Box Office: 'Dumb and Dumber To' Wisens Up to #1 with $38M

1. Dumb and Dumber To- $38.3M
Apparently there was a much stronger contingent of Dumb and Dumber fans than many thought, proving that Universal were the smart ones for going ahead with a sequel 20 years after the fact.  Dumb and Dumber To opened with a robust $38.3M, easily outpacing what many were projecting. The film reunites Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels as the moronic Harry and Lloyd, and it's interesting to see where both actors are at this stage of their careers. It could be argued they are in opposing places, actually, with Daniels a top dog on The Newsroom and Carrey kind of floundering lately. This is the best opening Carrey has had in years, not since Bruce Almighty in 2003. But this will no doubt give Universal all the ammo they need to push ahead on a third 'Dumber' film if the actors are interested, and of course if the Farrelly Brothers can be convinced to return.
2.Big Hero 6- $36M/$111.6M
Disney's animated superhero film Big Hero 6 held extremely well, slipping only 35% for another $36M. Showing some international might, also, the film has earned $148M worldwide.
3. Interstellar- $29.1M/$97.8M
Also boasting big numbers is Christopher Nolan's Interstellar, which has nearly cracked $100M after two weeks. Worldwide it's doing even better, amassing $233M overall for the $165M feature.
4. Beyond the Lights- $6.5M
Opening in 1700 theaters and off to a good start is Beyond the Lights, from Love & Basketball director Gina Prince-Bythewood. One can't overstate how much a certain segment of people adore Prince-Bythewood's work, and those who waited anxiously for her to release another African-American led romance obviously turned out. Set against the backdrop of the music industry, the film features rising stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Nate Parker.
5. Gone Girl- $4.6M/$152.6M
6. St. Vincent- $4M/$33.2M
7. Fury- $3.8M/$75.9M
8. Nightcrawler- $3.03M/$25M
9. Ouija- $3.02M/$48.1M
10. Birdman- $2.4M/$11.5M

Jon Stewart's directorial debut Rosewater opened in semi-wide release with $1.2M, pretty middling for a film largely fronted by The Daily Show host.

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Box Office: 'Nightcrawler' Edges Out 'Ouija' for Top Spot by $9,000

1. Nightcrawler- $10.909M
I feel I should say something about the state of the American cinematic audience when a potential Oscar film featuring a certified superstar BARELY makes the top spot against the worst reviewed horror movie in years. Then I remember that it was Halloween weekend. Still, while not a traditional Halloween type movie, Nightcrawler had enough of a creepy element to it that it should have stolen a chunk of Ouija's box office.

2. Ouija- $10.9M/$34.9M
See Above

3. Fury- $9.1M/$60.4M
The Brad Pitt starring WWII masterpiece holds on to a top three spot in its third week of release. Few movies combine this level of acting with top tier action sequences, I guess that's why these numbers are disappointing to me. As one of the best movies to come out since July I had really hoped Fury would have passed the $100M mark by now.

4. Gone Girl- $8.8M/$136.6M
Now a certified hit on both the critical and financial scales, Gone Girl pulls in another 8 million, Affleck's really bringing some Bruce Wayne style success to his films as of late.

5. The Book of Life- $8.3M/$40.5M

6. John Wick- $8M/$27.5M
Keanu is starting to solidify his new calling as a B-movie action star (B-movie meaning type of film, not quality) as John Wick pulls in another $8M bringing them within reach of the $30 million dollar goal for most films of its kind.

7. St. Vincent- $7.7M/$19.5M
With all of the meh buzz surrounding Bill Murray's latest these numbers are quite surprising to me.

8. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day- $6.4M/$53.6

9. The Judge- $3.4M/$39.5M
Despite lackluster reviews the Robert Downey Jr vehicle nears the $40 million dollar mark.

10. Dracula Untold- $2.9M/52.8M
It's no masterpiece but if the world was fair Dracula Untold would be swapped with the craptastic Ouija. What, is Dracula not Halloween worthy anymore?

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Box Office: 'Ouija' Possesses #1 with $20M; 'John Wick' Opens Strong at $14.5M

1. Ouija- $20M
If it's Halloween, expect the folks at Blumhouse to come up with another low-budget horror flick to rule the box office. Ouija is the latest attempt by Hasbro to launch one of their toys into a movie franchise, but unlike the bloated flop Battleship this one's actually a success. The $5M Ouija racked up $20M from the genre fans looking for their scare fix. They probably went home disappointed on that score, and chances are the film will drop 70% next week and be gone in a flash, but for now Ouija is a hit.
2. John Wick- $14.5M
Here's a case of solid buzz and star power overcoming low expectations. The Keanu Reeves-led action flick John Wick opened at $14.5M, a strong debut for a movie nobody knew about two months ago. But once those early screenings started rolling out and people started talking about the bloody revenge tale as Reeves' big comeback vehicle, John Wick suddenly was on a lot of radars. And it truly deserves all of the positive response as the film is extremely good, one of the best action movies of the year, and Reeves as good as ever. I'm really digging this new phase of his career focusing on genre films that, tangentially, harken back to his performance in The Matrix. Last year's Man of Tai Chi was excellent and had some amazing fight choreography, and the same goes for John Wick. So yes, let's see some sequels, please.
3. Fury- $13M/$46M
David Ayer's WWII thriller Fury slipped 45% in week two, with the $68M film totaling $46M in two weeks. That's not bad, and the film will earn a profit domestically for sure. However it should do even better overseas since Brad Pitt is such an international superstar.
4. Gone Girl- $11.1M/$124M
5. The Book of Life- $9.8M/$29.9M
6. St. Vincent- $8M/$9.1M
Expanding more than 2200 theaters is the Bill Murray/Melissa McCarthy comedy, St. Vincent, adding $8M for a total of $9.8M.  Reviews have been solid but unspectacular, so this one is being powered by the strength of Murray and McCarthy's appeal.
7. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day- $7M/$45.5M
8. The Best of Me- $4.7M/$17.6M
9. The Judge- $4.34M/$34.3M
10. Dracula Untold- $4.3M/$48.3M

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Review: 'Ouija' starring Olivia Cooke and Douglas Smith

What is it about toys and board games that make such great antagonists in horror films? Is it that these inanimate objects are designed for fun and enjoyment, but really have deep connections to the foulest of evils? Whatever the reasons are, Hasbro hasn't found them in Ouija, a painfully dull attempt to turn their supposedly-supernatural party game into a low budget scarer. On the surface it seems like a sound idea; a lot of people have had some frighteningly good fun with Ouija boards over the years, and they're probably better off inviting friends over to play it than sitting through a film this tired and rote.

By comparison, Ouija makes Hasbro's last attempt to adapt a board game look like pure genius. That would be last year's noisy and stupid Battleship, which you could never snooze through no matter how sleepy Brooklyn Decker's line delivery got. Drifting off into slumberland is pretty easy during Ouija, though, which conjures up zero scares and never deviates from a bland playbook. The film begins with best friends Debbie and Laine happily playing with their Ouija board as kids, only to be interrupted in their fun by the arrival of one's sister. But it was enough for the girls to make a connection with something terrible, and years later as the girls are grown up, its presence has only gotten stronger. They may think it's "only a game", but clearly something disagrees.

When teenaged Debbie (Shelley Hennig) dies under mysterious circumstances, and is revealed to have been something of a Ouija addict, her best friend Laine (Olivia Cooke) gathers a few friends to communicate with Debbie...through the board, of course. Along with her ill-tempered sister Sarah (Ana Coto), Debbie's boyfriend Pete (Douglas Smith), Laine's boyfriend Trevor (Daren Kagasoff) and close friend Isabel (Bianca Santos), they reach out to Debbie but end up contacting something far worse. Predictably, people start dying and it's up to them to figure out why.

There's a pretty good chance for Ouija to offer up some Final Destination-style dark comedy, the path a film like this absolutely should have taken, but instead what we get is a deadly serious and frightfully dull bore. You won't be surprised by anything screenwriting and directing duo Stiles White and Juliet Snowden come up with as they basically rip off every horror you saw a decade ago. Spooky dead kids, a scorned mother, and deep family secrets literally buried in the attic are what's in store. Nothing to see here, folks. Although the film is shot well enough it never stops looking like something that should be airing on the CW, not on the big screen. There's never a sense of terror; never a sense that anybody is in real danger, and nothing the filmmakers tries to do changes that. Part of the problem is the wooden performances by much of the cast, with only Cooke capable of holding our attention for more than a few minutes. She's genuinely great on the hit Psycho spinoff, Bates Motel, and maybe her familiarity with the genre is why she stands out from her co-stars.

Most importantly, it's hard to figure out what Hasbro gets out of a movie like this. Unlike Transformers,  GI Joe, or Battleship which were clearly designed to sell toys, who's going to run to their local Wal-Mart and pick up a Ouija board? Certainly they won't based on this utterly forgettable movie.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5

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Contact the Other Side In the Trailer for 'Ouija'

I honestly am astounded by the fact that it's 2014 and we are just NOW getting a Ouija movie, it's such an obvious go to for the board game to movie genre. I don't know the history pre-The Exorcist but ever since little Reagan talked to Captain Howdy via one of these suckers I haven't come within a mile of one. Seriously, I remember kids saying they wanted to play with one of these at sleepovers when I was younger and then being immediately out voted because, why take the risk?

I was prepared to rip this trailer to shreds as a cheap Halloween money grab and maybe it is, but that doesn't stop the trailer from hitting all of the right notes to make me turn the lights on after watching it. Is it ground breaking? No. Does it look like pretty much every other horror film out there? Yes. Does that stop it from freaking you out? You know what...I'm not answering that, find out for yourself! The trailer is below, check it out and tell me you'd have no problem turning the lights out and going to sleep right now!

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Deadly Spirits are Unleashed in First Trailer for 'Ouija'

It may seem like the oddest of combinations but if you happened to catch The Fault In Our Stars in theaters some weeks ago there may have been a trailer for Ouija in front of it. Why? Well, I guess in a way they both deal with teenagers and death, but only one is based on a board game that relied on superstition and healthy doses of cheating to be interesting.

The first trailer for Ouija has finally made its way online and basically it looks like your average horror flick aimed at teens, but there's reason to expect more. Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes and the geniuses at Blumhouse co-produced with Simon Kinberg (X-men: Days of Future Past) having co-written the script about a group of friends who unleash the dark powers of a spirit board while attempting to contact a dead friend. Olivia Cooke, Douglas Smith, and Shelley Hennig star with Stiles White directing.

Ouija reveals the answer on October 24th, just in time for Halloween.


Ouija - Trailer 1 by Dread Central

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Release Dates for 'Pitch Perfect 2'; 'Everest', 'Crimson Peak', and More

Universal is hoping to make their mark on the crowded 2015, without having to rely too heavily on Fast & Furious 7. And so today they've revealed a number of release dates for some of their biggest upcoming films.

The Elizabeth Banks-directed Pitch Perfect 2 will hum a new tune on May 15th 2015, when it will go head-on against Mad Max: Fury Road. Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, and the rest of the Bardem Bellas are expected to return.

Then there's Guillermo Del Toro's gothic horror Crimson Peak, arriving on October 16th 2015, just in time for Halloween. The film stars Charlie Hunnam, Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hiddleston (replacing Benedict Cumberbatch), and Jessica Chastain, with this as the official logline: In the aftermath of a family tragedy, an aspiring author is torn between love for her childhood friend and the temptation of a mysterious outsider.  Trying to escape the ghosts of her past, she is swept away to a house that breathes, bleeds…and remembers.

Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, Jake Gyllenhaal, and John Hawkes will scale Everest for director Baltasar Kormakur on February 27th 2015. The film chronicles two separate expeditions to scale the world's highest mountain. 

John Erick Dowdle (Quarantine) will bring horror As Above, So Below to screens later this year on August 15th. Ouija will move its pieces to October 24th 2014, putting it up against horror champ Paranormal Activity 5 and the newly-titled Vince Vaughn comedy Business or Pleasure. And A Walk Among the Tombstones starring Liam Neeson arrives September 19th 2014.

 

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Juliette Binoche Digs Up 'The 33'; Dustin Hoffman Joins Lance Armstrong Pic; Olivia Cooke Plays 'Ouija'

* The cast of Chilean miner drama The 33 has been rounded out with the additions of Juliette Binoche, James Brolin, Oscar Nunez, Kate Del Castillo, Lou Diamond Phillips, Mario Casas, Juan Pablo Raba, Tenoch Huerta, Jacob Vargas, Marco Trevino and Alejandro Goic. They join the already-cast Antonio Banderas in the film directed by Patricia Riggin that chronicles the true story of the 33 miners who became famous in 2010 when they were trapped in a collapsed mine for 69 days. The film has been in development practically while they were still underground, but has the full support of the miners, their families, and the rescuers. [Deadline]

* Stephen Frears' Lance Armstrong biopic may not have a title but the cast is coming together quite nicely. Filming is taking place now in Europe with Ben Foster as the disgraced cyclist, and now the latest to join is screen legend Dustin Hoffman. Chris O'Dowd, Jesse Plemons, and Guillaume Canet co-star in the film written by John Hodge (Trance) and based on David Walsh's book, Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit Of Lance Armstrong.

*  Bates Motel star Olivia Cooke has joined the previously-announced Douglas Smith and Daren Kagasoff in Ouija, the upcoming horror based on the "spooky" board game you played with friends at night. Directed and co-written by Stiles White, the film follows a group of friends who realize that a deceased friend had been messin' around with a Ouija board before she died. This sounds terrible but with Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes teaming up with Blumhouse Productions on this one, perhaps it could be a surprise low-budget horror hit?

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