| Wall Street stocks bounce back Shia LaBeouf and Michael Douglas have not proved especially bankable of late, but Money Never Sleeps has roused audiences to their charmsThe winnerThere had been plenty of skepticism over how a sequel to Wall Street would perform after an interlude of 23 years, and many questioned the wisdom of moving the release back from April to autumn to accommodate a world premiere at the Cannes film festival in May. In the end, backers 20th Century Fox will be reasonably happy with a debut of £1.78m for Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, including two days of previews totalling £583,000.Lead actor Shia LaBeouf had previously not proved especially bankable outside his Transformers and Indiana Jones franchises, with UK debuts for Eagle Eye and Disturbia running at a respective £1.10m (2008) and £728,000 (2007). Nor can Michael Douglas be relied on to deliver audiences: his thriller The Sentinel bowed to £628,000 in 2006, while comedy The In-Laws was even more lacklustre, beginning its run in 2003 with a puny £108,000. Douglas as Gordon Gekko, however, is clearly another matter – though Oliver Stone would not be well advised to go for a third Wall Street film.The runner-upPlenty of question marks likewise surround the release of Life As We Know It. Katherine Heigl has enjoyed a fair few romcom hits, but do audiences really warm to her? Josh Duhamel is easy on the eye, but is there any evidence he's a bona fide film star? And finally, do cinemagoers want to see popcorn flicks featuring orphaned kids?Taking that last question first, there was certainly nothing like a box-office stampede for the aptly named No Reservations, the remake of German hit Mostly Martha, starring Catherine Zeta Jones as a workaholic chef suddenly required to become a replacement mum for her niece. Ditto Raising Helen, in which glamorous fashion agent Kate Hudson takes on a similarly orphaned brood. Those two pictures debuted with a modest £513,000 and £209,000 respectively, despite the provision of compensatory romantic elements by Aaron Eckhart and John Corbett.In Life As We Know It, the romcom aspect is more front and centre and the much younger age of the orphan provides cute baby antics in place of unhappy children articulating their grief. That might help explain the film's respectable £986,000 debut this weekend, which is a better result than that achieved by Heigl's recent Killers, a little-regarded Ashton Kutcher action romcom that started its run in June with just under £700,000, plus £309,000 in previews. Depending how you look at it, Heigl's biggest opening was either The Ugly Truth, co-starring Gerard Butler (£1.98m including £727,000 in previews), or Knocked Up, with Seth Rogen (£1.58m without the benefit of previews).Discounting Transformers, Duhamel has enjoyed little traction at the UK box-office. The execrable When in Rome, co-starring Kristen Bell, opened with a dismal £61,500 from 164 screens in June.The also-ranBeaten into third place and with a distinctly unremarkable screen average of £1,711 is teary Zac Efron drama The Death and Life of Charlie St Cloud. Although Efron scored in High School Musical 3: Senior Year (the sole entry in that franchise to receive a theatrical release) and proved he was viable in his own right with comedy 17 Again (which debuted with £2.56m), his track record in dramas provided zero reassurance for his latest release. His previous crack at the genre, Me and Orson Welles, yielded an opening of just £166,000 from 187 screens. Viewed through that prism, Charlie St Cloud didn't do so badly. Universal opened it on almost exactly twice the screens of Orson Welles, achieving almost four times the initial gross with £643,000.Meanwhile Mr Nice, a biopic of cannabis smuggler Howard Marks, landed just outside the top 10 with £240,000 from 102 locations. Distributor E1 can content itself that the film's screen average is an OK £2,351.The audience winnersAfter its disappointing start the previous weekend, Made In Dagenham recovers ground with the lowest decline in the top 10, a fall of just 25%. For context, Eat Pray Love, which shares the strike-action flick's audience skew of 25-plus females, fell 50% on the previous frame. Made In Dagenham would undoubtedly have done even better had sunny weather on Sunday not prompted a dip in box-office revenue on the final day of the weekend. This affected all titles, but Made In Dagenham suffered disproportionately: its Friday-to-Friday drop was just 8%; Saturday-to-Saturday 17%; and Sunday-to-Sunday a hefty 47%. With Eat Pray Love those same comparisons show more even falls of 46%, 48% and 55%.The other film enjoying a modest drop is family-friendly 12A horror The Hole, the 3D flick from Joe Dante (Gremlins) fell 28%. In contrast Devil, produced by M Night Shyamalan, slumped from 9th place to 16th, shedding 59% in revenue.The indie sceneUnless you count Mr Nice, it's lean pickings currently for independent film with Winter's Bone, down at number 23, the top arthouse title, taking more on its fourth weekend of play than new competitors A Town Called Panic, Restrepo and Jackboots On Whitehall. That situation is unlikely to change, with documentary Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow the only new arthouse title arriving this weekend. The reason isn't hard to spot: David Fincher's acclaimed Facebook movie The Social Network, which opens on Friday, has distributors running scared. Sony's comfortably resourced picture is hardly an indie flick, but don't be surprised to see it playing at your local arthouse. Really, what else are they meant to programme?The futureThe market overall was dead level with the previous weekend but an alarming 38% down on the equivalent frame from 2009, when Pixar's Up topped the chart with a hefty £6.41m. Some ground should be made up this weekend with the arrival of this year's big 3D animated title for the October half-term holiday, Despicable Me. The film has grossed an impressive $246m in the US thus far so the pressure will be on Universal's UK arm to deliver a proportionate result. Meanwhile The Social Network has earned $46m in the US in just 10 days, a result that likewise raises expectations for the UK performance. Marketing activity will be intense.Top 10 films1. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, £1,784,309 from 444 sites (New)2. Life As We Know It, £985,558 from 395 sites (New)3. The Death And Life Of Charlie St Cloud, £643,368 from 376 sites (New)4. The Other Guys, £637,022 from 400 sites. Total: £7,131,6285. The Town, £582,953 from 326 sites. Total: £3,748,4616. The Hole In 3D, £507,254 from 325 sites. Total: £2,570,6787. Made In Dagenham, £507,161 from 357 sites. Total: £1,790,9308. Eat Pray Love, £403,938 from 388 sites. Total: £3,830,4979. Buried, £327,028 from 283 sites. Total: £1,552,55610. Toy Story 3, £261,359 from 399 sites. Total: £73,265,574How the other openers didMr Nice, 102 screens, £239,844Crook: It¹s Good To Be Bad, 15 screens, £17,120A Town Called Panic, 15 screens, £16,714Restrepo, 6 screens, £9,215 + £1,210 previewsJackboots On Whitehall, 38 screens, £4,714Freight, 3 screens, £2,435Oliver StoneMichael DouglasFilm industryCharles Gantguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Kim K worried men want limelight, not her Kim Kardashian is worried men only date her to get on TV. feeds.breakingnews.ie |
Clip joint: the boardroom This week on Clip joint, we're adjusting our ties, downing a slug of whisky and laying out the best boardroom scenes in cinemaYou're fired! There's nothing like a bracing encounter with Suralan and his fickle finger to remind us that boardroom action is a cross between theatre and gladiatorial combat. You don't even need "a head for business and a bod for sin" to appreciate the cinematic potential of the top table, a space that reeks of artificial leather, stale smoke and too much aftershave. Just a hint of financial impropriety, an uninvited guest or a simmering family feud can turn an executive suite into a cauldron of drama.There's something about the boardroom's familiar combination of wood panelling, high-sheen table and suited drones that's designed to put women in their place. It's the modern equivalent of the saloon – a place where the big boys go to duke it out with numbers instead of pistols. But if high finance bores you, the boardroom functions equally well as a confessional, a war room and a launchpad for wanton acts of self-destruction. Here's what's on the agenda today.1) Company founder Waring Hudsucker (Charles Durning) demonstrates the perfect boardroom exit with his immaculately timed act of self-defenestration in The Hudsucker Proxy.2) "Your continued existence is a mockery of morality." Fallen angels Ben Affleck and Matt Damon try to instil the fear of voodoo into some bemused executives in Dogma.3) Who thought sacking Brian Howard Clough was going to come cheap? Michael Sheen puts things his way in The Damned United.4) "I love a good roast!" Loose-tongued lawyer Jim Carrey's home truths go down a storm with the assembled losers, idiots, wimps and degenerates in Liar Liar. 5) A belligerent Ned Beatty summons the oratory skills of an Old Testament prophet, as he steamrollers poor old Peter Finch with his vision of the new world order in Network.Last week on Clip joint, John Carvill frightened Lyle Lovett as he presented cinema's craziest scenes of cow chaos with the finest clips of cattle stampedes. Here are his top picks from your suggestions: 1) Robin Williams's anguished cry of "It's a stampede!" earns Jumanji and shodfather a nomination.2) The inventiveness of the suggestion, and the gruesome nature of the scene, put Eisenstein's Strike (from ExFi) on the list.3) For turning the tables on "the livestock", Oh Brother Where ArtThou? and ExplorationStaircase deserve a nod.4) The river of cattle Gable and Russell nearly drown carries the day for The Tall Men and greatpoochini.5) But the winner of this week's cattle auction is secretcinema, for that priceless blast of sad-eyed silent comic Buster Keaton in Go West.• Fancy writing Clip joint? Email Catherine Shoard for more details; normal (or, hopefully, enhanced) email service will be resumed next week.Susannah Straughanguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Farrell lined up for 'Total Recall' remake Colin Farrell is being lined up to appear in a remake of 'Total Recall'. feeds.breakingnews.ie |
Ruffalo 'added to terrorism watchlist' Actor reportedly put on US advisory list after organising screenings of documentary criticising natural gas drillingActor Mark Ruffalo has reportedly been placed on a US terror advisory list after campaigning in support of a documentary highlighting the alleged dangers of natural gas drilling.Ruffalo attracted the attention of Pennsylvania's Office of Homeland Security when he organised screenings for Gasland, which won the special jury prize at this year's Sundance film festival, and said he was concerned about the impact of drilling on water supplies. The actor has addressed the subject in the latest edition of American GQ.Gasland, directed by Josh Fox, follows the film-maker as he visits communities in Pennsylvania where natural gas has been drilled. Fox decided to document his trip after a natural gas company wrote to him in 2008 offering to lease his family's land in Milanville, Pennsylvania for $100,000 (£64,000).The documentary attracted attention for a particular scene in which a local man shows that he is able to set his tapwater on fire (see 2.25 of video, above). Others claim they are suffering from numerous health issues due – they believe – to their water having been contaminated.Gasland has been fiercely opposed by the natural gas industry. A pro-oil and gas organisation, Energy in Depth, has published a list of claimed factual inaccuracies in the documentary.DocumentaryGasEnergyFossil fuelsGlobal terrorismTerrorism policyUnited StatesBen Childguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |