Steve Mason

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Stories By Steve Mason

  • Box Office: Star Trek Thursday Night Previews Deliver A Possible $6.5M-$7.5M!

    Several sources at competing studios have told me that J.J. Abrams’ all-new reboot of Star Trek (Paramount), which debuted last night at 7pm at many of its 3,849 locations, may have grossed as much as $6.5M-$7.5M. Studio honchos are “locked down tight” about actual numbers, but that is in the same ballpark as Transformers (Dreamworks/Paramount),…

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  • Box Office: Obsessed Is The Biggest Last-Weekend-Of-April Opener Ever

    Recording superstar Beyonce Knowles is building a bankable resume for herself as an actress with Sony Screen Gems’ Obsessed as the latest title burnishing her resume. Co-starring the excellent Idris Elba (The Wire), this low budget, PG-13 genre pic has scored a far-above-expectations $11M on Friday, and it will likely reach $27.5M for the weekend.…

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  • Box Office Tracking: Hollywood's Worst Release Date

    The final weekend of April has never been Hollywood’s favorite release date. In fact, it is generally considered to be among the worst release dates on the calendar. Whatever opens on the final weekend of April gets absolutely crushed by the official start of the summer blockbuster season on the first weekend of May. The…

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  • Box Office: Fast & Furious May Race To $48M Opening Weekend

    Universal’s Fast & Furious will be “burning rubber” this weekend at America’s multiplexes as the original street-racing cast reunites after some sub-par chapters of the franchise. The original The Fast & The Furious hit theatres in 2001 under the direction of Rob Cohen who had shown a knack for action with Dragon: The Bruce Lee…

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  • Box Office: Monsters Vs. Aliens With Almost $12K Per 3-D Screen! The Future Of 3-D Is Looking UP!

    Jeffrey Katzenberg and Dreamworks Animation have definitively proven that Digital 3-D is a blockbuster format. Not only has Monsters vs. Aliens seized a monstrous $58.2M in opening weekend ticket sales, Real-D (the technology provider) and Dreamworks have revealed that $25M or so of that gross was generated specifically from 3-D and IMAX 3-D. Fox is…

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  • Box Office: Monsters Vs. Aliens With $16M Friday & Possible $56M Opening Weekend!

    It is an excellent weekend for Dreamworks Animation. Although the credit crunch prevented financing that would allow exhibitors to undertake the digital conversion of more of its theatres, Monsters vs. Aliens is benefiting spectacularly from the 2,075 or so standard Digital 3-D engagements and the added 143 Digital IMAX runs. The audaciously ambitious animated send-up…

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  • Box Office Tracking: Monsters Vs. Aliens Is The Widest Non-Summer Release Of All Time

    Jeffrey Katzenberg has been the film industry’s strongest proponent of 3-D over the past few years, and this weekend his advocacy will start paying dividends for Dreamworks Amimation. Monsters Vs. Aliens will debut with 4,104 playdates. That makes it the 13th-widest release in modern film history, and it becomes the biggest non-summer debut of all-time.…

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  • Box Office: Summit Scores A Nice Hit With Knowing

    It was another good weekend for Summit Entertainment. The distributor behind last year’s meteoric hit Twilight has scored a solid hit with the Alex Proyas-directed Knowing, starring Nicolas Cage. Despite shaky word-of-mouth and negative reviews, the sci-fi thriller got a solid 9% bump on Saturday for a $9.7M second day, and it will likely finish…

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  • Box Office: Knowing Grabs $8.8M Friday, Targets $24M Weekend

    Early box office returns are pointing to a weekend win for Knowing from Summit, but I will put my money on I Love You, Man (Dreamworks/Paramount) to generate more in US ticket sales over the long haul. The Nicolas Cage sci-fi thriller has grabbed an estimated $8.8M to start the weekend, and it will likely…

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  • Box Office: Watchmen Down 24% Saturday; Is Word-Of-Mouth "Killing The Masks?"

    According to studio estimates, Watchmen (Warner Bros) will finish the weekend with an estimated $55.65M. After seizing $4.5M in Thursday midnight business, there were rumblings about $29M on opening day and an opening weekend of $70M+. When the picture scored a lesser but still good $25.2M Friday, weekend estimates were revised downward. As of Saturday…

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  • Box Office: Watchmen - $25.2M Friday, Possible $62.5M Weekend

    “Who is watching the Watchmen?” Just about everyone…or so it seems. The brand new film adaptation of the classic graphic comic Watchmen is a hit of monstrous proportions on its opening weekend, but not everyone loves it. In fact, not only is there a prominent character named Rorschach (played by Oscar nominee Jackie Earle Haley),…

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  • Watchmen Scores $4.5M From Thursday Midnight Screenings

    Zack Snyder’s Watchmen, with domestic distribution rights owned by Warner Bros and international distribution rights being handled by Paramount ( oh, and by the way, Fox also has skin in this game thanks to its recent litigation), is off to a blazing start. With well-promoted Thursday midnight and after midnight screenings (1,600 or so), the…

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  • Box Office Tracking: Alan Moore's Curse Won't Keep Watchmen From Topping $60 Million

    Watchmen (Warner Bros) has followed a long and winding road, passing through the hands of some remarkable directors like Terry Gilliam (The Fisher King), Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler) and Paul Greengrass (United 93), before landing in the lap of the mastermind behind 2004’s stunning re-imagining of Dawn of the Dead and 2007’s March blockbuster 300.…

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  • The Stock Market Is Down But The Movie Business Is Up 14% Over 2008

    Hollywood is off to a staggering, record-breaking start in 2009 led by Clint Eastwood’s most successful wide opening ever, a French action import and a chubby guy on a Segway. Hot on the heels of the biggest January in history with over $1 billion in domestic sales, February has exceeded $750M in the US. The…

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  • Overlooked: The Top 10 Best Performances Of 2008 That You May Not Have Heard About

    The Academy Awards for 2008 have been handed out, and the “popular kids” have Oscars on their mantles, but the dirty little secret about winning awards is that you’ve gotta campaign for them. Thousands of dollars were spent by the distributors and filmmakers behind Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight), Milk (Focus Features), The Reader (Weinstein) and…

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  • Digital Crunch: Coraline May Be The Only Tween Girl Who Hates The Jonas Brothers?

    Most tween girls love the Jonas Brothers, but not the case for the animated eleven-year-old title character from Henry Selick’s stop action animated 3-D masterpiece Coraline from Focus Features. Featuring the voices of Dakota Fanning and Teri Hatcher, the critics have swooned for this high tech gem (89% Fresh in Rotten Tomatoes), and audiences are…

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