A clutch of new movies open this weekend.
"Last Sunday" -- a Queen Latifah vehicle with some polite reviews. At most, people found it mildly diverting, but Latifah is always an amiable presence.
"Glory Road" -- Box Office Prophets says this will do the best at the box office An "inspirational" story about the integration of a college basketball team, naturally, our attention is on the white coach who made it happen. This might be the film to make Josh Lucas a star and help us all tell the difference between him and Matthew McConaughey.
"Tristan & Isolde" -- a dead-on arrival period romance starring James Franco of "Freaks & Geeks." Most reviews have been dismissive.
"Hoodwinked" -- roundly ignored, with everyone predicting an extremely modest $6 or $7 million opening. I'm not so sure. I wrote about this film for the New York Post -- it's the first "indie" CGI animated film, costing a remarkably low $15 million to make. I've seen the trailer with audiences several times and it always gets huge laughs. Besides, it's the first family film offering since "Narnia" and parents who saw the trailer will assume (rightly) that it won't bore them to tears. The movie will fade fast, I think, but if it opens at $10 million or above, I'll be vindicated.
So no new movies to recommend. The big news is "Brokeback Mountain," which goes even wider and hits 683 screens -- many of them in suburbs and small towns. Variety reports the movie is now in virtually every major market, with bigger cities like Pittsburgh, Tucson and Little Rock finally getting a peek today. But most of the new screens are in areas where critics said "Brokeback" would never play -- towns like Chattanooga, TN, and Charleston, SC.
Until the Oscar nominations are announced on Jan 31 and the movie goes even wider on Feb 3, this is its biggest test to date. I would love to get a market by market breakdown of how it's doing, but studios cling tight to that info. If you're in a smaller town or market where "Brokeback" is just opening, let us know how it's doing.
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3 comments:
PORTLAND, ME -- Saturday Jan 07; (the day after it opened here on one screen), my bud and I tried to go to the matinee, but the line snaked around the outside of the building!
We later bought advance tickets for the 6:45pm show and were told to arrive 40 mins early if we wanted to sit together! Regarding the movie, something that made an impression on me was the contrast of the beautiful, wild, open spaces and the palpably claustrophobic situation the characters find themselves in.
Dowser, great to hear it's doing well in Portland. You're definitely right about the contrast between nature and outdoors and open spaces and happiness versus their cramped living quarters back in the world.
Oh and thanks for stopping by.
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