‘Social Network’ steals first from ‘Life As We Know It’; ‘Secretariat’ finishes third

Image Credit: Merrick MortonWith all three new releases under-performing, and Social Network holding strong for a second weekend in row, the David Fincher-directed Academy bait landed in first place for a second weekend in a row with a $15.5 million opening. Social Network dropped only 31 percent its second weekend for a total gross of $46 million after only 10 days in release.

Life As We Know It landed in second place with $14.6 million. The Katherine Heigl, Josh Duhamel-starrer was expected to gross closer to $18 million but according to exit pollster Cinemascore, those that did see the romantic comedy loved it, giving it an A-. The predominantly female, over 25 audience was heavily courted this weekend, also being lured by the Diane Lane horse movie Secretariat. That film, from Disney Studios, earned an estimated $12.6 million, over performing in smaller markets such as Salt Lake City, Denver and Dallas. It also scored very well with those female, over 25 moviegoers, who gave it an A, according to the exit pollster.

Slot four belonged to family holdover Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole. The Zack Snyder-directed animated flick earned $7 million its third weekend in release. The film has earned $39 million. Spot five marked the poorest received release of the new crop of films.  Wes Craven’s first endeavor into 3-D My Soul to Take earned $6.9 million in over 2,500 theaters with 86 percent of the gross coming from the 3-D screens. The Relativity release was hated by audiences, who gave it a D, according to Cinemascore, and those audiences polled who were over 25, liked it even less, grading it with a failing F grade.

The rest of the weekend was dominated by holdovers, with Ben Affleck’s The Town landing in sixth place. The R-rated Boston based heist flick earned $6.3 million its fourth weekend in theaters and has now earned close to $74 million. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps nabbed spot seven with another $4.6 million. Money Never Sleeps has now earned close to $44 million, a figure that suggests the Oliver Stone-sequel will not be anything close to the culture reference point that the first Wall Street was back in the 1980s.

Emma Stone’s Easy A earned $4.2 million over the weekend for the eighth slot. The inexpensive teen comedy has grossed close to $50 million since opening a month ago. Last weekend’s new release Case 39 earned $2.6 its sophomore session. The long-shelved horror flick starring Renee Zellweger and Bradley Cooper has earned $9.5 million in two weeks. The final spot in the top ten belonged to Disney’s You Again starring Kristen Bell. Earning another $2.5 million in its third weekend of release, the comedy has grossed a paltry $20.7 million.

The last month has belonged to a slew of interesting adult dramas that have scored well with both audiences and critics but have had trouble generating much beyond $20 million openings. Next weekend should change the $20 million trend with Jackass 3-D opening wide opposite the old fogey actioner Red. Come back next week for more updates.

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Secretariat 'insistently square' - CNN

Diane Lane plays the film's central character, Penny Chenery, a housewife who wins Secretariat in a coin toss."Secretariat" is a Disney sports drama about the racehorse who won the Triple Crown in 1973When Secretariat is running his races, the movie has a hokey, old-fashioned appealDirector Randall Wallace aims for the Christian demographic that supported "The Blind Side"

(EW.com) -- Moviegoers have grown increasingly intense about avoiding ''spoilers'' (probably because of all the information that spills out of the Internet.)

In that light, "Secretariat," a benignly inspirational Disney sports drama about the legendary racehorse who won the Triple Crown in 1973, offers a fascinating test case for how much spoilers sometimes don't matter.

Going into the movie, we absolutely know that Secretariat, the chestnut Thoroughbred who galloped to triumph through a rare combination of total speed and maximum stamina, will win his three big races (the first time a horse had done so in 25 years.)

Yet there he is, in his famous blue-and-white blinker hood, pounding the track at the Kentucky Derby, starting way in the back (as was his style), then overtaking one horse after another, the camera following right on his hooves.

And damned if, at that moment, we aren't as excited as children, our hearts in our throats as he thunders to victory, almost as if we had no idea what was coming.

When Secretariat is running his races, the movie has a hokey, old-fashioned appeal. It uses a fantastic gospel anthem to stoke our feelings, the Edwin Hawkins Singers' 1969 rendition of ''Oh Happy Day.'' And that song, with its funky-sublime syncopation, its waves of lordly joy, makes us feel that, yes, Secretariat really was a miracle horse, a competitor graced by Someone Up There.

Off the racetrack, however, "Secretariat" is a sketchy and rather innocuously upbeat movie. The director, Randall Wallace ("We Were Soldiers,") often seems to be aiming for the same Christian demographic that helped make a hit out of "The Blind Side."

I personally have no objection to a horse film that views a creature as magnificent as Secretariat with religious awe, but in this case the uplift has a downside. The film is so insistently square it undercuts the very drama it's out to capture.

The central figure, Penny Chenery (Diane Lane), is a housewife who knew nothing about running a horse farm when she took over the management of her ailing father's Meadow Stables in Virginia. Penny wins Secretariat in a coin toss (though the film suggests it's her womanly vantage that leads her to foresee how the horse's bloodlines will give him racing strength.)

It's a pleasure to see her take charge, fighting her way up in a racehorse world thick with the corruptions of men. Lane, wearing Pat Nixon's hair, makes Penny devoutly traditional but never prim; it doesn't scare her that she's in over her head.

She recruits the eccentric trainer Lucien Laurin, played by John Malkovich, and the actor, wearing crazy hats and spouting French whenever he gets angry, makes us feel his horse fervor.

Penny, in her devotion to Secretariat's racing career, tears her family life apart. Yet this central conflict comes to very little. (Dylan Walsh plays her husband with just enough mild testiness to make you wish he'd shown more.)

Penny's obsession remains flawless, noble, benevolent. The only real drama is that (spoiler!) Secretariat occasionally loses. As long as he's winning, though, this pleasantly rote movie will rouse you. B-

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Review: Secretariat 'insistently square' - CNN

Diane Lane plays the film's central character, Penny Chenery, a housewife who wins Secretariat in a coin toss."Secretariat" is a Disney sports drama about the racehorse who won the Triple Crown in 1973When Secretariat is running his races, the movie has a hokey, old-fashioned appealDirector Randall Wallace aims for the Christian demographic that supported "The Blind Side"

(EW.com) -- Moviegoers have grown increasingly intense about avoiding ''spoilers'' (probably because of all the information that spills out of the Internet.)

In that light, "Secretariat," a benignly inspirational Disney sports drama about the legendary racehorse who won the Triple Crown in 1973, offers a fascinating test case for how much spoilers sometimes don't matter.

Going into the movie, we absolutely know that Secretariat, the chestnut Thoroughbred who galloped to triumph through a rare combination of total speed and maximum stamina, will win his three big races (the first time a horse had done so in 25 years.)

Yet there he is, in his famous blue-and-white blinker hood, pounding the track at the Kentucky Derby, starting way in the back (as was his style), then overtaking one horse after another, the camera following right on his hooves.

And damned if, at that moment, we aren't as excited as children, our hearts in our throats as he thunders to victory, almost as if we had no idea what was coming.

When Secretariat is running his races, the movie has a hokey, old-fashioned appeal. It uses a fantastic gospel anthem to stoke our feelings, the Edwin Hawkins Singers' 1969 rendition of ''Oh Happy Day.'' And that song, with its funky-sublime syncopation, its waves of lordly joy, makes us feel that, yes, Secretariat really was a miracle horse, a competitor graced by Someone Up There.

Off the racetrack, however, "Secretariat" is a sketchy and rather innocuously upbeat movie. The director, Randall Wallace ("We Were Soldiers,") often seems to be aiming for the same Christian demographic that helped make a hit out of "The Blind Side."

I personally have no objection to a horse film that views a creature as magnificent as Secretariat with religious awe, but in this case the uplift has a downside. The film is so insistently square it undercuts the very drama it's out to capture.

The central figure, Penny Chenery (Diane Lane), is a housewife who knew nothing about running a horse farm when she took over the management of her ailing father's Meadow Stables in Virginia. Penny wins Secretariat in a coin toss (though the film suggests it's her womanly vantage that leads her to foresee how the horse's bloodlines will give him racing strength.)

It's a pleasure to see her take charge, fighting her way up in a racehorse world thick with the corruptions of men. Lane, wearing Pat Nixon's hair, makes Penny devoutly traditional but never prim; it doesn't scare her that she's in over her head.

She recruits the eccentric trainer Lucien Laurin, played by John Malkovich, and the actor, wearing crazy hats and spouting French whenever he gets angry, makes us feel his horse fervor.

Penny, in her devotion to Secretariat's racing career, tears her family life apart. Yet this central conflict comes to very little. (Dylan Walsh plays her husband with just enough mild testiness to make you wish he'd shown more.)

Penny's obsession remains flawless, noble, benevolent. The only real drama is that (spoiler!) Secretariat occasionally loses. As long as he's winning, though, this pleasantly rote movie will rouse you. B-

See the full article on EW.com.

CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly

© 2010 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.

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‘Secretariat’: Disney successfully turns Goliath into David

Image Credit: John BramleyDisney mastered the art of the sports underdog movie long ago, but now they’re just showing off. After crafting hits like Remember the Titans, The Rookie, and Miracle, in which real-life longshots overcome incredible obstacles and long odds to achieve athletic glory, Disney figured they really don’t even need the underdog. I give you Secretariat, which opens tomorrow on about 2,500 screens. It’s generally acknowledged that the strapping red colt was the most dominant Triple Crown winner ever, galloping into history with a Pegasus-like performance at the 1973 Belmont Stakes. At the Belmont, Secretariat was a 1-10 favorite to win the race. The year before, he was voted the national horse of the year as a promising two-year-old. Secretariat wasn’t a four-legged Rudy; he was the 1927 Yankees.

No matter. Screenwriter Mike Rich (The Rookie) sticks to the Disney playbook, emphasizing the underdog status of Secretariat’s owner Penny Chenery, played with just the right amount of Southern steel by Diane Lane. She is the outsider, the woman fighting her way through a man’s world while trying to keep her farm and her family together. And it works. Even though I knew the history of  Secretariat, I still felt the tingle in the hairs on the back of my neck as he ran away from his competition at Belmont, purely because I was invested in Penny’s struggle. I didn’t even mind that that struggle relied on a liberal interpretation of the actual facts.

This cinematic success opens the door for entirely new subgenre of Disney sports film. They no longer have to rely on undersized, overmatched heroes who slay the heavily-favored Goliath. For example, and I’m just spitballing: the 1992 U.S. Olympic basketball team. Sure, the Dream Team had Jordan and Barkley and Bird and Magic, and won the gold medal with ease. But what if — what if — the American team suffered food poisoning from some bad Catalan cuisine the night before the gold medal game, and their subsequent illnesses nearly prevented them from covering the 30-point spread against Croatia? Will bench-warmer Christian Laettner hit those two last-minute foul shots to assure gamblers of an American victory? That is cinematic suspense.

Do you think there’s a future in films where the guys who are supposed to win actually win? Can you envision a movie about the foot fungus that nearly derailed the 2010 Duke Blue Devils from winning the college basketball title against those pesky Butler Bulldogs? Or the swimmer’s ear that nearly cost Michael Phelps one of his 14 gold medals?

Read more:
EW’s Secretariat review

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Box office preview: ‘Life as We Know It’ battles ‘Social Network’ for top spot; ‘Secretariat’ likely in third

Image Credit: Peter IovinoThe romantic comedy genre needs some intensive care after a bleak summer where the likes of Jennifer Aniston and Drew Barrymore could do little to attract audiences. Is Katherine Heigl the answer? The former Grey’s Anatomy star didn’t score opposite Ashton Kutcher in Killers this past July, but perhaps Josh Duhamel is a more appealing co-star. We’ll find out this weekend when the duo’s film, Life as We Know It, opens wide, opposite Disney’s Triple-Crown horserace flick, Secretariat, which is battling its own issues.

Disney’s feel-good horse flick is an important movie for the studio. They consider the Diane Lane-starrer a role model for the type of movies the studio wants to make. They might want to ease up on that strategy — while the marketers are trying to reach family audiences, especially the church-going crowd, it’s still unclear if either will show up.

The two newcomers are also competing against the defending champ, The Social Network. The David Fincher-directed drama opened to $22.4 million, and this weekend will be crucial in determining the film’s long-term health. Critics and audiences both seem to love it, and the buzz should lure those who couldn’t make it to the theater last week.

My Soul to Take, Universal’s latest from director Wes Craven, is also steeling itself for an uphill battle. The director’s first 3-D film bows one week after two other horror films were practically D.O.A. Neither Let Me In nor Case 39 grossed more than $5 million in their opening frames. It will be a surprise if this genre film, with little marketing might behind it, will do much either. Read on for my predictions.

1. Life as We Know It: $16 million

I’m not sure why the ad campaign for this romantic-comedy is built around an action shot of the stars chasing the baby, but maybe it will work. Tracking suggests it will have trouble surpassing $20 million. With Heigl’s lackluster track record at the box-office, it will be interesting to see if this high-concept idea brings in the moviegoers.

2. The Social Network: $15 million

This movie was crowned a media darling, but now the haters are out, denouncing the film’s opening weekend draw and already discounting its awards potential. One thing is clear: This weekend is crucial. The film needs to hold well for it to maintain the buzz required to make it all the way to the Oscars. Watch closely. A 50 percent drop would be considered a failure.

3. Secretariat: $10 million

Disney desperately wants Diane Lane’s horse movie to be the next Blind Side, but general tracking suggests a weak opening. The big question is: Are families coming out for this film? If they do, the numbers could surprise, but the film will more likely earn a fraction of Sandra Bullock’s surprise hit last fall.

4. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole: $6 million

Now that Zack Snyder has signed on to direct the Superman reboot, perhaps there will be renewed interest in his owl movie. The animated flick held up well in its second weekend in theaters, losing only 32 percent of its gross, but I would expect at least a 40 percent fall this time.

5. My Soul to Take: $5 million

It’s been five years since Wes Craven has directed a full-length feature. (Red Eye was the last one.) Unfortunately, I don’t think the horror veteran will draw much of an audience to his flick, starring Max Thieriot and John Magaro. If it earns beyond $5 million, it will be a feat, considering how poorly horror flicks have fared lately.

In limited release, Focus Features will open It’s Kind of a Funny Story while Weinstein Co. will bow the young John Lennon tale, Nowhere Boy. Come back this weekend for a full report.

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