'Bully' does well in limited debut

The ratings controversy seems to have boosted “Bully” at the box office.

Lee Hirsch’s teen-bullying documentary, released in a total of five theaters in Los Angeles and New York this past weekend, grossed $115,000, according to an estimate from distributor the Weinstein Co.

The $23,000 per-screen average is strong given the film’s genre. Two recent, reasonably successful issue-oriented documentaries, “Food, Inc.” and “Inside Job,” each tallied a slightly lower per-screen average of $20,000 in their limited-release openings. Those movies went on to gross a solid $4 million to $5 million at the domestic box office. It remains to be seen, however, whether “Bully” can capitalize on the solid start as its publicity glow fades.

PHOTOS: Box office top ten

“Bully,” which examines five families affected by bullying, was given an R rating by the Motion Picture Assn. of America for the use of profanity. (An R means that children younger than 17 can see the film only if accompanied by an adult.)

After the MPAA’s appeals board upheld the rating, the Weinstein Co. howled in protest and a grass-roots movement sprang up. Nearly 500,000 people — including Meryl Streep, Justin Bieber and Johnny Depp — signed a petition started by a Michigan teenager that urged the MPAA to change the film’s rating to PG-13, which would allow teens to see it without an adult. The publicity made many  aware of a movie that they otherwise might not have heard about, and gave Harvey Weinstein a low-cost, high-profile platform to promote the film.

Weinstein eventually decided to release the movie without a rating, prompting a range of responses among theater owners. The country’s first- and fourth-largest chains, Regal Entertainment and Carmike Cinemas, said they would play the film but treat it as R-rated when it arrived in their theaters in mid-April. The third-largest chain, Cinemark, said it would not play the movie because it has a policy of not screening unrated films.

AMC, the nation’s second-largest chain, took the least restrictive tack: The company said it would play the movie and allow children younger than 17 to see it unaccompanied, providing they had permission from an adult. (AMC screens represented two of the five outlets showing the film this past weekend; the remainder were art house theaters.)

As it turned out, a vast majority of those who saw “Bully” were adults — 73% were at least 25 years old, and 41% were 35 and older, a Weinstein distribution executive said.

By the standard of unrated films, “Bully” did well, if not outstandingly so. A little more than a decade ago, Darren Aronofsky’s unrated drug drama “Requiem for a Dream,” which also had a high-profile debut after losing a battle with the MPAA, opened to $32,000 per screen in limited release.

“Bully” will expand to 50 markets on April 13. But the film’s unrated status is unlikely to be a factor then. A tweaked version is expected to be rated PG-13--that is the version that will be shown in wide release.

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--Steven Zeitchik

http://twitter.com/ZeitchikLAT

Photo: "Bully." Credit: Weinstein Co.

Dodgers deal comes with Hollywood element (again)

Peter Guber is bringing some Hollywood flash, and drama, to the Dodgers.

A longtime player in film and television, Guber, who is part of the Magic Johnson-led group that is buying the team for a record $2 billion, is a largely unknown commodity in sports circles. But he is a much more visible, and complicated, figure in the entertainment world.

Guber and Magic Johnson have joined forces before, including on the Dayton, Ohio, single-A minor-league affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds, which they continue to own. Guber also once owned the Dodgers’ triple-A affiliate when it was located in Las Vegas.

In Hollywood, Guber, 70, has had a hand in some of the best-known movies of the last four decades -- including “Batman,” “Rain Man” and “Midnight Express” -- but also has a checkered record, stemming primarily from his troubled tenure as head of Sony Pictures.

Beginning his career as a film and record producer, Guber came to run Sony in 1989. On his watch, the studio launched such TV shows as “Mad About You” and films including “Terminator 2” and “City Slickers.” But Guber also drew criticism from established Hollywood figures including director Michael Apted and producer Rob Cohen, who said Guber deceived him in negotiations.

Guber, who left Sony in 1994, later became the subject of a book, “Hit and Run: How Jon Peters and Peter Guber Took Sony for a Ride in Hollywood,”  which painted a largely unflattering portrait of Guber and his former partner.

Guber has also drawn supporters in the industry. Bradley Fuller, a producer who is working with Guber’s current company, Mandalay Entertainment, on a new version of Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds,”  said in an interview on Thursday that he admired Guber's people and deal-making skills.

“He’s a very compelling personality,” Fuller said. “When you come out of a meeting with him you find yourself saying, ‘Let’s do things the way Peter wants to do them.’” Guber could not be reached for comment.

In recent years, Guber has been expanding into sports via his subsidiary, Mandalay Sports Entertainment.  He is a co-owner of the Golden State Warriors and also is an owner of a host of minor-league baseball teams -- including the New York Yankees’ triple-A affiliate in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Guber will not have to divest his minor-league teams as a result of a Dodgers deal.

Although  Guber’s involvement brings an element of Hollywood know-how, fans could be forgiven for being wary of an owner who has an entertainment pedigree. It was less than a decade ago that the team was owned by 20th Century Fox parent News Corp. and run by former Warner Bros. honcho Bob Daly -- who later admitted that selling the team to Frank McCourt was a mistake.

ALSO:

Dodgers sale could mean bigger cable bills
Tribune threatens to pull stations from DirecTV
Fox Sports channel to rival ESPN is no sure thing

-- Steven Zeitchik

twitter.com/ZeitchikLAT

Photo: Peter Guber at a Golden State Warriors basketball game in Oracle Arena in Oakland, California. Credit: Getty Images

Michael Moore sues Weinstein brothers over 'Fahrenheit 9/11' profits [Updated]

When Harvey and Bob Weinstein released Michael Moore's political documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" in fall 2004, it became a cultural phenomenon and grossed $119 million at the U.S. box office.

Now the director says more of that money should have made it into his pocket.

In a suit filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Moore alleged that the Weinsteins, on behalf of an outfit called the Fellowship Adventure Group that they formed to release the movie, had illegally kept money from him.

Moore is seeking at least $2.7 million in compensatory damages as well as legal and other costs; the filmmaker also left open the possibility that he could seek further damages once a complete audit is done, a process the suit alleges has not happened.

"This case is about classic Hollywood accounting tricks and financial deception perpetrated by the Fellowship Adventure Group and its owners Bob and Harvey Weinstein," the suit began. The complaint alleged "bogus accounting methods" and "substantial irregularities in the accounting of the film" and said the company has "secretly divert[ed] monies owed" to Moore and his Westside Productions company. Moore's suit alleges breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and constructive fraud.

Among the allegations Moore makes is that the Weinsteins deducted residual payments from the balance sheet that were never made; deducted expenses Moore did not authorize; overstated the distribution fee to select international distributors; and covertly deducted more than $2.5 million from the revenue pool from which the Weinsteins were to pay Moore. According to the lawsuit, Moore and Fellowship were to split profits 50-50, an extremely generous deal for a director compared with what most filmmakers receive.

Attorney Bert Fields, who is representing the Weinsteins, said that the claims are "just designed for the media and are utter rubbish." He also speculated that Oscar-season rivals may have had a hand in the lawsuit. "I'm suspicious of the timing of this in this pre-award period and really wonder who put him up to it," Field said, acknowledging he had "no hard evidence." 

Weinstein Co.'s royals drama "The King's Speech" is considered an Oscar frontrunner.

Fields, who acknowledged there were settlement discussions several months ago, said he was surprised to find a lawsuit filed Monday. He said Moore had been paid $19.8 million over the course of the release and post-release period of "Fahrenheit 9/11" and has "received every dime he's entitled to."

Guillermo del Toro forms new production studio

 
 
Guillermo del Toro is joining forces with several entertainment veterans to form a production studio that will concentrate on all manner of visual content.

The company, called Mirada, will develop and produce television programming, video games, commercials and films, among other forms of entertainment. Joining Del Toro in the venture are commercial and music-video director Mathew Cullen, cinematographer Guillermo Navarro and producer Javier Jimenez.

Del Toro said he was forming the company out of his belief that content creation was currently spread across too many different studios and companies.

"With Mirada we hope to bring all the stuff you need to create an idea or a project under one roof," Del Toro said in an interview from the company's offices in Marina del Rey this week. "There is no place that can offer all the sets of eyes to inform and create the story engine to take any idea from beginning to end." The company has between 50 and 100 employees, depending on the project load.

Since dropping plans to direct "The Hobbit" last summer, Del Toro has been ramping up his non-directing activities, making pacts with DreamWorks Animation to help develop its films and with video-game company THQ to create and shape new titles.

The filmmaker said he aims to devote his full attention to Mirada but would cut back when he begins shooting a feature; he's next set to make the genre-tinged expedition story "At the Mountains of Madness" for Universal sometime in 2011.

Navarro is a longtime collaborator of Del Toro's on the auteur's own films; he also is shooting the next two movies in the "Twilight" franchise. Jimenez is a partner with Cullen at his Motion Theory production company.

Cullen, who has made his name with commercials for Disney and music videos for the likes of Weezer and Katy Perry, said one of the ways the firm will distinguish itself is with an eye for visual detail. "We want to bring our collective experience to things that are overlooked in the creative process, like the importance of design and cinematography," he said.

Principals expect to announce specific projects soon.

-- Steven Zeitchik

Photo of Guillermo del Toro by Jose Mendez / European Pressphoto Agency

Box office: A blowout weekend, but no blowout openers [updated]

Tyler Perry, Todd Phillips and a cartoon supervillain all got what they came for at the box office this weekend -- but not by a particularly wide margin.

A crowded field at the multiplex saw DreamWorks Animation's 3-D comedy "Megamind" win the weekend, but with a studio-estimated $47.7 million, it did so with a number at the lower end of observers' expectation range.

A decent figure at the conservative end of forecasts also characterized the weekend's two other wide openers. "Due Date,"  a reunion between "The Hangover" director Todd Phillips and star Zach Galifianakis,  grossed $33.5 million, according to Warner Bros., while Tyler Perry's female-centric drama "For Colored Girls" landed in the third position with a Lionsgate-estimated $20.1 million.

If they cut into each other's audience a little bit, the three wide openers also contributed to an overall weekend tally of $154 million -- the highest ever for the first weekend in November, just ahead of the $153 million mark set seven years ago.

Industry insiders had estimated that "Megamind," which cost between $130 million and $145 million to produce and features characters voiced by Will Ferrell and Tina Fey, would open to about $50 million.  Among other animated non-sequels that opened in November, the movie's $47.7 million sits in the middle of the pack -- it's slightly ahead of "Chicken Little" and "Happy Feet" (neither of which had the advantage of 3-D premium ticket prices) but well behind mega-hits "Monsters, Inc." and "The Incredibles," the latter of which also put a new spin on the superhero genre.

"Megamind," which concerns a superhero who decides to hang up his cape, did generate a strong 'A-' Cinema Score, suggesting it could play well long after its opening, a la  DreamWorks Animation's "How to Train Your Dragon." But it will need to get over the hump of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1." That movie, which opens in two weeks, is expected to dominate the box office when it comes out, particularly the younger audience that makes up the "Megamind" core fan base.

International performance, also of prime importance for Hollywood animated movies, has thus far looked strong for "Megamind." The movie performed solidly in a number of smaller Asia territories and had a strong second weekend in Russia. (It won't be out in most major markets in  Europe and South America until early December.)

Meanwhile, "Due Date" a road-trip odd-couple comedy sandwiched between Phillips' two "Hangover" movies, landed just below the $35 million some observers had projected. Its $33.5 million represents a solid return for a comedy, even one that is estimated to have cost an unusually high $65 million. [Update, 1:52 pm:  The film performed very well overseas, tallying $21.5 million in 36 countries, a number close to the early performance of "The Hangover" internationally.]

The movie was not, however, able to compete on the domestic front with Phillips' and Galifianakis' last collaboration, which opened to $45 million in the spring of 2009. This film didn't have nearly the word-of-mouth as "The Hangover" did coming into its opening, and with an overall 'B-' Cinema Score, it's unlikely to play as strongly in the weeks to come.

With a pregnancy and family themes as well as the presence of Downey, the raunchy R-rated comedy was able to appeal to women, a group that comprised nearly half (47%) of the audience.

Meanwhile, Tyler Perry has shown that his fans will follow him to darker territory, they won't follow him in the same numbers.

The $20.1-million opening for "For Colored Girls," Perry's adaptation of Ntozake Shange's stage play and the first drama he's ever directed, was slightly below industry forecasts that had it closer to $25 million. The movie's tally is lower than his previous three openings -- including his record-best $41 million for "Madea Goes to Jail" and last year's $29 million for "Why Did I Get Married Too?"  But it was also higher than  his lowest-performing comedy, the $17.3 million opening for "The Family That Preys."

"Colored Girls" will be an unassailable financial triumph for Lionsgate, which spent only about $21 million to produce the film. And the drama could enjoy strong word of mouth and a long run at the box office -- the movie garnered an 'A' Cinema Score and could generate awards talk for its ensemble of A-listers that includes Whoopi Goldberg and Janet Jackson. It also will be helped by an older fan base -- 87% of the audience this weekend was over the age of 25 -- which tends to wait until the second and third weekends to see new movies.

The weekend's lone second-week holdover, horror-franchise entry "Saw 3-D," had a steep drop of 66% to notch $8.2 million.

In limited release, Fox Searchlight's "127 Hours" was the big winner, averaging a whopping $66,500 on each of the four screens on which it opened for a weekend total of $266,000. The Danny Boyle film, which stars James Franco as stranded canyoneer Aron Ralston, appears not to have been hurt -- and in fact may have been helped -- by pre-release publicity that the movie featured graphic scenes that had caused some filmgoers to faint.

Also in limited release, Summit opened the Valerie Plame political drama "Fair Game" to a more modest but still-respectable $15,200 average on each of its 46 screens for a total of $700,000.

[Update, 11:32 a.m.: Here are the top 10 movies at the domestic box office, with international ticket sales when available, according to studio estimates and Hollywood.com.]

Box office: 'Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps' trumps weak 'Legend of the Guardians' and 'You Again' [Updated]

Two decades out of the spotlight haven't hurt Gordon Gekko much.

"Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps," the contemporary follow-up to the 1987 zeitgeist classic, was master of the box-office universe this weekend, grossing a solid $19 million, according to Fox estimates. The movie beat 3-D animated film "Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole" and "You Again," the weekend's other wide openers. Those two movies grossed $16.3 million and $8.3 million, respectively, according to studio estimates.

Showing surprising strength was Ben Affleck's Boston crime drama "The Town," which dropped just 33% from its opening weekend to gross $16 million, finishing just a hair behind its Warner Bros. stablemate "Guardians" in third place, the studio said.

Disney's inter-generational hugs and slapstick of "You Again" could muster only a spot in fifth place, leapfrogged by the better-received "Easy A." The Emma Stone high-school dramedy grossed $10.7 million, falling just 40% percent in its second weekend, according to studio Screen Gems.

While some industry observers had been expecting an opening upward of $20 million for "Wall Street," the $19-million figure was still relatively strong, putting the drama on course to recoup on domestic receipts alone its post-credit outlay of $50 million. It's also the best opener for director Oliver Stone, edging out his $18.7 million for "World Trade Center" in 2006.

"Wall Street" was strongest among older audiences, with moviegoers over the age of 30 comprising two-thirds of ticket-holders. On the whole, the movie was adequately received by filmgoers, who gave the multilayered story a CinemaScore of B-.

The Stone-directed sequel brings back disgraced kingpin Gekko (Michael Douglas), newly sprung from prison, and introduces a host of new characters (played by the likes of Josh Brolin, Shia LaBeouf and Carey Mulligan), all of whom suffer and scheme against the backdrop of the 2008 financial crisis. Stone, producer Edward Pressman and others had resisted the temptation for a "Wall Street" sequel for years. But the credit crunch two years ago convinced them and screenwriters Stephen Schiff and Allan Loeb to contemporize and continue the storyline.

The movie's prospects looked dim after it was pushed back five months from its initial release date of April 23. But Fox gambled that a delay was worth a release in an autumnal season more hospitable to adult fare and set into motion a slow rollout that began at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

The weekend clearly spelled disappointment for the pricier "Guardians." Warner Bros. had hoped that its first animated film since 2006's smash "Happy Feet" would yield some of the same mojo as that movie, with "300" director Zack Snyder bringing his trademark flash to the children's tale of a battle between good and evil in the owl world. But despite the advantage of higher 3-D ticket prices, the movie managed a number that was below the $20 million that some observers had predicted. The $16.3 million foretells a cumulative figure that is not close to the roughly $80 million the film is estimated to have cost after tax credits.

The weekend figures also raise questions about the studio's wherewithal in releasing upcoming live action-animated hybrid "Yogi Bear," though that film is perceived as more conducive to a broad family audience than "Guardians."

"You Again," meanwhile, proved that the romantic and comedic hi-jinks at a family reunion -- a formula that served Disney well with 2009 breakout "The Proposal -- was not a magic bullet for the studio this time around. Although the movie cost only about $20 million to make, the hope that a bevy of multigenerational stars -- including an appearance from a resurgent Betty White -- would turn it into a crossover hit proved empty. Critics did not care for "You Again" -- it garnered a 13% on Rotten Tomatoes -- and the movie scrounged up a per-screen average of just $3,260 in its first weekend of release. 

Disney will cross its fingers that the picture, which earned a respectable B+ CinemaScore, will have some legs.

Even more disappointing was Sony's unconventional rollout for the youth-skewing comedy "The Virginity Hit." The gambit of taking the movie to college campuses and other youth-heavy venues did not bear fruit. According to Sony, the low-budget film, which follows a group of teenagers as they attempt to lose their virginity, grossed a dismal $300,000 on its 700 screens for a scant average of barely more than $400 on each screen.

Easily the most upbeat story of the weekend concerned Affleck's "The Town." Even a big drop would have kept Warner Bros. well in the black. As it is, the film's 10-day total of $49.1 million far surpasses expectations for a movie that cost the studio and partner Legendary Pictures $37 million to produce.

In limited release, Lionsgate opened claustrophobic thriller "Buried" to $105,000 and a decent per-screen average of $9,500. Woody Allen's 41st feature, "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger," grossed $163,500 this weekend for a five-day total of $214,800; the movie averaged an impressive $27,300 on each of its six screens. David Guggenheim's documentary "Waiting for Superman" performed equally well in its limited release. The education-policy cri de coeur averaged $35,000 on each of its four screens for a three-day total of $141,000.

[Updated at 10:43 a.m.: Here are the top 10 movies at the domestic box office according to studio estimates and Hollywood.com, along with international ticket sales when available.]