Vampires foil Tooth Fairy, Santa as ‘Breaking Dawn – Part 2′ stays at No. 1

LOS ANGELES – Teen vampire film “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2″ continued to take a bite out of the domestic box office, drawing $64 million in ticket sales over the five-day Thanksgiving holiday weekend to finish ahead of James Bond film “Skyfall.”

After opening with a massive $141.1 million last weekend, the finale of the “Twilight” franchise brought in a holiday swarm of fans to see teen favorites Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner, pushing “Breaking Dawn” to $227 million in total domestic ticket sales.

“Skyfall,” starring Daniel Craig in the 23rd installment of the James Bond franchise, finished second, collecting $51 million in weekend ticket sales in the United States and Canada, according to studio estimates compiled by the box office division of Hollywood.com.

“Lincoln,” Steven Spielberg’s historical film on the last days of President Abraham Lincoln, grabbed third with $34.1 million over the Wednesday-through-Sunday period.

Making its debut in fourth place with $32.6 million was the animated film “Rise of the Guardians,” featuring the voices of Chris Pine and Alec Baldwin as the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus and other childhood favorites who save the world.

“Life of Pi,” based on Yann Martel’s 2001 best-seller about a boy who survives on a raft with a tiger after his ship sinks, collected $30.15 million for a strong fifth-place finish.

“Rise of the Guardians,” produced by Dreamworks Animation for roughly $145 million, had been projected by distributor Paramount Pictures to gross $35 million in its first five days, according to Box Office Mojo.

Based on “The Guardians of Childhood” book series by children’s author William Joyce, the film will be the last Paramount will release for Dreamworks, whose films will be distributed next year by News Corp’s Fox studio.

Anne Globe, Dreamworks’ chief marketing officer, pointed to “the great parent reactions we’ve seen” to the film, and noting it was among the few choices for families through the end of year, said the studio was “hoping for very long legs through the holidays.”

The Ang Li film “Life of Pi,” on the other hand, performed stronger than expected. “We clearly exceeded our pre-release expectations,” said Chris Aronson, president of domestic distribution for 20th Century Fox.

“We’re seeing word of mouth in action, and a remarkably balanced demographic,” including strong ticket sales among those under 25, he said, adding “Many felt it was impossible to film, but Ang Li pulled it off.”

The remake of the 1984 Cold War film “Red Dawn,” finished seventh with $22 million in sales, behind animated feature “Wreck It Ralph”‘s $23 million take.

“Red Dawn” arrived at movie theaters four years after it was shot by MGM, but was delayed when the studio filed for bankruptcy in 2010. Last year, MGM decided to digitally alter the villains in the movie, inserting North Koreans instead of Chinese, after Hollywood began courting Chinese companies to help finance its films.

Propelled by the vampires, secret agents, presidents and nursery school favorites, Hollywood ticket sales totaled $290 million for the holiday weekend, beating the holiday weekend high mark of $273 million recorded in 2009. Hollywood studios often release their biggest holiday films on Wednesday to take advantage of school breaks the day before Thanksgiving.

The continued rush of fans to see teen favorites Pattinson, Stewart and Lautner pushed the “Twilight” installment to $227 million in total domestic ticket sales, making it the year’s sixth-largest, according to figures compiled by Box Office Mojo.

“Skyfall” with $221.7 million is just behind at number seven, while the year’s box office champ remains “Marvel’s The Avengers,” which has taken in $623 million to date.

source: interaksyon.com

'Twilight' stars look to sink teeth into other roles

LOS ANGELES -- Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson are looking forward to sinking their teeth into new, non-vampire roles, as they ponder life after the "Twilight" saga.

"The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2" debuts this weekend in North America, bringing the blockbuster vampire franchise to an end, and closing a lucrative chapter in the young actors' careers.

The five films, based on novels of the same name by Stephenie Meyer, have made a fortune for them and for the Summit Entertainment studio, earning $2.4 billion since the first movie in 2008.

And like the "Harry Potter" movies, the franchise remains a huge success right to the end: some 2,200 fans, mostly teenage girls, camped out for days in Los Angeles ahead of the red carpet premiere this week.

The stars say they are happy about the excitement they still generate, but say the time is right to move on.

"I'm so happy that the story is told, you have no idea. The fact that this thing is out and it's not weighing on us anymore, I'm super excited about that," said Stewart, who plays Bella Swan.

"I don't want to sound like I'm excited just to be done with the experience. It is sad, it is strange," she told reporters in Beverly Hills before the film's release.

"But it's normal. Things shouldn't stay stagnant," added the 22-year-old, who has already made her post-'Twilight' mark in films including this year's "Snow White and the Huntsman" and "On the Road."

British actor Pattinson -- Stewart's partner both on- and off-screen, except for a few months' separation after the actress's widely-reported fling with the director of "Snow White" -- said it will take time to get over "Twilight."

"I think it's going to take 10 years to really settle in my brain," said the 26-year-old, who plays Edward Cullen. "If I could get a little bit more control over my public image, that would be nice.

"I guess you could play superhero after superhero. That seems like the only guaranteed big money thing. It's not that satisfying, getting monetary success, but it keeps the door open for doing what you want.

"I'm trying to sign up and do movies that I can be proud of," said the actor, who has already branched out with an appearance in David Cronenberg's "Cosmopolis."

In the fifth and final "Twilight" installment, Bella begins a new life as a vampire, and has to defend her daughter Renesmee against the elite Volturi, who fear she is a threat to their future.

"The first one was more romantic and intimate, and this one is more epic and has a bigger scale," director Bill Condon told AFP, saying his biggest question is how moviegoers will react to Bella's transformation.

"Those movies are Bella's story. Kristen Stewart is a human and she's been the one who takes us through it all. Now, Kristen is not a human anymore, so this is a story now where you've lost your human guide," he said.

The story now primarily involves vampires, whose expressions and body language is extremely limited.

Condon said that was "the biggest challenge of this series ... it's something that is laid out in the mythology: they don't even breathe, they have no need to sit, they don't move, they don't cry, so these intense emotional things can't happen.

"So yes, a lot of the actors' tools are taken away from them, including their eyes. Each of the actors wears contact lenses. So they're not seeing so clearly and we're not seeing that clearly into their souls."

He continued: "You're starting with an awful load of restrictions. That's why sometimes, these poor actors get accused of being wooden. I think they felt misunderstood and I feel for them because it's a very specific thing.

"That wooden thing is something that represents a lot of work!"

But Condon remains confident that the strength of Bella's character will keep moviegoers gripped.

"I think that the secret of this franchise is that there's a woman at its center and it's told from her point of view. And there are not enough of these movies," he said.

"And I think that audiences and especially female audiences are starving for that."

It's no coincidence that the mega-saga likely to take over from the "Twilight" series is "The Hunger Games," a post-apocalyptic drama also centered on a powerful female character, Katniss Everdeen, played by Jennifer Lawrence.

Also produced by Lionsgate-Summit, the first film in the trilogy was released in March, and has made $645 million globally. The second installment is due out in November 2013.

source: interaksyon.com

‘Twilight Saga’ ends with movie love letter to fans

LOS ANGELES – “Twilight” fans bid an emotional farewell this week to Bella, Edward and Jacob in “Breaking Dawn-Part 2,” the romantic book and movie franchise that ignited a pop culture infatuation with blood-sucking vampires and werewolves.

The tumultuous love triangle between human girl Bella Swan, vampire Edward Cullen and werewolf Jacob Black, that has gripped avid fans known as “Twi-hards” for seven years, comes to a tantalizing end as “Breaking Dawn-Part 2″ hits movie theaters around the world.

The “Twilight” film franchise, based on a series of novels by Stephenie Meyer, rocketed the three main stars, Kristen Stewart (Bella), Robert Pattinson (Edward) and Taylor Lautner (Jacob), into the spotlight and the first four films have grossed more than $2.5 billion at the worldwide box office.

For director Bill Condon, who shot both parts of “Breaking Dawn” together and split into two movies post-production, the fifth and final film was all about the fans – who get a surprise twist to the ending.

“The real challenge was to make sure it was a satisfying climax,” Condon told reporters. “The film opens with an overture of all the main scenes from all five movies, and at the end, I…brought (it) back to the spirit of the old movies.”

The movie pays homage to the angst-ridden teenage romance between Bella and Edward that was underscored by the off-screen real-life romance between Stewart, 22, and Pattinson, 26.

“Breaking Dawn-Part 2″ shifts the action from a love story to a family story, as the Cullen clan recruit their extended vampire family to protect Bella and Edward’s daughter Renesmee from an ancient vampire coven.

“I think it’s very sweet, especially the ending of it, I think it’s very close to the book as well. It seems to be that it’s really made for the fans,” Pattinson told Reuters.

While the past four films have stayed true to the books, author Meyer and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg came up with a plot twist that adds a major scene that may surprise movie-goers.

“(The action) is off screen in the novel because we only see what Bella sees, and this was just a way of making visual what some of the other characters might have seen,” Meyer told reporters.

“It does feel very surprising. There’s something new to see but to me it doesn’t seem like it’s going hugely off the page,” she added.

While the fourth film saw Bella’s human life draw to a conclusion when she died giving birth to a human-vampire hybrid baby with new husband Edward, “Breaking Dawn-Part 2,” sees Bella as a mother and a newly-transformed vampire.

“The coolest thing about vampire Bella is that I got to play her as a human for so long, and the special parts of each vampire are always informed by the great things that they were as a human and so I got to walk in those shoes,” Stewart told Reuters.

“Everything made total sense to me. I waited for so long (to play a vampire), once I finally got it, it was so comfortable, I couldn’t wait,” the actress added.

“The Twilight Saga,” first published in 2005, kicked off a wave of vampire or supernatural-themes books, films and TV shows including HBO’s “True Blood,” the CW TV network’s “The Vampire Diaries” and Richelle Mead’s “Vampire Academy” series of young adult novels.

As the sun sets on the franchise Meyer brought to life, the author said that while she didn’t rule out the possibility of finding more stories in the vampire-werewolf universe, she had closed the chapter on the Cullens.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever get back to these (stories). Someday I’ll write down what was going to happen next. It’s sad knowing I don’t have another party with the kids again, I really hope I have a chance to at least see my friends again,” she told Reuters.

source: interaksyon.com

Breaking Dawn Part 2: See Jacob Meet Renesmee

This still from Breaking Dawn: Part 2 might seem to portray a cute conversation between werewolf babysitter Jacob and Renesmee – the daughter of Jacob's former crush, Bella – but there's an underlying storyline that even Taylor Lautner admits people think is "creepy."

Because of a werewolf-related process called "imprinting," Lautner's Jacob is irrevocably (as Bella might say) tied to the child (played by Mackenzie Foy). Jacob will fill a protective, older-brother role to the child until she matures.


The kicker? Renesmee grows rapidly, and will appear 17 when she's actually only seven years old – something readers don't see in the book.

As Lautner said, "creepy."

"Everybody likes to tease me about it," Lautner told Entertainment Weekly. "I laugh along with them, but it's important for me to keep in my mind that it's as simple as a lifelong bond. It's not nearly as creepy as everybody likes to joke."

Not to worry, though. Jacob and Renesmee's complicated relationship will get less icky during the course of the movie when they have to fight, along with the vampires, for Renesmee's right to live. We'll have to wait to see those pictures, though: Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 isn't set to arrive in theaters until Nov. 16.

source: people.com