Movie Ticket Stories

The new Ben Stiller satire "Tropic Thunder" overtook the juggernaut Batman sequel "The Dark Knight" at the box office this weekend. Set in the jungles of Southeast Asia, the spoof comedy is about actors who think they are making a movie about the Vietnam War, but end up in the line of fire and are forced to become real soldiers. The film has also been the subject of some protests among civil rights groups for its derogatory use of the term "retard" and also because Downey’s character had plastic surgery in order to portray a black man. Historically, public protests often serve to increase ticket sales at the box office and "Tropic Thunder" was able to take in $26 million despite the outcry.

"The Dark Knight" which enjoyed more than a month as the top of the box office grosser, assumed second place this week with $16.8 million in sales bringing its total to $471.5 million so far. The film now stands as the second highest domestic grossing film of all time, surpassing "Star Wars". Only "Titanic", with its jaw-dropping record of $601 million in sales, had a higher total than "The Dark Knight" at the same point following its release.

Batman franchise The Dark Knight continued to make cinematic history this past week, becoming the third highest-grossing film of all time as it briskly soared past the $400 million mark, studio estimates revealed.

With its weekend haul of $26.1 million, Dark Knight eclipsed Shrek 2, the previous all-time #3 record holder, and is now looking ahead to pass the #2 highest grossing film ever, the original Star Wars at $461 million. Looming on the horizon is the all-time highest grossing film, Titanic, at $601 million.

Ticket sales for "The Dark Knight" for the weekend ending August 3 continued to break records at the movie box office, raking in an estimated $43.8 million for its third weekend in release. The second installment of the new Batman franchise, and the sixth Batman movie since the late 1980s, may soon become the second-biggest film of all time, following "Titanic."

"The Dark Knight," featuring the posthumous performance of Heath Ledger that is being praised as Oscar-worthy, ruled over the premiere of "Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor," which opened at $42.5 million. The second sequel of the Mummy series stars Brendan Fraser and Jet Li and has received only tepid reviews.

"The Dark Knight", the next in the "Batman Begins" franchise, continued to slam its competition at the box office this weekend, taking in an estimated $75.6 million; more than doubling the take of its closest competitor. "Batman", became the fastest grossing film in history reaching $200 million on its fifth of day release, and seeing $314 million gross on day 10. The Christian Bale/Heath Ledger pairing is wowing audiences and many critics, with murmurings of an Academy nod for Ledger’s riveting portrayal of the Joker, the final role in the young actor’s tragically short-lived career.

Second in line was the opening of "Step Brothers", the Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly comedy about two immature but aging step-brothers who are forced to share a room once their single parents decide to marry. The film earned a respectable $30 million estimate on its opening weekend amid lukewarm comments from critics.

"The Dark Knight," the newest entry in highly successful Batman franchise, obliterated the competition for the top movie over the weekend ending July 20, and set records along the way. The film, which marks the final screen appearance by the late Heath Ledger, raked in an estimated $155.3 million for the weekend, making it the highest-grossing three-day weekend debut in movie history. The previous record was held by last year's "Spider-Man 3," which took in $151.1 million in its opening weekend, according to movie industry sources.

While 2005's "Batman Begins" was a hit and generated interest in a sequel, grossing a total of $205 million during its entire domestic run, the success of "The Dark Knight" is clearly being attributed to Ledger's scene-stealing turn as The Joker, a performance that is garnering considerable buzz for an Oscar nomination. Ledger died in January of an accidental prescription drug overdose, and he was already considered one of the better screen actors of his generation for several roles including his Oscar-nominated performance in "Brokeback Mountain."

With a release onto some 4,400 screens across the nation, Hellboy II: The Golden Army grossed an estimated $35.9 million over the weekend, making a strong opener for distributor Universal Pictures. Universal picked up the rights for the sequel to the 2004 Sony film Hellboy, which had stumbled at the box office but then drew a strong following on its DVD sales. The sci-fi fantasy stars Ron Perlman as a spawn of Satan who decides to join the other team, using his superhero powers to save the world from total destruction.

The Will Smith vehicle Hancock ran a close second, hauling in $33 million in its second weekend at 3,965 theaters. The weekend’s second premiering film, Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D, took third place with $20.6 million. The retelling of the Jules Verne 1864 classic sci-fi sage starring Brendan Fraser opened in 2,811 theaters. About $11.7 million or 57 percent of that weekend gross came from Real D's 3D presentations at 854 locations. Distributor Warner Bros. marketed the picture like a theme park attraction and reported that families comprised 60 percent of the audience.

Will Smith’s latest action adventure Hancock took first place at the box office over the Independence Day weekend, earning Sony Pictures an estimated $66 million. Hancock continues Will Smith’s record of opening to the Number One slot for his last eight pictures.

The film, about a grumpy and sometimes inept superhero played by Smith, also stars Charlize Theron and Jason Bateman and is billed as a fantasy adventure. The $66 million take marks the second highest July 4th opening weekend, behind 2007's Transformers.

The robot adventure Wall-E marched to a triumphant first place this weekend, taking an estimated $62.5 million in 3,992 locations across the country and wowing film critics, some of whom are awarding it possible “best picture of the year” status. The space adventure depicts a lonely robot who finds a new purpose in life when he discovers a sleek new robot named EVE. The computer-generated animation film gave Pixar its ninth consecutive first place premiere and was the eighth largest opening ever for an animated film. Wall-E was the third best opening for a G-rated film after (after Finding Nemo and Monsters, Inc.).

Snagging a strong second place was the Angelina Jolie thriller Wanted, about an ordinary office worker (James McAvoy) who is recruited by a Fox (Jolie) into an elite secret society of assassins. The R-rated adventure, also co-starring Morgan Freeman, scored an estimated $51.1 million from 3,175 locations. It was the seventh largest opening in box office history for any R-rated film. Together, the weekend’s top two films raked in $114 million in combined ticket sales, marking the first time in history that two films opened with more than $50 million each on the same weekend.

Two days before John Mayer heads out on his summer tour, which begins July 2 in Milwaukee, WI, fans can watch the five-time Grammy winner on the big screen when his "Where The Light Is: John Mayer Live in Los Angeles" hits theaters across the country. "Where The Light Is: John Mayer Live in Los Angeles" features Mayer performing an acoustic set, a full-band "Continuum" set and a rare John Mayer Trio set. The concert was recorded in December, 2007, at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles and directed by Danny Clinch.

"John Mayer’s gift for mixing genres and styles and for appealing to such a wide cross-section of fans will come to life on the big screen," Jonathan Dern, president of The Bigger Picture, a leader in the digital distribution of movies, said in a statement. "Everyone who comes out to see him in digital cinema will enjoy an incredible view and the best sound available."

Instead of "missing it by that much," the movie version of the popular '60s spy spoof "Get Smart," roared out of the gate this past weekend to win the movie box office by generating $38.7 million in gross ticket sales in its opening weekend, based on industry estimates.

The Steve Carrell/Anne Hathaway/Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson comedy trounced the other big debut movie for the weekend ending June 22, Mike Myers's "The Love Guru," which came in fourth with a disappointing $13.9 million. However, Myers has had films in the past, namely the first "Austin Powers" movie, that did middling business at the box office only to clean up in cable television, international and DVD sales.

"Fandango Acquires Movies.com"

LOS ANGELES, CA (PRNewswire) June 23, 2008 -- Fandango, Inc., the nation's leading moviegoer destination, today announced that it has acquired Movies.com, a leading movie content site previously owned by the Walt Disney Internet Group, a unit of The Walt Disney Company.

Fandango.com has exclusive ticketing access to more than 15,000 movie screens across the country and its consumers enjoy great movie content, including exclusive movie trailers and videos, coming attractions, user ratings and reviews, and personalization features. Movies.com is a complementary site that provides a broad array of information to passionate movie lovers, including movie synopses, reviews, movie and celebrity news, DVD releases and a host of other features.

The Incredible Hulk stormed into theaters this weekend, earning a box office take of $54.5 million. The film, which stars Edward Norton as the scientist who transforms into the Hulk, is the second in Marvel Studio’s Hulk series. Ang Lee's "Hulk" opened five years ago with an impressive $62.1 million weekend, but then died in subsequent weeks.

Although the ticket sales for the new Hulk – which was shown at 3,505 locations across the nation -- is respectable, the newest in the Marvel compendium is also overshadowed by its mega hit summer cousin Iron Man, which is closing in on the $300 million mark in ticket sales after just three weeks in theaters.

The country group Rascal Flatts will appear and perform in the upcoming Miley Cyrus film, "Hannah Montana: The Movie", internet sources revealed today.

The film, currently being shot in the Nashville area, is based on the popular Disney Channel series starring Miley Cyrus and Billy Ray Cyrus. Rascal Flatts label is Lyric Street Records, a Nashville-based company that is part of the Disney Music Group. Miley Cyrus and Billy Ray Cyrus also record for Disney.

Women voted at the movie box office this weekend and Sex and the City was the winner, generating an impressive $55.7 million. The film, based on the popular television series of the same name, trumped the latest Indiana Jones movie at the domestic box office this week ending June 1st, online sources reported today.

"Sex and the City’s" weekend opening also ranked as the strongest ever for a movie carried by a female lead. "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" was the previous record-holder, with $47.7 million in ticket sales during its 2001 opening.

The sure-to-be-a-hit movie "Sex and the City" will likely attract an alternative audience when it opens this weekend, one not often courted by Hollywood studios, women in their 40s and early 50s. As reported by the Associated Press, the online ticketing service Fandango has determined from a survey of ticket buyers for the movie before this weekend that 94 percent have been women; 67 percent plan to see the film in a group of other women; 16 percent said that they were going with one other woman; and just 6 percent said they were going with a man.

The film stars the four original cast members from the HBO series Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon, and fans turned out in mobs for Tuesday’s glittering New York City premiere. Tickets for tonight’s red carpet screening at Radio City Music Hall were reportedly being offered on eBay at the starting price of $1,000.

Families came out in droves to catch "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," the PG-13 adventure starring Harrison Ford as the whip-cracking archaeologist who took 19 years to return to the big screen.

In a summer that has already seen "Iron Man" earn record numbers, "Indiana Jones" ran through the competition, scoring $126.1 million on its opening weekend. The haul was the second-biggest Memorial Day weekend opening on record, behind only last year's "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End", which earned $139.8 million.

Move over, Iron Man. “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” made its movie debut over the weekend ending May 19 and generated $55,034,805 in ticket sales, ruling over “Iron Man,” which had won the box office war for the past two weeks. Worldwide, “Chronicles” sold $744.8 million worth of tickets. Distributed by Walt Disney Co., it is the second film based on the books by C.S. Lewis. For lovers of the books, there will be a third film, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” in 2010.

In its third weekend, “Iron Man,” produced by Paramount Pictures and starring Robert Downey Jr., lost some of its gleam by generating $31.2 million. That was a drop from its debut of $100.8 million two weekends ago, the strongest debut this year, but the film has earned $222.5 million in ticket sales since its opening on May 2.

The juggernaut of the "Iron Man" continued pounding its competitors at the box office last weekend, literally crushing the hopes of its main contender, the race car adventure "Speed Racer", internet sources reported today. "Iron Man" raked in an additional $50.5 million in its second weekend, bringing its total close to $150 million.

Following in the steps of fellow Disney teen icon Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers will reportedly make their own 3-D concert film debut in 2009. The film will feature footage from the group's upcoming "Burning Up" concert tour, as well as a behind-the-scenes look at the lives of bandmate-brothers Kevin, Joe and Nick.

"More than just a concert, this film will take moviegoers inside the band's creative process, and present them in a very intimate and entertaining way," Oren Aviv, president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production, said in a statement.

The action movie "Iron Man" easily trounced the competition to win the box office tally for the weekend ending May 4, generating an estimated $100.8 million and becoming one of the few pictures in film history to become an instant blockbuster in its opening weekend.

The film now holds the rank of the ninth-highest debut of all time and second-largest for a movie that wasn't a sequel. The record-holder also belongs to a comic book franchise owned by Marvel, "Spider-Man," which debuted in 2002 with an opening weekend of $114.8 million.