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Star Trek Into Darkness box office: Solid or disappointing domestic debut? (Photo: Chris Pine as Captain Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock in Star Trek Into Darkness) J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness, starring Chris Pine as Captain Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock, has to date grossed $13.4 million in North America, including from 336 late-night Wednesday IMAX shows and all-day showtimes at 3,762 locations on Thursday. As explained by Ray Subers at Box Office Mojo, first-day figures may have been below par because Paramount Pictures changed Star Trek Into Darkness‘ release date last week — the Star Trek sequel was to have opened on Friday. For comparison’s sake: With $11.53m on Thursday proper, Star Trek Into Darkness had the 11th biggest Thursday opening ever (not adjusted for inflation). Its Thursday debut, in fact, fell way below those of other May releases, e.g., George Lucas’ Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith ($50.01 million in 2005), Andy and Lana Wachowski / Keanu Reeves’ The Matrix Reloaded ($37.5 million in 2003), Lucas’ Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones ($30.14 million in 2002), Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ($25.04 million in 2008), and even McG / Christian Bale’s Terminator Salvation ($13.37 million in 2009) and David Fincher / Brad Pitt / Cate Blanchett’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ($11.87m in 2008). Bear in mind that none of those movies was originally released in 3D — i.e., unlike Star Trek Into Darkness they didn’t have the advantage of movie-ticket surcharges. Opening-weekend box office: Star Trek Into Darkness vs. Star Trek According to early, rough estimates found at Deadline.com, things have been looking up for Star Trek Into Darkness on Friday. The Star Trek sequel is expected to collect somewhere between $25-27 million today, which would translate into $80-90 million by Sunday evening, and a four-day cume ranging from $93-$103 million. For comparison’s sake, the original Star Trek reboot (in this case, we have an "original" reboot), without the assistance of 3D surcharges, collected $26.89 million on its opening Friday (not including Thursday night shows) — or approximately $28.5 million adjusted for inflation. Star Trek‘s opening weekend take was $79.2 million, or about $84 million today. Note: We’re comparing oranges and tangerines here, as the original Star Trek opened on Friday. In those early box-office figures are on target, Star Trek Into Darkness will be having a good, though far from outstanding — considering it’s a sequel, in 3D — opening weekend in North America. Whether it’ll ultimately be a success depends on how it’ll hold up next weekend, when it’ll face off against newcomers Fast & Furious 6 starring Dwayne Johnson, Paul Walker, and Vin Diesel, and The Hangover Part III, with Bradley Cooper and Zach Galifianakis. Star Trek Into Darkness: International box office Outside the US/Canada, Star Trek Into Darkness is reportedly running 70% ahead of the original, having already grossed $47 million in seven territories: Mexico, the UK, Australia, Germany, New Zealand, Austria, and German-speaking Switzerland. Deadline.com reports that in Russia Star Trek Into Darkness took in $1.4 million on opening day this week — or about four times the amount earned by the original. And those figures help you understand why the Star Trek sequel was post-converted to 3D. Unusual for a Hollywood blockbuster, the 2009 Star Trek earned less than half of its box-office gross outside North America: $257.73 million in the US/Canada vs. $127.95 million internationally. How come? Well, Star Trek is an American television cult phenomenon; it’s considerably less popular elsewhere. Paramount had to do whatever it takes to bring in more — way more — international butts into theaters for their $190 million-budgeted spectacle. If 3D is the bait, so be it. The original Star Trek cumed at $385.6

Desirable Actor: Sonu Sood – SHOOTOUT AT WADALA (2013, Sanjay Gupta, India, A+15) ?????????? ?????????? ?????????????????? John Abraham ???????????? ????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????? 4 ???????????? ?????????????????????????, ???????????, ?????????? ??????????? Sonu Sood ?????????????????????????? Sonu Sood ??????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Anurag Kashyap's follow-up to the widely admired Gangs of Wasseypur announces itself with a cacophony of discordant noise screeching over an attempted suicide. It's almost as if Kashyup decided to warn viewers up front, this one won't be easy. And, in many ways, it's not. Here is a thriller about an awful event (a child kidnapping), populated exclusively with awful people, almost all of whom reveal themselves to be more awful than originally thought, which ultimately reaches a conclusion more awful than everything that came before. Sounds like fun, right? Surprisingly though, and to Kashyap's credit, it is. Maybe "fun" is too strong of a word, but this Fargo-meets-Mumbai-police-procedural is compulsively watchable, thrilling, darkly funny and extremely well-directed -- about as close to a good... [Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

Terrence Malick's sixth feature film in a 40-year career is the nearest thing to a sequel he's done to date. To the Wonder strikes me as in many ways a thematic follow-up to Malick's 2005 film The New World. The earlier film is about a European's discovery of America, but one of its highlights is an American's discovery of Europe. In portraying Pocahontas's visit to England, Malick steered clear of any temptation to contrast an American paradise with a European dystopia. Pocahontas seems as fascinated by the Old World as John Smith was by the New -- and why not, since the English treat her much like the princess she is? To the Wonder starts with an American's visit to Europe approximately 400 years later. In a reversal of New World, the American brings a bride back with him to a World that's still New in some demoralizing ways. This world seems determined to stay new; much of it has a just-built feeling to it that contrasts starkly, particularly when framed by Malick and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, with the historic splendor of France. Malick has a knack for making the seemingly ordinary look new or strange; his camera eye doesn't take a lot for granted. His virtue as a director is that we seem to see everything as through a human eye, not as designed on a storyboard. We see things in his films the way we've seen them simply by walking around, when we don't take our surroundings for granted. Malick's impulse to see novelty in these details, to not take them for granted, may reflect a restlessness he seems to criticize in some of his characters. The American in To the Wonder is Neil, an environmental investigator of some sort (Ben Affleck). His restlessness isn't expressed in any wanderlust or reckless action, but in an inability to fully settle anywhere. He seems never to have fully unpacked his possessions in his own home. The place seems incomplete much as the Kansas countryside does, despite the splendors of wheat fields Malick captures with predictable ease. That incompleteness signals a fundamental incompatibility with his Ukranian-French bride, Marina (Olga Kurylenko). She has a hard time fitting in, Malick suggests visually, because there isn't really anything here for her to fit into. Something spiritual is missing, she supposes, and that absence also demoralizes the transplanted Hispanic priest Father Quintana (Javier Bardem). Malick invites us to see Quintana and Neil as parallel characters, both ministering in their particular ways to a benighted community, neither with any apparent result. Both, then, may be seen as victims of an absence to which Neil, as an authentic 21st century American, contributes, though his are sins of omission rather than commission. Neil seems to have inherited that primal restlessness Malick portrayed in The New World's John Smith, that kept Smith seeking rather than settling and cost him Pocahontas. Neil's no seeker, as far as we can tell, but he can't settle either. In Marina and Quintana's terms, he seems incapable of that transcendent love that creates and sustains a real community, that exists at least symbolically in France in that country's ancient cathedrals. In a reversal of conventional readings of The New World, To the Wonder appears to idealize Europe at America's expense. In their apparent rootedness in history and faith -- seen by Malick, it must be said, through the eyes of an idealistic tourist -- Europeans now seem more like "naturals" than today's Americans do. In some ways To the Wonder is a more anti-American film than The New World was anti-imperialist, which may have something to do with why the U.S. moviegoing public has utterly rejected it compared to the more nostalgic Tree of Life. As I write, the film has left Albany after only one week at the local arthouse. I saw it on a weeknight with about a dozen other people, some of whom scoffed openly as the film ended. But that was less due to what Malick said than with how he said it, or what he wouldn't say. Whi

Harvey Weinstein said it himself at this year's Weinstein Company Cannes showcase, "2012 was a year as good as any year we had at Miramax." The three films highlighted at last year's event (Django Unchained, Silver Linings Playbook, and The Master) went on to snag 16 Oscar nominations. This year's crop of films... well let's just say they have some work to do to live up to their older siblings. The only film that received an audible reaction from the crowd was the cut scene shown from Nicolas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives. The nearly five-minute scene featured Kristin Scott Thomas grilling her son's new girlfriend with the kind of language that would make a sailor blush. Gosling's character sat their taking it all... [Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

Live outdoor TV broadcast from film festival interrupted when what sounded like gunshots sent crew and guests scurrying for cover.

Watch a trailer for Jimmy P. which I'll be seeing at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival in only a few hours. The film stars Benicio Del Toro and Mathieu Amalric and is directed by Arnaud Desplechin.

Watch the first full Europa Report trailer, a found footage-style sci-fi feature about a space mission to Jupiter's moon Europa, to investigate the possible existence of alien.