Cinefantastique Online

Weekly results of horror, fantasy, and science fiction films in theatres, plus occasional articles on foreign business and/or analysis of trends.

Despite less-than-stellar box office, GREEN LANTERN may conjure up a sequel, if Warner Brothers has the will power.

TRON sequel does amazingly well in IMAX — but does it have legs?

It has been interesting to view some of the reactions to the box office returns of the special edition of AVATAR, which is currently playing in 812 3D venues across the country. Re-releases seldom pose a real threat to new films in the marketplace, and true to form AVATAR did not destroy the competition, leading [...]

Not too surprisingly, Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror films were  the biggest grossing Summer box office films this weekend.
Christopher Nolan’s INCEPTION hit bigger than expected, with a $60.4 million debut. Let’s see if the challenging SF film has legs.
Universal’s winning animated SF-inspired comedy DESPICABLE ME took in another $32.7 million, bringing it’s total to over 118 [...]

Once again the horror genre proves itself to be critic-proof as Samuel Bayer’s remake of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET is sitting atop the weekend box office with a respectable $32.2 million. The film currently holds a ‘rotten’ 15% rating at Rotten Tomatoes but that didn’t stop it from storming the box office and [...]

CLASH OF THE TITANS, despite an overall mixed reception from critics, has managed to knock kids’ animated fantasy film HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON off of the top spot at the box office over the weekend. The new sword and sandal epic that we recently reviewed has grossed $61.4 million so far (slightly under analysis’ [...]

A fantasy film continues to rule the box office, with Tim Burton’s remake of ALICE IN WONDERLAND toping the chart yet again this weekend. Meanwhile, the science fiction film REPO MEN opened without much heart (or liver or kidneys). ALICE took in $34.5-million, raising its worldwide total to $565.8-million. REPO bowed with a meager $6.2-million.

It was a great weekend for horror, fantasy, and science fiction, as ALICE IN WONDERLAND scored an easy victory at the box office this weekend, earning more than the rest of the Top Ten releases combined. The fantasy film, directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp, sold over $116-million in tickets while playing in [...]

The genre delivered big bang at the box office, blowing most of the competition off the screen.
It’s the end of the year. Time to look back and assess the strengths and weaknesses of the last twelve months worth cinefantastique. Before getting into the artistic side of the equation (a thornier problem that requires some actual [...]

The sleeper hit PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, which earned over $100-million in U.S. theatres, is repeating its success in foreign territories, earning $19.4-million last weekend and raising its overseas total to $34-million. That put the ultra-low-budget horror film in third place behind NEW MOON and  2012, and just ahead of Disney’s A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
NEW MOON GROSSED $40.7 million [...]

In another sign that cinefantastique rules the summer box office,  TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN made its debut at #1 despite spite of overwhelmingly negative critical reactions. Michael Bay’s explosive sequel to TRANSFORMERS earned an estimated $112-million in over 4,200 North American theatres over the three-day span from Friday through Sunday. The added revenue from [...]

This was one of those relatively rare weekends when horror, fantasy, and science fiction did not dominated the box office, mostly because no new titles were released. The one Borderland genre item, YEAR ONE, made its debut in over North American 3000 theatres; the prehistoric comedy, which stars Jack Black and Michael Cera, earned an [...]

Hollywood Reporter informs us that TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, which opened in only a couple of major foreign markets last week, nevertheless managed to blast its way to the top of the overseas box office charts, earning nearly $20-million in Japan and England. The sequel outperformed the opening of the original TRANSFORMERS film in [...]