Big Surprise: Top Grossing Movies of the Decade Are Basically All Franchise Films

Here's another list for you to digest as we approach the end of the decade. Jason Kottke [1] recently took a look at the list of highest-grossing films from 2000-2009 courtesy of Wikipedia [2], and makes the observation that only one movie in the top 20 is based on an original screenplay. The rest of the movies are all adaptations of books or sequels to existing franchises. Now, it's pretty easy to jump on this list and whine and moan about how it means there is nothing original in Hollywood anymore. While I agree that there is a problem with studios valuing brand over concept, don't forget, we are talking about the movies that made the most money here. OF COURSE familiar characters and titles are going to attract more viewers than strange and unfamiliar ones... doesn't that make sense? A lot of people don't even see movies at the theatre, so they don't discover something until it hits TV or DVD. The first installment is the one that introduces the concept, attracts a following and then builds the franchise. Even the first movie from an existing property needs to build an audience -- notice that Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Spider-Man are the only movies on this list that are the first in their series? Anyway, I'm not saying it's good, but it's certainly not surprising. Unfortunately it's this trend that has also resulted in the whole toy and board game movie debacle. Maybe we need a few brand-based movies to fail so that people realize that good stories are also important. Check out the top 20 grossing movies of the decade after the jump. What do you think, is it depressing or deserving? 1. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King 2. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest 3. The Dark Knight 4. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone 5. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End 6. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 7. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 8. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers 9. Shrek 2 10. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 11. Spider-Man 3 12. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 13. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs 14. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 15. Finding Nemo 16. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith 17. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen 18. Spider-Man 19. Shrek the Third 20. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban [1] http://kottke.org/09/11/the-2000s-according-to-wikipedia [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000s_in_film

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Avatar TV Spot

Late last night while I was watching the Yankees win the World Series they showed a 30sec TV spot for James Cameron's "Avatar."Check out the TV Spot and don't forget to leave your comments. Are you still diging this movie or not?The film is due out December 18th 2009 and stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi, and Laz Alonso.Avatar is the story of an ex-Marine who finds himself thrust into hostilities on an alien planet filled with exotic life forms. As an Avatar, a human mind in an alien body, he finds himself torn between two worlds, in a desperate fight for his own survival and that of the indigenous people. More than ten years in the making, Avatar marks Cameron's return to feature directing since helming 1997's Titanic, the highest grossing film of all time and winner of eleven Oscars® including Best Picture. WETA Digital, renowned for its work in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and King Kong, will incorporate new intuitive CGI technologies to transform the environments and characters into photorealistic 3D imagery that will transport the audience into the alien world rich with imaginative vistas, creatures and characters. Source: TheMovieBox

Avatar Featurette And Clip

Late last night I posted the international trailer James Cameron's "Avatar," and now 20th Century Fox has released a four minute trailer for the film as well including what it looks like the first TV Spot for the film or as people call it a publicity clip.Check out the both videos below and don't forget to leave your comments.The film is due out December 18th 2009.stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi, and Laz Alonso.Avatar is the story of an ex-Marine who finds himself thrust into hostilities on an alien planet filled with exotic life forms. As an Avatar, a human mind in an alien body, he finds himself torn between two worlds, in a desperate fight for his own survival and that of the indigenous people. More than ten years in the making, Avatar marks Cameron's return to feature directing since helming 1997's Titanic, the highest grossing film of all time and winner of eleven Oscars® including Best Picture. WETA Digital, renowned for its work in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and King Kong, will incorporate new intuitive CGI technologies to transform the environments and characters into photorealistic 3D imagery that will transport the audience into the alien world rich with imaginative vistas, creatures and characters. Featurette Publicity Clip Source: LatinoReview / Fox

Michael Jacksons This Is It Enters the Top-25 Advance Ticket Sellers of All-Time

Three weeks prior to its October 28th release, Michael Jacksons This Is It is now one of the MovieTickets.com Top-25 Advance Ticket Sellers of All-Time, bumping The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring from the Number 25 slot. At the same point in the sales cycle, Michael Jacksons This Is It is on the heels of Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds, the highest grossing concert film of all-time. Heres the updated Top-25: MovieTickets.com Top-25 Advance Ticket Sellers of All-Time 1. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith 2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince + IMAX + IMAX 3-D 3. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (4) + IMAX 4. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King 5. The Dark Knight + IMAX 6. Twilight 7. Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Disney Digital 3-D 8. Harry Potter and the Order of ...

10 Best Motivational Speeches In War Movies

Full Metal Jacket Aragorn’s Speech at the Black Gate – Lord Of The Rings – The Return Of The King Henry V William Walace – Braveheart Alexander – Battle of Gaugamela Gen. George Patton (George C. Scott) Patton Spartacus Chamberlain’s Speech to Mutineers - Gettysburg 300 – Final Speech

Avatar Teaser Trailer Is Here!

20th Century Fox has released ther teaser traier for James Cameron's "Avatar," starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi, and Laz Alonso.The film is due out December 18th 2009.Avatar is the story of an ex-Marine who finds himself thrust into hostilities on an alien planet filled with exotic life forms. As an Avatar, a human mind in an alien body, he finds himself torn between two worlds, in a desperate fight for his own survival and that of the indigenous people. More than ten years in the making, Avatar marks Cameron's return to feature directing since helming 1997's Titanic, the highest grossing film of all time and winner of eleven Oscars® including Best Picture. WETA Digital, renowned for its work in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and King Kong, will incorporate new intuitive CGI technologies to transform the environments and characters into photorealistic 3D imagery that will transport the audience into the alien world rich with imaginative vistas, creatures and characters.Check out the teaser trailer below, and whenever APPLE fixes its links go HERE.So what do you guys/gals think? Source: Apple

New Avatar Photos

With the trailer debuting in a few hours from now the folks over at 20th Century Fox has provided LatinoReview with some new photos from James Cameron's "Avatar," starring  Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi, and Laz Alonso.The film is due out December 18th 2009.We'll keep you posted when the trailer is out around 10am EST.Check out the pics below.Avatar is the story of an ex-Marine who finds himself thrust into hostilities on an alien planet filled with exotic life forms. As an Avatar, a human mind in an alien body, he finds himself torn between two worlds, in a desperate fight for his own survival and that of the indigenous people. More than ten years in the making, Avatar marks Cameron's return to feature directing since helming 1997's Titanic, the highest grossing film of all time and winner of eleven Oscars® including Best Picture. WETA Digital, renowned for its work in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and King Kong, will incorporate new intuitive CGI technologies to transform the environments and characters into photorealistic 3D imagery that will transport the audience into the alien world rich with imaginative vistas, creatures and characters. Source: 20th Century Fox

Lawsuit Might Stop The Hobbit

If there's one thing I learned from the way Lord Of The Rings was released by New Line, it's that New Line's accountant were either incredibly dumb or some of the most evil people on the planet.Peter Jackson himself sued New Line in 2005 for under-paying him on The Fellowship of The Ring. In 2007, Jackson settled for an undisclosed amount. Saul Zaentz, a producer who once owned film rights to the LOTR story also sued New Line over his share of the receipts and settled in 2005 for $168 million.And this was all before Warner Bros. sucked up the studio.Once again it's legal mumbo-jumbo time on Latino Review. Let's begin!- In 1969 J.R.R. Tolkien sold the film rights to his work to United Artists for $250,000 and 7.5% of the gross after a studio recoups their expense. That much is known. The Tolkien Heirs and their charity group The Tolkien Trust also insist that the original contract let Tolkien revoke the rights to additional films in the event of a breach of contract.- MGM bought out United Artists, absorbing the rights and keeping international distribution rights on the film while selling production rights to New Line, who hired Peter Jackson, etc.- The Lord Of The Rings films gross an estimated $6 billion dollars (to date). New Line gets sucked up into Warner Bros. The Tolkien Heirs know that after the studio re-couped 2.6x their production budget, the estate is entitled to 7.5%.- Time Warner doesn't pay out, so the Tolkien estate sues for $220 million dollars. The studio says the original contract is vague, so they're only going to hand over 20% of home video sales (because home video wasn't invented) instead of the 100% the Tolkiens are seeking. Studio lawyers also say that for some lawyer-ish reason, the Tolkiens are only entitled to 2.5%, not 7.5% of revenues from The Two Towers and The Return Of The King.- The Tolkiens are pissed, settlement talks go south and the suit will go in front of a jury in October of this year in the Los Angeles Superior Court.Got it? Sort of?Here's the nitty gritty: Time Warner thinks that with some "Hollywood accounting" and a few pithy legal fees, they can avoid paying out $220 million dollars. It's unlikely that this case will cost that much in man-power. Warners is a big studio and is good with the lawyering.The Tolkiens, on the other hand, are pissed. So pissed, in fact, that if the original contract is upheld, they will halt the production and/or release of Guillermo Del Toro's two Hobbit films by pulling the rights all-together. Warners obviously doesn't want that to happen, because they are looking at a pay day estimated around $4 billion if those two films are made.Interestingly enough, if the Tolkiens do win and pull the rights from Warners, they would be free to sell those rights under a more modern contract. And get this: You know who owns the publishing rights to Tolkiens work?NewsCorp.Damn 20th Century Fox has an in.Stay tuned, entertainment law fans.Source: Bloomberg

Who Will Play Bilbo Baggins In The Hobbit?

Peter Jackson and Guerillmo Del Toro have been working hard, getting the scripts for the two upcoming prequels to the Lord Of The Rings trilogy ready for a more vigorous pre-production. We suspect certain actors from the previous trilogy will join on for these two films, one based on The Hobbit and the other on additional material bridging The Hobbit and the War Of The Ring trilogy. The question has always been hanging in the air since these projects were announced is who is going to inherit the role of Bilbo Baggins since Ian Holm (Bilbo in the previous films) is too old to return to a prequel part.Now, rumors from Hero Complex suggest that Peter Jackson (attending Comic Con in support of District 9, which he produced) is going to drop the casting bomb on us next week. That means the short list is now important, so who's on it?We've been hearing four names (although one is a stupid rumor-based long shot) and they are: David Tennant - That's right, the UK's Dr. Who might be playing Bilbo. He's kind of a new face for audiences outside England and genre-lovi' Who fans, so he might be the best choice if Del Toro and Jackson want to bring someone new into the epic fantasy fold. Daniel Radcliffe - Obviously not new to the epic fantasy fold as most of you saw him or plan on seeing him as Harry Potter this weekend/ It seems like an odd choice to go from one blockbuster, bar-setting fantasy to the next, but who turns down a Peter Jackson Tolkien movie? Really? James McAvoy - He played a pretty good bad-ass in Wanted, was saccharine sweet in Atonement and flexed his chops in The Last King Of Scotland. McAvoy has some range and he's also done fantasy epic in Narnia as Mr. Tumnus in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Jack Black - Yeah, that's not going to happen. But someone put his name in there. Probably the British and their tabloid press. The conspiracy theory de jour is that David Tennant is going to be the winner. Dr. Who is having it's first showing ever at the San Diego Con and Tennant will be in attendance. I'm okay with every choice except - obviously - the fake one. I think McAvoy would be able to make the less-wise Bilbo believable, but also be able to transition the character closer to Holm's appearance in The Fellowship Of The Ring. Radcliffe is developing at a faster pace than I expected him to, building his chops from years and years as a wizard. It wouldn't be a bad choice, but I could see some folks getting incensed. Tennant has experience selling sci-fi/fantasy plots and with a built in audience for more Tolkien adaptations, casting a big name like McAvoy or Radcliffe might be an unnecessary move if Tennant can do the job and do it well.My money is about evenly split between McAvoy and Tennant.If Jack Black gets the part. Well, there might be riots. Geek riots.Source: Hero Complex

See All 9 Stitchpunk Images From 9!

So far, with regard to the upcoming animated film 9, we've met two characters: the beast known as The Seamstress and the good gal adventuress known as "7", voiced by Jennifer Connelly. Now Focus Features has released images of the remaining eight stitchpunk beings who comprise the titular "9".

Their descriptions can be found below; click each slice to see the full image while you imagine being 9, who finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world. All humans are gone, and it is only by chance that he discovers a small community of others like him taking refuge from fearsome machines that roam the earth intent on their extinction. Despite being the neophyte of the group, 9 convinces the others that hiding will do them no good. They must take the offensive if they are to survive, and they must discover why the machines want to destroy them in the first place. As they'll soon come to learn, the very future of civilization may depend on them.

1 - Voiced by one of the worlds most respected actors, Christopher Plummer, 1 is the Scientist's first creation. As the elder, he is the self-declared leader of the group. He is clever and sly, but also domineering, quick-tempered, and threatened by the new arrival of 9, whose higher intellect leads him to question authority.

2 - Voiced by Academy Award Winner Martin Landau, 2 is a kindly but now frail inventor and explorer who embodies the Scientists strong creative spirit. An inquisitive personality, 2 is fearless. Director Shane Acker affectionately describes him as a salty old dog.

3/4 - Communicating visually, not verbally, 3 and 4 are the scholarly twins who voraciously catalogue everything they can see and find, recording and building a massive database for the group of the world that surrounds them and the history that led up to their creation.

5 - Voiced by Academy Award nominee John C. Reilly, 5 is a caring, nurturing engineer the loyal, big-hearted common man who always tries to play the peacemaker. He is also an apprentice of 2, with whom he shares a special bond.

6 - 6, the groups visionary is voiced by Crispin Glover. Although reclusive and eccentric, his bursts of artistic inspiration through drawings made from his pen nib hands may be keys to help his fellow stitchpunk beings navigate their darkest hours.

8 - Armed with a giant kitchen cleaver and half a scissor blade, the none-too-bright muscle and enforcer of the group, 8 (voiced by Fred Tatasciore), is created to help the others physically survive the dangerous post-apocalyptic world.

9 - To voice the lead role of the newly born and aborning hero -- 9, Acker couldnt help but have in mind an actor who was so central to the film set he had worked on years earlier in New Zealand The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King star Elijah Wood.

9, directed by Shane Acker and produced by Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov, premieres -- of course -- on 9.9.09. While you wait:

Meet the Scientist here

Explore the Scientist's Lab here

Watch the trailer below, and visit the film's official site for more

- Debi Moore

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