The holiday movie-going season is in its early stages right now, and all eyes are slowly turning toward the looming release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on December 14. Early reports today suggest that the film ate up 33 percent of Fandango sales on Wednesday, overtaking both Skyfall and next week's Twilight finale for #1 on the popular ticketing site.
What will surely be the year's final mega-blockbuster has a lot to live up to. That's not just because of the weight of history it carries from The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but also because of the fact that 2012 - while hit and miss overall at the box office - has already produced three huge blockbusters.
If you've been following the entertainment business this year, you've probably noticed the hype surrounding not just Daniel Craig's anticipated third outing in Skyfall, but the 50th anniversary of the James Bond film franchise marked by the year 2012.
As such, the Internet has become replete with retrospectives on the series and while most are certainly fascinating reads, most of us are now well aware that the Bond series is 50 years old, has seen 6 actors take on the character, and boasts 23 movies (pre-Skyfall) on its resumé - including Sean Connery's unofficial 1983 entry, Never Say Never Again. Et cetera, et cetera...
For the first time in thirty years, that chair is empty for the Star Wars universe. And this time, Mr. Lucas won't be returning to it.
It's been two days since the mega-blockbuster deal between Disney and Lucasfilm sent shockwaves throughout the film industry, social media, and pop culture as a whole. Our forums have been buzzing non-stop about the surprising news that broke on October 30 with seemingly no indications of what was coming.
Now that the dust starts to settle, shock has turned to speculation. Who will be chosen to shepherd one of - if not "the" - most iconic film series in Hollywood history when it returns to theaters in 2015?
With less than nine days left before Skyfall makes its North American debut (or eight days for those catching it in IMAX on Thursday, November 8), the chatter on the latest and highly anticipated James Bond outing is reaching a fever pitch.
The buzz comes on the heels of Skyfall's outstanding $80.6 million overseas debut last weekend. A huge chunk of that came from the flick's United Kingdom home base where Skyfall tallied $32.5 million - the biggest UK opening of 2012 and the second best in history behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. 007 also topped that film for the UK's best Monday gross of all-time this week, and has just crossed $100 million internationally as of Wednesday.
For a century, Hollywood has been the face of the film industry. But by 2020, China is predicted to be the world's biggest movie market: sales grow 30% every year, and by the end of 2012, the country will boast an estimated 13,000 movie screens—up from just over 6,000 only two years ago. With the moviegoing audience in the United States stable but saturated, it's become important for America and China to join forces for their mutual interest in tapping into China's theatrical growth—so important, in fact, that Vice-President Joseph Biden met with Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping this February and agreed to raise the quota of Hollywood imports into China from 20 to 34 films a year. Which made this year's U.S.
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Let's face it: the glory days of the "box office star" are largely behind us. There used to be a time when a film could automatically generate strong interest just on one or two actors or actresses alone. Now, social media and the Internet in general drive or kill interest in the majority of films hitting cineplexes while exhibitors have to compete with increasingly shorter home video release windows.
With Flight hitting theaters this weekend, we decided it was time to take a look at one of the reliable stars still out there: the track record of Mr. Denzel Washington over the past twelve years.
There's no stopping Ted when it comes to international expansion.
Seth MacFarlane's crude, raunchy and generally offensive R-rated comedy opened in India this weekend.
A Universal rep tells Boxoffice.com that Ted is playing in English with Hindi subtitles—it has not been dubbed. The studio was encouraged to blur any visible alcohol labels, but otherwise no major changes were made.
The idea of an R-rated American comedy making its way to a country that cranks out plenty of tame, conservative films shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. 2011's The Hangover: Part 2 opened to $1.3 million (Rs 6.7 crore) in India.
