Box Office - 'Knowing' Takes Top Spot, $25 Million

For the first time in a while, the top movies at the box office performed fairly consistently in their debut weekend. After seeing Watchmen make half of its cash on Friday and The Last House on the Left appear to be competitive last Friday only to dry up over the next couple of days, all three of this week's new releases used their opening day as a blueprint for the entire frame.

Knowing, the new sci-fi flick starring Nicolas Cage, took the top spot with just about $25 million, slightly better than most expectations, and had the second-highest per-screen average of any movie in theaters. I have a suspicion that the film will do at least as well internationally as it should do here in the U.S. That could mean an international take of over $150 million. The new comedy I Love You, Man opened well, too, but in 600 fewer theaters. Still the $18 million debut is very similar the opening weekends for Paul Rudd's Role Models and Jason Segel's Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and both of those movies topped $60 million.

Click to read more ...

Box Office - Friday Crowds Get to Know 'Knowing'

The sci-fi flick Knowing jumped out to an early weekend lead over the comedy I Love You, Man by taking in nearly $9 million on Friday, according to Box Office Mojo. Can the new Nicolas Cage movie hold on to the top spot? It was always going to be a close call this weekend, but the three million dollar head start might be enough to give Cage another number one debut.

Because so many films this year have posted big debuts on Friday just to have softer returns on Saturday and Sunday, it's possible that Knowing will lose some steam but the percentages still have this one surpassing $20 million without too much trouble. Can I Love You, Man build on its $6.3 million start and take over the top spot? It would need a huge day today to pull even with Knowing, which is playing in 600 more theaters, so while it's possible, comedies don't normally have big spikes in their second days. Both films might top $20 million, which is a better return than Duplicity, the high-profile spy comedy with Clive Owen and Julia Roberts will show in the first weekend. It opened with just under $5 million, so $13 - $15 million seems like the path this one will take.

Click to read more ...

Movie Review - 'Knowing'

Knowing Starring Nicolas Cage, Rose Byrne, and Chandler Canterbury Directed by Alex Proyas Rated PG-13

During a lecture, MIT astrophysics professor John Koestler (Nicolas Cage) asks his students to define and differentiate randomness and determinism. Determinism, answers one student, is the belief that a chain of events leads to a specific conclusion, that there is an order to things. Randomness is exactly what it sounds like. Though those scientific principles have something to do with with story in Knowing, they can also be found in the very structure of the screenplay: Obviously, there is an intended direction, but some aspects are so chaotic, you wonder how in the hell it ever got to where it was going. I love the idea of time capsules. To see what the past thought of the future is a great exercise. And it's used very effectively here, a device that sets the world of Knowing in motion. Koestler's son, Caleb (Chandler Canterbury), attends a grade school where 50 years earlier, a time capsule was buried to mark the opening of the school. When it is unearthed, Caleb is handed an envelope placed in the capsule by a student half a century earlier. Was he randomly chosen to select the envelope, or was it somehow determined? What's inside the envelope is a cryptic string of numbers, which Caleb's father decides develop into a pattern that predicts the great worldwide tragedies of the previous five decades, like the downed flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, the 9/11 attacks, earthquakes, and more.

Click to read more ...

Fearless Forecast - 'I Love You, Man' Could Win Competitive Weekend

It's a legitimately tough weekend to predict at the box office. There are three new releases that should all do about the same business of the course of their lives. Knowing will arrive in just over 3,000 theaters, so it doesn't need to do as well in each location to make an impact.

I Love You, Man probably has the most momentum. Paul Rudd is coming off a big hit with Role Models just a handful of months ago, and his new comedy is geting great reviews. It will arrive in about 500 fewer theaters than Knowing, as will Duplicity, the new romantic spy comedy with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen. Roberts, more than any other actress in history, can open a movie. That this probably won't arrive at number one has a little to do with her decreased activity, but again, theater counts play a part; it will only be in about 75% of the number of houses that Knowing will.

Click to read more ...

Getting to Know New 'Knowing' Clips

The only reason I have much hope at all for Knowing is because it was directed by Alex Proyas. Proyas directed I, Robot and The Crow, but his best film is Dark City, an impossibly atmospheric future noir released in 1998. Not too many people saw it, but in a year with Saving Private Ryan, Dark City was Roger Ebert's top film. Check out the DVD for Ebert's great commentary about the movie, something he very rarely provided.

I don't believe Knowing will be as good as Dark City or The Crow, but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, even though a movie with a numerical code that pinponts all the world's great disasters that also stars Nicolas Cage is, in my opinion, operating with a disadvantage before the trailers even start. Here are a couple more clips from Knowing, including the first very good CG disaster effect of 2009 shown in its entirety.

Click to read more ...