Hats off to Focus Features, whose Mother's Day release strategy for Babies paid off with a $2,157,309 weekend gross -- more than $1 million of which poured in on the holiday itself. (The distributor's original estimates were off by more than $500,000 as a result.) That was good enough to land the ovulatastic doc in the overall Top 10 on a mere 534 screens. Also worth noting: Sony Classics' adoption drama Mother and Child pulled in roughly $44,488 on four screens. Thanks, Mom. [indieWIRE]
Barbara Walters interrupted The View's "Hot Topics" segment this morning to announce her upcoming heart operation. "Later this week, I'm going to have surgery to replace one faulty heart valve," said the newscaster, who explained that she had been aware of the condition for awhile but did not want to talk about it "too far in advance." Walters will use her summer vacation for recovery, which is expected to take one to three months. [People]
Leave it to Summit to co-opt the Social Security Administration for a brilliant new viral coup involving The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. I can think of no other way to explain exactly how the official list of America's most popular baby names has been completely overtaken by a pompadoured vampire, a wolfcake-y shapeshifter and the fraught, furrow-browed young vixen wedged between them.
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Say what you will about Iron Man 2 -- and truth be told, it was at least as good, if not better, than the first -- one thing is borderline undeniable: As bad guys, the bad guys sucked. This is not to say that Sam Rockwell's Justin Hammer wasn't the best part, by far of the entire movie (forget Thor; can Hammer have a Marvel spin-off?), but rather that his nefarious intentions were surprisingly low on the nefariousness. And while Mickey Rourke's Ivan Drago Vanko looked pretty tough, in the end -- SPOILER ALERT -- he was ultimately no match for Iron Man either. And that's a big problem for Marvel and their Avenger-based comic book movies: It's too easy for these superheroes.
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Lena Horne, the first black star signed to a contract by a major Hollywood studio, died Sunday at a Manhattan hospital. She was 92. Horne's best-known film role came in the 1943 musical Stormy Weather, while general industry discrimination kept her off the big screen for most of the next two or three decades; her final movie role came in Sidney Lumet's adaptation of The Wiz. Cinema trailblazer though she was, Horne is still perhaps best-known for her stage, TV and recording work; growing up, I'd take her on Sesame Street any day of the week. [NYT]
· Maybe half of the rumors, conjecture, supposition and gossip that makes their way into Hollywood Ink every morning has any basis in accuracy outside the agencies where they're born. So it's with great pleasure that I confirm the speculation that Gerard Butler will indeed team with director Marc Forster on Machine Gun Preacher, with Lionsgate distributing the tale of an ex-con born-again Christian who heads off to save young sex slaves in Uganda. Michelle Monaghan will also star as his wife. Shooting starts this summer. [Deadline]
Anthony Hopkins may join another Hemsworth Bros. blockbuster, another Musketeers-y rumor is confirmed, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
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Because Mother's Day is also known as "Saturday Night Live Day," here's one more bit of sketch comedy-related news. According to Page Six, Justin Timberlake was overheard at the SNL after party telling cast members that he'd "just come from taping a secret segment for the [season finale]." Of course it was almost one year ago to the day that Timberlake hosted on Mother's Day and unveiled the ridiculous "Mother Lover" with Andy Samberg as a sequel to "D*ck in a Box." What X-rated song parody awaits next week? The mind reels with possibilities. [Page Six]
I hate to say I told you so, but: Using the Price is Right rule book -- closest without going over -- the only Movieline staffer to accurately predict the opening weekend gross for Iron Man 2 was yours truly. High five! Anyway, as expected, the Marvel sequel got the summer box office season started in a big way, grossing more than the other films in the top-ten combined... 3.6 times over. So, ka-ching. Grab an Iron Man 2-approved Dr. Pepper and click ahead, it's time for some weekend receipts.
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If it seems like everyone you know -- or at least follow on Twitter -- watched Betty White host Saturday Night Live last night, that's probably because they did. Preliminary numbers show that White and Friends drew a 8.8 household rating, the highest by an episode of SNL since the pre-election edition in November 2008 hosted by Ben Affleck with musical guest David Cook. Congratulations, Internet! [TV By the Numbers]
To paraphrase Goodfellas: It's gonna be a good summer... in 2011. The lineup of movies currently scheduled for then is quite imposing. Deep breath: Super 8, Thor, Captain America, The Hangover 2, Pirates of the Caribbean 4, Kung-Fu Panda 2, X-Men: First Class, Cars 2, The Green Lantern, Transformers 3, Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows and Cowboys and Aliens. That's some lineup, right? And it makes you wonder: How come 2010 got the short straw?
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The final season of Lost has brought back a lot of familiar (and dead) characters -- Charlie, Boone, Libby, Daniel, Michael, Charlotte and even Ethan -- but don't expect to see Mr. Eko popping up in a contrived alternate-universe cameo. EW reports that no deal could be reached between Lost and actor Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, despite a mutual interest. If that "mutual interest" sounds surprising to you, it's because Akinnuoye-Agbaje was a notoriously difficult cast member who left under less-than-ideal circumstances. Now if they'll only confirm whether or not Vincent the dog will return... [EW]
As our sister site Deadline reported on Wednesday, William Morris Endeavor has begun showing the Joaquin Phoenix documentary (mockumentary?) I'm Still Here: The Lost Year of Joaquin Phoenix to prospective buyers with the hopes of finding the Casey Affleck-directed film some distribution. And if the reports of the film's content are to be believed, you have to wonder what's taking so long. To wit: I'm Still Here features a scene where "someone feuding with Phoenix defecates on the actor while he's asleep." But wait, there's more!
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File this under confirming the obvious. Fox announced late yesterday that the season finale of American Idol on May 26 will run seven minutes over its allotted time. Which, in Idol speak is probably more like 27 minutes. Fans of the 10 o'clock news should adjust their DVRs accordingly [Variety/On the Air]
Taking a page out of J.J. Abrams's secret project playbook, Judd Apatow told MTV that he's producing a previously unannounced comedy starring Paul Rudd and written by Ken Marino and David Wain. Fun! No word yet on the plot, but since whatever it is comes from the fertile comedy minds of Marino and Wain -- who teamed with Rudd for the underrated Role Models -- expect it to be hilarious and filled with genuine pathos. Well played, everyone. [MTV Movies Blog]
Bad news if you're a movie theater owner; good news if you don't want to see Iron Man 2 with some idiot kicking the back of your seat the entire time. From the New York Times: "[The F.C.C.] approved a request to allow companies that sell movies via video-on-demand services to activate signals that would block the copying or other re-use in home entertainment systems of recent releases." Uh-huh. And what does that mean for you?
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