The weekend box office was anything but stellar over the weekend. Expendables 2 and The Bourne Legacy remained the top two earners in the final weekend of August. One bright spot, however, was conservative doc 2016 Obama's America, which went wide after spending the first three weeks with limited runs. Its gross jumped over 400% and it landed in 8th place in the overall box office despite remaining in far fewer theaters than compared to other titles in the top 10. Newcomers Premium Rush and Hit and Run bowed softly.
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The Expendables 2 bumped last week's number one film The Bourne Legacy to number two over the weekend. The latest installment of the action pic grossed over $28.7 million in its first roll out, averaging a solid $8,670 screens. Bourne dropped 55% in its second round, while Focus Features' Paranorman rounded out the top three in its initial run.
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The Bourne Legacy and The Campaign opened over the weekend with enough gusto to topple The Dark Knight Rises from its box office throne, though the final installment in the Christopher Nolan-directed Batman trilogy still held solid in the third spot in the overall box office rankings. Hope Springs gained momentum after its mid-week bow, while Total Recall lands soft in its second frame.
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Also in Friday morning's round-up of news briefs, filmmaker Michael Cimino is set to receive Venice Film Festival honors. Heather Graham will return to The Hangover, while Yancy Butler heads back to one of her former characters. And an Ohio man faces charges for brining a cache of weapons into a theater during a showing of The Dark Knight Rises.
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There has been some push-back in the blogosphere over the apparent "genetic enhancement" associated with Aaron Cross, played by Jeremy Renner in the all-new manifestation of the Bourne series, The Bourne Legacy, which comes out next month. But director Tony Gilroy assures that the latest film is "consistent" with the three previous installments, which of course starred Matt Damon.
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It's of course no secret that Jeremy Renner is the new face of the Bourne franchise, playing Aaron Cross, a new character in a parallel story to The Bourne Ultimatum. But could Matt Damon possibly team up with Renner in future installments of the story? Yes says the producer of Legacy.
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The first trailer for the Tony Gilroy-helmed spy sequel The Bourne Legacy has arrived, and it's got everything you want: Bone-crunching action, fire extinguisher guns, Rachel Weisz as a hot lady doctor, and Jeremy Renner banging around doing his sensitive-strong mooney-eyed thing (and leaping out of rivers half-naked) as secret agent Aaron Cross. Okay, those are all the things I want from The Bourne Legacy, but the trailer gives us one more essential bit: Explanation as to how and why Renner's been retconned into Bourne lore at all.
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There are no new ideas in Hollywood, hence a Bourne franchise reboot whose first trailer -- just released via Apple -- borrows somewhat heavily from the opening titles of Psycho. (At least they're both Universal films, right? Score one for synergy!) But that's immaterial here after a certain point, probably around the time when Stacy Keach is all WHO IS HE? or when a house blows up or simply when Jeremy Renner's Aaron Cross is revealed in all his rifle-toting, tree-hopping glory. Who can resist?
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After earning back-to-back Academy Award nominations -- in 2010, for his breakout role in Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker and in 2011, for his supporting part in Ben Affleck's Boston crime drama The Town -- Jeremy Renner decided to dive headfirst into the action genre with four consecutive big-budget action projects. The first, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, which co-stars Renner as a mysteriously overqualified IMF agent assisting Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt on his latest globe-sweeping assignment, premieres this weekend in IMAX. The next three films, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, The Avengers and The Bourne Legacy, will all hit theaters next year, making the California-raised actor the busiest action star of 2012.
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Rachel Weisz may be filling up her dance card with a role opposite Jeremy Renner in the Bourne spin-off The Bourne Legacy, which films this September. But she's also set to play Mila Kunis's mean older sister witch in Sam Raimi's Oz: The Great and Powerful. Here's to hoping it works out with her busy slate, which has her set to open at least six other films in the next two years. (That's a whole lotta Weisz, but who's complaining?) [Deadline]
