Disney/Pixar’s John Lasseter received a coveted star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Tuesday, which coincided with the release of “Cars 2″ on DVD and Blu-ray. Present at the event were Owen Wilson, Emily Mortimer, Brad Paisley, Bonnie Hunt, Cheech Marin, John Ratzenberger, Patton Oswalt, Randy Newman and Don Rickles, all of whom are associated with Pixar either by contributing their voices (Wilson, Mortimer, Hunt, Marin, Ratzenberger, Oswalt and Rickles) or their musical talents (Paisley, Newman). Lasseter is a two-time Oscar-winning director and creatively oversees all Disney and Pixar films and associated projects. Lasseter’s directorial debut was in 1995 with Pixar’s first feature film, “Toy Story.” He also directed “A  [ Read More ]

Coming on the heels of 2009′s underperforming The Princess and the Frog, Disney rolled the dice yet again on a fairly low-fi tale of storybook royalty, in the form of Tangled, based on the fairytale of Rapunzel. A huge $575 million worldwide hit, the movie is a well-rendered throwback that underscores the still existent pleasures of traditional storytelling, amidst all the glitz and glam of more forcibly lively animated fare. Nicely balancing a sense of classic sentimentality with contemporary, gender-equal romance and adventure, Tangled features engaging vocal turns by Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi — as the locked-away Rapunzel and rakish bandit Flynn Rider, respectively — and has enough going on  [ Read More ]

The box office results for the weekend of January 7th-9th has True Grit riding into the top spot for the first time in its release. Meanwhile, the new Season of flicks are not all that Strong thus far. Here are the studio estimates: 1. True Grit ($15 million) 2. Little Fockers ($13.8 million) 3. Season of the Witch ($10.7 million) 4. TRON: Legacy ($9.8 million) 5. Black Swan ($8.3 million) 6. Country Strong ($7.3 million) 7. The Fighter ($7 million) 8. The King’s Speech ($6.8 million) 9. Yogi Bear ($6.8 million) 10. Tangled ($5.2 million) Analysis 2011 releases failed to generate anything notable on multiple fronts. Season of the Witch  [ Read More ]

The box office results for the first weekend of 2011 is just like the last weekend in 2010. True Grit continues to show its endurance while the critically panned Fockers holds steady at the top. Here are the studio estimates: 1. Little Fockers ($26.3 million) 2. True Grit (2010) ($24.5 million) 3. TRON: Legacy ($18.3 million) 4. Yogi Bear ($13 million) 5. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader ($10.5 million) 6. Tangled ($10 million) 7. The Fighter ($10 million) 8. Gulliver’s Travels ($9.1 million) 9. Black Swan ($8.4 million) 10. The King’s Speech ($7.7 million) Analysis Without any new releases threatening the holdovers, Little Fockers barely  [ Read More ]

2010 is over. No more. Done. Finito. Some are more than happy to kiss that year goodbye, while others wish it would have never ended. In the realm of movies, 2010 looked great in terms of box office receipts. However, even with the second highest grossing domestic box office of all-time ($10.5 billion) in the books, let’s just say the quality of the product put out, is far from what the numbers suggest in terms of stellar entertainment all year around. Yet 2010 did have a few exceptional moments. With all that said, here’s 20 topics, accompanied by my candid/stripped-down thoughts, on what caught my critical eyes in cinema for  [ Read More ]

As usual, the last weekend of the year will go to a veteran. With no new wide releases and just two minimal limited openings, the top spot will likely be an easy win for True Grit. In its first weekend out, the flick posted an impressive $8,156 per theater average and might even manage to increase that number in weekend two. As for its top competitor, Little Fockers, not only did it debut with a lackluster $30.8 million, but thanks to poor reviews, odds are it won’t hold on as strong as its predecessor, Meet the Fockers, which dropped a mere 9% from Christmas weekend to New Year’s weekend back  [ Read More ]

Youtube user Sleepyskunk posted this very cool movie trailer mashup of 2010 films, here’s the details and enjoy the clip! Movie Trailers (in order of appearance): The Secret of Kells, Burlesque, When in Rome, Splice, Machete, Yogi Bear, Fish Tank, I’m Still Here, The Runaways, Furry Vengeance, Babies, Morning Glory, Catfish, The Tooth Fairy, Marmaduke, Killers, Jonah Hex, Defendor, Legion, Paranormal Activity 2, Remember Me, Robin Hood, Saw 3D, Howl, 127 Hours, Never Let Me Go, The Tempest, The Book of Eli, Red Hill, Centurion, The Ghost Writer, The Tourist, Eat Pray Love, Shrek Forever After, Grown Ups, Little Fockers, Dinner For Schmucks, Get Him To The Greek, Due Date,  [ Read More ]

You’ve still got a little while to go until I unveil my top ten movies of the year, but here’s something to hold you over: IMBd’s Top 10 Films and Stars. The results aren’t generated by critical reception or box office numbers, rather by searches for the stars and user ratings for the films. So, now for the winners. It should come as no surprise that top star of 2010 is Johnny Depp. Not only did he star in one of the year’s highest earners, Alice in Wonderland, but he’s just one of the most famous guys out there regardless. Twilight fans managed to snag the second and third spots  [ Read More ]

Predictions come early this week thanks to the holiday. We’ve got two films looking to bank on the holiday weekend, Little Fockers and True Grit, and then another aiming to steal the spotlight on Saturday, Gulliver’s Travels. In the limited release department County Strong, The Illusionist and Somewhere are all scheduled to make their debuts while Black Swan continues to expand, boosting its theater count to 1,400+ and The King’s Speech grows to 700. Little Fockers is certainly the one to watch this weekend as its performance will certainly affect the future of the franchise. Back in 2000, Meet the Parents opened with $28.6 million while the sequel, Meet the  [ Read More ]

The box office results for the weekend of December 17th – 19th sees blasts from the past rising to the top. TRON and Yogi lead the way, while the Oscar contenders begin to make some noise. Here are the studio estimates: 1. TRON: Legacy ($43.6 million) 2. Yogi Bear ($16.7 million) 3. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader ($12.4 million) 4. The Fighter ($12.2 million) 5. The Tourist ($8.7 million) 6. Tangled ($8.6 million) 7. Black Swan ($8.3 million) 8. How Do You Know ($7.6 million) 9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 ($4.8 million) 10. Unstoppable ($1.8 million) Analysis Disney needs to close  [ Read More ]

After a rather tame weekend during which The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader easily topped the competition despite a rather weak domestic opening, this one has a few more selections vying for top honors. We’ve got three films making wide debuts and another two expanding significantly. Of the newcomers, TRON: Legacy is likely to make the biggest impact. It may be opening in about 100 less theaters than Yogi Bear, but 234 of those theaters are IMAX. Combine that hefty ticket price with all of the theaters showing the film in non-IMAX 3D and TRON already has one heck of a head start. Odds are, TRON  [ Read More ]

The box office results for the weekend of December 10th-12th brings in the first floppers of the 2010 holiday movie season. Whether it was attractive Tourists and/or eye-catching special effects, audiences were just not buying it this time around. Yet, they did seek out a Black Swan though. Here are the studio estimates: 1. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader ($24.5 million) 2. The Tourist ($17 million) 3. Tangled ($14.5 million) 4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 ($8.5 million) 5. Unstoppable ($3.7 million) 6. Black Swan ($3.3 million) 7. Burlesque ($3.2 million) 8. Love and Other Drugs ($3 million) 9. Due Date ($2.5  [ Read More ]

This weekend is The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader’s weekend to lose. The third installment of the series has a major leg up, hitting almost 800 more theaters than its competition, The Tourist. While The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is quite the expansive project and Fox is hoping for some big returns, there’s certainly a chance this could be Prince Caspian all over again. On a $225 million budget, Caspian managed to make $55 million opening weekend, but then fell fast, only accumulating $141.6 million by the end of its domestic run, significantly less than its predecessor, which ended up with a total of $291.7  [ Read More ]

The box office results for the weekend of December 3rd – 5th has Disney capitalizing on the sputtering Potter. Meanwhile, a Warrior gets severely lost trying to find his way to a healthy opening weekend. Here are the studio estimates: 1. Tangled ($21.5 million) 2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 ($16.7 million) 3. Burlesque ($6.1 million) 4. Unstoppable ($6.1 million) 5. Love and Other Drugs ($5.7 million) 6. Megamind ($5 million) 7. Due Date ($4.2 million) 8. Faster ($3.8 million) 9. The Warrior’s Way ($3 million) 10. The Next Three Days ($2.6 million) Analysis Aside from its opening weekend, the figures tabulated for Harry Potter and the  [ Read More ]

A new month might not mean a new box office leader. With The Warrior’s Way being the only wide release this first weekend in December, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I could be able to hold on to that top spot. It did seem Tangled had a fair shot of stealing that stop, but even with that second-week 60% plunge, Potter not only took Thanksgiving weekend from Tangled, but every day since then. Even on HSX.com, Potter stock is up $0.40 while Tangled is on the downfall, dropping $0.79. It’s basically a free-for-all for the rest of the lot. Hitting just 1,622 theaters with little buzz, it’s unlikely  [ Read More ]