CBS Sells Over 50% Of 2013 Super Bowl Ads

CBS has sold more than half its advertising inventory for the 2013 broadcast of Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans, Advertising Age reports. CBS also could sell-out levels approaching 80% in the next few weeks, CBS EVP sports ad sales John Bogusz said. 'We are over 50% sold in the game, and we have a number of active negotiations ' that will get us closer to 80% sold,' he added ' possibly in 'a week or two.' Car advertising is driving the pace, notwithstanding GM's recent decision to forgo Super Bowl ads next year. Hyundai, Audi and others appear to have picked up the slack. GM blamed the high cost of ads ' which buyers say range between $3.7 million and $3.8 million per 30-second spot for companies buying multiple ads. Even so, Bogusz said the auto category 'is extremely healthy and it has been active.' He also said 'We do have movies in the game and ' we are in active negotiations with beverages.' The Super Bowl has been the most watched TV broadcast each year for the past three games, which has spurred marketers to buy early and networks to boost rates.

Global Biz Briefs: Google-YouTube, 'Foosball 3D', Edinburgh Film Festival

Google Wins Copyright Fight Vs. France's TF1
Google won a round this week when a French court dismissed claims from French television channel TF1 that Google should be liable for TF1 programs that appeared on Google's YouTube video website. The court ruled that YouTube is a 'hosting' service and thus isn't responsible for filtering videos its users upload for copyright infringement ' as long as the website has a system for removing content upon notification by owners. TF1 sought $187.5 million in damages but the court instead ordered TF1 to pay Google $99,000 in legal fees. TF1 is considering whether to appeal.

Universal Intl. Buys 'Foosball 3D' for Spain, Latin America
Universal Pictures International has acquired distribution rights in the territories of Latin America and Spain for Oscar-winning Secrets In Their Eyes director Juan Jose Campanella's new film, Foosball 3D (Metegol/ Futbolin). Animated family movie is about a boy whose table football players come to life and help him defeat a rival and win back his childhood sweetheart. Animation is being supervised by Sergio Pablos (Despicable Me, Rio) and the film is produced by Jorge Estrada Mora's Jempsa in Argentina, and by Plural-Jempsa and Antena 3 Films in Spain. Foosball 3D is currently in post and will be released next year.

Edinburgh Film Festival
The 66th Edinburgh International Film Festival will host 19 World premieres and 13 international debuts. This year's event, which runs from June 20 throughJuly 1, is the first programmed by Filmhouse artistic director Chris Fujiwara. Highlights include Richard Ledes' Fred, Nathan Silver's Exit Elena and Benjamin Pascoe's Leave It On The Track plus Lu Sheng's Here, There and Yang Jung-ho's Mirage. Fest will also see the international premiere of Benicio Del Toro, Pablo Trapero, Julio Medem, Elia Suleiman, Gaspar Noé, Juan Carlos Tabio and Laurent Cantet's 7 Days In Havana and the European premiere of Bobcat Goldthwait's God Bless America. Including 29 older titles for retro and special screenings, there will be 150 feature films during the 12-day event. Special screenings include the new digital restoration of Lawrence of Arabia marking the movie's 50th anniversary. Oscar-winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker and Grover Crisp of Sony Pictures Entertainment will discuss the digital restoration process.

'Titanic' Sails To Blu-ray In September

LOS ANGELES, May 31, 2012 ' The two billion-dollar box office phenomenon and winner of 11 Academy Awards®, TITANIC, makes its highly anticipated debut on Blu-ray 2D and 3D on September 14, 2012 from Paramount Home Media Distribution and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. Available in high definition for the first time ever, James Cameron's timeless and unforgettable tour de force will be presented in stunning 2D and 3D, providing a cinematic in-home experience of TITANIC like never before. Marking 101 years ago today that the RMS Titanic was launched into the Belfast Lough, film fans worldwide can now pre-order the epic love story on Blu-ray 2D or Blu-ray 3D' with participating online retailers.

Cameron commented, 'Blu-ray extends TITANIC's immersive 3D theatrical experience into audiences' homes, where their living room becomes the backdrop for big spectacular environments and intense action, as well as profoundly intimate human moments, allowing generations of fans'new and old'to truly become part of the movie like never before.'

Presented in a four-disc 2D Blu-ray/DVD combo pack with Digital Copy or, for the ultimate experience in fully immersive 3D, in a four-disc Blu-ray 3D and 2D combo pack with Digital Copy, this high-definition presentation of TITANIC is a must have for film fans' home media collections. Both sets feature more than 2 1/2 hours of new bonus footage never-before-released on disc, including a fascinating in-depth exploration of the film with James Cameron, as well as documentary footage produced by National Geographic with James Cameron that brings the world's leading RMS Titanic experts together to solve the lingering mysteries of why and how the 'unsinkable' ship sank.

The sets also boast previously released special features including 30 deleted scenes, over 60 behind-the-scenes featurettes, a look at the groundbreaking visual effects, over 2,000 photos, three commentaries and much, much more. TITANIC will also be available for the first time ever for digital download.

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in the roles that would make them global stars, TITANIC tells the story of the epic romance between two star-crossed lovers set against the backdrop of the legendary and ill-fated maiden voyage of the 'ship of dreams.'

China Lion Eyes U.S. Market With Cannes Pickups

Freelance journalist Don Groves is a Deadline contributor based in Sydney

EXCLUSIVE: China Lion Film Distribution is set to ramp up its North American release schedule after acquiring five titles at Cannes as well as targeting films it hopes will cross over to U.S. art house audiences. Its acquisitions for the States, where it has a deal with AMC Entertainment to screen up to 15 titles a year, include the raunchy Hong Kong comedy Vulgaria, Taiwanese romantic comedies Girlfriend Boyfriend and When A Wolf Falls In Love With A Sheep, warlord actioner The Bullet Vanishes and Thai martial arts pic Rebirth. China Lion CEO Milt Barlow told Deadline that Vulgaria fits with its strategy of targeting art houses as well as Chinese-speaking cinemagoers; films such as Starry Starry Night and A Simple Life, which have already screened for Chinese communities, would have second runs in art houses. The company, which launched in 2010, also picked up The Sweeney ' a crime drama starring Ray Winstone, Ben Drew and Hayley Atwell inspired by the 1970s British TV series ' as its first release in China and Hong Kong. China Lion's major shareholders are Technicolor China and the Chinese studios Huayi Brothers Media Corp and Bona Film Group. Bona is the Chinese producer-distributor that recently received a strategic investment from News Corp.

Related: China's Wanda Group Agrees To Pay $2.6B For AMC Entertainment

Amazon's LoveFilm To Stream Universal Films In UK

LoveFilm raises the stakes this morning in its battle with Netflix to dominate the UK streaming market. The Amazon-owned service says it has an exclusive multiyear license with NBCUniversal International Television Distribution for Universal Studios titles in the second pay window ' which typically begins more than a year after a film first appears in theaters. The deal will provide LoveFilm with titles including It's Complicated, Nanny McPhee Returns, Leap Year, Green Zone, The Wolfman, Fast And Furious 5, Bridesmaids, Snow White and the Huntsman, Bourne Legacy, Dr Seuss' The Lorax and Safe House. LoveFilm also has rights to films from Disney, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros, Entertainment One and STUDIOCANAL. The goal is 'to deliver the widest choice of content on as many platforms as possible,' says LoveFilm's Jim Buckle. Its videos can be streamed to more than 175 devices including PCs, Macs, Playstation3, Xbox 360, iPads, and Internet-connected TV sets and Blu-ray players.

Big Problems Behind 'G.I. Joe 2's Big Delay

EXCLUSIVE: Ever since I scooped the news a week ago about G.I. Joe: Retaliation moving from June 29th to March 29th, 2013, no one was buying Paramount's excuse that 'adding 3D' was the only reason for the 9 month delay. Least of all me. So I did some snooping. And what I found out shows the difficult decisions which Hollywood moguls are facing in this challenging box office environment when even franchises aren't sure things. (Witness last weekend's Men In Black 3.) And at what point and at what cost do the top execs make changes in their films already shooting or in post-production or even five weeks out from release in order to head off a disaster?

Hollywood was gobsmacked that Paramount vacated the primo date this summer, especially because the studio blew a wad on a Super Bowl commercial and already was starting TV and outdoor ads for GI Joe 2. Not to mention the toys, warehouses full of them, ready and waiting. But the fact is that Paramount became extremely concerned about G.I. Joe 2's box office prospects worldwide after its test scores were mediocre to bad. Reshoots were needed. Plus, the moguls realized what a complete miscalculation it was to kill off Channing Tatum in the sequel. And even more so at the start of the film. You will remember that Tatum wasn't a star when the first G.I. Joe was released. But since then his back-to-back successes in The Vow and 21 Jump Street have made him into a draw. And it turned out that the only bright spot for audiences as a result of the G.I. Joe 2 testing was the aborted relationship between Tatum and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson. Plus look at the movie poster for Retaliation: you wouldn't even know Tatum is in the sequel. Now the movie is being reworked ' and reshoots don't lose a valuable leading man like Tatum by killing him off. 'The 3D is an excuse as to not reveal the Tatum of it all,' one of my sources tells me. Of course this June Tatum appears in Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike as a stripper (inspired by Tatum's own experiences, pre-stardom). My sources insist Paramount didn't want uniformed Channing to compete with stripping Channing on the same weekend. Not with those abs.

Related: Hot Trailer: Channing Tatum In 'Magic Mike'
Related: 'G.I. Joe: Retaliation' Moving To March 2013 To Add 3D For Bigger Foreign Box Office

Here is how Paramount insiders explain to me what happened. And clearly it's not just because 'We're going to do a conscientious 3D job because we've seen how it can better box office internationally' now that Russia and China are building new 3D theaters by the week, as the studio said a week ago:

'This was a case of letting a schedule to fill a summer slot dictate the film not being in 3D even though we knew that would be the most commercial version of the film. Then in the spring there were 2 big events. First John Carter lost $200M despite the best efforts of the Pixar brain trust. But the 3D film managed to gross over $200M overseas, nearly tripling its U.S. take.

'Also Channing Tatum had a breakout spring, starring in The Vow and 21 Jump Street. In our first screening of the film the reaction from audiences was good but with 2 big concerns: 1) They didn't like the fact that Channing and The Rock really didn't have any time to develop a friendship before Channing died, and 2) Why wasn't it going to be in 3D? We went back and shot another week with Channing to develop more of his story with The Rock, which made the film play much better. But we didn't have the time to be in 3D.

'Then a week ago Battleship basically had the same performance as John Carter ' $60M-$70M U.S. and just over $200M international. That was just a wake-up call that said to us we need to offer the best version of the film irrespective of summer market share to ensure the best possible performance. And not being in 3D will cost us a ton of business internationally.'

But the big question is how much this deliberate delay of G.I. Joe 2's release will affect the pic's cost. After all, the cost of MIB3 soared when the time travel elements of Etan Cohen's script had to be re-worked by Jeff Nathanson who needed more time to pull off the tricky plot device while Cohen worked on another project. So the film shut down for about six weeks, which is a rarity for a major tentpole, and then Cohen came back to finish the movie. That caused the cost to skyrocket from a range of $225M (which is what Sony claims as the budget) to $300M (which is what rival studios say it really was). Between that and all the gross profit participants, that's a lot of coin before Sony sees profit. Of course, Paramount had to talk its partners on GI Joe 2 into the extra nine months of carrying costs ' MGM, which has 25%, and David Ellison's Skydance, which has another 25%. Paramount sources claim to me that the budget for the $125M-budgeted actioner is stll under control. I'm not sure I believe their claim that the changes will result in just $5M more:

'Several 3D houses had already approached us about doing the film in 3D. This move gives us the time to do it right. We are having conversations with Stereo D and Prime Focus about doing the 3D work for a reduced fee in exchange for a piece of 3D upside. Also, interest rates are very low right now. So 9 months does not have a huge impact on budget. It should stay under $130M.'

Meanwhile, other sources tell Deadline that G.I. Joe 2 director Jon M. Chu is 'shellshocked' over the release date move. Paramount kept him on a very tight leash from the beginning of the production. Among other things, they wouldn't let him bring onboard David Nicksay, who has worked with Chu as executive producer on the Step Up movies and the Justin Bieber documentary. Even The Rock felt forced to calm fan fears about the film like in this Twitter exchange on May 23rd when the delay announcement came down: DwayneJohnson '@TheRock It will be. Designing new scenes to enhance 3D. RT: @JimmyinGA: Was looking forward to GI Joe next month. Hope the 3D is worth the wait.

True, Paramount had luck delaying Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island to give the director his biggest box office hit ever. Now the question is whether lightning can strike twice.

Related: Seth MacFarlane's 'Ted' Moving Into June 29th Slot Just Vacated By 'G.I. Joe 2'

Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.

Hot New Trailer: 'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter'

20th Century Fox released a new trailer for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter that includes scenes not shown in previous versions. The studio also announced that Benjamin Walker, who portrays the slayer of bloodsuckers, and other members of the cast and crew will treat the thousands of sailors serving aboard the Navy aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln to a screening in June. Co-stars Anthony Mackie and Erin Wasson, plus director Timur Bekmambetov, screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith and producer Jim Lemley will also be aboard. The cast and filmmakers also will show the movie at two additional undisclosed bases. Most of the rest of us will have to wait till June 22.

Related: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Red Band Trailer

'Moonrise Kingdom' Topples Record; 'Intouchables' Strong: Specialty Box Office

After two weeks of unimpressive specialty openers, Focus Features' Moonrise Kingdom has taken the specialty box office by storm, shattering records over Memorial weekend. Directed by Wes Anderson, the film opened the Cannes Film Festival and then hit theaters in the States, setting a new record for a live-action feature in a regular theatrical run, surpassing Dreamgirls' stunning $126K per theater average debut in three theaters back in 2006. Moonrise Kingdom averaged a whopping $130,752 at four locations and an overall four-day $669K gross. Focus, which holds worldwide rights, will take the movie to additional cities in the U.S. each weekend through June, expanding Moonrise Kingdom to several hundred screens. 'Moonrise is a story of love's improbable triumph, and for Wes Anderson and his team a labor of love from start to finish,' said Focus CEO James Schamus. 'How wonderful it is to congratulate him, on behalf of everyone at Focus, for this remarkable, record-breaking opening.'

Also opening with gusto, The Weinstein Company's The Intouchables, which averaged over $34K in four theaters. This should bode well for the French-produced film. It has had a spectacular run overseas, breaking records in France and grossing well over $300 million to date.

Related: 'Marigold', 'Bernie' Shine As Newcomers Disappoint

Among other Memorial Day weekend specialty debuts, Samuel Goldwyn's Cowgirls n' Angels screened in 50 theaters, averaging a disappointing $1,314, while Adopt Films launched Mighty Fine at 30 locations, averaging a similarly tepid $1,233. A bit stronger were Fisher Klingenstein's OC87 which bowed at one location, grossing $7,500, while Strand Releasing's Oslo, August 31st averaged $5,750 from a pair of theaters.

Among specialty holdovers, Zeitgeist's Elena added one theater, averaging $8,580 in two locations vs its $9,393 debut average, while Sony Classics added 27 theaters for Hysteria, averaging $5,539. The film opened in five theaters, averaging $8,166. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel continued to hold strong, placing 8th this holiday weekend in the overall box office, and again it played far fewer theaters than its tentpole rivals. Most of those films had screen counts over 3,000 except Chernobyl Diaries which bowed in 2,433 locations. Marigold Hotel grossed $8.2 million over the Friday through Monday holiday weekend, averaging $6,650 from 1,233 theaters. Last weekend the Fox Searchlight hit averaged $9,180 from 354 locations. Richard Linklater's Bernie, meanwhile held strong, placing 12th in the overall box office, averaging just under $6K from 104 theaters.

Four-day holiday weekend grosses:
NEW

1. Moonrise Kingdom (Focus Features) NEW [4 Theaters] Weekend $669K, Average $167,372

2. The Intouchables (The Weinstein Company) NEW [4 Theaters] Weekend $137K, Average $34,360

3. Cowgirls n' Angels (Samuel Goldwyn Films) NEW [50 Theaters] Weekend $65K, Average $1,314

4. Mighty Fine (Adopt Films) NEW [30 Theaters] Weekend $37K, Average $1,233

5. Oslo, August 31st (Strand Releasing) NEW [2 Theaters] Weekend $11,500, Average $5,750

6. OC87 (Fisher Klingenstein) NEW [1 Theater] Weekend $7,500

Returning / 2nd Weekend

1. Crooked Arrow (Branded/Peck Entertainment) Week 2 [67 Theaters] Weekend $178K, Average $2,657, Cume $456K

2. Hysteria (Sony Pictures Classics) Week 2 [32 Theaters] Weekend $177K, Average $5,539, Cume $233K

3. Polisse (Sundance Selects) Week 2 [14 Theaters] Weekend $63K, Average $3,400, Cume $111K

4. Elena (Zeitgeist Films) Week 2 [2 Theater] Weekend $17,161, Average $8,580, Cume $37K

Holdovers / 3RD+ Weekends

1. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (Fox Searchlight) Week 4 [1,233 Theaters] Weekend $8.2M, Average $6,650, Cume $18.4M

2. Bernie (Millennium Entertainment) Week 5 [194 Theaters] Weekend $1.16M, Average $5,985, Cume $2.51M

3. First Position (Sundance Selects) Week 4 [56 Theaters] Weekend $201K, Average $3,600, Cume $544K

4. Girl In Progress (Pantelion/Lionsgate) Week 3 [ 143Theaters] Weekend $165K, Average $1,154, Cume $2.44M

5. Darling Companion (Sony Pictures Classics) Week 6 [61 Theaters] Weekend $81K, Average $1,331, Cume $535K

6. Where Do We Go Now? (Sony Pictures Classics) Week 3 [25 Theaters] Weekend $70K, Average $2,801, Cume $133K

7. Bully (The Weinstein Company) Week 9 [104 Theaters] Weekend $50K, Average $485, Cume $3.304M

8. The Kid With A Bike (Sundance Selects) Week 11 [21 Theaters] Weekend $24K, Average $1,000, Cume $1.357M

eOne Confirms Talks To Purchase Alliance

Entertainment One confirmed today that the distributor has held negotiations about purchasing Alliance Films, as Deadline reported last week from the Cannes Film Festival. Both companies had remained publicly mum about the negotiations but eOne said today it wanted to comment because of market speculation, according to the Toronto Globe and Mail. Both companies are Canadian-based. Alliance is owned by Goldman Sachs. 'The board confirms it has held discussions with the shareholders of Alliance Films but there can be no certainty this will lead to a transaction,' eOne said in statement. 'The company would only undertake such a transaction on acceptable terms, and on the basis that the directors believe it would be financially and strategically value enhancing for the company and its shareholders.' If a deal were to come to pass, eEon said it would finance the transaction with a combination of debt and equity.

The statement about Alliance came as eOne reported earnings for last fiscal year. The company said profit before taxes increased 103% to $37 million with revenue up 7% to $809 million. Much of the revenue was from The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2, to which it owns Canadian rights. Purchasing Alliance would give eOne Canadian rights to 11,000 titles including The Hunger Games. Alliance also owns 50% of the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation TV franchise, which Goldman doesn't intend to include in the deal.

Cannes Finale: The Jury Talks And Hammond's Analysis Of The Winners

It's all over now, and really all over at Cannes for the American contingent of five competition entries plus English-language films like Walter Salles' On The Road and David Cronenberg's not-well-received Robert Pattinson starrer Cosmopolis. The Cannes Jury led by italian actor-director Nanni Moretti has spoken and Americans hoping for a repeat of last year when the single U.S. entry, The Tree Of Life actually won the Palme d'Or, are crying in their french onion soup. At the post-awards press conference American jury member Alexander Payne was asked if he thought the 'Americannes' snub said anything about the overall quality of the country's movies. He snapped back that one festival does not speak for the state of cinema in any one country.

Related: Michael Haneke's 'Amour' Takes Palme d'Or; 'Beyond The Hills' Wins Screenplay, Actress Nods

The closest thing to a film American audiences won't need subtitles for is Ken Loach's wonderful The Angels Share which is set in Glasgow and features accents so thick the filmmaker decided to add English subtitles. It is also the only comedy to take a prize as the jury mainly favored some of the more dour, serious-minded films in the race. Cannes juries often do that. Backstage Loach was elegant when he said his film shows solidarity with all those in Europe who resist austerity and believe 'another world, a better world is possible'.

Related: 'Mud': Did Cannes Save One Of The Best For Last?

There's also one head-scratcher just about every year and this year it's a beheaded scratcher, Post Tenebras Lux from Mexico's Carlos Reygadas in which a man rather remarkably manages to twist off his head using only his hands. There's also a pointless orgy scene thrown in but even its defenders are hard-pressed to say what this film is about. So of course they gave him a major prize, Best Director. At the press conference at least two of the jurors strongly defended the film. They were so convincing they had me believing that I must have seen a different film.
'Personally I loved it. It was very brave and very tender. It dared to fail,' said director Andrea Arnold whose own films tend to be bleak so maybe it spoke to her. At any rate Moretti said it was one of three movies that really divided the jury and the only one of a 'controversial' threesome that got a prize. The other two were Ulrich Seidl's provocative and naked Paradise Love about older overweight Austrian women who frequent a Kenyan resort in order to get it on with the local boys who work there, and critical favorite Holy Motors from director Leos Carax, a futuristic crazy little trip that is the kind of movie that plays well at festivals but likely will be in and out of U.S. arthouses in a week and then headed for the midnight circuit. It was no surprise at all that this panel didn't dig it judging from the films they did choose. Its reputation since debuting Wednesday is frankly a bit overblown. Indomina picked it up today for domestic distribution.

Related: Cannes Podcast: Pete Hammond On 'Lawless', 'Rust And Bone' And More

Asked at the press conference if his directing prize was 'revenge' for the negative response to his film, Reygadas was diplomatic when he said 'I am very thankful to journalists who detested it (you're welcome) and those who liked it.'

The only American movie to come out of any Cannes competition with anything at all is Behn Zeitlin's debut film, Beasts Of The Southern Wild, an Un Certain Regard entry that was named winner of the festival's Camera d'Or prize for best first feature. Fox Searchlight releases it next month. An excited Zeitlin said everyone who worked on the film had never done a movie before so this was a big deal. Films entered in all of the various competitions in Cannes are eligible for the Camera d'Or, not just main competition movies.

Overall I thought the jury did a good job, the Reygadas film aside, coming up with a fairly conservative but deserving group of winners. However the award to two novice actresses director Christian Mungiu found on the Internet for his leads in the religious cult film, Beyond The Hills was another mystery as Marion Cotillard and Nicole Kidman might have figured for risky, higher-profile turns in their movies Rust And Bone and The Paperboy. This award actually would have probably gone to French star Emmanuelle Riva for Amour, Michael Haneke's ultimate Palme d'Or winner. Rules state that any film which wins one of the top three honors, Palme d'Or, Grand Prix and the Jury Prize are eligible only for one award. That explains how Beyond The Hills was able to be the only film to win two including one for Mungiu's script. And it is also why the superb performance of Denmark's Mads Mikkelsen which jury member Ewan McGregor called 'subtle and beautifully played' was able to grab best actor for The Hunt, since Amour's sentimental favorite Jean-Louis Trintignant was not eligible because of his film's triumph for the Palme d'Or. Both Trintignant and Riva made well-received speeches on stage after Austrian Haneke collected his second Palme in 3 years. He has also been a past winner in several other categories. Cannes loves him no matter who is on the jury. The touching film about a couple's struggles at the end of life is probably the one that will bring this world class director his first Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Film. It's going to play through the roof at the Academy. There won't be a dry eye in the house and both its stars could find themselves nominated, too. I have never witnessed such a prolonged or more emotional ovation at one of these shows. It's ironic that what is basically a French film is labeled an Austrian entry because of the nationality of its director. France can take pride anyway.

With an Italian jury president is it any real surprise that Italy's only entry Matteo Garrone's Reality, about a man who becomes obsessed with getting on the Big Brother TV show, placed second winning the important Grand Prix? Yes. Although I found it quite entertaining most of the press seemed to be stunned since it wasn't on anyone's radar for a prize. Afterwards they even asked Garrone, a previous Grand Prix winner for Gomorrah if he was just as stunned? He basically said he hasn't been reading the reviews but he was surprised because he felt the competition was stiff. Oscilloscope picked it up for domestic release yesterday. The winners circle in fact was full of past winners including Haneke, Garrone, past Palme d'Or winner and Cannes regular Ken Loach, and past Palme d'Or winner Mungiu. Cannes is like a club. Once you're in, you're in.

Considering the high quality of most of the entries, this would have to be judged a very good Cannes, if not on a par with last year when three films went on to Best Picture nominations and The Artist became the first French film to win. By the way last year's Cannes Best Actor-turned Oscar winner Jean Dujardin was sitting in the audience next to the film's Oscar winning director Michel Hazanavicius, whose wife Berenice Bejo hosted the ceremony.

Related: Can Cannes Make A Major Mark On The Oscar Race Two Years In A Row?

Where this Cannes will really factor is in the Academy's foreign-language race as it unveiled a slew of top contenders. Last year only one Cannes entry made it onto the Acad's final list, an unusually poor showing. That shouldn't be the case this year.

Moretti did say he didn't want to go into detail but none of the awards were handed out unanimously, a sign of a very good year as the films likely had an impact one way or another on each jury member individually. He said they met 8 times over the course of the festival and then he gave one pointed observation of what he thought about the overall quality when he said, 'I noted on the part of several directors that they seemed more in love with their style than their characters'. Ouch.  Moretti is a past Palme d'Or winner himself for the humanistic film about loss, The Son's Room, so it is also probably no wonder Amour, which Sony Pictures Classics will release later this year in the U.S., would win the Palme d'Or on his jury.

Viva l'Amour. Viva Le Cannes. I'm outta here.

Awards Columnist Pete Hammond - tip him here.

SUMMER SLUMP? Will Smith's 'MIB3' Slows To $70M Memorial Weekend; Fifth Major Movie To Disappoint While 'The Avengers' Sets New $500M Domestic Speed Record

SUNDAY PM, 5TH UPDATE: My sources report a single-digit drop from Saturday to Sunday as Sony hoped (right now -8%). So Men In Black 3 domestic projections of $55M three-day weekend and $70M four-day Memorial Holiday may stand. Although rival studios say the numbers are $54.5M/$68M. That's not anywhere close to the $90M where Hollywood thought this popular franchise could open its threequel, or the $80M which Sony expected. Even not adjusted for the 3D premium, or higher ticket pricesm or inflation, MIB3 couldn't beat Will Smith's I Am Legend ($77M in 2007) or Hancock ($62M in 2008). Problem is that MIB3 was very expensive to make. (see below)

SUNDAY AM, 4TH UPDATE: A lot was riding on this weekend's worldwide totals for Will Smith (back at cineplexes after a 4-year hiatus) and Sony (reviving a costly Columbia Pictures franchise that was dormant for a decade). But Memorial Weekend newcomer Men In Black 3 is now the 5th major studio release that has underperformed domestically at the start of Summer 2012. Plus, demonstrating more trouble for Hollywood, overall moviegoing of $190M is down a huge -32% from last year's record. Overseas, MIB3 was off to a better start, and Sony is projecting it to take in an estimated $202M worldwide total during its first few days of release in 106 territories. Of that, IMAX sales contributed approximately $12M to the global cume, which is 20% higher than the previous record for a worldwide Memorial Day release because of aggressive IMAX building overseas. Sony said MIB3 was #1 in 104 countries. In this country, yes, MIB3 finally vanquished three-time #1  Marvel's The Avengers which was starting its 4th week in domestic release. Even so there's continuing good news for Disney's 3D superhero assembly: it crossed $500M on Saturday, reaching the mark in just 23 days which is setting a new speed record (better than Avatarwhich took 32 days). In 3,918 theaters, it's a solid #2 with about a $36.9M three-day weekend and a $48.5M Memorial Holiday. It is currently the #4 film of all time globally and domestically and is currently the #5 film of all time internationally, passing Transformers: Dark of the Moon ($771M) this weekend. Even if Avengers weren't sucking the air out of North American box office, trust me when I say the movie moguls are worried what lies ahead for their films in June after a dismal domestic May'

As for MIB3, I think Sony should have made a bigger deal of pairing the 3D scifi laugher with 6 minutes from its upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man throughout the run of the engagement in IMAX 3D. Starting Friday, rival studios were right on target telling me that MIB3 was falling short of what Hollywood expected for North America or overseas. Barry Sonnenfeld's/Rick Baker's latest playing in very wide release at 4,248 theaters opened with $17.9M Friday and then went up 8% with $19.4M Saturday. 'It's a little less than we hoped for,' a Sony exec admitted to me tonight. So that's just $55M for the 3-day weekend and only $70M for the 4-day holiday.

Even overseas, depending on who's analyzing, MIB3 started out as a mixed bag. Sony claimed 'some fantastic new openings around the world, led by Russia, the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia. Russia was a sensational dominant #1 opening grossing $3.5M, accounting for 85% of the box office. This is bigger than the opening day of Avengers and is Sony's biggest opening day of all time.' Overseas, estimates in top performing markets were: China $19.0M, Russia $18.8M, Korea $8.3M, Japan $7.9M, Mexico $5.9M, Germany $5.7, France $5.6M, Australia $5.3M, Brazil $5.0M, UK $5.0M. But rival studios tell me that 'despite great tracking internationally, their midweek openings in Australia, France, Korea, and Germany are mostly behind Battleship or John Carter. Weird.' Those are two comps which no studio wants to hear in the same sentence with its summer blockbuster.

Here's why the cost of MIB3 soared: The time travel elements of Etan Cohen's script had to be re-worked by Jeff Nathanson who needed more time to pull off the tricky plot device while Cohen worked on another project. So the film shut down for about six weeks, which is a rarity for a major tentpole, and then Cohen came back to finish the movie. That caused the cost to skyrocket from a range of $225M (which is what Sony claims as the budget) to $300M (which is what rival studios say it really was). Between that and all the gross profit participants ' besides Will Smith, this is one of Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment productions with his former lieutenants Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald producing through their Parkes+MacDonald Image Nation - every dollar counts. Now the question is how many families come out for Monday's holiday. MIB3 is helped by good word of mouth with audiences giving it a 'B+' CinemaScore ('A-' from under age 18). Exit polling should that 54% of the opening weekend audience was male and 46% was female. Of those moviegoers, 44% was under age 25 and 56% was 25 or older.

The point of threequels is that they sell themselves. So the marketing campaign went on auto-pilo wuth the usual multi-platform media. It kicked off with the launch of the first trailer on Sherlock Holmes 2. The cast participated in International junkets and premieres starting in Seoul and continuing to Tokyo, Paris, Madrid, Berlin, London, Moscow, and New York. There was a MIB time capsule that will be housed at NASA's Cape Canaveral for the next 43 years. Pitbull did the film's theme song while legendary make up artist Rick Baker had an exhibit of his aliens at the Museum of the Moving Image in NYC. The main part of the campaign consisted of saturated television covering network season finales, the NBA playoffs, and kids networks. Sony worked with Viacom to create a two-phased, cross-network promotion themed around the 'aliens amongst us' across MTV, Comedy, Spike, VH1, CMT, and MTV2 which extended into a strong viral campaign around the blog site TheMenInBlackSuitsAreReal.com.

High hopes for writer/producer Oren Peli and his Paranormal Activity-pedigreed horror newcomer Chernobyl Diaries (2,433 theaters) deflated. First it was given a dreaded 'D+' CinemaScore from audiences. Then Alcon Entertainment's genre acquisition took a big 33% drop on Saturday from Friday's opening. It's now likely to finish in only 6th place through Monday, less than disappointing holdovers Battleship (3,702 theaters) from Universal and The Dictator (3,014 theaters) from Paramount and even Dark Shadows from Warner Bros, too. Back in February, Alcon purchased Chernobyl Diaries' North American and international release rights in Germany, Spain, and Japan for Peli's reality-based horror thriller. The film was released by Warner Bros via an output deal with Alcon co-founders/co-CEOs Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove who are the pic's EPs. Produced by Peli and Brian Witten (Dark City, Final Destination, Friday The 13th), it marks the directorial debut of veteran visual effects artist Brad Parker. Chernobyl Diaries is the first fully financed film by Glen Basner's FilmNation Entertainmen. It was brought into Alcon by Dave Fierson, Alcon's SVP of Business Affairs. Peli almost overnight has become a cottage industry for low-budget horror thrillers after he wrote and directed the first Paranormal Activity whose trilogy now has grossed a huge $576M for Paramount. It's interesting to me that Alcon, which began in 1997 with financial backing from FedEx chairman Fred Smith, has now gone from primarily family fair like My Dog Skip, The Blind Side, and Dolphin Tale to a horror flick.

Here's the Top Ten (based on 3-day weekend estimates):

1. Men in Black 3 3D (Columbia/Sony) NEW [4,248 Theaters] PG13
Friday $17.9M, Saturday $19.4M
3-Day Weekend $55M, 4-Day Holiday $70M

2. Marvel's The Avengers 3D (Disney) Week 4 [3,918 Theaters] PG13
Friday $9.6M, Saturday $14.1M
3-Day Weekend $36.9M, 4-Day Holiday $48.5M, Cume $523.8M

3. Battleship (Universal) Week 2 [3,702 Theaters] PG13
Friday $3.0M (-65%), Saturday $4.1M
3-Day Weekend $10.7M, 4-Day Holiday $13.3M, Cume $44.2M

4. The Dictator (Paramount) Week 2 [3,014 Theaters] R
Friday $2.7M (-51%), Saturday $3.3M
3-Day Weekend $9.6M, 4-Day Holiday $11.5M, Cume $43.3M

5. Chernobyl Diaries (Alcon/Warner Bros) NEW [2,433 Theaters] R
Friday $3.5M, Saturday $2.3M
3-Day Weekend $8.0M, 4-Day Holiday $9.2M

6. Dark Shadows 3D (Warner Bros) Week 3 [3,404 Theaters] PG13
Friday $2.0M, Saturday $2.8M
3-Day Weekend $7.5M, 4-Day Holiday $9.4M, Cume $64.9M

7. What To Expect When You're Expecting (Lionsgate) Week 2 [3,021
Theaters] PG13
Friday $2.2M (-42%), Saturday $2.6M
3-Day Weekend $7.1M, 4-Day Holiday $8.7M, Cume $23.7M

8. Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (Fox Searchlight) Week 4 [1,233
Theaters] PG13
Friday $1.6M, Saturday $2.4M
3-Day Weekend $6.3M, 4-Day Holiday $8.0M, Cume $18.2M

9. The Hunger Games (Lionsgate) Week 10 [1,421 Theaters] PG13
Friday $590K, Saturday $851K
3-Day Weekend $2.2M, 4-Day Holiday $3.0M, Cume $396.0M

10. Think Like A Man (Screen Gems/Sony) Week 6 [786 Theaters] PG13
Friday $395K, Saturday $540K
3-Day Weekend $1.4M, 4-Day Holiday $1.8M, Cume $88.7M

FRIDAY AM: This will be the first weekend in a month that Marvel's The Avengers has not dominated North American box office as #1. Instead, Sony Pictures' Men in Black 3 is anticipated to top today at a giant release in 4,248 runs for the start of Memorial Weekend as Will Smith returns to the cineplex after a long hiatus. This is his first major starring role in four years, and what could have been a tired franchise was freshened by a time travel plot and Josh Brolin. The studio just announced the scifi comedy made $1.5M for its first midnight showings in 2,233 locations calling it 'Good. Expect a big day today, and kids to drive a huge Saturday-Sunday-Monday.' Hollywood believes the popular laugher can scare up as much as $80M-$90M domestic and north of $200M worldwide for the four-day holiday. Meanwhile Alcon Entertainment's horror genre acquisition Chernobyl Diaries distributed domestically by Warner Bros posted a larger than expected midnight opening with $525K from 1,325 locations. 'This result is at the very high end of all horror comps,' an exec emailed me. 'Stay tuned' It could beat tracking for the weekend.' Immediately Hollywood began revising up its $15M estimates for the film whose theater count is 2,433 this weekend.

Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.

Hot Trailer: 'The Dark Knight Rises'

A third TV spot has emerged for The Dark Knight Rises:

Indomina Rolls With 'Holy Motors' For U.S.

The Indomina Group has acquired US distribution rights to Leos Carax's Cannes competition title, Holy Motors. The film enjoyed a robust reception when it premiered here last week to mark Carax's first time in competition since 1999's Pola X. Some are calling it a strong candidate for the Palme d'Or tonight. The experimental work chronicles a few hours in the life of Monsieur Oscar, a shadowy character chauffeured around Paris in a white limousine who takes on different roles for his various 'appointments.' Longtime Carax collaborator Denis Lavant stars along with Eva Mendes, Kylie Minogue and Michel Piccoli. Indomina's Rob Williams negotiated the deal with Wild Bunch's Carole Baraton.

Nicole Kidman Speaks Out On Taking Risks, Roles And Taking Over Cannes: Interview

With two movies premiering in  the Official Selection on successive nights and big worldwide market pre-sales announced for an upcoming film in which she plays Grace Kelly, Nicole Kidman ruled the Croisette in the second half of the Cannes Film Festival this week, and though she looked every inch the glamorous movie star on those back-to-back jaunts up the steps of the Grand Theatre Lumiere, it's hard work invading the world's most famous film festival. Perhaps that is why when she arrived Friday morning for Deadline's interview and entered the Majestic Hotel's 6th floor suite with its sweeping views of the Cote d'Azur all she wanted to do was take off her shoes and relax for a few minutes. No such luck in the crux of this go-go-go festival.

Kidman has been working a lot lately but all she's looking forward to next is finally getting back to her 'normal' life again before tackling Grace Kelly's anything-but-normal life in late Fall  here in the South of France. Since making changes in her team a couple of years ago (she signed with Geyer Kosinski who also manages Angelina Jolie), the kinds of movies she's doing are consistently more challenging and of a risk-taking nature, which is the way she likes it. The Oscar winner (The Hours) has often been drawn throughout her career to edgier material but now it seems to be her mantra. From her role as a Southern trollop in Lee Daniels'  The Paperboy which got Cannes twittering on Thursday to her first big TV project playing pioneering war correspondent and Ernest Hemingway's third wife Martha Gellhorn in HBO's Hemingway And Gellhorn directed by Philip Kaufman (which had the rare honor of a Cannes premiere for a TV movie) she has made a lot of noise just as Cannes 2012 is winding down. Add to that the challenge of being one big star playing another in the upcoming Grace Of Monaco and recently completing the great Korean director Chan-Wook Park's (Oldboy, Thirst) first English-language feature Stoker, Kidman's plate is full of fascinating projects. Things really turned around in late 2010 when the independently made  film version of the devastating David Lindsay-Abaire Pulitzer Prize winning play Rabbit Hole, which she also helped produce, won her a third Best Actress Oscar nomination along with rave reviews. She was somehow even attempting to fit in a Broadway revival of Sweet Bird Of Youth opposite James Franco but it didn't ultimately pan out. It's not as if she needed the work.

So what's it like being back in Cannes with not one, but two very different roles? 'I've been here many times but this is my first time to have two. Usually you do one film and go home and say 'bye-bye' but now here I am again today, ' she said in this brief respite between premieres as she apologized for the hoarseness in her voice. 'It's unusual because they are so different and that's what I love as an actor ' to try different things.'

Everyone will be able to see her performance as Gellman when HBO premieres the 2 ½-hour movie on Monday night. She's dedicated her work in it to war journalist Marie Colvin who died tragically in February covering the conflict in Syria. Colvin was a modern day Gellman along with others like Christiane Amanpour. 'She was doing what Martha would be doing right now. And she loved Martha. Martha was such a great woman. In the hands of Phil (Kaufman), because he loves women, I think it is great that he's told her story now. Not everybody's story gets to be told but she trailblazed for a lot of female journalists to be sure. She was also a role model for women now and for people,' said Kidman who admits she wasn't at all familiar with Gellman but started researching her and told Kaufman she had to play her.

And as in many Kaufman movies there are also some torrid love scenes with Clive Owen who plays Hemingway. 'I said to Phil, 'I am up for it'. That's me as an actor. I don't want to not do things because of my own inhibitions or because I am censoring myself, Nicole. I want to be truthful to the story and the character. But I think the point of those scenes is to show what they had and whether there was a war going on or a bomb going off they made love because they were so physically drawn to each other. That gives the fire to their relationship. That's the kind of people that they were. They lived hard, they drank hard, they partied hard, they wrote incredible prose and they eventually destroyed their relationship and each other. But they went on to do magnificent work out of that,' she said.

It's obviously a great role for an actress, the kind that doesn't come around much outside of places like HBO. 'God bless HBO because no one would really do this for cinema now. Without HBO this just wouldn't get done. I am willing to go on stage, TV, big screen ' they are all relevant now. It's a whole different world. They all have enormous relevance  artistically because how do you get the stories told through different mediums? How do you reach people? You reach so many more people and that is great,' she says of the HBO experience.

It was also an 'experience' playing Charlotte Bless, the Deep South girl next door  (if you happen to live in a trailer park near a swamp)  in her other Cannes premiere The Paperboy which is in competition and co-stars Zac Efron, Matthew McConaughey and John Cusack. She just simply went for it and if the film divided critics, her performance as a bit of a tramp who loves men behind bars was widely praised. 'It shocked people. Yes, it's very polarizing but that's cool by me. That's the sort of stuff I do and I am used to that. People love it or hate it (Note: it did receive a 16-minute standing ovation at the premiere ' longest of the festival - but there were boos at the morning critics screening). You get the Guardian giving it the most incredible review and then you get other reviews going 'what is this? I don't get it'. But that's me as an actor. I like that high wire stuff because I would rather do that than be bland,' she says.

Bland she definitely isn't. In Paperboy there's a steamy, out-in-the-open  sexual encounter between Kidman and the accused killer played by Cusack. Taking place in the prison they are physically several feet apart and never make physical contact, but manage to reach heights of ecstasy anyway in the campy scene that makes Sharon Stone's antics in Basic Instinct look PG by comparison. But it was the now infamous 'peeing' scene that really lit up Twitter after the film was first shown here Thursday. In the movie Efron gets stung by jellyfish in the ocean and a couple of girls nearby suggests that urine is the best thing to provide in order to ease the sting. Kidman who is at the beach with Efron defiantly steps in and screams at the girls, 'If anyone is gonna pee on him, it's gonna be me!' And with that the golden shower begins (she did it ' no stunt pee) in what was perhaps the single most talked about scene in any movie in Cannes this year. Still she seemed surprised when I told her it was all the buzz.

'Yes, I did the scene. That was what Lee wanted. It was in the script. And it's pretty out there. I mean I love Zac. He's such a great guy and let me just say I am glad it was him. I feel safe with Zac and hopefully he feels safe with me. Oh my God I can't believe it's all over Twitter. Of course it would be all over Twitter,' she laughed.

I'm sure she won't have to worry about that kind of scene when she stars as Grace Kelly, the elegant star-turned-Princess in a movie bio to be directed by Olivier Dahan who also guided Marion Cotillard to an Oscar for La Vie En Rose, a film Kidman says she loved.  But it will be one big Oscar winning star playing another big Oscar winning star which would seem to present a new set of challenges for Kidman when she begins shooting it in late Fall. It has enjoyed robust pre-sales here at Cannes. 'I have been offered things before of playing  famous actresses of past eras but it wasn't time for me to do that. But this has a great script. I know a little about Grace Kelly. I wasn't a massive obsessed fan of Grace Kelly but I want to find out who she was and find the truth of that. But now I don't do anything. I go on a plane and go back to my family and kids and say 'oh I am a normal person after all'.'

A normal person who just took Cannes by storm.

Awards Columnist Pete Hammond - tip him here.

Sundance Selects Acquires 'Like Someone In Love': Cannes

CANNES, FRANCE (May 27, 2012) ' Sundance Selects announced today from the 2012 Cannes Film Festival that the company is acquiring all US rights to LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE directed and written by former Palme d'Or winner Abbas Kiarostami (CERTIFIED COPY, THE TASTE OF CHERRY). The film is an MK2 and Eurospace Production. It stars Rin Takanashi, Tadashi Okuno and Ryo Kase. It was produced by Marin Karmitz (MK2) and Kenzo Horikoshi (Eurospace), and associate produced by Nathanael Karmitz and Charles Gillibert. LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE made its world premiere in competition earlier in the week at the Cannes Film Festival.

In his follow-up to the stateside hit CERTIFIED COPY (which starred Juliette
Binoche), Abbas Kiarostami's returns with yet another dazzling cinematic
puzzle. An old man and a young woman meet in Tokyo. She knows nothing about
him. He thinks he knows her. He welcomes her into his home. She offers him
her body. Soon it becomes apparent that the web that is woven between them in
the space of 24 hours bears no relation to the circumstance of their encounter.

Jonathan Sehring, President of Sundance Selects/IFC Films, said: 'It's a great
honor to continue our relationship with Abbas Kiarostami after our successful
collaboration with him on CERTIFIED COPY. His latest film is a beautiful,
mysterious masterpiece that we hope to continue to build his following with in
the US. We are also clearly very happy to be working with our good friends at
MK2 and also with Eurospace.'

IFC Films/Sundance Selects recently announced that it had acquired Walter
Salles' ON THE ROAD which is an MK2 production. The film screened to acclaim
earlier in the week at Cannes in Competition. The two companies have previously
collaborated on Gus Van Sant's PARANOID PARK, Olivier Assayas' SUMMER HOURS,
Abbas Kiarostami's CERTIFIED COPY and the upcoming Assayas' film SOMETHING IN
THE AIR.

Sundance Selects/IFC Films is already a major American presence at Cannes this
year with several films already screening at the festival: Walter Salles'
competition film ON THE ROAD which the company acquired right before the
festival began and will release jointly under IFC Films and Sundance Selects;
Cristian Mungiu's competition film BEYOND THE HILLS which is being releasedunder
the Sundance Selects label; Adam Leon's SXSW-winner GIMME THE LOOT which is also
being released under Sundance Selects and is screening in Un Certain Regard;
Rodney Ascher's Sundance sensation ROOM 237 which was acquired for IFC Midnight
and is screening at Director's Fortnight; Ken Loach's competition film THE
ANGELS' SHARE which Sundance Selects acquired during the festival; Ben
Wheatley's dark comedy SIGHTSEERS which is screening in Director's Fortnight,
and was acquired by IFC Films during the festival; and IM Sang Soo's competition
film THE TASTE OF MONEY which the company acquired yesterday for its IFC
Midnight label.

The deal for the film was negotiated by Arianna Bocco, Senior Vice President of
Acquisitions & Productions for Sundance Selects/IFC Films with Victoire Thevenin
of MK2 on behalf of the filmmakers.

Cannes Podcast: Pete Hammond On 'Lawless', 'Rust And Bone' And More

Deadline's Pete Hammond talks about hot festival movies such as (clockwise from top left) the superb Prohibition-era shoot-'em-up Lawless with Tom Hardy and Shia LeBeouf; Rust And Bone, with an awards-worthy star turn by Marion Cotillard, shown with Matthias Schoenaerts; Brad Pitt, pictured with Richard Jenkins, in the Mitchum-esque noir thriller Killing Them Softly; the crowd-pleasing Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted; and Jack Kerouac's On The Road, brought to the screen by Walter Salles with a star-making turn from Garrett Hedlund, shown with Kristen Stewart and Sam Riley in the back seat. Other hot movies include a pair of Nicole Kidman triumphs ' (below from left) Lee Daniels' over-the-top The Paperboy and Philip Kaufman's HBO epic Hemingway And Gellhorn plus Michael Haneke's brilliant but challenging Amour. You can listen to Pete's podcast from Cannes here.

Will Smith's 'MIB3' Beats 'Avengers' But May Not Exceed $75M Memorial Weekend

FRIDAY 10 PM UPDATE: A lot is riding on this weekend's worldwide totals for Will Smith (back at cineplexes after a 4-year hiatus) and Sony Pictures (reviving a decade-long dormant franchise). Yes, Sony's new #1 Memorial Weekend movie Men In Black 3 will beat  Marvel's The Avengers which is starting its 4th week in domestic release. But I can't ignore rival studio claims that the 3D scifi laugher is not looking as strong as Hollywood thought for North America or overseas. At first this just seemed to be sour grapes. But now it's clear that Barry Sonnenfeld's/Rick Baker's latest playing in very wide release at 4,248 theaters looks to open in the range of $18M today and only $75M for the 4-day holiday. That's not anywhere close to the $90M which Hollywood thought this popular franchise could open its threequel. This makes the 5th major studio release that has underperformed at the start of Summer 2012, though not as badly as the others. Even overseas, depending on who's analyzing, MIB3 is a mixed bag. My Sony sources are quick to point out that it opened bigger in Russia than The Avengers. But rival studios tell me that 'despite great tracking internationally, their midweek openings in Australia, France, Korea, and Germany are mostly behind Battleship or John Carter. Weird.' Those are two comps which no studio wants to hear in the same sentence with its summer blockbuster. The reason this is a problem is that MIB3 was very expensive to make. The time travel elements of Etan Cohen's script had to be re-worked by Jeff Nathanson who needed more time to pull off the tricky plot device. So the film shut down for about six weeks, which is a rarity for a major tentpole. That caused the cost to skyrocket from a range of $225M (which is what Sony claims as the budget) to $300M (which is what rival studios say it really was). Between that and all the gross profit participants, every dollar counts.

Overseas, Sony claimed 'some fantastic new openings around the world, led by Russia, the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia. Highlights: Russia was 'a sensational, dominant #1 opening grossing $3.5M, accounting for 85% of the box office. This is bigger than the opening day of Avengers and is Sony's biggest opening day of all time.' In line with Russia's opening, Ukraine scored a big $314K and headed to finish with 3 times the opening weekend box office of Mission: Impossible 4. United Arab Emirates took in $427K, tracking 50% above Will Smith's Hancock. Latin America also tracked ahead of M:I4's opening weekend with the big markets of Brazil and Mexico opening tonight. Yesterday Argentina took in $217K, Peru $134K, and Chile $62K. In Asia, Sony had strong openings in Malaysia $369K, Hong Kong $341K, and Singapore $290K which should end up above M:I4 as well as Pirates 4 come Sunday.

Tonight Sony doesn't sound worried. 'All around the world, the feeling is there is a big family audience which will be coming out over the weekend. While Western Europe continues to work to overcome some beautiful weather, we have the benefit of a holiday on Monday in various markets which should help boost our Sunday results there.' As for North America, 'Give us sometime to breathe here and wait for the kids to come out. Today will be good but Sat-Sun-Mon great.' MIB3 will be helped by good word of mouth with audiences giving it a 'B+' CinemaScore ('A-' from those under age 18).

Holdover The Avengers (3,918 theaters) is a solid #2 with about $9.5M today and $45M this 4-day weekend as the Disney movie's foreign gross hits $752M foreign and $478M domestic coming into this weekend for a global cume of $1.2B. High hopes for writer/producer Oren Peli and his Paranormal Activity-pedigreed horror newcomer Chernobyl Diaries (2,433 theaters) deflated a bit with a dreaded 'D+' CinemaScore from audiences. But tonight Alcon Entertainment's genre acquisition according to distributor Warner Bros should open to $3.5M  this weekend. Other studios are predicting less and agree on a mediocre $11.5M for the weekend. It made more than Universal's Battleship (3,702 theaters) today sinking -69% from a week ago and Paramount's disappointing holdover The Dictator (3,014 theaters).

Here's the Top Ten (based on Friday estimates). Full analysis in the AM:

1. Men in Black 3 3D (Columbia/Sony) NEW [4,248 Theaters] PG13
Friday $18M, 4-Day Weekend $75M

2. Marvel's The Avengers 3D (Disney) Week 4 [3,918 Theaters] PG13
Friday $9.5M, 4-Day Weekend $45M, Cume $523.5M

3. Chernobyl Diaries (Alcon/Warner Bros) NEW [2,433
Theaters] R
Friday $3.5M, 4-Day Weekend $11.5M

3. Battleship (Universal) Week 2 [3,702 Theaters] PG13
Friday $2.8M (-69%), 4-Day Weekend $13.5M, Cume $43.3M

5. The Dictator (Paramount) Week 2 [3,014 Theaters] R
Friday $2.6M (-53%), 4-Day Weekend $11.5M, Cume $43.3M

6. Dark Shadows 3D (Warner Bros) Week 3 [3,404 Theaters] PG13
Friday $2.1M, 4-Day Weekend $9.5M, Cume $65.0M

7. What To Expect When You're Expecting (Lionsgate) Week 2 [3,021
Theaters] PG13
Friday $2.1M (-43%), 4-Day Weekend $9.0M, Cume $24.0M

8. Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (Fox Searchlight) Week 4 [1,233
Theaters] PG13
Friday $1.8M, 4-Day Weekend $9.0M, Cume $17.9M

9. The Hunger Games (Lionsgate) Week 10 [1,421 Theaters] PG13
Friday $625K, 4-Day Weekend $2.7M, Cume $395.7M

10. Think Like A Man (Screen Gems/Sony) Week 6 [786 Theaters] PG13
Friday$450K, 4-Day Weekend $2.0M, Cume $88.9M

FRIDAY AM: This will be the first weekend in a month that Marvel's The Avengers has not dominated North American box office as #1. Instead, Sony Pictures' Men in Black 3 is anticipated to top today at a giant release in 4,248 runs for the start of Memorial Weekend as Will Smith returns to the cineplex after a long hiatus. This is his first major starring role in four years, and what could have been a tired franchise was freshened by a time travel plot and Josh Brolin. The studio just announced the scifi comedy made $1.5M for its first midnight showings in 2,233 locations calling it 'Good. Expect a big day today, and kids to drive a huge Saturday-Sunday-Monday.' Hollywood believes the popular laugher can scare up as much as $80M-$90M domestic and north of $200M worldwide for the four-day holiday. Meanwhile Alcon Entertainment's horror genre acquisition Chernobyl Diaries distributed domestically by Warner Bros posted a larger than expected midnight opening with $525K from 1,325 locations. 'This result is at the very high end of all horror comps,' an exec emailed me. 'Stay tuned' It could beat tracking for the weekend.' Immediately Hollywood began revising up its $15M estimates for the film whose theater count is 2,433 this weekend.

Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.

McConaughey And Witherspoon Debut 'Mud': Did Cannes Save One Of The Best For Last?

Judging from the bad buzz that has haunted it since an early 2pm buyers screening on May 16, the first day of the 65th Cannes Film Festival, you might have thought FilmNation's Mud was about as appealing at its title. One published report a couple of days later said despite the fact it is one of the few movies with major stars still up for grabs and looking for distribution that 'it didn't take long for the theatre to start clearing out' including Harvey Weinstein who supposedly left after 20 minutes according to the report.

Well, those guys may have blown it. Now on the last day of official competition screenings Mud, which features big names like Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon and was directed and written by Take Shelter's Jeff Nichols, finally had its long-awaited press screening Saturday morning (official premiere is tonight) as the last of the 22 entries to be shown to the media and the response was clearly a lot more enthusiastic than what came out of that ill-fated first buyers screening (a second one was held a few days later). In fact it received by far the biggest applause I have yet heard at one of these 8:30AM screenings. Usually there's just a trickle , if any from the jaded press. Not this time.

The coming-of-age drama about two 14 year old boys who befriend a mysterious stranger (McConaughey) on a deserted island just off the Mississippi (it was shot in Arkansas) and form a unique relationship even as he turns out to be wanted for murder, is a beautifully shot, directed and acted American film. I found echoes of Tom Sawyer, Stand By Me  and Shane in this impressive work. In fact one of the boys even has a 'Shane' moment when he cries out Mud's name trying to call him back. In addition to terrific performances from all the adults it features remarkable work from Tye Sheridan whose character Ellis is at the center of the story, and Jacob Lofland making his film debut as his best friend, Neckbone. Sheridan incidentally is only 15 but this is his second competition film in Cannes. He played the young version of the Sean Penn character in last year's Palme d'Or winner, The Tree Of Life. In fact one of that film's producers,Sarah Green , is also a Mud producer and recommended him for the role. It's a great performance for an actor at any age.

As the second deep south movie set around a body of water to premiere here in the last two days it is interesting to see the wildly different visions of the region and relationships from Nichols and Lee Daniels who directed the steamy southern potboiler The Paperboy which featured another starry cast also including McConaughey. In fact at this morning's press conference one Greek journalist stood up to say McConaughey's career-stretching roles here make him one of the Cannes Fest's 'revelations' this year. It is the actor's first visit to Cannes and he's clearly choosing more challenging , indie-style projects than the romantic studio comedies he was trapped in for so long.When I talked to him at the after-party for Paperboy  he agreed his career is headed in a different , more exciting direction. He also was blown away by the applause at the end of The Paperboy after Thursday night's official premiere (unlike the press screening which barely had any ' and some boos).  Cannes Festival director Thierry Fremaux told people associated with the film that (despite some blistering reviews) it received the longest sustained applause of any film in Cannes this year (clocked at 16 minutes, far ahead of every other film to date and comparable to what Drive got last year). 'I have never done any stage work so to hear all that applause and take it in was a completely different experience for me. I've never had that before,' McConaughey told me. He better get used to it because I believe there will be a lot more where that came from after Mud's World Premiere tonight.

At the press conference Nichols , who won last year's Critics Week prize for Take Shelter only to be invited to the big competition this year, explained that for him the one thematic tie or thread to the movie is romantic love (Mud's troubles begin with his idealistic undying passionate love for Witherspoon's less than pure character) . 'The best tool I had in holding it together is the character of the boy, Ellis. I put it all through his eyes. He's a boy  desperately searching for a version of love that works,'  he said noting that all the adults around him certainly don't have that level of ideal love in their lives. 'In love you get banged up and bruised up but for some reason you go after it again.'

McConaughey said his title character is a real example of carrying unconditional love for this woman and through that (misguided in this case) perspective tries to help Ellis see it is not completely hopeless to find the real thing.

Witherspoon said she normally steers clear of supporting roles (she has just a handful of scenes) but couldn't resist the script  and was assured by Nichols that it really is an ensemble piece overall so she signed on. 'I grew up with my brother in a creek with a dirt bike in Tennessee and it just felt like home, and you never get to see home on screen. There are very few films about the south that are accurate and authentic. I think this one is. It's an amazing story about the discovery of love and I am so happy to be a part of it, 'she said.

As for the boys , Nichols said it was remarkable to find boys who could hunt, fish, fall down a hole , get covered with snakes and just jump on a dirt bike and take off. He said both showed real talent even if they felt they were just playing themselves.

Nichols says he shot the movie in Super 35MM scope and worries that one day he will have to switch to digital because he says he doesn't know if he can make a movie that way. 'I like big sweeping movies and applying that to the place I come from,' he said. The Cannes screening was projected digitally though and ran into a snag about half way through when scenes overlapped each other and the picture became distorted. It was finally fixed after loud protests from the audience but even that snafu couldn't break the spell of this film which actually feels like the perfect blend of commericial appeal and artistic integrity. Why don't studios want this kind of thing anymore?

Nichols , asked for his cinematic inspirations, said he was no film expert but had five favorites, almost all starring Paul Newman mentioning Butch Cassidy, Cool Hand Luke, The Hustler and Hud (rhymes with Mud?). I would add another Newman classic, The Long Hot Summer, another deep south film that uses the river in its opening sequence to great sprawling effect.

Twitter reactions after the screening were upbeat and positive  but some speculated the film may be too 'Hollywood' to win prizes here. Juries do tend to be a little more esoteric. The biggest prize for this fine film would be to find a good distributor who gets the idea that human stories can be a real nice antidote to superheroes and Battleships.

 

 

Awards Columnist Pete Hammond - tip him here.

Cannes Business Climate Shines Despite The Wind And Rain

The dealmaking story of the 2012 Cannes Film Festival was succinctly summed up this way by Inferno's Bill Johnson: 'Worst weather I've ever seen in Cannes, no big headlines, but a solid market with nice product, but probably too much of it. The good news is that distributors around the world opened their wallets, there are plenty of private equity and high net worth investors.'

Last year's Cannes saw domestic and foreign buyers plunking down big sums to acquire films based on little more than sizzle reels. And for drama, you had Lars von Trier's bizarre application to the Nazi party, and the wonder of Terrence Malick's return to directing with Palme D'Or winner and eventual Best Picture Oscar nominee Tree Of Life.

This year, the most widely hyped competition film has been Lee Daniels' The Paperboy, mostly for the graphic, depraved sexual exploits perpetrated by Nicole Kidman's death row groupie. Then there's all the free-love doled out by Kristen Stewart and Garrett Hedlund in Walter Salles' adaptation of Jack Kerouac's On The Road. Neither film drew raves. Despite a 16-minute standing ovation for Paperboy at its festival screening and enthusiasm in the market, the biggest record set at this festival was for rainfall ' and contents of the pockets of those guys selling $50 umbrellas along the Croisette.

Related: Cannes Conflicted Over 'The Paperboy' As All-Star Cast Hits Town

That doesn't mean this wasn't a very successful festival that demonstrated vibrancy of film around the world. Despite the struggling economies in European countries, sellers all week reported surprisingly strong sales, with Italy and Greece the exceptions. Japan was pre-buying again and the importance of China is growing. These territories weren't shy about making deals for films that have no domestic deals.

This year's event also was a debut for new sales companies run by veteran execs, but the abundance of product ' one distributor says they received 113 scripts in just the handful of days ahead of the market ' resulted in buyers having a difficult time taking it all in. Buyers were also cautious. They're 'more sophisticated every year,' says Exclusive Media's Alex Walton. Distribs were buying, but it wasn't 'exuberant buying,' another exec says.

All the product on paper at on the market also had people posing the eternal question of which movies will actually get made. 'Movies fall apart on the five yard line all the time,' an exec cautions. Millennium's Mark Gill estimates 'you can basically divide by 3.' Inferno's Johnson says if you had the right product, you went home happy. Inferno almost completely sold out Grace Of Monaco and the Guillermo del Toro-directed stop-motion animated Pinocchio. 'That feeling has returned that if you have a good idea and good elements, you will find a way to get your movie made.'

Related: Icon UK Group Joins 'The Butler'; Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey And Intriguing Choices For Presidents

As for domestic buyers, the festival was a quiet one as distributors didn't jump at a plethora of packages the way they did last year. Sony Pictures Classics took completed pics Love Is All You Need and Fortnight title No. And eOne, the subject of rumblings that it's about to buy Alliance, made some late acquisitions including North American rights to Elmore Leonard adaptation Freaky Deaky and A Late Quartet with Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Still, the buying pace always seems to be triggered by Harvey Weinstein and yet his biggest splash was in previewing footage from upcoming Oscar bait films like Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master and Cannes habitué Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained. Weinstein preempted the Dustin Hoffman-directed The Quartet and made an opportunistic acquisition of Code Name: Geronimo. That hunt for Osama Bin Laden film will be released early in the fall, ahead of rival film Zero Dark Thirty from Kathryn Bigelow that's locked into a December bow. Sony moved Bigelow's movie after Republicans cried foul and the Pentagon investigated whether she and screenwriter Mark Boal got too much help from DC in researching their film that could have bolstered Barack Obama's reelection hopes. Weinstein, an outspoken Democrat who had no such qualms about introducing an Act Of Valor-style action film on the subject, bought Code Name Geronimo based on a short trailer brought by Voltage Pictures' Nicolas Chartier. Voltage sold most of the world after Weinstein committed to a domestic release.

Related: Harvey Weinstein Unveils 'The Master', 'Django', 'Silver Linings'

IM Global had solid sales on Paranoia with Relativity taking it in the US and its Dead Man Down going to FilmDistrict which also picked up Oculus from Focus Features International. Focus chief Alison Thompson says that despite stress on the buyers, it was business as usual. CBS Films closed a preemptive deal for the US on action thriller Ends of the Earth a day ahead of the fest. Sierra/Affinity added Dennis liadis-directed thriller Plus One to its slate, also just ahead of the market. That company's chief Nick Meyer also says buyers were very excited about Tommy Lee Jones/Matthew Fox starrer The Emperor and The Coup with Owen Wilson. Meanwhile, FilmNation did brisk international business with Sofia Coppola's Bling Ring and acquired most of the world on David Michod's The Rover.

But, many believed the deal that people were waiting for was Lee Daniels' The Paperboy. Mark Gill contends that because the film is so review-dependent, a sale wasn't immediately likely. Gill says it would be understandable if buyers wait till after prizes on Sunday and it's still possible that Millennium Entertainment might keep the film for itself for theatrical and send it out VOD under its deal with Netflix. Another Lee Daniels-directed film, The Butler, has almost sold out internationally at twice the estimates with major offers said to be on the table for the U.S.

Back on the international front, Mark Damon's Foresight sold out on Motor City and Lone Survivor, aided by the presence of Gerard Butler and Peter Berg on the Croisette which lends credence to the theory that buyers get excited by seeing stars. Jere Hausfater of Aldamisa, which had Robert Rodriguez's Sin City: A Dame To Kill For and Machete Kills, says the 'velocity of sales was beyond expectations.'

Foreign outfits like Studiocanal, Pathé and Gaumont reported strong sales on titles like Susanne Bier's Serena with Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence; Christophe Gans' Beauty And The Beast and Two Mothers with Naomi Watts and Robin Wright, respectively. Gaumont's Cécile Gaget, who was selling eventual blockbuster The Intouchables last year, says buyers are looking for an 'emotional connection.' Samuel Hadida's Metropolitan Filmexport wins the prize this year for having pre-bought the most competition films for France, doing red-carpet duty for Killing Them Softly, Lawless and The Paperboy. Hadida is also bullish on his pick-up of American Bullshit, the Megan Ellison-backed drama from David O. Russell. 'This is the movie distributors will be upset they didn't get and the movie sales people will be upset they didn't sell,' he says.

Related: Brad Pitt Hits Cannes As Skies Part, Sun Shines Again

Private equity was also back as financiers increasingly see film investment a wise, if risky, move with a fair return. Two large funds were announced; one from Millennium and West Coast Partners for $100M and another, AngelWorld Entertainment and its $150M. The latter then quickly announced two pictures it's backing: The Big Shoe with Susan Sarandon and The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea with Jessica Biel. Chinese mogul Bruno Wu also came to town to announce his $30M backing of a remake of John Woo's The Killer. And, Media Content Capital made an 8-figure investment in QED International, the financing and sales company run by Bill Block.

Other deals also came together, but buyers said that they didn't feel the pressure or the need to pounce at this point. Hollywood agents brokering these deals were hardly chastened; deals on some films will follow in the festival's wake, and sellers will get another shot at sales opportunities at the Toronto Film Festival in early fall.

New Trailer: 'The Apparition'

This supernatural thriller directed and written by Todd Lincoln is from Alcon Entertainment and Dark Castle and distributed by Warner Bros. It stars Ashley Greene, Sebastian Stan, Tom Felton, Julianna Guill, and Luke Pasqualino, and has a release date of August 24th:

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Sony Seeks 'Revenge For Jolly!' With Domestic Acquisition

LOS ANGELES, CA, MAY 25, 2012 ' Atlas Independent announced today Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions has acquired Revenge for Jolly!, for distribution in the U.S. and Canada. The acquisition marks the first for the newly-formed affiliate company of Charles Roven's Atlas Entertainment. A unique dark comedy that examines the moral ambiguity of revenge, the film most recently premiered at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival. The deal was negotiated by Sony with UTA Independent Film Group.

Directed by Chadd Harbold and written by Brian Petsos, Revenge for Jolly! stars Petsos and Oscar Isaac, with special cameos by Elijah Wood, Adam Brody, Ryan Phillippe, and Kristen Wiig among others. The film follows a man (Petsos) who, with the help of his cousin (Isaac), seeks to avenge the death of his beloved dog, who was killed under confusing and suspicious circumstances. The two men follow a series of clues in an attempt to track down the dog's murderer, leaving a path of destruction in their wake.

Atlas Independent's William Green and Aaron Ginsburg produced the film alongside Brian Petsos and his company, A Saboteur. Atlas' Alan Glazer executive produced the project along with Chris Wilmot, Michael Wunderman, Peter Fruchtman and Dan Berk.

International sales for the film are being represented by Highland Film Group.