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“Oblivion” is the No. 1 film worldwide for the 2nd week in a row with an estimated weekend gross of $71.9 million. The worldwide cume now stands at $150.2 million. Also G.I. Joe: Retaliation passed the $200 million mark internationally, and $300 million mark worldwide, this weekend.
The top-12 domestic weekend box office estimates listed in descending order, per data collected as of Sunday, April 21, 2013 are below.
1. Oblivion – Universal – $38.2M
2. 42 – Warner Bros. – $18.0M
3. Croods, The – 20th Century Fox – $9.5M
4. Scary Movie 5 – The Weinstein Company – $6.3M
5. GI Joe: Retaliation – Paramount – $5.8M
6. Place Beyond the Pines, The – Focus Features – $4.7M
7. Olympus Has Fallen – FilmDistrict – $4.5M
8. Evil Dead – Sony – $4.1M
9. Jurassic Park – Universal – $4.0M
10. Oz The Great and Powerful – Disney – $3.0M
11. Tyler Perry’s Temptation – Lionsgate – $2.2M
12. Home Run – IDP/Samuel Goldwyn Films – $1.6M
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Just a few years ago, had I written a piece entitled “There are no films guaranteed to gross $1 billion this year”, you likely would have laughed and said “Of course not!”. As recently as 2010, the idea that any movie could or would gross $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales was somewhat of a pipe dream.
From 1997 to 2006, there were just two films to reach that milestone, they being Titanic (the biggest movie of all-time with a seemingly insurmountable $1.8 billion) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, the Oscar-winning chapter to what can be argued is the finest screen trilogy of our time (that’s a debate for another day). In 2006, we saw the powerhouse success of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest which parlayed the unexpected popularity of the first film into an even larger haul for its sequel, breaking the domestic opening weekend record at the time ($135 million) and earning a massive $423 million in America and $642 million overseas.
In 2008, The Dark Knight pulled another “massively popular sequel to unexpectedly well-liked original” trick to the tune of $533 million in America (good for the second biggest grosser of all time in America, if only for a year) and just over $1 billion worldwide despite not playing in China due to that pesky “Chinese gangster hides Gotham mob money” subplot. 2009 saw James Cameron do that trick that James Cameron does yet again, with Avatar earning $1 billion worldwide in about seventeen days and going on to earn an eye-popping $2.7 billion.
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“Oblivion” opens at No. 1 worldwide with an estimated weekend gross of $61.1 million from 52 international markets. The film was No.1 in 48 of the 52 markets and opens in the US and Canada this coming Friday. Also, 20th Century Fox International crossed the $1 billion mark on April 12. They are the first distributor to do so in 2013 and this is the 10th year in a row they have surpassed this milestone.”
The top-12 domestic weekend box office estimates listed in descending order, per data collected as of Sunday, April 14, 2013 are below.
1. 42 – Warner Bros. – $27.2M
2. Scary Movie 5 – The Weinstein Company – $15.2M
3. Croods, The – 20th Century Fox – $13.2M
4. GI Joe: Retaliation – Paramount – $10.8M
5. Evil Dead – Sony – $9.5M
6. Jurassic Park – Universal – $8.8M
7. Olympus Has Fallen – FilmDistrict – $7.3M
8. Oz The Great and Powerful – Disney – $4.9M
9. Tyler Perry’s Temptation – Lionsgate – $4.5M
10. Place Beyond the Pines, The – Focus Features – $4.1M
11. Host, The – Open Road – $2.4M
12. Call, The – Sony – $1.9M
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Following in the footsteps of the record-breaking Marvel Studios’ release, “Marvel’s The Avengers,” production on the highly anticipated release, Marvel’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” has commenced in Los Angeles, Calif., with production also including locations in Cleveland, Ohio, and Washington D.C. Directing the film is the team of Anthony and Joe Russo (“Welcome to Collinwood”) from a screenplay written by Christopher Markus (“Captain America: The First Avenger”) & Stephen McFeely (“Captain America: The First Avenger”). Marvel’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” returns Chris Evans (“Captain America: The First Avenger,” “Marvel’s The Avengers”) as the iconic Super Hero character Steve Rogers/Captain America, along with Scarlett Johansson (“Marvel’s The Avengers,” “Iron Man 2”) as Black Widow and Samuel L. Jackson (“Marvel’s The Avengers,” “Iron Man 2”) as Nick Fury. In addition, film icon Robert Redford has joined the all-star cast as Agent Alexander Pierce, a senior leader within the S.H.I.E.L.D. organization. “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” is set for release in the U.S. on April 4, 2014.
“Captain America: The Winter Soldier” will pick-up where “Marvel’s The Avengers” left off, as Steve Rogers struggles to embrace his role in the modern world and teams up with Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, to battle a powerful yet shadowy enemy in present-day Washington, D.C.
Based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series, first published in 1941, Marvel’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” features an outstanding supporting cast that includes Sebastian Stan (“Captain America: The First Avenger,” “Black Swan”) as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier, Anthony Mackie (“The Hurt Locker,” “Million Dollar Baby”) as Sam Wilson/Falcon, Cobie Smulders (“Marvel’s The Avengers,” “How I Met Your Mother”) as Agent Maria Hill, Frank Grillo (“Zero Dark Thirty”) as Brock Rumlow and Georges St-Pierre (“Death Warrior”) as Georges Batroc. Rounding out the talented cast are Hayley Atwell (“Captain America: The First Avenger”) as Peggy Carter, Toby Jones (“Captain America: The First Avenger,” “The Hunger Games”) as Arnim Zola, Emily VanCamp (“The Ring 2,” “Revenge”) as Agent 13 and Maximiliano Hernández (“Marvel’s The Avengers,” “Thor”) as Agent Jasper Sitwell.
Marvel Studios’ President Kevin Feige is producing the film. Executive producers on the project include Alan Fine, Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Michael Grillo and Stan Lee. The creative production team on the film includes director of photography Trent Opaloch (“Elysium,” “District 9”), production designer Peter Wenham (“21 Jump Street,” “Fast Five”), editors Jeffrey Ford, A.C.E. and Mary Jo Markey, A.C.E. (“Star [...]

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today that it has received a $25 million commitment from The David Geffen Foundation for the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. The gift was made as part of the Academy Museum’s $300 million capital campaign and is the largest commitment received to date. In recognition of this gift, the Academy will name the Museum’s premiere-sized theater The David Geffen Theater.
“David’s support of this project is transformative,” said Academy Museum Campaign Chair Bob Iger. “It takes a large and diverse group of supporters to build a project on the scale of the Academy Museum. David joins an esteemed group of individuals, companies, and foundations who are leading the charge.” The Academy launched the Museum’s capital campaign in 2012 and has already secured more than half of the campaign’s goal in commitments. The campaign is co-chaired by Annette Bening and Tom Hanks.
“I’m pleased to support the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures,” added David Geffen. “This is an exciting opportunity to be part of the creation of an iconic architectural space and cultural institution that will combine the best of the old and the new and provide a permanent public home for the Academy’s rich tradition of honoring the shining stars of the cinematic arts.”
Designed by architects Renzo Piano and Zoltan Pali, the Academy Museum will be located next to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in the historic Wilshire May Company building. Slated to open in early 2017, the Academy Museum will contain nearly 300,000 square feet of state-of-the-art galleries, exhibition spaces, theaters, screening rooms, education centers, and special event spaces.
The design for the Academy Museum fully restores the Wilshire and Fairfax street-front facades of the original 1939 Streamline Moderne building. It also includes a spherical wing at the northern end of the original building that will replace an extension made to the structure in 1946. Designed to represent the marriage of art and technology, the wing will house The David Geffen Theater and will be a spectacular new piece of contemporary architecture that will perfectly complement the historic building.
“David’s enlightened philanthropy touches lives every day,” said Dawn Hudson, the Academy’s CEO. “His generosity and commitment to our museum are deeply inspiring to all of us working to make this long-held dream a reality.”
The David Geffen Theater will be in operation throughout the year. Programming will include: premieres of films from [...]

“GI Joe: Retaliation is once again the No. 1 film worldwide with an estimated weekend of $61.3 million.
The worldwide cume now stands at $231.9 million. Also, The Croods passed the $200 million mark and Jack the Giant Slayer passed the $100 mark internationally this weekend.”
The top-12 domestic weekend box office estimates listed in descending order, per data collected as of Sunday, April 7, 2013 are below.
1. Evil Dead – Sony – $26.0M
2. GI Joe: Retaliation – Paramount – $21.1M
3. Croods, The – 20th Century Fox – $21.1M
4. Jurassic Park – Universal – $18.2M
5. Olympus Has Fallen – FilmDistrict – $10.0M
6. Tyler Perry’s Temptation – Lionsgate – $10.0M
7. Oz The Great and Powerful – Disney – $8.2M
8. Host, The – Open Road – $5.2M
9. Call, The – Sony – $3.5M
10. Admission – Focus Features – $2.1M
11. Spring Breakers – A24 Films – $1.2M
12. Identity Thief – Universal – $0.8M
Courtesy of Rentrak Corporation, the global leader in box office measurement.
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G.I. Joe: Retaliation opened with a relatively solid $51.7 million over the four-day frame, for a $41.2 million Fri-Sun gross. Any way you slice it, this is a slightly lower figure than the $54 million Fri-Sun debut of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra back in August 2009. Yes that film opened in late summer but this film had 3D-enhanced ticket prices, so it’s basically an even comparison.
The sequel/reboot was scheduled to open in late June of last summer only to be pulled and rescheduled so that the film could be converted to 3D in order to theoretically boost foreign grosses. One can only wonder whether Paramount possibly cut off its nose to spite its face, sacrificing a prime summer slot when the buzz was hottest only to achieve an arguably lower debut than it might have achieved had it opened when intended. G.I. Joe: Retaliation probably won’t cross $120 million in America, which in normal circumstances would be very bad.
More likely, Paramount knowingly sacrificed domestic strength for international muscle, which is yet another sign of the times. The current worldwide total is estimated to be about $132 million, so it’s nearly halfway to the first film’s entire $300 million worldwide total. Assuming it has anything resembling legs, Paramount’s risky bet may have paid off.
The new film cost less ($130 million) and the first film ($175 million), so presuming the rescheduling didn’t massively add to the marketing and distribution costs, equaling or surpassing the first film’s total ($150 million domestic and $150 million international) still counts as a single if not a double depending on the overall result.
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What a difference three years and an deflated expectations make. Three years ago this weekend, Dreamworks had to eat a token amount of crow when How To Train Your Dragon opened with *just* $43 million.
Coming off the $59 million debut of Monsters vs. Aliens a year prior and elevated expectations due to the “new-found” popularity of 3D, the film was written off initially as a slight disappointment with the hopes that strong reviews and word-of-mouth would keep it alive. Of course, the film had insane legs and eventually ended up with $217 million domestic, but that’s another story.
Now, coming off the somewhat disappointing Rise of the Guardians ($303 million worldwide), a series of company lay-offs, and the delaying and/or cancellation of a few projects (like Me and My Shadow), Dreamworks is now trying to sell the (estimated as of this writing) $44 million debut of The Croods as a comeback and/or a massive win for the company.
But not only is this not a comeback, but I would argue that Dreamworks doesn’t have anywhere to come back from and that the perception of their failing after a single disappointing film is indicative of the fall-out of our obsession with rise/fall narratives where they don’t belong.
To read more go to Mendelson’s Memos

No matter what you think of the film, the $30.5 million debut of Olympus Has Fallen this weekend is very good news for those who want their action films to be R-rated.
With Arnold, Sly, and Jason all flaming out and only the terrible A Good Day To Die Hard opening well, we needed an original R-rated action film to reestablish their viability. I may be forgetting something, but this this is among the top R-rated action openings for a non-sequel since the $50 million debut of Wanted back in June 2008 (possible exceptions: Inglorious Basterds which opened with $37 million in August 2009 and the sci-fi drama The Book of Eli which debuted with $32 million in early 2010).
The film is easily Film District’s biggest debut ever, with a solid A- from Cinemascore and a strong 3.0x weekend multiplier. The concept is a pretty obvious winner, so obvious that I’m amazed it hasn’t been done before (yet it’s only the first of two, with White House Down opening this summer). The obvious appeal of the narrative plus a game cast of recognizable players (Gerald Butler, Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart, Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo, etc.).
It’ll take a hit next weekend from G.I. Joe: Retaliation, but it should recover due to the fact that it’s one of the most insanely violent R-rated action films this side of Starship Troopers and thus will provide the kind of carnage that a PG-13 G.I. Joe movie cannot. Hopefully this finally gets the undervalued Antoine Fuqua onto the various ‘hot lists’ next time a studio goes hunting for a tent pole director.
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So here’s the $250 million question… Even if Warner Bros. eventually gets its proverbial act together and finds a decent script and a willing director how exactly do they make Justice League more than just ‘the one that came second’?
Warner Bros. is now in the unenviable position of trying to follow up what is basically the superhero team-up film that everyone always wanted to see. Oh sure, you can argue that Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are bigger and more iconic characters than Thor or Iron Man, but Marvel did the work and kudos to them for herding the necessary cats in order to make it happen.
The irony is of course that Warner Bros. and DC Comics already have the ingredients to make Justice League matter in a movie world that has already seen The Avengers. They have the ingredients, and the manner in which they mix them will potentially allow Justice League to be different enough and unique enough to stand on its own. They just have to be willing to do what Marvel has so far been unwilling to do, which is to focus on heroes that aren’t quite the ones you’d expect to take center stage.
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