Movie audiences discover "Unknown" at box offices

By Bob Tourtellotte

LOS ANGELES | Sun Feb 20, 2011 6:13pm EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Thriller "Unknown" topped movie box office charts with $21.8 million in ticket sales during a sluggish weekend over the long Presidents Day holiday in the United States.

"Unknown," starring Liam Neeson as a man who must reclaim his identity after finding it stolen when he awakens from a coma, bested another new release, sci-fi adventure "I Am Number Four," which landed in the No. 2 spot with $19.5 million, according to film studio estimates on Sunday.

Animated "Gnomeo & Juliet" rounded out the top three on Sunday, earning $19.4 million for a scant drop of only 23 percent from its debut last weekend. Typically, a major studio release like "Gnomeo" might be expected drop 40-50 percent in its second weekend, but the family film has been helped by generally good critics' reviews and audience ratings.

Box office estimates will likely change by Tuesday when U.S. moviegoers return to work after a long holiday weekend that includes Presidents Day.

By Sunday, the weekend's No. 4 movie was comedy "Just Go With It" starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston. Its ticket sales dropped 40 percent to $18.2 million from last weekend and now total $60.8 million in the United States and Canada.

Last week's No. 2 movie, "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never," a look at the life of teenage singing sensation Bieber, saw a decline of 54 percent and fell to No. 6 with 13.6 million. Its total domestic revenues number $51.7 million after two weeks.

The weekend's other new major release, Martin Lawrence comedy "Big Mommas: Like Father Like Son" claimed the No. 5 spot with a $17 million debut.

Ticket sales for all films in theaters from Friday through Sunday were estimated at $144 million, down around 30 percent from 2010's Presidents Day weekend tally of $204.6 million, according to industry tracker Hollywood.com Box Office.

Other notable releases included Oscar hopeful "The King's Speech," which landed at No 7. with $6.6 million and pushed its total box office up to $103.3 million.

Rounding out the top 10 were holdovers from recent weeks: "The Roommate," "The Eagle" and "No Strings Attached" in the No. 8, 9 and 10 spots, respectively.

"Unknown" was released by Warner Bros, a unit of Time Warner Inc. "I Am Number Four" was produced by privately held DreamWorks and distributed by the studio unit of The Walt Disney Co, while "Gnomeo and Juliet" was co-produced and distributed by studio units of Walt Disney.

"Big Mommas: Like Father Like Son" was released by 20th Century Fox, a division of News Corp. "Just Go With It" was released by Columbia Pictures and "The Roommate" was released by Screen Gems. Both are units of Sony Corp.

"The Eagle" was released by Focus Features, part of Universal Pictures that is 51 percent-owned by Comcast Corp. "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never" and "No Strings Attached" were released by Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc, and "The King's Speech" was released by the Weinstein Co, which is privately held.

(Editing by Eric Walsh)

Oscar telecast nixing montages, elaborate tributes

By Gregg Kilday

Sun Feb 20, 2011 6:21pm EST

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - As preparations for next Sunday's Academy Awards move into high gear, the show's producers have booted a number of familiar elements.

Gone will be the movie montages -- like last year's salute to horror movies -- that often contribute to the broadcast's unwieldy running time. While there will be film clips from the ten best picture nominees and brief filmed introductions to different segments of the show, "Within the body of the show, we are not doing any film montage sequences," said Bruce Cohen, who will produce with Don Mischer.

Gone too will be the relatively new tradition, established just two years ago, of using five presenters to offer tribute testimonials about each of the best actor and actress nominees. "We're not going to do that this year," Cohen told the Hollywood Reporter. "What we did love about it was that it was a moment where each of the nominees really gets their due. (But) we found a version of that, without using the five people on stage, from the 1970 Oscars, and we stole it."

The producers also have enlisted the nominees' mothers to participate in promotion and pre-show activities, and some of them will be in the audience for the telecast.

This year's producing team is restoring individual performances of the four nominated songs, which were eliminated last year. Producers were upset that Cher, a major audience draw, was not nominated for her Burlesque ballad, "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me."

"We were surprised, and we were disappointed," Cohen says when of the song, which won its composer Diane Warren a Golden Globe but failed to earn an Academy nomination.

They have lined up most of the other names associated with the songs that were nominated, though: Oscar perennial Randy Newman will perform his "We Belong Together" from "Toy Story 3"; Mandy Moore and Zachary Levy, who sang the duet "I See The Light" on the "Tangled" soundtrack will reteam with composer Alan Menken; and Gwyneth Paltrow, who sings "Coming Home" in "Country Strong" will reprise that tune on the broadcast.

Because English pop singer Dido, who was nominated along with Rollo Armstrong and A.R. Rahman for the song "If I Rise," from "127 Hours" was not available, the producers have drafted Florence Welch from Grammy-nominated act Florence + the Machine to appear with Rahman.

"We feel we really lucked out, and this is a good year to bring the best song performances back," Cohen says.

Acclaimed Iranian film triumphs in Berlin

By Mike Collett-White and Annika Breidthardt

BERLIN | Sun Feb 20, 2011 3:53am EST

BERLIN (Reuters) - Iranian drama "Nader and Simin: A Separation" won the Golden Bear for best picture at the Berlin film festival on Saturday, while its ensemble cast also picked up the best actor and actress prizes on a triumphant night.

Director Asghar Farhadi's portrayal of a marriage in crisis was firm favorite for the coveted award, and its victory was the first for an Iranian picture, Berlin organizers said.

In the movie, one family is pitted against another in a gripping legal tussle which highlights the gap between middle class "intellectuals" and poorer, traditional Iranians for whom religious beliefs and honor tend to be more important.

It was praised for its subtle exploration of Iran's class divisions and religious conservatism, which it managed to combine with the tension of a crime thriller. The acting awards were a bonus for Farhadi, whose daughter Sarina starred.

Farhadi paid tribute to fellow Iranian film maker Jafar Panahi, who was unable to accept Berlin's invitation to sit on the main jury after being sentenced to six years in jail and banned from making movies or traveling abroad for 20 years.

He stands accused of inciting opposition protests in 2009 and making a film without permission, and his sentence has caused an outcry in the movie making world.

"I want to remind you of Jafar Panahi," Farhadi told the glitzy awards ceremony. "I really think his problem will be solved, and I hope he will be the one standing here next year."

When asked to speak about the situation in Iran, he replied: "I can either say what you want me to say and the result would be that I get into trouble and couldn't make films anymore.

"Or I can say as much as I'm allowed to and continue making films. I prefer making my films. I'm not a hero, I'm a film maker," he told reporters, adding that he spoke to Panahi after receiving the Golden Bear.

Panahi's absence was marked with an empty chair alongside jury head Isabella Rossellini at the opening press conference, and some German media have dubbed this year's cinema showcase the "Iranian Berlinale."

DARK TALE OF A HORSE

The runner-up film prize went to Hungarian director Bela Tarr's black-and-white "The Turin Horse," a slow-moving, bleak feature about a farmer and his daughter's forsaken lives in a windswept, isolated house.

The love-it-or-loathe-it picture, which Tarr has said would be his last, sharply divided critics, but its stark images, sparse dialogue and relentlessly droning score were considered among the most memorable at this year's festival.

"That is true it is my last film. The last so-called Tarr film," he told reporters after receiving his award.

"I believe that in this film everything comes together. Everything is contained in this film -- everything that I believe needs to be shown in film, i.e. everything that uses the language of film."