Salon.com > Clash of the Titans

“Titans” clashes with “Date Night” at box office

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 12:24:00 +0000

Steve Carell and Tina Fey are in a box-office clash with the gods of Mount Olympus.

No. 1 bragging rights for the weekend were too close to call Sunday, with 20th Century Fox estimating a $27.1 million debut for Carell and Fey's comedy "Date Night" and Warner Bros. reporting the action tale "Clash of the Titans" at $26.9 million.

Rankings will be sorted out Monday when studios release final numbers, which can vary by $1 million or more for some films compared with Sunday estimates.

Warner executives said they tracked "Clash of the Titans" as No. 1 for a second straight weekend, with "Date Night" trailing by about $1 million.

"I'm not complaining about it," said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner. "They're certainly entitled to their own projection, and we'll see. Maybe they're right and we're wrong. Monday will tell."

Photo finishes are rare for the No. 1 spot at the box office, where one movie usually is the clear winner.

Weekend projections include fairly hard figures for Friday and Saturday but estimates for how much a movie will take in on Sunday. Studios base those estimates on such factors as how similar movies performed in past weekends.

The Kraken is this year’s Susan Boyle

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 19:35:00 +0000

Hippogriffs are so last decade. Toruks? Whatever. And dragons? Well, they're all right. But from the moment Liam Neeson commanded, with all the authority of the most badass god on Olympus, a certain tentacled behemoth to go forth, the Kraken became the hottest mythic beast to descend upon our culture since Harry met the Hendersons.

It can't only be because it's fun to say "Kraken." (Although it totally is.)

The makers of "Clash of the Titans" could have had their pick of beasts. Greek mythology certainly doesn't want for fanciful creatures: You got your Scylla. You got your Charybdis. You got your gorgons and harpies. What Greek mythology doesn't have, however, is Kraken. Kraken, as every fan of fanciful water critters knows, is Scandinavian. And he's only been around since about the 12th century. Guess "Release the hydra!" just didn't have quite the same ring.

“Titans” battles to No. 1 spot with $61.4 million

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 13:05:00 +0000

The gods of Mount Olympus are the new rulers of the weekend box office.

The ancient Greek action remake "Clash of the Titans" debuted at No. 1 with $61.4 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. Adding Thursday night preview screenings, the movie totaled $64.1 million.

Released by Warner Bros., "Clash of the Titans" features "Avatar" star Sam Worthington as demigod hero Perseus and Liam Neeson as his dad, Zeus, king of the Olympian deities.

Opening at No. 2 with $30.2 million was Lionsgate's sequel "Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Too?", reuniting filmmaker Perry with Janet Jackson and other co-stars for another comic drama about eight friends and their relationships.

The previous weekend's top movie, DreamWorks Animation's Viking adventure "How to Train Your Dragon," ran a close third with $29.2 million, raising its 10-day total to $92.3 million.

Miley Cyrus' teen drama "The Last Song" premiered at No. 4 with $16.2 million. The Disney release raised its total to $25.6 million since opening Wednesday. Written by best-selling author Nicholas Sparks specifically for the "Hannah Montana" star, the movie casts Cyrus as a sullen teen spending the summer with her estranged father.

I hate 3-D!

Fri, 02 Apr 2010 13:01:00 +0000

I knew it was all over a few nights ago, when I saw the Sears ad for 3-D television. After all, the current top two movies in the country are the 3-D fantasies "Alice in Wonderland" and "How to Train Your Dragon." Resistance is futile, non-immersive fogies. The future of entertainment is here, reaching out from the screen to grab you by the short and curlies, whether you like it or not.

The 3-D revolution has been a long time coming. The descendant of old-timey stereoscope photography, the form has been around since the 1920s. But even the spooky sci-fi movies of the '50s and the intermittent slasher flicks from the '80s and beyond never fully caught on as anything more than a fad. In the past few years, however, advances in technology changed all that, creating a small but substantial boom in action and children’s movies that leapt at their audiences. And then there was "Avatar." Over $2 billion and counting in worldwide box office. Nine Oscar nominations. And those words that are music to Hollywood's ears: repeat business. Game over.

“Clash of the Titans” could make the gods weep

Fri, 02 Apr 2010 11:01:00 +0000

Many of us who fancied ourselves sophisticated in 1981 freely mocked "Clash of the Titans" at the time of its theatrical release: A hokey-looking fantasy that plays fast and loose with Greek mythology, starring a well-oiled Harry Hamlin as brave warrior Perseus and Laurence Olivier as his top-god father, Zeus? No thanks. We were too busy oohing and ahhing over the prim aesthetics of "Chariots of Fire" to fall for anything so obviously fake as a flying white horse.

Since then, many of us have seen the error of our ways, and we now know what little kids who were dazzled by watching "Clash of the Titans" on TV (it was a staple of HBO in the early days) have always known. Directed by Desmond Davis and with stop-motion special effects by the great Ray Harryhausen, the first "Clash of the Titans" is an unself-conscious treasure of fantasy filmmaking. Harryhausen's creatures -- from his feathery-winged Pegasus to his fearsome yet sympathetic sea beast the Kraken -- are low-tech by today's standards. Yet within their specially created universe, they're wholly alive, not disposable. Their fantastically unreal qualities demand a measure of engagement from the viewer, and it's that engagement -- not the amount of money or time spent on their creation -- that gives them life.

Sweet Zeus! Where are the good Greek films?

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 17:11:00 +0000

Watching the trailer for "Clash of the Titans," I know as surely as the Oracle of Delphi that this movie will be foul. A remake of the 1981 film -- fantasy classic to some, pure hokum to others -- it will swoop upon us April 2.

Here's what I wonder: Why has no halfway decent director made a film about the Greek gods and their attendant nymphs and heroes? I don't mean contemporary retellings like "Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief." I mean a movie that re-creates the Greek gods on their own terms.

Think about what James Cameron or Peter Jackson could do with this material -- the original stuff from Hesiod and Ovid and Apollodorus, which is so much better than toga-clad extras and grunts fighting giant scorpions.

TV spots for the 2010 "Clash of the Titans" played endlessly during the Vancouver Olympics. In one, Liam Neeson as Zeus cries "Embrace your birthright, Perseus!" in tones stinking of Stilton. The following clip is like a low-rent "Gladiator" jammed with rock 'n' roll: