The Dark Knight Rises to the Top!

As expected the final chapter in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, rose to the top of the box office charts over the weekend. The film starring Oscar winners Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Marion Cottillard and Michael Caine, Oscar nominees Anne Hathaway and Gary Oldman, SAG Award nominee Tom Hardy and Golden Globe nominee Joseph Gordon-Levitt set the record for the biggest 2D opening in history with a massive $160.8 million over its first three days. That also qualifies as the third biggest opening overall behind the 3D openers of The Avengers and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2. The movie should hold up quite well in the weeks ahead as it has garnered great reviews (I give the fantastic film an “A” grade) and audiences who may have been nervous to see it after the tragic shootings in Colorado venture back to the theatre…. In The Dark Knight’s wake, the rest of the top ten took a hit with Spider-man and Savages both dropping over 60 %…. For more on all the box office numbers, the records broken by The Dark Knight Rises and more, head to Box Office Mojo here. And check out the new top ten below.

TW LW Title (click to view) Studio Weekend Gross % Change Theater Count / Change Average Total Gross Budget* Week #
1 N The Dark Knight Rises WB $160,887,295 – 4,404 – $36,532 $160,887,295 – 1
2 1 Ice Age: Continental Drift Fox $20,416,978 -56.2% 3,886 +5 $5,254 $88,840,284 – 2
3 2 The Amazing Spider-Man Sony $10,887,111 -68.6% 3,753 -565 $2,901 $228,611,425 $230 3
4 3 Ted Uni. $10,011,610 -55.3% 3,214 -89 $3,115 $180,431,425 $50 4
5 4 Brave BV $6,024,987 -46.0% 2,899 -493 $2,078 $208,774,173 $185 5
6 6 Magic Mike WB $4,291,432 -52.4% 2,606 -484 $1,647 $101,966,459 $7 4
7 5 Savages (2012) Uni. $3,398,880 -63.8% 2,336 -299 $1,455 $40,055,075 $45 3
8 7 Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection LGF $2,253,074 -59.7% 1,540 -464 $1,463 $60,289,622 $20 4
9 9 Moonrise Kingdom Focus $1,831,471 -50.6% 895 -29 $2,046 $36,087,959 $16 9
10 11 To Rome with Love SPC $1,420,891 -42.5% 552 -192 $2,574 $11,107,993 – 5

First Look- The Dark Knight Rises

It’s here~ your first look at the most highly anticipated film of 2012, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises. The third film in Nolan’s Batman trilogy could be his last and it looks like he’s going out with a bang. The trailer brings back your favorites including Oscar winners Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine plus Gary Oldman while introducing new a new love interest for Bruce Wayne in Oscar winner Marion Cottillard. Also along for the ride are Golden Globe nominee Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy as the brutal villain Bane, and Oscar nominee Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle/Catwoman! It looks good. Check out the brand new trailer below and brace for the film which hits theatres on July 20th.

The Dark Knight Rises

Check out the new Superman, Spiderman and Catwoman!

While this summer of superheroes is finally coming to an end with a couple of successes (Thor, Captain America), a decent extension of a franchise (X Men: First Class) and a big ole bomb (The Green Lantern), Hollywood is setting its sights on next summer. Three of the biggest superheroes are heading back to the big screen with the most anticipated film being The Dark Knight Rises, the third film from Oscar winner Christopher Nolan in his trilogy which brings us a new battle between Batman (Christian Bale) and baddie Bane (Tom Hardy), but we will also see the return of Catwoman in the form of Oscar winner Anne Hathaway. And Entertainment Weekly just published the first pic of her from set. Check it out below.

Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle/Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises

EW has also been sharing pics of the other exciting superheroe’s returning next year with the reboots of the Superman series starring Henry Cavill (The Tudors, The Immortals) and Spiderman starring Andrew Garfield (The Social Network). Take a look at both new crime fighters below…. Then, let me know which one you think will live up to the title best and which film you’re most excited to see.

Henry Cavill as Superman in Man of Steel

Andrew Garfield as Spiderman in The Amazing Spider Man

First Look~ The Dark Knight Rises!

If any of you saw Harry Potter over the weekend (and that’s probably all of you, me too), you might have seen the trailer for the most anticipated film of the year. However, the year I’m speaking of is 2012 and the film is The Dark Knight Rises, the third picture in Christopher Nolan’s incredible Batman trilogy. There aren’t too many clues given in the trailer, but it’s still all kinds of awesome as we get glimpses of Oscar winner Chrstian Bale, Oscar nominee Gary Oldman and Tom Hardy (Inception) who plays new baddie Bane. Unfortunately, there are no glimpses of returnee stars Oscar nominee Liam Neeson and Oscar winners Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine or newbies Oscar winner Marion Cottillard, Golden Globe nominee Joseph Gordon-Levitt, or Oscar nominee Anne Hathaway who’s taking on the role of Catwoman! Nonetheless, it looks great and I, for one, can’t wait til next summer. In the meantime, check out the new trailer below.

The Dark Knight Rises trailer

My Quick Thoughts on the Oscar Nominations

This morning the Academy Award nominations were announced and it was pretty much as we expected with The King’s Speech ruling the roost with 12 nods and garnering more momentum after its Producers Guild Awards win this weekend. (Watch for it to take home the SAG Ensemble and Best Actor award for Colin Firth this weekend too). We also had big nods for The Social Network, The Fighter and Inception. But there were some surprises, snubs and upsets. So, let’s take a quick look at some of my thoughts about this morning’s announcements.

The Good:

~ All the noms for The King’s Speech. It’s my favorite film of the year and I think the one to beat. It has all the momentum now and is a fresher choice for many voters as opposed to The Social Network (which had been on a roll up until last week). I’m currently predicting it will take Picture, Actor (Firth) and Original Screenplay to name a few.

The surprise nomination for Javier Bardem in Best Actor for his brilliant and tortured work in Biutiful… He better thank his good friend and Eat Pray Love costar Julia Roberts for getting him some much needed publicity before voting.

~ The Fighter acting nominations. Melissa Leo, Amy Adams and Christian Bale were on fire in this very entertaining film. Oh, and don’t feel bad for Marky Mark Wahlberg. He got a nomination to as a Producer of the film.

~ Michelle Williams makes it into Best Actress for Blue Valentine. She gave the second best lead female performance of the year (after Annette Bening in The Kids are Alright), so I’m thrilled she defied many prognosticators and is in the race.

~All the love for 127 Hours: for a film that many found hard to watch, it sure did get a lot of nominations and it’s worthy of every one of them!

~John Hawkes and Jackie Weaver: The veteran actor and Australian star both grabbed surprise noms for their fantastic and disturbing work in Winter’s Bone and Animal Kingdom respectively.

~ The noms for The Kids are Alright: I’m thrilled this little indie comedy that could has maintained its deserving place among those honored this year. And Annette (on her fourth try) better beat Ms. Portman. I’m just sayin’!

The Snubs:
Big bad snubs were all around for Mila Kunis (Black Swan), Julianne Moore (The Kids are Alright), Sam Rockwell (Conviction), Andrew Garfield (The Social Network), Robert Duvall (Get Low), Christopher Nolan (director of Inception), Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine), plus no Tangled in Best Animated Feature, no The Town in Best Picture and no Waiting for Superman in Documentary.

The Bad:

~Jeff Bridges in Best Actor: Um, he gives a copy cat performance of his Crazy Heart character in True Grit. While it’s decent, he certainly didn’t deserve a nod over the brilliant Gosling or Duvall or Paul Giamatti (Barney’s Version) or Leonardo DiCaprio (Inception)

~Where the heck is “You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me” (Burlesque) in Best Original Song? The Golden Globe winning ballad by Diane Warren and sung by Cher should’ve grabbed a nom and a win if you ask me.

The Best Director Race: Um, please throw out Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan) and The Coen Brothers (True Grit) and kindly replace them with Danny Boyle (127 Hours) and the egregiously snubbed (yet again) Christopher Nolan (Inception)

~Speaking of Inception, how the hell did it not get a Best Editing nomination?

~Waiting for Superman: not only was the best and one of the most important documentaries of the year (and any year) snubbed in Best Documentary, it’s universally wonderful theme song “Shine” by John Legend was left out of the Best song race… Instead we got another dumb Randy Newman ditty from Toy Story 3. (that’s nothing against that amazing movie though by the way)

~Original Screenplay: They included the atrociously boring Another Year over Blue Valentine? Just heartbreaking… at least Black Swan didn’t make the cut here.

~Um, did I mention Ryan Gosling was robbed????

Ok, that’s enough kvetching… Despite some of those misguided choices, it’s a pretty great list of nominees and we have some real strong races in the Picture (Social Network v. Kings Speech), Actress (Bening v. Portman), Sup. Actor (Rush v. Bale), Sup Actress (Adams v. Leo) and no front-runner for Original Song (I’m currently betting on “I See the Light” from Tangled)…. Also, it’s interesting to note that Black Swan only grabbed 5 mentions which bodes poorly for the film that had been doing so well so far in the race. Perhaps, it’s not as popular with all the voters as one might think. I’m sure Mila Kunis is wondering about that…

Well, now I’d like to hear from you. What are you most happy about and what nods infuriated you the most. Sound off below and get ready for the Oscars on ABC Sunday 2/27 hosted by the nominated James Franco and a previous nominee Anne Hathaway.

The DGA Nominations~ The Fighter and Swan are in, Grit is out

This morning the Directors Guild of America Announced their nominations for Outstanding Direction in a Motion Picture for the last year. There was one big surprise omission with the Coen Brothers denied a spot for their hit western remake True Grit. Instead, David O’Russell made the cut for his hit boxing movie The Fighter and another much debated film, Black Swan, made the list for director Darren Aronofsky. Take a look at the nominees below.

DGA NOMINEES for 2010:
Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
David Fincher, The Social Network
Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech
Christopher Nolan, Inception
David O Russell, The Fighter

Other contenders who missed a spot on the list include Danny Boyle (127 Hours), Ben Affleck (The Town), Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids are Alright) and Debra Granik (Winter’s Bone)… I think this one is all Fincher’s to lose. He’s won most of the critic’s awards so far and has the momentum. We’ll see when the DGA awards are handed out on January 29th, 2011. For more on the DGA, head here.