There aren’t too many new options to choose from on this long Memorial Day Weekend. Only two movies open wide, one of which is a dinky horror flick appearing on 2,450 screens nationwide, and the other is the third in a franchise that was nearly driven into the ground a decade ago. The box office results ought to be interesting.
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Before seeing ‘Men in Black 3′, I had many concerns. First, Sony originally wasn’t going to screen the movie for press until the Thursday night before it opened. That’s never a good sign. Second, the series doesn’t have the best track record, and the initial trailers sure didn’t make it look like anything special. Fortunately, Sony moved the press screening to Tuesday, which isn’t bad, and the advertisements got better with time. Having now seen ‘MIB3′, I can tell you that my concerns were for naught and that it makes right all of the franchise’s wrongs.
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The ‘G.I. Joe’ sequel just can’t catch a break. Despite an expensive ad campaign that featured commercial time during the Super Bowl, an imminent line of tie-in action figures and a scheduled release date barely a month away, studio bosses at Paramount have just pushed the movie back… to March of 2013. Seriously?! I suspect that Cobra Commander is behind this somehow.
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As if movie tickets weren’t expensive enough these days, many theaters now offer premium screens or services for an additional upcharge fee. From 3D to IMAX to full dinner menus, the idea is to entice you with the promise of an improved theatrical experience. How many of these services have you used?
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There was no doubt that Marvel’s superhero team-up movie would open very strong, but I don’t think that anyone predicted it to shatter the previous $169 million opening weekend record set by ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2‘ by more than $30 million. Sure, the movie has been performing very well overseas for the last two weeks, but a $200 million opening still seemed unimaginable.
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I’m not a comic book geek and I really don’t know anything about the Avengers beyond what’s been brought to the big screen so far. With that in mind, know that I am absolutely in love with ‘The Avengers’. It’s not perfect, but it’s a perfect summer blockbuster, one that raises the bar so high that I really only see one other movie matching or surpassing it by fall. Based on the reaction by the geek audience I watched the movie with, I assume that (geek or not) everyone will love this movie.
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What a wasted opportunity. Today is 4/20 and not a single studio thought to release a stoner comedy. I’m more shocked about that than I am about the weak movies that actually open today.
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Some time back, I detailed the installation of a Lumagen Radiance video processor into my home theater system. Despite a difficult learning curve regarding its complicated set-up (which I still find a little frustrating, to be honest), the Radiance has been an extremely powerful and useful device, and I’ve been very pleased with the purchase. One of the great advantages of Lumagen over its competitors is the company’s dedicated support for its products. Lumagen constantly updates the Radiance with firmware enhancements based on user feedback. One recent upgrade added a new feature that I find particularly interesting: the ability to convert a 3D picture from one 3D video format to another.
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Once again, ‘The Hunger Games’ walked away with the weekend box office crown. The film has finished in first place for four consecutive weekends. The last movie to perform this well was 2010′s ‘Avatar‘. Down only 35% from last weekend, ‘The Hunger Games’ made another $21.5 million, which brings its domestic gross to $337 million. Analysts predict that it just might finish its theatrical run around the $400 million mark.
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James Cameron’s ‘Titanic’ sailed back onto theater screens last week sporting a fresh 3D makeover. This follows last year’s very successful run of ‘The Lion King 3D’. If similar projects continue to make money, we can no doubt expect to see more beloved classics subjected to the 3D treatment – not to mention that even many brand new movies are converted to 3D in post-production. But how exactly are these conversions actually done? The short answer, of course, is: “Computers!” The long answer is a little more complicated.
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