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    Cowell may leave Idol


    2009 - 12.28

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    Posted in Fox | No Comments »

    Simon Cowell may leave American Idol after this season; that’s the word from his brother on Twitter. But we suspect Cowell is just using his desire to leave the show as a negotiating position, as he has before when his contract has come up for renewal.

    So is Simon going into RV repair? Not on your life; he wants to bring over his latest show, X-Factor, from Great Britain to the US. However, since Fox is the most interested buyer at the moment, don’t be surprised if they link purchase of X-Factor to a condition of Cowell remaining on Idol in some form.

    It’s been a bumpy ride for Idol the past few months. First, Paula Abdul’s contract is not renewed; then, Fox chooses the worst possible replacement – a stand-up comic and talk show host with no musical background, Ellen DeGeneres – to take Abdul’s place.

    Now no Simon?

    The old adage stands true; don’t mess with success! Unfortunately, that’s exactly what Fox is doing…

    Avatar hangs on at box office!


    2009 - 12.28

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    Posted in Hollywood, Weekend box office | No Comments »

    Both Robert Downey Jr’s Sherlock Holmes and kids flick Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel did terrific at the box office over Christmas weekend, but like the best diet supplement, Avatar held on to its top spot at the box office.

    Avatar posted $75 million in domestic box office, a drop-off of less than three percent from last weekend, and brought its domestic take to $212 million. Add in foreign markets and Avatar raked in another $402 million, making for a global box office take of $615 million in only 10 days of release. Even with its lofty budget of $300 million, plus another $200 million in global marketing efforts, Avatar is now safely in the black.

    The next question will be how long it can hang on.

    Sherlock Holmes drew $65.3 million in its opening bow, which would be more than enough to earn the top spot most weeks, but this time out was only good enough for a strong second place. Alvin and the Chipmunks was also surprisingly strong, garnering $50.2 million in its opening bow and $77 million since its early release last week.

    Proving that this weekend’s choices were all worthy of moviegoers’ attention, even the iffy romantic comedy It’s Complicated did well, drawing $22.1 million in box office and securing the fourth spot. Going into wide release, Up In The Air posted an $11.75 million weekend to take the fifth spot away from The Blind Side, which still managed $11.73 million in its sixth week of release.

    Twilight Saga: New Moon dropped all the way to 11th place, adding only $3 million domestically to its $280 million take so far, and with $381 million from foreign markets, that puts New Moon at $662 million, or just slightly ahead of Avatar. Of course, I’d rather have New Moon’s profit margin; that flick cost only $25 million against $662 million in global box office, compared to Avatar’s $500 million plus against $616 million in global sales.

    Not many new flicks expected next weekend, so the horse race should prove interesting among all the contenders currently on the board.

    Avatar blows up box office


    2009 - 12.24

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    Posted in Weekend box office | No Comments »

    Between a $300 million production budget and an estimated $200 million promotional budget, Avatar is one of the most expensive movies made since, well… the last time James Cameron made a film. Remember a humble little movie called Titanic? Yeah, that was small potatoes.

    But enough with the hip sarcasm. Because even though James Cameron may have lots of people trying to guarantee his health and safety while making a massive movie like Avatar, including fall protection, the flick is now out there, and the first returns are pretty much in.

    Avatar did very, very well. In its first weekend of release, the film grossed $77 million domestically. Sure, that’s not quite The Dark Knight numbers, but still quite good. But the foreign markets have gone crazy for Avatar as well, adding $165 million to the take for a first weekend global box office total of $242 million. That’s nearly half of the total estimated budget in three days.

    As of end of business Tuesday, those figures had climbed to $109 million domestic, $219 foreign and $329 million total worldwide box office.

    Now the questions shifts to how well Avatar will hold up as the weeks play out; the film as a markedly pro-green, liberal political agenda that’s not even thinly disguised… will that translate into success in a Barack Obama nation? Will the film fizzle if red-state America stays home because of it? Or will the power of the storytelling and dazzling special effects overcome any political overtone concerns?

    Furthermore, can the movie survive any initial drop-off and develop legs, like Titanic and The Dark Knight, or will it fizzle after its initial big splash, as was the case with The Twilight Saga: New Moon? Only time will tell for certain, but in early online ticket preorders, Alvin and the Chipmunks 2, debuting this weekend, is outselling Avatar; and Robert Downey Jr.’s Sherlock Holmes is testing better more broadly with audiences.

    Can Alvin 2 and Sherlock Holmes topple Avatar? Can Avatar survive the competition at the box office to become a perennial draw and make money the way Titanic did? These are the questions that will intrigue this coming weekend, and in the weeks to come.

    Disney’s first traditionally-animated musical in years wins big


    2009 - 12.14

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    Posted in Weekend box office | No Comments »

    Technically, it’s in its third week of release, but Disney’s first traditionally-animated musical in years, The Princess and the Frog, opened up a can of whoop-em on the box office charts this week. Adding over 3,400 screens to its national total, The Princess and The Frog took home $25 million in its first week of wide release. This was solid enough to best the nearest competition, The Blind Side, which took home another $15.45 million and proved it has better staying power than the meteoric Twilight Saga: New Moon, which fell to a distant fourth place ($8 million) behind newcomer Invictus ($9 million).

    Overall, though, box office receipts were dismal and even The Princess and The Frog faces an uphill battle, due to its staggering $105 million budget. And despite fading fast now, New Moon has $588 million in worldwide box office to comfort itself with until Eclispe debuts this summer. That should keep everyone involved in plentiful supply of furnace filters over the winter, at any rate.

    FlashForward won’t until March


    2009 - 12.07

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    Posted in ABC | No Comments »

    FlashForward, arguably the freshest ABC drama this year, is on a three-month hiatus following last week’s episode. The word coming down from ABC is that by allowing for the big gap, FlashForward can air with no repeats or long delays between fresh episodes once it returns; in the meantime, ABC can avoid reruns and try out other shows waiting in the wings for the Winter Season.

    Sure, the news is about as welcome as first communion invitations among the faculty at UC-Berkeley, but few people question such a move when Fox or USA do it; so why not ABC?

    In all honesty, ABC is worried about FlashForward’s ratings decline; the show is shakey at best for a second season order, but given the limited-run nature of the concept, maybe it’s better off as a one-season-and-done proposition. After all, once The Date comes and goes and we see how things turn out for the cast, wouldn’t a second global blackout be a bit of a stretch?

    Blind Side blindsides New Moon


    2009 - 12.07

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    Posted in Weekend box office | No Comments »

    In its third week of release, the Sandra Bullock football drama, The Blind Side, has maintained its audience better than has The Twilight Saga: New Moon, surging ahead to take the top spot in the box office this weekend after holding second place to the vampire drama and their dark eye circles crowd for the past two weeks.

    The Blind Side garnered $20.4 million in ticket sales this weekend, bringing its total to date to $129.2 million domestically and since the movie hasn’t made it overseas yet, that’s all it’s made. Still, that’s a hefty $100 million more than the modest $29 million comedy cost to make.

    By comparison, New Moon raked in an additional $15.7 million to hold on to second place, bringing its domestic total to $255 million, with foreign markets adding another $243 million for a worldwide take of $498 million. The third movie in the series, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, just finished shooting and is on track for release this coming summer.

    Currently, Summit Entertainment is weighing its options on the fourth and final book in the Twilight Saga. They could either make one movie and keep all their actors under the terms of their current contracts, or split the hefty 700+ page novel into two features, which would mean principals Robert Pattinson, Kristin Stewart and company would all get a chance to renegotiate their contracts for bigger paydays.

    There’s also the complexly graphic plot of the fourth book, which involves (among other things) intricacies about vampire-human sex, a pregnancy and the birth of a half-vamp/half-human baby. It’s risque material that could push the movie beyond its current PG-13 rating, a risk against the box office draws the more innocently-themed movies released to date have enjoyed.

    Odds are, Summit will go the riskier, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows route and split the lengthy Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn into a two-part feature.

    Meanwhile, no other movie could even manage to break the $10 million mark this week; that includes the character drama Brothers, Armored, and Everybody’s Fine, which finished in third, sixth and tenth places respectively.

    Don’t expect things to change much next weekend, either; with the Morgan Freeman-Matt Damon South African politics movie Invictus being the best chance to break through, there’s not much hope for the first and second spots to be dethroned any time prior to the release of Jame Cameron’s AVATAR in two weeks. After that, December will get competitive again with films like Did You Hear About the Morgans, It’s Complicated, Alvin and the Chipmunk: The Squeakel, and Robert Downey Jr’s take on Sherlock Holmes all promising to be potential breakthrough hits behind a wave mounted by AVATAR.

    One more day till MONK finale!


    2009 - 12.04

    Posted in Television | No Comments »

    Here’s another video, courtesy of USA… I don’t want the finale to come, even though I can’t wait to see it!

    A scene from this Friday’s MONK finale!


    2009 - 12.01

    Posted in Television | No Comments »

    HollywoodIdiocy has been a fan of MONK from the beginning… definitely one show lacking in idiocy! Here’s a scene from this Friday’s series finale, courtesy of USA.