worldwideboxoffice.source

IMDb links fixed

2010-03-22T19:01:00.001-04:00

Fixed the broken IMDb links by changing "us.imdb" to "www.imdb" -- that seems to be what was causing the problem.

http://us.imdb.com/Business?Alice%20in%20Wonderland%20(2010) -- doesn't work

http://www.imdb.com/Business?Alice%20in%20Wonderland%20(2010) -- works

Finished tidying

2010-02-16T16:13:00.003-05:00

Finished tidying the list -- let me know if I missed anything.

Mid-Februrary Cleanup

2010-02-13T11:27:00.002-05:00

Started tidying up titles this morning and harmonizing them with imdb, which helps to weed out duplicates, such as this one:

1287  $    1.0       n/a  $    1.0  De battre mon coeur s'est arr?t? (2005)
1288  $    1.0       n/a  $    1.0  De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté (2005)

Made it as far as this page of the letter 'D' -- will continue later. Feel free to let me know of any errors/duplicates etc.

Inglourious Basterds - Cyrillic

2009-09-03T22:22:00.000-04:00

Picture of Inglourious Basterds at Listal

Somehow, Cyrillic suits this poster.

Bonita Theatre in Toronto, 1933-1964

2009-05-17T10:57:00.004-04:00

Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of how the Bonita looked between 1933 and 1964, but I took this photo a few years ago:

Bonita (now called Gerrard Cinema)
1035 Gerrard East, Toronto, Ontario
Opened 1933 and closed in 1964
Harry Lester owned the Bonita, which had 542 seats

clipping from: boxoffice.com

"Scholarship and Sports Furthered by Exhibitor Toronto Ten medals are being offered by Harry Lester, owner of the Bonita Theatre in this city, to constitute awards to the ten highest ranking scholars in the five schools in the area adjacent to his theatre, to stimulate scholarship among the pupils. Lester also is tying into the social life of his community by sponsoring a senior Softball team and cooperating with other sport activities in the neighborhood schools. Needless to say, his popularity has made his theatre a mecca for a regular legion of youngsters in that section of the city."

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Star Trek - Pike's age

2009-05-09T23:40:00.000-04:00

While seeing the new Star Trek movie reboot today, I was a little confused by the age difference between Kirk & Pike.

You see, in the 1966 Star Trek episode "The Menagerie" video footage shown at Spock's trial, Pike was played by Jeffrey Hunter, who was only five years older than William Shatner. In the new movie, however, Pike is played by Bruce Greenwood, an actor who is 24 years older than Chris Pine, who plays Kirk. So I thought that Greenwood's Pike was not the same Pike as Hunter's; I thought he was a new Pike Sr. character who could serve as a father figure to Kirk. But since The Menagerie footage was supposed to take place 13 years before Spock's trial, that would widen the age difference, making Greenwood's older "father figure" Pike compatible with the tv series.

But why Spock didn't look 13 years younger in the same trial footage still eludes me. Must be some Vulcan thing.

Picture of Jeffrey Hunter at Listal

Picture of Bruce Greenwood at Listal

Lebowski reference in "Iron Man" invoice

2009-02-04T15:43:00.001-05:00

Picture of Iron Man at Listal

Lebowski references embedded in secret document uncovered by Pepper Pots:

"Vessel MSC LEBOWSKI"
"and furthermore the keeping of an amphibious rodent, without a permit, within county limits, is also illegal."
"creedance tapes"
"rugs that tie the room together"
"in the parlance of our times"
"and in accordance with league bylaws, the game will be forfeit."

Respecting OAR (Original Aspect Ratio)

2009-02-01T23:19:00.005-05:00

from http://www.davekehr.com/?p=218=6#

"Our friendly Wikipedist tells us that Studio Canal, a division of Vivendi SA, now owns the “third largest” film library in the world. Upside: beautiful new prints of a lot of vintage UK films. Downside: they may be “letterboxed” for your enhanced entertainment!"

Somebody needs to familiarize Studio Canal with the concept of OAR (Original Aspect Ratio). If a film was created to be shown 1.33:1, then it shouldn't be "anamorphically enhanced" (top & bottom of frame cut off) for widescreen televisions. I've now heard of two films "anamorphically enhanced" by Studio Canal -- "Seven Days to Noon" (1950) and "The Man Between" (1953) . This is a disturbing trend that must be stopped!

Here's a clue -- if it was made before "The Robe" (1953 widescreen CinemaScope film from Fox that ushered in the widescreen era), then it's supposed to be shown 1.33:1 (aka 4x3).

From "Seven Days to Noon - Boulting"
As Michael Brooke points out in email "There is absolutely no way that a film released in 1950 could have been intentionally composed for the 1.66:1 European widescreen ratio, as this wouldn't be introduced for another few years.
The film should 100% definitely be in 4:3, in line with literally every other British film being made at the time.
So Optimum have equally definitely got it wrong - I suspect they cropped it so they could justify anamorphic enhancement, but just look how tight the headroom is in your grabs!"

From the Cheap Seats… » Reed All About It…
The Man Between is part of Optimum’s excellent UK R2 James Mason: Screen Icon Collection. There’s an oddity inasmuch as it’s presented in anamorphic 1.66:1, and I’m almost certain this 1953 film was framed for Academy; the German R2, I am told, is presented full frame. Wide, The Man Between is a little tight and there are too many shots that leave tops of the actors heads out of the top of the frame. It may be that it’s one of those films that was indeed shown wide, as the widescreen boom took hold, but I’m not entirely convinced it was shot that way. In fact, I’m nigh on certain it wasn’t.

30 Years Ago

2008-12-13T12:23:00.002-05:00

Picture of Superman at Listal

30 years ago "Superman" (1978; directed by Richard Donner) opened in theaters. I have fond memories of seeing the movie opening day at the Imperial Six in Toronto and wondering why all the publicity photos of Lex Luthor featured him with hair. (The movie answered that question.)

Iron Man

2008-05-04T21:34:00.001-04:00

Iron Man

Poster

Buy at AllPosters.com

more IMAX bitterness

2005-05-09T23:30:00.000-04:00

starwars.com's Homing Beacon #72 reported back on October 31, 2002:

"Episode II has undergone the revolutionary IMAX-DMR process."

If IMAX-DMR was so "revolutionary," then why did it end with Episode III?

Variety reviews

2005-05-09T22:49:00.000-04:00

Tyler Cowen says of Variety,

"In my opinion they write the most reliable reviews available. Most of all, they do not conflate or blur together predictions of quality and predictions of commercial success. Variety, which is written for industry insiders, evaluates movies explicitly in both terms, and also for overseas box office."

I remember back in 1990 when Variety's reviewer predicted that Gremlins 2 would return Joe Dante and Michael Finnell to the "promised land" after their underperforming 1987 scifi adventure InnerSpace. Gremlins 2 went on to gross $107 million less than the original and no Gremlins 3 followed. Ever since then, I took their predictions with a grain of salt.

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2005-05-03T14:08:00.000-04:00

'XXX' Sequel in Soft State at Foreign Box Office

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2005-04-22T17:41:00.000-04:00

'Pacifier' Tops Overseas Box Office

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2005-04-22T17:28:00.000-04:00

'Ring 2' Tops Overseas Box Office Again

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2005-04-22T17:20:00.000-04:00

Ani 'Robots' Conquers Int'l B.o.

Yahoo! News - 'Ring 2' Tops Overseas Box Office Again

2005-04-18T22:50:00.000-04:00

Yahoo! News - 'Ring 2' Tops Overseas Box Office Again

Yahoo! News - 'Ocean's Twelve' Races to $69 Mil Overseas

2004-12-27T08:29:00.000-05:00

Yahoo! News - 'Ocean's Twelve' Races to $69 Mil Overseas

del.icio.us/tag/boxoffice

2004-12-19T23:42:00.000-05:00

del.icio.us/tag/boxoffice

Yahoo! News - WB breaks $2 bil barrier

2004-12-11T12:06:00.000-05:00

Yahoo! News - WB breaks $2 bil barrier

Yahoo! News - 'Village' Leads Foreign Box Office for 3rd Weekend

2004-09-14T00:06:00.000-04:00

Yahoo! News - 'Village' Leads Foreign Box Office for 3rd Weekend

Yahoo! News - 'The Village' Delivers a Box Office Surprise

2004-08-02T10:30:00.000-04:00

Yahoo! News - 'The Village' Delivers a Box Office Surprise: "Meanwhile, DreamWorks' 'Shrek 2' now ranks as the fourth-highest-grossing movie of all time in North America with ticket sales of $432.4 million."

Cool poster

2004-07-14T21:26:00.000-04:00

Spider-Man 2 - Doc Ock

Buy this Poster at AllPosters.com

Yahoo! News - "Spidey 2" Spins Record Opening

2004-07-01T21:51:00.000-04:00

Yahoo! News - "Spidey 2" Spins Record Opening

Yahoo! News - O'seas taken 'Prisoner'

2004-06-14T21:56:00.000-04:00

Yahoo! News - O'seas taken 'Prisoner'