Box Office Blather: Princess Dividends and Per Screen Averages

The box office for New Year's weekend was little changed from Christmas weekend when Jeff Bridges double dipped and I had a creepy 90s flashback (that whole post still applies) so instead of sharing their grosses in that banal way you can get anywhere, let's share their gross minus their budget. This is an inexact science for sure. It doesn't include the $$$ of worldwide grosses but it also

Box Office Blather: Jeff Bridges Double Dips

A weekly box office series, in beta, to see if we like. To remind you that you're here and not elsewhere and we can't just do things normally, we'll come at it from weird angles when we can.Jeff Bridges stars in TRON GRITLittle Fockers $30 NEW True Grit $24.8 NEWTron Legacy $19.5 (cumulative: $87.3)The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader $9.4 (cumulative: $62.5)Yogi Bear $7.8 (

Links: True Grit, Spidey, Gay Rugby, and "Original" Films

Movie|Line celebrates a year of "The Verge," their great up-and-coming actor series.Cinema Blend goosing the sales of True Grit (the novel) Today One of the Fantastic Four will die in the comic's #587th issue. Does anyone still believe in these marketing ploys? I'm sure they'll come back to life within 3 years. That's how comics do.MUBI The great Michel Piccoli is 85 today. Has anyone seen La

Box Office Blather: Spectacles, Star Vehicles, Subtitles and Easy $

Year in Review Pt 1 of ManyIt's time to wrap up 2010. You'll have to have patience since The Film Experience likes to do this piecemeal... and often! Let's do it every day at 10 AM or 10 PM or both when we magically have free time. How about that? We'll start with the US box office.Box office hits get much coverage in the media so let's just dispense that basic "smash hit" list quick-like and

Wimps?

Michael C here trying to piece together some conclusions from this first wave of precursors.One thing we can say for certain. With all the support materializing for Black Swan this past week the message is unequivocal: no discussion of the year’s best work will be complete without Aronofsky’s dance phantasmagoria in the mix. Yet Swan’s place in the lineup isn't the sure thing it should be. Due to

Good News: Black Swan Spreads Its Wide Wings

Your wait is over (or nearly so depending on where you live). Due to its constantly packed houses -- it's been landing in the top ten US box office daily despite being on less than 100 screens -- Black Swan goes wide quite a bit earlier than expected. Tomorrow the one-of-a-kind movie flies into 800+ more theaters. Enjoy. Report back.

Box Office Blather: Unstoppable Potter and the 127 Tangled Swans

No, not that BOB.Box Office Blather. Let's call it "BOB".One should probably discuss it weekly (and not on Wednesday? Shut it. I'm late.) if only to be more "in the world" and less hermetically sealed in one's own bubble, he said to himself while gazing at his navel in his 360º mirror.In all seriousness this is a problem. I sometimes stare at box office charts and think "'The Warrior's Way'?  

FYC: Leonardo Island

One of the smartest FYC moves I've seen in terms of a screener making full use of its identity as an Oscar campaign is for Shutter Island. The disc didn't come with the typical eyebrow raising desperation of "please nominate us for every category that exists!", but narrowed its focus. The cover only suggests Picture, Director & Actor.In fact, one might say that the packaging squints so hard to

Para Normal Activity.

What did you see over the weekend? Care to share? The only movie I managed to catch, on a total whim, was the original Paranormal Activity on Instant Watch just as the new one was packing them in at the box office. Hey, I've never claimed to be current with horror. I am totally not that guy. So here I am talking about a year after its sell-by date! I'm not in the now. I am beyond time.See, even