1. "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" ($72.7 million)
2. "The Blind Side" ($10.9 million)
3. "2012" ($8.1 million)
4. "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" ($3.6 million)
5. "Planet 51" ($3.2 million)
You don't have to be a mind-reading vampire with diamond-encrusted flesh to know who this weekend's box office champion will be. With "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" in over 4,000 theaters nationwide, there was virtually no chance that the continued romance of Edward Cullen and Bella Swan would fall anywhere short of first place — but perhaps no one could have predicted just how far ahead of the competition "New Moon" would end up. Read more...
FROM MTV.COM: Let's say you weren't one of the millions of people who showed up to see the end-of-times demolition-fest "2012" over the weekend, contributing to its $225 million global box-office haul. First of all, what's wrong with you? That flick is kind of amazing! Second, you should stop reading now because everything that follows explodes with SPOILERS.
"2012" ends with John Cusack, his family and a couple hundred thousand other survivors on a series of high-tech floating arks they've boarded to avoid the earthquakes and tsunamis that consume the planet. As the weather settles down and the clouds begin to clear, the arks set sail for the only remaining land mass still above water, the Cape of Good Hope in Africa. What will happen when they arrive?
Continue reading '2012' TV Show Would Be 'A Little Bit Like 'Lost,' ' Director Says
1. "2012" ($65 million)
2. "A Christmas Carol" ($22.3 million)
3. "The Men Who Stare At Goats" ($6.2 million)
4. "Precious: Based On The Novel 'Push' By Sapphire" ($6.1 million)
5. "Michael Jackson's This Is It" ($5.1 million)
The world may have ended in "2012," but Roland Emmerich's disaster epic is just getting started at the box office. The John Cusack-starring film finished its opening weekend in theaters in first place with a walloping $65 million domestic intake. But moviegoers beyond American borders came out in full force for the end-of-days flick, giving "2012" a massive $225 million total worldwide. Read more...
1. "2012" ($23.5 million)
2. "A Christmas Carol" ($5.6 million)
3. "The Men Who Stare At Goats" ($1.95 million)
4. "Precious: Based On The Novel 'Push' By Sapphire" ($1.94 million)
5. "The Fourth Kind" ($1.8 million)
Moviegoers braved Armageddon on Friday night by confronting "2012," the Roland Emmerich-directed disaster epic. The film boasts some considerable star power such as John Cusack, Danny Glover, Woody Harrelson and Amanda Peet, but "2012's" major draw has nothing to do with the acting and everything to do with the action of a world-ending calamity. Despite its subject matter, however, "2012" was anything but a disaster as shown by its whopping $23.5 million intake on Friday evening, with a likely weekend total of over $60 million. Read more...
Today, Roland Emmerich's latest world-ending epic, "2012," hits theaters. John Cusack, Amanda Peet and their pals race around the world, beholding one scene of devastation after another as an eco-catastrophe tears the planet apart. The story's premise is built on the belief that the apocalypse will come in the year 2012, as foretold by the Mayan calendar.
Unfortunately for Mr. Emmerich, Hollywood has already trashed the lovely planet Earth roughly a bazillion times over. From viral outbreaks to zombie uprisings, global warming to alien incursions... the people of this world have seen, suffered through and been almost completely annihilated by any threat you can imagine. Looking back through Hollywood history, the world was wiped out countless times, and long before the year 2012. Read more...
FROM MTV.COM: Even if most of the Earth were to be destroyed by a natural cataclysm predicted long ago by the ancient Mayans (or Hopis, or even the I Ching — take your pick), director Roland Emmerich would surely survive, if only to crawl back and polish off what little was left.
Going in to Emmerich's "2012," I was prepared to set my brain on spin-cycle and just roll with it — who doesn't enjoy a good CGI soak now and then? And there is in fact some snazzy digitalia on display here: a monster tsunami crashing over the Himalayas; a spectacular White House takedown (yet again); and some monster-wave ship-twirling that's truly, uh, titanic. An L.A. freeway buckles and falls, Las Vegas craps out, and the coast of California rears up and slides right into the ocean. All that, plus lots of collapsing high-rise real estate, fireball storms and geysers of boiling black magma.
Continue reading '2012': The End Again, By Kurt Loder
FROM MTV.COM: The first time we see John Cusack in "2012," he says he's about to be killed: The guy's late to pick up his kids for a camping trip and his ex-wife is not the forgiving type. About 30 minutes later — and really, for the next two hours — that hyperbolic sentiment becomes frighteningly real when Los Angeles (and then the rest of the planet) disintegrates into a fiery, tsunami-swept wasteland.
Director Roland Emmerich has made disaster movies aplenty ("Independence Day," "The Day After Tomorrow") but Cusack argued in a recent MTV News interview that "2012" is no disastrous flick.
Continue reading
Last week, a pack of Lloyd Dobler look-alikes descended on Times Square in New York City to celebrate the 20th anniversary (and 20th anniversary DVD release) of director Cameron Crowe's '80s classic, "Say Anything...," one of "2012" star John Cusack's early iconic roles. So last week, when MTV's Josh Horowitz sat down with Cusack for the "2012" press junket -- it's out on Friday -- he brought along a little souvenir for the star to play with.
Just listen to the response, look at how he recoils at the sight of Josh's mock-boombox. For anyone who missed the reference: Cusack holds a boombox blasting Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" up over his head in one of the movie's most memorable moments. Clearly, he's spent the last 20 years having that fateful moment replayed for him in interviews. You can hardly blame the guy for shrinking back. Read more...
Before we delve into this week's releases, I want to take a second to give "Precious" a shout. Opening on just 18 screens, the Sundance favorite and Oscar buzzer still managed to take in just shy of $2 million. It's not a movie I intend to see again anytime soon, but it's a compelling work of fiction. And even if it wasn't, I'm a person who is impressed by cold, hard facts. And the big fact here is that "Precious" enjoyed a monster opening weekend as a limited release.
Moving on, this week's star is director Roland Emmerich's apocalyptic disaster flick, "2012." John Cusack and his pals fly around the world, bearing witness to scenes of mass destruction as humanity crumbles all around. Sounds super-uplifting, doesn't it? I'm guessing that this will be the big weekend winner; it's definitely on my "must see" list. Read more...
-- It's been awhile, but I'm back with a look at what's going on Around the Blogosphere. First up for today is something from my good pal Jordan Hoffman at UGO. Hoffman has seen "2012" and he's not able to say much about it, but he did step up to confirm one fact: Woody Harrelson's character does indeed speak the words "Download my blog" during the movie. The thought over at UGO is that this should be the next great meme, something to replace the still-reigning "Chaos reigns" from director Lars Von Trier's genital-mutilating art-horror flick "Antichrist." Go check out what Jordan has to say; he explains it far better than I do. (UGO)
-- Next up I have the greatest photo gallery of all time to share with you. It is called "Stormtroopers 365." It is (or will be, when it's done) 365 images of Imperial Stormtroopers and other "Star Wars" figures arranged in a variety of hilarious situations. You can see a small piece of one up there on the right. You'd be better off checking out the whole gallery. It's amazing. (Stormtroopers 365) Read more...
