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Bieber Fever Spiked: New Doc in Two Thirds Fewer Theaters, With Smaller Distributor

Roger Friedman
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Bieber Fever Spiked: New Doc in Two Thirds Fewer Theaters, With Smaller Distributor

How things have changed in just two and a half years: Justin Bieber’s 2011 ‘documentary,’ called “Never Say Never,” was a record breaker. It opened in over 3,000 theaters, backed by Paramount Pictures. The film took in over $73 million total. The publicity and the crowing were endless.

But kids get older. Every teen pop star from Fabian to Bobby Sherman to Shaun Cassidy and Debbie Gibson can tell you that. Justin Bieber’s original fan base isn’t there.

Bieber has some understanding of this. That’s why “Believe,” his new infomercial, opened only on 1,073 screens today. It was also not heavily promoted, and has no advance reviews.  It doesn’t come from a major movie studio. Open Road Films, a good smaller firm, is handling it. But they’re being cautious. They must sense a) that “Believe” is just a promotional device, and b) it’s for hard core younger kids, especially outside of the U.S.

Bieber knows it. That’s why he keeps making whiny comments about “retirement.” The box office returns from today will not be anything like “Never Say Never.” So he’s hedging his bets. Instead of trying to get an education, transition into a next stage of career that’s classy, Bieber is set up for a temper tantrum.

Some teen stars make it. Stevie Wonder years ago, and Justin Timberlake recently, plotted smart courses. Bieber should look at them for a way out of this mess. Instead, he’ll probably be high as a kite tomorrow when his manager, Scooter Braun, has to explain the box office results of “Believe.”

 

 

Justin Bieber Taunts Fans with “Retirement” on Eve of Film Flop

Roger Friedman
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0
Justin Bieber Taunts Fans with “Retirement” on Eve of Film Flop

Justin Bieber keeps saying he’s going to retire. It won’t be soon enough. But isn’t the 19 year old “pop star” trying to rile his fans into going to his new ‘documentary’, called “Believe.” This stinker arrives today in some theatres. Its success or lack thereof may be a referendum from the land of teens on Bieber’s future. The infomercial has no advance reviews, and a low profile on the internet.

Unlike his “Never Say Never,” Bieber’s new ‘film’ has trouble written all over it. At last week’s L.A. premiere, Bieber dressed like Cathy Rigby playing Peter Pan in Branson, Missouri. Meanwhile, his new “Journals” album hit iTunes at number 1 yesterday but then started to slip down the charts. Beyonce’s new album returned to Number 1 on iTunes within hours.

It’s the retirement business that’s so weird. I almost feel bad for this kid. Here are his most recent tweets:

 

 


Bracing for Huge Keanu Reeves Financial Flop: $200 Mil “47 Ronin”

Roger Friedman
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0
Bracing for Huge Keanu Reeves Financial Flop: $200 Mil “47 Ronin”

UPDATE AUG 27: “47 Ronin” took in $7.1 million on Wednesday.

Earlier: Christmas brings gifts for everyone: Martin Scorsese’s brilliant, flawed, and overlong “Wolf of Wall Street” opens today, and Paramount can look forward to a big day. (You know, you could have written the same sentence in 1977 for “New York New York” or in 2003 for “Gangs of New York.” Just FYI.)

Fox is bracing for a lackluster performance from Ben Stiller’s “Secret Life of Walter Mitty.”

But it’s Universal, doing very well with “Anchorman 2,” that must face the music this weekend starting today. The long-in-the tooth “47 Ronin” starring Keanu Reeves has already, according to the great Ron Grover at Reuters, forced the studio to take a write down of at least $175 million. “47 Ronin” is DOA, and joins “The Lone Ranger,” “White House Down,” “The Internship,” “The Counselor” and several other huge financial screen disasters this year.

I feel for Universal. They had Ron Howard’s “Rush,” a great movie, but couldn’t people to rush to it. Now “47 Ronin” will make the audience rush away.

Carl Rinsch, a first timer with a resume in music videos and commercials, directed “47 Ronin.” But the movie was so bad that it was taken away by the studio where it was cut and re-cut. Apparently, that didn’t help. The total bill may have been $225 million.

Why anyone greenlit such an expensive movie with a first time director, an all Japanese cast except for Keanu, is rather mystifying. Reeves needs strong English speaking actors around him for a film to work. This was a recipe for disaster.

“47 Ronin” has a lowly 13% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Beyonce Album: 1 Million Sales Despite Amazon, Target Boycotts

Roger Friedman
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0
Beyonce Album: 1 Million Sales Despite Amazon, Target Boycotts

Beyonce gets the best Christmas gift of all: 1 million sales of her surprise “Beyonce” “visual” album through the end of this week. Hitsdailydouble says she’s sold 375,000 copies this week including 100,000 physical CDs. This, despite Amazon and Target refusing to sell the physical CD because they’re mad the original digital version was exclusive to iTunes.

Amazon.com isn’t totally stupid, though. You can download the album via their system. But why would you, at the same price as iTunes, with no add ons? Amazon should have pushed the physical CD. I think they screwed that up. People come to Amazon for the actual CDs, not the downloads. Anyway. Jeff Bezos didn’t ask me, and he has 90 zillion dollars.

Meanwhile, the Beyonce album has already spawned its first hit single, “Drunk in Love,” with guess who? Jay Z.

 

“August: Osage County”: Theatre Superstars Come out for Last Pre-Release Screening

Roger Friedman
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0
“August: Osage County”: Theatre Superstars Come out for Last Pre-Release Screening

You’d think everyone interesting had gone out of town by now. But on Monday, a couple of private screenings of “August: Osage County” drew lots and lots of big names from theater world. They wanted to see how director John Wells and his A list cast had handled the Pulitzer Prize winning drama.

They also came to celebrate producer Jean Doumanian, who steered “AOC” from inception to Broadway to the big screen. The movie, written from his play from Tracy Letts, opens this Friday in New York and LA. It’s one of the five nominees for Best Ensemble at the SAG Awards. It could very well win.

Famed director Stephen Daldry (“The Reader,” “Billy Elliott”) introduced the film as a surprise, and sang its praises.

In the audience at the 7pm show– a murderer’s row from Broadway. Bernadette Peters, Joey Grey, Rosemary Harris, and Alan Cumming. Penny Fuller sat in front of them.  Bob Dishy and Judy Graubart were there. “Man of Steel” star Michael Shannon had trouble finding a seat, the place was so packed.

Earlier in the day, Fantasia hit the matinee screening along with Duncan Sheik and Marsha Mason.

How much do I love “AOC”? I’m putting it on my Best Movies of 2013 list this week. When it opens Friday, make a beeline for the ticket line.

 

Will Smith Empties Personal Foundation Down to $22k in Assets

Roger Friedman
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0
Will Smith Empties Personal Foundation Down to $22k in Assets

Is Will Smith getting out of the charity business? First he shut down his private school in Calabasas, California, leaving it $307,000 in the red. Now his personal foundation has been emptied out, with total assets at the end of 2012 coming to just $22,000. The numbers come from the new form 990 found on Guidestar and filed by the Will Smith Foundation for the year 2012.

Smith didn’t drain out his foundation without distributing a very robust $375,000 in 2012 to a variety of charities. Most of them are in the Philadelphia-Baltimore area and many of them are arts oriented. If he’s giving money to Scientology-connected groups Smith no long does it through the Will Smith Foundation. It was too easily tracked. He could just be writing them checks. That’s the way Tom Cruise does it.

Is that the end of the Will Smith Foundation? That’s unknown. But Smith hasn’t had a hit movie in a long time. This past summer his “After Earth” was a total bust. On a nice note, I can tell you that Will threw a little cocktail party the other night here in New York for his “Focus” co-star Margot Robbie before and she and her family friends headed off to the premiere of ‘The Wolf of Wall Street.”

 

 

Box Office: “The Hobbit” Edges Out “Anchorman 2,” with “American Hustle” Gaining

Roger Friedman
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0
Box Office: “The Hobbit” Edges Out “Anchorman 2,” with “American Hustle” Gaining

“Anchorman 2” had a great Friday night, and beat “The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug” by a nose. But by Saturday the kids took over the box office and never gave it back. The result is a weekend win for “Smaug” with $31.455 million vs. $26.7 mi for Will Ferrell and friends. That movie now has $40 mil in the bank. “Smaug” $127.5 mil and $262 mil worldwide.

Bigger news: “American Hustle” comes out of the box at number 4 with $20 million. This is going to be Sony’s comeback hit, the one that erases their summer failures. “American Hustle” has lots of Oscar nominations in its future. Right now it’s leading the pack vs. “12 Years a Slave” for Best Picture. David O. Russell is poised for a big success after “The Fighter” and “Silver Linings Playbook.”

If “American Hustle” really breaks out, and I think it will, Amy Adams is going to knock one of the big 5 out of Best Actress. Emma Thompson would seem the most vulnerable, and Sandra Bullock next. Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench are secure.

One movie that seems more lost at sea than “All is Lost” is “Dallas Buyers Club.” It’s already in decline at $15 million even with two Oscar-tipped performances by Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto. What happened? Focus Features is what happened. They closed up their New York shop, got rid of almost everyone, and are going mainstream. They leave a long line of casualties behind, from “Brokeback Mountain” to “Milk” to “Atonement” and more. In their next iteration, Focus maybe will more focused under Peter Schlessel.

SNL Geezer Surprises: Madonna Snaps in Bite Plate, Barry Gibb Has Long White Hair

Roger Friedman
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0
SNL Geezer Surprises: Madonna Snaps in Bite Plate, Barry Gibb Has Long White Hair

“Saturday Night Live” had plenty of surprises last night, but the most shocking ones were from the Dept. of Aging. Beloved BeeGee Barry Gibb showed up for a singalong with Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake sporting long white hair. In his heyday Barry had carefully coiffed chestnut locks, which Fallon imitates in the segment. Barry is only 67, maybe he should update his look. His falsetto is intact, though, and it was great to see him.

Madonna made an appearance in that segment for absolutely no reason. Dour, dressed in a man’s three piece suit, her hair styled like she was from Staten Island, Madonna was the only one of three visiting pop stars (counting her, Gibb, and Paul McCartney) who didn’t sing. Instead she mumbled some nonsense. And then in the middle of the scene she popped in what looked like braces, a retainer, or possible false teeth. It was very strange. As for the singing, she couldn’t even harmonize with Fallon and Timberlake.

McCartney, of course, remains the class act. He just strolled into Fallon’s opening monologue and knocked off “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” That was lovely.

Fallon and Timberlake, the musical guest for the night, ruled the show. They’ve become their own Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. Fallon’s energy and his depth of talent is pretty stunning. He’s going to have a very youthful, fun “Tonight” show. Timberlake’s comedy energy and his ability to mimic anyone remains impressive. He still must be wondering why he’s not being coronated on the Grammys this year. Something there really went wrong.

As for Madonna, I just don’t get it.

Jimmy Fallon – Barry Gibb Talk Show – SNL 12-21-13 by IdolxMuzic

Simon Cowell X Factor Season Finale Beaten by Charlie Brown Xmas Re-run!

Roger Friedman
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1
Simon Cowell X Factor Season Finale Beaten by Charlie Brown Xmas Re-run!

Simon Cowell’s “X Factor” came to an ignominious end on Thursday night. The battered series not only finished third in its time slot, it drew fewer viewers than a rerun of “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

“A Charlie Brown Christmas” first aired on CBS in 1965. It’s been on TV every year since then. Last night the ABC special pulled 6.41 million total viewers vs. “X Factor” with 6.22 million.

“Charlie Brown” was only from 8 to 9pm. “X Factor” was on from 8 to 10pm. Adding insult to injury, CBS’s “The Millers” aired from 8:30pm to 9pm on that network and scored 7.54 million pairs of eyes.

The only good news for “X Factor” is that in its final hour, people did tune in for the curiosity value. But Cowell’s assertion this week that “X Factor” would be back certainly doesn’t seem that certain. The show has drifted downward all this season. It’s fair to say that both “X Factor” and “American Idol” are ready for retirement. If “Idol” doesn’t do well this coming season, that should be it.

Musically, “Charlie Brown” was more of a success too. Between Vince Guaraldi’s famous instrumental theme and the song “Christmastime is Here,” the special is a musical classic.

 

Beyonce Physical CD: 14 Songs, 17 Videos, Not a Single Thank You or Acknowledgment

Roger Friedman
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1
Beyonce Physical CD: 14 Songs, 17 Videos, Not a Single Thank You or Acknowledgment

The surprise “Beyonce” album is a real physical CD. I received it this afternoon. It may not be in stores yet. But any minute now. Funny: wasn’t it last Friday that it was just a digital release? Seems to me the physical CD was already manufactured at that point. Sony couldn’t have produced and shipped it in three days!

Granted there isn’t much album art. “Beyonce” comes in a black matte box. The accompanying booklet has a bunch of artsy pictures, some “provocative” but nothing too shocking for Blue Ivy’s mom. The cover of the booklet is a black and white pic of Bey’s backside exposed, with a leather thong and some jewelry protecting it. Bey’s hands are on her hips.

There are no lyrics, however. And get this: no thanks to anyone, no shout outs, nada. Someone managed to produce 14 songs, 17 videos, and a bunch of photos. But Beyonce gets the only credit, as Executive Producer.

The song credits are in such small type that the writers and producers should be a little pissed off. The all caps white on black font is maybe 1 pt– far smaller than the phonebook. I can make out Pharrell and Justin Timberlake. This is someone’s way of saying, You guys don’t matter. Nice.

I tried using the flashlight on my Galaxy S3 but that didn’t help matters. A magnifying glass is my next option. But that won’t add the thanks that most artists annotate.

Also Beyonce’s name is on every song, whether she wrote it or not. But you know, since the mid 90s, it doesn’t matter who wrote the song. That ship has sailed. It’s all about who constructed it.

Hitsdaily double predicts another 200K this week of “Beyonce” downloads. Then a new wave of peeps who buy the physical CD on amazon and in stores. Except Target, because they’re mad.

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