Preliminary boxoffice results for the long Independence Day weekend played out much as the Risky Bullseye from last week suggested it would. Flixster users are setting a fairly precise marker for moviegoing audiences as a whole.
Everyone knew "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" was going to dominate the long weekend. But given its early positive Score on Flixster (89%, which has remained unchanged through the weekend) and the activity and interest represented in the Bullseye in the days leading up to the opening, I predicted that the vampire threequel would come in around $162.5 million, or 40% ahead of "Alice in Wonderland's" March opening. "Eclipse" landed at $157.6 million for its first five days. That feels pretty good.
“The Last Airbender” came into the weekend with a better-than-expected Flixster Score of 65%. It came out of the weekend with a better-than-expected boxoffice of $70.5 million since its Thursday opening, but a more recognizable Score of 54%. That's down at the low end of summer releases. My analysis pointed to a launch a bit behind "Grown Ups" and "Toy Story 3," but that clearly didn't account for those too young to track who were fans of the Nickelodeon show.
“Eclipse” and “Airbender” both saw atypically large Friday-to-Saturday drops -- “Eclipse” about 13% and “Airbender” about 22% -- but this is likely attributable to the fact that they were both out early on a holiday weekend.
I did put "Toy Story 3" and "Grown Ups" at slots 3 and 4 for the weekend, based on mid-week activity and good Flixster Scores. That panned out as expected, with "TS3" drawing $42.2 million and Sandler and Co. pulling down another $26.5 million.
Stay tuned for the July 9 Bullseye on Thursday, when I'll get into last-minute numbers for the animated Universal family film "Despicable Me" and the Fox action reboot "Predators."
Tuesday midnight screenings leading into the Summit threequel's Wednesday wide release bled audiences of more than $30 million out of the gate, if preliminary estimates are correct. And enthusiasm has only continued to grow coming off the film's L.A. Film Festival premiere last Thursday.
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The weekend's other wide opener, Paramount's "The Last Airbender," opens Thursday night as interest flags. Public gripes from Asian-American groups right before the film's release about whitewashed casting certainly haven't helped. Nor have criticisms about the results of the 3D conversion from those who have seen it. But there is still interest there, for sure.
Meanwhile, Columbia's "Grown Ups" is still fielding solid interest from Flixster users, who have given it an average 72% positive Flixster Score (with a vastly different Rotten Tomatoes score of 10%!), so its second weekend numbers should bolster last weekend's $40.5 million opening nicely.
On the indie side, E1 Entertainment rolls out the Joe Pesci-Helen Mirren drama "Love Ranch," National Geographic unleashes the Afghanistan War doc "Restrepo," Telepathic Studios lights up "Leaves of Grass," and Cinema Libre widens Oliver Stone's South America political doc "South of the Border" to L.A. theaters.
Who is Rob Pattinson's favorite rapper? Why does Kristen Stewart want to do her last movie over? Which "Twilight" film is Taylor Lautner's favorite?
The stars of "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" revealed these mysteries and more at the Los Angeles Film Festival red carpet premiere last night outside the Nokia Theatre. THR has up-close-and-personal video of the event, with Stewart, Pattinson, Lautner, Justin Chon, Christian Serratos, Nikki Reed, Bryce Dallas Howard and more.
Typically, when THR runs anything related to "Twilight" star Robert Pattinson, we get a major response. That's, in fact, why we do it.
But this morning I received a fiery rant responding to this story we posted yesterday about RPatz being related to Vlad the Impaler, the purported source of the Dracula legend. Well, Vlad's namesake, Jonathon "The Impaler" Sharkey, isn't taking this claim as anything less than a mortal insult.
Sharkey has spent weeks trying to persuade me to write about his various documentary and fiction film projects (and the fact that he's running for president in 2012 as a vampire). But other than the exchange of a few genial emails, I've yet to give his concerns any airtime. (You're welcome to do your own investigations.)
The live Ustream webcast of the world premiere of “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" red carpet starts at 5:30 pm PST / 8:30 pm PST. I'll also try to grab some notable messages that appear in the social stream, and Borys is downtown amidst the chaos sending short dispatches. If he survives, I'll post them here.
For everyone not already camping out in front of the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles for Thursday's world premiere of "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse," Risky will be hosting a live stream of the red carpet festivities, courtesy of Ustream.
Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Dakota Fanning, Peter Facinelli, Ashley Green and the rest of the cast will be walking the carpet and greeting the fans.
So, tune in back here Thursday at 5:30 p.m. PT/8:30 p.m. ET for the real-time agony and ecstasy of the launch of the next chapter in the epic saga of Bella, Edward and Jacob. Not only will you be able to watch live, but you can also post comments and questions using Ustream's Social Stream.
I attended the LAFF premiere of Davis Guggenheim's "Waiting for 'Superman'" last night at the Regal Cinema downtown. That was a powerful experience.
But between the screening and the afterparty on the roof of the Grammy Museum, I swung by the Twi-Camp that has sprung up in the courtyard in front of the Nokia Theatre over the last few days. Twi-hards from around the country have staked out their spots and nabbed numbered wrist-bands that will give them access to the red carpet Thursday night when the "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" will have its world premiere. The carpet will actually be constructed right where they're camping, so they'll all be moved Wednesday night.
The "Eclipse" machine rolls on toward its June 30 opening. But at least screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg is being included in all the promotional hoopla.
The Writers Guild Foundation is hosting Rosenberg at the WGAw headquarters July 6now July 13 at 7:30 pm to discuss her career and work on the blockbuster franchise. L.A. Times writer Gina Piccalo is handling the interview duties. (I got my turn last week.)
And for the first time, the guild will stream the interview live online, which also allows viewers to submit questions via Twitter.
Aaaahhhh! It's almost here!!
With just a few days left until the L.A. Film Festival premiere of "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" (and a co-worker told me this morning that fans are already camping out downtown), Summit has released another E(clip)se.
This one is achingly tender and straightforwardly gets at the epic nature of the romance and the stakes at the heart of this blockbuster franchise. "You'll always be my Bella..." (Cue melting.) It shows off the chemistry of K.Stew and RPatz as they coo scribe Melissa Rosenberg's dialogue.
Enjoy. If it doesn't make the waiting just that much more painful.
Melissa Rosenberg already had a healthy career in features (“Step Up”) and television (“The O.C.,” “Dexter”) when Summit Entertainment hired her to adapt a vampire romance novel called “Twilight.” Four years, three scripts, two movies and one billion dollars later, she is entering the home stretch of her wildly successful “Twilight” run and finally starting to think about a life beyond Bella, Edward, Jacob and author Stephenie Meyer. With “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” poised to sink its teeth into the boxoffice June 30, Rosenberg talked to me about the benefits of failure, splitting “Breaking Dawn,” murderous dreams and the pleasure of writing about a genuinely horny girl.You just gave the commencement address at your alma mater, Bennington College. What was your focus?
Melissa Rosenberg: It was really hard. At the same time I was working on a draft of the “Breaking Dawn” script, and I was more nervous about this commencement speech. It's a very different kind of writing. I'm not a speechwriter. The performance part wasn't what I was nervous about. It was the content. But once I hit on realizing I'm not speechwriter, I'm a screenwriter, and started embracing a screenplay format, that helped me be comfortable in the role. So I talked in terms of Fade In and Exterior: Bennington Campus…
It was a three-act speech.
Rosenberg: Yes, it was! Its past commencement speakers have been political journalists and world peace advocates — you know, people who are doing stuff. (Laughs)
You're entertaining billions of people!
Rosenberg: So the only thing I had to offer is my own experience, so that's what I went for and I just talked about basically every failure I've ever had, which really adds up to quite a bit.
MTV Movie Award viewers were treated to a preview of a short scene from the upcoming "Twilight Saga: Eclipse" Sunday night. Unsurprisingly, the clip highlights the Bella/Edward/Jacob triangle and actually includes this perennial chestnut from Bella: "Why haven't you called me back?"
See who Bella chose to ride away with after the jump.
There are some things money can't buy.For everything else, there's your cosmic undying unhealthy obsession with "Twilight."
Yes, Summit has just signed a deal with MYPLASH Prepaid Cards to license Bella, Edward, Jacob and the rest of the "Eclipse" gang to your own collection of debt-building Mastercards. Now kids can unleash their true vampiric desires on everything retail -- especially "Twilight" stuff!
The exclusive Twilight Saga: Eclipse MYPLASH Prepaid MasterCard reloadable prepaid gift cards are the newest merchandising phenomenon sprung from the Stephenie Meyer franchise. The gift cards will be available nationwide July 1, the day after the new movie opens.
Get your look at the cards after the jump:
To counter stories they have been losing investors, Ronald Tutor and Colony Capital's Filmyard Holdings issued a statement Thursday that they have the equity in place and the deal to purchase Mir …
Fans of "Gone with the Wind" obviously do give a damn about Scarlett O'Hara's extravagant dresses with a museum appeal for funds to restore gowns from the 1939 movie meeting its ta …
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Everyone knew "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" was going to dominate the long weekend. But given its early positive Score on Flixster (89%, which has remained unchanged through the weekend) and the activity and interest represented in the Bullseye in the days leading up to the opening, I predicted that the vampire threequel would come in around $162.5 million, or 40% ahead of "Alice in Wonderland's" March opening. "Eclipse" landed at $157.6 million for its first five days. That feels pretty good.
Good news!
I attended the LAFF premiere of Davis Guggenheim's "Waiting for 'Superman'" last night at the Regal Cinema downtown. That was a powerful experience.
But between the screening and the afterparty on the roof of the Grammy Museum, I swung by the Twi-Camp that has sprung up in the courtyard in front of the Nokia Theatre over the last few days. Twi-hards from around the country have staked out their spots and nabbed numbered wrist-bands that will give them access to the red carpet Thursday night when the "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" will have its world premiere. The carpet will actually be constructed right where they're camping, so they'll all be moved Wednesday night.
Melissa Rosenberg already had a healthy career in features (“Step Up”) and television (“The O.C.,” “Dexter”) when Summit Entertainment hired her to adapt a vampire romance novel called “Twilight.” Four years, three scripts, two movies and one billion dollars later, she is entering the home stretch of her wildly successful “Twilight” run and finally starting to think about a life beyond Bella, Edward, Jacob and author Stephenie Meyer. With “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” poised to sink its teeth into the boxoffice June 30, Rosenberg talked to me about the benefits of failure, splitting “Breaking Dawn,” murderous dreams and the pleasure of writing about a genuinely horny girl.
You just gave the commencement address at your alma mater, Bennington College. What was your focus?
Melissa Rosenberg: It was really hard. At the same time I was working on a draft of the “Breaking Dawn” script, and I was more nervous about this commencement speech. It's a very different kind of writing. I'm not a speechwriter. The performance part wasn't what I was nervous about. It was the content. But once I hit on realizing I'm not speechwriter, I'm a screenwriter, and started embracing a screenplay format, that helped me be comfortable in the role. So I talked in terms of Fade In and Exterior: Bennington Campus…
It was a three-act speech.
Rosenberg: Yes, it was! Its past commencement speakers have been political journalists and world peace advocates — you know, people who are doing stuff. (Laughs)
You're entertaining billions of people!
Rosenberg: So the only thing I had to offer is my own experience, so that's what I went for and I just talked about basically every failure I've ever had, which really adds up to quite a bit.
