Posted 12/27/11 11:45 am EST by Josh Wigler in Box Office
Say what you will about the guy, but it looks like nothing is "impossible" for Tom Cruise.
The actor's latest entry to the "Mission" franchise — the Brad Bird directed "Ghost Protocol" — made the impossible happen by topping the holiday weekend box office with a healthy $46.2 million haul, bringing the film's total to $78.6 million after 11 days in theaters.
Posted 12/5/11 3:52 pm EST by Josh Wigler in Box Office
Vampires and werewolves are apparently as popular as ever, seeing that "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1" is still the box office leader after three weekends in theaters. The first part of the "Twilight" conclusion netted $16.9 million this weekend for a $247.3 million domestic total to date. But there's no reason to be so green: "The Muppets" hung in there with a $11.2 million second place finish, bringing Kermit and friends up to $56.1 million total after two weekends.
Get the rest of the weekend box office results at MTV Movies!
Posted 11/28/11 4:57 pm EST by Kevin P. Sullivan in Box Office
FROM MTV MOVIES: The box-office battle of Thanksgiving weekend has come and gone, and "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1" once again emerged as the victor.
The penultimate entry in the vampire romance series pulled off an impressive haul of an estimated $62.3 million, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com. The weekend brought the film's domestic total to roughly $221 million, and survived formidable competition from "The Muppets," which earned a respectable $42 million.
But what do the upcoming weeks hold for "Breaking Dawn - Part 1"? We consulted some box-office experts to find out.
Posted 11/21/11 11:20 am EST by MTV Movies Team in Box Office
FROM MTV MOVIES: "Twilight" fans raced to theaters faster than Jacob running to stop Bella and Edward's wedding and gave "Breaking Dawn - Part 1" the fifth-biggest opening weekend of all time.
The fourth film in the romantic vampires-and-werewolves phenomenon collected $139.5 million domestically (more than $30 million of which was from midnight showings early Friday) for an estimated $283.5 million worldwide haul.
"The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1" stands behind only "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" ($169.2 million), "The Dark Knight" ($158.4 million), "Spider-Man 3" ($151.1 million) and 2009's "New Moon" ($169.2 million) on the all-time opening-weekend scorecard. It's worth noting that the "Twilight" grosses haven't relied on pricier 3-D or IMAX tickets like "Potter" or "Dark Knight." The new movie's numbers were within roughly 2 percent of the "New Moon" franchise best and helped propel the series' overall numbers past $2 billion worldwide.
Posted 11/14/11 6:15 pm EST by MTV Movies Team in Box Office
FROM MTV MOVIES: The folks at Relativity Media must be feeling as powerful as Olympian warriors.
The small distributor celebrated its biggest movie debut ever over the weekend as "Immortals" topped the box office with a better-than-expected $32 million. With future Superman Henry Cavill leading the cast, the 3-D epic set in ancient Greece successfully fended off the latest new releases from Adam Sandler and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Sandler's "Jack and Jill," in which the comedian plays dual roles as a twin brother and sister, was #2 with a $26 million debut. The film's opening was less than that of his "Just Go With It" from earlier this year and most Sandler comedies in general. The broad comedy had a reported $79 million production budget. The "Jack and Jill" opening weekend number was barely enough to beat last weekend's #1 movie, "Puss in Boots," which was #3 this weekend with $25.5 million for a $108.8 million total.
Posted 11/7/11 6:44 pm EST by MTV Movies Team in Box Office
FROM MTV MOVIES: Two very different heist flicks went head-to-head over the weekend, and in a surprising upset, a rapier-wielding cartoon cat emerged victorious over two high-profile comedians. In a turn of events that was somewhat shocking to Hollywood, Eddie Murphy's return from the land of family-friendly fare alongside Ben Stiller in the PG-13 "Tower Heist" opened behind last weekend's #1 movie, "Puss in Boots."
Audiences continued to come out to watch the 3-D "Shrek" spinoff character snatch some magic beans from an evil Jack and Jill in "Puss in Boots" to the tune of $33 million, keeping the DreamWorks Animation flick at #1 with a $75.5 million domestic total. "Puss" dropped just three percent from its $33.04 million debut, which marked an unprecedentedly low non-holiday decline for a wide release.
Posted 10/24/11 2:55 pm EST by Josh Wigler in Box Office, Interviews
Afraid or not, it looks like no amount of fear can keep the people away from "Paranormal Activity 3." The latest installment in the found footage horror franchise hit movie theaters over the weekend and scared up a box office record for highest fall opening ever (September/October) with a staggering $54 million total.
"Paranormal Activity 3" also secured the record for best opening for a pure horror movie, previously held by -- you guessed it -- "Paranormal Activity 2," which debuted last year with $40.7 million. Clearly, we'll have more haunted "Activity" in our moviegoing futures.
Posted 10/17/11 1:11 pm EST by MTV Movies Team in Box Office
FROM MTV MOVIES: Hugh Jackman's latest movie proved to be more than a one-hit wonder. "Real Steel" retained the #1 spot at the box office for a second consecutive weekend, fending off competition from re-workings of '80s classics, "Footloose" and "The Thing" (a remake/prequel). Meanwhile, the combined star power of Jack Black, Owen Wilson and Steve Martin didn't prevent "The Big Year" from bombing.
"Real Steel" raked in another $16.3 million over the weekend, according to studio estimates, which is a 40 percent drop from its opening weekend. The futuristic robot-boxing flick has made $51.7 million to date, against an estimated production budget of $110 million.
The remake of high-school-dancing flick "Footloose" was just behind with a $16.1 million debut. Critics were mostly kind to the film, with The Washington Post commenting, "[D]irector Craig Brewer has delivered a largely unobjectionable note-for-note facsimile of Herbert Ross's ode to teenage rebellion, young love and the unfettered joy of movement." The flick has a 72 percent Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Posted 9/26/11 12:00 pm EST by MTV Movies Team in Box Office
By Ryan. J. Downey
FROM MTV MOVIES: Simba and company partied like it was 1994 at the box office over the weekend as "The Lion King" remained #1 for the second weekend in a row. The 3-D re-release beat back competition from four wide releases while hauling in another $22.1 million, according to studio estimates.
All four of the other movies in the weekend's top five were new releases, but none had the strength to topple the legendary Disney animated film, which has grossed $61.7 million domestically in its 3-D format alone.
Brad Pitt's "Moneyball" and the kid-friendly "Dolphin Tale" were in close competition for the #2 spot, while Taylor Lautner's "Abduction" (which has been savaged by film critics) and the action-centric "Killer Elite" (also not a critical darling) both failed to generate much excitement.
"Moneyball" was still just barely ahead of "Dolphin Tale" at press time. The baseball-centered flick has done well with critics, according to film review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, where it has a 94 percent critical average. The movie took in $20.6 million, just $340,000 more than "Dolphin Tale."
Posted 9/19/11 2:46 pm EST by MTV Movies Team in Box Office
FROM MTV MOVIES: What's old was new again as Disney's iconic "The Lion King" became the #1 movie at the box office over the weekend, taking in an estimated $29.3 million with a souped-up 3-D redo of the 1994 original.
"Drive," one of the year's best-reviewed films, was #3 in its weekend debut, while the poorly reviewed remake of "Straw Dogs" and Sarah Jessica Parker's even-worse-reviewed "I Don't Know How She Does It" both flopped in their debuts. Last week's #1 movie, "Contagion," dropped to #2 this week.
"The Lion King" 3-D re-release earned more than the other three new releases combined. The film's original-run, IMAX re-release (back in 2002) and the past weekend's numbers pushed "The Lion King" from #25 to #17 on the all-time domestic box-office chart, according to Box Office Mojo. The animated tale, which has also quite successfully been adapted for Broadway, has made $357.8 million in the United States to date.
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