingrid Bergman.

Oscar nominee Josh Brolin joins Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins in the ensemble cast for Woody Allen’s next picture, which the Vicky Cristina Barcelona auteur wrote and will direct this summer in London. No word on the plot or title.

Negotiators from the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers and SAG met until 7 p.m. Tuesday at the AMPTP’s offices in Sherman Oaks. It was the first negotiating session since November; the parties were scheduled to resume their talks at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

Dark Knight star Aaron Eckhart and Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins (The Visitor) are in negotiations to star alongside Johnny Depp and Amber Heard in Rum Diary, the big-screen adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s novel.

Planet Terror writer-director Robert Rodriguez is going to commence work on his latest film Nerverackers for Dimension Films. according to ShockTillYouDrop.com. Variety is calling it a sci-fi thriller. According to the trade paper, the story is set in 2085 and focuses on a character named Joe Tezca who is part of an elite unit dispatched to quell a crime wave in a theoretically perfect future society. Dimension will release the film on April 16, 2010.

Tom Cruise and Denzel Washington will join together for an action-packed adaptation of The Matarese Circle, a spy-vs.-spy thriller based on the novel by Robert Ludlum Bourne Identity. According to both the Hollywood Reporter and Variety, Cruise is in final negotiations to join Washington in the would-be blockbuster, which David Cronenberg will direct.

Geoffrey Gilmore is leaving his post as director of the Sundance Film Festival to take the job of chief creative officer of Tribeca Enterprises. The move leaves a void at the top of the fest he intimately shaped while also providing a jolt to one that’s still trying hard to find its niche.

According to Variety, John Malkovich will do a villainous turn in the big-screen version of DC Comics’ Jonah Hex. The flick stars Josh Brolin as a former Confederaete soldier-turned-bounty hunter who faces off against Quentin Turnbull (Malkovich), a wealthy Southern plantation owner out for revenge after his son is killed during the Civil War.

Casey Affleck is directing a documentary feature on Joaquin Phoenix, his friend and fellow actor who last spring decided to swap the acting business for music. Phoenix is embarking on a new path as a rapper, with an album to be produced by Sean Combs. He is scheduled to make his first public performance Friday at a Las Vegas club, which will officially kick off Affleck’s shoot. Affleck, repped by Endeavor and Brillstein Entertainment Partners, is known for his work in front of the camera with such movies as Gone Baby Gone and the Ocean’s Eleven series. He directed a series of shorts for Sundance Channel in the late 1990s.

Ashton Kutcher is looking to tackle the football comedy Traded for Paramount Pictures. The actor would play a superstar NFL quarterback who magically swaps bodies with a 12-year-old middle school geek.

Sources:
THR
IMDB
Variety
E!
Shocktillyoudrop.com

#1 Friday the 13th from Warner Bros. debuts at #1 this weekend earning $42.2 million in 3105 theaters. Budget for Friday the 13th was $19 million.

#2 He’s Just Not That Into You from Warner Bros. drops to #2 this weekend earning $19.6 million in 3175 theaters. Budget for Not That Into You is unknown.

#3 Taken from Fox drops to #3 this weekend earning $19.2 million in 3109 theaters. Budget for Taken is unknown.

#4 Confessions of a Shopaholic from Buena Vista debuts at #4 this weekend earning $15.4 million in 2507 theaters. Budget for Shopaholic is unknown.

#5 Coraline from Focus drops to #5 this weekend earning $15.3 million in 2320 theaters. Budget for Coraline is unknown.

Rounding out the top 10 are:

#6 Paul Blart: Mall Cop Weekend Gross: $11,700,000, up 7% / Theaters: 2965, down 204 / Gross $110,515,000 / Budget: $26 million

#7 The International Weekend Gross: $10,000,000 / Theaters: 2364 / Gross $10,000,000 / Budget: $50 million

#8 The Pink Panther 2 Weekend Gross: $9,000,000, down 22% / Theaters: 3245, up 2 / Gross $22,321,000 / Budget: unknown

#9 Slumdog Millionaire Weekend Gross: $7,150,000, down 0.4% / Theaters: 1634, down 90 / Gross $86,546,000 / Budget: $15 million

#10 Push Weekend Gross: $6,931,000, down 31% / Theaters: 2313 / Gross $19,325,000 / Budget: $38 million

A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.

Sources:

Box Office Mojo

According to E! casting agents for New Moon, the second film in Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series, recently held an open call in Vancouver and where so overwhelmed at the response that they closed the doors at noon. The line began forming at 5 a.m. and soon stretched for blocks with fans coming from as far away as Florida just for the one day call. The walk ons will join the likes of Dakota Fanning, AnnaLynne McCord, Lucy Hale and Vanessa Hudgens in the competition for roles in New Moon, due out in November.

Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures has acquired the remake rights to two horrors, Anguish and Room 205, to be renamed The Dorm. Anguish is a remake of Bigas Luna’s 1987 film of the same name, wherein a film-within-a-film tells the story of a mother-fixated optician’s assistant who loses his job and goes on a killing spree. But the real plot concerns the patrons of a small cinema who are watching the film when a killer starts to murder them in ways that mirror the film’s plot. In the remake, the protagonists are two girls who find real life mirroring the horror film they’re watching. The Dorm is a remake of Danish film Room 205, wherein a student finds her college room haunted and some of her neighbours dying off in suspicious circumstances.

Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman are uniting for The Baster, a romantic comedy from Blades of Glory codirectors Will Speck and Josh Gordon. Per Variety, when Aniston’s character decides to get preggers via artificial insemination, her best friend Bateman swaps the donor’s sample with some of his own, unbeknownst to Aniston. Shooting is set for this spring in New York.

Sam Rockwell has signed on to star alongside Hilary Swank in Betty Anne Waters. Minnie Driver has also bagged a role in the legal drama. Based on a true story, Rockwell will play Kenneth Waters, the brother of the heroine. When he was convicted of a murder-robbery in 1983, Betty Anne (Swank), an unemployed single mother, spent the next two decades slowly earning a law degree and fighting tirelessly to overturn the conviction. Rumour had it that John C. Reilly had been set to play Kenneth initially, but the charismatic Rockwell seems to be a fine choice for the role. The movie will be directed by Tony Goldwyn.

Camilla Belle is taking the title role in Mary, Mother of Christ, which, per the Hollywood Reporter, will follow the young life and love of the virgin mother. The film, hoping to play to the same audience that flocked to The Passion of the Christ, also stars Peter O’Toole and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who takes on the dual role of Gabriel the archangel and Lucifer. Producers are also seeking to cast Al Pacino and Jessica Lange in the film, which is due for release on Good Friday, April 2, 2010.

Zachary Levi, the star of the hit TV show, Chuck, has bagged his first big movie by signing on to star in Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakuel. Levi will play the cousin of Jason Lee’s returning Dave Seville in the sequel, which will be directed by Betty Thomas. There’s no word, though, on how big Levi’s part will be much depends on whether Lee is merely making a cameo, or if he’s coming back in the lead role.

Disney star Gomez is set to try her hand as the older sister Ramona Quimby. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Gomez will play Ramona’s titular big sis in Beezus and Ramona, based on the Beverly Cleary book series. Ramona will be played by Joey King in the film, scheduled for release on March 19, 2010.

Robert Downey Jr. has denied to MTV that fellow Oscar nominee Mickey Rourke is set to play his nemesis in the upcoming Iron Man sequel. Downey Jr. played the lead role of tycoon-turned-superhero Tony Stark in the 2008 comic book movie and is set to to return for a follow-up. Rumours about actors set to join the cast of Iron Man 2 have been swirling for months, with stars including Emily Blunt, Tim Robbins and Sam Rockwell all linked to the project.

According to Production Weekly, principal photography on Alexandre Rockwell’s Pete Small is Dead is to kick off in March. Amongst the cast are Steve Buscemi, Sam Rockwell and Peter Dinklage, who have worked together on Peter Judson’s Nobody Wants Your Film a documentary about how an independent film gets knocked back every step of the way.

Filmmaker Neil Labute has grabbed a two-film deal with Sony’s Screen Gems arm, with his first project planned as a remake of Death At A Funeral, including Chris Rock as the star. The original Death, which Frank Oz directed in 2007 featured the likes of Alan Tudyk, Matthew MacFadyen and Peter Dinklage in a tale of family secrets and comic misunderstandings.

Sources:
E!
Vancouver Sun
EmpireOnline
Variety
THR
MTV.com
Production Weekly
/Film
TotalFilm News

#1 He’s Just Not That Into You from Warner Bros. debuts at #1 this weekend earning $27.4 million in 3175 theaters. Budget for Not That Into You is unknown.

#2 Taken from Fox drops to #2 this weekend earning $20.3 million in 3184 theaters. Budget for Taken is unknown.

#3 Coraline from Focus debuts at #3 this weekend earning $16.3 million in 2299 theaters. Budget for Coraline is unknown.

#4 The Pink Panther 2 from Sony debuts at #4 this weekend earning $12 million in 3243 theaters. Budget for Panther is unknown.

#5 Paul Blart: Mall Cop drops to #5 this weekend. Cop earned $11 million in 3206 theaters this weekend for a total of $97 million. Budget for Cop was $26 million.

Rounding out the top 10 are:

#6 Push Weekend Gross: $10,204,000 / Theaters: 2313 / Gross $10,204,000 / Budget: $38 million

#7 Gran Torino Weekend Gross: $7,420,000, down 9% / Theaters: 2705, down 310 / Gross $120,280,000 / Budget: $33 million

#8 Slumdog Millionaire Weekend Gross: $7,400,000, down 3% / Theaters: 1724, up 91 / Gross $77,426,000 / Budget: $15 million

#9 The Uninvited Weekend Gross: $6,400,000, down 6538 / Theaters: 2344 / Gross $18,379,000 / Budget: unknown

#10 Hotel for Dogs Weekend Gross: $5,820,000, down 32% / Theaters: 2734, down 426 / Gross $55,234,000 / Budget: unknown

A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.

Sources:

Box Office Mojo

According to Fox News Joaquin Phoenix says there’s no hoax about it: He really has given up acting to become a hip-hop musician. Phoenix has been spending his time laying down tracks for a rap album in the recording studio he built at his home, the two-time Academy Award nominee said Tuesday in an interview to promote what he claims is his final movie, Two Lovers. After video hit the Internet last month capturing part of Phoenix’s debut rap performance at a Las Vegas club, speculation swirled that he was perpetrating an elaborate practical joke. “I don’t know where that comes from,” Phoenix said. “If it comes from people that I’ve had a falling out with, that are (ticked) off at me?” “There’s not a hoax,” Phoenix said. “Might I be ridiculous? Might my career in music be laughable? Yeah, that’s possible, but that’s certainly not my intention.”

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the third film in the Tomb Raider series will completely reboot the video game-based character, including changing her origin story (most likely shying away from her English aristocracy roots) and introduce new kinds of missions, love interests and villains. And, most notably, a new leading lady as Angelina Jolie will not be returning.

Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire) will be playing Zuko in writer/director M. Night Shyamalan’s live-action feature film The Last Airbender, based on Nickelodeon’s Avatar anime, according to Variety. Patel takes on the role of the Fire Nation’s evil Zuko, which was originally to be played by Jesse McCartney until “schedule conflicts arose”. Exiled from the Fire Nation by his father, Zuko is sent to capture the Avatar in order to restore his honor and right to the throne. The Last Airbender will still be released July 2, 2010.

Warner Bros has finally selected a director for the live-action He-Man movie Masters of the Universe. After announcing the project in May 2007, John Stevenson (Kung Fu Panda) has been hired to helm the adaptation of Mattel’s popular toys and 80s cartoon. In fact, it took so long for Warners to make a move on this project that sources inside the studio said the concept was dead and gone. But He-Man cannot be stopped. Joel Silver (The Matrix) is producing based on a script by Justin Marks that buries He-Man in a gritty fantasy world similar to the Lord of the Rings. When a LatinoReview writer did a script review last year, he gave it an A+ and said it was one of the best screenplays he had ever read.

Daniel Day-Lewis and Benicio Del Toro are in talks to star in Martin Scorsese’s Silence, a drama about the violent persecution of 17th century Jesuit missionaries in Japan. Per Variety, Gael Garcia Bernal is also eyeing a role in Silence. The film marks the third collaboration between Scorsese and Day-Lewis. The duo previously worked together on The Age of Innocence and Gangs of New York.

EmpireOnline says Al Pacino’s got another Shakespearean adaptation lined up, following The Merchant of Venice and Looking for Richard, he will be headlining King Lear. Pacino has been offered the chance to play Lear before, but hasn’t felt ready until now. The story, follows the titular King as he resolves to split his domains between his three daughters, determining the split according to how much they love him. But when the two elder flatter him outrageously and the youngest (his favourite) refuses to play the game, he disinherits her and ends up miserable himself. Michael Radford, of Il Postino and The Merchant of Venice is set to direct, with shooting due to start later this year.

Gary Marshall is set to direct New Line Cinema’s comedy Valentine’s Day, about 10 Los Angeles people whose lives intersect on Feb. 14. Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein rewrote a draft by Katherine Fugate. Marshall also directed Georgia Rule, The Princess Diaries and Runaway Bride.

Ken Nolan will rewrite Paramount’s untitled moon project starring Jake Gyllenhaal. Doug Liman and John Hamburg penned the original script. The Hollywood Reporter describes the project as an “action film about lunar colonization.” Liman (The Bourne Identity) is also on board to direct.

Kung Fu Panda shut out its competition in every major feature film category at the 36th annual Annie Awards celebrating 2008’s best animated movies. The DreamWorks Animation pic bested critic favorite Wall-e and other nominee Bolt for “Best Feature.” The surprise win is the first time DreamWorks has beaten a Pixar film for the top prize since 2001’s Shrek over Pixar’s Monster’s Inc. Panda took home fifteen statues Friday night and tied for the most wins ever. The Annie Award has matched the “Best Animated Feature” category at the Academy Awards every single year but one.

Newsinfilm.com says Emily Blunt and Jason Segel are in negotiations to join lead actor Jack Black in Fox’s “contemporary reimagining” of Gulliver’s Travels. Rob Letterman (Shark Tale) has already signed to direct a script from Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and Joe Stillman (Shrek). The adapted story is about Lemuel Gulliver (Black), a travel writer who takes an assignment to the Bermuda Triangle and washes up on the island of Lilliput, where he’s a giant among the tiny population. Blunt will play a Lilliputian princess and Black’s love interest. Segel will play Horatio, Gulliver’s best friend from Lilliput who helps rescue Gulliver when he’s captured.

Sources:
Fox News
IMDB
Variety
The Hollywood Reporter
EmpireOnline
Newsinfilm.com

#1 Taken from Fox debuts at #1 this weekend earning $24.6 million in 3183 theaters. Budget for Taken is unknown.

#2 Paul Blart: Mall Cop drops to #2. Cop earned $14 million in 3206 theaters this weekend for a total of $83.3 million. Budget for Cop was $26 million.

#3 Uninvited from Dreamworks debuts at #3 this weekend earning $10.5 million in 2344 theaters. Budget for Uninvited is unknown.

#4 Hotel for Dogs from Dreamworks holds at #4 bringing $8.7 million in 3160 theaters for a total of $48.2 million. Budget is unknown.

#5 Grand Torino from Warner Bros. drops to #5 Torino earned $8.6 million, thats down 47%, for a total of $110.5 million. Torino showed in 3015 theaters, thats down 30 over last. Budget for Torino was $33 million.

#2 Underworld: Rise of the Lycans from Screen Gems debuts at #2 this weekend earning $20.7 million in 2942 theaters. Budget for Lycans was $35 million.

Rounding out the top 10 are:

#6 Slumdog Millionaire Weekend Gross: $7,680,000, down 28% / Theaters: 1633, up 222 / Gross $67,244,000 / Budget: $15 million

#7 Underworld: Rise of the Lycans Weekend Gross: $7,200,000, down 65% / Theaters: 2942 / Gross $32,784,000 / Budget: $35 million

#8 New in Town Weekend Gross: $6,750,000 / Theaters: 1941 / Gross $6,750,000 / Budget: unknown

#9 My Bloody Valentine 3-D Weekend Gross: $4,260,000, down 57% / Theaters: 1406, down 1128 / Gross $44,608,000 / Budget: unknown

#10 Inkheart Weekend Gross: $3,700,000, down 51% / Theaters: 2,655 / Gross $12,792,000 / Budget: $60 million

A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.

Sources:

Box Office Mojo

Brendan Frasier has been signed to star opposite Harrison Ford in an as yet untitled true-story based drama from Double Feature Films. Frasier plays biotech executive John Crowley whose two children were diagnosed with a fatal neuromuscular disorder, Ford plays the oddball scientific genius whom Fraser turns to for the pioneering treatments his kids need to survive.

Following weeks of infighting over his handling of contract negotiations, Doug Allen has resigned as national executive director and lead negotiator for the Screen Actors Guild. Allen announced that he is stepping down Monday afternoon in an email to SAG staff in which he thanked them, Variety reports. TVGuide.com’s calls to SAG reps in New York and Los Angeles were not immediately returned. David White, former SAG general counsel, is stepping in for Allen as the interim national director, while SAG senior adviser John T. Maguire will take over as chief negotiator. There are also reportedly plans to replace the entire prime time and feature negotiating committee.

The Devil Wears Prada actor Emily Blunt is in the running for a femme-fatale role in Iron Man 2, according to Variety. The British actress would play Natasha Romanoff, a Russian spy who doubles as the technologically enhanced Black Widow.

EmpireOnline reports that Neil Gaiman and Neil Jordan are teaming up on The Graveyard Book, Jordan directing Gaiman’s latest Newberry Medal winning book.

Keanu Reeves has signed on to 20th Century Fox’s big-screen adaptation of the acclaimed Japanese anime series Cowboy Bebop. Set in 2071, 50 years after a massive lunar explosion decimated Earth’s population and necessitated the colonization of the entire solar system, Bebop tells the story of an elite team of Old West-style bounty hunters, or cowboys, needed to keep the peace in the new frontiers of space. Per the Hollywood Reporter, Reeves is attached to play Spike Siegel, a reformed criminal turned space cowboy and copilot of the Bebop, who, like a character from the actor’s past, is well-versed in kung fu and other combat skills, but is toting around quite a few personal demons.

A movie version of The A-Team is be back on track with Joe Carnahan directing and Tony and Ridley Scott producing. The film was last in development with John Singleton set to direct, and after he dropped out screenwriter Skip Woods wrote a draft of the script. The new film will keep the origin story we all know and love, only substituting the Gulf War for Vietnam.

Katie Holmes has signed on to star in a big-screen comedy kicking off in New York next month. According to Variety, Holmes will star alongside Kevin Kline, John C. Reilly and Paul Dano in The Extra Man, based on the novel by Jonathan Ames. The story centers on a failed playwright who begins supplementing his income by taking jobs as an escort for Upper East Side widows and who takes another aspiring playwright under his wing.

Since his Elite Squad won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and it hasn’t taken long for Hollywood to find a project for Jose Padilha’s particular talents. The Brazilian director has signed to direct the Robert Ludlum adaptation, The Sigma Protocol, for Universal, with shooting set to start in the summer. Based on Ludlum’s final completed novel, The Sigma Protocol has echoes of the Bourne franchise – it’s about a man on the run from a shadowy and hugely powerful organisation, for one thing. But the original Ludlum novel, first published posthumously in 2001, involved a Nazi conspiracy and a sinister castle high in the Alps, and all sorts of far-fetched derring-do. The movie version will instead take place in the here and now, transforming its hero, Ben Hartman, into a Wall Street hot-shot who specialises in the economy of ‘black swan events’ – events that are so large, rare and unforeseen that they dominate history (like World War I, or 9/11).

According to The Moving Picture News Strike Entertainment has acquired the rights to Shanna Swendson’s book Enchanted, Inc. and hired screenwriter Steven Rogers to pen the screenplay. The story centers on a small-town woman who comes to New York only to find out magic is commonplace in Gotham and has existed there for centuries. But because she is one of the rare creatures without the slightest bit of magic inside her, she can see through any spell. Rogers is known mostly for romantic comedies with his credits including Hope Floats, Stepmom, Kate & Leopold and P.S. I Love You. Universal-based Strike Entertainment’s recent credits include Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men and the horror film Slither. The company has a number of films in development, including The Dallas Buyers Club, which stars Ryan Gosling, and an adaptation of Robert Ludlum’s The Sigma Protocol. Enchanted Inc. was published in 2005.

Principal production on Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson’s The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn featuring the intrepid Belgian reporter-sleuth of the same name has kicked off in Los Angeles. The first of a planned pair of 3-D motion-capture films Tintin stars Billy Eliot actor Jamie Bell in the title role and Daniel Craig playing the nasty pirate Red Rackham, whose descendants have a beef with Tintin’s pal, Capt. Haddock. Also onboard Tintin, due in theaters in 2011, are Brits Andy Serkis as Capt. Haddock, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as the Thompson twins, and Toby Jones as an as-yet unknown villain.

Sources:
E!
TV Guide
EmpireOnline
Variety
The Moving Picture News

#1 Paul Blart: Mall Cop from Sony holds the #1 spot for a second weekend. Cop earned $21.5 million in 3144 theaters this weekend. Budget for Cop was $26 million.

#2 Underworld: Rise of the Lycans from Screen Gems debuts at #2 this weekend earning $20.7 million in 2942 theaters. Budget for Lycans was $35 million.

#3 Grand Torino from Warner Bros. drops to #3 Torino earned $16 million, thats down 27%, for a total of $97 million. Torino showed in 3045 theaters, thats up 73 over last. Budget for Torino was $33 million.

#4 Hotel for Dogs from Dreamworks climbs to #4 bringing $12.3 million in 3271 theaters. Budget is unknown.

#5 Slumdog Millionaire from Fox Searchlight climbs from #10 last week to #5 this week. Millionaire earned $10.5 million, thats up 80% over last, for a total of $55.9 million. Millionaire showed in 1411 theaters, thats up more than 800 over last. Budget for Millionaire was $15 million.

Rounding out the top 10 are:

#6 My Bloody Valentine 3-D Weekend Gross: $10,050,000, down 52% / Theaters: 2534, up 2 / Gross $37,725,000 / Budget: unknown

#7 Inkheart Weekend Gross: $7,725,000 / Theaters: 2,655 / Gross $7,725,000 / Budget: unknown

#8 Bride Wars Weekend Gross: $7,000,000, down 39% / Theaters: 2621, down 607 / Gross $48,702,000 / Budget: $30 million

#9 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Weekend Gross: $6,000,000, up 7% / Theaters: 2623, up 40 / Gross $111,044,000 / Budget: $150 million

#10 Notorious Weekend Gross: $5,700,000, down 72% / Theaters: 1641, up 3 / Gross $31,795,000 / Budget: $21 million

A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.

Sources:

Box Office Mojo

Korean Western The Good, the Bad, the Weird leads the list of nominations for this year’s Asian Film Awards. The film, about a chase for treasure through the wilderness of Manchuria, collected eight nominations, including best feature film, director and cinematography, as well as a two way nod for Jung Woo-sung and Lee Byung-hun in the supporting actor category.

Columbia Pictures won an auction last week for screen rights to Foundation, Isaac Asimov’s groundbreaking science fiction trilogy, Variety reported. The project will be developed as a directing vehicle for Roland Emmerich (2012). Emmerich and his Centropolis partner Michael Wimer will produce the film. Originally published as a series of eight short stories in Astounding Magazine beginning in 1942, Foundation is a complex saga about humans who are scattered on planets throughout the galaxy, living under the rule of the Galactic Empire.

The Walt Disney Co. won’t help produce and finance the next The Chronicles of Narnia movie being made by Denver entrepreneur Phil Anschutz’s Walden Media LLC movie company, Disney said Dec. 24. Disney blamed “budgetary and logistical reasons” for opting out of a third Narnia film, to be called The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The loss of Disney as Walden’s partner puts talent attached to the project “in doubt,” according to the movie-industry trade publication.

Variety reports the trust representing the late writer-director Colin Higgins has sued attorney Barry Hirsch for failing to properly represent his interests in the 9 to 5 stage musical. Colin Higgins Prods. filed suit on Jan. 14 against Hirsch and his law firm in L.A. County Superior Court, accusing Hirsch of legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty. The trust seeks damages to be determined in a jury trial. Among the many charges in the filing: Hirsch failed to adequately secure Higgins’ rights to a live stage show from Patricia Resnick, the original scribe for the movie, and failed to advise the trustee in 2006 that the firm was representing Resnick at the time she was writing the book for 9 to 5: The Musical. When the trustee asked how such a musical could be mounted without stage rights from Higgins Prods., Hirsch supposedly stated, “It may not be ethical, but it is legal.” According to the suit, Higgins, best known for penning Harold and Maude, inked his deal with Fox to rewrite Resnick’s 9 to 5 screenplay in 1979. Hirsch represented the writer-director and his shingle on various entertainment matters, including that contract.

The Film Department has acquired screen rights to Marcus Sakey crime novel Good People, with Tobey Maguire’s Maguire Entertainment and Film 360, the production division of Management 360, to produce the feature adaptation says Variety. As with all his producing projects, Maguire has first crack at the male lead role. Good People concerns a couple in debt from several rounds of futile fertility treatments who think their problems are solved when they stumble upon money found in their deceased tenant’s apartment.The Film Department’s Mark Gill and Robert Katz will produce with Maguire and Film 360’s Eric Kranzler and Ben Forkner. Neil Sacker and Michael Goguen will be executive producers. Maguire Entertainment has several projects percolating, including the Lawrence Kasdan-scripted sci-fi pic Robotech; the Ed Solomon-scripted Tokyo Suckerpunch, which Gary Ross will direct; and Crusaders, another collaboration with Ross, scripted by Danny Strong.

Deal making continued Tuesday at Sundance, led by Sony Pictures Classics’ nearly $3 million pickup of An Education, even as the fest took a dramatic pause during President Barack Obama’s inauguration. Fox Searchlight wrapped up a world rights purchase, pegged in the low seven figures, of competition romancer Adam. And Lionsgate nabbed U.S. and U.K. rights to Sam Rockwell comedy The Winning Season. While several fest regulars insisted that this year was shaping up to be business as usual, the day’s events attested to a more reflective mood due to Obama, the economy and the fest’s 25th anniversary, among other things. The weather has also been more consistently stunning than any vets can recall about 45 degrees and sunny every day, lending to an over-all optimistic mood.

The board of directors of Carmike Cinemas has removed Michael Patrick as chair-CEO of the country’s fourth largest theater circuit. Patrick has been chair since 1989. Carmike operates 254 theaters in 37 states, located primarily in suburban and rural areas. No reason was given for Patrick’s departure, although he will remain on the board. Carmike board member S. David Passman III has been named non-executive chair, and will work closely with COO Fred Van Noy and chief financial officer Richard Hare until a new CEO is named.

Warner Bros. will cut nearly 800 jobs — or 10% of its worldwide staff — as it’s the latest studio to reduce employment in the wake of the economic downturn. Studio toppers Barry Meyer and Alan Horn disclosed the cuts in a memo to employees Tuesday morning. “Based on the global economic situation and current business forecasts, the studio will have to make staff reductions in the coming weeks in order to control costs,” the execs said.

Arts Alliance Media will distribute feature doc Iron Maiden: Flight 666 worldwide on April 21 in association with the legendary British heavy-metal band, EMI music and Universal in the U.S. The doc focuses on Iron Maiden’s Somewhere Back in Time world tour last year, which saw the band fly to perform in 13 countries in a customized Boeing 757 airliner piloted by lead singer Bruce Dickinson. The trailer was released on YouTube on Tuesday and attracted more than 2,000 hits within an hour as word spread among fans.

Sources:
Variety
SciFi Wire
Orlando Business Journal
The Hollywood Reporter