Box Office: Princess Merida, Bear Hunter

Princess Merida's aim was true, hitting the Pixar bullseye this weekend. $60 million plus means BRAVE can stand proudly with the studio's most successful opening weekends. Some worried that Pixar's first female lead might not prove nearly as big of an immediate draw as cars, toys and boy robots... forgetting that Princesses have never exactly hurt parent co's Disney's box office tallies. Abraham Lincoln's box office aim was messier but then axes can miss their mark and still do bloody damage.

TOP TEN PRIDE WEEKEND
01 BRAVE new $66.7
02 MADAGASCAR 3  $20.2 (cum. $157.5)
03 ABRAHAM LINCOLN, VAMPIRE HUNTER  new $16.5 
04 PROMETHEUS  $10 (cum. $108.5) Oscar Chances?
05 ROCK OF AGES $8 (cum. $28.7) Review
06 SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN $8 (cum $137.1) Review 
07 THAT'S MY BOY $7.9  (cum $28.1)
08 THE AVENGERS  $7 (cum $598.3) Review
09 MIB 3 $5.6 (cum. $163.3)
10 SEEKING A FRIEND AT THE END OF THE WORLD  new $3.8 

Talking Points: To Rome With Love was strangely timid about its opening weekend given the renewed Woody Allen love post Midnight in Paris but had a strong per screen average anyway. Had it opened wider it surely would have outperformed Seeking a Friend... which couldn't find an audience; Moonrise Kingdom continues to be a strong performer in limited release just outside the top ten; Two months into its run The Avengers is finally losing screens but should cross the astounding $600 million mark by Tuesday, only the third film in history to do so (when not adjusted for inflation). 

Regarding The Avengers. Given the screen loss it'll be tough to pass Titanic to claim the all time #2 spot -- another $60 million is required. I was just at brunch at Harlem's Red Rooster and a little tiny barely verbal boy at the next table was veritably surrounded by superheroes -- Thor lunch box to the left of him, Spider-Man backpack to the right of him, as he excitedly pointed at an ancient comic book in glass behind him in the restaurant's wall of historic memorabilia. They indoctrinate them young into Marvel Mania. When he's a teenager he'll be buying opening weekend tickets to The Avengers holographic reboot (2025)

What did you see this weekend?

Or is your weekend still raging? If so, Happy Pride!

Say What, Emma T?

Amuse us. Caption this photo of Emma Thompson in the comments.

Oh and... yay, she's back in front of cameras where she belongs (It's a scene from Love Punch a new divorced couple comedy with Pierce Brosnan)

Pass the Link

Main Course
Pajiba attempts to show that Pixar has more than one female character with its '15 most badass female Pixar characters
Serious Film joins the legion of Beasts of the Southern Wild  fans with bullet points of his amazement
Kenneth in the (212) Remembers a traumatic experience when Hollywood first launched Making Love (1982) starring Kate Jackson, the first mainstream Hollywood picture on the gay experience. 
Daily Mail is Barbra Streisand really going to get in the director's chair again. She's rumored to be prepping Skinny & Cat a biopic romance starring Colin Firth and Cate Blanchett. What accounts for Barbra's sudden burst of activity?

Towleroad where are the new gay classics? Too many straight movies opening for gay pride weekend ;)
The Guardian terrific piece on the Tom Cruise "comeback" and what the word now means
The Guardian also has a profile of wondrous character actress Miriam Margolyes
Movie|Line actor Aaron Johnson (Kick Ass, Albert Nobbs) has wed longtime girlfriend/director Sam Taylor-Wood.
Google celebrates the centennial of Alan Turing, a fascinating gay man who changed the world. Why isn't there a biopic on him?

Ear Candy
The Broadway Blog sneak peek of a song from Cyndi Lauper's stage musical adaptation of Kinky Boots 

Eye Candy
Super Punch The Shining Sculptures. I am so creeped out looking at these. redrum
Old Hollywood Elizabeth Taylor on the set of Suddenly Last Summer 
Queerty Cheyenne Jackson *new photoshoot alert* He does too few! 
Slash Film The Dark Knight Rises outdoes itself with this bit of promotional art. Wow. 
My New Plaid Pants The Amazing Spider-Bum 

Finally I can't even do a Yes No Maybe So on this Andy Samberg Celeste and Jesse Forever type trailer thing -- even though Ari Graynor! -- because I'll never top James St. James quip at the Wow Report

Damn, Andy. Celeste & Jessie Forever looks absolutely, heartbreakingly wonderful. And yet I can’t help but feel it’s this year’s (500) Days of Summer, where everybody loves it to death then turns on it in six months..

Word.

Another "Prometheus" Mystery: Will There Be Oscar Play?

Ridley Scott's Alien franchise prequel Prometheus should probably be a film I take great objection to. The first reason I ever loved the series (beyond Lt. Ellen Ripley, queen of all action heroines) was how it doubled as an ever evolving adventurous launch pad for young auteurs. It's got the same premise virtually every time so you sit back and immediately see the director's vision in sharp relief against each previous or subsequent film. Even the lesser entries in the series have this to recommend them and in the 90s, even after Alien Ressurection I wanted them to keep making Alien films so we could see it through the different set of rising auteur eyes each time. I didn't really want Ridley Scott to go back for this reason. I especially didn't want him to go back back. Backstory and prequels -- conceptually, they are like safety nets for the imagination. Don't be afraid of wondering... we'll catch you!

Where is the mystery? Or rather, why don't people want more of it. Why do you they want so many answers?

Thankfully, Prometheus doesn't rob the Alien franchise of all of its mystery and magic. It's not midi-chlorian level obnoxious. And given the screenplay and execution, for better and worse, the new film creates its own mysteries. Some or these are intentional and some surely not, some internal some external. What did David⁸ say to The Engineer in the penultimate scene? Is the MPAA's request that Ridley Scott remove the entire abortion sequence -- not so coincidentally the strongest sequence in the film -- the dumbest thing they've done since Blue Valentine's NC17? Or is it just the thousandth priceless example of how aesthetically stupid they remain and or the millionth piece of case evidence that they should never be allowed anywhere near art!

This week since I know I desperately need to update the Oscar predictions I've been thinking of another Prometheus-specific mystery. Will it have an awards future? [Aliens & Oscars after the jump]

Click to read more ...

Afternoon Open Thread

What's the first movie you thought of when you woke up this morning? 

Otherwise what's on your (cinematic) mind today? I'm slow to rise this morning but I'm thinking it's a catch up weekend for me -- jamming in as many movies as I can cram in before the HALFWAY MARK BEST OF (yep, it's coming). Moviegoing = Air Conditioning.