Box Office: Hunger Milestones & Reader Questions

With the box office ever in its favor, The Hunger Games just keeps climbing the all-time charts. With $337 million in the US alone in just four weeks, it will soon outgross last year's biggest hits (Harry Potter 7.2 and Transformers 3). If it can pass Toy Story 3's $415 million it'll be the biggest hit released since (gulp) Avatar stateside.

That fire dress was prophetic. Unfortunately that movie's bonfire heat makes writing about the box office even more boring than it usually is... which is why I always gussy it up with photoshop fun & reader question games.

chart via box office mojo

So herewith...

Eight Questions

1. How many times have you seen Hunger Games?
2. Did you at any point want someone beside Katniss to win?
3. How many times have you seen Titanic in the movie theater (then & now)?
4. Have you recently snuck into a movie so you didn't have to pay for a ticket?
5. What kind of movies would you fund with $337 million?
6. Who are the crazy people who paid for The Three Stooges this weekend? Justify your behavior!
7. With Mirror Mirror about to hit $50, has the movie made back its costume budget yet?
8. What did you see this weekend?

I'll kick things off by answering in the comments. Tag, you're it.

The Nineties.

Good evening America. It has recently come to my attention that I enjoy the nein•a•dees. I came upon this realization on Saturday whilst watching Titanic (1997) starring Billy Zane, The Unsinkable Annie Wilkes... and Suzy Amis. After removing my misty used 3D glasses sponsored by The Lion King, I gazed wistfully at photos of blk dnm's "leather jacket 8" modelled by Juliette Lewis and Chloe Sevigny. In two dimensions. 

Later indulging in buttery spaetzle, courtesy of Hallo Berlin and nein-a-dees university mates, we considered trapeze lessons and discussed the puzzling career of Mira Sorvino before spotting Primal Fear's Edward Norton in the 10th row at "The Lady From Dubuque" starring four time Oscar nominee Jane Alexander. She twirled her angelic shawl with all the grace befitting an Albee abstraction. Or Stevie Nicks at a Fleetwood Mac reunion tour.

The Titanic Centennial weekend festivities were sponsored by Three Olives vodka, Junior Mints, and memories of Celine Dion's chest-thumping Oscar ballad. I'll never let go, Jack.

This post is dedicated to Drew Droege, Leonardo DiCaprio's Elfin Youth, And Jenette Goldstein as "Irish Mommy"

Time Out's "100 Best Horror Films"

I am fascinated by the horror genre. From afar. As in: I am not at all fascinated by the horror genre but am endlessly curious about why it provokes so much feverish fandom in others. So I find myself reading about the horror genre a lot in an intermittent effort to understand it. From afar. Time Out London just came out with a poll of horror biggies and horror enthusiasts to form an eclectic list of the 100 best horror films. Some of them that I love I hadn't really thought of as "horror" (though on second thought they clearly are) like Dead Ringers, The Night of the Hunter and Ken Russell's The Devils. 

I knew my three all time favorites would rank high though my fourth favorite horror film (Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?) did not make the list.

Nathaniel's Horror Trinity: CARRIE, ROSEMARY'S BABY, and PSYCHO

The films on the list that prompted the most nightmares were The Silence of the Lambs (which I weirdly dreamt up constantly before seeing it) and The Omen which I saw on television by myself (after my parents had gone to bed) as a kid. It was probably severely edited but I was so terrified that Damien shared my birthday (June 6th) that I raced to the bathroom mirrors afterwards to check my head for a 666 mark -- no joke! I was so scared I had nightmares for a full week afterwards and vowed to never watch another scary movie.  

As an adult the films I was most terrified of while I was watching them were: Halloween which I didn't see until the early 90s on VHS when a friend would not let me be until I watched it; The Descent which I saw in a completely empty theater... like one big dark cave, The Blair Witch Project's last ten minutes in which I basically thought I would die (though that experience seems unrepeatable); Audition because... holy hell; and The Shining which I saw for the first time in basically .... wait for it... a cabin in the woods.

In the interest of full disclosure and to illustrate my scaredy-cat nature I have seen but 32% of the 100 wide list which I've included in a visual after the jump if you must mock me. How many have you seen? And which 10 do you think should be mandatory viewing? 

Click to read more ...

Artist & Muse via Robert Doisneau

Today marks the centennial of the great French photography Robert Doisneau and though he wasn't a celebrity photographer --  the kind we obviously have the greatest use for as film obsessives -- he did them on occassion. I love this shot of one of the great auteur/muse pairings (both onscreen and off) actor Jean Marais (left) and Jean Cocteau (right). 

Here's another of Pablo Picasso and Françoise Gilot.

Remember when Anthony Hopkins and Natasha McElhone pretended to be them? I know I know. No one saw Surviving Picasso (1996)... but I did because Julianne Moore was Dora Maar (another Picasso victim... excuse me, lover!) and with Julianne I martyr myself to completism. 

If you could photograph one auteur/muse pairing, who would it be?

The 'Link, Bitch' Project

You'd think The Film Experience would get more link love around the net considering how much generous we are with the linkage. Perhaps we're too easy? No one buys the cow when they can get the milk for free! (And other euphemisms for "too slutty")

Batman News Anne Hathaway thought she was up for Harley Quinn in The Dark Knight Rises only to find out it was... (gulp) Catwoman.
TMZ Producer of The Blair Witch Project declaring bankruptcy. I guess that even insane ROI doesn't last forever. Ten years max!
SuperPunch celebrates Alfred Hitchcock art at Gallery1988
The Sheila Variations discusses "private moments" onscreen via Richard Gere as that American Gigolo in the 1980s.
Boy Culture's Matthew Rettemund finally gets a photo op with Madonna. Dreams come true

Awards Daily Meryl Streep eyes bananas in Great Hope Springs. Fruity.
In Contention on the Django Unchained synopsis. Listen, I'm not even reading that though some of you will want to. I have the screenplay but I can't bring myself to read it. I LOVE being surprised and few directors surprise me more than QT
Little White Lies reviews Battleship

So yes, Battleship virtually begs you despise it, every frame haplessly offering more grist for your critical mill. 

BadAss Digest terrifying photo / gif from Prometheus. Only look if you dare.
Cineuropa Tim Roth to head Un Certain Regard jury at Cannes. Which role do you think he's still proudest of? Anyone who says "Lie to Me" must leave the premises immediately!