Welcome to Box Office Wizard, Player Affinity’s premiere movie box office prediction competition that you ignore every week because you don’t hath the stones of a real wizard. Entering is and always has been simple, so why not get your beard on and give it a try? Just read through this post and leave a comment with, in order, what you think the top five box office finishers will be this weekend. Finish out 2011 on top and you will win something COOL.
Well, the first quarter of 2011 has been a disappointment. Although a few crowd-pleasers and acclaimed films slipped out of March (Rango, The Adjustment Bureau, Limitless), none of the most hyped films have earned it. April looks to change that very quickly, with some of the films coming out tomorrow getting great early buzz. At the very least, we have 16 films to preview for you, so something ought to get it done before summer movie season kicks into high gear.
With the upcoming release of Insidious,
I decided to talk about the two horror masters who have made many
terrors come to life behind and in front of the camera. I speak of two
friends, cohorts, and partners in crime of the macabre. James Wan
(director) and Leigh Whannell (actor/screenwriter) have made one of the
most influential horror films of the past decade and have also made some
really great horror films next to that achievement.
Death by explosion is a terrific (albeit PG-13) way to kill off a significant character in any action movie or thriller. A loud boom with pillars of fire and usually the right touch of slow motion in post-production makes a climactic death scene a fitting one and serves as a very visceral catharsis in any movie experience. In other words, it works well every time you watch it.
Our featured trailer this week is a look at the upcoming reimagining of The Three Musketeers. We’ve also got Owen Wilson living it up in Woody Allen’s latest, Midnight in Paris. Japanese master Takeshi Miike sends us back to the age of the samurai in 13 Assassins. And Kat Dennings gets her sexy on in Daydream Nation. It’s time for what the whole nation daydreams about—Trailer Tracker.
True showmen in the film industry happen rarely and far apart. William Castle was a showman, director, producer and a fun-loving guy. He has left behind a legacy of horror films and even more so gimmicks used for his horror film. I felt it was necessary to pay tribute to one of the coolest filmmakers (of horror and film in general).
The Zamboni has come and gone and the
ice is flawless, so you know what that means: time for the second period to
begin in Sports Movie Madness. The results are in and four newly matched
challengers have laced up. Grab that foam finger and have your say in Round 2! First off, let’s quickly recap for
those of you new to the tournament. In the Sports Movie Madness tournament,
there are seven sports and one mega-category of miscellaneous sports, so eight
regions total. This is the Hockey Region. Below are the four hockey films
remaining after the first round of voting. There are two matchups based on
our original seeds, and your job is to pick which movie you deem worthy of
winning each matchup. Simply enter
a comment by Sunday at 5:00 pm with the two movies you think should win each
matchup (once again, not any two movies, but one of the two movies going
up against each other, so no voting for The Mighty
Ducks and Slap Shot, only one or the other) and your votes count! After a winner
is determined in each region, those films will face off against one
another until we have a winner!
The eagerly anticipated Sucker Punch, a sci-fi/fantasy film about a group of young women having to go to a fantasy world to escape an insane asylum, is
about to hit theaters this weekend. The director, Zack Snyder, has
described it as “Alice in Wonderland with machine guns.” To celebrate we
are going to look at the top ten alternative realities we want to visit
or escape to.
The first round of this section of Sport Movie Madness has produced two clear front runners: Bend It Like Beckham andThe Damned United both easily beating their competition. The Football Factory had a narrow victory, beating Shaolin Soccer 5 – 4. It good to see the better hooligan film (despite being less known in North America) going through over the more popular film, Green Street Hooligans. And Victory was able secure a comfortable win, fitting for its title.
