The time-traveling hitman film starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, and Emily Blunt became partly financed by the Chinese production company DMG and went through some major changes to please the new investors happy. The script was rewritten to take place in China instead of France 60 years into the future when China has become the largest superpower in the world and innovated time travel. Also Chinese actress Xu Qing was added to the cast as Willis' wife. All this helped Looper's chance of premiering day and date in China so it could take advantage of the country's cinema building boom. The strategy obviously paid off.
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The Deadline Team won't provide 24/7 news coverage for at least the next week. One of the reasons is DH business affecting the entire staff in LA, NY, and Europe. As a result, we'll probably miss some breaking stories and delay monitoring some comments, emails, and phonecalls. Please cut us some slack for the duration.
office which breaks a 5-week losing streak. Friday and Saturday overperformed for an 'up' weekend: $110M total moviegoing, which is +20% better than last year. And Sony Pictures has $66.2M ' or 56% ' of it. Saturday especially was an 'absolutely huge moviegoing day, one we haven't seen since July,' an executive told me. It was an especially big day for Amy Pascal and Jeff Blake with maybe the biggest ever #1 and #2 openings for a studio.
Columbia/Sony Animation's Halloween funhouse Hotel Transylvania (3,349 theaters) got off to a monster start Friday and then soared +73% Saturday for $43M by end of Sunday. That weekend cume beat the record for the all-time September opening (shattering Sweet Home Alabama's decade-ago $35.6M though not adjusted for inflation or higher ticket prices or 3D's premium). It's also the highest grossing debut for Sony Pictures Animation. And it's 2012's biggest opening since The Dark Knight Rises. Pic also worked for audiences who gave it an 'A-' CinemaScore ('A' from females and kids under 18) to guarantee good word of mouth through the month. Sony is claiming Hotel Transylvania cost $85M but I know it cost $104M. Depending on its legs and international preformance, it should gross between $390M-$550M at the worldwide box office. Toon opened day and date in 4 territories including Mexico and Australia.
Meanwhile TriStar's sci-fi actioner Looper (2,992 theaters) leaped to $21.5M. That's the first time talented Joseph Gordon-Levitt officially opened a movie like a star ' something his future self Bruce Willis used to do regularly years ago. Audiences gave it a 'B' CinemaScore ('B+' from males). Looper delivered an opening weekend audience that was 59% male and 70% aged 25 and older. Meanwhile, I've learned that this Sony/TriStar, FilmDistrict, and Endgame Entertainment co-production with China's DMG Entertainment is setting records in that country. The Rian Johnson film pulled off a huge upset in China by opening #1 its first weekend with between $23M-$25M grosses. That's on track to beat the U.S. debut. 'If that happens, it would be the first time that China's opening outgrosses that of a U.S. opening,' a source tells me. There will be nothing official until Tuesday because of the Chinese National Holiday. This 'marks the very first time in history that China would be world's leading market for an international film,' Endgame's James Stern tells me. The film went through some major changes to please the Chinese investor. The script was rewritten to take place 60 years into the future in China which has become the world's largest superpower in the world. Also Chinese actress Xu Qing was added to the cast. All this helped Looper's chance of premiering day and date in China - and the strategy obviously paid off bigtime.
But the major studios' best per screen average ($15,550) on Friday belonged to Universal's comedy Pitch Perfect which the studio platformed in just 335 theaters. Then this sleeper's gross went up a big +20% from Friday to Saturday for an extraordinary 6th place in the Top 10. Studio can't recall another pic pulling in a bigger $5.2M weekend playing in so few locations. The release pattern was too small to even warrant a CinemaScore. Universal execs really talked up this small sizzler in advance and pushed and promoted like crazy. Its unusual platform release in mostly college towns was intended to give its core audience an early chance to sample the film and push out word-of-mouth to a more general audience before Pitch Perfect expands into 2,800 theaters on October 5th. Developed at Universal, the pic's $17M cost was co-financed with Paul Brooks' Gold Circle Films. Brooks produced the film alongside Elizabeth Banks and Max Handelman for their Brownstone Productions company. Universal has worldwide distribution rights and opens October 4th in New Zealand and rolls out internationally beginning on October 10th. Studio claims it 'fell in love' with pic from the script stage, culminating when execs say how strongly it played to audiences. Low-budget sleepers like this have huge profit potential - if marketing costs can be controlled. To that end, Uni hosted the most word-of-mouth screenings than for any film in the studio's history: performing arts camps, colleges, and general market screenings as fall arrived. Social-media metrics began to outpace similar films at early stages on facebook, Spotify, Starmaker, SongPop, Pandora, Vevo. Uni even did a small early Sept 28th 'debut' which I never even heard about. (It was announced on Sept 6th accompanied by ticketing incentives with Fandango and MovieTickets.) Director Jason Moore ('Avenue Q' on Broadway), screenwriter Kay Cannon (30 Rock, New Girl), and auuthor Mickey Rapkin whose book inspired the film did a ton of press along with the cast anchored by Anna Kendrick and breakout star Rebel Wilson. They also shot a custom single-take lip dub promotional video for the MTV Video Music Awards that aired more than 15 times. The film also was promoted at 22 stops in the American Idol Live! Concert tour with trailer play and a spot running at intermission. Besides the usual TV ads, Pitch Perfect had an unusually long 4-week radio campaign in the top 20 markets and on Ryan Seacrest's show.
Faring way worse is this weekend's 4th newcomer Won't Back Down (2,515 theaters) from Walden Media which is financed by right-wing media multibillionaire Phil Anschutz and also responsible for that pro-school privatization documentary Waiting For Superman. This time it's another propaganda film masquerading as a drama about school reform ' but it's really an anti-teachers union polemic using classy stars Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis and Holly Hunter for cover. Anyway, the pic bombed with only a $1.1 weekend only good enough for 10th place despite receiving an 'A-' CinemaScore from its tiny audience. Fox has a deal to distribute Walden Media which 100% financed the pic and spent a fortune on TV ads. Director is Daniel Barnz, credited screenwriters Brin Hill and Daniel Barnz, producer Mark Johnson.
Won't Back Down (Walden/Fox) NEW [2,515 Runs] PG
There's been sordid news in the past 48 hours about the actor Johnny Lewis who played a biker on the FX show Sons Of Anarchy committing murder and then dying himself. But what has been lost is the true identity of his victim, described by media merely as his 81-year-old Los Feliz landlady Catherine Davis. Now she's being called a 'Hollywood legend' and 'near saint' to struggling actors, a caring benefactor who throughout her life generously opened rooms in her home to the showbiz wannabes drawn to Tinseltown. Actor/comic Taylor Negron has penned an affecting tribute to his one-time landlady turned lifelong friend. Negron at age 24 moved into Davis' so-called 'Writers Villa' as did Val Kilmer, Parker Posey, Thomas Jane, Paula Poundstone, Chris Parnell, 'and so many others', Negron writes. (George Clooney partied there.) Here's more:
Please don't refer to them anymore as 'elusive' and 'reclusive'. And instead of the 'Wachowski Brothers' or the 'Wachowski Siblings', they now prefer to be called 'Wachowski Starship'. To promote their upcoming sci-fi fantasy epic Cloud Atlas, the writing and directing duo are plug, plug, plugging it everywhere. They eagerly gave media interviews this week after their pic received a standing ovation at Fantastic Fest. They've already starred in their own YouTube videos. [Related: Lana Wachowski Comes Out For New Film]They've made sure they were included in every magazine's Fall Film Preview. And now WBEZ Chicago bills this as Andy and Lana Wachowskis' first live radio interview. Cloud Atlas starring Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, and Hugh Grant releases on October 26th:
EXCLUSIVE: In what amounts to the last major film to emerge from the Toronto Film Festival with a distribution deal, Magnolia has acquired To The Wonder, the Terrence Malick-directed film that stars Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko, Rachel McAdams and Javier Bardem. Magnolia will release it in a multi-platform strategy that starts with a theatrical release, in 2013.
The film, which premiered in Venice, polarized the Toronto crowd. It was described as a very personal film for Malick, who made it far quicker than the time he usually takes between films. Malick's pictures are something of an acquired taste ( I love 'em), but this didn't get the rousing reaction that his last film, The Tree of Life, received when it premiered at Cannes en route to a Best Picture nomination. For that reason, Magnolia seems a good home for Malick's latest, which will require some care and customization that Magnolia's collapsing window strategy can provide. It'll be released first in theaters, but I think the film would struggle in a wider theatrical release plan.
ICM Partners has signed Dublin-born Irish actor Kevin Ryan, who costars in the new BBC America series Copper. He's new to these shores, and signed with ICM's David Unger and Mosaic's Paul Nelson and Tory Howard and attorney David Matlof.
The producing and directing duo behind 1999's 10 Things I Hate About You is reuniting for 10 Things I Hate About Life. London-based Intandem Films has greenlit the project from writer-director Gil Junger and producer Andrew Lazar. Despite the similar titles, the romantic comedy that's set in Los Angeles is not a sequel to the 1999 film that starred Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Rather, it's about a young man and woman who meet while each is attempting to commit suicide. Love develops and the pair realize life is worth living. Intandem CEO Gary Smith, who's also producing, tells me, 'It's an uplifiting story but takes on the subject of misunderstood people.' The couple is currently being cast by Marcia Ross. Intandem is financing and selling the film which will also be released in the UK by the company's new distribution arm. Production starts in LA in November where Smith says the film wouldn't have been able to shoot without help from the California Film Commission which invested in the roughly $10M budget. Junger's been busy in TV lately, directing episodes of Harry's Law, Hot In Cleveland and the 10 Things I Hate About You series. He'll also produce with Lazar and Smith. Lazar's also working on Barry Sonnenfeld's upcoming Lore. Intandem's Sepideh Bakhtiari and Ben White are exec producers.
The celebrated author says that she may produce 'director's cut' versions of two of her Harry Potter novels, and doesn't rule out additional books in that world ' but without Harry. When it comes to the boy wizard's story 'I'm done,' she tells the BBC in an interview to promote her new novel for adults, The Casual Vacancy. 'I just think it would be for the sake of milking it and that's just not in me.' That includes a Potter prequel or sequel. 'I've never seen it work well in either literature or film.' Nevertheless, she says that 'if I did have a great idea for something else' in the universe she created then 'I probably would do it.' She's also mulling the possibility of tidying up some of her Potter novels that she believes 'needed another year' of work. 'There's one towards the beginning and there's one towards the end, that I definitely felt that about. I had to write on the run and there were times when it was really tough. And I read them, and I think 'Oh God, maybe I'll go back and do a director's cut.' I don't know.'
Savages author Don Winslow has won the Raymond Chandler Award. The honor, awarded at the Courmayeur Noir Festival 2012, has been won in the past by the likes of John le Carré, John Grisham, and Michael Connelly. The private detective-turned crime novelist will be on hand to accept the award in December. His books have always sold well overseas, but Winslow is finally getting some Hollywood action on novels that include The Winter Of Frankie Machine, Satori and Power of The Dog.
SAG-AFTRA is urging a 'no' vote on California's Proposition 32 on the November ballot. The so-called 'Paycheck Protection' initiative would ban corporate and union contributions to state and local candidates and would prohibit unions from using payroll-deducted funds for political purposes. Prop 32 supporters say the measure will change the way business is done in Sacramento.
After 40 years, the postproduction house has closed its doors ' at least temporarily. Located in NYC's Brill Building, Sound One has worked with the likes of Woody Allen, Barry Sonnenfeld, Ang Lee, Ken Burns and Brian DePalma. Nominated for multiple Oscars over the years, Sound One has nearly 100 in-house editing suites and five recording studios among other amenities. Last week Discovery Communications sold CSS Studios ' the holding company that owns Sound One, LA's Soundelux and several other sound studios ' to the Miami-based Empire Investment Holdings. Today Sound One released the following statement to Deadline:
WEDNESDAY AM, 36TH UPDATE WRITETHRU: A Brazilian court has ordered YouTube to pull the Innocence Of Muslims trailer from its website and has given it ten days to do so. A lawsuit against the film and YouTube parent Google was brought by the National Islamic Union, a Brazilian Muslim group which said posting the video was a violation of the constitutional right to freedom of religion. Judge Gilson Delgado Miranda said in his decision that the case juxtaposed freedom of expression and the need to protect people from action that might incite religious discrimination, Reuters reports. However, he added that banning something illegal should not 'offend' freedom of thought and expression.
In his address to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, President Barack Obama called the trailer a 'crude and disgusting video' whose message 'must be rejected by all who respect our common humanity.' He also addressed the question of why the U.S. has not banned the video that was made in California and has been the catalyst for violent and deadly rioting in more than 30 countries beginning with Egypt and Libya on 9/11. 'The strongest weapon against hateful speech is not repression, it is more speech,' Obama said. Here are more of his remarks: 
On Tuesday, Iran officially said it would boycott the 2013 Academy Awards to protest Innocence Of Muslims. Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Hosseini blasted the U.S. administration for taking no official stance against the film, the Iranian Students' News Agency reported. Hossemi also urged other Muslim countries to follow Iran's lead to show their protest. It already had picked A Cube Of Sugar as the foreign-language submission. Last year, Iran's A Separation won the foreign-language film Oscar, a first for the country.
Earlier Monday, the lawyer for Innocence Of Muslims actress Cindy Lee Garcia, who last week named YouTube, Google and the film's purported producer Nakoula Basseley Nakoula in a lawsuit alleging fraud and emotional distress, said she would refile the case in federal court. This comes after an LA Superior Court judge denied an injunction asking YouTube to remove the anti-Islam video. Appearing on the Today show Monday, Garcia's lawyer Cris Armenta said, 'My client has a copyright claim. We intend to enforce it.' Last Thursday, LA Superior Court Judge Luis Lavin said in court that without a contract he can't gauge what Garcia ' who sought the injuction (read the suit here) ' agreed to, therefore making it impossible to determine whether she was duped as she claimed into appearing in a film other than what became Innocence Of Muslims. Separately, four other actors from the film told NBC News they also intend to bring suit against Nakoula for fraud and emotional distress.
Also Monday, the Pakistani government formally distanced itself from remarks made by one of its ministers who offered a $100,000 reward for the death of the 'blasphemer' who made the anti-Islamic movie. The Foreign Office said in a statement today that the bounty reflected Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour's personal view and was not Pakistan's official policy, The Associated Press reported. On Saturday, Bilour acknowledged that encouraging murder was illegal but said he was willing to go to the gallows in defense of the Prophet Mohammad.
In other weekend developments, Coptic Christian activist Nader Fawzy on Saturday told a Toronto news conference he feared for his life because of threats from Egypt. The government there has issued arrest warrants for Fawzy and another Egyptian-born Canadian, Jacques Attalla of Montreal, claiming they were involved in the film. Both men deny having anything to do with it. They fear the warrants have made them targets for Muslim extremists. In total, 8 warrants were issued on allegations linked to the film, including one for Nakoula and one for Florida-based American pastor Terry Jones. All face charges of harming national unity, insulting and publicly attacking Islam and spreading false information.
While violence has calmed some, protests in Pakistan last Friday led to the death of between 12 and 19 people. It was the worst single day of violence since the video spread. The New York Times reported. Two movie theaters were torched in Peshawar and three were burned in Karachi, according to CNN. It didn't matter that Pakistan's government had declared a 'Day of Love for the Prophet Mohammad' and shut mobile-phone services in its major cities and closed roads leading to U.S. diplomatic posts to achieve peace. To that end, the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan began airing TV ads on Thursday featuring clips of President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemning the anti-Islam video. But the spots did little to calm unrest.
During the first week that the video began to spread, federal authorities interviewed presumed producer Nakoula and are determining whether he violated his probation. He served 21 months in prison on 2009 federal bank fraud and aggravated identity theft charges and a $795K fine. ABC News has reported he 'could face more prison time if it is determined his involvement in the film was a violation of his probation, which barred him from either owning or using devices with access to the Web without prior approval from his probation officer.' So far Nakoula has not been arrested. He left his family's Cerritos home with his head wrapped in a towel to hide his identity when sheriffs escorted him to a police station for FBI questioning.
Rupert Murdoch restated his faith in the long-term future of newspapers in a weekend address at the annual News Awards in Sydney. Murdoch said that splitting News Corp into separate entertainment and publishing companies next year would see both strive to 'dominate against our competitors by providing and distributing the most informative and entertaining content in the world'. He added, 'Print will be with us for many, many years', but we must also provide our readers with the greatest news experience possible on other platforms'. The address was intended as a morale booster for News Ltd.'s journalists after a sweeping restructure by chief executive Kim Williams, which resulted in an estimated 300 layoffs. ' Don Groves
Dutch broadcaster SBS has commissioned a local reality version of Lifetime drama Strong Medicine. Stories From The Hospital will be produced by Sony Pictures Television's Dutch venture Tuvalu Media and will use the self-contained storylines from Strong Medicine's drama scripts as played out by participants whose real life experiences mirror those of the original's characters. The original followed the lives of staff in the women's health clinic of a fictitious Philadelphia hospital and was created by Tammy Ader who exec produced with Whoopi Goldberg, Diane Messina Stanley, Jim Stanley and John Flynn. The producer on the Dutch transfer is Vincent ter Voert. The Dutch series will air in primetime on SBS' female-skewing web NET5. SPT's international production and distribution teams will also launch the new format to international buyers at Mipcom in October.
Netherlands. Now he's set to make his big screen debut in Absolutely Modern (formerly When We Were Modern). The film looks at the birth of modernism through the prism of a ménage a trois involving Australian painter Sidney Nolan, his wife and his mistress Sunday Reed. Filmmaker Philippe Mora tells Deadline he heard of Melchiot's acting ambitions from a Los Angeles drama teacher and discovered he has a 'natural charisma.' Mora directs and stars along with Tequila Mockingbird, the curator of LA's The Punk Museum, Clayton Watson (The Matrix Reloaded, 33 Postcards) and Rena Riffel. Further casting is underway. The film is a hybrid of animation, puppetry and live action, including archival footage of the 1906 Australian bushranger film The Story Of The Kelly Gang. ' Don Groves
Here's an investment that's paid off well for the publishing company: In 2005 The Times joined Union Square Ventures and Allen & Co to collectively spend $5M for a minority stake in Indeed, which aggregates Web job listings. Since then the site has taken off, surpassing Monster.com in hits among job seekers. Last year the Times sold part of its interest for $5.9M. The new deal will deliver the company's stake to Japan's Recruit Co, which specializes in classified ads. The Times expects to record its gain in Q4, it says in an SEC filing. Its stock is up 2% in early trading.
Ron Meyer turns 68 on Tuesday. So on the eve of his birthday, he finally made a public statement about the August rumors that he would be involuntarily or voluntarily exiting his job at Universal Studios soon. On a panel at the inaugural symposium of the USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy this afternoon, Meyer was asked by the moderator about 'these rumors he might be leaving' the President/COO job he has held atop Universal Studios since 1995. Ron's reply was as follows: 'I wouldn't know what to do retiring. So I have no plans to retire. I like what I'm doing and, as long as they will have me, I can stay.'
The former No. 2 to Twitter fan Rupert Murdoch is one of the top choices among the people being interviewed for the part time gig, All Things D reports. But the site says it hears from unnamed sources that Twitter management is just beginning its search, and Chernin is still mulling whether he even wants the job. The privately held company ' believed to be a prime candidate to go public once it solidifies its business model ' has a seat to fill in the board room following the recent departure of Flipboard's Mike McCue. (He's said to be concerned that his company might soon compete with Twitter.) Chernin has strong credentials: At News Corp he was one of the architects of Hulu. Since he left, his Chernin Entertainment has been a prolific developer of TV shows (including Fox' New Girl) and movies (such as Fox' Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes).
Just ahead of its official bow, Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will screen for Britain's royal family as the 65th Royal Film Performance. The event will take place on Dec. 12 and benefits the Cinema and Television Benevolent Fund which cares for UK industry employees and their families who are suffering from hardship. Warner Bros. UK chief Josh Berger said, 'It's fitting that this film, with a significant number of British cast and crew, will help support the great work the CTBF does for those most in need in the UK's film and television community.' British castmembers include Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, Ian Holm, Andy Serkis, Luke Evans and Benedict Cumberbatch. Warner Bros. releases the film on Dec. 14.
actually spent the entire weekend following Emmy producer Don Mischer (who also produced the Oscars the past two years and will direct this year). 
The Oscar team told me they spent all day Saturday and Sunday in the booth watching how the big TV show came together to get a few helpful tips. This particular Emmy show and the Oscars both air on ABC. 'We've been shadowing Don Mischer all weekend to get an idea of how it is done,' Zadan told me at the Emmy Governors Ball. 'We're already having a ball doing the Oscars. We have ideas that have never been done before.' Meron assures they are actively beginning the Oscar process and hope to have a host in place sooner rather than later. Zadan says a host is key and sooner is better.
But it was the very big final award for Best Comedy Series to Modern Family that really made Mischer feel bad: Presenter Michael J. Fox received an elongated standing ovation (the only one of the evening it turns out) when he was introduced and that took up precious time that cut into executive produer Steve Levitan's speech. Mischer said he had no choice but to cut him off with almost zero seconds to spare until 8 PM. ABC was telling him in one ear they had to get off the air but he didn't want to stop Levitan. At the Governors Ball, Mishcher apologized to Levitan who said he understood the timing problem ' even though ironically Modern Family was Emmy network ABC's big win this year. In fact, it was the biggest win for any broadcast network on the cable-centric Emmycast.
The Emmys seemed to be well-received by the Nokia Theatre audience, although many of host Jimmy Kimmel's gags fell flat. Afterwards at the ball, several major people I spoke with ' Kimmel fans included ' felt some of the bits didn't really work including his 'In Memoriam' segement that seemed tasteless coming as it did before the real In Memoriam segment touchingly hosted by Ron Howard in honor of his late TV dad Andy Griffith. The bit where Kimmel got 30 Rock's Tracy Morgan to essentially play dead on stage for several minutes (including during a commercial break) did not go over with the Nokia crowd either. Kimmel has had much better outings on his own show and during his post-Oscar specials.
winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus was truly happy with her win for Veep, especially when I told her she may be the first performer to pull off a major Emmy acting win in three different series. 'Really? Is that true? We've got to check that out,' she said, clearly pleased with the recognition for her first-year HBO series. She says she goes back to shoot a second season October 29. She also has a short film, Paris Perfect, which could be in contention for an Oscar this year. Good times.
Best actress in a movie or miniseries winner Julianne Moore was also understandably in a good mood at the HBO bash after winning for Game Change. 'We didn't anticipate a sweep. This is so nice,' she said. This is her second Emmy after winning a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Ingenue for her soap, As The World Turns, near the beginning of her career in 1988. She also has been nominated for four Oscars but never won. Directing and writing Game Change winners Jay Roach and Danny Strong, respectively, were also happily celebrating the across-the-board triumph of their timely political film at the massive HBO party.
The venerable alternative newspapers plus 11 others are part of a buyout announced last night that will separate them from Backpage.com, the classified ad service that critics say promotes prostitution. The chief operating officer of Village Voice Media Holdings, Scott Tobias, led the team buying the papers, called Voice Media Group. Terms weren't disclosed, except that Backpage.com is not included. The site known for its classified ads offering 'escorts' had been a 'distraction,' Tobias ' who's CEO of the new Voice Media Group ' told AP. In March, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof said that Backpage played 'a major role in the trafficking of minors or women who are coerced.' Goldman Sachs responded by selling its stake in the site. The Voice said that Kristof had it wrong, and that Backpage 'dedicates hundreds of staff to screen adult classifieds in order to keep juveniles off the site and to work proactively with law enforcement in their efforts to locate victims.'
for me. Because the three top pics are neck-and-neck for #1 this weekend. Final film order may come down to Sunday late shows on the West Coast. All four newcomers are low- to medium-budget movies, but none opened to more than $14M this weekend. And total filmgoing likely won't add up to a lot more than $87M, which is down a big -20% from last year. 'It's a close race to mediocrity with no winners,' one movie exec snarked to me.
Warner Bros is claiming Clint Eastwood's baseball father-daughter melodrama Trouble With The Curve (3,212 theaters) is #1 this weekend. Not so fast. My sources already were calling it a 'big disappointment' Friday. But it received a +32% Red State bump on Saturday to make it more competitive. A lot of uninformed types are going to claim this icon's movie is underperforming because of the 82-year-old Clint's rambling Republican National Convention performance with that empty chair. Oh, puh-leeze. First of all, his movies don't open big and usually platform (unlike this). But they do have long legs. Two movies he both directed and starred in most recently ' Gran Torino and Oscar-winner Million Dollar Baby ' went on to earn over $100M. This latest won't get near that. This time, Eastwood's longtime collaborator Robert Lorenz at the helm. Its reviews are mediocre even though audiences gave it a 'B+' CinemaScore which should help word of mouth. But baseball pics lately do only passable box office even though Warner Bros hired a sports consultant to build awareness. The studio targeted older audiences ' and launched the trailer with Hope Springs ' since it's not like Amy Adams or Justin Timberlake fill cineplex seats. Can Eastwood anymore? Ask me Sunday.
Some have #1 this weekend Relativity's run of the mill horror flick, House At The End Of The Street (3,083 theaters) which went up +17%-+20% from Friday to Saturday because its star Jennifer Lawrence has stayed warm at the box office. And audiences gave it a middling 'B' CinemaScore. Relativity for $2.5M acquired U.S. rights to market and distribute domestically, while Film Nation and A Bigger Boat independently produced the film with a budget just under $10M. Film Nation handled foreign sales and international distribution, and Alliance Films is distributing in Canada. Relativity claims an opening of $11M-$12M keeps the pic 'on track for profitability across ancillary distribution channels including Netflix deal, home entertainment, television and digital sales'. (Isn't it interesting how Relativity always claims it never loses money on its movies?) Relativity drafted off Lawrence's built-in fan base by using The Hunger Games' home entertainment release on August 18th with targeted media and executed grassroots promotions. Because of her, Relativity targeted women.
Also in the mix for #1 is Open Road's handheld-camera End Of Watch (2,730 theaters). The small distributor was even getting congratulatory calls from competitors Friday after 'extremely strong' West Coast late show numbers. It, too, went up from Friday to Saturday ' +13%-+15%. That's a surprise considering it's R-rated which limits its grosses, it's playing in less theaters than rivals, and it's starring Jake Gyllenhaal who's been box office poison for major studio movie openings. But this cop drama is exactly the kind of smaller character-driven indie project he does well and his followers enjoy. It received great reviews and an audience-rated CinemaScore of 'A-' that will expand word of mouth. Maybe End Of Watch can rival Open Road's biggest to date, The Grey ($51.5M theatrical run). Made for only $7.5M, pic was acquired by Open Road for around $2M in February after execs saw it at a buyer's screening at the Arclight and made the deal that night. P&A was around $20M. Written and produced and directed by David Ayer (Training Day, S.W.A.T, The Fast & The Furious), Gyllenhaal is an executive producer. Pic also stars Michael Peña and Anna Kendrick. Producers are John Lesher, Nigel Sinclair, Matt Jackson and Ayer.
And then there's Lionsgate's British/South African co-production low-budget reboot of John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra's cult favorite comics Dredd 3D (2,506 locations). It did dreadful on Friday and went up +12% for Saturday but still fell to 6th place behind Sony/Screen Gem's holdover Resident Evil: Retribution. Comic-Con fans seemed to accept this new Dredd as the real deal last summer, unlike the Sly Stallone version. Reviews were good, and audiences gave the pic a 'B' CinemaScore which won't help or hurt word of mouth. Karl Urban stars as the titular character with Olivia Thirlby in an R-rated dark and gritty pic without lycra or gold codpieces. But his exaggerated Clint Eastwood-style line readings may not have been obviously satirical enough. The bad news for Reliance Entertainment is that Deepak Nayer and Stuart Ford who put the picture together committed Reliance to fund the $40M gap and backstop the P&A. The good news for Lionsgate is that it has minimal risk. The studio is only responsible for P&A costs. Interestingly, LG's marketing campaign created a comic strip prequel to the film with the publisher 2000 AD as well as a Motion Comic that was released online. Dredd 3D also opened the Midnight Madness section of the Toronto Film Festival and as well as Fantastic Fest in Austin. But there was never much of an effort to widen the film's appeal or the audience for it. Directed by Pete Travis from a screenplay written by Alex Garland, the film is produced by Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich, and Alex Garland. Best about the film are those stunning slow motion photography sequences.