Hollywood’s Default Villain: Your Employer

Watching “24″ this week, I realized that our number one threat is multi-national corporations with battalions of hired killers on the payroll.  Similarly, “Michael Clayton,” “The International,” the new “State of Play” and many others have taught me that big companies assassinate their rivals, whistleblowers, policemen and random passersby with astonishing regularity.

I wish.  But then, I’m a trial lawyer and I could use a new house.

Sadly, the real world is much more esoteric than the portrait Hollywood paints, and the real threat is not quite so picturesque.  Instead of corporate death squads composed of hardboiled mercenaries with high tech assault rifles, the real killers are boring jihadi doofuses with dusty AKs, booby-trapped Fiats and the occasional boxcutter.   

Let’s stop and check the numbers.  Real terrorists, counting the victims of 9/11 and American losses in Iraq and Afghanistan: Over 7900 murdered. Victims of corporate murder: Zero. Nada. Zip. I would add in the number of Iraqis and Afghanis murdered by these folks, except that toll is beyond counting.  And to many liberals, their lives don’t seem to count anyway. (more…)

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Tags: 24, business, hollywood, liberals, michael clayton
Posted Apr 30th 2009 at 8:08 am in Entertainment, Politics | 1213463 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/kschlichter/2009/04/30/the-default-villain/Hollywood%27s+Default+Villain%3A+Your+Employer2009-04-30+15%3A08%3A26Kurt+Schlichter

Hollywood’s Biggest Easter Weekend Ever By As Much As 16%!: ‘Hannah Montana’ Down 40% on Saturday, But Still Becomes All-Time #2 Easter Weekend Opening With $34M!

She has a hit TV show on the Disney Channel, a pair of albums that have debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts, a concert tour with 69 sold-out arenas in North America, and now a second #1 movie in as many years. Miley Cyrus is the biggest teen star in the world.

With most of Hollywood (including myself) expecting an opening in the mid-$20M’s for Hannah Montana The Movie (Disney), Miley has surprised “grown-ups” with her box office clout once again. The picture opened with a heavily front-loaded $17.39M on Good Friday then dropped 40% on Saturday to an estimated $10.34M, and it will reach an estimated $34M by the end of Easter weekend, making it the all-time #2 opening for the bunny holiday weekend. My Friday night early 3-day projection was for $33.6M, but then I raised my number to $39M on Saturday. As it turns out, I should have stuck with my first pass. These young skewing movies are tricky to project, and the Easter Weekend, where Saturday traditionally drops from Friday, makes it even more complicated.

(more…)

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Tags: "Fast & Furious", 2 fast 2 furious, 3-d, adventureland, akira toriyama
Posted Apr 10th 2009 at 10:58 pm in Entertainment, Political Humor, Steve Mason's Box Office | 103286No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/04/10/easterestimates/Hollywood%27s+Biggest+Easter+Weekend+Ever+By+As+Much+As+16%25%21%3A+%27Hannah+Montana%27+Down+40%25+on+Saturday%2C+But+Still+Becomes+All-Time+%232+Easter+Weekend+Opening+With+%2434M%21+2009-04-11+05%3A58%3A08Steve+Mason

Lots of Cash in Hollywood Easter Baskets: ‘Hannah Montana’ and ‘Observe & Report’ Could Lift the Weekend to an All-time Best!

Easter weekend 2009 will almost certainly be an all-time record-breaker for Hollywood with a pair of new releases that could be among the top six bunny holiday openings of all time. Although neither Hannah Montana: The Movie (Disney) or the new R-rated comedy Observe & Report (Warner Bros) will challenge 2006’s all-time Easter weekend opening champion Scary Movie 4 ($40.2M), both new offerings look very solid in pre-release industry tracking, and they will be joined by some strong holdovers.

Universal’s Fast & Furious is likely to cross the finish line first for a second consecutive weekend, following up last weekend’s almost $71M with about $30M, which would mark a 58% drop. Still, it must be considered a triumph that the re-teaming of Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez may have $120M in US sales after just 10 days. That will mean that Fast & Furious will have almost doubled the domestic gross of The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift (the last film in the franchise), and this souped-up thrill ride could be headed for $160M US.

(more…)

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Tags: "Fast & Furious", 2 fast 2 furious, 3-d, adventureland, akira toriyama
Posted Apr 9th 2009 at 9:31 am in Entertainment, Steve Mason's Box Office | 101426One Commenthttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/04/09/easter-tracking/Lots+of+Cash+in+Hollywood+Easter+Baskets%3A+%27Hannah+Montana%27+and+%27Observe+%26amp%3B+Report%27+Could+Lift+the+Weekend+to+an+All-time+Best%21+2009-04-09+16%3A31%3A58Steve+Mason

The plight of 40+ Hollywood actresses; Don’t write off Julia Roberts because of DUPLICITY!

The movie business is not generally kind to women when they pass the age of 40, and Julia Roberts (now 41) is learning that lesson the hard way. The former Pretty Woman has returned to the big screen this weekend in Tony Gilroy’s Duplicity (Universal), and one prominent blogger wrote this headline:

Duplicity soft: Julia’s Comeback? Audiences Say Go Back

Julia Roberts and Clive Owen star in the fun, smart DUPLICITY, from writer/director Tony Gilroy

Roberts’ last starring role was in 2003’s Mona Lisa Smile ($63.8M domestic), and since then she has become a full-time Mom. Overall, she has 8 movies on her resume that have reached $100M in the US with her as a lead (I’m not including the Ocean’s Eleven franchise). Her most successful string of movies started in 1997 with My Best Friend’s Wedding ($127.1M cume) and ended with her Oscar winning performance in Erin Brockovich ($125.6M cume). During that span, she starred in 6 movies, generating an average of $115M in domestic box office.

(more…)

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Tags: 101 dalmations, 102 dalmations, 40+ actresses, ABBA, academy award winner
Posted Mar 22nd 2009 at 6:48 pm in Celebrity News, Entertainment, Media Criticism, Reviews, Steve Mason's Box Office | 8689872 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/03/22/juliaroberts/The+plight+of+40%2B+Hollywood+actresses%3B+Don%27t+write+off+Julia+Roberts+because+of+DUPLICITY%212009-03-23+01%3A48%3A38Steve+Mason

‘The International’ is no ‘Michael Clayton’

I saw The International a few days after I saw Fired Up and I’m trying to figure out how two lowbrow pictures can inspire such different reactions in me. Going in, I knew that both were peddled as screen fodder—something to fill the multiplex, not the mind or the heart. I had a good time at Fired Up despite its obvious weaknesses and flaws. The International left me cold.

I think the reason goes something like this: A comedy movie, at least of the Fired Up variety, is a series of jokes in the form of stories, one-liners, set pieces, sketches, situations, characters and reactions. If one doesn’t work for you, hang on, ‘cos there’ll be another coming right along, and you might like that one better. (more…)

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Tags: blake snyder, Clive Owen, fired up, michael clayton, save the cat
Posted Feb 28th 2009 at 1:02 pm in Reviews | 6879415 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mlong/2009/02/28/the-international-its-no-fired-up/%27The+International%27+is+no+%27Michael+Clayton%272009-02-28+21%3A02%3A13Mike+Long