plus 3, Global movie box office nears $30 billion in 2009 ... - YAHOO!

Global movie box office nears $30 billion in 2009 ... - YAHOO!
'Remember Me' is a movie best forgotten - Arizona Daily Star
Movie review: Our Family Wedding - Chicago Tribune
Enter to Win IESB's Movie Love Prize Package Giveaway from THE RUNAWAYS Starring Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning! - IESB.NET

Global movie box office nears $30 billion in 2009 ... - YAHOO!

Posted: 10 Mar 2010 05:48 PM PST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Global movie ticket sales hit $29.9 billion last year, up 7.6 percent, with the most growth in the Asia Pacific region, the leading U.S. movie industry representative said on Wednesday.

The Motion Picture Association of America, which represents Hollywood's major studios on government and industry issues, also said the number of digital 3-D screens worldwide tripled in 2009 to 8,989, which accounts for about 6 percent of all screens.

The $29.9 billion in global box office compares to $27.8 billion the year before.

The Asia Pacific box office increased 12.3 percent, mostly in Japan and China, generating $7.7 billion in ticket sales.

"While the motion picture industry continues to face tremendous challenges elsewhere in our business, we're reminded again this year that the cinema is the heart and soul of our industry and it is thriving," Bob Pisano, president and interim chief executive of the MPAA said in a statement.

Twenty films were released in 3-D last year, accounting for 4 percent of all films released in the United States and Canada. But 3-D screenings of those films accounted for an outsized 11 percent of the total box office, the MPAA said.

Theater owners can charge more for a film in 3-D, often adding around $3.50 in some locations, which increases overall revenue.

The number of films released by U.S. companies has declined over the past three years, and in 2009 it dropped 12 percent to 558 from 633 the year before.

The MPAA said the decline was due to the economic downturn and the 14-week strike two years ago by Hollywood writers.

It often takes a year or more for a movie to go from script to theatrical release, so a strike can have a delayed effect on the industry.

As had been previously reported, the U.S. and Canada box office generated $10.6 billion in ticket sales. That accounted for 36 percent of the global box office, a figure that has stayed constant in recent years, the MPAA said. The group also said the number of worldwide movie screens has remained constant the past five years at just under 150,000.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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'Remember Me' is a movie best forgotten - Arizona Daily Star

Posted: 10 Mar 2010 10:56 PM PST

As a package pandering to members of the Rah Rah Rob Pattinson Fan Club, "Remember Me" showcases the "Twilight" hottie in all his zoned-out, sideburned, hair-tossed and chin-flexing glory.

Pattinson is placed in a romantic setting, gets to smoke and play tough, gallant and troubled. And if there are no fangs, Team Edward can still imagine them there.

But Pattinson's fussy, affected acting, his grab bag of screen mannerisms and a script that has him lurching between moony romantic and wild-eyed psychotic do nothing to suggest dude has a prayer of a fangless career.

A more "adult" romantic melodrama that pushes the boundaries of how sexual you can get without earning an R-rating, "Remember Me" smashes mushy up against mental illness. Pattinson plays Tyler, a morose, aimless and seemingly bipolar hunk who dotes on his much younger sister, mourns a dead brother, gets into fights just to feel something and dates a cop's daughter just to get back at the NYPD detective (Chris Cooper) who roughed him up.

But this girl (Emilie de Ravin) isn't to be trifled with. She's interested, even though he asks her out with his face all beaten up. She stays interested after seeing his violent temper and his moods and meeting his jerk workaholic dad (Pierce Brosnan) and needy little sister (Ruby Jerins).

But someday, he's going to cross paths with her dad, who will remember him. Someday he's going to find out why she never rides the subway - 10 years before, in 1991, her mom was murdered right in front of her. And eventually, as a viewer, you'll do the math, adding 10 years to 1991 and figure out where this contraption is headed.

A huge problem is the script by Will Fetters, who apparently used this as a means of landing the assignment of rewriting "A Star is Born." When Tyler's obnoxious and not-even-remotely-funny doofus roommate (Tate Ellington, poorly playing a badly written cliché of a role) talks him into dating the cop's daughter out of revenge, this is what passes for cute and witty.

"What do you want me to do? Kidnap her?"

"What? No. We don't have the closet space!"

A saving grace here is Brosnan, finding his post-Bond niche not in musicals but in playing perfectly coiffed, power-suited jerks. His scenes with Tyler are over the top, shouting matches in the middle of high-powered business meetings, but Brosnan keeps his icy, uncaring cool.

Director Allen Coulter made his mark with "Hollywoodland," but unlike Brosnan, he hitched onto the Pattinson popularity express and brought nothing to the ride. The film's tone is all wrong, the pacing is dead and the veering from sex to sadness and sadomasochistic violence is enough to give you motion sickness. It's a bad movie.

And considering how much RPattz smokes during it, it may turn out to be worse for him than mere career-battering reviews. His fangs may turn yellow.

Review

Remember Me

• Rated: PG-13 for violence, sexual content, language and smoking.

• Director: Allen Coulter.

• Cast: Robert Pattinson, Emilie de Ravin, Pierce Brosnan, Lena Olin.

• Running time: 108 minutes.

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Movie review: Our Family Wedding - Chicago Tribune

Posted: 10 Mar 2010 02:35 PM PST

Instead of invitations, they should be sending out apologies for "Our Family Wedding," a cake and kisses comedy that has disaster written all over it. Race as much as romance is at the heart of the matter, with director Rick Famuyiwa playing that card in nearly every scene.

The film stars America Ferrera, who's finishing up her final lap on ABC's "Ugly Betty," and Lance Gross, a resident of Tyler Perry's "House of Payne," as the secretly betrothed Lucia and Marcus. In case no one notices that she is Hispanic and he is African-American, Lucia's grandmother (Lupe Ontiveros) is there to screech, "He's black," and then faint.

The film kicks off with the couple traveling to Los Angeles to meet the parents and get married on the fly. But the family conflicts and the movie's problems start hours before that first family gathering because the real couple wreaking havoc here are the dads, Brad Boyd (Forest Whitaker) and Miguel Ramirez (stand-up comic Carlos Mencia).

They even get the movie's meet-cute moment — Brad's vintage Aston Martin is parked in a loading zone, and Miguel is manning the tow truck that's about to haul it away. Instead of hilarity ensuing, Miguel and Brad pull out nearly every racial slur in the book, a lot of half-baked slapstick and even more macho posturing in an effort to entertain.

There is also the typical assortment of wedding-related problems — the dress, the venue, the seating arrangements, the onslaught of crazy relatives and, of course, the cost. The real cost, though, is the wasted opportunity to take a smart cut at a subject so thematically rich and so rarely explored by Hollywood. Instead, the warring families, the interracial romance, the inherent cultural clashes and the middle- versus upper-class divide are squandered.

It feels like a step back for Famuyiwa, who shares writing credit with Wayne Conley and Malcolm Spellman. The filmmaker's last romantic comedy, 2002's "Brown Sugar" starring Sanaa Lathan and Taye Diggs, drifted toward too sweet at times but kept the cynicism at bay. Here it's a five-layer cake with a brown bride and a black groom on the top.

With all its flaws, "Our Family Wedding" is not going to be the film that proves Ferrera can make the transition to big screen star either. It will take more than a better dressed, braces-free version of the quirky cute "Betty," which is all that is asked of her here.

MPAA rating:
PG-13 (for some sexual content and brief strong language)
Cast:
America Ferrera (Lucia), Lance Gross (Marcus), Forest Whitaker (Brad), Carlos Mencia (Miguel), Regina King (Angela), Diana Maria Riva (Sonia)
Credits:
Directed by Rick Famuyiwa; written by Wayne Conley, Malcolm Spellman and Famuyiwa. Produced by Edward Saxon and Steven J. Wolfe. A Fox Searchlight release. Running time: 1:41

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Enter to Win IESB's Movie Love Prize Package Giveaway from THE RUNAWAYS Starring Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning! - IESB.NET

Posted: 10 Mar 2010 11:50 AM PST

IESB has got one Movie Lover Prize Package from THE RUNAWAYS starring Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning to give away to one lucky reader!

The prize package includes One Official Neon Angel Book by Cherie Curie, One Official Joan Jett Pictorial History Book by Todd Oldham and the Best of Joan Jett 2-CD Collection!

Enter now to win below!

THE RUNAWAYS opens in theaters nationwide March 19th.

Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning star in this music-fueled story of the ground-breaking, all girl, teenage rock band of the 1970s: The Runaways. The film follows two friends, Joan Jett and Cherie Currie, as they rise from rebellious Southern California kids to rock stars of the now legendary group that paved the way for future generations of girl bands.

Joan and Cherie fall under the Svengali-like influence of rock impresario Kim Fowley, played by Michael Shannon, who turns the group into an outrageous success and a family of misfits. With its tough-chick image and raw talent, the band quickly earns a name for itself-and so do its two leads: Joan is the band's pure rock' n' roll heart, while Cherie, with her Bowie-Bardot looks, is the sex kitten. Written and directed by Floria Sigismondi, the film chronicles Joan and Cherie's tumultuous relationship on and off stage, as the band starts to break out.

IESB has got your chance to win THE RUNAWAYS Movie Lovers Prize Package that includes -

(1) Official Neon Angel Book by Cherie Curie

(1) Official Joan Jett Pictorial History Book by Todd Oldham

(1) Best of Joan Jett 2-CD Collection

Winners notified by email. Contest ends March 22nd! Good luck and thanks for playing!

THE RUNAWAYS opens in theaters March 19th!

To Enter the IESB contest completely fill out the information below

Incomplete entries will be disqualified

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