Screenwriter Scott Stabile has read the pans and box office bomb reports and anti-Oogieloves screeds, and yet! He's got nothing but (Oogie)love for even his harshest critics: "As all of us adults know, we live in a tense and troubled world. Young kids will be exposed to plenty of real-life scares and violence on TV, in video games, on the computer and in daily life. Why do we have to expose preschoolers to anything but innocence and love in a 90-minute movie? Why isn’t it enough to show a gentle world where people are kind and help one another, in hopes that young kids mimic those sentiments over fighting and jealousy and revenge?" [Scott Stabile via Oogieloves on Facebook]
Woe is the poor, lonely Henry Cavill actioner Cold Light of Day, which opened in wide release and climbed its way to the bottom (well okay, #13) with a paltry $1.8 million take. As in, TOTAL. Not screening a film and giving it virtually no promotion will do that, even with the future Superman holding a gun and Bruce Willis and Sigourney Weaver posing like the T-800 on the poster. But it was also a terrible movie-going weekend all-around, with the bleakest numbers in recent memory spreading across all comers. Hit it for the Debbie Downer of Weekend Receipts and let's all look to Finding Nemo and Milla Jovovich's leather pants next week for salvation.
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Oh, those Oogieloves — even a record-setting, all-time low worst box office opening of all time can't keep 'em down. At least, according to Oogieloves mastermind Kenn Viselman, who managed to spin the G-rated kiddie pic's abysmal $448,131 three-day take (that's roughly $207 per screen) into something positive.
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Teletubbies marketing visionary Kenn Viselman was banking on his latest kiddie venture, the C-list cameo-packed "interactive" adventure The Oogieloves In The Big Balloon Adventure, capturing the hearts and minds of 3-5 year-olds and their parents this Labor Day weekend. But while it looks like Viselman will make a historical splash in the film game, it's so, so, so the wrong kind: Averaging just $47 per screen after opening in 2,160 theaters on Wednesday, Oogieloves could go down with one of the worst openings of all time.
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The last pre-Dark Knight Rises weekend at the multiplex came and went without much incident, unless you call The Amazing Spider-Man losing his grip on the No. 1 spot after one week an "incident." You decide! Either way, your Weekend Receipts are here.
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Brava to the dewy-cheeked Kristen Stewart, who opened Snow White and the Huntsman, the weekend's number one movie, by swinging a sword and championing girl power without having to kiss a single vampire! (Those two hunky human suitors and the riveting fabulosity that was Charlize Theron didn't hurt either.) Nice to see girls ruling while boys drooled over the box office -- well, their male-driven movies (Men in Black 3, Avengers, Battleship), anyway. Tell us what you saw this weekend as we go to the receipts!
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You might guess most folks flocking to theaters this weekend for Snow White and the Huntsman are the legions of diehard fans of Twilight's Kristen Stewart, who stars in the fantasy adventure as the sword-swinging Snow White. Maybe, even, they'll come for co-star Chris Hemsworth — he of Thor and Avengers fame. But surprise, surprise — who'd have thought the big draw, at least for folks who hit opening day today, would be neither of SWATH's up-and-coming talent?
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It's not just the superheroes who are toppling box-office records this summer: Check out the opening for Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom, which pulled in $523,000 over the weekend — on four screens. Its $130,750 per-theater average represents a new standard for limited live-action releases, besting Dreamgirls's $126,316 from 2006. (Moonrise's four-day holiday total reached $669,000.) Hats off as well to The Weinstein Company's The Intouchables, no slouch itself with around $26,000 per screen for the three-day frame. Champagne for all! [Deadline]
The Memorial Day frame wasn't one quite worth remembering for Will Smith, who walked away with the holiday's biggest opening almost by default as The Avengers waned — not a lot, but enough — in its fourth weekend. Meanwhile, the week's other wide release suffered a catastrophic B.O. meltdown en route to sixth place overall. Your special holiday-edition Weekend Receipts are here.
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Opening early overseas helped this week's Battleship quietly amass $215 million before its domestic debut, and a few international markets (including Japan, Hong Kong, and New Zealand) may similarly see emphatic pre-U.S. openings for Sony's July 3 tent pole The Amazing Spider-Man when it opens in countries like India days before hitting theaters stateside. Shall we call it, as one Sony Pictures India rep suggests, the "neener-neener" bump? "Each of the Spider-Man franchise films has broken records on its release in this territory. We are very confident that Indian audiences will enjoy the new reboot of the franchise even more because they are watching it before the U.S." [THR]
Johnny Depp wanted his and Tim Burton's gothic vampire comedy Dark Shadows to be anything but Twilight. Mission accomplished, I suppose: The film fizzled into a very distant second place behind another jaw-dropping performance by The Avengers, which continued to rewrite the blockbuster history books in its second weekend. Your Weekend Receipts are here.
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The last weekend before summer blockbuster madness ensues proved to be a wrenching one for Hollywood, which watched as four new openings stumbled out of the gate behind tested literary thoroughbreds Think Like a Man and The Lucky One. Is the Apatow comedy machine broken? Has America lost its taste for the Stath? Your Weekend Receipts are here.
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Don't let the overseas Battleship hype fool you: "Allen's Rome-set pic, consisting of four non-intersecting vignettes, one of which starring Roberto Benigni — making a rare appearance in a film not directed by himself — pulled more alone than the total weekend gross of the five titles that follow it in Italy's weekend box office chart: Battleship, Titanic 3D, Street Dance 2, Mirror Mirror and The Intouchables, which together totaled $3.54 million this weekend. 'The combined effect of Allen and Benigni proved to be huge magnet,' said one Italo exhibber." Related: I am totally calling my next band Italo Exhibber. [Variety
Weekend box-office sluggishness got you down? Oh. Well, either way, fortune tellers around Hollywood are saying the recent Avengers buzz has further heated up an already scorching prospect: Some tracking reports have Joss Whedon's Marvel-hero mash-up sailing beyond The Dark Knight's $158 million three-day mark from 2008, though Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2's all-time record of $169 million seems safe, 3-D and all. Stay tuned to Movieline for more box-office previews and projections — especially your own — as The Avenegers' May 4 release date draws near. [THR]
This is getting a little ridiculous: The Hunger Games claimed its fourth straight weekend box-office win on Sunday, mopping the floor with weak-sauce competition including The Three Stooges, Cabin in the Woods, and a brutally performing Lockout. Your Weekend Receipts are here.
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