Showing posts with label Cameron Diaz. Show all posts
‘Other Woman’ Grabs Box Office Crown From ‘Captain America’
“The Other Woman,” a romantic comedy from 21st Century Fox Inc. (FOXA) starring Cameron Diaz, edged aside “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” the returning superhero blockbuster, to take first place in its weekend debut.
The new movie collected $24.7 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters, Rentrak Corp. (RENT)said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. “The Winter Soldier” generated $16 million for Walt Disney (DIS) Co. to place second after three weeks at the top. “Heaven Is for Real,” the returning faith-based movie from Sony Corp. starring Greg Kinnear, had receipts of $13.8 million to place third.
“The Other Woman,” which opened to negative reviews, achieved the top spot on a traditionally slow weekend in Hollywood’s calendar ahead of the summer blockbuster season this week that kicks off with the release of “The Amazing Spider-Man 2.” The Diaz movie was projected to collect $16.5 million by BoxOffice.com, a downgrade from the researcher’s earlier forecast of $18 million.
“This weekend is often thought of as the calm before the storm,” said Phil Contrino, chief analyst at BoxOffice.com. “‘The Other Woman’ seems smart counterprogramming, with the market ready for something aimed at women.”
“The Other Woman,” which also features Leslie Mann and Kate Upton, tells the story of Carly (Diaz), who discovers not only that her boyfriend is married but is also having another affair. All three women team up to plot mutual revenge on the three-timer.
‘Winter Soldier’
The movie generated a positive rating of just 24 percent on Rottentomatoes.com., a review aggregator.
“Diaz has her hands full,” wrote Stephen Holden in the New York Times. “This female revenge comedy is so dumb, lazy, clumsily assembled and unoriginal, it could crush any actor forced to execute its leaden slapstick gags and mouth its crude, humorless dialogue.”
The movie follows Diaz’s last outing, “The Counselor,” the thriller released by Fox in October, which collected a disappointing $7.8 million in its debut.
Since its release on April 4, in the biggest opening of the year, “The Winter Soldier” has taken in $208.8 million domestically as of April 24, according to Box Office Mojo. The success of the film highlights the popularity of Disney’s Marvel superheroes and the decision to release a blockbuster earlier than usual before the summer rush of competing pictures. It was forecast to garner $15.3 million this past weekend.
Religious Movies
The movie picks up the story of super-soldier Steve Rogers, played by Chris Evans, who battles a Soviet agent known as the Winter Soldier. Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, it cost an estimated $170 million to produce, according to Box Office Mojo.
“Heaven Is for Real” has been buoyed by favorable reviews and the swell of biblical and religion-based movies released earlier this year that have also achieved success, including “Son of God” from Fox and “Noah” from Paramount Pictures. The movie, projected to collect $15.2 million in its second weekend by BoxOffice.com, has taken in $38.1 million domestically as of April 24, according to Box Office Mojo.
The film features Kinnear as a small-town father who backs up his young son after the boy glimpses the afterlife during a near-death experience.
‘Brick Mansions’
“Transcendence,” the sci-fi thriller starring Johnny Depp, slipped to sixth place, to collect $4.1 million for Warner Bros. It was projected to garner $4.7 million. After missing estimates in its debut, Warner Bros. said the movie had failed to connect with audiences, and leaves Depp still seeking a comeback film after “The Lone Ranger,” his tentpole picture with Disney, flopped last summer.
“Transcendence” took in $10.7 million in its opening weekend in China, just shy of its domestic debut of $10.9 million, as Depp made a promotional visit to the country.
In the two other new releases this past weekend, “Brick Mansions” from Relativity Media LLC collected $9.6 million to place fifth.
It features the late Paul Walker as an undercover Detroit cop who works with an ex-con to bring down a crime lord and thwart his plot to devastate the entire city. It garnered a 29 percent positive rating on Rottentomatoes.com and was estimated to collect $8.5 million.
Revenue Rises
“The Quiet Ones” ranked seventh, taking in $4 million for Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (LGF) The horror film, about a university professor and a team of students who conduct an experiment on a young woman, and uncover terrifying forces in the process, had been forecast to collect $4.8 million. It got a 39 percent favorable rating on Rottentomatoes.com.
Weekend revenue for the top 10 films rose 23 percent to $96.4 million from the year-earlier period, Rentrak said. Domestic box-office sales year to date are $3.14 billion, up 9.4 percent from a year earlier.
The following table has U.S. movie box-office figures provided by studios to Rentrak. The amounts are based on gross ticket sales for April 25 and April 26 and estimates for yesterday.
Rev. Pct. Avg./ Total
Movie (mln) Chg. Theaters Theater (mln) Wks
===============================================================
1 THE OTHER WOMAN $24.7 -- 3,205 $7,707 $24.7 1
2 CAPTAIN AMERICA 16.0 -37 3,620 4,433 224.9 4
3 HEAVEN IS FOR REAL 13.8 -39 2,705 5,102 51.9 2
4 RIO 2 13.7 -38 3,703 3,686 96.2 3
5 BRICK MANSIONS 9.6 -- 2,647 3,627 9.6 1
6 TRANSCENDENCE 4.1 -62 3,455 1,188 18.5 2
7 THE QUIET ONES 4.0 -- 2,027 1,973 4.0 1
8 BEARS 3.61 -25 1,720 2,097 11.2 2
9 DIVERGENT 3.6 -36 2,066 1,742 139.5 6
10 HAUNTED HOUSE 3.3 -63 2,310 1,413 14.2 2
Top 10 Films Grosses
This Week Year Ago Pct.
(mln) (mln) Chg.
===================================
$96.4 $78.1 +23.4
Year-to-date Revenue
2014 2013
YTD YTD Pct.
(mln) (mln) Chg.
==================================
$3,137 $2,867 +9.4
Source: Rentrak Corp.
To contact the reporter on this story: Anousha Sakoui in London at asakoui@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.netBen Livesey, Sylvia Wier, Bruce Rule
Source:
Review: The Other Woman serves revenge up cold Cameron Diaz does her best but can’t salvage chick flick Cameron Diaz, left, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in The Other Woman. He’s just another two-timing cad.
 |
Cameron Diaz, left, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in The Other Woman. He’s just another two-timing cad.
The Other Woman
Two stars out of five
Starring: Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann, Kate Upton, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Nicki Minaj
Directed by: Nick Cassavetes
Running time: 109 minutesVANCOUVER — A head-on collision between romantic comedy’s two-seater and that steely semi-trailer called the revenge movie, The Other Woman is a mangled mess that may leave the audience slack-jawed and shocked at the horror of Nick Cassavetes’ latest cruise down Main Street.
Yet, for all the unforgivable flaws in this sprawling, overly long and poorly edited chick flick, there’s something about Cameron Diaz that makes it watchable.
Over the past two decades, the actress who was unveiled to the public as the romantic interest in The Mask and went on to widespread fame in the wake of My Best Friend’s Wedding back in the 1990s has evolved from single note side player to multi-dimensional heroine.
What’s even more impressive is that Diaz, unlike so many of her peers, has embraced her age and as a result, given women of her generation an admirable role model that doesn’t seek out plumping injections and catalogue embryos.
Her turn in The Other Woman is a perfect case in point. Diaz plays Carly Whitten, a high-profile lawyer who’s been there and done all kinds of men. Strong-willed, independent and entirely no-nonsense, Carly thinks she’s found a suitable boyfriend in Mark King (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), a rich businessman with his own house in Connecticut and worldliness that complements her own joie de vivre.
We see them fall in love in the opening montage, but when Carly decides to visit Mark unannounced at his suburban mansion, she discovers he’s not the man she thought he was. He’s just another two-timing cad fooling around on his sweet, non-threatening, all-trusting wife Kate (Leslie Mann).
In most studio movies, the plot would usually devolve into a hissy cat fight between the two women, but this screenplay by Melissa Stack looks to such early ’80s movies as Working Girl and 9 to 5 for inspiration as it moves into the far more interesting terrain of revenge movie.
When Carly and Kate discover Mark has a third lover (Kate Upton), the three gals decide to work together and take him down. It sounds pretty simple and straightforward, but it’s somewhat revolutionary because women aren’t known to work together in Hollywood genre. Men can be brothers in arms, but women are usually portrayed as squabbling, screaming sisters who will scratch out the eyes of any hussy looking to steal her man.
Diaz’s character even acknowledges this in the opening act when she tells Kate she doesn’t do married men because she’s not into backstabbing her own sex: It only gives jerks an ego boost at the expense of the sisterhood.
Carly is too smart for that, and watching Diaz continue to shed her soft, goofy, nice-girl skin in favour of a tougher, stronger persona is inspiring because she really owns it. Sadly, Leslie Mann can’t keep up. Absently channelling the spirit of Lucille Ball, Mann tries to be screwball but comes off as inexcusably ditzy. It’s tiring to watch because it makes no emotional sense.
Then again, there are huge chunks of this movie that defy reason — from their continuing desire to sleep with the festering slimeball to the palpable lack of any real love throughout the entire film.
Cassavetes can’t bring any psychological order to the confusion. The director of the much-hailed Notebook doesn’t seem to understand the wrinkle in this treacle is its ability to question gender expectation, so he turns away from the real issues in favour of tedious set pieces. The gals still get the three-timing Lothario, but after all that hard work from these talented women, Cassavetes delivers a dud climax because he never hits the right spot.
Source:
|
'Annie' Trailer Appears Online: Watch
Quvenzhane Wallis, Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz get the unenviable task of updating the classic musical.
It's a hard knock life -- for die-hard Annie fans.
The first trailer for Columbia's modern-day update of the classic musical debuted Wednesday, offering a preview of what theatergoers can expect come Christmastime.
Like the classic 1977 musical, Annie centers on 11-year-old little orphan Annie (Beasts of the Southern Wild's Quvenzhane Wallis), who has a chance encounter with wealthy businessman Benjamin Stacks (Jamie Foxx), an update on the Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks character. Turns out Benjamin, who's running for mayor, needs a feel-good story to boost his stock; that's where Annie comes in. Meanwhile, Cameron Diaz takes on the mean-spirited orphanage owner Miss Hannigan.
And how do they update the story for 2014? By dropping in obligatory references to George Clooney (Miss Hannigan) and Facebook (Miss Hannigan, again).
Will Gluck (Easy A, Friends With Benefits, TV's The Michael J. Fox Show) directed the feature, which is produced by Jay Z and Will Smith. Rose Byrne and Bobby Canavale co-star. As for the songs, Jay Z has popified and autotuned "It's a Hard Knock Life" and "Tomorrow," so expect more of that when Annie hits theaters Dec. 19.
News Source: www.billboard.com
.jpg)
