Elizabeth Banks and Jennifer Lawrence in Lionsgate's "The Hunger Games"
Banking on broader appeal than the Twilight franchise and delivering the third-largest opening weekend of all time, Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games surpassed even the most optimistic of expectations, with a $152.5 million opening weekend. In a snap of one’s fingers, Jennifer Lawrence will forever be associated with Katniss Everdeen and Josh Hutcherson will likewise forever be linked to Peeta Mellark. Their anonymity is gone. Next November 2013, Liam Hemsworth will likely join them in being branded as Gale, with his role exponentially increased in the sequel Catching Fire, and the lives of these three young actors have been irrevocably changed forever. Most who saw the film were in favor of Gary Ross’ adaptation, with yours truly giving it, admittedly, one of the strongest reviews of the lot. Audiences were thrilled, the record books rewritten and Lionsgate’s all in gamble on the franchise rivals that of New Line’s investment in “Lord of the Rings” and Summit’s daring risk on “Twilight”. Everyone knew this franchise would be a success, but third-biggest-opening-of-all-time success? Lots of jaws are still falling open as numbers are continually crunched.
- THE HUNGER GAMES BREAKDOWN
- Lionsgate’s Biggest Grossing Film Of All Time
- Largest Spring Seasonal Opening Of All Time
- Largest March Opening Of All Time
- Second Fastest Film to Gross $100 million
- Third Fastest Film to Gross $150 million
- Biggest Grossing Film in the “Reality TV” genre
- Largest Per Screen Average of the Weekend ($36,871 @ 4,137 screens)
Uh oh…
Read more on Box Office Final: A “Hunger” Burns Inside (March 23-25, 2012)……
Categories: Article, News Tags: box office report, Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Footnote, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, John Carter, Project X, Safe House, salmon fishing in the yemen, Seeking Justice, The Hunger Games, The Raid: Redemption
 Directed by: Ruben Fleischer
Written by: Will Beall
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Giovanni Ribisi, Nick Nolte, Frank Grillo, Robert Patrick, Michael Pena, Anthony Mackie, Josh Pence, and Mireille Enos
Synopsis (from Warner Brothers): Los Angeles, 1949. Ruthless, Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) runs the show in this town, reaping the ill-gotten gains from the drugs, the guns, the prostitutes and—if he has his way—every wire bet placed west of Chicago. And he does it all with the protection of not only his own paid goons, but also the police and the politicians who are under his control. It’s enough to intimidate even the bravest, street-hardened cop…except, perhaps, for the small, secret crew of LAPD outsiders led by Sgt. John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) and Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), who come together to try to tear Cohen’s world apart.
Read more on Awards Profile: The Gangster Squad…
Categories: Award Profile Tags: Anthony Mackie, Awards Profile, book adaptation, emma stone, Giovanni Ribisi, Josh Brolin, Nick Nolte, Oscar hopeful, Robert Patrick, Ruben Fleischer, Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn, The Gangster Squad
 This Friday, the documentary ‘Bully’ is being released by The Weinstein Company into a limited number of theaters, and instead of taking the controversial R rating that they were handed by the ratings board, they’re going to be releasing the film unrated in New York and Los Angeles. It’s mostly a statement by TWC, but it was really their only method of protest left. It was clear a PG-13 was never going to be granted by the MPAA, so this was the next best thing to them, it seems. The full story is after the jump, and comes to us from The Hollywood Reporter. In a few days, we’ll be able to start talking about the film on its own merits, but for now, this is the latest news…
Read more on The Weinstein Company is releasing ‘Bully’ Unrated!…
 To everyone’s dismay, The Voice saved its worst Battle Rounds episode for last. There were no perfect performances; heck, I’d venture to go as far as saying only one Battle Round performance was even good. The worst offense of the night was committed by Adam Levine, who might have just made the dumbest decision in his career when choosing one Battle Round victor. The whole show felt like NBC was scraping the bottom of the barrel, serving us performances you would find at the back alley of a Mardi Gras festival as opposed to a legit singing competition program. Needless to say, this was a very weak night, with one amazing performer sent packing for no good reason other than his talent being “very specific.” Um, worst rationale ever! We’ll get to the shocking boot a bit later on, but let’s dive straight into the single worst Battle Round Episode of The Voice Season 2 and get some performance analysis underway! Read more on ‘The Voice’ Recap: Battle Rounds Part 4…
Categories: TV/Music Tags: blake shelton, cee lo green, christina aguilera, james massone, karla davis, matthai, Moses Stone, naia kete, nbc, nbc mondays, The Voice, the voice battle rounds, the voice battle rounds part 4, the voice battle rounds part 4 recap, the voice battle rounds recap, the voice recap, tony vincent
 This week, there’s not too much to get excited about in terms of DVD releases (or really even theatrical releases, but that’s another story), but since this is nothing new to the faithful readers of this column, we won’t have any trouble pressing on regardless. This is also a rare occasion where I’m going to be recommending something that I previously didn’t when doing my original review of the film. Astute readers will know that I wasn’t big on either of this week’s major releases, but only one of them changed my mind somewhat on a subsequent viewing (I even said as much in the comments section of that particular review), and that film is the one that’s getting this week’s top honor. I won’t argue that it’s an especially strong PICK OF THE WEEK, but it’s the best of a mediocre bunch. The film in question that I’m admitting to being too harsh on initially? Well, it’s:
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
I maintain that this movie has a lot of issues (mainly in terms of the script), but even the first time around I admitted that it had some real emotional power to it. I gave it a second chance after that and found that my issues were diluted somewhat (I still think the screenplay is the weak link and things get pretty monotonous in the 2nd act), but the power of the story wasn’t (especially in terms of the acting and some of the visuals). The flick still isn’t as good as I’d hoped it to be when predicting it to win Best Picture last summer, but it’s not as flawed as I found it to be on that first screening. Now that it’s out on home video, those who didn’t bother with it can see for themselves and make up their mind as to whether or not the pseudo surprise Best Picture nomination was a just decision by the Academy or not. I gave it another chance, so why don’t you do the same as well!
Read more on Joey’s DVD Picks of the Week (3/27/2012)…
 It’s been a long time coming! I love the Awards Circuit and I love our readers. I pride myself on being called a ‘Film Geek’ nearly on a daily basis. Here at the Awards Circuit, we should all pride ourselves as “Gold Geeks.” We love the Oscars, and just plain award shows in general. Wear a shirt to prove it. Give it a buy!
Also, we’re starting a phenomenon now: Who do you Geek?
There are the directors, movies, actors, that put us on the film bandwagon. We have some specialty shirts for great directors like Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Alfred Hitchock (with more coming in the near future!).
Buy it HERE!
Read more on Love the Awards Circuit? We Have Merchandise Now!…
 It’s week two of Dancing with the Stars! After an amazing beginning to the new season, the stars are back this week dancing the Quick Step and Jive. Every star raised the bar last week, but this week we were able to see clearly who is strong and who could possibly go home. Monday the stars danced their hearts out because tonight will be the first elimination. So who will be the first star to waltz off the dance floor? Let’s review.
Read more on Dancing with the Stars: Week 2…
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