Page 30 - Aruba Today

A30
PEOPLE & ARTSMonday 2 November 2015
‘Burnt,’ ‘Crisis,’ add to a pile-up a flops at box office
JAKE COYLE
AP Film Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Sandra
Bullock’s political satire
“Our Brand Is Crisis” and
Bradley Cooper’s chef
drama “Burnt” added to
a pileup of flops at the box
office, where new wide
releases have gone a star-
tling 0-for-9 in the last two
weeks.
After five movies failed
to draw moviegoers last
week, Hollywood whiffed
again over the Halloween
weekend as four new mov-
ies went largely ignored in
favor of trick-or-treating.
The “60 Minutes II” scandal
drama “Truth,” with Cate
Blanchett and Robert Red-
ford, expanding nation-
wide, and the horror com-
edy “Scouts Guide to the
Zombie Apocalypse” add-
ed to a plague of empty
theaters.
That enabled the top three
films from the last sev-
eral weeks — “The Mar-
tian,” ‘’Goosebumps” and
“Bridge of Spies” — to re-
main atop the ranks, ac-
cording to studio estimates
Sunday. With an estimated
$11 million in its fifth week-
end, Ridley Scott’s 3-D
space adventure “The
Martian” has hauled in
$180.8 million domestical-
ly, and led the box office
four times — a dominat-
ing stretch that has spelled
trouble for other releases
courting adult moviegoers.
The weekend was never
Tax breaks produce surge for film industry in L.A.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Legis-
lation signed by California
Gov. Jerry Brown last year
that offered more gener-
ous state tax incentives for
film and TV production is
being credited for a spike
in the number of location
shoots across Los Angeles.
The local industry is also
getting a boost from Hol-
lywood newcomers includ-
ing Amazon, Netflix and
Hulu as they increasingly
produce original program-
ming, the Los Angeles Times
reported Saturday .
There were 2,057 shooting

This photo provided by Warner Bros. Pictures shows, Ann Dowd, from left, as Nell, Sandra Bullock they leave theaters.
as Jane and Reynaldo Pacheco as Eddie, in Warner Bros. Pictures and Participant Media’s satirical The four flops added to
comedy “Our Brand Is Crisis,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. The movie opens in U.S. theaters on five from last week, when
Oct. 30. “Steve Jobs,” ‘’Jem and
the Holograms,” ‘’Rock the
Associated Press Kasbah,” ‘’The Last Witch
Hunter” and “Paranormal
meant to be a big one screens. “Our Brand Is Cri- even crack $1 million. It Activity: The Ghost Dimen-
at theaters with Hallow- sis,” David Gordon Green’s sion” all failed to crack $11
een falling on a Satur- true tale of political strate- earned just $901,000. million.
day and the latest James gists in Bolivia, managed a “Next week, the whole
Bond film, “Spectre” (and scant $3.4 million on 2,202 Paramount Pictures’ complexion of this will
follow-up to the $1.1 bil- screens for Warner Bros. change,” says Paul Der-
lion “Skyfall”) awaiting re- Though made for a modest “Scouts Guide to the Zom- garabedian, senior media
lease in the coming week. $28 million, the film’s open- analyst for box office data
Sony’s “Spectre,” which ing marks the worst wide- bie Apocalypse” grossed firm Rentrak. “But I think
has opened in a few inter- release debut of a movie this is a really good lesson
national markets, scored headlined by Bullock, even just $1.8 million on 1,509 learned for Hollywood that
the biggest U.K. debut ever falling below the $4.7 mil- if you have too much prod-
with $63.8 million over the lion of “Two if by Sea” in screens. Paramount is ex- uct — particularly aimed at
weekend. 1996. older audiences — you’re
But the box office numbers Sony Pictures Classics perimenting with a short- going to fragment the au-
in North America were still “Truth,” which recounts dience to the point where
especially low. CBS’s reporting on Presi- ened theatrical window a lot of movies are going to
The Weinstein Co.’s “Burnt” dent George W. Bush’s mili- become casualties of that
took in $5 million despite tary service, expanded to for the film, along with the crowded marketplace.”
playing on more than 3,000 1,120 theaters, but couldn’t The two weeks of debuts
recently opened “Paranor- have also been populated
mainly by poorly reviewed
mal Activity: The Ghost Di- movies with the exception
of the acclaimed but much
mension.” criticized “Steve Jobs.” In-
stead, the October suc-
Thus far, the trial has yield- cess are mostly movies
roundly considered good,
ed mixed results. Major made by veteran directors:
Scott’s “The Martian” and
theater chains aside from Steven Spielberg’s “Bridge
of Spies.”
AMC and Cineplex have Estimated ticket sales for Fri-
day through Sunday at U.S.
refused to play the films, and Canadian theaters,
according to Rentrak.
which will be made avail- Where available, the latest
international numbers for
able digitally 17 days after Friday through Sunday are
also included. q

days for scripted television beryards and equipment pany services film and TV people and contributes
shows filmed on location vendors say they are hiring sets. nearly $60 billion in goods
in the Los Angeles region more workers, expanding Seven of his eight food and services annually, or
for the three months that offices and buying new trucks are working out of roughly 10 percent of the
ended Sept. 30. That’s a equipment in response to Los Angeles. That’s a big county’s gross product,
54 percent increase from the uptick in local produc- switch from a few years said Robert Kleinhenz, chief
the same period last year, tion. Unions representing ago, when the majority of economist of the Los Ange-
the newspaper said, citing crew members say they Lamkin’s fleet was in De- les County Economic De-
data from industry tracker are operating at or near full troit, Chicago, Boston, New velopment Corp.
Film LA. employment and are add- Orleans and other cities “This is an industry that in-
The law signed by Brown ing new members to meet where production crews creases the size of the
in Sept. 2014 more than tri- the demand, according to had moved to take advan- economic pie here in the
pled California’s tax credit the Times. tage of tax breaks. region, so to have more
to $330 million a year for “We’ve never been this A revival of these small activity come back to Los
films and TV shows pro- busy in California in the 17 businesses is a positive sign Angeles will have a ripple
duced in California. years since we opened,” for LA’s overall economy. effect on businesses large
Behind-the-scenes busi- said Robert Lamkin, whose The entertainment indus- and small,” he told the
nesses like caterers, lum- Chef Robert catering com- try employs about 250,000 Times.q