In Contention

Tag: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel

  • SUNDAY CENTS: That ‘Avatar’ thing is doing well, eh?

    Avatar*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    Have you guys heard of this movie “Avatar?” Apparently, seeing as it’s the number one movie for the fourth week in a row and dropped a ridiculous 29% to $48.5 million. First off, it’s the biggest fourth weekend for a film ever, narrowly eclipsing the $45 million of “Titanic.” Its running total of $429 makes it the 24th biggest film of the last 30 years and it’s only been out for 24 days.

    Remember how big “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” was? Well, “Avatar” will pass it tomorrow on the all time chart. Remember how ludicrous the grosses for “The Passion of the Christ” were? That’ll get passed on Tuesday.

    There’s no overstating the size of this film’s performance, and it’s time to start talking about a $600 million+ finish domestically. Since I was born in 1982, there have only been five films that have made that kind of money: “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial,” “Titanic,” “Return of the Jedi,” “Jurassic Park” and “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.” Somewhere right now, James Cameron is shitting a gold brick.

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  • FRIDAY FORECAST: January blues

    Sam Worthington in Avatar*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    Barring a catastrophe, “Avatar” should spend a comfortable fourth weekend at the top and cross $400 million in the process. That would make 2009 the first year since 2004 to have two films cross that milestone. It would also make “Avatar” the second-fastest film to hit that mark, after “The Dark Knight.”

    It took “Titanic” 36 days to reach $400 million and it only had $265.1 million at this point in its epic run. Still, there’s no way in hell “Avatar” can repeat the four month run at the top that James Cameron’s last film managed, or it’s $943.3 million final gross.

    Competition, if you can call it that, comes from three new releases with the stench of January seeping off their posters and trailers. Lionsgate hops on the vampire gravy train with “Daybreakers” featuring a cast that should know better. “Hostel” and “Rambo” have done well for the studio in Januaries of the past but I don’t see much more than $14 million heading this way.

    Amy Adams is doing her typecast image no favors by appearing in “Leap Year,” with Matthew Goode taking second billing. I follow movies for a living and I barely know who Matthew Goode is, so she shouldn’t expect much help from him in drawing the crowds.

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  • SUNDAY CENTS: Happy Blue Year

    Avatar*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    Okay. What kind of fairy dust is James Cameron sprinkling in his films? Subliminal messages perhaps? There’s no other explanation. “Avatar” is the number one movie again this weekend, raking in $68.3 million, off 10% from last week. It becomes the first film to spend three straight weeks at the top since “Tropic Thunder” and that weekend tally is the all time record for a third weekend by a mile. “Spider-Man” previously held the title with $55.7 million.

    “Avatar” now has a running total of $352.1 million and will almost certainly pass $500 million before it exits theaters. Whether or not it can reach the $533.3 million of “The Dark Knight” is not certain, but with January’s releases looking particularly dismal, who knows? It is certain that Cameron’s film will become the second-highest grossing film of all time worldwide behind “Titanic,” and that is just ridiculous.

    The movie is already #94 all time domestically, and #16 of the decade. It’s the highest grossing non-sequel since “The Passion of the Christ” and should eventually be the highest grossing original property since “Titanic.” Box office figures of that nature are pure flukes and for a director to do it twice with completely different properties is jaw-dropping. James Cameron is, without a doubt, the king of the world.

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  • SUNDAY CENTS: Box office is a Festivus miracle!

    Sherlock Holmes*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    Holy shit. There’s no other way to describe the box office this weekend, which may well go down as the most attended three days on record. Nearly 35 million tickets were sold and three films grossed more than $50 million each.

    The number one movie for the weekend is James Cameron’s “Avatar.” I mentioned in the comments last week that it needed to drop a maximum of 35% to be considered a formidable box office force and a film with working positive word of mouth. Well, it dropped 3% to a virtually identical $75 million.

    $212 mil in 10 days for the film is the 18th highest total for any film after that amount of time and you can expect one more massive weekend and top spot finish on the way. $400 million is a very real possibility now and Fox has to get a lot of credit for convincing audiences that this was a film that you simply had to see or risk being ostracized. (I know from experience.)

    “Sherlock Holmes” came in a very strong second with $65.4 million for the weekend. Only “The Day After Tomorrow” has ever made more money as a non-#1 film, when it was beaten by the second weekend of “Shrek 2” in 2004.  It’s the sixth biggest December debut of all time and the film’s Friday gross set a record for a Christmas Day figure.

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  • Holiday film thoughts

    It struck me that I should probably offer up some space for you all to discuss the latest releases since it’s obviously been a slow-moving week, so if you want to speak up on “It’s Complicated,” “Sherlock Holmes,” “Up in the Air,” “The Princess and the Frog,” “Nine” or, God bless you, “The Squeakquel,” have at it here.  I’m on a jet plane back to the West coast tomorrow evening and things will be back to normal Monday.

  • Strike that, make it 20 — AMPAS announces list of animated feature contenders

    Alvin and the Chipmunks: The SqueakquelJust moments after I posted about the animated feature Oscar race pushing 18 entrants, the Academy goes and corrects me by releasing the full slate, including Fox’s “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel” (I have to think way too hard about how to spell that damn title) and “The Dolphin: Story of a Dreamer,” bringing the total up to 20 titles in competition and the very real possibility that five nominees will make the cut.

    The full list of qualifying titles (which you can also find in our Contenders section):

    “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel”
    “Astro Boy”
    “Battle for Terra”
    “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”
    “Coraline”
    “Disney’s A Christmas Carol”
    “The Dolphin – Story of a Dreamer”
    “Fantastic Mr. Fox”
    “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs”
    “Mary and Max”
    “The Missing Lynx”
    “Monsters vs. Aliens”
    “9”
    “Planet 51”
    “Ponyo”
    “The Princess and the Frog”
    “The Secret of Kells”
    “Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure”
    “A Town Called Panic”
    “Up”

  • Animated feature looking like five all over again

    The Missing Lynx: Paws on the RunTwo weeks ago we told you about the animated feature film category’s state of flux and how a little film no one has heard of called “The Missing Lynx: Paws on the Run” could be its saving grace.

    With “Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone” and “A Town Called Panic” currently off the qualification list, and Disney trying hard to pad the field of eligible titles by submitting Robert Zemeckis’s “A Christmas Carol” (when Zemeckis has gone on the record as saying such a thing is a “disservice to the great animators”) and even squeezing in the formerly-straight-to-DVD “Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure,” the magic number of 16 has been too close to call.

    Well, today at 5:00pm is the official deadline for submissions, and prints of qualifying titles are due by November 13.  It’s now or never, and things will start to take shape soon.  But getting back to “The Missing Lynx,” Steve Pond is reporting that the film was officially submitted and gets some great quotes form director Raul Garcia about the situation.

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