Is Tom Cruise still a go-to action hero? Hollywood, "Jack Reacher" say yes

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Given his age and the tough year he's had in the tabloids, is Tom Cruise still a go-to guy when Hollywood is looking for an action hero?

The answer is yes, based on the performance of his current movie, Paramount's 'Jack Reacher.' It's taken in $45 million in the 10 days since opening with $15.6 million in a very crowded and competitive holiday market. Its second week was a solid $14 million, and it's added $22 million from overseas.

Holiday movies tend to have legs and 'Reacher' has yet to roll out in the majority of major foreign territories, so both of those numbers, particularly the international, will be growing. All signs point to it surpassing $200 million at the worldwide box office. That's not a blockbuster figure, and Paramount is staying mum on a sequel, but with a $60 million budget, 'Jack Reacher' will make money for Paramount.

There were questions coming in. With his divorce from Katie Holmes and subsequent custody battle, Cruise is carrying plenty of public relations baggage. His foray earlier this year into musicals with 'Rock of Ages' was critically applauded but proved a box-office dud. That's on top of his well-known support for Scientology.

He's 50 now, which might be the new 40 in the real world, but is starting to get on in years in the realm of action heroes. Daniel Craig is 44. Jeremy Renner is 41. We are a long way from 'Top Gun' - that was 1986 - so it probably won't be too, too long until 'The Expendables' franchise comes calling for Cruise.

But in the meantime, 'Reacher' is going to be profitable for Paramount and Cruise's portrayal of the tough, ex-military drifter has drawn critical kudos, so there's a bit of momentum now. And it's clear from his upcoming schedule that Hollywood is still convinced he can carry an action film.

Next for Cruise will be two sci-fi movies: Universal's 'Oblivion' is due in April and 'All You Need is Kill' is set for March 2014 from Warner Bros. After that, there's a potential 'Van Helsing' remake at Universal and 'Mission: Impossible 5' is on Paramount's 2015 slate.

His recent track record at the box office, particularly when you look at his performance in the action genre, suggests the studios are making a pretty good bet.

'Rock of Ages' may have crumpled, but 'Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol' was a huge hit for Paramount, taking in nearly $700 million worldwide in 2011. 'Knight & Day,' from Fox in 2010, and 'Valkyrie,' from United Artists in 2008, both made over $200 million worldwide.

Supporting roles in 'Tropic Thunder' and 'Lions for Lambs' preceded those, but those came on the heels of two Paramount movies: 'Mission Impossible 3,' which made nearly $400 million worldwide in 2006, and 'War of the Worlds,' which did $592 million in the previous year.

The bottom line: Hollywood is still convinced you can still take Tom Cruise, movie action hero, to the bank.



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"The Hobbit" keeps box office crown for third week

(Reuters) - The dwarfs and elves of 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey' prevailed at the North American box office again over the weekend, as its $32.9 million in ticket sales topped both the star-packed musical 'Les Miserables' and the western 'Django Unchained.'

Despite surging past 'The Hobbit' on Christmas day with an $18.1 million opening, 'Les Miz' managed only third place in U.S. and Canadian sales with $28 million as Christmas shoppers returned from the malls to boost Hollywood's box office, according to studio estimates.

'The Hobbit,' in its third week of release, has now grossed $222.7 million domestically, Warner Bros said.

Quentin Tarantino's 'Django Unchained,' a western starring Jamie Fox as a slave turned bounty hunter, took second with an impressive $30.7 million.

Tom Cruise's crime drama 'Jack Reacher,' which features author Lee Child's former military investigator solving a fatal sniper attack, landed in fifth with $14 million, outpaced by 'Parental Guidance,' the Billy Crystal-Bette Midler as grandparents comedy which took in $14.8 million to nab fourth.

Chris Aronson, president of domestic distribution for Fox, said the 'Parental Guidance' performance was 'just a tremendous result for our little engine that could.'

Backed by a musical score that made it a Broadway icon, 'Les Miz' surged past 'The Hobbit' on Christmas day, collecting $18.1 million to pass 'High School Musical 3: Senior Year' with the biggest midweek opening day by a musical.

But it was not enough to conquer the 'Hobbit' juggernaut, which scored its third straight box office weekend win.

Universal's president for domestic distribution Nikki Rocco called the 'Les Miz' $28 million take 'phenomenal, especially considering we went into the weekend with $40 million,' an unexpectedly strong figure for its first few days in release.

'People really love this movie, which is even more rewarding and gratifying,' Rocco said.

'Les Miserables,' which stars Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway, benefited from Oscar buzz and its star power, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Hollywood.com's box office division, who said he wouldn't be surprised to see the musical pass $200 million before it's done.

That would put it among the Hollywood's Top 20 best-selling musicals. It would pass the 1972 film 'Cabaret,' which grossed $191 million in box office sales adjusted for higher ticket prices, and put it close to 'Camelot,' which sold $204.5 million in 1967, according to the web site the-numbers.com.

The most successful musical is 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,' which grossed more than $6.3 billion but has been re-released by Walt Disney nine times since its 1937 premiere, according to the site.

A rush of high-profile films in December is expected to push 2012 to a domestic box office record. The current record is $10.6 billion, set in 2009.

'Jack Reacher' debuted just days after the Newtown, Connecticut, school shooting sparked new debate about the impact of movie violence. 'Reacher' begins with a sniper killing a handful of seemingly random victims. A red-carpet premiere and a screening to promote the $60-million production were postponed after the December 14 Newtown tragedy.

Adult comedy 'This is 40' starring Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann as a middle-aged couple was sixth with $13.2 million. The Judd Apatow $35 million film totaled $37 million after two weeks. The seventh spot went to Steven Spielberg's historical film 'Lincoln,' with $7.5 million for a $132 million domestic total.

Comedy 'The Guilt Trip,' starring Barbra Streisand and Seth Rogen as a mother and son on a cross-country drive, pulled in $6.7 million for eighth.

Also this week the latest James Bond hit 'Skyfall' topped $1 billion in worldwide sales, despite falling out of the week's top 10 films at the box office.

'The Hobbit' was distributed by Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros studio. Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc released, 'Jack Reacher' and 'The Guilt Trip.' Comcast Corp's Universal Studios released 'Les Miserables' and 'This is 40.' 'Django Unchained' was released in the United States by the Weinstein Company.

(Reporting By Ronald Grover; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)



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Matt Damon tackles "fracking" issue in the "Promised Land"

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The hot-button topic of 'fracking' has finally made its way to Hollywood in the new movie 'Promised Land,' out in U.S. theaters on Friday, with actors Matt Damon and John Krasinski teaming up to further the debate on the energy drilling technique.

The film explores the social impact of hydraulic fracturing drilling technique, or 'fracking,' which has sparked nation-wide environmental and political battles over its impact on drinking water, U.S. energy use, seismic activity and other areas.

'Promised Land' will see Damon, 42, reunite with director Gus Van Sant for the third time, following their success with 1997 film 'Good Will Hunting and 2002's 'Gerry.'

In their latest film, Damon plays a corporate salesman who goes to a rural U.S. town to buy or lease land on behalf of a gas company looking to drill for oil. He soon faces opposition from a slick environmentalist, played by Krasinski.

In real life, Damon hasn't shied away from getting involved in political and social issues, working with charities and organizations to eradicate AIDS in developing countries, bringing attention to atrocities in Sudan's Darfur region, providing safe drinking water and stopping trees from being chopped and used for junk mail.

Yet 'Promised Land,' which Damon also co-wrote and produced, doesn't take a noticeable stance on 'fracking.' The actor would not publicly state his own views, telling Reuters that he didn't think his opinion had 'any bearing' on the film.

'The point is that the movie should start a conversation. It's certainly not a pro-fracking movie, but we didn't want to tell people what to think,' Damon said.

The actor said he and Krasinski never set out to make a socially conscious film, and 'fracking' was added in later, as a backdrop to the story.

'It wasn't that we said we wanted to make a movie about 'fracking' as much as we wanted to make a movie about American identity, about real people. We wanted to make a movie about the country today, where we came from, where we are and where we are headed,' Damon said.

''Fracking' was perfect because the stakes are so incredibly high and people are so divided. It asks all the questions about short-term thinking versus long-term thinking.'

Hydraulic fracturing entails pumping water laced with chemicals and sand at high pressure into shale rock formations to break them up and unleash hydrocarbons. Critics worry that 'fracking' fluids or hydrocarbons can still leak into water tables from wells, or above ground.

FROM 'ADJUSTMENT BUREAU' TO 'PROMISED LAND'

At first glance, the pairing of Damon with Krasinski may not come across as the perfect fit, as Damon has primarily been associated with longtime friend and collaborator Ben Affleck, both of whom won Oscars for writing 'Good Will Hunting.'

Damon later become a colleague and friend to a number of key Hollywood players, including George Clooney and Brad Pitt, with whom he co-starred in the 'Ocean's Eleven' franchise.

Krasinski, 33, is best known for playing sardonic Jim Halpert on NBC's long-running television series, 'The Office,' and has had occasional supporting roles in films such as 2008's 'Leatherheads.'

Damon and Krasinski came together after meeting through Krasinski's wife, Emily Blunt, who co-starred with Damon in the 2011 film 'The Adjustment Bureau.' Damon said he and his wife started double-dating with Krasinski and Blunt, through which their collaboration on 'Promised Land' came about.

The duo's busy work schedules forced them to moonlight on weekends to make 'Promised Land.'

'John showed up at my house every Saturday at breakfast and we would write all day until dinner,' Damon said. 'Then we'd do it again on Sunday. I have four kids so he would come to me.'

But Damon's determination to make the film his feature directorial debut fell through when his acting schedule changed, making it impossible to direct 'Promised Land,' so he turned to Van Sant.

'My first inclination was to send the script to somebody I'd worked with before,' he said. 'Gus seemed like the most obvious choice and I realized later that I'd never written anything that anyone else had directed, except Gus. I have a real comfort level with him.'

Damon said he has not given up on his dream of directing movies and has his eye on a project at movie studio Warner Bros., which has a deal with Damon and Affleck's joint production company, Pearl Street Films.

With Affleck's third directorial effort 'Argo' becoming an awards contender, Damon joked that the film's success can only be a good thing for his own budding directing career.

'I now happen to be partnered with the hottest director in Hollywood!' he said, laughing.

(Reporting By Zorianna Kit, Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and Paul Simao)



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Christmas box-office haul paces Hollywood for record year

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A strong Christmas-day box office performance by musical 'Les Miserables' and western 'Django Unchained' put Hollywood on pace to set an all-time box office record with $10.8 billion in annual revenue, box-office tracker Hollywood.com said on Wednesday.

Universal Pictures' star-studded 'Les Miserables' took in a weekday Christmas record of $18.2 million in the United States and Canada when it opened on Tuesday, according to studio estimates of weekday ticket sales.

Quentin Tarantino's spaghetti western 'Django Unchained,' starring Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio, hauled nearly $15 million for The Weinstein Co.

Studios 'are definitely on the road to a record year with $10.8 billion expected (up 6 percent over last year and beating the previous record of $10.6 billion in 2009),' Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian told Reuters in an email, adding that the number of tickets sold should climb 6 percent from 2011 to 1.36 billion.

Dergarabedian credits a successful marketing year for studios as a chief reason for the projected box-office record, as well as spring and summer smashes 'The Hunger Games' and 'The Avengers' helping boost revenue.

'It was not just the fact that most of the movies delivered, it was the timing of their release dates and the marketing was obviously effective as well with social media continuing to provide an outlet for the movie-going peer group to talk about their favorite flicks,' Dergarabedian said.

'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,' based on the J.R.R. Tolkein classic fantasy novel, brought in $11.4 million on Christmas day after ruling the box office with nearly $37 million in sales over the weekend.

Billy Crystal family film 'Parental Guidance' debuted in fourth place with about $6.4 million in Christmas sales while Tom Cruise's 'Jack Reacher,' which featured author Lee Child's character in an investigation into a sniper shooting, was fifth with some $5.3 million.

'The Hobbit' was distributed by Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros. Studio. News Corp's 20th Century Fox released 'Parental Guidance' and Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom, released 'Jack Reacher.' Universal Pictures is owned by Comcast Corp.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Edited by Ronald Grover and Andrew Hay)



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Character actor, World War Two hero Charles Durning dies at 89

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Charles Durning, a World War Two hero who became one of Hollywood's top character actors in films like 'The Sting,' 'Tootsie' and 'The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,' has died, a New York City funeral home said on Tuesday. He was 89.

Durning, who was nominated for nine Emmys for his television work as well as two Academy Awards, died of natural causes at his New York City home on Monday, his agent told People magazine. Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel in Manhattan confirmed Durning's death to Reuters.

Durning also was an accomplished stage actor and once said he preferred doing plays because of the immediacy they offered. He gained his first substantial acting experience through the New York Shakespeare Festival starting in the early 1960s and won a Tony Award for playing Big Daddy in a 1990 Broadway revival of 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.'

Durning did not start amassing film and TV credits until he was almost 40 but went on to appear in more than 100 movies, in addition to scores of TV shows.

Durning's first national exposure came playing a crooked policeman who gets conned by Robert Redford in the 1973 movie 'The Sting.' He got the role after impressing director George Roy Hill with his work in the Pulitzer- and Tony-winning Broadway play 'That Championship Season.'

Durning had everyday looks - portly, thinning hair and a bulbous nose - and was a casting director's delight, equally adept at comedy and drama.

Durning was nominated for supporting-actor Oscars for playing a Nazi in the 1984 Mel Brooks comedy 'To Be or Not to Be' and the governor in the musical 'The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas' in 1983. 'Whorehouse' was one of 13 movies Durning made with friend Burt Reynolds, as well as Reynolds' 1990s TV sitcom 'Evening Shade.'

Other notable Durning movie roles included a cop in 'Dog Day Afternoon,' a man who falls in love with Dustin Hoffman's cross-dressing character in 'Tootsie,' 'Dick Tracy,' 'Home for the Holidays,' 'The Muppet Movie,' 'North Dallas Forty' and 'O Brother Where Art Thou?'

He was nominated for Emmys for the TV series 'Rescue Me,' 'NCIS,' 'Homicide: Life on the Street,' 'Captains and the Kings' and 'Evening Shade,' as well as the specials 'Death of a Salesman,' 'Attica' and 'Queen of the Stardust Ballroom.'

Durning was a fan of Jimmy Cagney and after returning from harrowing service in World War Two he tried singing, dancing, and stand-up comedy. He attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts until he was kicked out.

'They basically said you have no talent and you couldn't even buy a dime's worth of it if it was for sale,' Durning told The New York Times.

D-DAY INVASION

He worked a number of make-do jobs - cab driver, dance instructor, doorman, dishwasher, telegram deliveryman, bridge painter, tourist guide - all while waiting for a shot at an acting career. Occasional stage roles led him to Joseph Papp, the founder of the New York Shakespeare Festival, who became his mentor.

'Joe said to me once, 'If you hadn't been an actor, you would have been a murderer,'' Durning told the Times. 'I don't know what that meant. I hope he was kidding. He said I couldn't do anything else but act.'

Durning grew up in Highland Falls, New York, and was 12 years old when his Irish-born father died of the effects of mustard gas exposure in World War One. He had nine siblings and five of his sisters died of smallpox or scarlet fever - three within a two-week period.

Durning was part of the U.S. force that landed at Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion in June 1944. A few days later he was shot in the hip - he said he carried the bullet in his body thereafter - and after six months of recovery was sent to the Battle of the Bulge.

Durning, who was wounded twice more, was captured and was one of the few survivors of the Malmedy massacre when German troops opened fire on dozens of American prisoners. In addition to three Purple Heart medals for his wounds, Durning was presented the Silver Star for valor.

At an observation of the 60th anniversary of D-Day in Washington, Durning told of the terror he felt and carnage he saw when hitting the beach on D-Day. He said he had to jettison his weapon and gear in order to swim ashore and saw mortally wounded comrades offering themselves as human shields.

'I forget a lot of stuff now but I still wake up once in a while and it's still there,' he said. 'I can't count how many of my buddies are in the cemetery at Normandy.'

Durning was married twice and had three children.

(Reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst; Writing by Bill Trott; Editing by Eric Beech)



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"Hobbit" fever beats Tom Cruise at box office

(Reuters) - The big-budget 'Hobbit' fantasy movie ruled movie box office charts for a second straight weekend, fending off Hollywood heavyweight Tom Cruise in new crime drama 'Jack Reacher.'

'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey' hauled in nearly $37 million from theaters in the United States and Canada, according to studio estimates of Friday-through-Sunday ticket sales. The film is the first of three movies based on the classic J.R.R. Tolkien novel about a world of dwarfs, elves and dragons in the fictitious Middle Earth.

In second place, Cruise's 'Jack Reacher' about the investigation into a sniper shooting brought in just short of $17 million at U.S. and Canadian theaters. Distributor Paramount Pictures postponed a premiere of the film after the fatal school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, sparked new scrutiny of violent movies.

Adult comedy 'This is 40,' starring Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann as a middle-aged couple, brought in $12 million, finishing in third place.

'The Hobbit' was distributed by Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros. studio. Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc, released 'Jack Reacher.' Comcast Corp's Universal Pictures distributed 'This is 40.'

(Reporting By Lisa Richwine and Andrea Burzynski)



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"Les Miserables" movie relies on close-ups for emotional punch

NEW YORK (Reuters) - For British director Tom Hooper, the key to turning 'Les Miserables' from the wildly popular stage musical to a cinematic experience both sweeping and intimate, was all in the close-up.

The stage musical has left audiences around the world wiping away tears with its themes of justice, redemption and romantic and familial love. So bringing it to life on screen for fans and filmgoers was 'hugely daunting,' Hooper says.

Still, the Oscar-winning director of 'The King's Speech,' was ambitious, wanting to offer even more of the 'intense emotional experience' that has kept fans returning to various stage productions since 'Les Miserables' made its English language debut 27 years ago.

'I felt very aware of the fact that so many millions of people hold this close to their hearts and would probably sit in the cinemas in complete fear,' Hooper told reporters about his big screen take on the tale of French revolutionaries rising up against powerful forces.

Movie stars Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway were all put through an intense audition and rehearsal process, to make sure they could sing take after take, live, with cameras positioned right in their face.

It also features a large ensemble including Amanda Seyfried and Eddie Redmayne, as well as Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter who lead the comic relief song, 'Master of the House.'

'I thought the great weapon in my arsenal was the close up, because the one thing on stage that you can't enjoy is the detail of what is going on in people's faces as they are singing,' Hooper said. 'I felt (that) having to do a meditation on the human face was by far the best way to bring out the emotion of the songs.'

That tactic may or may not have paid off for a movie that is seen as one of the front runners for Oscar awards in February. Early screenings of the film that opens on Christmas Day have moved some audiences. Critics have praised the performances, but given the movie as a whole less than top marks.

The movie reunites the same team that worked on the original musical, including French composer Claude-Michel Schonberg, lyricist Alain Boublil, and English language adapter Herbert Kretzmer. It adds one original song to the existing show, which includes the well-known 'I Dreamed a Dream'.

Jackman plays petty thief Jean Valjean, the protagonist of the story based on French writer Victor Hugo's epic 1862 historical novel 'Les Miserables.' Valjean transforms himself into a respected businessman but struggles for decades to escape the clutches of his nemesis, police inspector Javert (Russell Crowe), and along the way encounters factory worker Fantine (Anne Hathaway).

TIMELY MESSAGE

Inspired by films such as 1991's 'The Commitments,' singing was filmed live rather than later recorded in a studio to give the movie a more authentic feel.

Hathaway lost 25 pounds (11.3 kg) for the role and cut her long brown hair. She spent six months perfecting the task of crying and singing at the same time for 'I Dreamed a Dream' and is a hot favorite for a best supporting actress Oscar.

In a twist of fate, Hooper had initially seen Hathaway singing to Jackman a boisterous version of the 'Les Miserables' song 'On My Own' at the 2011 Academy Awards ceremony, just when he was trying to decide whether to direct the film and was thinking about casting.

'I was sitting there, going: 'There is something very strange happening',' he joked. 'Whatever happened, it certainly worked, because I ended up casting both of them.'

Hooper said he took his inspiration mostly from Hugo's novel rather than any one stage production, and thus saw Crowe's Javert more as a 'deeply honorable' character than a simplistic 'bad guy' as portrayed in some productions.

The time also felt right, he said, to bring the story to a larger audience on the big screen.

'There are so many people hurting around the world because of social, economic, inequality and inequity. There is such anger against the system,' he said, 'whether it's the protests on Wall Street or in London at St Paul's, or the seismic shifts happening in the Middle East.'

''Les Miserables' is the great advocate of the dispossessed,' Hooper said. 'It teaches you the way to collective action is through passionate engagement with the people around you. It starts with love for the person next to you.'

(Editing by Jill Serjeant and David Storey)



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Mission Impossible?: Can Tom Cruise Launch a Box-Office Franchise with 'Jack Reacher'?

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Paramount hopes it's launching a franchise with 'Jack Reacher,' the Tom Cruise action thriller that hits theaters Friday.

It will be tricky in a crowded holiday marketplace, and Cruise isn't the box-office bonanza he once was. But one need only look back to last year's 'Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol' to see how it might work. That film opened to $12 million on December 16 and went on to make $209 million and nearly $700 million worldwide for Paramount.

'Jack Reacher' will be in about 3,200 theaters, and it will have plenty of competition. Universal's Judd Apatow comedy 'This Is 40' opens wide Friday, and Paramount's 'Guilt Trip' and Disney's 3D re-release of 'Monsters Inc.' opened Wednesday.

A slew of limited releases, led by Kathryn Bigelow's 'Zero Dark Thirty,' along with this year's winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes 'Amour,' and tsunami survival tale 'The Impossible' are also competing for moviegoers' attention, along with a number of holdover hits.

No movie, though, will come close to catching reigning box-office champ 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,' which remains in more than 4,000 theaters. Peter Jackson's latest Middle-earth epic will take in north of $40 million, industry analysts say, with 'Jack Reacher' and 'This Is 40' battling for second with less than half of that.

Warner Bros.' 'Hobbit' has rolled to $106 million in the U.S. since opening to $85 million last weekend. Its international total - $188 million as of Thursday - is even bigger.

In 'Jack Reacher,' Cruise plays an ex-military investigator; the film is based on bestselling author Lee Child's novel 'One Shot' and written for the screen and directed by Christopher McQuarrie. It's from David Ellison's Paramount-based Skydance Productions and was produced for about $60 million by Cruise, Don Granger, Paula Wagner and Gary Levinsohn.

Robert Duvall and Richard Jenkins co-star in the PG-13 crime thriller, which has a 53 percent positive rating at Movie Review Intelligence.

No is expecting 'Jack Reacher' to match 'MI:4' at the box office. The Reacher novels have a following, but nowhere near that of the 'Mission Impossible' franchise. Cruise's recent box-office record has been uneven, and the film's Facebook and Twitter activity is not particularly strong.

'Jack Reacher' could wind up playing more like Cruise's 'Knight and Day,' which opened to $20 million and went on to make $76 million for Fox in 2010, or 'Valkyrie,' which did $83 million in 2008 after opening to $21 million. Cruise was critically lauded for his foray earlier this year as an aging rock icon in the musical 'Rock of Ages,' but that was one of the year's bigger box-office duds.

'Jack Reacher' should play strongly with action fans, but Cruise's personal problems could limit its broader appeal.

'I can't imagine his divorce from Katie Holmes and the custody battle hasn't hurt him some with women,' BoxOffice.com vice president and chief analyst Phil Contrino told TheWrap Thursday. 'Actions fans will come out, but going beyond that demographic is going to be tough for him.'

On the other hand, Universal says that it tracking suggests 'This Is 40' will do quite well with women -- and women over 25 in particular.

'This Is 40,' is, as the marketing campaign points out, a 'sort of sequel' to Apatow's 'Knocked Up,' which opened to $30 million and went on to make nearly $150 million five years ago. Like 'This Is 40,' that one was written and directed by Apatow and starred Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann.

'40' is the fourth film Apatow has directed, all for Universal ('Funny People' and '40-Year-Old Virgin' are the other two). The ensemble cast also features Albert Brooks, John Lithgow, Megan Fox, Maude Apatow, Iris Apatow, Chris O'Dowd, Jason Segel, Melissa McCarthy and Lena Dunham.

It's R-rated and has a 62 percent positive rating at Movie Review Intelligence. The production budget was $35 million.

'This looks like the strongest comedy of the season,' Jeff Bock, senior analyst at Exhibitor Relations told TheWrap, 'but it's still a bit of a wild card. It's going to connect with the New York and L.A. crowds; the key will be whether the Heartland audiences embrace it or see it as a little too hip. It will take time to tell, because of the season.'

Films released at this time of year tend to open lower because the marketplace is so crowded - by Friday, 11 new films will have hit opened this week - and the fact that many potential moviegoers are districted by shopping and other holiday preps. On the other hand, they often show lasting power and make up what they don't take in on the weekend with stronger showings on the weekdays.

'Things could well come in lower than people are expecting across the board this weekend,' Bock said, 'but look for many of these movies to make it up over the holidays.'

Summit will be looking for that kind of slow build on 'The Impossible,' the English-language film from Spain based on a true story about a family's fight to survive the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts, who received a Best Actress nomination from SAG recently, star.

Summit is releasing it Friday in 15 theaters in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Toronto. The plan is to go nationwide early next year.

'The Impossible' already has taken in $52 million in Spain, the home of the real-life couple upon whom the story is based as well as director Juan Antonio Bayona ('The Orphanage') and screenwriter Sergio Sanchez.

Other limited rollouts set for Friday include Paramount's 3D concert film 'Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away,' in 800 theaters; 'On the Road,' IFC Films' adaptation of the Jack Kerouac's beat generation novel, in four theaters; and 'Not Fade Away,' the Paramount Vantage tale of a group of 1960 New Jersey friends launching a rock band, written and directed by 'Sopranos' creator David Chase, in three locations.

Sony's 'Zero Dark Thirty,' about the manhunt for Osama bin Laden, got off to a terrific start Wednesday. It racked up $124,848 from five theaters in its first day of release. That's an average of $24,969, making it one of the biggest limited mid-week openings in history.



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'Jack Reacher' Review: A Great/Terrible Stinker/Delight

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - When sitting down and watching movies for work, I do my best to keep an open mind and to remain receptive to films as they present themselves. It's difficult sometimes, but I always try not to make up my mind one way or another until the final credits roll.

But then you get a movie like 'Jack Reacher,' which makes you hate it. And then love it. And then hate it again, going back and forth like some crazy tennis match until all that's left is to make a list of pros and cons to see how it all shakes out:

I hated ... the fact that the movie opens with a mass shooting. Yes, it's not the fault of writer-director Christopher McQuarrie (adapting Lee Child's novel 'One Shot') that his movie is opening in the wake of the Newtown school massacre. But it is - and you should be forewarned that the very first scene in this movie involves a gunman firing a high-powered rifle into a crowd of passersby outside of PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

I loved ... that after I got over my initial discomfort at this unfortunately timed development, I was able to admire the clinical efficiency with which McQuarrie captures the opening crime, the subsequent investigation and the arrest of a suspect, all in five or so very economical minutes.

I loved ... how, when said suspect refuses to talk or to sign a confession but instead scrawls 'GET JACK REACHER' on a legal pad, this origin-story movie takes its time to show us our hero's face, instead depicting him waking up in a Florida hotel room with a lady, seeing the perp on CNN, walking into Goodwill for a new wardrobe and hopping a bus to Pennsylvania before revealing him as, ta-da! Tom Cruise, ladies and gentlemen!

I loved ... seeing two of my favorite current character actors, Rosamund Pike ('An Education,' 'Made in Dagenham') and David Oyelowo ('Middle of Nowhere') score a big paycheck by getting cast in a flashy Hollywood movie.

I hated ... watching them get stuck playing, respectively, The Girl and The Cop Who Is Not as Awesome as Jack Reacher.

I loved ... the airport-novel way that the plot unravels into onion layer after onion layer of conspiracy and misdirection and hidden motives, and that at the center of the onion we find none other than legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog, playing a creepy Russian kingpin missing fingers after his stint in a Siberian prison.

I hated ... that said conspiracy plot makes less and less sense the more I think about it, and that all the setups and frame-ups wind up seeming like a very complicated way to perform a fairly prosaic crime.

I loved ... the no-nonsense car chase in which the cops pursue Reacher, who is in turn pursuing the real bad guys who have set him up, even though the lead-in to this chase involves Reacher miraculously catching up to henchman Charlie (the exceedingly forceful Jai Courtney), who has a several-mile head start in a city where he could have driven off in any direction.

I loved and hated ... the music by Joe Kraemer, which occasionally underscores the crime scenes with all the piano-chords-of-doom and strings-of-danger you'd imagine in an old Quinn Martin-produced 1970s cop show, but then at other times works itself into so much of a lather that it overpowers whatever's happening visually.

I loved ... how surprisingly funny 'Jack Reacher' is, from a throwaway gag regarding the name of an auto parts store (my favorite out-of-nowhere joke in 2012 since the billboards in '21 Jump Street') to a fight scene that becomes slapstick brilliance to Cruise's unbreakable deadpan to the much-needed third-act incredulity injected into the film by Robert Duvall as a salty old gun-range owner.

So yes, ultimately, my enjoyment of 'Jack Reacher' winds up outweighing my dislike, but it was a bumpy road to get there. If you're ready for that kind of jostling, take the trip yourself.



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'Zero Dark Thirty' One of Biggest Mid-Week Limited Debuts Ever

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - 'Zero Dark Thirty' has been slammed by several senators for its depiction of torture, but the issue only appears to have helped it at the box office.

Director Kathryn Bigelow's dramatization of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden racked up an estimated $124,848 in five theaters in New York City and Los Angeles on Wednesday. That's an average of $24,969, making it one of the biggest limited mid-week openings in history.

Other Oscar-bait films in limited release scored far less in their debuts. 'American Beauty' grossed $73,000 in 6 theaters and 'Little Miss Sunshine' grossed $66,000 in 7 showings on their opening days.

The film arrives in theaters boasting four Golden Globe nods, including a nomination for Best Motion Picture - Drama, and a boatload of strong reviews.

In Slate, Dana Stevens praised the film for its unflinching depiction of the global manhunt.

'Zero Dark Thirty, as single-minded and emotionally remote as its heroine, plays its cards so close to its vest that it's impossible to tell,' Stevens wrote. 'But this is a vital, disturbing, and necessary film precisely because it wades straight into the swamp of our national trauma about the war on terror and our prosecution of it, and no one - either on the screen or seated in front of it - comes out clean.'

Not everyone has loved 'Zero Dark Thirty's' moral ambiguity, however. Senators John McCain, Dianne Feinstein and Carl Levin have criticized the film for seeming to argue that torture helped the CIA locate bin Laden.

In a letter to Sony Pictures chairman and CEO Michael Lynton, the senators said that the studio should state that the film is a work of fiction and its depiction of torture's role in the operation to find bin Laden is fictitious.

In a statement provided to TheWrap, Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal said critics were taking the torture scene out context.

'This was a 10-year intelligence operation brought to the screen in a two-and-a-half-hour film. We depicted a variety of controversial practices and intelligence methods that were used in the name of finding bin Laden,' the statement reads. 'The film shows that no single method was necessarily responsible for solving the manhunt, nor can any single scene taken in isolation fairly capture the totality of efforts the film dramatizes.'

'Zero Dark Thirty' stars Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton and Chris Pine. It opens in wide release on January 11.



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Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Ten" to kick off 2014

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Open Road Films will release Arnold Schwarzenegger's action thriller 'Ten' nationwide on January 24, 2014, the company announced on Wednesday.

Directed by David Ayer ('End of Watch'), the former governor leads an elite DEA task force that takes on the world's deadliest drug cartels.

When the team executes a high-stakes raid on a cartel safe house, they think their work is done until, one-by-one, the 10 members start to be eliminated.

The film also stars Joe Manganiello, Sam Worthington, Harold Perrineau, Terrence Howard, Max Martini, Josh Holloway, Olivia Williams and Mireille Enos.

The original 'Ten' screenplay is by Skip Woods ('X-Men Origins: Wolverine'). Bill Block, Paul Hanson, Joe Roth, Palak Patel and Al Ruddy produced the film.

Financing was by QED International.



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Why "Les Misérables" Looks Like a Holiday Box-Office Smash

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Moviegoers are storming online ticketing sites in advance of the Christmas release of 'Les Misérables,' and the big-screen adaptation of the Broadway musical has all the makings of a holiday smash.

With a cast that includes Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman, expectations are enormous, but based on advance tracking, so is the box-office potential.

The film, made for a reported $61 million, is poised to gross as much as $26 million over its opening weekend, according to BoxOffice.com.

The site predicts that the movie should pick up multiple Oscar nominations and that awards attention combined with a rabid fan base of musical theater lovers will have it beguiling moviegoers well into the new year.

Ultimately, it estimates that 'Les Misérables' will rack up as much as $136 million at the domestic box office.

It's well on its way. Early ticket sales at Fandango indicate that 'Les Misérables' has the potential to be this holiday's breakout smash, despite stiff competition from the likes of Tom Cruise's 'Jack Reacher' and Quentin Tarantino's 'Django Unchained,' both of which open over the next seven days.

Fandango also reports that the film has smashed records to become the company's top advance-ticket seller among all Christmas Day releases, surpassing its previous record-holder, 2009's 'Sherlock Holmes'

It is also the largest advance-ticket seller among movie musicals in its history, supplanting 2006's 'Dreamgirls.' By mid-day Wednesday, 'Les Misérables' was outpacing all other films, even current releases like 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,' and was responsible for 40 percent of ticket sales at Fandango.

'There's such a history and good will surrounding the stage musical and this is a film version people have been anticipating for such a long time, that it has turned into the movie event of the holiday season,' Dave Karger, Fandango's chief correspondent, told TheWrap.

'We're bullish on it,' added Phil Contrino, editor of BoxOffice.com. 'Based on all the early reviews, this sounds like a crowd-pleaser. When a musical hits, it becomes a beast at the box office.'

He noted that 'Mamma Mia!,' which arrived with less awards pedigree and was derived from a more dimly known stage show, grossed $609.8 million globally, because audiences loved the music.

Movietickets.com did not release any pre-sales information for holiday releases. However, recent surveys it performed of more than 4,000 customers indicate that there is a great deal of enthusiasm for the musical.

Of the major holiday releases, 52 percent of those polled said they were most excited to see 'Les Misérables.' That was followed by 24 percent for 'Django Unchained,' 16.5 percent for 'Jack Reacher' and 7.5 percent for 'The Guilt Trip.'

To be sure, not all of the 'Les Misérables' reviews have been kind. In TheWrap, Alonso Duralde faulted the wobbly vocal talents of the leads and the director's penchant for close-ups of his emoting stars.

'Director Tom Hooper ('The King's Speech') piles one terrible decision upon another, with the result being a movie so overbearingly maudlin and distorted that it's one of 2012's most excruciating film experiences,' Duralde wrote.

Yet, audiences at screenings have been nearly rapturous in their response. Fandango's Karger notes that at a recent screening for members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that he attended, the crowd broke into applause at four different points during the film and gave Jackman and Hooper lusty ovations.

Given that 'Les Misérables' tackles such topics as revolution, poverty and prostitution it seems like dark fare for the season, but Karger argues that the film provides enough uplift to appeal to moviegoers looking to get into the yuletide spirit.

'There are scenes of such intense suffering and despair in the movie, but at the end you are left with a profound feeling of love and that gives it a holiday feel,' Karger said. 'It's a slog through the mud to get there, but when the movie's over you leave the theater with a wonderful sense of hope.'

If Karger is right then Universal, which is distributing 'Les Misérables,' will be feeling very festive when Christmas rolls around next week.



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A Minute With: Jessica Chastain on "Zero Dark Thirty"

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jessica Chastain carries the weight of starring in one of the year's most anticipated films, 'Zero Dark Thirty,' about the decade-long hunt and eventual killing of Osama bin Laden.

Critics say Chastain pulls it off seamlessly as 'Maya,' based on a real-life CIA agent who played a major role in tracking down bin Laden at his hideout in Pakistan.

As the film opens in limited U.S. release on Wednesday, Chastain, who is tipped as a likely best actress Oscar nominee for the role, talked to Reuters about playing a character she could not meet and why the film is an important look at America's role in a dark war.

Q. What did you think when you saw this film finished?

A. 'It is a tough one for me to watch, because there is so much responsibility with playing this woman. I find her to be incredible. And I didn't want to change her story or make her a Hollywood version, with a lot of makeup. I didn't want to trivialize what she did ... I want her to like it, but I don't know if she will ever see it.'

Q. How did you play someone you had never met?

A. 'There was three months of working with (screenplay writer) Mark Boal, doing research, reading lists and talking to people. And then anything I could not solve through research, like what is her favorite candy - 'cause when we are all overseas we have something we do when we are homesick - I had to answer that question myself.'

Q. Boal hasn't gone into too much detail about her?

A. 'We have to protect her because she is an undercover CIA operative, still working.'

Q. What else did you know about her?

A. 'When we finished the movie, when the Navy Seal book 'No Easy Day' came out. I raced to go read it, because I was like, 'I need to know if my character is in the book!' And they talk about Jen, the young CIA girl. Well, everything matched up. She was the only one that said 100 percent 'he is there.'... They talked about how she had been on it close to a decade and they were only on it for 40 minutes. They said she was crying on the airplane afterwards.'

Q. During filming, were you ever worried about your safety, that the film might be misconstrued?

A. 'As an actor you always worry about that. Because you think, maybe someone will see a film and they won't understand the difference between acting and reality. The good thing is, what (director Kathryn Bigelow) and Mark have done, is that they have not made a propaganda film. They tried to make it as authentic as possible and respectful of the actual historical event as they could. That includes showing the intense interrogation techniques that were used. The end of the film - it's not a lot of fist pumping and saying, 'Here is our journey over 10 years and it was so difficult and we finally did it.' It ends actually on a very different note.'

Q. Can you elaborate on that?

A. 'Well, for me the whole thing is about the arc of this woman. She shows up in the beginning and she is wearing her best suit. She thinks she knows what she is in for, and she is completely out of her element. But over the 10 years, this woman, who has been trained to be unemotional and analytically precise ... we see her struggling to keep it contained for 10 years and as she descends down the rabbit hole of the world she is in.

'So finally at the end when she is asked, 'Where do you want to go?' there is no way to answer that question. ... She has no idea where she belongs, now that this is done. But not only does it speak in terms of that, but the movie ends with that question - where do you want to go? Where do we go now as a country? Where do we go as a society? It is not a movie that ends with an answer, and I find that powerful.'

Q. How did you cope with filming the torture scenes?

A. 'We filmed in a real Jordanian prison, in the middle of nowhere. The environment wasn't great, especially as a woman.

'They had a lot of trust between the actors, nothing was dangerous or unsafe. There was a lot of discussion to make sure that we weren't doing something that was going to be salacious. They just wanted it to be accurate.

'I know I am playing a character who has trained to be unemotional. But I have spent my entire life allowing myself to be emotional, and allowing myself to feel everything. ... There was actually one day that we were doing a scene, and I said, 'I am sorry' and I just had to walk away, and I just started crying ... it was a very intense experience.'

Q. You are a top chance for Oscar nomination. Would that be more or less rewarding for this role?

A. 'Because she is still an active member of the CIA and undercover, she can't take credit for what she's done. ... And by making this film, it is my idea as a way of thanking her. It would be very emotional because of that.'

Q. You compare your character to getting lost down a CIA rabbit hole. What about your own dizzying rise as an actress?

A. 'That's a good question. I do think that next year I need to go somewhere for a month and be in a room by myself and be like, 'Ok, what now Jessica?' But I am nowhere near where she was at the end of this mission.'

(Reporting By Christine Kearney, editing by Jill Serjeant and Doina Chiacu)



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Naomi Watts pulls off "The Impossible" to critical acclaim

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Days after the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, actress Naomi Watts took part in a fundraising telethon spearheaded by George Clooney to help the region's hundreds of thousands of people in 14 nations whose lives were shattered.

Little did Watts know that eight years later she would be starring in 'The Impossible,' out in the U.S. movie theaters on Friday, about a real family's experience in Thailand. The tsunami and earthquake killed more than 5,000 people, and resulted in 2,800 missing in that country alone.

Yet when the actress was first approached to star in the film, directed by Spanish filmmaker Juan Antonio Bayona, she hesitated.

'I thought, how do you make a movie about a tsunami without it becoming some sort of spectacular disaster movie?' Watts, 44, told Reuters. 'That would be so wrong.'

However once Watts read the script, she said was moved by the story based on the real-life Spanish family of Maria Belon, her husband Enrique Alvarez - played by Ewan McGregor in the movie - and their three sons.

Belon's family were spending their Christmas holiday in Thailand when the tsunami hit. The film follows their struggle to survive, injured and separated, in the aftermath and their perseverance in finding each other amidst the chaos.

'I felt a huge amount of pressure because of the responsibility to Maria's story,' said Watts. 'And on her back, she carries the stories of everybody else because hers is connected to the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. I felt a sense of responsibility.'

PLAUDITS FOR WATTS' PERFORMANCE

The British-born, Australian actress delivered, despite her fears. So far, her performance has earned Watts best actress nominations from the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild and the Broadcast Film Critics Association.

The New York Observer wrote in its review that 'Watts seems almost spiritually committed to her role' while The Hollywood Reporter said she 'packs a huge charge of emotion as the battered, ever-weakening Maria whose tears of pain and fear never appear fake or idealized.'

Watts credits the real Maria Belon for being 'an open book' when it came to recalling her personal experience during that harrowing time.

The two met before shooting began, and Belon was on the film set. Belon, a physician in Spain, also wrote detailed letters chronicling her experience, including taking refuge in a tree and the Thai villagers who discovered her weak and injured body.

One of the more challenging aspects of the shoot was recreating the tsunami, a 10-minute sequence in the film that Watts said took six weeks to shoot on location in Spain. Rather than creating the tidal wave digitally, actors were anchored in water tanks with the current pushing at them and 'debris being chucked at you.'

Watts said that while the challenge of shooting the sequence was incomparable to the suffering of those who went through the ordeal in 2004, it was 'physically the most demanding thing I've ever done.'

There was much more dialogue scripted during that sequence but 'you were struggling to breathe and we quickly learned that once you open your mouth, water is going in and nothing is coming out.

'Though it was difficult, I'm grateful we got that kind of level of fear and intensity,' she added.

What offset the intensity during the shoot was having her sons Sasha, 5, and Sammy, 4, visiting Watts on the set. 'We had them paint stuff on themselves like scars and wounds, then rub them off so they could see it wasn't real,' recalled Watts.

It's a far cry from the way she used to approach her work before having kids, such as her Oscar-nominated performance as a grief-stricken mother the 2003 film '21 Grams.'

'I was taking everything home with me, staying up all hours, writing, thinking, researching ... just living with torment,' Watts recalled of that time. 'I can't live like that at this point in my life with little ones. I am a mom of two small kids and once I put the key in the door, it's my duty to be totally present.'

(Editing By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Alden Bentley)



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Daniel Day-Lewis agrees to be honored by Santa Barbara Film Festival

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - The Santa Barbara International Film Festival has landed one of the top prizes of awards season, announcing on Tuesday that it will host the celebrated but elusive 'Lincoln' star Daniel Day-Lewis with a tribute at its festival in the coastal town north of Los Angeles.

Day-Lewis has been dominating critics' awards with his performance as Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg's film, and is considered one of the best actors working today. But he seldom participates in the rituals of awards season, of which a Santa Barbara tribute has long been a late-season staple.

Day-Lewis will receive the festival's Montecito Award, which in the past has gone to the likes of Julianne Moore, Kate Winslet, Javier Bardem, Geoffrey Rush and Annette Bening.

'Daniel Day-Lewis continues to inspire the industry and the public by his approach to tackling the most complex of characters and delivering brilliant performances time after time,' said SBIFF's executive director, Roger Durling, in a statement announcing the award.

For his performance in 'Lincoln,' Day-Lewis may well become the first person to win three Best Actor Academy Awards. He has previously won for 'My Left Foot' and 'There Will Be Blood,' and has been nominated for 'In the Name of the Father' and (as Best Supporting Actor) for 'Gangs of New York.'

The festival begins on January 24 and runs through February 3. The tribute to Day-Lewis will take place at the Arlighton Theatre on Saturday, January 26.



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"Silver Linings Playbook" sweeps Satellite Awards

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - 'Silver Linings Playbook' was the big winner at Sunday night's Satellite Awards, a show produced by and voted on by the International Press Academy and held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Beverly Hills.

The David O. Russell comedy, which has been overshadowed in the awards picture by more recent films like 'Les Miserables' and 'Zero Dark Thirty,' won five awards, including Best Motion Picture. Rusell won the award for directing, while stars Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence were named best actor and actress. The film also won for editing.

Supporting actor and actress awards went to Anne Hathaway for 'Les Miserables' and Javier Bardem for 'Skyfall.'

Mark Boal won the original-screenplay award for 'Zero Dark Thirty,' while David Magee won the adapted-screenplay honor for 'Life of Pi.'

Other winners: 'Rise of the Guardians,' best animated film; 'Chasing Ice,' best documentary; and a tie between 'The Intouchables' and 'Pieta' for best foreign film.

Proving that the IPA is a body of voters inclined toward sweeps, the television series 'Homeland' and 'The Big Bang Theory' each won three awards in the TV categories, picking up honors as best drama and comedy series, respectively, and also winning the actor and actress awards.

The awards:

FILM AWARDS

Motion picture: 'Silver Linings Playbook'

Director: David O. Russell, 'Silver Linings Playbook'

Actor: Bradley Cooper, 'Silver Linings Playbook'

Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, 'Silver Linings Playbook'

Supporting actor: Javier Bardem, 'Skyfall'

Supporting actress: Anne Hathaway, 'Les Miserables'

Original screenplay: Mark Boal, 'Zero Dark Thirty'

Adapted screenplay: David Magee, 'Life of Pi'

Motion picture, animated or mixed media: 'Rise of the Guardians'

Motion picture, documentary: 'Chasing Ice'

Motion picture, international: (tie) 'The Intouchables,' 'Pieta'

Cinematography: Claudio Miranda, 'Life of Pi'

Editing: Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers, 'Silver Linings Playbook'

Score: Alexandre Desplat, 'Argo'

Song: 'Suddenly' from 'Les Miserables'

Sound (editing and mixing): Andy Nelson, John Warhurst, Lee Walpole, Simon Hayes, 'Les Miserables'

Visual effects: Michael Lantieri, Kevin Baillie, Ryan Tudhope, Jim Gibbs, 'Flight'

Art direction & production design: Rick Carter, Curt Beech, David Crank, Leslie McDonald, 'Lincoln'

Costume design: Manon Rasmussen, 'A Royal Affair'

TELEVISION AWARDS

Miniseries or movie made for television: 'Hatfields & McCoys'

Actor in a miniseries/movie made for television: Benedict Cumberbatch, 'Sherlock

Actress in a miniseries/movie made for television: Julianne Moore, 'Game Change'

Supporting actor in a miniseries/TV movie: Neal McDonough, 'Justified'

Supporting actress in a miniseries/TV movie: Maggie Smith, 'Downton Abbey'

Drama series: 'Homeland'

Genre series: 'Walking Dead'

Actor in a drama: Damian Lewis, 'Homeland'

Actress in a drama: Claire Danes, 'Homeland'

Comedy or musical series: 'The Big Bang Theory'

Actor in a comedy: Johnny Galecki, 'The Big Bang Theory'

Actress in a comedy: Kaley Cuoco, 'The Big Bang Theory'

SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

Outstanding contribution to the entertainment industry: Terence Stamp

Nikola Tesla Award: Walter Murch

Auteur Award: Paul Williams

Honorary Satellite Award: Bruce Davison

Newcomer Award: Quvenzhane Wallis, 'Beasts of the Southern Wild'

Humanitarian Award: Benh Zeitlin, 'Beasts of the Southern Wild'

Motion picture ensemble: 'Les Miserables'

Television ensemble: 'Walking Dead'



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"Hobbit" film sets December record in U.S., Canada debut

(Reuters) - 'The Hobbit' brought home a big box office treasure over the weekend, setting a December movie record with $84.77 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales as legions of fans turned out for the long-awaited big-screen return to Middle Earth.

The 3D movie directed by Oscar-winning 'Rings' filmmaker Peter Jackson is the first of three films based on a 1937 classic novel by J.R.R. Tolkien. Warner Bros. is aiming to build on the success of the 'Rings' series, one of Hollywood's biggest franchises with $2.9 billion in global ticket sales.

The 'Lord of the Rings' movies debuted in theaters from 2001 to 2003. After that, production on 'The Hobbit' ran into delays, leaving fans waiting a decade for another look at the fantasy story of dwarves, wizards and elves.

The opening weekend 'Hobbit' sales proved interest remained high. North American (U.S. and Canadian) receipts toppled the old record for December set by Will Smith sci-fi flick 'I Am Legend,' which pulled in $77.2 million when it debuted in 2007.

'The best we were hoping for was to reach or exceed the $77 million set by that movie and we did it by quite a lot. It was all good and we're very happy about it,' said Dan Fellman, president of theatrical distribution for Warner Bros.

'You have to assume that by the time this first week is over we are going to have around $110 million in the bank before the holiday even starts,' he added.

The new film follows the epic journey of hobbit Bilbo Baggins, played by Martin Freeman, as he travels through the treacherous Middle Earth with a band of dwarves to steal treasures from the dragon Smaug.

The movie also stars Richard Armitage and Benedict Cumberbatch, while Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett and Elijah Wood reprise their 'Rings' roles.

Opening-weekend audiences embraced 'The Hobbit,' awarding an 'A' grade in polling by survey firm CinemaScore. Critics had a mixed response to the nearly three-hour film. Sixty-five percent of reviews on the Rotten Tomatoes website recommended the movie, although some objected to Jackson's decision to shoot it using a 48-frames-per-second format rather than the usual 24.

SOME VIEWERS NAUSEOUS

The faster frame rate delivers clearer pictures, but some critics called the format cartoonish and jarring. Some fans at early screenings in New Zealand complained it made them feel nauseous and dizzy, according to The New Zealand Herald. Only a fraction of theaters showed the film in the new format.

The next two 'Hobbit' movies are schedules to reach theaters in December 2013 and July 2014. The films were financed by MGM and Warner Bros.' New Line Cinema unit for an estimated $500 million.

'The Hobbit' took a bumpy, years-long journey to the big screen that included two directors and a lawsuit. Jackson made the 'Rings' trilogy when producers could not get 'The Hobbit' rights that were held by MGM's United Artists unit.

Guillermo del Toro was first hired to direct 'The Hobbit' but he left the project when financial woes at MGM caused delays. The movie went into production only after Jackson settled a lawsuit against New Line in a dispute over profits from the 'Rings' films.

'The Hobbit' was the only new nationwide release over the weekend. The rest of the top five were films that have been playing for weeks.

In second place was the animated family film 'Rise of the Guardians' with $7.4 million, followed by historical drama 'Lincoln' starring Daniel Day-Lewis as the revered U.S. president, which grabbed $7.2 million from Friday through Sunday, according to studio estimates.

James Bond movie 'Skyfall' landed in fourth place with $7 million.

Next on the box office chart was 'Life of Pi,' which captured $5.4 million. Teen vampire tale 'The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2' earned $5.17 million.

Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros. released 'The Hobbit.' 'Lincoln' was produced by Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Co. Sony Corp's movie studio released 'Skyfall.' Dreamworks Animation distributed 'Rise of the Guardians,' which was released by Viacom Inc's Paramount Pictures. Summit Entertainment, a unit of Lions Gate Entertainment, released 'Breaking Dawn.'

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)



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"Lincoln" leads Golden Globe movie nominations

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - U.S. Civil War-era drama 'Lincoln' led the Golden Globe nominations on Thursday with seven nods including best drama, best director for Steven Spielberg, and best actor for Daniel Day-Lewis.

Following the film among top nominees for the Hollywood awards were Iran hostage drama 'Argo' and Quentin Tarantino's slavery-era Western 'Django Unchained' with five nods each.

The best drama nominees were rounded out by thriller 'Zero Dark Thirty' about the hunt for Osama bin Laden with four mentions, and shipwreck tale 'Life of Pi,' with three.

'Les Miserables,' the movie version of the worldwide hit stage musical, earned four Golden Globe nominations in the comedy and musical category, along with 'Silver Linings Playbook' about an unlikely romance between a man suffering from bipolar disorder and a young widow.

The stars of both films - Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway for 'Les Miserables,' and Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper for 'Silver Linings Playbook,' - will be among those competing for acting awards.

Wes Anderson's 'Moonrise Kingdom,' British senior comedy 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,' and comedy romance 'Salmon Fishing in the Yemen,' rounded out the comedy and musical best picture race.

The Golden Globe Awards, which will be given out by about 80 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) on January 13, are among the most widely watched honors programs leading up to the Oscars in February.

Unlike the Academy Awards, the HFPA has separate categories for film dramas and comedies, opening the door to sometimes overlooked movies and performances in Hollywood's awards season.

Among movie dramas, Jessica Chastain's CIA agent in 'Zero Dark Thirty' will square off against Helen Mirren in 'Hitchcock,' British actress Rachel Weisz in period drama 'The Deep Blue Sea,' France's Marion Cotillard for 'Rust and Bone' and Naomi Watts in tsunami survival tale 'The Impossible.

Day-Lewis's towering performance as U.S. President Abraham Lincoln will compete against Denzel Washington's alcoholic airline pilot in 'Flight,' Richard Gere's role as a corrupt financial executive in 'Arbitrage,' John Hawkes as a severely disabled man in 'The Sessions' and Joaquin Phoenix's drifter in cult tale 'The Master.'

The Golden Globes also honor the year's best TV shows. 'Game Change,' the HBO film about Sarah Palin's 2008 bid to become U.S. vice-president, led the nominations with five, followed by the post-September 11 attacks psychological thriller 'Homeland' with four.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Paul Simao)



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James Bond still can't get a date in China - at the Box Office

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - If 'Skyfall' is going to make it to a billion dollars at the worldwide box office, it will need to score big in China. But six weeks after it opened globally, Chinese officials still haven't told Sony when it can roll out its James Bond blockbuster in Beijing.

The most likely landing spot for 'Skyfall' is late January, which would enable it to play through the Golden Week holiday in China, exhibition insiders tell TheWrap. But the China Film Group, which oversees the country's movie industry, has yet to confirm a date.

The period around Golden Week, which marks the Chinese Lunar New Year and begins February 9 in 2013, is important because many workers and students take time off.

Also awaiting a date is Warner Bros.' 'The Hobbit.' Although no Chinese release of Peter Jackson's latest Middle-earth epic has been scheduled yet, that film doesn't even open in the U.S. until Friday.

A worst-case scenario would see the two forced to go head-to-head. More likely, though, is that 'The Hobbit' will open after Golden Week.

'Skyfall' also could wind up opening around the same time as 'Cloud Atlas,' another film awaiting a date confirmation. That film, which likely will play before the holiday, is distributed by the Chinese company Dreams of Dragon Picture and expected to play strongly throughout Asia.

There are no censorship issues for either 'The Hobbit' or 'Skyfall' - and both films eventually will open - but studio executives, who declined to comment to TheWrap, have to be a little wary.

Chinese officials are increasingly aware of their growing stature in the global box-office realm, and this year they've become more protective than ever of their domestic film industry. To reduce the impact of American movies, they've slotted U.S. films against each other, grouped releases and imposed brief moratoriums to boost the local entries in the market.

The Chinese market uncertainty won't be going away anytime soon, David McGregor, head of Ernst & Young's media and entertainment group for Asia and the Pacific, told TheWrap.

'For now, it's just part of the process that has to be managed,' he said from Australia, days after returning from a Shanghai conference designed to bring Chinese and American executives together.

'When it comes to film releasing, as it does to just about every aspect of doing business in China, it comes down to relationships. At this point, those relationships are developing, and it will be tricky until the trust factor is established on both sides.'

The payoff for U.S. studios is a big one.

Warner Bros.' 'Dark Knight Rises' and Sony's 'Amazing Spider-Man' both opened in China on August 27. That cut their grosses, but China still became the No. 1 foreign market for both films, with 'Dark Knight Rises' taking in $52 million and 'Spider-Man' taking in $48 million.

Fox released 'Life of Pi' there three weeks ago, and it's already taken in $68 million.

'Skyfall,' which stars Daniel Craig, has a good shot at becoming the first Bond movie to hit the billion-dollar mark at the box office. But it will need strong performances in China and Japan - where it has taken in more than $13 million since opening two weeks ago - to get there.

The film has made more at the box office than any of the 22 previous James Bond films, with $918 million globally since opening on October 26. The majority of that - $656 million - has come from overseas.

Under a new trade agreement reached in February, China is allowing U.S. companies to release an additional 14 films a year if they are 3D or in big-screen formats like Imax. That brings the total number of U.S. films released in the country annually to 34. The pact also raised the U.S. studios' share of the box office from 13 percent to 25 percent.



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"Lincoln," "Les Miserables," "Playbook" lead acting nominations

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hollywood's actors cast their net wide on Wednesday, nominating performers from big awards contenders 'Lincoln' and musical 'Les Miserables' for Screen Actors Guild honors while also singling out the likes of Denzel Washington and Javier Bardem.

'Lincoln,' 'Les Miserables' and comedy 'Silver Linings Playbook' led the nominations for the SAG awards with four apiece, including the top prize of best movie ensemble cast.

Joining them with two nominations each were the cast of Iranian hostage drama 'Argo' and, in a surprise choice, British comedy 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.'

The awards from the Screen Actors Guild are among the most-watched honors during Hollywood film awards season leading up to the Academy Awards because actors make up the largest voting group when the Oscars come around in February.

SAG voters focus on performances rather than directing and writing, meaning that action and effects-heavy films like 'The Hobbit' are usually sidelined.

Consequently, SAG largely shunned the expected Oscar contender 'Zero Dark Thirty' about the U.S. hunt for Osama bin Laden, giving it just one nomination for Jessica Chastain's performance as a CIA agent.

But the latest James Bond blockbuster 'Skyfall' made it onto SAG's list, with nominations for its stunt ensemble and Spanish actor Bardem's supporting turn as blond-haired villain Silva.

Other perceived Oscar-worthy movies, including slavery era Western 'Django Unchained,' went unmentioned, while cult drama 'The Master' had just one nomination - for actor Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Nicole Kidman made the best supporting actress list for her turn in the steamy but little-seen independent movie 'The Paperboy,' while Britain's Helen Mirren was recognized for her portrayal of Alfred Hitchcock's long-suffering wife in 'Hitchcock.'

The SAG awards will be given out in Los Angeles on January 27 in a live telecast on the TBS and TNT networks.

Golden Globe nominations are announced on Thursday and Oscar nominations will be revealed on January 10.

'LINCOLN' PICKS UP STEAM

'Lincoln,' director Steven Spielberg's well-reviewed film about U.S. President Abraham Lincoln's battle to outlaw slavery, has been picking up multiple accolades from U.S. critics in the busy Hollywood awards season.

On Wednesday, it brought SAG nominations for lead actor Daniel Day-Lewis and supporting actors Sally Field as his wife, and Tommy Lee Jones as powerful Congressman Thaddeus Stevens.

Hugh Jackman was nominated for best actor while Anne Hathaway is in the race for her supporting role in the movie adaptation of hit stage musical 'Les Miserables.'

Other actors nominated on Wednesday included the stars of quirky comedy 'Silver Linings Playbook' - Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert DeNiro. John Hawkes and Helen Hunt also have a stake, for playing a disabled man and his sex therapist in heart-warming independent movie 'The Sessions.'

'Being recognized by your peers is something I could only dream of happening and to be included in this group of actors is not only humbling but quite frankly, surreal,' Cooper, a first-time SAG nominees, said in a statement.

Washington, a two-time Oscar winner, was nominated for playing an alcoholic pilot in 'Flight,' a role that has been largely overlooked in early critics award.

Perhaps the biggest surprise on Wednesday was 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,' the story of a group of elderly Britons who retire to a ramshackle Indian hotel.

The film, which boasts a strong British cast including Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson and Bill Nighy, had two nominations - best ensemble and best supporting actress for Maggie Smith.

Smith also was nominated in SAG's television category for her role as a sarcastic countess in period drama 'Downton Abbey.'

The popular British show was among the picks for ensemble acting in the TV category.

Other TV drama nominations went to the casts of 'Boardwalk Empire,' 'Homeland,' 'Mad Men' and 'Breaking Bad.'

In TV comedy, old favorites '30 Rock,' 'Glee,' 'The Big Bang Theory,' 'Modern Family,' 'Nurse Jackie' and 'The Office' were nominated for their ensemble casts.

(Editing by Xavier Briand and Bill Trott)



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A Minute With: Director Peter Jackson on shooting "The Hobbit"

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - After bringing J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy to life, filmmaker Peter Jackson is back in the world of Middle Earth with the author's prequel, 'The Hobbit.'

The three-film series is due to open in U.S. theaters on Friday with 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.'

The Oscar-winning director, 51, told Reuters about the 3D film, including the 48 frames per second (fps) format he used, which was widely debated by fans and critics.

Q: You originally intended 'The Hobbit' to only be two parts. Why stretch it out to three?

A: 'Back in July, we were near the end of our shoot and we started to talk about the things that we had to leave out of the movies. There's material at the end of 'The Return of the King' (the final part of 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy) in the appendices that takes place around the time of 'The Hobbit.'

'We were thinking, this is our last chance because it's very unlikely we're ever going to come back to Middle Earth as filmmakers. So we talked to the studio and next year we're going to be doing another 10 to 12 weeks of shooting because we're now adapting more of Tolkien's material.'

Q: At what point did you decide you would direct the film yourself after originally handing it to Guillermo del Toro?

A: 'At the time (we wrote the script), I was worried about repeating myself and worried that I was competing with myself. I thought it would be interesting to have another director with a fresh eye coming in and telling the story. But after Guillermo left, having worked on script and the production for well over a year at that stage, I was very emotionally attached to it. I just thought, this is an opportunity I'm not going to say no to.'

Q: You hired Gollum actor Andy Serkis to do second unit directing on the film, something he has never done before. What made you hand the task to a novice?

A: 'I know how strongly Andy has been wanting to direct. One of the problems with second unit is that you tend to have conservative footage given to you by the director. They play it safe. I knew that I wouldn't get that from Andy because he's got such a ferocious energy. He goes for it and doesn't hold back. I knew that if Andy was the director I would be getting some interesting material, that it would have a life and energy to it.'

Q: What inspired you to make a film in 48 fps?

A: 'Four years ago I shot a six or seven minute King Kong ride for Universal Studios' tram ride in California. The reason we used the high frame rate was that we didn't want people to think it's a movie. You want that sense of reality, which you get from a high frame rate, of looking in to the real world. At the time, I thought it would be so cool to make a feature film with this process.'

Q: Not everyone has embraced 'The Hobbit' in 48 fps.

A: 'For the last year and a half there's been speculation, largely negative, about it and I'm so relieved to have gotten to this point. I've been waiting for this moment when people can actually see it for themselves. Cinephiles and serious film critics who regard 24 fps as sacred are very negative and absolutely hate it. Anybody I've spoken to under the age of 20 thinks it's fantastic. I haven't heard a single negative thing from the young people, and these are the kids that are watching films on their iPads. These are the people I want to get back in the cinema.'

Q: Why all the hoopla over a frame rate?

A: 'Somehow as humans, we have a reaction to change that's partly fear driven. But there are so many ways to look at movies now and it's a choice that a filmmaker has. To me as a filmmaker, you've got to take the technology that's available in 2012, not the technology we've lived with since 1927, and say how can we enhance the experience in the cinema? How can we make it more immersive, more spectacular?'

Q: George Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney for $4 billion. Do you think you will sell your New Zealand facility Weta someday?

A: 'I would if I want to retire at some stage and want to have a nice easy life, which will hopefully happen one day. But in the foreseeable future, the fact that I'm an owner of my own digital effects facility is a fantastic advantage for me.'

Q: How so?

A: 'When we asked the studio if we could shoot 'The Hobbit' at 48 fps, we promised the budget would be the same. But it actually does have a cost implication because you've got to render twice as many frames and the rendering takes more time. The fact that we owned Weta and could absorb that in-house was actually part of the reason we were able to do the 48 frames.'

(Editing by Patricia Reaney)



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