*This Week In Movies By Pete Hammond “Rio”*

Family films continue to rule this week at the movies, and not just in America. With an estimated $40 million in its domestic launch and a very impressive $168 million worldwide 20th Century Fox’s Rio is clearly taking flight. The tale of a macaw who can’t fly and his adventures in Brazil had the year’s best opening in the States following an international debut last week. It soared past the $37 million opening of another family hit with three letters in its title, Hop (now up to $82 million in its third week) although to be fair Rio has the advantage of hiked-up 3D ticket prices while the 2D Hop was relying on regular admissions. Both films though prove the resilience of the family market in saving Hollywood from itself and both are “originals”. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Rio is doing well . It comes from Blue Sky, the same company responsible for the monster Ice Age series. This one works as an animated charmer with bright, colorful visuals , a great voice cast and characters and some seriously terrific music. Sergio Mendes of Brasil ’66, ’77,’88 etc was involved along with other fantastic Brazilian musicians . You can already bet the Jamie Foxx –will.i.am duet “Fly Love” will be an Oscar contender. Standouts in the cast are Jesse Eisenberg, at his neurotic best in the lead role and Anne Hathaway as his love interest along with Foxx , George Lopez and Jemaine Clement as a psychotic bird. I’ve decided these ‘G’ and ‘PG’ rated flicks this season are really the pick of the crop. Not quite sure why it is the animators who are turning it out so consistently but the rest of theindustry could take a lesson in the kind of quality work these artists are doing. It’s reflected in the box officeand audience satisfaction. Rio scored a solid “A” from Cinemascore which means it should have a long play in theatres and probably spawn a whole new franchise for Fox. Even the 3D effects here are winning and the dark glasses don’t really take away from the overall sunniness of the picture.

Opening opposite it in a wide break this weekend was the fourth installment of the endless Scream horror series. I am not sure why 11 years after the third one the Weinstein Company decided we had to have another but here it is. Does anyone really get scared by this guy in the Ghostface mask? We know even though he gets killed in every sequel the filmmakers will just resurrect the character and set him loose again. Without credibility these things are just so repetitive . Perhaps that’s why Scream 4 completely underperformed with only about $19 plus million for the weekend. That’s just under half what the first two Screams generated in their opening rounds but again that was over a decade ago. The exit polling indicates the biggest audience sector to show up was over 25, somewhat older than the average horror film gets and probably people with nostalgic pains for Ghostface. There are people who actually fondly remember this series? At any rate if you are into horror skip Scream and run, do not walk to catch Insidious. Now THERE’S a freakin’ scary movie . And it is clearly getting great word of mouth, dropping only 27% in its third weekend after a similar miniscule drop in its second. That’s almost unheard of in the horror genre. It means movie goers are liking what they are seeing and telling their friends. Insidious is a devilish cross of The Exorcist, The Amityville Horror and Night Of The Living Dead. It also proves you don’t need an’R’ rating (it’s PG13) or a slasher plotline to satisfy true horror fans. This one is the real thing and at only a $1 million dollar production cost its profit potential is enormous. And enormously encouraging.

In a semi-wide break on only 700 screens Robert Redford’s gripping historical drama, The Conspirator hit the top ten with an estimated $3.9 million, very strong for something in this genre . Clearly it is drawing older audiences who are into this story of the conspiracy behind the Abraham Lincoln assassination. It is the first venture from the American Film Company, a Chicago-based group dedicated to making movies with new twists on American history. The fact that there was a conspiracy behind Lincoln’s murder comes as news to anyone who studied this stuff in school. It was never brought up. John Wilkes Booth shot him. End of story. Yet the fact that there were seven conspirators charged including a woman,Mary Surratt was big media news of the day and on the front pages of every newspaper. Somehow this information was not deemed that important by our educators. It is nice now that writer James Solomon and Redford have put it back in the conversation. Lincoln is really hot again. Steven Spielberg has been plotting to shoot his own Lincoln bio for years now and only this week announced the casting of Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln . She will join previously cast Daniel Day Lewis in the biopic written by Tony Kushner (Angels In America). It should finally roll in the Fall. Can’t wait.

'Wimpy Kid,' 'Sucker Punch' Hope to Take Advantage of Spring Break Crowd

Warner Bros.

Julian Schnabel’s controversial “Miral” also opens in limited run and both “Jane Eyre” and “Win Win” expand to new markets.

The number of wide releases opening this weekend at the domestic box office slows down to two titles: 20th Century Fox’s sequel Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules and Zack Snyder’s action-fantasy Sucker Punch from Warner Bros. 

Tracking suggests Sucker Punch will open north of $20 million, while theRodrick Rules is projected to gross in the mid teens. However, family friendly films often overperform. 

 

Rodrick Rules, based on the best-selling book series, is a budding franchise for Fox that particularly appeals to boys ages 7-12. Fox, like other studios, hopes to capitalize on more and more kids being out of school for spring break. 

 

The original Diary of a Wimpy Kid, opening a year ago, opened to $22.1 million on its way to $64 million at the domestic box office. Overseas, the movie grossed another $11.7 million. The film was a modest financial success for Fox, since it cost only $15 million to produce.

 

Rodrick Rules, costing $18 million to produce and rated PG, sees the return of the original cast but was directed by David Bowers (Flushed Away, Astro Boy) instead of Thor Freudenthal.

 

Sucker Punch is Snyder’s third film for Warners and cost $75 million to produce. The movie, rated PG-13, is an action film with a twist: The ensemble cast is made up of young womenEmily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens and Jamie Chung.

 

According to tracking, Sucker Punch is drawing the most interest from young males under the age of 25, followed by older men and younger females. The movie enjoyed a last-minute bump in tracking, a good sign for Warners.

 

In the film — written by Steve Shibuya and Snyder — a young girl is institutionalized after she loses her mother and her sister is killed. In danger of being lobotomized, she and group of girls decide to escape. But for their plan to work, they must first enter an alternate reality — named the “brothel world” — where they will find the clues they need to win freedom.

 

Since before Christmas, teenagers have been missing in action from the multiplex. Sucker Punch hopes to reverse that trend.

 

Snyder’s next outing as director is Superman: Man of Steel.

 

Elsewhere, Relativity Media’s Limitless, Lionsgate’s The Lincoln Lawyer and Universal’s sci-fi comedy Paul enter their second weekend. Two other holdovers, Battle: Los Angeles andRango, also are expected to remain strong contenders.

 

The specialty box office boasts a number of new openings, including the debut of Julian Schnabel’s controversial Miral, which the Weinstein Co. opens in four theaters in New York and Los Angeles. The film, starring Freida Pinto, has been criticized by Jewish groups for its sympathetic portrayal of Palestinians.

 

Music Box Films opens Francois Ozon’s French film Potiche — starring Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu — in seven theaters. The film is loosely based on the 1970s hit comic play about a bored trophy wife who takes a job managing an umbrella factory.

 

IFC Films rolls out Barry W. Blaustein’s Peep World in three theaters. The comedy starsMichael C. Hall, Sarah Silverman, Rainn Wilson and Ben Schwartz and is about a dysfunctional family exposed in a tell-all book written by one of their own.

 

Focus Features’ Jane Eyre makes a major expansion in its third weekend, upping its theater count from 26 to 90 and entering 11 new markets. The Mia Wasikowska- Michael Fassbender pic is off to a strong start, grossing $814,932 through Wednesday.

 

Tom McCarthy’s Win Win from Fox Searchlight expands into six new markets in its second weekend for a total theater count of 23. Starring Paul Giamatti and Amy Ryan, the film’s cume through Wednesday was $193,022.

Dabangg 2 may land in trouble!

Dabangg 2 is hitting the news for all wrong reasons. First, it was Abhinav Kashyap-Arbaaz Khan split, then their public fight and now we hear from the industry sources is that the second version of the film may land in copy right controversy.

Sources close to the industry have predicted that as Abhinav Kashyap and Arbaaz Khan have parted ways, the rights of Dabangg story may arise in the future. It is not sure about, who has the copy rights of the film. Though, Abhinav has claimed that it was his idea and the story of the film, Arbaaz have always credited it to director's associate Dilip Shukla.

However, Arbaaz Khan has said that they have the rights of Dabangg and nobody could claim that it is their story. He also added that Abhinav Kashyap has got his credit for directing and co-writing. Meanwhile, he is planning to launch the second instalment of the film in December 2011.

Halle Berry: “I love women, I love supporting them”

So much to catch up on from Oscar weekend besides the actual Oscars. Our Leah Sydney reports that the Women in Film event, held on rain drenched Friday night at SoHo House, scared up Amy Adams, Melissa Leo, Jackie Weaver, Hailee Steinfeld and David O. Russell. Halle Berry was honored; producer Cathy Shulman, president of Women in Film, spoke to Leah.

“We are still dealing with the situation of that of the top 100 films annually I think now four years running we’ve only got about 7 % of women at best, working in the roles of writers, directors and producers and less in other areas. It remains a problem. Since 1998 we haven’t increased the numbers, we’ve actually decreased them.I think the best way to solve it is to train and instruct women as they’re coming into the media business as to survival skills in the business. And also to really work to educate them that this is not just show, this is show business. There is a very solid business aspect to the jobs. It’s important to understand the context of how the movies are working and how they sell, etc. “

So it’s still a Good Old Boys Network?

Cathy answered:
“I see more proliferation actually in the executive ranks of women. I wouldn’t say in the executive side that’s it’s only it is a good old boys network. What’s really shocking even with executives in high level positions within the studios, we’re not seeing an increase an increase of the hiring of women from the creative side. I would like to see a more concerted, focused effort in hiring women into jobs. Only if the women are prepared and ready and appropriate for those jobs. The way we can focus on making women ready is to teach them to the necessary skills. To work on the kind of genres that work in the business. To steer away from a tendency to work on personal and particular stories which often times don’t have a wide distribution. It’s hard. If you’re making a movie of an experience that only happens rarely-it’s harder..If it’s a four quadrant movie, a universal theme, people all over the world can relate to it.”

Halle then told the crowd, “ I love women, I love supporting them, I do whatever I can to be a part of it.” She didn’t talk to the press otherwise, but after all, she’s got a baby at home.

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