Movie Nation

“Ender’s Game” did not deliver the blockbuster weekend Summit might have hoped when they hurled an estimated $110 million at Orson Scott Card’s 1985 sci-fi novel.

$27.6 million isn’t exactly a bust. But considering the film did a vigorous $9 million+ on Thursday night and Friday, $30 million was expected. And they didn’t get there. Middling reviews didn’t help. Great reviews would have given it a shot, but seriously, it’s not anybody’s idea of a great film — even in a down year for science fiction at the movies.

“Last Vegas” did upper teens, which was predicted, based on the tracking. It should hold audience and make $50-75 million before Christmas.

“Bad Grandpa” gives Johnny Knoxville encouragement — just what we needed. It did another $20 million or so, a very healthy return on a no-cost gimmick/prank comedy that has a few laughs in it.

“Free Birds” did an anemic $16 million, and didn’t chase the crappy “Cloudy-Meatballs 2” out of the top ten. Bad news on both counts from two bad cartoons of fall.

“12 Years a Slave” is still in the top ten, despite the arrival of three new films that should have pushed it out of there. Good news for the Oscar chances of Steve McQueen’s searing story of slavery.

The director of the streetwise Brit creature feature “Attack the Block” is being considered by Paramount as director of the next “Star Trek” movie? Having interviewed Mr. Cornish and found him amusing, We are intrigued.

A classic comedian’s rise to stardom — standup to Groundlings to writing to SNL to guest spots on “30 Rock,” “How I Met Your Mother” to scene-stealing turns in movies.

But in “Nebraska,” Will Forte is both funny and thoughtful, a guy who has little patience for his alcoholic, aged dad (Bruce Dern) and not a whole lot for his cranky mom (June Squibb) either. Put upon, damaged goods (his girlfriend’s left him), he is his parents’ child.

A new direction for Forte? I will ask that. But what about you? Got questions, burning concerns about his life and career, etc? Post any questions you have for Will Forte below, and thanks.

The Thursday night opening numbers for the sci-fi film of Orson Scott Card’s “Ender’s Game” were on a par with “Bad Grandpa’s.” And it’s Friday looks to have pushed it to around $9.9 million.

That adds up to a $30 million+ (slightly less than “Grandpa”) opening for Summit’s latest franchise film. Not bad, but considering it cost over three times that, no epic.

“Free Birds” did well enough Friday to have the hope that Saturday’s make-or-break take (kids’ cartoons do all their business Saturdays during the school year) could give it a $17-19 take.

“Last Vegas” is rolling towards $15 million, though word of mouth should help that one, with an older audience finding it over the next couple of weeks.

The Minnesota couple’s Phoenix wedding would be perfect — all the friends and relatives gathered, a lovely hotel, a beautiful bride, love in the air.
But the best man, the aptly-named “Lumpy” (Tyler Labine), is out of control — binge drinking, singing along with every song, a sloppy drunk in every sense.
“Why don’t you call it a night?” the groom (Justin Long) begs.
“You’re cuttin’ off the BEST MAN?”
No point. Lumpy carries the party to his room, injures himself, staggers out into the desert in the middle of the night and dies.
“On a CACTUS!”
It’s “Best Man Down,” but the bride, Kristen (Jess Weixler) is upset — that her honeymoon, “under a palm tree, in a kaftan, sipping Mai Tais,” is ruined. She’s a self-medicating ball of stress, and Lumpy’s bull-in-a-china-shop stampede through her “big night” has stripped all the sympathy from her. She is irked as all get out when she and new hubby Scott (Long), strapped for cash, have to take Lumpy back to Minnesota and get him buried.
“He wasn’t your best friend,” she complains. “He was your oldest friend.”
But as they try and set up the funeral and tell Lumpy’s circle of law school classmates, friends and employees at the bar where he worked about his death, Scott starts to figure out he didn’t know Lumpy, this true-blue friend, at all.
Ramsey (Addison Timlin) is the pretty, 15-year-old outcast in her new, Northern Minnesota high school. She knew Lumpy, and just how she knew him is what the movie is about. She confides in her gay priest (Michael Landes) and tries to keep the peace between her wandering, waitress mother (Frances O’Connor) and mom’s meth-cooking combat vet boyfriend (Evan Jones). We fret about how she will react when she hears Lumpy has died.
“He was in a bad place,” those who knew Lumpy tell Scott. Just how bad he is slow to figure out.
Long’s unassuming charm is put to good use here, and a brittle Weixler plays off that to great effect.
Labine (“Tucker & Dale vs. Evil”) is mostly seen in disarming flashbacks, showing what Lumpy was to those who really knew him. It’s an irritating performance that turns touching.
Which is the arc of “Best Man Down” as well. With actors like Shelley Long (mother of the bride) in support, the cute scenes and awkwardly amusing ones tumble by, painting the picture of newlyweds facing their first big fight as they meet one troubled soul after another.
Writer-director Ted Koland can be a little obvious. It’s not a deep movie. But everybody, especially Ramsey, is dealing with something. And Timlin (TV’s “Zero Hour”) gives heart to this wonderful, nuanced character. The best man may be down, but Timlin’s Ramsey is the vulnerable, smart and foundering soul who has reasons for missing him that the groom can barely fathom in this sad, surprisingly affecting little comedy.

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for thematic material, drug content, some sexuality and brief language
Cast: Justin Long, Jess Weixler, Addison Timlin, Tyler Labine, Shelley Long
Credits: Written and directed by Ted Koland. A Magnolia release. 
Running time: 1:30

Jason Bateman has made noise about moving into the director’s chair on a film set for years. But who would have guessed he’d get to do it with an edgy David Lindsay-Abaire script?

DLA wrote “Rabbit Hole,” a serenely sad movie about lingering grief over a dead child which scored an Oscar nomination for Nicole Kidman.

“The Family Fang,” per Deadline.com, seems to be a dark comedy about a pair of performance artists who forced their kids into their work, and aim to force them, now troubled adults, into one last “act.”

The hirsute director of mockumentaries and whatever Sacha Baron Cohen dreams up has signed on to direct the film of Bill Bryson’s middle-aged men hiking the Appalachian Trail comedy.

Since Robert Redford, who was excited to be doing a comedy “after all these years” when I spoke with him back in October, and Nick Nolte have been cast in it, it’s no longer a middle-aged men story. Kind of surprised Redford isn’t directing it, but maybe this was the plan all along — to have a comedy specialist come on board and find the funny.

Very curious to see how “Ender’s Game” opens this weekend. With Summit behind it and 30 years of fans of varying passions interested in seeing it, with a sci-fi hook and a lot of screen, it feels like a $30-40 million hit to me.

That’s my “How much blog traffic did the review generate?” hunch.

Box Office Mojo is figuring it’ll do a milder $26 million or so, which considering the outlay for big name actors in supporting roles — Harrison Ford, Viola Davis and Ben Kingsley — would be a letdown.

Variety figures it’ll be an “uphill battle” for “Ender’s Game” to hit $27.

Box Office Guru agrees with that figure — $27.

The age of the book, the Young Adult shelf life appeal being limited, the controversial author of the novel, all probably working against it.  But we’ll see.

“Free Birds” is the first cartoon of the holiday season and is riding pretty poor reviews and an unproven studio’s track record into town. $20 million seems the upper end of expectations, but Box Office Guru sees $11 million and a big ol’ flop in it.

CBS Films has been in business for a few years and has had all manner of hiccups, failures and movies a more savvy studio might have done a better job in selling. If they cannot sell an older-skewing picture starring five Oscar winners in funny form, set in Vegas no less, it is time to hang it up. Seriously, if “Last Vegas” doesn’t come close to $20 and stick around to do $70, the Tiffany Network should get out of the movie business. Predictions range from the mid-to-upper teens for this one.

“Bad Grandpa” should dive, “Gravity” will linger in the top five, “12 Years a Slave” may have had its one and only week in the top ten. But we’ll know by Sunday night, won’t we?