Entertainment

Salt Sequel Rumors Begin, Angelina Jolie said to Reprise Her Role

by Sohrab Osati | Sep 21, 2010 | 51 comments

When Sony decided to invest $110 million on Angelina Jolie and make the movie Salt, like any movie released, they knew a certain risk would be involved. The movie business tends to be a hit or miss. Sometimes a fantastic movie comes out and, due to timing or competition, just gets missed and other times, production doesn’t go as planned and the final product is not what was intended. So far, with a $272.7 world wide gross, it seems that audiences tuned in for the Angelina Jolie action thriller and we have yet to talk about DVD and Blu-ray gross as the movie has yet to be released on those formats. What all of this comes down to is the fact that Salt was a hit for Sony and any time a movie is a success, sequel talks begin and Salt is no different.

When speaking with the LA Times, Salt writer Kurt Wimmer explained a brief idea in which “Evelyn Salt is a Russian plant in the highest echelons of the CIA who may or may not be working for her home country.” Also, both Director Phillip Noyce and Angelina Jolie, who is said to be “keen to work on a sequel,” seem to want this film to happen.

But of course, just wanting a sequel is not enough to get a movie going, no matter the profit from it. Angelina Jolie is currently involved with the Tim Burton film Maleficent and has been wanting to make a franchise based on the Kay Scarpetta novels. To add further complication, Phillip Noyce has been eyeing Wenceslas Square and Dirt Music for his followup film, although there is nothing solid there yet. By the time summer rolls out, Angelina Jolie will be done with Maleficent and Salt will have been released on DVD and Blu-ray. Expect more solid news then.

The Tourist Trailer

by Sohrab Osati | Sep 16, 2010 | 10 comments

Two of Hollywood’s biggest (and sexiest) stars, Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie, pair up in Colombia Pictures’ The Tourist. Frank (Depp) is an American tourist who meets Elise (Jolie) and their romance quickly evolves into a dangerous game of cat and mouse set in the gorgeous cities of Paris and Venice. There’s a lot of beautiful things going on here. The trailer was released yesterday; if you haven’t seen it please watch below. The Tourist hits theaters December 10th.

Resident Evil: Afterlife is the #1 movie at the Box Office, Makes 84% from 3D

by Sohrab Osati | Sep 13, 2010 | 2 comments

Sony continued its box office domination with the release of Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D, now giving them four movies in the top ten. Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D marked the fourth release in the Resident Evil franchise while continuing the series trend of having a larger opening then its predecessor. Also what’s seemed to work out for Sony as of late is having no huge blockbuster title, but smaller budget based movies that have all done well for them.

Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D ended its first weekend as the number one movie at the box office with a $26.6 million gross on a $60 million budget. There is still no word on an international release of this movie, but I expect that to be sooner then later. Overall, this movie outdid the prior series top, Resident Evil: Extinction which opened with $23.6 million. The Resident Evil franchise itself is one of those rare breeds in which every single movie has outdone the prior one in terms of box office gross. Expect news on Resident Evil 5 soon.

Continuing its streak, last week’s number one film, Takers, has now slipped to the number two spot, putting its total to $47.6 million on a $32 million budget. Holding on firmly, The Other Guys has actually gone from number 7 to number 6 at the box office, now sitting on a $112.4 million gross. The Will Ferrell comedy had a $100 million budget. The last movie in the Sony camp is the Julia Roberts film, Eat Pray Love. The $60 million film is now coasting away with a easy $74.6 million gross and again shows another successful Sony Pictures film.

What’s really great about these movies from the standpoint of Sony is that they have all made up their budget at the box office. This means that Sony not only gets to enjoy the gross after the cost for profit, but can now easily take in all the extra revenue these movies will eventually give to their bottom line via DVD and Blu-ray. Look for Sony to finish out September with two comedies, starting with Easy A on September 17th and The Virginity Hit on September 24th.

Update:

For those who think 3D is going to be a fad, a whopping 84 percent of Afterlife’s business was from 3D presentations. The 2,062 venues showing the picture in regular 3D accounted for 74 percent, while the 141 IMAX 3D venues made up ten percent.

Resident Evil: Afterlife ($26.6 million)
Takers ($5.6 million)
The American ($5.6 million)
The Machete ($4.2 million)
Going the Distance ($3.7 million)

Sony Zombie Weekend: Resident Evil: After Life 3D and Dead Rising 2 Community Event

by Sohrab Osati | Sep 10, 2010 | 14 comments

This weekend, Sony is releasing the fourth movie in the Resident Evil series, titled Resident Evil: After Life 3D. For those who have followed the series, this is a continuation of Alice’s story; expect to see cameos from Jill, Chris and Claire in the movie. For those who still need to catch up, there is a pretty good deal on the Resident Evil Trilogy on Blu-ray. What excites me about this movie besides them being creepy and fun is that this entire film was shot in 3D. That means no post conversion; everything from the start of the cycle was filmed and planned in 3D so expect to see some amazing action sequences. Also, the film is currently sitting on a 8.7/10 on IMDB.

But if thats not enough zombie fun for you, Sony is also hosting a Dead Rising 2 event here in Los Angeles. As the Playstation Blog reports:

In addition to being able to play Dead Rising 2 prior to release we’ll have prizes, food, music, contests and more. Be sure and get there early as we’ll be giving away some cool, exclusive Greene’s Hardware t-shirts too.

What: Greene’s Hardware Super Sale (Dead Rising 2 Community Event)

Where: 2147 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026

When: Friday 8PM – 12 Midnight

Our gang is going to be there as well so expect both me and Domino to be there and we hope to catch you as well. So feel free to stop by and say hi. Also, feel free to follow us on Twitter as I’ll be Tweeting away. Hopefully I can get you guys some cool swag while I’m there.

Again for those who want to get some Resident Evil Trilogy on Blu-ray, if you guys buy it from this link, it helps our site out as well!

Update 8:04:
Just got here. Line is long as fuck. Store looks tiny…not sure how we are all fitting in.

Update 9:15:

So the place is actually much bigger then it appears. We just also had our first break dance contest of the night.

Update 10:45:

Look at all the lovely Playstation 3s

Sony and Marvel Team Up

by Sohrab Osati | Sep 9, 2010 | 0 comments

Starting October 1st, Japan will be seeing new animated series, starring some of Marvels biggest, like X-men, Iron Man and Blade, thanks to Sony. This new deal between Sony and Disney (owner of Marvel) continues a long trend of work between Sony and Disney who both helped push Blu-ray together and will soon be doing the same with 3D. Sony and Marvel are also no strangers with each other as Marvel characters have appeared on the Sony PS3 exclusive LittleBigPlanet as downloadable characters. Expect to find these new animated series and movies on both DVD and Blu-ray as Sony and Marvel hope to reach new audiences in the worldwide market. I say, give me some Spider-man, and I’m in!

Sony's Labor Day Weekend Box Office Results

by Sohrab Osati | Sep 7, 2010 | 2 comments

Although Sony had no new releases this weekend, it continues to do well with its three holdovers, grabbing the number 3, 7 and 8th spot at the box office. Takers, last week’s number one movie, has now slipped to the number three spot with a total gross of $39.9 million on a $32 million budget.

Now in its 5th week, The Other Guys has bagged in a total of $108 million on a $100 million budget with still no world wide release. Once that happens, expect another $10-$30 million to be added to the final gross though Will Ferrell movies don’t tend to be huge in the world wide market, as comedy and its humor tend to be region specific and don’t always translate well.

Meanwhile, the Julia Roberts film, Eat Pray Love, now on its 4th week is at $70.3 million on a $60 million budget. I would expect this picture to do fairly decent at the world wide box office, once released, hopefully helping the picture clear the $100 million mark. Unlike Will Ferrell movies, Julia Roberts flicks tend to do better overseas because of their subject matter being more universal as opposed to region-specific comedy.

Finally, the last Sony holdover, Salt, ranks in at number 19, being released almost 7 weeks ago. This $110 million action thriller staring Angelina Jolie has a total gross of $246.5 million worldwide.

Weekend Top 5:

The American ($19.5 million)
Machete ($14 million)
Takers ($39.9 million)
The Last Exorcism ($33.5 million)
Going The Distance ($8.6 million)

Sony claims Eat Pray Love, The Other Guys and Salt at Box Office

by Sohrab Osati | Aug 18, 2010 | 18 comments

Sony continues to do well at the box office with 3 very different types of movies for audiences. Starting with our oldest release, Salt, now in its 4th week, has earned $187 million worldwide on a $110 million budget. Although not a blockbuster, the Angelina Jolie movie is performing well enough and will no doubt finish near the $250 million mark once it has run its course. The Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg comedy in its second week has earned $72 million on a $100 million budget. This movie has yet to have an international release but comedies like this don’t tend to perform great worldwide. The newest release from Sony, having only been out this past weekend, is the Julia Roberts film Eat Pray Love. Working with a $60 million budget, this movie has so far bagged in $26 million. Movies of this genre don’t tend to open big but have long legs. It should come as no surprise to see a slow decline of this movie in the following weeks as it crosses past $100 million. This movie has also yet to be released worldwide but is expected to do well as the film itself is filmed throughout the world and deals with local subject matters.

Worldwide Weekend Gross:

1. The Expendables: $39 million
2. Eat Pray Love: $26 million
3. The Other Guys: $72 million
4. Inception: $565 million
5. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: $13 million

Crackle Giving Away Sony Products With the Click of a Button

by Jenni Petot | Aug 12, 2010 | 4 comments

If you haven’t heard or been to Crackle.com I suggest you check it out. It’s a site similar to Hulu where you can stream Sony movies, television shows and some original content. I think it’s great and it’s one of the first and only websites to stream free full-length movies (and legally!). Although their library of movies isn’t in the thousands, they are adding new titles weekly. You might not find A-list blockbuster movies like Casino Royale on Crackle.com but there’s still good movies to watch on here for free. Movie trailers and news are some other features that Crackle offers as well. Some of their most popular instant watch movies are: Snatch, Jerry Maguire, Godzilla, Starship Troopers, Sniper, Lords of Dogtown and The Cable Guy.

Crackle is now having a sweet promotion where they are giving out one Sony product per month to a lucky fan. “Fan” meaning: you have to be a fan of theirs on Facebook. That’s all it takes. So click on the link below and become a fan of Crackle for a chance to win great stuff. This month they are giving away a PS3, next month, a Sony Vaio. Good luck!

Crackle Giveaway.

Monster House 3D Blu-ray Announced

by Sohrab Osati | Aug 6, 2010 | 824 comments

If you recently have purchased a 3D TV, you know that outside of the World Cup 2010, content has been scarce. Well Sony is looking to change that up with on September 14th with a 3D Blu-ray release of Monster House. Best of all (a fantastic decision on Sonys end), this edition holds both the 2D and 3D version of the film in full 1080p glory.

Special features include:

Filmmakers’ Commentary
Featurettes:
- Imaginary Heroes
- Beginner’s Luck
- The Best of Friends
- Lots of Dots
- Black Box Theater
- Making it Real
- Did You Hear That
- Evolution of a Scene: Eliza vs. Nebbercracker
Photo Gallery
3D Sneak peeks:
- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
- Open Season

[Via Blu-ray.com]

Sony Shows Battle: Los Angeles Trailer, Sort Of

by Sohrab Osati | Jul 27, 2010 | 5 comments

Comic Con 2010 was the first ever Comic Con attended by SonyRumors and me personally. As you probably know, every studio does what it can to draw attention to what it thinks is a winning movie and for Sony, it’s Battle: Los Angeles. This was a story that I actually covered a little while ago and it still seems to hold up. Sony believes this movie and it was obvious during Comic Con. From the above shot, you can tell that everybody was going to know about that movie. During the event itself, Sony showed an alien invasion trailer that is a mix of Black Haw Down (Sony movie) and Independence Day. So to feed the appetites of those who did not attend or missed the trailer, Sony has now released a 4 second trailer. No joke, it’s 4 whole seconds. I don’t really get it? But I’m hoping to see more from all of the positive buzz this movie gained during Comic Con 2010. Look for the film to hit on March 11th, 2011.

Grown Ups became Adam Sandler’s Highest-grossing Movie Since Click

by Sohrab Osati | Jul 22, 2010 | 8 comments

Sony Pictures Grown Ups, staring Adam Sandler continues to do well at the box office. Bagging in another $9.9 million this weekend, down 37% from the prior week, this month released comedy now stands at $138.7 million world wide, becoming Adam Sandler’s highest box office gross since 2006 when Sandler and Sony Pictures made Click. While Click went on to make $237.6 million world wide, it was able to bring a little more then half of the gross, $137 from the US that soon, Grown Ups will pass. What Grown Ups might not be able to achieve is the total gross as it stands at $129 million for the US market and only $9.5 million from its international intake, but to be fair, the movie has yet to have a full world wide release. However, Click had a much more universal concept to it then Grown Ups. Sony Pictures other movie out, The Karate Kid has just crossed the $221.7 million gross world wide, making it the number 1 grossing action remake.

[Via BoxOfficeMojo]

Sony Pushes the Social Network on Twitter

by Sohrab Osati | Jul 21, 2010 | 2 comments

On October 1st, Sony will be releasing its new movie, The Social Network, based around the creator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. With the tag line of “You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies”, you can bet that this David Fincher movie is not going to be a 2 hour promo for Facebook. So it comes as no surprise that Facebook doesn’t want these ads on their own site (and it’s actually Facebook policy that no ad that references Facebook is allowed. So Sony has turned to the second largest social network site now: Twitter, by buying its trending topic area to display #SocialNetwork as one of the topics. Anybody familiar with Twitter will know that trending topics are what’s being greatly discussed and Twitter allows companies to buy those spots for advertising. Those who click on it will be driven towards 500MillionFriends.com where Sony hopes to gain attention to their new movie.

Sony Pictures Television and DirectTV Save "Damages"

by Sohrab Osati | Jul 19, 2010 | 2 comments

If you have been a fan of the show “Damages” on FX, it’s been a rough year for you. After months as the negotiation table, everything fell apart due to the high cost of the show. Even though the fans were showing up for the show, the number of viewers was not high enough for FX to justify the high costs of putting in another season. This is when DirectTV and Sony Pictures Television stepped in to bring back the Glenn Close legal drama with an order for 20 new episodes–two seasons each consisting of 10 episodes–to be produced early next year. Many times, satellite providers are able to pay a higher cost for a show due to the additional revenues they bring in from their subscribers. In this case, DirectTV gives the show a home and Sony Pictures Television picks up the production side of it.

Patty Ishimoto, general manager of The 101 Network and vice president of entertainment for DirectTV said, “We’re excited to partner with Sony Pictures Television as we breathe new life into this outstanding drama.” She concluded with, “It’s a win for our customers because only they will be able to see these new episodes and another great step forward for DirecTV as we continue to build our growing portfolio of exclusive, award-winning programming.”

Sony Continues To Do Well At The Box Office, "Salt" Around The Corner

by Sohrab Osati | Jul 14, 2010 | 5 comments

Although Sony released “The Karate Kid” just a little over a month ago and “Grown Ups” a little over two weeks ago, the company’s presence remains strong at the box office. The comedy “Grown Ups” has so far bagged in $123 million worldwide on a $80 million budget. This is the 11th Adam Sandler movie in the past 12 years to reach this level, and no other actor has had that many live-action $100 million movies in that timeframe. This is all the better for Sony as 90% of Sandler’s roles are with Sony Pictures. “The Karate Kid” proves that as a family picture, it continues to have long legs. Working with only a $40 million budget, this reboot has so far snagged $209 million at the worldwide box office. Both of these are fantastic for Sony, during a time where some big box office hits are barely pulling their expense like “The Last Airbender” and “Knight and Day.”

Sony has also been steadily been marketing “Salt,” starring Angelina Jolie, for a July 23rd release. From the obvious trailers before movies, Sony has also kept a nice commercial presence of the movie on air, during prime time. Also, Sony has a nice movie tie in with Royal Purple Oil for cars, featuring a sexy Aston Martin and Salt.

Sony Announces New Spider-Man Actor

by Sohrab Osati | Jul 2, 2010 | 4 comments

Well, there you have it folks. Sony has announced that 26-year-old British actor Andrew Garfield will be playing Peter Parker in the new Spider-Man trilogy that “peter-parker-told-differently”/” target=”_self”>Marc Web will be directing in 3D. Andrews credits include Boy A, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and The Social Network, and I’ve yet to see any of these movies (of course, “The Social Network” is not out yet). But I’m a little stumped by this. First, he doesn’t come off as “Spider-Man” to me but until I actually see him, I will give him the benefit of the doubt. No reason to blast the poor guy before I have something to judge him off of. But what really surprises me is how old he is. Marc Web and Sony wanted to gear this new Spider-Man trilogy when Peter was in High School. Andrew Garfield age-wise is way too old for that. Especially if you consider the fact that he is signed on for 3 films. Granted older actors play younger roles all the time, so again I’ll hold judgement on that but It just dosent seem to fit the idea they were going for.

[Via ComingSoon]