Another batch of +$100 million budget movies is coming up. This week we’ll see ‘Wall-e,’ the highly anticipated new $120 million Pixar animation. ‘Wanted,’ the teen-oriented, action driven, testosterone powered, Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy featuring $65 million spy movie. And the week after, anti-hero, rehab going and $150 million ‘Hancock’ will storm theaters early July 1^st.

Tracking for ‘Wall-e’ is good. Compared to ‘Ratatouille’ last year:

Awareness: 84% (compared to 82% for ‘Ratatouille’)
Definite Interest: 41% (to 38% for ‘Ratatouille’)
First choice: 10% (to 8% for ‘Ratatouille’)

Very early box office estimates would put ‘Wall-e’ around a $70 million opening weekend.

Continue reading Tracking numbers: ‘Wall-e,’ ‘Wanted’ and ‘Hancock’ strong

I still owe you the final weekend box office numbers. The studios set ‘Get Smart’ as the clear winner. And I think it’s fair to say ‘The Love Guru’ bombed, hard. It was beat by last week’s ‘The Incredible Hulk’ and the two week old ‘Kung Fu Panda’ by +$7 mill – you can go here for the Friday and Saturday box office.

‘Get Smart’ with Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway ended with a decent $39.1 million, considering its $80 million budget. ‘The Incredible Hulk’ was last in our post-weekend box office drop last Wednesday and dropped even worse than expected during its second weekend. It ended with $21.5 million, a 70% drop. ‘Kung Fu Panda’ did slightly better and had a great third weekend with another $21.7 million. ‘Kung Fu Panda’ now has a domestic total of $155.5 million and ‘The Incredible Hulk’ now stands at $96.5 million in the US.

‘The Love Guru’ ended the weekend with a shameful $14 million. It wasn’t a spectacular weekend in terms of numbers, only in terms of bomb. And what a bomb ‘The Love Guru’ was.

I’ve been staying at a no-internet zone for a couple of days, so I’m sorry for the slightly lower update frequency. This also caused the delayed roundup, but it’s an interesting one nonetheless.

1. The Incredible Hulk: $74,919,370 ($150 million budget)
2. Kung Fu Panda: $50,218,801 ($130 million budget, second week)
3. The Happening: $40,267,349 ($57 million budget)

Continue reading The delayed last week’s box office roundup

Hollywood grandpas Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman did it again. After an mildly impressive worldwide gross of $173 mill, the oldies are topping both the sales and rental chart in the US.

Again we sadly don’t have actual numbers, but ‘The Bucket List’ was followed by ‘Jumper’ on both charts. The Doug Liman (‘The Bourne Identity’) movie made $80 mill in the US earlier this year and had a total gross of $221 mill. The good worldwide performance (for its $85 million budget) recently justified talks about a sequel, although nothing has been planned yet.

‘The Other Boleyn Girl’ debuted at number 4 and ‘John Adams’ by HBO at 5.

Sadly there aren’t any new tracking numbers floating around. But we do have a better idea of what to expect, just a little over a day before release. Last week’s tracking numbers indicated a soft launch for both ‘The Love Guru’ and ‘Get Smart,’ with the last one tracking a little higher. And while the expectations for Steve Carell’s movie are still in line with last week, Mike Myers doesn’t seem to be doing so well.

Both are rumored to have about the same budget, $80 million, but ‘The Love Guru’ might struggle to make some profit in the US alone. Most analysts are expecting a $20-$25 million opening, but some say it might not even top $20 million. An opening in the high teens will definitely be considered a failure by Paramount and won’t do Myers’ future projects any good.

‘Get Smart’ is doing better and would end the coming weekend with a little under $40 million. We will take a look at the reviews tomorrow, when most of the quotes are in, but it looks like the critics are projecting the same view. The first ‘The Love Guru’ reviews are burning and ‘Get Smart’ is doing just a little bit better. No, this won’t be a big weekend.

The last ‘Wanted‘ clip. Nicolas Cage remakes the Thai ‘Bangkok Dangerous.’ And Javier Bardem and Scarlett Johansson are sexy and romantic in ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona.’

Continue reading Today’s trailers: ‘Wanted,’ ‘Bangkok Dangerous’ and ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’

The last couple of photos of our beloved ‘Wall-e’ came in. I honestly think Disney has a new goldmine ready for release. Not only for in theaters, but also for in the shops.

The $120 million ‘Wall-e’ might not make the $864 million ‘Finding Nemo’ made worldwide in 2003, but I fully expect it to pass ‘Cars’ with $461 million in 2006.

One Tourism Australia official described it as “basically a two and a half hour ad” for Australia. I am of course talking about the new $120 million movie called ‘Australia,’ with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman.

Because not only Europe is feeling the effect of the cheap dollar. Tourism Down Under didn’t grow since the 2000 Sydney Olympics and is down overall this year. But the island is about to get some attention. “This movie will potentially be seen by tens of millions of people and it will bring to life little-known aspects of Australia’s extraordinary natural environment, history, and indigenous culture,” Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson said.

Expecting some beautiful cinematography, there couldn’t be a better medium to promote a country. And that’s why Tourism Australia will release an international marketing campaign together with the new movie, promoting it as a “mature, inviting country.”

I just checked, but Australia didn’t went as far as financing the whole movie. Which I reckon would easily push it into the flop corner. But this seems like a smart move. Hop on the hype train of an expensive movie. And I’m sure the filmmakers won’t mind the extra promotion for their movie either. Win-win.

The first (official) glimpse of Two-Face. Keira Knightley in another 18th century drama. Death by racing and by war. And a new Brad Pitt movie.

• The Dark Knight (Two-Face)
• The Duchess
• Death Race
• Miracle at St. Anna
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Continue reading Today’s trailers: ‘The Dark Knight Two-Face,’ ‘The Duchess,’ ‘Death Race,’ ‘Miracle at St. Anna’ and ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’