Big Gay Picture Show

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema and more

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema & more

Mama Tops The US Box Office, With Arnie’s Last Stand Sinking

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mama-poster-largeWhile many had tipped Zero Dark Thirty to top the US box office again, the Guillermo Del Toro produced horror, Mama, outpaced expectations to easily win the the weekend with $28.1 million in its first three days. Some had even predicted disaster for Mama, but in the end it gave Jessica Chastain a double whammy, as she stars in both the number one and two movies, Mama and Zero Dark Thirty.

Despite the presence of Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe and Catherine Zeta Jones, Broken City could only make it to 5th spot with $9.0 million, far less than the makers would have hoped, even if January has become a bit of a dumping ground for studio product that they don’t have much hope for.

The final new entry was also the biggest disappointment. Many had high hopes for Arnie’s return to leading action man status, The Last Stand, but in the end it could only gross $6.3 and place tenth on the chart on its opening weekend. It’ll certainly be a disappointment for Schwarzenegger, who was hoping to come back with a bang.

However the biggest winner this weekend was Silver Linings Playbook, which thanks to its Oscar nomination added 1,700 screens and rose up to third place on the chart. It had its biggest weekend yet of $11.3 million on its tenth week of release.

Take a look below for the US box office top 10 for the weekend of January 18th-20th.

Rank Title Weekend Gross (millions) Total Gross to date (millions)
1 Mama $28.1 $28.1
2 Zero Dark Thirty $17.6 $55.9
3 Silver Linings Playbook $11.3 $55.3
4 Gangster Squad $9.1 $32.2
5 Broken City $9.0 $9.0
6 A Haunted House $8.3 $29.9
7 Django Unchained $8.2 $138.3
8 Les Miserables $7.8 $130.3
9 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey $6.4 $287.3
10 The Last Stand $6.3 $6.3
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Zero Dark Thirty Tops The US Box Office, With A Haunted House & Gangster Squad The Runners Up

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zero-dark-thirty-posterIn its first week of wide release, Zero Dark Thirty has topped the US Box Office chart, taking $24 million as it expanded onto over 2,800 screens from just over a hundred. Its success came as a surprise to many, who’d expected Gangster Squad to top the chart.

In the end the gangster noir placed third with $16.7 million, which isn’t a bad start, but probably not what Warner was hoping for its star studded movie, which has had a lot of buzz ever since the screenplay first started doing the rounds in Hollywood.

Proving spoof horror can still find an audience, the Marlon Wayans starring A Haunted House placed second on the chart with $18.8 million.

Those were the only new entries on the chart, but a couple films got a bump from the Oscar nominations, with Lincoln rising 16% from the previous weekend to take its US takings across the $150 million mark. Silver Linings Playbook also got a 38% bump to return to the top 10, thanks to its eight Oscar nominations.

Take a look below for the US box office top 10 for the weekend of January 11th-13th.

Rank Title Weekend Gross (millions) Total Gross to date (millions)
1 Zero Dark Thirty $24.0 $29.4
2 A Haunted House $18.8 $18.8
3 Gangster Squad $16.7 $16.7
4 Django Unchained $11.0 $125.3
5 Les Miserables $10.1 $119.2
6 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey $9.0 $278.1
7 Lincoln $6.3 $152.5
8 Parental Guidance $6.1 $60.6
9 Texas Chainsaw 3D $5.1 $30.7
10 Silver Linings Playbook $5.0 $41.3
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Texas Chainsaw 3D Tops The US Box Office

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Texas-Chainsaw-3DGoing into this weekend, most box office watcher had expected Django Unchained and The Hobbit to fight it out for the top spot, with few thinking Texas Chainsaw 3D would be in the mix. In the end it was the horror movie that topped the chart with $23 million, far more than most expected.

However Django and Les Miserables had something to cheer about, as they both crossed the $100 million mark in the US.

There was one other first timer on the top 10 list, the Gus Van Sant movie Promised Land. The Matt Damon and John Krasinski starring film expanded from 22 screens to over 1,600 and took $4.3 million, which is a decent but unremarkable expansion.

Take a look below for the US box office top 10 for the weekend of January 4th-6th.

Rank Title Weekend Gross (millions) Total Gross to date (millions)
1 Texas Chainsaw 3D $23.0 $23.0
2 Django Unchained $20.0 $106.3
3 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey $17.5 $263.8
4 Les Miserables $16.1 $103.6
5 Parental Guidance $10.1 $52.7
6 Jack Reacher $9.3 $64.8
7 This Is 40 $8.5 $54.6
8 Lincoln $5.2 $143.9
9 The Guilt Trip $4.5 $31.2
10 Promised Land $4.3 $4.6
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Hobbit Takes Weekend US Box Office, But Les Miserables & Django Still Strong

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The-Hobbit-poster-1Despite some stiff competition from newbies Les Miserables and Django Unchained, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey held them them off to top the box office for a third weekend, taking another $32 million. That takes its US total past the $200 million mark, while worldwide it moves past $600 million.

Although the new entries couldn’t beat The Hobbit, Les Miserables, Django Unchained and Parental Guidance have all outpaced most people’s expectations since their Christmas Day release. Django took second place over the weekend with $30 million and $64 million since its release. With many expecting the film to have a strong awards run, it should continue to do well over the coming weeks.

Les Miserables was in third spot with $28 million and $67 million since its release. It’s one of the strongest starts ever for a musical and while the film began to tire after its incredibly strong first couple of days, it still suggests the movie will have legs over the coming weeks, especially if it scores a few Oscar nominations.

The Bette Midler and Billy Crystal comedy Parental Guidance also had a stronger than expected showing with $14.8 million over the weekend and $29.5 million since Christmas. Although not an amazing take, it’s good for a family comedy with older leads and has had decent reaction from audiences.

Take a look below for the US box office top 10 for the weekend of December 28th-30th.

Rank Title Weekend Gross (millions) Total Gross to date (millions)
1 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey $32.9 $222.7
2 Django Unchained $30.6 $64.0
3 Les Miserables $28.0 $67.4
4 Parental Guidance $14.8 $29.5
5 Jack Reacher $14.0 $44.6
6 This Is 40 $13.1 $37.1
7 Lincoln $7.5 $132.0
8 The Guilt Trip $6.7 $21.1
9 Monsters, Inc (3D) $6.3 $18.4
10 Rise Of The Guardians $4.9 $90.2
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Hobbit Stays Atop The US Box Office, With New Movies Struggling

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The-Hobbit-poster-1The weekend before Christmas is often fairly quiet, but this year a slew of new movies were released, hoping to line themselves up for the festive period (when they’ll be joined by the likes of Les Miserables and Django Unchained). However none of the new entries could beat the Hobbit, which itself isn’t holding up as well as many had hoped.

It dropped 56% from its first weekend, adding $36.7 million to take its total to $149.9 million. While by no means a disaster (and it’s still doing good business internationally), it not as much as many had expected and significantly lower than the second and third Lord Of The Rings movies had made at this stage.

The Tom Cruise starrer Jack Reacher took $15.6 million to take second spot on the chart, lower than most of the star’s movies, but about what many had expected, especially for the weekend it was release. In third place is Judd Apatow’s This Is 40, which took $12 million to place fourth. Again it could be worse, but many had hoped for more from the sort-of Knocked Up sequel.

Barbra Streisand’s first starring role since 1996’s The Mirror Has Two Faces, The Guilt Trip, landed with a thud taking $5.3 million to place sixth, despite the presence of Seth Rogen. Middling to bad reviews certainly didn’t help. The 3D re-release of Monster’s Inc. took seventh spot with $5 million, suggesting interest in 3D versions of Disney movies is waning.

The final new nationwide release, Cirque Du Soleil: Worlds Away, placed outside the top 10 at number 11, but it’s difficult to judge exactly how well it did, due to the fact that it only played on 840 screens and had just two showing a day. That means the screenings were fairly well attended, but it’s difficult to judge it against other movies as it was screened in a different way. We’ll be able to tell more in the next few weeks whether the film – which is partway between narrative and concert movie – will be a success.

Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty also did well in its opening very limited release, taking $410,000 on just five screens, suggesting it will do very well as it expands onto more screens.

Take a look below for the US box office top 10 for the weekend of December 21st-23rd.

Rank Title Weekend Gross (millions) Total Gross to date (millions)
1 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey $36.7 $149.8
2 Jack Reacher $15.6 $15.6
3 This Is 40 $12.0 $12.0
4 Rise Of The Guardians $5.9 $79.6
5 Lincoln $5.6 $116.7
6 The Guilt Trip $5.3 $7.4
7 Monsters, Inc (3D) $5.0 $6.5
8 Skyfall $4.7 $279.9
9 Life Of Pi $3.8 $76.1
10 The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 $2.6 $281.6
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Hobbit Takes December US Box Office Record With $84m

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The-Hobbit-poster-1There was no doubt that The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey would top US the box office in its first weekend of release. The only real question was how big it would be. The film has taken $84.7 million in its first three days, which is a record for a December weekend, beating out the opening of I Am Legend, which took $77.2 million back in 2007.

Despite this, some are still seeing The Hobbit as an underperformer, simply because many thought it should have cracked $100 million. However December is an unusual month as while most of the year you have to get what you can in the first few days and then hope the drop off is slow, the festive season tends to give movies longer legs than they’d usually have, and so The Hobbit is likely to continue to find audiences through the New Year, especially as it’s getting strong word of mouth.

As for whether the higher frame rate screenings have made a difference, Warner hasn’t released a breakdown, although 49% of tickets were sold across all the 3D playdates, and IMAX has reported a significantly higher per screen average for venues showing the movie at 48fps. Anecdotal evidence suggests there’s still confusion over the format, and that some people are being put off by bad notices given to HFR and are assuming all screenings are in that format, while others apparently don’t realise HFR is also in 3D.

Take a look below for the US box office top 10 for the weekend of December 14th-16th.

Rank Title Weekend Gross (millions) Total Gross to date (millions)
1 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey $84.7 $84.7
2 Rise Of The Guardians $7.4 $71.3
3 Lincoln $7.2 $107.9
4 Skyfall $7.0 $272.2
5 Life Of Pi $5.4 $69.5
6 The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 $5.1 $276.8
7 Wreck-It Ralph $3.2 $168.7
8 Playing For Keeps $3.2 $10.8
9 Red Dawn $2.3 $40.8
10 Silver Linings Playbook $2.0 $16.9
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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Cinema)

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After the gargantuan success of Lord Of The Rings, it was always going to be an uphill battle for The Hobbit to live up to those films’ critical success. That’s already been proved by the rather mixed reaction of the early reviews for An Unexpected Journey.

However, while there are definitely a few issues with the movie, for my money this is a largely successful trip back to Middle Earth, although as with Peter Jackson’s earlier fantasy movies, we’re only really going to be able to judge things once the final movie is released (people may have liked Fellowship and Two Towers, but if Return Of The King had been a load of old balls, it would have completely ruined the entire trilogy, as they’re essentially one very, very long film). [Read more…]

Great Hobbit 13-Minute Featurette Arrives

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It’s less than a week until The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey hits cinemas. There’s a huge amount of anticipation and for those who can’t get enough on the film, there’s a great new 13-minute featurette, which includes plenty of new footage from the movie, as well as some interesting behind-the-scenes info on the making of the movie.

The movie has been getting slightly mixed notices – no one’s said it’s bad, but that perhaps it doesn’t quite hit the ridiculously high bar set by Lord Of The Ring, although it will be difficult to fully judge it until we’ve seen all three movies. We’ll all get to see what we think on December 13th.

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First Hobbit: There & Back Again Image Sees Orlando Bloom Back As Legolas

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We’ve had quite a few images from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which hits cinemas on December 13th, but now we’re jumping forward to the third film, The Hobbit: There & Back Again, with the first pic from that movie arriving via EW. And it’ll be exciting for all those who swooned over Legolas in Lord Of The Rings, as it shows Orlando Bloom back in Middle Earth for more elf-ness.

As many will know, Legolas isn’t in the book, so what’s he doing in the movie? Peter Jackson says, “He’s [elven king] Thranduil’s son, and Thranduil is one of the characters in The Hobbit, and because elves are immortal it makes sense Legolas would be part of the sequence in the Woodland Realm.” In the pic Legolas is one of the Hobbit trilogy’s new human faces, Laketown warrior Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans).

EW also has a rather cool new Unexpected Journey shot, showing Gandalf meeting the Goblin King (played by Dame Edna herself, Barry Humphries).

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Listen To Howard Shore’s Full Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Score

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It’s less than two weeks now until we’ll all be able to go to the cinema and see whether Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be a triumphant return to Middle Earth (the buzz is certainly good).

So to prepare, do you fancy listening to the score of the movie? A couple of weeks ago Rolling Stone had Neill Finn’s song, The Song of the Lonely Mountain, which will play over the end credits, and now they’ve got the full score, which you can listen to by clicking here.

It certainly sounds like Howard Shore has been channelling the same muse he used to such amazing effect on the first films. Indeed the Lord Of The Rings scores have been an astonishing success in their own right, played in concert around the world with full orchestras.

Although you do have to imagine what we’ll see when the movie is playing, its still works exceedingly well in isolation.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey hits cinemas on December 13th.

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