Moviegoers poised for trip to ‘Elizabethtown’
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Three wide releases will open in theaters this weekend, providing an alternative to the Major League Baseball playoffs. But none is likely to cross the $20 million mark, keeping overall sales down yet again.
With three genres at work — from Paramount Pictures’ uber-romantic “Elizabethtown” to New Line Cinema’s action-adventure “Domino” to Sony Pictures’ remake of the classic horror film “The Fog” — there is something for everyone. Or maybe not: insiders expect “Domino,” starring British actress Keira Knightley as a bounty hunter, to sell just $5 million worth of tickets in its first three days.
Writer/director Cameron Crowe’s “Elizabethtown” should replace “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” at No. 1 with sales in the $12 million-$15 million range, although “Fog” could give it a run for its money.
Crowe — the man behind such films as “Jerry Maguire” and “Almost Famous” — takes audiences on a journey inspired by his experiences in Elizabethtown, Ky., after the death of his father in 1989. The film centers on Drew ( Orlando Bloom), who, on the verge of suicide after a professional debacle, travels to Kentucky for his father’s funeral. Along the way he meets flight attendant Claire ( Kirsten Dunst), and the two take off on a musically inspired road trip.
After it was skewered by critics at the Toronto International Film Festival last month, Crowe has trimmed his PG-13 release by about 20 minutes in the hopes of turning around the bad press.
Crowe had bigger bows with both “Maguire” and “Vanilla Sky,” but both of those films starred Tom Cruise. As evidenced by the disappointing $19 million debut of “Kingdom of Heaven” earlier this summer, Bloom has yet to prove he can carry a movie.
Sony’s “Fog,” a remake of the 1980 horror film directed and co-written by John Carpenter, should open in the low-teen millions, insiders say. The PG-13 release features two of today’s hottest young TV stars: Tom Welling from “Smallville” and Maggie Grace from “Lost.” Selma Blair also is featured.
With Carpenter on board as a producer this time, the film centers on a small coastal town that is enshrouded in a thick fog exactly 100 years after a deadly shipwreck. Now the victims are back for revenge on the descendants of the men who killed them. “Fog” was directed by Rupert Wainwright (“Stigmata”).
“Domino,” from kinetically paced director Tony Scott, is based on the true story of actor Laurence Harvey’s daughter, Domino Harvey, who gives up a career as a fashion model to become a bounty hunter. New Line’s R-rated release is banking on its ultra-hipness to lure teen audiences, but it isn’t tracking great with audiences. If the $5 million prediction holds true, it would be Scott’s lowest opener since 1996’s “The Fan,” starring Robert De Niro and Wesley Snipes. That film opened to $6 million on its way to $19 million.
In limited release, ThinkFilm will open Canadian director Atom Egoyan’s thriller “Where the Truth Lies,” starring Kevin Bacon, Colin Firth and Alison Lohman. The film was given an NC-17 rating because of a three-way sex scene but will be released without a rating. It centers on a journalist (Lohman) who tries to uncover the truth about a young girl’s death at the hands of two showbiz celebrities (Firth and Bacon.) The film will bow in nine theaters.
Magnolia Pictures will open Rodrigo Garcia’s “Nine Lives” in Los Angeles and New York. The R-rated film is composed of nine vignettes, each showcasing a woman’s disappointments in life. The film stars Amy Brenneman, Glenn Close, Sissy Spacek and Robin Wright Penn, among others.
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