Dec 15 2008 Audiences Pay for 'Day the Earth Stood Still'
This weekend's box office results:
1. The Day the Earth Stood Still - $31 million, though that could still rise dramatically once we get the numbers back from space
2. Four Christmases - $13.3 million. The constant trickle of festively-dressed, moderately-entertained people leaving theaters has barely slowed.
3. Twilight - Indisputably our largest form of vampire revenue, bringing in another $8 million.
4. Bolt - $7.5 million. Another unimpressive weekend exhibits the post-Beverly Hills Chihuahua talking dog malaise.
5. Australia - $4.3 million--still a disappointing take, but at least providing Hugh Jackman a great joke to use at the Oscars this year: "Hey, Australia didn't make anywhere near its massive budget back! Am I right?"
Weekend Box Office Results [Box Office Mojo]
Dec 9 2008 'Tokyo Mater' Stills Not as Dirty as Hoped
Starting this Friday, prints of Bolt will come with the new Pixar short film Tokyo Mater attached. The digital 3-D short focuses on Larry the Cable Guy Truck from Cars telling a fabricated story that leads to a drift-racing competition--which The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift's title tells me is a very popular racing style in the region.
Coming Soon has posted the first shots from the short, and there's one more below the cut. I Watch Stuff takes no responsibility for whatever resulting ads/spam for Hot Tokyo Mating Services you may encounter.
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Dec 8 2008 Christmas Movie Continues Success in Christmas Season
The weekend box office:
1. Four Christmases - $18.2 million. That really is an absurd number of Christmases.
2. Twilight - $13.2 million. After falling to third last week, the film spiked in sales this weekend when a lot of kids happened to have Twilight book reports due today.
3. Bolt - $9.7 million. Bolt is probably one of our best animals named after hardware. Am I right?
4. Australia - $7 million, climbing from fifth place as some husbands decided to take their wives out to pretend they still care.
5. Quantum of Solace - $6.6 million. Ut oh, Punisher, that means you were the only widely-released new film and still didn't crack the top five. What a disaster!
Weekend Box Office Results [Box Office Mojo]
Dec 1 2008 'Four Christmases' Most Popular Respite from Conversation
This weekend, many of us headed to theaters with our families as a break from sitting around awkwardly watching television with our families, and trying to remember where our bed used to be before our bedrooms became mom's sewing room. Innumerable grandmas who hadn't been to the theater since last Thanksgiving weekend were again shuffled out of the house and into a darkened auditorium for two hours, where many slept.
Here's what movies they saw, along with the official one-sentence grandma review of each film:
1. Four Christmases - $31.7 million. "There were so many Christmases that I just couldn't keep track, but I liked how the children visited their parents."
2. Bolt - $26.6 million. "I don't know what that was all about."
3. Twilight - $26.4 million. (Wistful gazing out the window the whole drive home.)
4. Quantum of Solace - $19.5 million. "So loud."
5. Australia - $14.8 million. "That was very nice, but Australia will always be a nation of criminals."
Weekend Box Office Results [Box Office Mojo]
Nov 24 2008 Vampire Teen Romance is Really Popular
Why your local theater felt like a Forever 21 this weekend:
1. Twilight - $70.6 million. This is why I'm really glad we didn't pass that proposal that would let 13-year-old girls vote.
2. Quantum of Solace - $27.4 million. Now we've seen how Bond competes against vampires at the box office, but what about if he actually fought vampires? I still think he'd do OK.
3. Bolt - $27 million. I always said people would pay to hear John Travolta's voice in any form, but it turns out I may have been wrong. I might have to reconsider my personalized John Travolta voicemail business plan.
4. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa - $16 million. Spoiler alert: Madagascar escapes 2 Africa.
5. Role Models - $7.2 million. I'm too transfixed by this vampire's icy stare to come up with anything about Role Models.
Weekend Box Office Results [Box Office Mojo]
Nov 7 2008 'Bolt' Trailer Fails to Raise the Amazing Dog Bar
Disney has released a new trailer for Bolt, the Homeward Bound-esque story of the dog star of an action series who must find his way home after coming to the terms with the somber reality that he possesses none of the powers of his on-screen alter ego. I'm curious how this will play in a post-Air Bud world, an existence where children have been exposed to a dog that actually has amazing abilities. I know if I were a kid, I would be super pissed that Bolt probably can't even play that great of a game of baseball, whereas Air Bud is adept at every sport, and has solved several serious crimes. Bolt simply does not measure up to the current standard of awesome dogs.
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Oct 1 2008 'Bolt' Poster is Fully Awesome! (Their Words, Not Mine)
The air is getting cool; the leaves are falling from the trees; my winter coat is coming in. Yes, we're nearing the end of the year. But still, something seems a bit off. With only three months left before 2009, why have I not reached my full capacity for awesomeness in 2008? Ohhhh. It's because I haven't yet seen a move with a CGI cat, hamster, and dog-version of Harvey Keitel.
Bolt Poster [IMPA]
Jun 27 2008 'Bolt' Trailer: What It Could Have Been Far Better Than What It Is
Empire has the trailer to Disney's Bolt, the new typically-saccharine animated film starring the voices of Hannah Montana and Scientology. Please watch it, because I want to know if I'm the only one disappointed when this trailer transitions from the story of a cyborg dog saving a girl's war-prisoner father into some kind of delusion-driven fusion of Galaxy Quest and Homeward Bound with Animaniac cameos. I'd much rather see the first story, with a candy-colored Disney POW camp being liberated by a robotic canine gnawing through the wires that connect the prisoners' nipples to car batteries. Moreover, I want the Burger King toy that would result from that scene.
'Bolt' Trailer [Empire]
Jun 20 2008 'Bolt' Advance Poster Reminds Us, Oh Crap, I Forgot They're in This
I bet you thought you'd have to wait until the apocalypse to see these two names astride a lightning bolt. Surprise!
Bolt Poster [IMPA]
Jun 16 2008 Information Superhighway-Exclusive 'Bolt' Clip
Disney has released a sneak peek at their upcoming animated film, Bolt, starring John Travolta as the voice of a celebrity dog and Miley Cyrus (or is it Hannah Montana?) as Penny, the dog's owner. The clip contains some new footage from the family comedy, along with an introduction by Miley, who explains that she was the perfect choice for the voice of a dog owner, because she's, like, totally into dogs. She also repeatedly refers to us, the viewers, as "surfers" for some reason, so either this clip was meant to be shown at some kind of surfing competition or Miley and her co-host are the only people under 50 that still thinks of internet usage as "surfing the net."
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Dec 27 2007 First Look at Disney's 'Bolt', Travolta as Ugly CGI Dog
With this first image from Bolt, Disney reminds you that, in-between their charming Pixar releases, they also have some other cutesy shlock to throw at you.
The family-friendly giant looks to be taking their classic Homeward Bound formula (two dogs and a cat go cross-country) and sprucing it up by adding fancy computer graphics and another link in the domesticated food chain. I can't wait until 2050, when we'll get a holographic version and the addition of an anthropomorphic vegetable pellet.
First Look: Disney's Bolt [First Showing]
