Down in 12th place, Chen Kaige’s neo-wuxia Monk Comes Down the Mountain, covered in last week’s column, dropped a pretty precipitous 78% – possibly hounded out by the flashier contemporary offerings. In 10th place on the global chart, with $10m, was Monkey King: Hero Is Back, a 3D animated take on the apparently indefatigable local literary linchpin last seen in Donnie Yen’s box office-conquering version early last year. The Sydney Morning Herald review intriguingly suggests that, were it not for the censor board, the film might be more inclined to delve further into its lingering homoerotic undertone. The former is the feature-length debut of TV host He Jiong, spinning out a hit song he recorded a few years ago into a tale of performing-school love and woes. In a big week for the present roaring trade in lightweight, gooey, coming-of-age hankie-dabbers, newcomer Forever Young edged out the fourth entry in the prolific Tiny Times franchise, about four Shanghai BFFs, $38.1m to $36m. Other than Korean north-south thriller NLL: Battle of Yeonpyeong, holding firm in its third week just outside the global top 10, it was all Chinese traffic taking advantage of the country’s Hollywood blackout period. At 39, she may not get many more chances. Fury Road – which might have taken more if it had explicitly targeted female filmgoers – surely has earned Theron the benefit of any doubt. So, equally, she deserves a mainstream project that not only exploits her natural screen authority, but is set up as a true test of her bankability – and is promoted accordingly. But Theron deserves credit for spurring the fourth Mad Max film to the frenzied pitch that made it such a treat. That, making $52m on a $62m budget, didn’t work out – and is perhaps why Warner Bros thought she wasn’t a surefire marketing element for Fury Road, whose feminist aspect went completely uncommunicated prior to the first reviews. With its theatrical run more or less done now – $359.5m worldwide, making the $150m film a modest success – what impact will it have on her career? This intense performer has anchored plenty of substantial material (North Country, The Burning Plain, Young Adult), and in the wake of her 2004 Oscar win for Monster, found herself in bankable blockbuster territory once before with sci-fi thriller Aeon Flux. ![]() Everyone seemed in agreement that Charlize Theron’s embattled Furiosa, not Tom Hardy’s haunted Max, was the true star of Fury Road. In a quiet week on the new global-release front, a pause to consider the after-effects of one of the year’s most startling performances. Or at least until part two, next year.Ĭharlize Theron talks to Catherine Shoard about Mad Max: Fury Road Guardian So, in contrast to the likes of Happy New Year – which the old Bollywood razzle-dazzle routine couldn’t prevent from dropping off embarrassingly – Baahubali has a shot at setting a box-office record for the ages. Most heartening is that Rajamouli’s film was warmly reviewed: the Guardian called it “a near-perfect balance between physicality and poetics”, and Times of India said “the larger-than-life execution matches grandiose vision”. So Baahubali should have placed in the vicinity of sixth or seventh on the global chart, minimum. ![]() Worldwide figures aren’t yet available, but it took $3m in the US, within a whisker of the $3.5m for Aamir Khan’s religious satire PK, the highest-grossing Indian film worldwide. Friday and Saturday saw takings for Baahubali (also filmed in Tamil, and dubbed into Hindi and Malayalam) in the order of 135 crore, and a Hindustan Times piece has pegged the whole weekend at 165 crore ($26m).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |