It was a buoyant holiday frame for the last releases of 2011, with audiences turning out in droves (and likely family-loaded minivans) to boost just about every film in theaters. Biggest congrats are in order for Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, which is indeed set to make in 17 days what Mission: Impossible III made in its entire theatrical run. And, look! A bunch more people caught the timely holiday spirit and bought a Zoo this week, along with a War Horse and, uh, Garry Marshall's New Year's Eve. Enjoy it while it lasts, Garry. Auld lang syne, 2011. Your holiday weekend receipts after the jump!
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For nearly three years, Movieline's Verge feature has introduced you to the likes of Jessica Chastain, Jennifer Lawrence, Armie Hammer, Emma Stone, Chris Hemsworth and dozens of other bright young screen talents on their ways to the big time. 2011 was no exception, so wind down the year with a look back at -- and a word with -- a few major new players you'll be seeing plenty of in the future.
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It's that time of year for the Independent Spirit Awards to recognize the best and brightest indie films. Today, the panel announced their nominations with The Artist and Take Shelter leading the pack with five nods each. Click ahead and start placing bets on who will take home the awards this February.
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The roster of actors in the world who could reduce megastar George Clooney to rubble with a single withering look is short, but add newcomer Shailene Woodley to the top of the list. As Alex, the acerbic 17-year-old daughter of Clooney's Hawaiian landowner and family man in Alexander Payne's The Descendants, Woodley (of ABC Family's The Secret Life of the American Teenager) makes an auspicious film debut that could land her in the Oscar race -- not that Woodley, perhaps the most well-adjusted young star on the rise in Hollywood, would take awards razzle-dazzle too seriously.
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The Twilight Saga sparkled to another #1 opening, as if you had any doubt; it was just a matter of how many millions Breaking Dawn would rake in, after Friday's $72 million opening day. But while all the excitement over weddings, butter-colored honeymoons, and monster vampire babies couldn't quite help BD eclipse New Moon (groan), it still nudged out Pirates of the Caribbean: The One with the Kraken for the #5 biggest opening of all time. That's forever, baby. Let's get our imprinting on in today's Weekend Receipts.
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There has always been something innately memorable about actress Judy Greer. The curiously beautiful actress with razor-sharp timing, a scene-stealer in everything from What Women Want to Arrested Development, carries an underlying melancholy behind her eyes that lends the sweetest characters deeper layers and the over the top ones an even greater sense of unpredictability, whether in comedies or, increasingly, in dramatic fare. So maybe she was born to be in an Alexander Payne movie like The Descendants, which flits back and forth along the painful edge between tragedy and humor in ways that feel completely, and achingly, human.
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Plenty of men and women may still consider George Clooney to be the sexiest man alive. But even those fans might be a little grossed out when they read the Descendants star's account of his first orgasm -- which also happens to be his first orgasm involving a rope. Proceed with caution.
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