Vanessa Minnillo: Out Solo in Soho
Vanessa Minnillo: Out Solo in Soho
Having recently wrapped her latest project “Disaster Movie,” Vanessa Minnillo was spotted back home in New York City yesterday enjoying a relaxing afternoon.
The paparazzi caught up to the former MTV veejay taking a leisurely stroll around the Soho district of Manhattan along with her precious little pup Wookie.
And the 27-year-old babe looked fit in a blue t-shirt layered overtop a white longsleeve tee along with a pair of distressed denim jeans, aviator sunglasses, and an oversized brown leather purse.
“Disaster Movie” is the next installment of the wildly popular spoof movies, and is said to be targeting everything from the new Indiana Jones flick to Jake Gyllenhaal’s “Day After Tomorrow.”
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of $300 Million
The $300 million club has a new member.
The final box-office numbers from the weekend show Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull moved into that exclusive, nine-figure territory yesterday.
The movie is the second 2008 release to crack $300 million after Iron Man, which beat Indiana Jones to the neighborhood by about a week.
Iron Man, which currently sits at $309 million, remains the year’s No. 1 movie.
The ever-resourceful Dr. Jones, however, holds the overall advantage.
An even bigger hit internationally, the adventure franchise’s fourth installment has topped $400 million overseas, bringing its worldwide total to $713 million, Paramount said today. Iron Man, by comparison, has done the majority of its big business stateside. Overseas grosses bring its worldwide haul to “only” about $560 million.
Among George Lucas movies, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is its producer’s biggest non-Star Wars hit as a producer, per Box Office Mojo stats. Among Steven Spielberg movies, Crystal Skull is his third-biggest hit, behind E.T. and Jurassic Park, as a director.
Among Indiana Jones movies, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is the top grosserso long as you don’t adjust for inflation.
Raiders of the Lost Ark, the series starter bumped down to No. 2 by Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, arguably had the more impressive run of the two installments, grossing a gaudy $209.6 million domestically back in 1981.
Still, a win is a win. And Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the first new Indiana Jones movie in 19 years, overcame minor qualms that the film would suffer from young moviegoers unable to relate to the veteran franchise and its veteran star, Harrison Ford, who, at 65, is seven years older than Sean Connery was when that actor played Indiana’s father in The Last Crusade.
And the movie isn’t done yet. Last weekend, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull made more than double the money of the finally tiring Iron Man. A couple more showings like that, and Indiana Jones may be the $300 million club’s No. 1 member.
The Indy 151
Bull’s-eye.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull lived up to huge expectations, delivering $151.1 million in its first five days, per studio estimates today from Exhibitor Relations Co.
The movie accounted for nearly 60 percent of all ticket sales over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, grossing $101 million from Friday to Sunday, and $126.1 million from Friday to Monday.
After debuting with $25 million on Thursday, the movie, as expected, picked up speed over the weekend. Its biggest day was Saturday, when it grossed $37 million.
While the movie didn’t set any showy records and didn’t make it to the most outsized of projections that pegged a $175 million debut, it did make more money in its first 120 hours than all but four movies in Hollywood history.
In the annals of biggest three-day opening weekends, it ranks 10th, just ahead of this summer’s Iron Man, per Box Office Mojo. In the annals of four-day Memorial Day weekend debuts, it ranks second.
Worldwide, it simply scooped up a whole lot of money$313 million all together, combining domestic and foreign receipts, per Exhibitor Relations.
The $185 million Steven Spielberg-George Lucas movie, starring Harrison Ford, is the first new Indiana Jones since 1989’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull should shortly overtake both Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom ($179.9 million) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ($197.2 million).
At the end of the adventuring day, however, the original Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark, should continue to stand as the giant of the series.
While Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will probably top that 1981 movie’s $245 million take, it probably won’t come close to topping its adjusted-for-inflation take.
In 2008 dollars, according to Box Office Mojo, Raiders grossed a titanic $606.4 million. (Temple of Doom’s take adjusts up to $368.3 million; Last Crusade’s to $340 million.)
If Indy doesn’t end up being as big as he used to be, then he’ll have to live with the next best thing: being big enough.
Other tidbits:
- Among its lesser records, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is now the No. 1 movie of the year to star a senior citizen (age 65 or older), topping The Bucket List, a 2007 release which made most of its $93.3 million after Jan. 1.
- This weekend’s box office was actually down from last year’s. For one thing, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was a bit smaller than Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End ($114.7 million, Friday-Sunday). Secondly, second-place finisher The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian ($23 million) was far smaller than its 2007 counterpart, Shrek the Third ($53 million).
- And for a third thing, two Top 10 movies failed to clear $1 million from Friday to Sunday.
- With $96.7 million in the bank as of today, Prince Caspian will easily break $100 million, but it won’t easily, if ever, top The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’s $291.7 million.
- Caspian business was down 58 percent from its disappointing opening weekend.
- Far from winded after four weekends, Iron Man (third place, $20.1 million, Friday-Sunday; $25.7 million, Friday-Monday; $257.8 million overall) is living up to its title.
- The comedies Baby Mama (seventh place, $3.3 million, Friday-Sunday; $4.2 million, Friday-Monday; $53 million overall) and Forgetting Sarah Marshall (eighth place, $1.7 million, Friday-Sunday; $2.2 million, Friday-Monday; $58.7 million overall) have put together nice little runs.
- What Happens in Vegas (fourth place, $9 million, Friday-Sunday; $11.2 million, Friday-Monday; $56.4 million overall) has, too, but it has too much star power to truly qualify as nice ’n’ little.
- The Forbidden Kingdom ($375,000, Friday-Sunday; $489,000, Friday-Monday; $51.2 million overall) fell out of the Top 10, but comes up as Jackie Chan’s biggest hit outside of the Rush Hour and Shanghai Noon franchises. For Jet Li, the movie will probably fall just short of topping Hero and Romeo Must Die as his biggest hit outside of Lethal Weapon IV.
- In limited release, the John Cusack satire War, Inc. came up big with $35,336 from Friday to Sunday ($50,714, Friday-Monday) at two theaters.
Here’s a recap of the top-grossing weekend films based on Friday-Sunday estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations:
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, $101 million
- The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, $23 million
- Iron Man, $20.1 million
- What Happens in Vegas, $9 million
- Speed Racer, $4 million
- Made of Honor, $3.4 million
- Baby Mama, $3.3 million
- Forgetting Sarah Marshall, $1.7 million
- Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, $940,000
- The Visitor, $723,000
Who’s an Indy Fan? Hey, Who Isn’t?
Indiana Jones fans, the theory goes, are different.
“They’re not like Trekkie fans, and they’re not like Star Wars fans,” says filmmaker Brandon Kleyla, choosing his words carefully. “They’re more humble.”
Or maybe not.
Fans of the George Lucas-Steven Spielberg adventure franchise are expected to help Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, opening on nearly 4,000 screens at midnight tonight, to a five-day debut of a very unhumble $150 million. Or more.
“It looks to be the movie that all other blockbusters will try to beat for the summer box-office crown,” Gitesh Pandya, editor of BoxOfficeGuru.com, said in an email interview.
Pandya foresees a Thursday-Monday, extended Memorial Day weekend opening “north of $150 million.”
Box-office analyst Jeff Bock of Exhibitor Relations Co. is thinking $175 million, a figure that would match the record set by Lucas’ Star Wars: Episode IIIRevenge of the Sith, which collected nine figures over the same span in 2005.
Both see Kingdom of the Crystal Skull doing what Speed Racer and, to a lesser degree, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian couldn’t dodominate the family market.
Sketchy buzz over the weekend that gave way to solid reviews in the past few days seemingly has fueled expectations. A nearly 20-year wait between movies clearly has fueled anticipation.
And when pent-up demand meets opening day? Bock predicts that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the fourth film in the Indiana Jones series, will gross as much as $50 million tomorrow. That would again put it in the neighborhood of Revenge of the Sith, currently the all-time Thursday king.
And that’s only the tip of the bullwhip. The real money for the new Indiana Jones lies overseas where the iconic Harrison Ford archaeologist is, well, extra iconic.
“This is Indiana Jones and the Quest for Worldwide Domination,” Bock says. “Make no mistake, this is going to be a hit worldwide.”
Kleyla is not surprised by the lofty expectations. The actor-director is, after all, something of an expert on the appeal of Indiana Jones. He’s a fana child of the ’80s who first discovered the good Dr. Jones at a theme park. He’s a collector. And he’s a documentarian.
His new film, Indyfans and the Quest for Fortune and Glory, profiles more than 50 devotees of Henry Walton Jones Jr., Ph.D.
If the documentary sounds like Trekkies for Indiana Jones followers, then it is, sort of. And it isn’t, sort of. For one thing, there aren’t any Indiana Jones convention scenes because, according to Kleyla, there aren’t any Indiana Jones conventions.
“It’s just a different breed of fan,” Kleyla says. “…Some of them have really amazing careers, and huge jobs, and you wouldn’t know it until you walk into their office and see the Indy mannequin.”
The stealth nature of the fandom stems, in part, Kleyla thinks, from Jones’ penchant for the workaday ensemble of khakis, leather jacket and fedora.
“The thing with the Indy outfit is,” Kleyla says, “you can wear it around, and nobody knows.”
Actually, Kleyla acknowledges, the hat usually is the tip-off. And he expects to see quite a lot of them in the coming days.
“No doubt they’ll be there opening weekend,” he says of the faithful. “They’ll show up dressed and ready to go.”
And in that respect, Indiana Jones fans are just like Star Wars and Star Trek fans.
“They plunk down their cash,” says Bock. “And that’s what counts.”