The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz
The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz |
| Summer of sequels as Hollywood hopes for box office gold Posted: 30 Apr 2013 09:34 AM PDT
A summer of familiar faces will be on offer at the Hollywood box office, with an astounding 17 sequels between May 1 and the US Labor Day weekend on September 2. With the four-month summer movie season generating some 40 per cent of the annual North American box office, and a 5 per cent slump in summer ticket sales in 2012, the pressure is on to churn out hits. Seven of the top 10 grossing films for the whole of 2012 were sequels. In 2011, it was nine. With 17 in contention this summer alone, Hollywood studios are relying on a proven fan base to help the slew of high-profile franchises hit their mark. "You have blockbuster after blockbuster week after week," Exhibitor Relations Co's senior box office analyst Jeff Bock told Reuters. "It's like planes coming in at an airport landing strip, one after another." If all goes well, 2013 might be the biggest domestic summer box office on record, topping US$4.5 billion (RM13.69 billion), Bock said. Last year's summer take was just US$4.29 billion, down from the record US$4.4 billion for 2011. "Summer for the studios is like Christmas for retailers," Entertainment Weekly senior writer Anthony Breznican told Reuters. "It's when studios make the lion's share of sales for the year. It's where they place their biggest bets and hope to make the most return." The month of May alone will see four sequels — "Iron Man 3," "Star Trek Into Darkness," "The Hangover 3" and "Fast & Furious 6." "Those are characters or franchises audiences have loved for so long," said Fandango's chief correspondent, Dave Karger. "Viewers know what they're in for with these movies." WILL SUPERHEROES MESS UP? Zachary Quinto, who reprises his role as Spock in Paramount's "Star Trek Into Darkness," noted that it has been four years since movie audiences have seen the characters from the beloved sci-fi series. "There's more action, more destinations, more set pieces and the stakes are higher," Quinto told Reuters of the film. "We're up against an adversary that requires us to splinter off and divide in order to conquer." Elsewhere, films based on superheroes such as "Man of Steel" and "The Wolverine," and franchise continuations of action films like "Red 2" and Universal's "Kick-Ass 2," all look sound — on paper. But even superheroes sometimes mess up. Although 2006's "Superman Returns" grossed US$200 million domestically, Breznican said, it had "no love" from fans, and was largely seen as a flop for Warner Bros. June's Superman offering "Man of Steel" has a whole new cast including Henry Cavill in the title role and filmmaker Christopher Nolan, who successfully rebooted the "Batman" franchise, as a producer. "The stakes have never been higher," said Bock. He noted that if "Man of Steel" proves as successful as the two Batman movies in the "Dark Knight" franchise - which have together made more than US$2 billion worldwide at the box office - it could lead to a reboot of other DC comic book heroes. Amy Adams, who plays Lois Lane in "Man of Steel," told Reuters the film "is adrenaline-inducing but it also has a really amazing heart to it. At the core, it has this truth that really invests you in each character." With all the sequels and reboots, original action films hoping to kick-start a new franchise face a disadvantage. Among the risk-takers are filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan and actor Will Smith with the apocalyptic "After Earth," Guillermo Del Toro with his robot-versus-aliens action film "Pacific Rim," and cult filmmaker Neill Blomkamp with his futuristic "Elysium," in August. Del Toro told Reuters that "Pacific Rim," to be released by Warner Bros. in July, is "a quintessential summer movie," that features epic conflicts with robots and creatures along with "small scale problems with human characters." Blomkamp told Reuters he felt good about "Elysium" competing with established franchises, saying his film has "all the elements that those superhero films have." BRAD PITT, JOHNNY DEPP, BALLOONING BUDGETS Family films are also big, with 20th Century Fox's "Epic" in which singer Beyonce takes a voice part, Pixar's "Monsters University," "Despicable Me 2," "Turbo" with Ryan Reynolds as a racing snail, and "Smurfs 2," among others. Comedies featuring big stars are also making a splash. Adam Sandler is back for "Grown Ups 2," Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn reteam on the Google-set comedy "The Internship," Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy appear in "The Heat," and Jennifer Aniston headlines "We're the Millers." But it remains to be seen if Brad Pitt can lure audiences to Paramount's apocalyptic film "World War Z," a movie that Entertainment Weekly proclaimed as the most expensive zombie film, made at US$170 million. Disney hopes that the "Pirates of the Caribbean" trifecta of Johnny Depp, filmmaker Gore Verbinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer can recreate that same magic when the team reassembles for Western "The Lone Ranger" - despite a budget that ballooned to a reported US$250 million. "Certainly the title is a recognizable name, but do fans exist in numbers strong enough for the film to not only make money back, but also make a profit?" asked Breznican. One film that does not appear to fit into any category is Baz Luhrmann's adaption for Warner Bros. of the "The Great Gatsby" starring Leonardo DiCaprio, which was moved from December 2012 to May. Karger called it "the one head scratcher going in to the summer." Luhrmann, on the other hand, thinks the summer season is exactly when it should play. "The book is set in the sweltering summer," the filmmaker told Reuters. "All the Gatsby parties, the cocktails - there's an opportunity for audiences to participate in the movie beyond the experience of the film." — Reuters |
| ‘Iron Man’ shows Hollywood’s bent to take on China censors’ steely grip Posted: 30 Apr 2013 09:27 AM PDT
Co-producer DMG Entertainment, a Chinese firm, and the Walt Disney-owned Marvel Studios also hope the changes will help ease the film's way past China's strict censors and the draconian, and often confusing, rules for Western films. "There is no law of film in China, and so no specific standard. The members on the committee censor films totally by their own judgment," said Zhu Dake, an outspoken Chinese film critic based in Shanghai. Every movie in China is censored by the Film Censorship Committee, made up of 37 members including officials, academics, film magazine editors and directors. They vet nudity, violence and politically sensitive scenes. Western films must in addition meet the committee's "amendment opinions" to be one of the 34 Hollywood films permitted in China each year, giving them a shot at a lucrative market where box office takings grew 30 per cent in 2012 to 17.1 billion yuan (RM8.42 billion). The amendments remain unknown and committee members could not be reached for comment. Imported films, which raked in over half the box office last year, have gotten flexible as a result. The latest James Bond film, "Skyfall", cut several sensitive scenes, while action thriller "Looper" added Chinese members to the cast. In "Iron Man 3", which opens on May 1, Robert Downey Jr stars as hero Tony Stark, while Ben Kingsley plays the "Mandarin", a half-Chinese villain — the kind of thing that could be a red flag for censors. In the Chinese version, however, the name is translated as "Man Daren", removing the overtly Chinese connotation. "Iron Man 2" was also censored before it screened in China in 2010, with the words for "Russia" and "Russian" left untranslated in the subtitles and the spoken words muffled. China and Russia share a close-knit history of socialism and have recently reaffirmed close political and military ties. DJANGO SHOWS ARBITRARY DECISIONS Nothing, though, is guaranteed. "Django Unchained", the Oscar-winning film from director Quentin Tarantino, known for his violent tales, was pulled abruptly from Chinese cinemas at its debut earlier this month. Distributors cited "technical reasons", but Zhu thinks the trigger was more political. He said the narrative, which involves a European outsider stirring rebellion in the pre-Civil War United States, could have been the issue. "He is an outside force inciting people to rise up against slavery, which may be reminiscent of Chinese social reality," he said. On April 26, the movie's US distributors said it had gotten the green light for re-release in May. A Hollywood source close to the film said additional cuts had been made but declined to elaborate on what they were. China's cinema goers do not always appreciate the meddling. "The Chinese elements added feel abrupt; including Summer Qing is totally incongruous!" said microblogger "Grapefruit and Lemon" on China's Twitter-like Weibo, referring to a Chinese actress who appeared alongside Bruce Willis in "Looper". Western films aren't the only victims. The Chinese film "Farewell My Concubine" won the Palme d'Or, the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival, in 1993, but was banned in mainland China for depicting miserable scenes during China's Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s. "Sometimes the suggestions of the censors mean we don't know whether to laugh or cry," award-winning Chinese director Feng Xiaogang said at an awards ceremony in 2012. "Would any Hollywood director have to suffer this?" The overall impact may be broad and long-term. Zhu Dake said the heavy-handed grip on artistic expression is holding back China's budding auteurs. "It's not that Chinese directors lack the talent to make great movies," he said. "But there's always a sword hanging there, which could drop at any time." — Reuters |
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