Benefitting from its strong date night appeal and Kevin Hart‘s current filmic hot streak, About Last Night opened strong on Valentine’s Day and wound up ahead of fellow 1980s remakes RoboCop and Endless Love this weekend, succumbing only to The LEGO Movie, which easily led the box office over President’s Day weekend.
According to boxofficemojo.com, in its second outing, The LEGO Movie added $48.8 million and so far has earned $129.1 million. Playing at 2,253 locations, About Last Night opened to an estimated $27 million. That’s the best opening for a romantic comedy since 2012’s Think Like a Man ($33.6 million), which also featured Kevin Hart, Michael Ealy and Regina Hall. It is noticeably lower than recent Kevin Hart movie Ride Along ($41.5 million), though that’s a difficult number to match.
According to Sony, About Last Night‘s audience was 63 percent female and 57 percent over the age of 30. They awarded the movie a solid “A-” CinemaScore. Remaining a master builder in its second weekend, The Lego Movie ended Valentine’s Day in a tie with new entry About Last Night, but is expected to zoom ahead on Saturday for a possible $59 million-plus finish over the long Presidents Day weekend. About Last Night took in $13 million on Friday for a projected four-day opening in the $35 million range.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson
Posts published in “Movies”
Lupita Nyong’o may be preparing herself for a potential Oscar win, but if you ask us, she has already won awards season this year. From that drop dead Ralph Lauren number at the Golden Globes to her epic turquoise Gucci dress at the SAG Awards, the actress has quickly become the fashion world’s “It girl.” It’s no surprise then, that she’s the cover star of New York Magazine’s Spring Fashion Issue. The 12 Years A Slave star, who we have learned has no problem playing with color, looks as gorgeous as ever in a red and white dress by Stella McCartney. She chatted with The Cut about her childhood, dancing with Michael Fassbender and the difficulties of adjusting to life in the United States.
The 30-year-old actress admits that her first months at the Yale School Of Drama served as a bit of a culture shock. “I find my freedom in structure. It was very hard to adjust to an individualistic and very liberal system. I mean, my upbringing, I would iron my clothes every night. I would plan what I wore the night before, and then I would iron it. That’s just the way my mom raised us. Then I got to Hampshire, where clothing is sometimes optional and all this kind of thing. I was mortified,” she said.
Perhaps that’s why her look is a bit more… conservative than Lake Bell’s Fashion Issue cover from last season. Either way, she certainly has the poise and grace of a bonafide star — with the photos to prove it. Check out the beautifully done cover and spread below and head over to The Cut for the entire interview.
article by Jamie Feldman via huffingtonpost.com
Over the years the annual selection has included one or two minority actors — such as Angela Bassett in 1995, and Lucy Liu and Salma Hayek in 2004 — but this year’s edition shows how expansive the African-American film scope has grown across several genres.
Among those featured on the three-panel foldout are many of Hollywood’s most heralded actors of the past year, including Oscar nominees Julia Roberts, for August: Osage County, Jared Leto, who is the front-runner in his Best Supporting Actor category for Dallas Buyers Club, and Chiwetel Ejiofor and Lupita Nyong’o from 12 Years A Slave.
“Happy,” which Williams wrote and produced for the animated film Despicable Me 2, is nominated for the original song category alongside “Ordinary Love” from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, “Let it Go” from Frozen and “The Moon Song” from Her.
“I wanted to send a reminder: There are lots of reasons to smile,” the 40-year-old told the Los Angeles Times in an interview in December on his nominated song. “You can be resilient with your smile. Why is it so cool to be mad all the time? Some songs, everybody’s so upset.”
The song “Happy” has a “lyric version” — a video featuring the film’s minions making mischief around the song’s words in bold fonts. It also has a website launched for the song, 24hoursofhappy.com, where the song is played on repeat for 24 hours straight.
“Each take starting every hour is me,” he told The Times. “So I did 24 four-minute takes of ‘Happy.’ From 1:00-1:04, I perform ‘Happy.’ Then at 1:04, the next person does it. We picked all kinds of people, all types. Every hour is 15 takes.”
Williams, a seven-time Grammy Award winner, was named Billboard’s producer of the decade in 2010. Most recently, he collaborated on two of 2013’s top Billboard hits: Robin Thicke‘s “Blurred Lines,” which he co-wrote and produced, and Daft Punk‘s “Get Lucky,” which he co-wrote and also sang.
The Oscars, hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, will be held March 2 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood and broadcast live on ABC.
This past Saturday, Lifetime aired The Gabby Douglas Story. And apparently many were anxious to see it. The cable network movie pulled in 3.8 million viewers according to Nielsen Research. And immediately after her Lifetime movie debuted, the network broadcast a documentary called Beyond the Headlines: The Gabby Douglas Story, which averaged 3 million viewers.
In addition to views, according to Nielsen SocialGuide, the cable movie premiere was also the most-tweeted program of the night across all of television, excluding sporting events. The Gabby Douglas Story stars Regina King as Gabrielle’s mother, S. Epatha Merkerson as her grandmother and Imani Hakim (Tonya from Everybody Hates Chris) as the teenaged Douglas.
article by Veronica Wells via madamenoire.com
Internationally, Disney had another standout weekend with its toon all-star Frozen, which grossed an estimated $24 million from 45 territories, representing approximately 90% of the overseas market place. So far, the film has collected north of $504 million internationally, with $360 million Stateside (pic’s sing-along re-release contributed $2.2 million out of a total estimated $9.3 million this weekend), making Frozen the second-highest grossing original toon of all time globally, behind Finding Nemo. Domestic totals managed to stay in line roughly with this time last year, down just 2%, though first-quarter 2013 box office was especially mopey.
As the clear highlight so far this year, Ride Along’s third-straight win at the domestic box office matches what only three films total managed last year — The Butler, Gravity and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smug — none of which bowed during the first quarter.
Speaking of Gravity, Warner Bros.’ large-screen re-release of the Oscar-nominated 3D epic earned more than half of its $2 million three-day gross in Imax. Gravity has cumed nearly $264 million domestically in over four months. Among the other Academy Award contenders, both American Hustle and The Wolf of Wall Street became milestone box office achievements for their respective directors: Hustle now stands as David O. Russell’s highest-grossing film, with $133.6 million, while Martin Scorsese’s Wolf is the director’s third-highest, at $104.1 million, surpassing The Aviator.
Film (Weeks in release): 3-day gross*; Locations; Per-theater average; Cume*; Percentage change
- Ride Along (3): $12.3; 2,867; $4,295; $93.0; -42%
- Frozen (11): $9.3; 2,754; $3,381; $360.0; +2%
- That Awkward Moment (1): $9.0; 2,809; $3,208; $9.0; –
- The Nut Job (3): $7.6; 3,472; $2,193; $50.2; -37%
- Lone Survivor (6): $7.2; 3,285; $2,180; $104.9; -44%
- Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (3): $5.4; 2,907; $1,858; $39.0; -41%
- Labor Day (1): $5.3; 2,584; $2,051; $5.3; –
- American Hustle (8): $4.3; 2,216; $1,940; $133.6; -39%
- The Wolf of Wall Street (6): $3.6; 1,607; $2,209; $104.1; -35%
- I, Frankenstein (2): $3.5; 2,753; $1,279; $14.5; -59%
article by Andrew Stewart via Variety.com
Back in the 80s, my classmates and I piled into Mbabane’s local cinema to watch Top Gun. We’d turn to each other, channeling our best version of Val Kilmer to spout “You can be my wing man anytime” – followed by intense laughter. Who doesn’t have a favourite line, an iconic moment from film lodged in our minds?
In 20 images that pay homage to characters such as Truman Capote’s Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, these reinventions begin with the a humble “what if…” A question looking to how popular global cultural translates to the local, what could it look like, and what new memories would it create. The project has created conversation, accolades and blowback, but in an interview with Another Africa, Diop takes it all in stride.
Missla Libsekal | Representational art usually puts artists in the hot seat, audiences tend to have strong opinions. For example Samuel Fosso’s self-portraits as famous political figures or Pieter Hugo’s Nollywood series. Mimicry steps on the nerve of nostalgia, the sacred or even challenges the status quo. What tale doesONOMOllywood tell and does it hit any nerves?
Omar Victor Diop | ONOMOllywood is a celebration of cinema, as an artistic discipline and of the magic of a great movie. For Antoine Tempé (the co-author of the series who created 10 out of the 20 images) and myself, what makes a great movie is the fact that the strength of its characters, plot and scenes transcends all geographic, temporal and racial barriers. A great movie is more than a series of sequences, it becomes a moment that is lived across the globe by people who have very little in common, but who relate to extraordinary stories that allow them to dream.
The example I always give is the magic of a James Bond movie; back when I was a kid, I didn’t care whether Roger Moore was white or black, or whether I was a British citizen… to me, he was a hero I could impersonate. After watching A View To A Kill, I firmly believed my pajamas were a tuxedo and that my mom’s kitchen was actually some concrete jungle where I would chase after criminals… That’s what cinema has brought to me and it still somehow does, to my adult life. A great movie is a dream.
ONOMOllywood did hit some nerves, especially in the US: after one of my interviews was published on CNN.COM. We were taken aback by the racial dimension of some readers’ comment. To my great surprise, I realised that this series could be seen by some as a sort of “revenge” of black people against a too “white” Hollywood. The “race war” in the comments section was quite epic!
It was rather amusing to see the way some readers resolutely eluded the fact that this project is the product of a collaboration between a French-American photographer and a Senegalese photographer. It was “just some black dude painting Hollywood in black because the world looked better like this”.
I guess this can be explained by a set of contextual factors. The article about ONOMOllywood was published in late July 2013, after a heated debate over a series of race-related affairs like the Trayvon Martin case in the US, a series of blackface incidents in fashion magazines in Europe, etc. I guess people from both sides were already prepared to shoot at anything that could be seen as an attempt to see the world from a racial perspective… Interesting experience indeed, we’re glad this project started a conversation in other continents, that’s the purpose of art, even though for us, ONOMOllywood remains a celebration, a well deserved homage to geniuses of cinema, to timeless moments.
According to Variety.com, while Lionsgate’s I, Frankenstein failed to spark audience interest, delivering only an estimated $8.3 million in three days, the domestic box office still saw signs of life, thanks to solid holds from such films as the Kevin Hart/Ice Cube comedy Ride Along and the Mark Wahlberg-starrer Lone Survivor, which led with $21.2 million and $12.6 million, respectively.
In its second outing, Ride Along fell just 49%, lifting its Stateside totals to a sizable $75.4 million; while Lone Survivor, which dropped just 43% in its fifth frame, reached $93.6 million domestically.
The full list of this weekend’s Top 10 follows below:
Film (Weeks in release): 3-day gross*; Locations; Per-theater average; Cume*; Percentage change
- Ride Along (2): $21.2; 2,759; $7,670; $75.4; -49%
- Lone Survivor (5): $12.6; 3,162; $3,985; $93.6; -43%
- The Nut Job (2): $12.3; 3,472; $3,547; $40.3; -37%
- Frozen (10): $9.0; 2,757; $3,277; $347.8; -23%
- Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2): $8.8; 3,387; $2,598; $30.2; -43%
- I, Frankenstein (1): $8.3; 2,753; $3,006; $8.3; –
- American Hustle (7): $7.1; 2,304; $3,082; $127.0; -28%
- August: Osage County (5): $5.0; 2,411; $2,091; $26.5; -32%
- The Wolf of Wall Street (5): $5.0; 1,804; $2,772; $98.0; -29%
- Devil’s Due (2): $2.8; 2,544; $1,081; $12.9; -67%
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson