Box Office: 'Gone Girl' Finds Another $26M; 'Dracula Untold' Not Far Behind with $23M

1. Gone Girl- $26.8M/$78.2M
As expected, David Fincher's Gone Girl held strong to its audience, slipping only 29% and adding another $26.8M. Genre films like Annabelle or even Dracula Untold tend to be heavily frontloaded while those aimed at older audiences having longer life spans. Unfortunately, this is exactly the audience The Judge was trying to nab, and we'll see how that worked out further down on the chart.
2. Dracula Untold- $23.4M
So perhaps we should take Universal's relaunch of their classic movie monsters more seriously? Unabashedly geared towards fans of superhero flicks, Dracula Untold shifts the vampire villain into a tragic hero in a Braveheart-style war for freedom. The $70M film had a star in Luke Evans, best known for his cheekbones in The Hobbit and Fast & Furious 6, so it didn't pack a ton of star power. That means audiences were genuinely interested in Drac's origin, a fact which should make Universal extremely happy.
3. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day- $19.1M
The film with the overlong title got off to a blistering start with $19.1M, practically guaranteeing Disney is going to make a mint on the $28M-budgeted adaptation of Judith Viorst's book. Interesting connection to Gone Girl: Viorst is jokingly pitched as a suspect in Amy Dunne's disappearance at one point in Gillian Flynn's novel. Anyway, this one will benefit from the presence of Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner, plus the trailers and TV spots have just been a ton of fun. Audiences clearly responded to it, giving it an 'A-' Cinemascore, and with the Columbus Day holiday tomorrow we may see 'Alexander' do even better. 
4. Annabelle- $16.4M/$62.1M
5. The Judge- $13.3M
Not that anybody was expecting Iron Man-type numbers for the family courtroom dramedy, The Judge, but $13.3M is still pretty disappointing for a Robert Downey Jr. film. Once eyed as an Oscar hopeful, all that died pretty quick once reviews starting coming out, with positive notice only given to Downey and Robert Duvall's performances. But the truth of the matter is it might have done better if Gone Girl wasn't around targeting the same audience looking for adult-oriented, R-rated thrillers.
6. Addicted- $7.6M
Ever seen Zane's Sex Chronicles late at night on Cinemax?  They were more popular than you may know, just as the erotic novels by author Zane are probably read by just about every woman you know. And so there was a deep built-in audience for the adultery drama, Addicted, which opened at only 846 theaters and pulled in a sizable $7.6M. The R-rated film boasts no major stars or big time direction but never really needed it, and this is probably going to encourage Lionsgate to build this as their next urban franchise after parting ways with Tyler Perry early this year.
7. The Maze Runner- $7.5M/$83.8M
Has now surpassed $200M worldwide, by the way.
8. The Boxtrolls- $6.6M/$41M
9. Meet the Mormons- $3.5M
Mormons are people, too, and apparently they go to the movies. And star in them. Meet the Mormons is a documentary about six mormons living in different parts of the world, and their various experiences trying to escape the shadow of Mitt Romney. Okay, I added that last part. But really, the point of this one is showing that Mormons are just like everybody else, and it's a message that is obviously clicking. The film was originally meant to only be shown in the Mormon hotbed of Salt Lake City, but audience reaction convinced the LDS to expand it further. Good move.
10. Left Behind- $2.9M/$10.9M

Also releasing in limited fashion in more ways than one is Kill the Messenger, the Jeremy Renner-led biopic of journalist Gary Webb. Webb had exposed the CIA's drug connection to Contra rebels and had his character assassinated for it. The film is not off to a promising start. Bad reviews have killed any buzz for Renner as an Oscar contender, and it only earned $939K at 374 locations. Yikes. Off to a much better start is the Sundance Award-winner Whiplash, which stars Miles Teller as an aspiring drummer terrorized by JK Simmons. Opening at 6 sites the film earned $143K.

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Review: 'Kill the Messenger' starring Jeremy Renner

In today's world of infotainment and dwindling newspaper sales, the idea of the vigilant, crusading journalist is all but gone. Newspapers can't afford the kind of long-form investigative reporting to crack the biggest stories, even if there were more than a handful of reporters interested in that kind of thing. To that end, Gary Webb was old school, a reporter who put on his walking shoes and exposed the connection between the CIA and the influx of cocaine into this country. For his trouble he was discredited by the government and shunned by trusted peers, and his story should make for a thoughtful, compelling story in Kill the Messenger.

While Renner and director Michael Cuesta have their heart in the right place, Kill the Messenger very rarely goes beyond the basic points of Webb's story. What happened to Webb was atrocious by any measure, but it's more than just black/white or right/wrong; there's a lot of gray area that we never see touched upon, or is glimpsed only in the slightest of strokes. Granted, it's tough to live up to the example of All the President's Men (in impossible standard) but the film reads too much like a Cliffs Notes look at Webb's exposing of one of the biggest cover-ups in U.S. history.

Like the man himself, Renner's version of Webb is a dogged and determined muckraker for the San Jose Mercury News. "Dogged and determined" comes off as brash and arrogant to some people, though, and Webb always seemed like a big fish in a very small pond. He was like many reporters looking for that one big story. Renner looks nothing like the real-life Webb, not that he needs to, but there was clearly an attempt to make him "cooler", to look the part of a rebel reporter. Webb got his wish when he happened upon a story linking the CIA's arming of Contra rebels in Nicaragua and the U.S. cocaine boom of the '80s.

It was the kind of story any reporter would kill for, but it was also toxic in a way that would warn most people off. Despite numerous warnings from people on the inside telling him the story was dangerous, Webb soldiered on. His editors (led by Mary Elizabeth Winstead) pushed for it then hung Webb out to dry when things got too hot. His wife (Rosemarie DeWitt) grew suspicious and then fed up with his single-mindedness to see the story through to the end. As the powers that be began to slander him in public and ruin his career, the people closest to Webb also kept their distance. The story may have won him Journalist of the Year but it cost him everything else that mattered.

Where the film stumbles is in finding any deeper meaning in Webb's struggle, beyond showing how badly he got screwed in his pursuit of the truth. The film works considerably better as he's putting together the pieces of this gigantic puzzle, making for a cracking good political thriller in the process. Perhaps a shift in focus would have served screenwriter Peter Landesman better than this all-encompassing approach where we see Webb's unfortunate downfall. What's strange about it is Landesman, who wrote and directed the JFK assassination film Parkland, was a journalist who presumably knows the ins-and-outs of the trade, but he fails to include much of that in this story when it would have been beneficial. Shot economically and generically by Sean Bobbitt (12 Years a Slave), the film never reaches beyond the familiar and certainly doesn't have the snap of Cuesta's Emmy-nominated episodes of Homeland.

An abundantly talented cast from top to bottom (Michael K. Williams, Paz Vega, Andy Garcia, Oliver Platt, Barry Pepper and many more) has been assembled and they all do solid, if somewhat forgettable work. There are so many tiny, bit parts that nobody gets much of a chance to shine. This is Renner's film to carry and his Webb is a bulldog with a chip on his shoulder, but he's also fiercely loyal and when his friends turned on him the betrayal he feels is palpable. Kill the Messenger ends with the kind of finger-wagging speech that you don't get often in movies anymore because so few films are actually about anything. So for that reason  

Kill the Messenger deserves credit for teaching us a needed lesson on questioning authority, it's just unfortunate the film is hardly front page news.

Rating: 3 out of 5

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Interview: Jeremy Renner and Michael Cuesta talk 'Kill the Messenger'

In the '90s San Jose Mercury News journalist Gary Webb exposed one of this country's deepest, darkest secrets....and practically nobody heard a thing about it. Webb discovered the link between the CIA and the influx of cocaine into the United States from Nicaraguan rebels, and for exposing that connection he became a target of the government and a pariah to his peers in the press. The story of how his professional and personal life were destroyed is captured in Kill the Messenger, a drama opening this week with Renner in the role of Webb, and Michael Cuesta (Homeland) directing.

Along with my Addicted to Film colleague Tim Gordon I had a chance to sit down with both Renner and Cuesta to talk about Kill the Messenger, depicting such a tragic real-life figure, and the evolution (or devolution) of journalism in recent years.

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Jeremy Renner Takes on the CIA in First 'Kill the Messenger' Trailer

As issues of national security, whistleblowing, and the freedom of information are more prevalent than ever thanks to the continued chatter of one Edward Snowden, a movie like Kill the Messenger couldn't be more timely. And while we've seen many movies dealing with this subject of late, such as last year's underwhelming The Fifth Estate, this one has the benefit of Jeremy Renner in the lead role as a man who went head-to-head with the CIA and lost everything.

Renner plays real-life journalist Gary Webb in the first Kill the Messenger trailer, which looks like a cracking good political thriller. Webb was a writer for the San Jose Mercury News whose series of "Dark Alliance" articles exposed the CIA's connection to Nicaraguan drug smugglers. For those reports he was smeared in the media, ruining his personal and professional life with tragic consequences. Renner is surrounded by a great cast including Rosemarie DeWitt, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Barry Pepper, Paz Vega, Michael K. Williams, Michael Sheen, Oliver Platt, and Ray Liotta.

Directed by Homeland's Michael Cuesta, Kill the Messenger opens October 10th.

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'Snowpiercer' Finally Hits U.S. Theaters this Summer

The fighting between Harvey Weinstein and South Korean director Bong Joon-Ho over the final cut of Snowpiercer has seemingly been resolved, and now the anticipated sci-fi film has a release date. The film will hit theaters right in the thick of blockbuster season on June 27th, and yes, that puts it head-on against Transformers: Age of Extinction.

One has to wonder what Weinstein is thinking here, as genre fans will almost certainly flock to Bay's film rather than seeking out Snowpiercer, which we know is opening only in limited release. However it will be the director's cut as Joon-Ho had hoped, so those who have been most eager for it will get to see the full creative vision. Still, this is somewhat disappointing and kind of smacks as one last jab of defiance from Weinstein. The film stars Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton, Jamie Bell, Song Kang-ho, Alison Pill, Ewen Bremner, Octavia Spencer, Ed Harris, and John Hurt, taking place in a future when an experiment to end global warming kills most of the population. Class warfare erupts aboard the Snowpiercer, a perpetually-moving train carrying the last remnants of humanity.

In other news, Kill the Messenger, the real-life biopic on journalist Gary Webb, has been given a release date of October 10th, putting it right into the Oscar mix. Directed by Michael Cuesta (Homeland) and starring Jeremy Renner as Webb, the story follows the reporter's reveal of the CIA's connection to the Colombian drug trade, leading to his being publicly smeared. The assassination of his character ruined him professionally and personally, and ultimately ended with Webb's suicide. Rosemarie DeWitt, Paz Vega, Andy Garcia, Tim Blake Nelson, Robert Patrick, Barry Pepper, Oliver Platt, Michael Sheen, Michael K. Williams and Mary Elizabeth Winstead co-star.

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First Looks at Jeremy Renner as Gary Webb in 'Kill the Messenger'

As we recently saw in the tepid Wikileaks thriller The Fifth Estate, the balance between national security and transparency is a hot button issue that Hollywood has really latched on to. And part of that comes the occasionally harsh treatment by the government on whistleblowers and journalists, such as Pultizer Prize-winning writer Gary Webb who dared to challenge the CIA. The story of what happened to him was ripe for the big screen treatment, which is why Michael Cuesta and Jeremy Renner are telling it in Kill the Messenger.

The first image of Renner as Gary Webb have been released by USA Today, well ahead of its release some time next year. Directed by Cuesta with Peter Landesman (Parkland) adapting Webb's book Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion and Nick Schou's Kill the Messenger: How the CIA’s Crack-Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb, the film centers on how the journalist's life was ruined by the CIA after exposing their connection to cocaine and arms dealing in Nicaragua. Basically they smeared him publicly to the point where his career and family life was destroyed, leading to Webb making a tragic decision.

Kill the Messenger co-star Rosemarie DeWitt, Andy Garcia, Lucas Hedges, Tim Blake Nelson, Robert Patrick, Barry Pepper, Oliver Platt, Michael Sheen, Paz Vega, Michael Kenneth Williams and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Expect Focus Features to put some Oscar muscle behind this one next year. 

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Sam Trammell Joins 'The Fault in Our Stars'; John Cusack Takes a 'Kickback'; 'Kill the Messenger' Adds Ray Liotta

* It's been a resurgent season for HBO's silly vampire romp True Blood, and part of the reason is that they've finally made Sam Merlotte kind of relatable again. Sure he's still a shapeshifter and has an ongoing beef with werewolves, but we've also seen more of his human side of late, which means we've seen a lot more of Sam Trammell in the role. Now he's breaking away from the supernatural and taking on a major part in The Fault In Our Stars, an adaptation of John Green's incredibly popular book. Trammell will play the father to Shailene Woodley's character, Hazel, a cancer-stricken girl who begins a romance with Augusts (Ansel Elgort), another victim of the disease. Directed by Josh Boone (Stuck in Love) and co-starring Nat Wolff and Laura Dern, filming is set to begin next month. [TheWrap]

* John Cusack, who can be seen giving an unfortunate turn as Richard Nixon in Lee Daniels' The Butler, has joined the cast of Raza Mallal's directorial debut, Kickback. Never heard of it? Join the club. Perhaps it's because the cast includes the washed-up Mischa Barton (she's insurable???), Sean "Samwise Gamgee" Astin, John Hannah, and friggin' Michael Biehn. The story follows "a renegade Moscow detective investigating the murder of a female war journalist. He becomes embroiled in a web of counter espionage involving chemical warfare, and the assassination of the Russian president." Ok, so it could be interesting if done right, but that cast suggests this won't have the greatest production values.

* Ray Liotta will shed his Mafia thug persona in favor of playing a government mole in Kill the Messenger, Michael Cuesta's film about late journalist Gary Webb. Jeremy Renner stars as Webb, who exposed the CIA's connection to drug and arms trafficking with Contra rebels, only to have the agency smear him in the media and wreck his career. Webb would ultimately commit suicide as a result. Liotta will play a former CIA agent who corroborates Webb's story.[Deadline]

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Mary Elizabeth Winstead Joins 'Kill the Messenger'

After proving she was more than just another very pretty face in last year's alcoholism drama, Smashed, Mary Elizabeth Winstead is keeping her dance card full. Already having appeared in two movies in 2013, and with James Ponsoldt's The Spectacular Now on the way, she recently signed on for a pair of indie films. But her latest gig will take her far away from the art house and into a film with a subject matter that couldn't be more timely.

Deadline reports that Winstead has joined increasingly-awesome cast of Kill the Messenger, Michael Cuesta's film which has Jeremy Renner as journalist Gary Webb. The fact-based story centers on the CIA smear campaign launched against Webb after he exposed their connection to arms and drug trafficking with Contra rebels. Rosemarie DeWitt, Barry Pepper, and Paz Vega co-star, with Winstead playing the editor of the San Jose Mercury News where Webb worked.

Between Kill the Messenger and The Fifth Estate, whistleblower movies are all the rage. Winstead will also be seen later this year in the Sundance comedy, A.C.O.D.

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Dev Patel In Talks for 'Chappie'; Michael K. Williams Joins 'Kill the Messenger'; Stellan Skarsgard Set for 'Cinderella'

* Dev Patel looked like a breakout star after Slumdog Millionaire, but it never really came to be, and now he's coasting by as part of The Newsroom ensemble. He may be getting a second chance, though, as he's in talks to join Sharlto Copley in Chappie, the next sci-fi film from Elysium and District 9 director, Neill Blomkamp. The film will be based on Blomkamp's 2004 short Tetra Vaal, which was essentially a fake ad for a robot police force in the South African slums. Copley will play one of the robotic officers, with Patel as the human lead, a man living in the impoverished town. [THR]

* The Wire and Boardwalk Empire star, the awesome Michael K. Williams, has joined the cast of Kill the Messenger, a film the CIA is probably tapping every phone and reading every email to find a way to stop. Based on a true story, the film stars Jeremy Renner as journalist Gary Webb, who exposed the CIA's arms deals with the Contras and their connection to the cocaine trade here in America. For his dogged reporting Webb was smeared in the press, lost everything, and committed suicide. Williams will play famed drug dealer "Freeway" Rick Ross, with Rosemarie DeWitt and Paz Vega co-starring. Michael Cuesta (Homeland) is directing, and obviously the timely nature of the story is going to draw a lot of attention. [TheWrap]

* With production on Disney's live-action Cinderella set to begin this fall, Kenneth Branagh is putting the finishing touches on his cast. Stellan Skarsgard has entered talks to join the film as the king's adviser, the Grand Duke. Lily James is set for the title role, with Cate Blanchett as the wicked stepmother, Helena Bonham Carter as the fairy godmother, Richard Madden as the prince, and Holliday Grainger and Sophie McShera as evil stepsisters. Skarsgard will be seen next as Dr. Selvig in Thor: The Dark World, and has Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac coming soon. Cinderella is due to arrive on March 13th 2015.

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Rosemarie DeWitt Joins Jeremy Renner in 'Kill the Messenger'

Although she first caught a lot of attention for her small role in Cinderella Man, it was Rosemarie DeWitt's quietly confident performance opposite Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married that was her true breakthrough. And she's made the most of it, dabbling in mainstream stuff like The Watch while starring roles in films like Your Sister's Sister help keep her art house cred. Now she's taking a major role in a film centers on a hot-button issue and might make some powerful people uncomfortable.

DeWitt has taken the female lead in Kill the Messenger, which has Jeremy Renner starring as San Jose Mercury News journalist Gary Webb. After exposing a CIA scheme to arm Contra rebels in Nicaragua and import cocaine into California, he became the target of a smear campaign and ultimately committed suicide. It's unclear what DeWitt's role will be, but she joins the recently-signed Paz Vega who plays the girlfriend of a prominent drug dealer hoping Webb can help get him out of prison. With this whole Ed Snowden situation dominating the headlines, and the suspicious death of journalist Michael Hastings, whistleblowing is more of an issue than it ever has been before. So this film couldn't come at a more opportune time for producers.

Michael Cuesta (Homeland) is directing from a Peter Landesman script, which is based on Webb's book Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion and Nick Schou's Kill the Messenger: How the CIA's Crack-Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb. DeWitt will be seen later this year in Lynn Shelton's Touchy Feely. [Deadline]

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