FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH producer already talking sequel, while prepping NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET reboot!

After I posted my original Early Estimates column on Big Hollywood last night, I received a Facebook message from Platinum Dunes partner and Friday the Thirteenth producer Rob Fuller saying “I hope you’re right.” My Friday estimate last night was for a robust $20M, and Variety is reporting $19.3M this morning. “We were hoping to do $10M-$11M yesterday,” he told me this morning.  “In our wildest dreams we couldn’t have imagined that.”

I originally projected $51.25M for the 4-day weekend on Friday night, amd some analysts have the new Jason Voorhies saga sailing higher basec on early rerturns (I am now projecting $47M for 4 days). The combination of Valentine’s Day and a school holiday Monday for President’s Day make predicting the movie’s long weekend haul a tricky call, but regardless, this is great news for Warner Bros, which has the domestic distribution rights, Paramount, handling international distribution, and Platinum Dunes.

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Tags: andrew form, box office, fiasco heights, frank miller, freddy krueger
Posted Feb 14th 2009 at 1:52 pm in Entertainment, Steve Mason's Box Office | 5107013 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/02/14/rob-fuller/FRIDAY+THE+THIRTEENTH+producer+already+talking+sequel%2C+while+prepping+NIGHTMARE+ON+ELM+STREET+reboot%212009-02-14+21%3A52%3A03Steve+Mason

Holy Terror, Batman

Part One:

In 2006, I had a minor low pressure area in my brain and conceived a P.R. campaign directed against Islamo-fascism which I posted on Nate Tabor’s “The Conservative Voice.”  The results were swift and devastating.  Like any other branch of the entertainment industry, liberalism is the default position of most comic book creators and fans.

Liberalism has a long and honorable history in comics, nowhere more apparent than in the groundbreaking Green Lantern/Green Arrow comics by Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams which dealt with drug addiction, the trial of the Chicago Seven, corporate pollution and overpopulation. In “Death Be My Destiny,” O’Neil posited a planet called Maltus where over-population was out of control. Denny was channeling the Reverend Thomas Malthus, a nineteenth-century Brit who predicted a Paul Erlich-like doom. In “The Population Bomb” Erlich predicted: “In the 1970s and 1980s . . . hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now.” (more…)

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Tags: 300, Badger, Chicago Seven, Comic Books, Dark Horse
Posted Jan 29th 2009 at 12:51 pm in Entertainment, Media Criticism, Politics | 2859758 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mbaron/2009/01/29/schadenfreude-in-the-kultursmog-mike-baron/Holy+Terror%2C+Batman2009-01-29+20%3A51%3A49Mike+Baron

Warner Bros reaches $1.74 billion domestic surpassing Sony’s record set in 2006!; MARLEY & ME headed for $51.8M 4-Day with BEN BUTTON at $39.1M & BEDTIME STORIES at $38.6M!; REV ROAD with Best PTA of 2008!

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SUNDAY MORNING: Dog lovers everywhere united to make Fox’s Marley & Me the #1 Christmas weekend movie with an expected $51.18M in the Thursday-thru-Sunday period for a Per Theatre Average of $14,888. Pre-opening industry tracking pointed to a clear win for Bedtime Stories (Disney), but it was the lovable lab who finished on top.

As an aside, all of us who read John Grogan’s extraordinarily well-written novel should have seen this coming. The book is a joy, and anyone who has a dog, or has ever had a dog, could easily identify with the struggles and pleasures of having a 4-legged member of the family.

The success of Marley slightly mitigates a disastrous year for Fox. Its year started out well enough riding the huge success of 2007 release Alvin & the Chipmunks into January ($70M of Alvin’s gross landed in this calendar year). The January 18 release of chick-flick 27 Dresses scored for Katherine Heigl ($76.8M in the US), then Jumper was a good solid February hit, topping $80M, followed by the wildly successful Horton Hears a Who ($154.5M domestic). Little did Fox know that when the Ashton Kutcher-Cameron Diaz comedy What Happens in Vegas played solidly to the tune of $80.2M domestic starting in May, it would be its last legit hit until Christmas’ Marley & Me. This is a huge, redemptive win for Fox, and its sentimental tear-jerker of a dog movie could near $100M domestic by Sunday.

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Tags: academy award, adam sandler, adam shankman, Amy Adams, bedtime stories
Posted Dec 25th 2008 at 10:27 pm in Steve Mason's Box Office | 64412 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2008/12/25/exclusive-christmas/Warner+Bros+reaches+%241.74+billion+domestic+surpassing+Sony%27s+record+set+in+2006%21%3B+MARLEY+%26amp%3B+ME+headed+for+%2451.8M+4-Day+with+BEN+BUTTON+at+%2439.1M+%26amp%3B+BEDTIME+STORIES+at+%2438.6M%21%3B+REV+ROAD+with+Best+PTA+of+2008%212008-12-26+05%3A27%3A38Steve+Mason