Back Seat Producers

#1 Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters from Paramount opened at #1 with a gross of $19.7 million in 3,372 theaters.  Budget was $50 million.

#2 Mama from Universal fell from #1 to #2 with a gross of $13.1 million (-53.9%) in 2,682 theaters (+35).  Total gross to date is $48.9 million.  Budget was $15 million.

#3 Zero Dark Thirty from Sony/Columbia fell from #2 to #3 with a gross of $9.7 million (-38.6%) in 2,929 theaters (-17).  Total gross to date is $69.8 million.  Budget was $40 million.

#4 Silver Linings Playbook from Weinstein Company fell from #3 to #4 with a gross of $9.4 million (-12.2%) in 2,641 theaters (+118).  Total gross to date is $68.9 million.  Budget was $21 million.

#5 Parker from FilmDistrict opened at #5 with a gross of $7 million in 2,224 theaters.  Budget was unknown.

#6 Django Unchained from Weinstein Company rose from #7 to #6 with a gross of $4.9 million (-36.2%) in 2,007 theaters (-509).  Total gross to date is $146.2 million.  Budget was $100 million.

#7 Movie 43 from Relativity opened at #7 with a gross of $4.8 million in 2,023 theaters.  Budget was $6 million.

#8 Gangster Squad from Warner Bros. fell from #4 to #8 with a gross of $4.3 million (-50.5%) in 2,590 theaters (-513).  Total gross to date is $39.7 million.  Budget was $60 million.

#9 Les Miserables from Universal fell from #8 to #9 with a gross of $4.2 million (-43.7%) in 2,201 theaters (-378).  Total gross to date is $137.5 million.  Budget was $61 million.

#10 Broken City from Open Road Films fell from #5 to #10 with a gross of $4 million (-51.4%) in 2,622 theaters (+2).  Total gross to date is $15.3 million.  Budget was $35 million.

#11 Lincoln from Buena Vista held at #11 with a gross of $3.9 million (-29.4%) in 1,909 theaters (-265).  Total gross to date is $167.1 million.  Budget was $65 million.

#12 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey from Warner Bros. fell from #10 to #12 with a gross of $3.4 million (-45.2%) in 1,675 theaters (-648).  Total gross to date is $293.3 million.  Budget was unknown.

The combined gross of the top 12 movies this weekend was $88.5 million.

Sources:
Box Office Mojo

Young Hansel and Gretel have been seemingly abandoned by their parents in the forest. The two children are cold and starving. They walk together through the forest and come upon a house made entirely of candy. They think they’ve found salvation, but once entering the house, they’re horrified to find that it belongs to an old witch who certainly has her own fiendish plans for the siblings. As the witch is enacting her plan, Hansel and Gretel find an opportunity to kill the witch and escape the house, never to see their parents again.

From there, both then dedicate their lives to stamping out the threats posed by witches. Years later, the duo have made quite the name for themselves and have now come to a small village that’s facing a series of child disappearances, believed to be at the hand of some sort of witch threat.

That’s the premise to Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters and while one could look at this as sort of jumping on the same bandwagon started by movies like Red Riding Hood and Snow White and the Huntsman that’s not the case at all. Those movies (neither of which I’ve seen, so don’t take this for fact) both seemed to me to be taking the classic fairy tales and wanting to update, darken them up and make them far more serious for the Young Adult audience, and more specifically the Twilight fans. That’s not the case with Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters at all, and the movie goes in a direction that’s more reminiscent of what you might get if you crossed the movie Van Helsing with the films of John Carpenter. Hansel & Gretel doesn’t take itself too seriously at all, and that’s very much to it’s credit. What you have is a pulpy, comic-book treatment here that’s having a lot of fun with what it’s doing.

Credit for this goes to writer and director Tommy Wirkola, who prior to Hansel & Gretel directed Dead Snow a rollicking film that told the story of a vacationing group of medical students being hunted down by a large group of Nazi zombies (it’s a fun little film and I believe still available on Netflix Instant Play). That same sensibility is right here on hand for Hansel & Gretel which doesn’t shy away from bloody violence, but has it tempered by firmly having it’s tongue in cheek. It’s all handled at a brisk pace with a run time of under 90 minutes. It’s not the highest of budgeted films around, but it still has a great look and some pretty darn good action sequences that are certainly made more effective viewing it in 3D (which I did).

Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton play the title characters, and they do have great chemistry together. Both have their own individual stories as well as coming together for the task at hand and discovering what really happened when they were children. Both look like they’re having a lot of fun with this, and it’s really evident with Arterton, who not only looks terrific, but just genuinely looks like she’s loving being a bad-ass action star. Famke Janssen plays Muriel, the villainous witch of the film, and again, she looks fantastic and certainly appears to enjoy chewing the scenery here. Further support is provided by Pihla Viitala as Mina, a good witch, Derek Mears and Robin Atkin Downes playing Edward, a troll who is smitten with Gretel (Mears is the physical actor and Downes provides the voice), Thomas Mann as Ben, a young fan of the witch-hunting duo, and Peter Stormare, who plays the sheriff of the village and resents Hansel and Gretel even being there. All are doing good work here, though keep in mind, they all certainly know what kind of film they’re making as well. Awards won’t be won for this work, but it’s all in service to the vision of the film.

I had a ball with Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters and I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing Wirkola, Renner and Arterton come back to this later, though I’m not exactly holding my breath. If you enjoyed films like Stephen Sommers’ Van Helsing from a few years ago or more recently, last year’s Abraham Lincoln; Vampire Hunter, well, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is right in the same vein. Definitely see it if you like you action/fantasy/horror that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

#1 Mama from Universal opened at #1 with a gross of $28.4 million in 2,647 theaters.  Budget was $15 million.

#2 Zero Dark Thirty from Sony/Columbia fell from #1 to #2 with a gross of $15.8 million (-35.4%) in 2,946 theaters (+9).  Total gross to date is $54.1 million.  Budget was $40 million.

#3 Silver Linings Playbook from Weinstein Company rose from #10 to #3 with a gross of $10.8 million (+114.3%) in 2.523 theaters (+1,713).  Total gross to date is $54.7 million.  Budget was $21 million.

#4 Gangster Squad from Warner Bros. fell from #3 to #4 with a gross of $8.6 million (-49.4%) in 3,103 theaters.  Total gross to date is $31.8 million.  Budget was $60 million.

#5 Broken City from Open Road Films opened at #5 with a gross of $8.3 million in 2,620 theaters.  Budget was $35 million.

#6 A Haunted House from Open Road Films fell from #2 to #6 with a gross of $8.2 million (-54.9%) in 2,160 theaters.  Total gross to date is $29.8 million.  Budget was $2.5 million.

#7 Django Unchained from Weinstein Company fell from #4 to #7 with a gross of $7.8 million (-29.8%) in 2,516 theaters (-496).  Total gross to date is $137.9 million.  Budget was $100 million.

#8 Les Miserables from Universal fell from #5 to #8 with a gross of $7.5 million (-22.3%) in 2,579 theaters (-348).  Total gross to date is $130.1 million.  Budget was $61 million.

#9 The Last Stand from Lionsgate opened at #9 with a gross of $6.3 million in 2,913 theaters.  Budget was unknown.

#10 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey from Warner Bros. fell from #6 to #10 with a gross of $6.2 million (-32.6%) in 2,323 theaters (-689).  Total gross to date is $287.2 million.  Budget was unknown.

#11 Lincoln from Buena Vista fell from #7 to #11 with a gross of $5.5 million (-13.6%) in 2,174 theaters (+147).  Total gross to date is $160.6 million.  Budget was $65 million.

#12 Parental Guidance from 20^th Century Fox fell from #8 to #12 with a gross of $4.3 million (-30.2%) in 2,337 theaters (-620).  Total gross to date is $66.3 million.  Budget was $25 million.

The combined gross of the top 12 movies this weekend was $117.5 million.

Sources:
Box Office Mojo

Ray Owens, a former LAPD officer, is now the Sheriff of the sleepy border town of Sommerton Junction, Arizona. He’s content with his life there, it’s quiet and even with his inexperienced staff, the peace is kept. Unbeknownst to Ray, Gabriel Cortez, a notorious Mexican drug cartel kingpin has just escaped captivity by the FBI. Cortez now speeds across the land in souped-up Corvette to jump the border to Mexico, crossing across a bridge that has been built past Sommerton Junction. Now Ray, his staff and a couple of other volunteers are the only thing that stands in their way.

That’s the premise to The Last Stand and with the exception of his co-starring appearances in The Expendables movies, marks Arnold Schwarzenegger’s return to leading in a big-ass action film after 10 years away. This is also the latest movie form Korean director Jee-woon Kim, who’s known for such films as The Good, the Bad, the Weird and I saw the Devil neither of which I’ve seen, but I certainly hear good stuff about them. I’m certainly a fan of Schwarzenegger’s and was very much looking forward to seeing this, and it is indeed a lot of fun, but don’t think too much about it.

What Jee-woon Kim has crafted here, at least to me anyway, reminds me a little bit of the movie Shoot ‘Em Up with Clive Owen, Monica Bellucci and Paul Giamatti and was this sort of mash-up of big over-the-top action film with Warner Brothers Looney Tunes cartoons. Now I know that might sound a little insulting, and it’s not meant that way. But when you see a side scene of an old woman sitting in her shop quietly as all hell is breaking loose outside, and a mysterious gunman breaks in and then the same old woman pulls out a big gun and blasts him through her window… well I don’t know how you can think of this any other way.

Now I’ll take that even further, with so much of an international sort of cast here and their, let’s say “colorful” use of the English language and with Jackass front man Johnny Knoxville in a supporting role, I could almost hear Mel Blanc doing voice work for this if it was a cartoon (or the very least Ralph Garman doing his best Schwarzenegger impression- and you should all listen to Garman on the Hollywood Babble On podcast and watch Spike TV’s newest iteration of the excellent The Joe Schmo Show – sorry for the digression). None of this is meant to be taken seriously at all, just sit back, enjoy the ride and wallow in it’s big over-the-top style.

And speaking of style, Jee-woon Kim certainly has plenty of it- the film looks fantastic and the action scenes are extremely well done and very easy to follow. Kim knows when to pull his camera back and give you a big picture as well getting right up into the action and making you “feel” it.

It is good to see Schwarzenegger back leading a film. Yeah, he’s certainly gotten older and a little smaller, but he still knows how to command a scene and with this movie anyway, he’s also plenty generous to his ensemble of support. Jaime Alexander, Luis Guzmán and Zach Gilford all play the sheriff’s deputies and they all get their moments to shine. Rodrigo Santoro plays a former boyfriend of Alexander’s who joins up with the sheriff, and he certainly gets a few good action moments. I mentioned Johnny Knoxville above, and Knoxville plays a gun “entrepreneur” and certainly provides even more comic relief to the film. Further with Knoxville, he genuinely looks like he’s having the time of his life with this as well.

Also in the cast, Forest Whitaker plays the FBI agent who’s handling the Cortez situation, and he certainly helps to ground things, though just for a bit. Eduardo Noriega plays Cortez and like Knoxville, looks like he’s just eating this part up. Peter Stormare plays Cortez’s right-hand man in Sommerton Junction, and certainly adds the right amount of smarminess and odd sort of threat to the part. And even veteran character actor Harry Dean Stanton gets in on things as the farmer who owns the land Cortez’s crew is looking to use (and as a side note, I saw Broken City this past weekend as well- Griffin Dunne is in the film and I almost thought he was a younger version of Harry Dean Stanton at first sight- sorry, digressed again for just a moment).

The Last Stand is a terrific little comeback piece for Arnold Schwarzenegger as well as being a nice little show piece for Jee-won Kim’s visual skills. It’s a big-ass 80s-esque action cartoon that’s hard not to like as long as you’re not going in and expecting this thing to be as grim and dark as possible. Schwarzenegger does show his age, but he’s also solid enough to know that and play with it as well. The Last Stand probably won’t end up on any “Best of 2013” movie lists, but it certainly is a fun diversion and just looks fantastic on the big screen.