Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2

Daniel Radcliffe Talks THE WOMAN IN BLACK, HARRY POTTER 3D Re-Releases, KILL YOUR DARLINGS, and Wanting to Play The Flash

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: May 23rd, 2012 at 10:32 am

One of this year’s box office surprises was the thriller The Woman in Black.  Starring Daniel Radcliffe in his first major role following Harry Potter, the Gothic horror tale was based off of a 1983 novel by Susan Hill and made over $125 million at the worldwide box office.  In fact, the film was such a success that Hammer, Alliance Films, Cross Creek Pictures and author Hill are teaming up for a follow-up entitled The Woman in Black: Angels of Death. The film will be set 40 years after the events of the first film, and will follow a new couple’s experience in the same eerie house.  For more on The Woman in Black, here’s all our previous coverage which includes trailers, images, featurettes and clips.

With the film hitting Blu-ray and DVD this week, I recently did an exclusive phone interview with Radcliffe.  We talked about the success of the film and if he was relieved that he could open a film that didn’t have the words “Harry Potter” in the title, what he thought worked really well in the film and if there was something he wished he could redo, how many takes he likes to do, and more.  In addition, we talked about his thoughts on Warner Bros. eventually re-releasing the entire Harry Potter series in 3D, the drama Kill Your Darlings (in which he plays poet Allen Ginsberg), his criteria for picking future roles, and whether there’s a comic book role he’d like to play (The Flash).  Hit the jump to either read or listen to the interview.

Weekend Box Office – THE AVENGERS Breaks All-Time Domestic Record with an Astounding $200.3 Million!

by Nicole Pedersen    Posted: May 6th, 2012 at 8:36 am

The speculation stops here. The Avengers has crushed the all-time domestic weekend record by more than anyone imagined. Taking in an estimated $200.3 million from 4,349 locations, the Marvel superheroes flew past the $169.1 million of previous record-holder Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.

	Title	Weekend	Total
1	The Avengers	$200,300,000	$200.3
2	Think Like A Man	$8,000,000	$73
3	The Hunger Games	$5,700,000	$380.7
4	The Lucky One	$5,510,000	$47.9
5	Pirates! Band of Misfits	$5,400,000	$18.5
6	The Five-Year Engagement	$5,088,000	$19.1
7	Safe	$2,508,000	$12.8
8	The Raven	$2,470,000	$12
9	Chimpanzee	$2,395,000	$23
10	The Three Stooges	$1,800,000	$39.6

Can THE AVENGERS Beat HARRY POTTER’s Box Office Record? [UPDATED: Yes]

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: May 5th, 2012 at 2:07 pm

As you’re aware, Marvel’s The Avengers is an enormous success.  Disney’s massive marketing campaign looks to have paid off in spades, and the film is enjoying the rare enthusiastically positive reaction from both critics and audiences.  Joss Whedon’s all-star superhero pic currently stands at a very fresh 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and a respectable 69 on the more nuanced Metacritic scale.  Moreover, the film scored a coveted “A+” rating from Cinemascore which measures audience reaction.  The film earned $80.5 million on opening day, making it second only to the $91 million take scored by last year’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.

That franchise closer currently holds the number one spot on the All-Time weekend chart, but does The Avengers have a shot at dethroning The Boy Who Lived?  Hit the jump for more. [Update: The official estimates are in, and it appears that The Avengers bested Harry Potter by a not-so-narrow margin. More after the jump]

Friday Box Office – THE AVENGERS Amass an Amazing $80.5 Million for the Second-Highest Debut of All-Time!

by Nicole Pedersen    Posted: May 5th, 2012 at 8:51 am

It’s official. The Avengers is a monster. After earning a reported $18.7 million at midnight, Marvel’s long-awaited superhero mash-up posted an estimated $80.5 million on its opening day in 4,349 locations. That is second only to the $91 million of 2011’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. In terms of its three-day prospects, The Avengers is set to challenge the aforementioned boy wizard for first place in the All-Time weekend race. The number to beat there is $169.1 million – completely do-able for these critically-lauded superheroes considering they have 77% of America’s screens all to themselves. Meanwhile, Tony Stark and company have already taken in an enormous $304 million since opening internationally last week.  That means that the Disney/Marvel release will likely pass $500 worldwide by the end of this weekend.  And they said Joss Whedon was worried!  Full details tomorrow…

	Title	Friday	Total
1	The Avengers	$80,500,000	$80.5
2	Think Like A Man	$2,700,000	$57.7
3	The Lucky One	$2,000,000	$44.3
4	The Five-Year Engagement	$1,700,000	$15.8
5	The Hunger Games	$1,625,000	$376.6

THE HUNGER GAMES and BRIDESMAIDS Lead 2012 MTV Movie Awards

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: May 1st, 2012 at 8:04 am

Since the MTV Movie Awards air in the middle of the summer, they’re allowed to pull from successful spring pictures.  This year, they’ve done exactly that and awarded The Hunger Games with eight nominations.  However, MTV didn’t forget the movies of last summer, and also gave eight nods to Bridesmaids.  As for the other nominees, the Twilight series has always dominated the MTV Movie Awards in the past, but The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 only pulled in two nominations this year.  It may be a case of out-with-the-old, in-with-the-new, but it’s worth noting that this was the first year where nominees were chosen by a panel of industry insiders instead of online voting.  I don’t know why MTV made that change (it’s not like anyone can make the awards more respectable), but fans will still get to choose the winners.  While the MTV Movie Awards are really more of a platform for funny sketches and showing clips from upcoming movies, an awards ceremony that allows you to give Drive an award for “A Real Hero” can’t be all bad.

Hit the jump to check out the nominees.  The 2012 MTV Movie Awards air live on June 3rd at 9/8c.

Weekend Box Office – THE HUNGER GAMES Stays Ahead of WRATH OF THE TITANS and MIRROR, MIRROR

by Nicole Pedersen    Posted: April 1st, 2012 at 8:59 am

Surprising no one, The Hunger Games stayed in first place for a second week in a row with an estimated $61.1 million, or a decline of 60%.  Meanwhile this weekend’s new releases – Wrath of the Titans and Mirror, Mirror – had to settle for second and third, respectively. And, again, we’re back to being really, really not surprised.

	Title	Weekend	Total
1	The Hunger Games	$61,100,000	$251
2	Wrath of the Titans	$34,200,000	$34.2
3	Mirror, Mirror	$19,000,000	$19
4	21 Jump Street	$15,000,000	$93
5	The Lorax	$9,010,000	$189.5
6	John Carter	$2,005,000	$66.2
7	Salmon Fishing in the Yemen	$1,274,000	$3.1
8	Act of Valor	$1,006,000	$67.7
9	A Thousand Words	$915,000	$16.5
10	Journey 2	$835,000	$98.4

Ultimate HARRY POTTER Wizards Collection Announced; 31 Discs and Over 5 Hours of Never-Before-Seen Footage!

by Dave Trumbore    Posted: March 1st, 2012 at 8:13 pm

Many of you know that Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is preparing to write a new novel aimed at adults, but what’s a Potter fan to do in the meantime? Well, now that all eight films have been released, you can pre-order the ultimate movie set dubbed, Harry Potter Wizards Collection on Blu-ray / DVD Combo with UltraViolet Digital Copy. Details have yet to be confirmed and there is not currently a street date , but the pre-order price is set at about $350 (“marked down” from $500). It’s a limited and numbered edition of 31 discs with over 5 hours of never-before-seen footage. The special collectibles include a map of Hogwarts and concept art, while some of the features appear to have extended editions. Hit the jump to check out the collection.

Saturn Award Nominations Announced; HUGO and HARRY POTTER Lead with 10 Nominations Each

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: February 29th, 2012 at 7:33 am

Now that the Oscars are finally over, the Saturn Awards have come along and graced with nominations that are actually fun/infuriating-in-their-own-way.  There’s some cross-over between Oscars and Saturn Awards this year with Hugo racking up 10 nominations.  But since the Academy doesn’t want to recognize genre movies, they ignored Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.  The Saturns are giving Mr. Potter his due, and the final chapter of the saga also nabbed 10 nominations.  Also doing well on the film side were Super 8 (8 nominations), Captain America: The First Avenger (7 nominations), The Adventures of Tintin and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (6 nominations each).  As for TV, Breaking Bad led with six nominations.  I can live with all of these (although eight nominations for Super 8 is pushing it).

Wait.  I just saw that there were no nominations for Drive.  Never mind.  The Saturn Awards are sham.  Hit the jump for the full list of nominees.  Winners will be announced on June 20th (a long ways off, but meant to hit in the heart of the summer movie season).

THE ARTIST Takes Homes Seven BAFTAs Including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actor

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: February 12th, 2012 at 3:48 pm

I’m really hoping for some surprises on Oscar night if only to make things interesting, but it’s looking less likely every day. Last night The Artist nearly swept the British Academy Film Awards (essentially the British Oscars), taking home the prizes for Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay, Best Music, Best Cinematography, and Best Costume Design. Meryl Streep was named Best Actress for The Iron Lady, while Octavia Spencer and Christopher Plummer won Best Supporting Actress and Actor. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy wasn’t sent home empty-handed, as the spy thriller won Best British Film and Best Adapted Screenplay. I was happy to see Senna get some well-deserved recognition, as the Formula 1 doc chronicling the life of driver Ayrton Senna was named Best Documentary.

While George Clooney seemed the favorite in the Best Actor Oscar race for his magnificent turn in The Descendants, The Artist’s Jean Dujardin could easily prove the spoiler. With the SAG Award in hand and now the BAFTA, the French comedian may very well step up to the podium come Oscar night. Hit the jump to see the full list of BAFTA winners. The Academy Awards will be handed out on February 26th.

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS – PART 2 Concept Art Shows Alternate Endings for Voldemort

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: January 31st, 2012 at 1:43 pm

It’s incredibly depressing that the Harry Potter franchise is over. No more wands, no more magic, and no more Hogwarts. That’s why I’m super happy that we’ve got a bit of Harry Potter news to share today, even if it’s fairly minor. As one can imagine, director David Yates and his creative team spent quite a bit of time deciding exactly how to visualize Voldemort’s ultimate demise in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. They ended up sending the uber-villain off in relatively gorgeous fashion, as he slowly disintegrated into a gust of ashes.

Now concept artist Andrei Riabotvitchev has released some stills from a few of the different visualizations of Voldemort’s defeat. A couple of them are kind of dark, and I still favor the final version, but it’s neat to see what could have been. Hit the jump to check out the images, which also include a few close-up shots of the giants. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 is on Blu-ray and DVD now (but not for long).

SAG Award Winners Announced; THE HELP Wins Best Ensemble, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: January 29th, 2012 at 7:13 pm

The 2012 Screen Actors Guild Award winners were announced tonight, and The Help took home the top film prize, “Outstanding Performance By A Cast In A Motion Picture”.  The drama also took home awards for Best Actress (Viola Davis) and Best Supporting Actress (Octavia Spencer).  If you think that’s no big deal in terms of affecting the Oscar race, I have one word for you: Crash.  Granted, The Help didn’t even pick up an Oscar nomination for Best Director, but actors make up the largest block of Academy voters (25 percent).  And as we’ve seen, actors really like movies that make us think we’ve defeated racism, which we totally have.  That’s why all African-American actors pull in huge salaries.  Actors like Will Smith and…Will Smith.  I wouldn’t put The Help ahead of The Artist just yet, but Davis and Spencer should now be considered serious contenders in their respective catagories (Spencer is almost at a lock at this point).

2012 Oscar Nominations Announced; HUGO and THE ARTIST Lead the Pack

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: January 24th, 2012 at 6:05 am

The nominations for the 84th Annual Academy Awards have finally been unveiled. Many of the categories have fallen in line just as most have predicted (I fared alright with my predictions, but not great), with Hugo scoring 11 nods, followed closely by The Artist with 10. The biggest surprises are War Horse and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close getting in for Best Picture, the exclusion of The Adventures of Tintin from Best Animated Feature, and The Tree of Life nabbing Best Picture and Best Director nods (hooray!). On the snub side of things, despite landing the most precursor critics awards of any other actor in the race thus far, Albert Brooks was denied a Best Supporting Actor nod for his stellar work in Drive (boo). Additionally, Tilda Swinton was overlooked for giving the best performance of the year in We Need to Talk About Kevin, and AMPAS has no love for Michael Fassbender‘s haunting work in Shame.

There’s still plenty to be happy about, as Gary Oldman has his first ever Oscar Nomination (yes, that’s right) and Melissa McCarthy is a Best Supporting Actress nominee. Hit the jump to check out the full list of nominees. The 84th Academy Awards will be presented by Billy Crystal on February 26th.

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, THOR, and HUGO Among Costume Designers Guild Nominees

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: January 19th, 2012 at 9:12 am

Though many are busy finalizing their predictions for the Best Actor and Best Picture Oscar categories, the Costume Designers Guild today announced nominees for excellence in wardrobe. The nods are split into three categories: contemporary, fantasy, and period. Among the films singled out are superhero fare like X-Men: First Class and Thor, blockbusters franchises Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and dramatic critical favorites like Drive and The Descendants. Personally, I’m thrilled to see the excellent work in X-Men: First Class singled out, and I’m still waiting for a reasonably priced way to own Ryan Gosling’s ridiculously cool jacket from Drive.

Hit the jump to see the full list of nominees. The winners will be announced on February 21st, and the nominees for the upcoming 84th Annual Academy Awards will be revealed this coming Tuesday, January 24th.

THE ARTIST Wins Top Prize at Critics Choice Awards; George Clooney Named Best Actor

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: January 12th, 2012 at 7:52 pm

With each passing awards ceremony, it’s looking more and more likely that we’re in for a fairly boring/predictable Oscars this year. The Artist continues to dominate the precursor ceremonies as it took home the Best Picture and Best Director prize at the Critics Choice Awards. On the acting side of things, George Clooney was named Best Actor for his work in The Descendants, and Viola Davis won Best Actress for The Help. The Artist is our clear frontrunner headed towards Oscar night, and I don’t really think anything else will be able to take it down. I can’t really complain about any of the acting wins, though for what it’s worth I think Brad Pitt gave the best performance of the year in Moneyball.

Elsewhere, Drive won Best Action Movie (though it’s really a drama) Bridesmaids won Best Comedy, and Rango was named Best Animated Feature. Hit the jump to see the full list of winners.

Visual Effects Oscar Category Narrowed Down to 10 Choices; Contenders Include HARRY POTTER, CAPTAIN AMERICA, and THE TREE OF LIFE

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: January 4th, 2012 at 2:00 pm

We’re just a little less than two months away from the 84th Annual Academy Awards, and today the choices in yet another category have been pared down. AMPAS announced today that 10 films remain in contention for the Best Visual Effects award, with films like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, Hugo, and The Tree of Life making the cut. The pretty clear frontrunner in this race is Rise of the Planet of the Apes (and rightfully so), but there’s much to admire in the 10 films that have been shortlisted.

Though Terrence Malick’s existential drama The Tree of Life is heavy on the naturalistic visuals, the extended “history of the universe” sequence is gloriously enchanting and features some breathtaking visual effects work (dinosaurs!), so I’m happy to see that it hasn’t been overlooked. All members of the Academy’s visual effects branch will view 10-minute excerpts from each of the 10 shortlisted films, after which they’ll vote to nominate five pics for the Academy Award. Hit the jump to read the full press release, which includes all 10 singled-out films. The Oscars will be presented on February 26th.

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