1. "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" ($140.7 million)
2. "The Blind Side" ($34.5 million)
3. "2012" ($26.5 million)
4. "Planet 51" ($12.6 million)
5. "A Christmas Carol" ($12.2 million)
The only thing a vampire craves more than blood is box office gold, as proven by the decisive success of "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" in theaters this weekend. The second installment of the "Twilight" series exceeded expectations by opening to record-smashing numbers, easily paving the way for a first place finish of $140.7 million domestically, $118.1 million from international markets and a worldwide total of $258.8 million. Read more...
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...
1. "A Christmas Carol" ($31 million)
2. "Michael Jackson's This Is It" ($14 million)
3. "The Men Who Stare At Goats" ($13.3 million)
2. "The Fourth Kind" ($12.5 million)
5. "Paranormal Activity" ($8.6 million)
Did Ebenezer Scrooge learn his lesson at the box office this weekend? It's difficult to say, as the Jim Carrey-starring "A Christmas Carol" certainly took the top prize with a $31 million weekend, though the result is considered relatively disappointing given the film's potential draw to family crowds and its hefty budget of $200 million. The odds of the holiday movie recouping that number anytime soon are rather small, though we've certainly seen stranger box office occurrences lately. Read more...
FROM MULTIPLAYER: The director of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" and the forthcoming "A Christmas Carol" remake is not much of a gamer. Despite the awesome video game based on the "Roger Rabbit" flick, it seems that Robert Zemeckis has never really been very good at video games, despite being very impressed by them.
Continue reading Robert Zemeckis Sucks At Video Games (And He's Fine With It!)
I'm torn on Disney's and Robert Zemeckis's retelling of "A Christmas Carol." One the one hand, eye candy is badass and this is a movie that's full of it. Jim Carrey is also a big selling point, especially with all of that fancy performance capture tech bringing his already-malleable face into the digital realm.
On the other hand, I still feel like we're pretty deep in the uncanny valley with all of this people-as-digital-creations stuff. Then again, the exclusive clip below gives me second thoughts about even that. I'll happily invite Carrey's Scrooge into my nightmares if that's what he's going to be looking like.
Robert Zemeckis, Jim Carrey and Disney join forces this week in what is likely to be the box office-topping release of the performance capture-animated retelling of "A Christmas Carol." Expect the same, old story beats in a fresh new format. And there are plenty of options available for those who crave different degrees of face-meltingly awesome visuals: in addition to vanilla theatrical showings, there are also 3-D and IMAX options!
Those who crave something with a bit more bite have several options to choose from. First is "The Box," from "Donnie Darko" director Richard Kelly. Kelly was kind enough to invest his time in a week-long guest editorship on MTV Movies Blog last week, and he got us very hyped for the "Box" release in the process. The story follows a married couple (Cameron Diaz and James Marsden) who receive a mysterious package in the mail, containing a box equipped with a large red button. A stranger (Frank Langella) shows up to inform them that they'll receive $1 million if they press the button, though a stranger somewhere in the world will be killed as well. Sounds perfectly weird to me and like yet another cult-friendly winner for Kelly. Read more...
I've got plenty of irrational fears in my life, but one in particular that I think is perfectly rational is my fear of performance capture animation. For all of the technical wizardry on display, the characters in "The Polar Express" and "Beowulf" leave me feeling cold and unsettled.
I've been feeling much the same way about what I've seen of Disney's "A Christmas Carol," but today my fear may have turned a corner. The below trailer is all sorts of badass, even though all of the characters' eyes shine with an unholy light. I... think I'm going to see this one, nightmares or no.
It could be a mirror he's looking into. That performance capture stuff freaks me out, man. It is Uncanny Valley, defined. Performance capture characters look plenty human, but they're "off" somehow. "Polar Express" freaked me out, "Beowulf" freaked me out and now "A Christmas Carol" is freaking me out. It's also a kickass story, and I've grudgingly accepted that I'll see it even if it feeds my every nightmare in the months that follow.
Judging by the chains and the comfortable surroundings, the scene pictured in the exclusive image below occurs early on, when Scrooge (Jim Carrey) is learning what he's in for from the ghost of his old friend, Jacob Marley (Gary Oldman). Check out more exclusives in our 2009 Fall Preview by clicking on the image below!
Filmmaker Robert Zemeckis showed off Disney's new 3-D motion capture technology that will be used in November's release of "A Christmas Carol" starring Jim Carrey.
Everyone in the audience was given a pair of 3-D glasses as they entered Hall H, most of them coming from a long line in anticipation of the "New Moon" panel this afternoon.
Created as a motion capture animated feature, "A Christmas Carol" sees Jim Carrey playing eight roles, including the aged Ebenezer Scrooge and all three Ghosts of Christmas -- Past, Present and Future. Read more...
