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Monday, October 4, 2010

“Sony’s ‘The Social Network’ Top Movie With $23 Million in Sales - BusinessWeek” plus 2 more

“Sony’s ‘The Social Network’ Top Movie With $23 Million in Sales - BusinessWeek” plus 2 more


Sony’s ‘The Social Network’ Top Movie With $23 Million in Sales - BusinessWeek

Posted: 03 Oct 2010 09:14 AM PDT

October 04, 2010, 12:07 AM EDT

By Jim Efstathiou Jr. and Anthony Palazzo

Oct. 4 (Bloomberg) -- "The Social Network," a movie chronicling the rise of Facebook Inc. founder Mark Zuckerberg, opened at No. 1 in U.S. and Canadian theaters, logging $23 million in ticket sales for Sony Corp.

Time Warner Inc.'s "Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole" remained in second place with $10.9 million, box- officer tracker Hollywood.com Box-Office said yesterday in an e- mailed statement.

In bringing Facebook to the big screen, Sony had the challenge of dramatizing events centered around online activities. Director David Fincher, whose credits include "Zodiac" and "Fight Club," focused on Zuckerberg's ethical choices and relationships. The marketing included ads touting the fictionalized founder as: "Punk, genius, billionaire."

"For a picture like this to hit $23 million is quite solid," said Brandon Gray, president of Sherman Oaks, California-based Box Office Mojo, in an interview. "It's a topical drama. It tends to appeal to adults, and when you have that type of movie, they tend not to have the biggest opening."

The movie missed the $26 million estimate of Gitesh Pandya, editor of Box Office Guru.

"The Social Network" follows the origin of Facebook from its controversial founding, embellishing the known record with made-up episodes. Jesse Eisenberg, whose previous roles include "Adventureland" and "Zombieland," plays Zuckerberg and Justin Timberlake appears as venture capitalist Sean Parker.

'Wall Street'

Returning movies occupied the second through fifth slots.

"Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole," which finished second, is a 3-D animated movie which features the voices of Jim Sturgess and Helen Mirren.

Falling to third place from first last week was "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" with $10.1 million. The Oliver Stone-directed sequel to 1987's "Wall Street" has brought in $35.9 million for News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox in two weeks.

Michael Douglas reprises his Oscar-winning role as financier Gordon Gekko, who has completed a lengthy prison term. The movie co-stars Shia LaBeouf, who plays a young trader in a tale set amid the 2008 economic meltdown. Ticket sales for "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" fell 47 percent from the prior week.

"The Town," dropped to fourth from third with $10 million for Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. Ben Affleck stars and directs the bank robbery thriller, which also features Jon Hamm, Rebecca Hall and Jeremy Renner. Receipts total $64.3 million after three weeks.

'Case 39'

"Easy A," Sony's teen comedy, finished fifth. The movie, starring Emma Stone as a high school student who fights back after she is ostracized over rumors of her promiscuity, earned $7 million.

Two thrillers making their debut this week, "Case 39" from Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures and Overture Films' "Let Me In" failed to crack the top five. "Case 39" had $5.35 million for seventh place and "Let Me In" earned $5.3 million in eighth.

Weekend sales for the top 12 films fell 4.94 percent to $87.5 million from $92 million a year earlier, Hollywood.com said. Year-to-date receipts total $8.19 billion, up 3.7 percent from $7.89 billion. Attendance has fallen 1.8 percent this year.

The following table has figures provided by studios to Los Angeles-based Hollywood.com Box-Office. The amounts are based on actual ticket sales for Oct. 1-2 and estimates for yesterday.

Rev. Avg./ Pct. Total Movie (mln) Theaters Theater Chg. (mln) Wks ================================================================ 1 THE SOCIAL NETWORK $23.0 2,771 $8,300 -- $23.0 1 2 LEGEND OF GUARDIANS 10.9 3,575 3,036 -33 30.0 2 3 WALL STREET 10.1 3,597 2,808 -47 35.9 2 4 THE TOWN 10.0 2,935 3,407 -36 64.3 3 5 EASY A 7.0 2,974 2,354 -34 42.4 3 6 YOU AGAIN 5.6 2,548 2,179 -34 16.4 2 7 CASE 39 5.4 2,211 2,420 -- 5.4 1 8 LET ME IN 5.3 2,021 2,622 -- 5.3 1 9 DEVIL 3.7 2,392 1,535 -44 27.4 3 10 ALPHA AND OMEGA 3.0 2,303 1,303 -37 19.0 3 11 RESIDENT EVIL 2.8 1,907 1,468 -43 56.6 4 12 INCEPTION 0.9 625 1,392 -30 288.4 12

Top 12 Films Grosses

This Week Year Ago Pct.

(mln) (mln) Chg. ===================================

$87.5 $92.0 -4.94

Year-to-date Revenue

2010 2009

YTD YTD Pct.

(mln) (mln) Chg. ===================================

$8,193 $7,898 3.7

Year-to-date Attendance: -1.79%

--Editors: Sylvia Wier, Julie Alnwick

To contact the reporters on this story: To contact the reporter on this story: Jim Efstathiou Jr. in New York at jefstathiou@bloomberg.net. Anthony Palazzo in Los Angeles at apalazzo@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Sylvia Wier at swier@bloomberg.net

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Suburban movie studio relocating operations to Detroit, looking for permanent site in city - Los Angeles Times

Posted: 30 Sep 2010 05:53 PM PDT

sns-ap-mi-michigan-movie-studio
DETROIT (AP) — A movie studio plans to relocate its operations from the suburb of Allen Park to Detroit.

Unity Studios announced the decision on Thursday, saying its initial plans to build sound stages and production offices will move forward in Detroit.

The studio's offices will be located at Wayne State University's TechTown business incubator until a permanent site is found.


Allen Park Mayor Gary Burtka says in a statement to the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News that the studio "has not developed into the project its owners represented."

Allen Park officials had threatened to evict Unity Studios in May, claiming it had missed rent payments and not complied with lease requirements. The city and the studio later reached a deal to avoid eviction.

Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Movie Reviews: Conviction, Catfish, & It’s Kind of a Funny Story - Blackbookmag.com

Posted: 30 Sep 2010 09:53 AM PDT

Movie Reviews: Conviction, Catfish, & It’s Kind of a Funny Story Conviction
Originally titled Betty Anne Waters, Fox changed the name of director Tony Goldwyn's rich and layered drama to Conviction, presumably to avoid the inevitable Julia Roberts/Erin Brockovich comparisons Hilary Swank will surely get when she's honored with an Oscar nomination next year. Swank, already a two-time winner, plays a working- class mother of two from Boston who struggles—for 18 years—to get her brother Kenneth (Sam Rockwell, also Oscar bait) out of a life sentence for a murder he didn't commit. First, she'll need to get her GED, her BA, go to law school, and pass the bar exam, at which point she'll reopen a 16-year-old case and appeal the verdict. Although we already know the outcome—the film is based on a true story—it's a thrill to watch Swank do battle, particularly when she takes on her own Scylla and Charybdis, the policewoman who arrested Kenny (Melissa Leo) and the trial's key witness (a deliciously crazy Juliette Lewis). Expect serious traction from this one come awards season. —Nick Haramis

('DiggThis')

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It's Kind of a Funny Story
It's Kind of a Funny Story is kind of a funny movie, too, but teenage boys flocking to watch their Hangover hero Zach Galifianakis prance around in nothing but a jock strap will be surprised, albeit pleasantly, by its more serious side. They may see some of themselves in 15-year-old Craig (Keir Gilchrist), who checks himself into a mental institution after experiencing suicidal fantasies. Once inside, Craig—who is never really a danger to himself—meets a call sheet of harmlessly bonkers characters. There's the mentor (Galifianakis), the mute (Bernard White), and the girl next door (or down the hall, as is the case with a highly crushable Emma Roberts), who also happens to cut herself once in a while. Soon, the predictable happens—they change his life and he changes theirs. But directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck who have yet to make a bad film (Half Nelson, Sugar)—navigate the proceedings in a way that's always engaging and ultimately transcendent. —Ben Barna

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Catfish
A raw, low-budget Sundance gem (as if there were any other kind), Catfish finds filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost following Schulman's adult brother, Nev, as he forms an initially benign online friendship with an 8-year- old girl named Abby. She's an art prodigy living in Michigan who paints one of Nev's photographs that she finds in The New York Sun. Slowly, Nev begins a virtual affair with Abby's 19-year- old sister, Megan. As time passes and their long-distance dalliance intensifies, Nev and crew decide to take a trip to meet Megan and Abby in person. What transpires will force viewers to re-examine the trust we place in online personae. Sure, the film's a nail-biter, but it's also a true, heartrending tale of internet romance gone awry. —Eiseley Tauginas

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