Nice!

Don't forget Fantasy Moguls

FINAL PREDICTIONS FOR THE WEEKEND OF NOVEMBER 21-23
1. NEW Twilight (Sony) — $64.3 million
2. NEW Bolt (Disney) — $40.2 million
3. Quantum of Solace (Sony) — $29.77 million
4. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (DreamWorks/Paramount) — $18.6 million
5. Role Models (Universal) — $5.54 million
6. High School Musical 3: Senior Year (Disney) — $3.23 million
7. Changeling (Universal) — $2.61 million
8. Zack and Miri Make a Porno (Weinstein) — $1.69 million
9. The Secret Life of Bees (Fox Searchlight) — $1.33 million
10. Soul Men (MGM) — $1.23 million

Our local theatres had 10pm showings last night, not midnight ones.

well good, no selling body parts and no giving everyone 1000 bucks for me. i knew it wouldn't be close to dark knights record. sure there might be sell outs in certain parts of the country, but not everywhere, and mark my words, this will drop like a tank next week

My wife loved it. She's a fan of the books, I've never read them, and I thought it was poorly written, poorly acted, and poorly directed. Given all of those handicaps, I didn't hate it, but I'll never *willingly* see it again.

What would be the exact opposite of this film for men? What would make us go out and watch regardless of what it was? Rambo, maybe?

I am so with you on this, Matthew. And not just with Sex Drive, but to a lesser extent, Penelope as well. Both inherently better movies than Twilight will ever be. As far as I'm concerned, this is going to be a much higher grossing replay of The Convenent (a bad comparison, I know, but that's how I see it). It just kills me that Summit Entertainment's highest grossing films this year have both been quite bad (And I'm referring to both Twilight and Never Back Down). If they threw the same marketing effort into both Sex Drive and Penelope, then I could probably support Summit's immediate marketing plans for this film, but I can't.

Still, it will top out well...even with a big drop:

OW: $65 million
Total Gross: $120 million

watchmen prob. Even if it gets shit reviews (i don't think it will but you never know), most of the fanboys will see it opening night even though they might be the only ones.

Having never read the books, whatever I know of these characters and plotlines come from the film "Twilight" and small tidbits from articles. I found the film to drag in many spots, with very dull character development, and even sparser character details on a cast that is simply too large for the screenwriter to incorporate into a film that should move with some energy and grace. Somehow the film made 2 hours feel like 3 hours.

The direction was also pretty unimaginative, and then I find out Catherine Hardwicke directed the film, and then I understood why I didn't think much of the direction because she's suited for perhaps half the material in the film (the interpersonal stuff), but not the action or vampire abilities on display.

I did like Kristen Stewart's screen presence as Bella, but she wasn't as compelling as I had hoped her character to be (perhaps the source material is at fault, I don't know), and Robert Pattinson appears to have been cast for his hair and penchant for brooding. To me, their on-screen chemistry wasn't too impressive (perhaps just my personal expectation given bits and pieces I'd gleaned of the general gist of the novels, or it could just be that Bella is 17 years old in this tale).

Obviously fans of the books will see the film, but for me, it was mostly tedious to sit through as the plot points felt too forced, and didn't develop as organically as they could have been because you just know the sequels are forthcoming.

I give it 2 stars, or a grade of C.

[QUOTE=Mercury&Solace;9087502]Nice!

Don't forget Fantasy Moguls

FINAL PREDICTIONS FOR THE WEEKEND OF NOVEMBER 21-23
1. NEW Twilight (Sony) — $64.3 million
2. NEW Bolt (Disney) — $40.2 million
3. Quantum of Solace (Sony) — $29.77 million


Looks like Twilight will get over $70 million possibly and Bolt wont even get to $30 million.

Given that 'bolt is a family movie, expect a bigger sat and sun total.

Box Office Mojo has this at $35.7 million for Friday. Holy shit!
It almost made its budget back in 1 day.

Hmm, an awful lot of enmity toward the book and movie by the young male DVD Talk demographic. What a surprise. I appreciate Nickee (and a few others) for attempting to present the other point of view.

Unlike many of you, I've read the book (and listened to the audio version) and the next one in the series, New Moon. And I'm not a Mormon housewife, I'm a mid 50s male. I read dozens of books a year and my favorite genres are fantasy and military sci-fi, but I also like romance (my favorite and most read book, by far, is Pride and Prejudice). I found the books enjoyable enough and will probably read the remaining two in the series eventually. Not my favorites to be sure, nor are they destined to be literary classics in the YA (Young Adult) field, but I found them entertaining enough.

That said, I wouldn't be surprised if the movie isn't as good as the book — I haven't seen it yet — as is usually the case with novels translated to the screen. But will tween and teen girls enjoy it? Very likely.

I don't get all the negativity here. Why does it matter if the movie does well? Who does it hurt if young girls have a book and a movie that they like, even if they aren't works of art? Even the much worshiped Dark Knight isn't exactly Citizen Kane, although one wouldn't know it from reading DVD Talk. Different strokes for different folks, people. Get over it.

Just curious, please don't bash for asking: Why all the hate for the director? She's made 4 movies right? Thirteen, lords of Dogtown, nativity story, twilight. (Have only seen twilight)

This is currently at 43% at Rotten Tomatoes.

Yes, and all four of them are terrible. Even Thirteen, which had promise, was ruined because she's pretentious but doesn't know how to shoot properly. She's like David Brent, but real, a woman, and makes movies.

Some awkward moments, and it dragged on and on, but I enjoyed it. Walked in blind, new nothing about the books. I'll probably end up getting the DVD. B-/ C+

Interesting that this is getting 'average' reviews... I may just go see it then. I was entertained by the books, however, thought the trailers for this were pretty terrible.

The film dragged for me.

I have a friend who's an English teacher and a huge fan of the books, and she said it captures the mood of the book well, and I trust her taste in these matters more than most. Might see it next weekend.

My wife told me that she read on Meyer's blog that New Moon (Book 2) has been greenlit.

I read that it was greenlit before this film even opened.

I enjoyed books 1-3, but haven't read the fourth. I decided to read the first one after seeing the trailer.

I never heard of this series before the hype for the movie started, but I ordered them as soon as I got home from the movie because I really enjoyed it. I will be there for the second.

Every book has been greenlit for a movie.
Are you kidding me? the studio won't be able to pump these out fast enough.

They won't be able to pump them out fast enough until the returns diminish. The movie did $70 million in the first weekend, but I am willing to bet the drop will be HUGE next weekend, and a second movie won't make as much as this one, because a lot of the fans seem to be less than thrilled with this one.