Where The Wild Things Are

Weekend Box Office – JACKASS 3D Sets Records with $50 Million Debut; RED Strong with $22.5 Million

by Nicole Pedersen    Posted: October 17th, 2010 at 9:29 am

On Friday we told you that Jackass 3D had secured fall’s single-day debut record with over $21 million and that the sequel seemed destined to become one of the season’s all-time weekend champs with a projection of over $40 million. Turns out that the Jackass boys were destined for bigger things. With an estimated $50 million from 3,081 locations, the third installment in the franchise now holds both the October and the all-time fall weekend record – eclipsing Scary Movie 3’s $48.1 million set in 2003.

	Title	Weekend	Total
1	Jackass 3D	$50,000,000	$50
2	Red	$22,500,000	$22.5
3	The Social Network	$11,000,000	$63.1
4	Secretariat	$9,500,000	$27.5
5	Life as We Know It	$9,200,000	$28.8
6	Legend of the Guardians	$4,325,000	$46
7	The Town	$4,040,000	$80.5
8	My Soul to Take	$3,160,000	$11.9
9	Easy A	$2,650,000	$52.3
10	Wall Street 2	$$2,350,000	$47.8

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE DVD Review

by Jackson    Posted: March 25th, 2010 at 6:56 am

Take a classic work of children’s fiction, as famous for its art as it is it’s story.  Add an idiosyncratic director with a distinct visual style.  Recipe for success, right?  Wrong.  Unfortunately, Spike Jonze’s highly-anticipated adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s Caldecott Medal award-winning Where the Wild Things Are falls strangely flat.  Why after the jump…

The Bottom 5 – Peter Debruge’s Biggest Disappointments of 2009

by Peter Debruge    Posted: January 1st, 2010 at 6:26 pm

You may have seen the five worst films of 2009, but I did my best to avoid them. Instead, at year’s end, I’d rather recap my five biggest disappointments – movies that promised the world and delivered a fraction of their potential.  To me, that’s far more upsetting than a bad movie, because they’ve squandered the opportunity, and now no one can go back and do it right. You probably won’t agree with my choices (maybe you went into Where the Wild Things Are expecting to be annoyed and came out enraptured – that actually happened to me with co-writer Dave Eggers’ other 2009 release, Away We Go). These picks were meant to be personal, but I’d love to hear what you think. Feel free to share your biggest let-downs after the list, which you’ll find just after the jump…

Matt’s Top Performers, Director, Quotes, and Kills of 2009

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: December 30th, 2009 at 6:38 pm

The joy of list-making continues today as I’m running down who I thought gave the best performances of the year plus what I thought were the best quotes and kills of 2009.  Please keep in mind that regarding the performances, I haven’t seen a few key films that could have very well changed the winners and runners-up: Crazy Heart (Best Actor), The Last Station and Bright Star (Best Actress), and a few others.  If you think there was someone who clearly should’ve won or been nominated, shout out in the comments section and I’ll let you know whether I saw the film or not.

With this disclaimer out of the way, I present to you my picks for the best performers, directors, quotes, and kills of 2009.  Hit the jump to check them all out.

Matt’s Top 10 Films of 2009

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: December 27th, 2009 at 7:45 pm

I’m so happy that 2009 was a front-loaded year.  Friends and family asked me on more than one occasion, “It’s the end of the year, so where are all the good movies?”  I responded that this year, for whatever reason, was different and some of the year’s best films had premiered as early as Sundance (The Hurt Locker technically debuted in 2008 with its premiere at the Venice Film Festival).  The scarcity of must-see year-end flicks worked out beautifully for me because I had the time to give more thought to films and have the opportunity to watch them more than once.  I feel confident in my Top 10 in a way that I’ve been uneasy about in years prior.  There was a wealth of great films to choose from this year and almost all of my favorites are now available to own or rent on DVD or Blu-ray.

If I had to sum up 2009 in films, I would say it was a year of surprises and disappointments.  Films I expected to enjoy like Funny People, Bruno, Public Enemies were letdowns, while films like District 9, In the Loop, and A Single Man, came out of nowhere to blow me away.  It’s also refreshing to see that movies like The Hangover, Paranormal Activity, and Avatar did so well at the box office despite not being adaptations or remakes.

I thought 2009 was a great year for film and while I seriously considered expanding this list to a Top 15 or even 20, I felt that ten was appropriate because while this is clearly a vanity project for me, I do hope it serves as a recommendation tool for people who can’t go see every movie.  If you only see ten movies from this year, see these ten.  Hit the jump to start the countdown.

Weekend Box Office – PARANORMAL ACTIVITY Scares Up Another $22 Million For First Place

by Nicole Pedersen    Posted: October 25th, 2009 at 10:49 am

Friday’s box office results spelled trouble for the once mighty “Saw” franchise in the form of Paramount’s upstart horror pick-up “Paranormal Activity”. Luckily for film fans, Saturday’s attendance rates could offer no quarter to the fearsome Jigsaw killer who finished outside of first place for the first time since the original “Saw” debuted back in 2004. Playing in about 1,000 fewer venues, “Paranormal” didn’t just manage to keep its lead throughout the three day frame, its solid performance also kept those “Saw VI” numbers down to about half of what the film’s predecessors averaged from 2005 to 2008.

	Title	Weekend	Total
1	Paranormal Activity	$22,000,000	$62,400,000
2	Saw 6	$14,800,000	$14,800,000
3	Where the Wild Things Are	$14,420,000	$53,960,000
4	Law Abiding Citizen	$12,713,000	$40,317,000
5	Couples Retreat	$11,097,000	$78,213,000
6	Astro Boy	$7,017,000	$7,017,000
7	The Stepfather	$6,500,000	$20,312,000
8	Vampire’s Assistant	$6,347,000	$6,347,000
9	Cloudy w/Meatballs	$5,600,000	$115,200,000
10	Zombieland	$4,300,000	$67,300,000

Weekend Box Office – WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE Grabs $32 Million. PARANORMAL ACTIVITY Breaks $20 Million

by Jeffrey Van Camp    Posted: October 18th, 2009 at 11:41 am

People wanted to know “Where the Wild Things Are,” and it looks like they found out. The PG-rated boy-meets-beasts adventure took the top spot this weekend with $32 million in its first three days. The big story is still “Paranormal Activity” though, as it rises yet higher, landing at number three and proving to be one of the most successful indie roll-outs in recent memory. “The Stepfather” also performed better than a terrible movie should. Here’s the chart. The first number is what it made this weekend and the second is it’s total. More after the jump:

• 1 Where the Wild Things Are $32,470,000 – $32,470,000
• 2 Law Abiding Citizen            $21,250,000 – $21,250,000
• 3 Paranormal Activity            $20,163,000 – $33,717,000
• 4 Couples Retreat                 $17,949,000 – $63,339,000
• 5 The Stepfather (2009)        $12,300,000 – $12,300,000
• 6 Cloudy Meatballs                $8,100,000 -  $108,284,000
• 7 Zombieland                       $7,800,000 –   $60,823,000
• 8 Toy Story/Toy Story2 (3D)   $3,011,000 –   $28,594,000
• 9 Surrogates                        $1,922,000 –   $36,332,000
• 10 The Invention of Lying      $1,905,000 –  $15,495,000

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE Review

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: October 15th, 2009 at 9:11 pm

“What do you do with the mad that you feel?
When you feel so mad you could bite.
When the whole wide world seems oh so wrong, and nothing you do seems very right.”

- Fred Rogers

It’s okay for kids to have emotions.  They don’t know how to control them and there will be times when they get out of hand.  And while it’s a parent’s instinct to protect their child from harm, to protect them from their own emotions is a tragedy.  Contrary to its unofficial tagline of “It’s not a kids movie; it’s a movie about being a kid”, “Where the Wild Things Are” is a kids’ movie and it’s a movie about being a kid.  Those who say it’s too much for kids to handle can’t say, “It’s a movie about being a kid” since the film is about the emotions that kids feel every day.  Kids can get scared, they can get confused, but they can also identify with those emotions when they see them.  You can identify with these emotions too if you allow this film to tap into that sense memory of childhood; not through nostalgia or regression but remembering an innocence untarnished by irony, ego, cynicism, and all the baggage we take on as we mature.  But healthy maturity, bittersweet as it is, can not be forced nor restrained.  It must have the freedom to run wild and that means feeling a range of emotions including fear and sadness.

Rather than just take the plot of the children’s book and stuff it with filler, director Spike Jonze and co-writer Dave Eggers understood the feelings and emotions author Maurice Sendak conveyed in his writing and illustrations.  Their understanding is what makes “Where the Wild Things Are” honest, courageous, heartfelt, and the best film of 2009.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Exclusive Interview with Catherine Keener and Max Records

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: October 15th, 2009 at 7:58 pm

As most of you already know, opening tomorrow is director Spike Jonze “Where the Wild Things Are”. By now you’ve all seen the trailers/commercials and have heard the positive rumbling on the interweb. I’m hoping all this chatter has gotten you motivated to see it this weekend. If it hasn’t, let me say one more time….”Where the Wild Things Are” is a film worth seeing. Spike Jonze has crafted a beautiful movie that’s an artistic achievement. If you want more movies that take chances and are original, you’ve got to support them opening weekend. Trust me, it matters.

So to help promote the film, I recently got to speak with Catherine Keener and Max Records. They talked about promoting the film, working together on set, and a lot more. Take a look:

Exclusive Interview: Forest Whitaker, Catherine O’Hara and Lauren Ambrose WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: October 15th, 2009 at 2:20 pm

Opening tomorrow is director Spike Jonze “Where the Wild Things Are”. As I’ve written a few times on the site…the movie is an honest look at what it’s like being a kid. The film isn’t a fantasy, and it isn’t trying to sugar coat what you do when you’re upset at the world. While some are clearly going to have issues with the way Spike chose to make “Where the Wild Things Are”, I was spellbound and loving his universe. Also, I loved the way he had characters not say things when other movies would have tons of exposition. Many of his choices are unorthodox, and as an avid moviegoer and a fan of his work, I think he made a great film.

Anyway, Warner Bros. held a press day for the film here in Los Angeles and after the jump you can watch my interview with Forest Whitaker, Catherine O’Hara and Lauren Ambrose. Each of them voices one of the wild things and they talk about the unusual way Spike had them rehearse and the way Spike chose to make the film. Watch the interview after the jump:

Collider Giveaway: WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE – Who Wants Free Stuff!

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: October 12th, 2009 at 10:45 am

Opening this Friday is director Spike Jonze’s “Where the Wild Things Are”. As I wrote when I posted five clips, I thought the film was an honest look at what it’s like being a kid and not being able to express how you feel. The film isn’t a fantasy, and it isn’t trying to sugar coat what you do when you’re upset at the world. While some are clearly going to have issues with the way Spike chose to make “Where the Wild Things Are”, I was spellbound and loving his creation. Also, I loved the way he had characters not say things when other movies would have tons of exposition. Many of his choices are unorthodox, and as an avid moviegoer and a fan of his work, I think he made a great film. Anyway, I definitely recommend the film, and I hope you all like it as much as I did.

So to help promote the movie, we’ve been provided with some awesome “Where the Wild Things Are” swag. It’s all after the jump…including how to enter the giveaway. Take a look:

Spike Jonze and Max Records Short Film VAMPIRE ATTACK

by Ramses Flores    Posted: October 8th, 2009 at 3:30 pm

I love Spike Jonze.  I not only love his work, but I also just like seeing the guy be himself.  He’s earned a reputation as being a quirky guy and it’s hard to say that he isn’t when you see him in a clip like this.  I don’t know what exactly the story behind this short film is, but it looks like Jonze just having some fun on the set with his lead actor.  You know you want to see Spike Jonze play a vampire, so just hit the jump to watch it.

Spike Jonze and Max Records Interview WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: October 4th, 2009 at 2:55 pm

On Friday afternoon I participated in a roundtable interview with director Spike Jonze and Max Records for “Where the Wild Things Are”. As I said when I posted the clips, I’ve thought the movie was an honest look at what it’s like being a kid and not being able to express how you feel. The film isn’t a fantasy, and it isn’t trying to sugar coat what you do when you’re upset at the world. While some are clearly going to have issues with the way Spike chose to make “Where the Wild Things Are”, I was spellbound and loving his universe. Also, I loved the way he had characters not say things when other movies would have tons of exposition. Many of his choices are unorthodox, and as an avid moviegoer and a fan of his work, I think he made a great film. Anyway, after the jump you can read what the star of the film and his director had to say about the movie. Also, I did video interviews with the cast, and those will be online the week of release.

5 Movie Clips from Spike Jonze’s WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: October 2nd, 2009 at 4:08 pm

With director Spike Jonze’s “Where the Wild Things Are” getting ready for release on October 16^th, Warner Bros. has released five clips from the film and they’re after the jump. I saw a screening the other night and thought the movie is an honest look at what it’s like being a kid and not being able to express how you feel. The film isn’t a fantasy, and it isn’t trying to sugar coat what you do when you’re upset at the world. While some are clearly going to have issues with the way Spike chose to make “Where the Wild Things Are”, I was spellbound and loving his universe. Also, I loved the way he had characters not say things when other movies would have tons of exposition. Many of his choices are unorthodox, and as an avid moviegoer and a fan of his work, I think he made a great film. Anyway, after the jump are five clips, take a look.

Tons of New Images from Spike Jonze’s WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: September 30th, 2009 at 4:30 pm

With the October 16th release date fast approaching, Warner Bros. has released a ton of new images from Spike Jonze’s “Where the Wild Things Are”. Since we’ve covered the film for so long and you all know how excited everyone on Collider is for the film, I’ll let the images do the talking. But saying that, I’m seeing the film tomorrow night so I can do some interviews. So if you want to know my immediate reaction, follow me on Twitter. I cannot wait to see this film.

Copyright ©2005 - 2012. All Rights Reserved. California web design