Thompson On Hollywood

Weekend Boxoffice: Cloverfield Kicks Butt

Cloverfield ate up the weekend boxoffice, reports Pam McClintock.

Weekend Boxoffice: Cloverfield is a HIT

My commercial instincts appear to be intact. The internet buzz was partly based on a sense that Cloverfield would be really good. And so it is. And so it opened HUGE, way beyond expectations. It's a young hip well-made 20-something-targeted movie, which plays for both boys and girls because it combines spectacular FX and thrills with a romantic relationship. And it wasn't too scary for me. Paramount has the J.J. Abrams hit they wanted, and a good start to what should be a robust 2008. Here's my column.

Paramount's monster movie "Cloverfield" smashed January box office records on Friday, chomping up $16.8 million from 3,411 theaters. Not only is that figure the highest opening day of all-time for the month, outstripping the $10.2 million posted by Sony-Screen Gems' "Underworld: Evolution" in 2006, it's also the top Friday for the Martin Luther King holiday weekend. Previous Friday champ for the frame belonged to Sony-Revolution's "Black Hawk Down" which charted $9.9 million from its wide expansion in 2002.

Meanwhile Atonement is kicking ass at the b.o.:

Among Golden Globe winning-fare, best drama winner "Atonement" was buoyant at the Friday B.O. despite the lack of a kudocast raking in $1.3 million for a current cume of $28.4 million. The Focus Features period drama played in 1,291 locations, approximately 200 theaters shy of best musical winner "Sweeney Todd" which pulled in $776,000, down 26%, for a total domestic haul of $46.2 million.

I spoke to Focus Features James Schamus, who also wrote and released Ang Lee's strictly art-house performer Lust, Caution, at the In Bruges premiere party. He was fatigued with the awards season process; he was enjoying putting out an entertaining picture like In Bruges on February 6 without having to worry about whether the art directors liked it or not, he admitted.

Cloverfield: Variety Review

Todd McCarthy likes it.

Cloverfield is Fun

Cloverfield is fun. It's a hand-held, cleverly manipulated monster movie told from the point-of-view of a bunch of Manhattan 20-somethings trying not to get killed. Some of them die. They pass the camera back and forth. Cloverfield is a fitfully scary, amusing, annoying rollercoaster thrill-ride that lasts 74 minutes. It cost only $25-million--so who cares how big the opening is this weekend? I will bet money that the pic does well with moviegoers in the end. God forbid it should build word-of-mouth. Doesn't anyone believe in that anymore? It works like a charm.

J.J. Abrams talks about his mystery box.

UPDATE: Jeff Wells has the tracking numbers, which are ticking up.

But critics may be harsh, judging from one friend of mine who wrote me this response: "i thought my eyes were bleeding when i left. i thought my head was going to explode." My sense was that it played for the fan boys at the screening on the Paramount lot last night. Variety critic Justin Chang and I ran into a headless Statue of Liberty on our way out, swathed in moonlight.

And the LAT's Mark Olsen writes up the making of the movie.

Cloverfield: Knowles is Over the Moon

If moviegoers respond to Cloverfield the way Harry Knowles has on AICN--and I was damned impressed with the footage I saw--then when this movie opens on January 18 it will be, forgive the expression, a boxoffice monster. Paramount, which has been holding back the movie to preserve the mystery--they don't want that freaking monster to hit the net-- can start screening it now! (And yet again a studio has solicited the ultimate fanboy review before going to more critical reviewers. UPDATE: And they showed it to Jeffrey Wells.)

It cost $25 million. No stars. Do the math.

Here are portions of Knowles' rave:

The movie is fucking brilliant. It’s what we were told it was going to be. An intimate perspective on an impossibly grand scale human disaster beyond most human levels of comprehension.

What is the monster? How do you describe something that doesn’t look like anything you’ve ever seen before? It’s not a fucking upright walking whale. It doesn’t look like any iteration of GODZILLA that we’ve ever seen. It is enormous. And even though I’ve seen it… I am hard-pressed to come up with a comparative creation. You know that big fucking thing in THE MIST? It isn’t that. Is the creature a biped? I’m not sure, I think it might’ve been a four-legged beastie… it has a tail, it has teeth and freaky eyes like that horse that died in ANIMAL HOUSE. It’s kinda of a grayish-yellowish-off-white looking thing. But more important than the creature is what this fucker does. He basically goes bug-nuts.

The creature isn’t the groundbreaking thing about the film. It is, but it isn’t.

You see, what has me so excited about this film is that this is the giant monster movie that isn’t at all like any giant monster movie we’ve seen before… but is exactly that movie.

I guarantee you that as this movie takes place… all the shit that you’ve seen in Giant monster movies is happening. Somewhere a general is screaming about nuking New York…. Somewhere is a politician screaming that you can’t nuke New York. Another General wants to know why our weapons are not affecting this thing. A PRESIDENT wants to know where it came from – and several thousand journalist are trying to figure all that out too.

But this film isn’t about the scientist, the generals, the Presidents, the mayors or any of the big people. This time, the film is from the perspective of those people that live in those buildings that the monster is breaking through. This is about the people running in the street that scream, “GODZILLA!!!” and run. This is about trying to survive that insanity. Not just that, but to try and save one life.

Like SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, but instead of Nazis it’s a giant monster.

This is a handheld camera movie – knowing this and knowing not to sit too close is probably a good thing… but having said that… you can’t sit far enough from the screen to feel safe. As many of you people know, I am in a wheelchair – and while watching movies, I have my brakes on. There was one moment, so unexpected and so intense that I went 3 ft back.

J.J. Abrams produced and came up with the concept; the script was written by Lost collaborator Drew Goddard, working closely with Abrams and and his Felicity collaborator Matt Reeves, who directed. To suggest that Reeves did not direct this is silly. Movies are by their nature collaborative.

Again, the queasicam aesthetic is here to stay. Directors like Paul Greengrass and Kevin MacDonald and yes, Matt Reeves are answering a moviegoer demand for authenticity. In this case, it's about taking something unbelievable and making it seem real. No matter how much fake movie magic it requires.

UPDATE: Fandango has a new clip, in which the monster seems to go by, real fast. And speculates about the meanings behind the title.

Cloverfield Shows Monster, Gets "Intimate"

There's some new info on Cloverfield in this week's column. I saw some scattered scenes on an Avid, not the whole movie. But I got a good sense of the film, and can't wait to see the whole thing. Paramount is purposely holding back on screenings--there's no junket at all--because they want to preserve as much of the mystery that has worked so well for them. They'll start screening the film next week.

Cloverfield not only reveals the monster several times in several ways, says director Matt Reeves, but "by the end you have intimate contact." Also, Cloverfield was always the film's title. The strategy was to go out with an untitled trailer, which referred to 1.18.08, the release date. Then when the internet took off with the early trailer, the filmmakers needed to use fake titles like Cheese in order to shoot around New York.

Moviemarketingmadness updates the movie.

The Movies Destroy New York City

As I Am Legend rocks the boxoffice (David and Nora were disappointed) and J.J. Abrams' Cloverfield looms, several media outlets are checking out Hollywood's love affair with destroying New York.

Here's the NYT.com.

New York's Culture Vulture.

Here's the Cloverfield trailer:

And the 1998 Godzilla:

And The Day After Tomorrow:

Trailer Watch: Cloverfield

Harry Knowles has a clip from Cloverfield, Paramount's new monster movie due January 18.