Film-graph: Steven Spielberg Climbing the Box Office

By Adam Tod Brown
From: http://screencrave.com/

Spielberg is by far one of the most commercially and critically successful directors of all time. Here’s a look at his filmography sorted by box office grosses as well as statues won over the years. Despite his immense riches (his personal net worth is reportedly over $3 billion) the director last year applied for a $325 million personal loan.

Click the image for larger version

Source: Personal Loans Blog

Box Office Report: 'Avatar' is No. 1 again, soars past $1 billion worldwide

by Adam B. Vary

from: http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/

Thanks to astronomic word-of-mouth, inflated 3-D ticket prices, and consecutive holiday weekends that began on a Friday, Avatar continued its seemingly unstoppable climb to the Hallelujah Mountains of U.S. and global box office. According to estimates from Hollywood.com Box Office, James Cameron’s sci-fi opus grossed $68.3 million over New Years weekend, a tiny 10 percent drop from Christmas weekend for a $352.1 million domestic total — easily the biggest third weekend in the U.S. ever (2002’s Spider-Man had held the record with $45 million). Much more impressively, in just 17 days, Avatar has surpassed $1 billion in global box office. To put that in perspective, it took The Dark Knight pretty much its entire theatrical run just to make it to that milestone. (Another landmark: $66.4 million of Avatar’s worldwide total is from IMAX theaters, a record for the mega-screen format.)

Avatar wasn’t the only film to ring in the new year with serious box-office bounty, either. Sherlock Holmes sleuthed out an elementary $38.4 million for second place, a 41 percent drop for $140 million total. Hot on its heels, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel chirped to $36.6 million, dropping just 25 percent for $157 million total and third place. (So what will the inevitable third film be called? The Second Squeakquel? The Threakquel?) It’s Complicated fell a bite-sized 15 percent, cooking up $18.7 million for fourth place and $59.1 million total. And in fifth place, The Blind Side actually improved upon its total last week, rising 8 percent for $12.7 million and $209.1 million total. (As EW noted yesterday, this means star Sandra Bullock is the only actress ever to have a film marketed on her star power alone pass $200 million in U.S. box office.)

In fact, with no major debuts to steal away fresh audiences, it was simply a fabulous weekend to be in movie theaters, period. Up in the Air pitched down an imperceptible 3 percent with $11.3 million and $45 million total. The Princess and the Frog hopped up 11 percent with $10 million and $86 million total. Even certified turkey Did You Hear About the Morgans? was up 4 percent, bringing in $5.2 million for a (still woeful) $25.6 million total.

Overall, the top ten box office was up 70 percent from last year, when Marley and Me was barking its way into filmgoers’ hearts.

Image credit: WETA

Fox Refuses To Supply Movie Theaters with 3-D Glasses

by: Hilary Lewis

On Tuesday, Fox said that it wasn't going to pay the $1-million-per-movie cost to supply theaters with 3-D glasses for the studio's upcoming in-your-face films like this summer's Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. Instead, Fox wants the movie theaters to pay for them. Understandably, multiplex owners aren't too happy about the extra cost, and many are considering revolting by only showing Ice Age 3 in 2-D, which could massively cut into the film's box-office revenues.

Regal Cinemas, the nation's largest theater chain, has reportedly already decided to only show Ice Age 3 in 2-D, sources close to the company tell Entertainment Weekly. Two sources also believe AMC Theaters and Cinemark will oppose Fox's demands, Entertainment Weekly reports:

Evidently, the glasses were part of a deal worked out long ago, when theater chains started installing the silver screens and digital projectors needed to view 3-D digital cinema, so to go back now and renegotiate after the equipment has been put in place is a difficult proposition.

One anonymous exhibitor outlined the reasons for his ire to the mag:

"I'm already paying fees to RealD for the systems. I'm paying to put in the silver screens and I'm paying to train employees to run the product. To come in at this point and say they aren't going to pay for the glasses, yet they want all the upside of the revenue, is ridiculous."

Sadly, both the theaters and the studios are paying hefty sums to usher in this 3-D revolution, with the budget on Fox's upcoming live-action 3-D pic Avatar already reported to be north of $200 million. So, it's no surprise each side wants the other one to foot the bill. While we're not surprised that cost-centric Fox, still recovering from a rough year at the box office in 2008, doesn't want to put up the dough, if this is what it takes to get the additional revenues that 3-D movies provide, Fox may have to give in. After all, that Avatar budget won't be easy to recoup.

For its part, Fox, via distribution president Bruce Snyder, denied that there was any problem. "No exhibitor has said they don't want to play Ice Age in 3-D," Snyder told EW. "All we are doing is working out the issues."

'Quantum of Solace' sets franchise record

"Quantum of Solace"

Best opening ever for a Bond film in North America

By Carl DiOrio

Critics seemed shaken by its nonstop mayhem, but moviegoers were stirred to support "Quantum of Solace" in franchise-record numbers during the weekend as the James Bond film bowed with an estimated $70.4 million in domestic grosses.

A 22nd installment in the lucrative 007 franchise, now the joint property of Sony and MGM, the Daniel Craig starrer opened two frames earlier in many foreign territories and totes a $252 million international cume. Sony is handling physical distribution of the film worldwide, but MGM was a 50-50 participant in its $200 million in production costs.

The previous-best domestic debut for a Bond film was the $47.1 million registered by 2002's "Die Another Day." The franchise's top domestic theatrical run has been charted by "Solace" predecessor "Casino Royale," which rung up $167.4 million in U.S. and Canadian coin after unspooling in November 2006.

"Solace," Craig's second outing as 007, had been set to bow Nov. 7 domestically. But studio executives decided to hold it back a week after Warner Bros. moved "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" from November to July, so the Sony-MGM film could debut closer to the lucrative Thanksgiving period.

The outsized domestic opening for "Solace" exceeded even the high end of prerelease projections and was aided by positive global buzz. Craig's industry star has received an immense boost in the process as moviegoers clearly have taken to him in the iconic Bond role.

"Audiences have embraced him, and domestic audiences were champing at the bit for the film," Sony distribution president Rory Bruer said. "It's certainly gratifying, to say the least."

The Marc Forster-helmed film played to audiences comprising 54% males, with 58% of patrons age 25 and older.

In reviews, many critics lamented "Solace's" dark tone and said its action profile compared more closely to rugged Robert Ludlum-inspired films like 2002's "The Bourne Identity" than to a typical Ian Fleming action-adventure.

It's worth noting, then, that "Solace" opened bigger than any installment in Universal's "Bourne" series, for which the best opening came with 2007's "The Bourne Ultimatum" at $69.3 million. "Ultimatum" ultimately fetched $227.5 million domestically and $442.8 million worldwide.

In addition, "Solace" opened bigger than any other non-summer movie this year.

Industrywide, the weekend's $154 million in collective boxoffice marked a 48% improvement on the same frame a year earlier, according to data service Nielsen EDI.

Seasonal boxoffice, at $1.52 billion, is up 9% over fall 2007.

Year to date, 2008 is 4% ahead of the same portion of last year, at $8.62 billion. That's a big-enough spurt to make it possible for '08 to outpace last year's 12-month admissions because this year's lead in grosses appears ample enough to account for ticket-price increases.

Elsewhere during the weekend, three wide releases marked sophomore sessions with varying degrees of success.

The family comedy "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa," from DreamWorks Animation and Paramount, notched a relatively modest 43% decline from its opening grosses to register $36.1 million in second place and pump its 10-day cume to $118 million.

Universal's R-rated comedy "Role Models" slipped only 39% to $11.7 million in third place, netting a $38.1 million cume.

And the R-rated laugher "Soul Men," from MGM and Dimension, tumbled 55% to $2.4 million in seventh place, netting a $9.4 million cume.

Looking ahead, two major wide releases square off Friday, six days before Thanksgiving.

Disney unspools its animated comedy "Bolt," including hundreds of playdates in 3-D auditoriums, and Summit Entertainment sends out the teens-and-tweens vampire film "Twilight." The former will seek to sway family moviegoers from "Madagascar 2," and the latter is doing notably well in online ticket presales.