All Natalie Portman Movies Ranked

Natalie Portman followed up her breakthrough debut as the lil’ assassin in Leon: The Professional with three more Certified Fresh films: Heat, Beautiful Girls, and Everyone Says I Love You. Science-fiction projects gave her first brushes with Rotten ratings (Mars Attacks!) but also global stardom (Star Wars: The Phantom Menace), giving her the clout to work with the biggest name directors; people like Wes Anderson (The Darjeeling Limited), Milos Forman (Goya’s Ghosts), Wong Kar-Wai (My Blueberry Nights), and Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan), the last of which nabbed her the Best Actress Oscar.

Portman has also increasingly worked directly behind the camera in recent years, first with her own directed segment in New York, I Love You, and then the feature-length A Tale of Love and Darkness. That came after Portman was absent from the screen a few years following mildly compelling if safe turns in two Thor movies.  But she’s back in a revamped starring role with Thor: Love and Thunder, directed by Taika Waititi. Now, let’s look at all of Natalie Portman’s movies with Tomatometers, ranked! —Alex Vo

(Photo by Lisa Jane Persky; Paramount Pictures; Cinecom Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection; Kerry Hayes/TM & © Fox Searchlight Pictures/All Rights Reserved/Courtesy Everett Collection)

“Know Your Critic” is a column in which we interview Tomatometer-approved critics about their screening and reviewing habits, pet peeves, and personal favorites.

Alonso Duralde is Film Reviews Editor at TheWrap. He has contributed to The Village Voice, Movieline, The Advocate, and MSNBC. He’s also a podcast host and an author. And he really hopes you’re not taking his – and other critics’ – Fresh/Rotten designations at face value.

“I think Rotten Tomatoes is a great resource for providing links and a look at critical consensus,” he told Rotten Tomatoes in an interview late last year. “I hope that people take the time to click on individual reviews and get to know the work of individual critics, because we have more to say than ‘up or down.’“

Duralde is the author of 101 Must-See Movies for Gay Men and Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas. His latest book, I’ll Be Home For Christmas Movies (co-authored with Brandon Gray, Daniel Pandolph, and Daniel Thompson), published last year, is yet another definitive guide.

With all his expertise in cinematic cheer, what’s Duralde’s favorite holiday movie?

“Look, I’m an American – I have to say It’s a Wonderful Life because it is indeed our national Christmas movie,” Duralde said. “It is the closest that we’ve ever come to creating our own version of A Christmas Carol, and it is genuinely a great movie. I mean, not just a great Christmas movie, but a great movie. It’s one that I re-watch every year and am constantly marveling at everything it contains.”

In Rotten Tomatoes’ first Know Your Critic interview of the New Year, Duralde shared more of his favorites – the Rotten, the Fresh, and the classics – and expertise in film criticism.

Alonso Duralde is TheWrap’s Film Reviews Editor. He co-hosts the Breakfast All Day podcast with Christy Lemire and the Linoleum Knife podcast with Dave White. Find Alonso on Twitter: @ADuralde.

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What do you think is the biggest misconception about critics?

People think we hate movies. And if we did, then we really picked the wrong profession. You have to really love movies to be a critic.

I think that people will read reviews that are negative and just decide that means that we hate everything. And really, what it is, is disappointment. Because I think that every critic walks into every movie, at least with a glimmer of hope that we’re going to see something that’s going to knock us out, that’s going to be something that we’ve never seen before, that’s going to change the way we look at film – the way we look at the world. And when we see movies that fall short of that, we call them out for it.

What’s the last movie to made you feel that way?

I just watched Memoria, the new Apichatpong Weerasethakul film. His movies always, to me, feel like he is operating on a whole other level.

In the film Until the End of the World, people become obsessed with downloading their own dreams into a device and spending all day watching them on a screen. His movies to me feel the closest like entering into a dream-state and being projected dreams by someone. His movies almost bypass big parts of your brain and just go right into your subconscious.

What do you think makes a good movie?

Huh. Good movie? I mean, it’s funny. Really, I think this probably happens to a lot of us. Whenever we write a bad review of a popcorn movie – of an action film or a comedy – invariably, some whiner on the internet will be like, “Well, not everything has to be an Oscar-winning drama.” Which, A) Oscar-winning dramas often are super boring. And B) There are good popcorn movies and there are bad popcorn movies.

So, I think whatever the genre is – whether you are trying to make an important piece of art, whether you want to make people laugh, whether you want to just punch the sort of dopamine centers of viewers’ brains – I think effort is what makes a good movie. And I think not being cynical about it – that you’re not creating product, you’re actually creating a film. I think that’s the difference, and you can tell the difference.

What has been your favorite film of the year?

I’ve been going back and forth, but I suspect that my favorite of this year is going to wind up being Licorice Pizza. That’s a movie that really put me into a time and place. And I mean, I was six in 1973, but the director was three.

I felt like I was revisiting a world that I was vaguely familiar with, and I didn’t want to leave. I know it sounds like a cliché, but I sat through the credits, not thinking that I was going to get a button or a clue of what the next Marvel movie was going to be. I just didn’t want to get up out of the theater yet.

I love that feeling.

It’s like sitting in the car in the driveway to hear the rest of the song.

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(Photo by Kerry Hayes/TM & © Fox Searchlight Pictures. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy Everett Collection.)

When you’re planning to review something, do you go in cold? Like, no trailers, no articles, no nothing?

Ideally, yes. I don’t watch trailers. Sometimes people goof on me about that! But my favorite thing is getting to walk into a movie as tabula rasa as possible. And it’s hard to do, if you’re on Twitter or whatever.

The thing that I love about festivals is when a movie’s screening for the first time and no one has seen it, and I’ve managed to avoid seeing the trailer. I’ve gotten to see movies like The Shape of Water with absolutely no idea what they were even about.

That’s the best example of a movie to go into without context.

For sure. I also saw Alexander Payne’s Downsizing and literally just thought it was going to be a movie about Matt Damon getting laid off. Imagine my surprise!

When you are reviewing, do you read other people’s reviews before writing your own?

Oh, God, never. Never, never, never. I don’t like to talk to other critics after a movie’s over about the movie we just saw. I never read other people’s reviews. I mean, I’ll read them later, for critics that I like to read, to see where we differ and where we agree on things. But before I write a review, I can’t be exposed to anybody else’s, because it’s very easy, even if you’re not conscious of it, to get swayed.

Who are some fellow critics whose work you admire?

Oh, man, a lot. Manohla Dargis, obviously – I always say she’s who I want to be when I grow up. Monica Castillo and Clint Worthington and Jason Bailey. And Matt Zoller Seitz – we’ve been friends for a long time and his insights always blow me away, even though we disagree with some frequency. That’s part of the fun of all of this.

Is there an up-and-coming critic that you want people to check out?

I am going to brag on Carlos Aguilar, just because he’s one of my writers at TheWrap – although he obviously is writing for the LA Times and New York Times and a lot of other venues who are lucky enough to have him. I think that he brings a lot to the table as a Latinx writer who is a Dreamer, but I think also just as somebody who really understands film.

So often I think what we’re looking for with critics is not just a Fresh, Rotten, thumbs up, thumbs down, but why. Like, walk me through your process. “Show your work,” as your math teacher used to say. And with Carlos, I always feel like I understand why he is talking about things the way he’s talking about them, why he responds to things or doesn’t respond to things.

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(Photo by Paramount Pictures. Courtesy Everett Collection.)

What is your favorite thing that is Rotten on the Tomatometer?

There’s quite a few out there, but I love to give it up in the hopes of one day creating a cult, for Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium. I think is a wildly misunderstood movie, and I think it’s really charming. I love a kid’s film about death, and I’m not being ironic when I say that. I love the sort of visual wildness to it.

One of my favorite movies of all time is Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and I think this movie has that same sense of creating this world that you dream of as a child that feels tangible and realistic and occupied by real people. And I think it’s a movie that is due for reexamination.

What’s your favorite film from your childhood?

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is probably the movie I’ve seen more times than any other film that I’ve ever watched. It’s a movie that I loved as a kid and then rediscovered in college and truly came to appreciate how completely dark it is. I just think it’s so smart, and that Gene Wilder performance is one for the ages. If it’s showing on a plane, that’s one of the options, I will watch it again happily.

What’s something that you consider “required viewing”?

I would say that F.W. Murnau’s 1927 Sunrise. If you’ve never seen a silent movie, prepare to have your mind blown. And if you know silent film, but have never seen Sunrise, again, prepare to have your mind blown.

It’s a film that was made… It’s funny, it was the first year of the Academy Awards and the last year before talkies really took over. And he’s doing such incredible things with the camera to tell the story.

It’s been said often that that if talkies had come a year or two later, the visual language of cinema would’ve gone so much further before everything got anchored to the microphone, basically.

It’s a visually beautiful film. It’s emotionally moving. And I think if people haven’t seen it, they’re missing out on a great movie.

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(Photo by ©Cinecom Pictures. Courtesy Everett Collection.)

What were you watching the first time you saw yourself on screen and what did you relate to about that character or that story?

I mean, there have been different versions along the years of facets of myself that I’ve seen in movies. One that always comes to mind is: There’s an early queer indie from the 1980s called Parting Glances. I saw it not long after I was in my first relationship.

There were just specific moments about the two lead characters and their life at home and what their cohabitation looked like and what their sort of easy physicality looked like that I recognized. And it was this sort of jolt of like, “Oh, okay. So this is what relationships look like. This is what my relationship looks like, and I’m seeing in a movie for the first time.”

What are you most proud of in your career so far?

I’ve been doing a podcast (@linoleumcast) with my husband for 11 years now, and that’s been a really rewarding experience. He’s also a film critic. And so, I love getting to have an appointment to talk with him about new movies every week. And I love the audience that we’ve managed to grow over that time. It’s not the most gigantic, but I would venture to say that they’re one of the more connected ones. We hear from them a lot – they respond to us, we get great letters from them, and we hear from them on social media.

I think a lot of podcasts tend to come and go because people move on to other stuff, or they lose interest. And so, the fact that we’ve been steadily doing this thing for more than a decade now, I really feel like we’ve built something.

Is there someone in your life who isn’t a critic whose opinion you seek out on movies?

I love talking to people in my life who aren’t film critics about things that aren’t movies. So not exactly. Although I will say that my oldest brother, who is a retired physician, is part of the reason that I became obsessed with movies as a kid. He came home from college with all of these books about Alfred Hitchcock and Greta Garbo and MGM’s glory years and that kind of thing, and that’s what really set me down this path of my life.

What is the hardest review that you have ever written?

It’s hard to think of one single one. I will say the hardest reviews to write in general are movies that you really, really love because you have to figure out something to say about them where you don’t sound like you’re doing The Chris Farley Show: “That was great,” you know?

And also, you want to do it justice and you want to inspire people to see it. That’s a lot to shoulder, so you have to really kind of unpack what it is that you responded to, and why you think it’s so great, and convey that in a way that is clearly understandable and that will ideally make other people want to check it out as well.

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Alonso Duralde is TheWrap’s Film Reviews Editor. He co-hosts the Breakfast All Day podcast with Christy Lemire, and the Linoleum Knife podcast with Dave White. Find Alonso on Twitter: @ADuralde.

Into the Wild, Sean Penn’s lyrical adventure about a young idealist on a cross-country trek, leads new DVDs this week. A controversial child artist (My Kid Could Paint That) and Halle Berry’s latest drama (Things We Lost in the Fire) round out the fresh releases, but it just goes downhill from there (Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium).

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Into the Wild

Tomatometer: 83%

For those of us who’ve ever thought about just picking up and leaving the world behind, there is the real-life story about 24-year-old Christopher McCandless, who in 1990 donated his life savings to charity and set off on a cross-country odyssey to find himself. If you’ve read Jon Krakauer’s best-selling non-fiction book of the same name, then you know how it all turned out for McCandless, but here director Sean Penn crafts an epic, time-jumping adventure set against some of the most stunning landscapes in America. Emile Hirsch captures the hero’s restless spirit well as he tumbles in and out of the lives of strangers (including Catherine Keener, Vince Vaughn, and Hal Holbrook in an Oscar-nominated performance); Eddie Vedder provides original songs, including the Golden Globe-winning “Guaranteed.”

My Kid Could Paint That

Tomatometer: 93%

Art is always subjective, but especially so when it’s abstract — so how difficult is it to evaluate the random splatterings of a 4-year-old Picasso? Such is the debate within this acclaimed (and controversial) documentary by Amir Bar Lev, who gains intimate access with child prodigy Marla Olmstead and her family as Marla’s first works are sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Were Marla’s celebrated paintings true pieces of art? Did she even paint them herself? A commentary track and featurette appear in the bonus menu, but the highlight may be a 35-minute documentary on the notorious falling out between the Olmsteads and filmmaker Lev following the release of the film itself.

Things We Lost In The Fire

Tomatometer: 65%

When her husband is killed, a woman (Halle Berry) invites his drug-addled best friend (Benicio del Toro) to stay with her family in this English-language debut from Danish director Suzanne Bier. The Oscar-nominated filmmaker, trained in the experimental school of the Dogme95 clan, injects a European sensibility into her story of loss; don’t let shaky camera and jump-cuts dissuade you from taking in a pair of brave performances by the two leads.

Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium

Tomatometer: 35%

Despite the star power of its two leads, Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, about a 243-year-old toy shop owner (Dustin Hoffman) passing the reins over to his doubtful assistant (Natalie Portman), failed to charm most critics. While perhaps a visually whimsical treat suitable for children, adults unfortunate enough to sit through director Zach Helm‘s flight of fancy might find themselves longing for other, better toy story fare. A spattering of behind-the-scenes featurettes and a paper airplane tutorial DVD-ROM round out the release.

Until next week, happy renting!

A triumvirate of films opens this weekend, but all will bow to the power of the mighty Will Ferrell and his latest outrageous comedy, Semi-Pro.

Will Ferrell storms the box office this weekend with his latest sports comedy, Semi-Pro. This time the funnyman takes on the world of professional basketball, following in the footsteps of 2007’s figure skating pic Blades of Glory and 2006’s racing flick Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. There is no question this kind of film is directly in Ferrell’s wheelhouse so he should slam another one out of the park – sorry, let me try that again… so this weekend should be a slam dunk for him.

Almost exactly a year ago, Blades of Glory opened with $33M on its way to a $118.5M final gross. In August of 2006, Talladega Nights opened with $47M on its way to $148M. The major differences between those two films and Semi-Pro is that the previous two were rated PG-13 while Semi-Pro has landed an R rating, and that people may be tiring of seeing Ferrell doing the same shtick over and over again. The rating will keep some of the young folks who dig Ferrell’s irreverent comedy, away from theaters. The shtick may keep some viewers away, but the fans will come out in droves and it shouldn’t hurt the overall grosses too much, as the film is the only major player in town. Opening on over 3,000 screens, Semi-Pro could gross $35M this weekend.

Will Ferrell as Jackie Moon in Semi-Pro.
Two other smaller films, both headlined by women, also open this weekend. First is The Other Boleyn Girl, starring Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson. The film finds the two playing sisters, both trying to win the heart of the King of England. While both are critical darlings (and have a countless number of male fans), neither one is considered a big box office draw. Johansson’s biggest opening weekend (for a live action film) was 1998’s The Horse Whisperer, which opened to $13.6M. Portman of course starred in three episodes of the Star Wars saga, but if you exclude those films, her highest opening weekend was $25.6M for V for Vendetta back in March of 2006. That sounds reasonably impressive until you realize her next highest opening weekend for a film in which she had a leading role was last winter with Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium which opened with $9.6M.

The Other Boleyn Girl will likely cater to an audience of older women, although the joint star power of Johansson and Portman could bring in a somewhat younger crowd, as will Eric Bana who plays the aforementioned King. However the film opens on only about 1,000 screens and will likely get lost in the shuffle. While the film isn’t a romantic comedy and in fact has a twisted and scandalous storyline, there are no less than three romantic comedies still in the marketplace all of which cater to the same demographic. Look for The Other Boleyn Girl to open with around $5M.

The Boleyn girl and the other Boleyn girl.
The final new release this weekend is the long awaited Penelope starring Christina Ricci, Reese Witherspoon and James McAvoy. The movie tells the tale of a woman who is forced to hide a family curse which will only be lifted if she can find true love. The film has aspects of science-fiction and fantasy which makes it a little different than the other romantic comedies out right now, but even with Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon’s name attached, the film will most likely get buried. Opening on around 1,200 screens, look for Penelope to gross around $4M this weekend.

Christina Ricci as Penelope.
Last weekend’s champ Vantage Point will likely lose business to the Ferrell juggernaut, but should still have a reasonable hold this weekend. Look for the ensemble political thriller to fall around 40% to around $14M.

LAST YEAR: Disney jumped all over the box office with the smash Wild Hogs, which grossed $39.7M making it the largest opening in March history for a live-action film (until the following weekend when 300 shattered the mark). The critically acclaimed Zodiac debuted in second place with $13.4M. Two-time champ Ghost Rider grossed $11.6M, while a second Disney film, Bridge to Terabithia made $8.9M. Jim Carrey‘s crossover into horror, The Number 23, crashed 56% and collected $6.5M in its second weekend.

Paramount reigned supreme at the North American box office as its animated
adventure tale Beowulf seized the number one spot in its opening weekend while
the studio’s other toon
Bee
Movie finished in second place in its third frame.
But the overall marketplace remained troubled posting ticket sales that were
more like October numbers than like the typically robust figures seen in
November. In fact, the top ten films combined for just over $92M making it the
worst showing in nine years for the weekend before Thanksgiving.

The 3D computer-animated actioner Beowulf collected an estimated $28.1M over the
Friday-to-Sunday period becoming the top choice of movie fans this weekend.
Attacking 3,153 theaters, the PG-13 film averaged a strong $8,912 per location
for Paramount which scored its seventh number one hit of 2007. The
Robert Zemeckis-directed
picture used motion capture technology to tell the story of a Viking warrior who
saves a kingdom from demonic beasts. Ray Winstone
and
Angelina Jolie contributed their voices and
likenesses. Reviews were generally favorable.

Beowulf was the widest opener ever for a 3D film with over 700 of the venues
offering the adventure in the high-tech format. The Real D format accounted for
638 of the locations (20% of the total) and roughly $8M (28%) of the weekend
gross. Several dozen Imax sites also played the 3D version while traditional
theaters played the 2D one. According to studio research the audience was 60%
male and was split evenly between those over and under the age of 25.

Warner Bros. co-financed the $150M project and opened Beowulf in several
international territories day-and-date with the domestic bow. The ancient epic
grossed an estimated $17M overseas from 2,500 screens in 13 markets for a global
opening of $45.1M. It enjoyed solid second-place debuts in the United Kingdom
and Germany and rang up number one bows in many Asian markets like Hong Kong,
South Korea, Thailand, and Singapore. Beowulf invades France, Russia, Spain, and
Mexico later this week and attacks Australia, Brazil, and Japan on the following
weekend.

Paramount also claimed the silver medal with another toon, the
Jerry Seinfeld
hit Bee
Movie, which dropped 44% to an estimated $14.3M in its third outing.
After 17 days of release, the PG-rated kidpic has amassed $93.9M from just under
4,000 theaters and could be headed for $130-140M by the end of its domestic run.

The one-two punch of Beowulf and Bee marked the first time in three years that
animated films occupied the top two positions at the box office. The last
occurrence was over the November 12-14, 2004 frame when
The Incredibles remained
number one with a mighty $50.3M in its sophomore session and Zemeckis’
The Polar
Express opened in second with $23.3M. Only two other times this year has one
studio claimed the top two films. Warner Bros. ruled the March 23-25 weekend
with TMNT and
300 while a few weeks later Paramount reigned with
Disturbia and
Blades of Glory.

Despite the studio’s killer B’s leading the box office, the overall marketplace
was in bad shape which does not bode well for the end of what has been a record
year. The top ten films have now failed to break the $100M mark over
back-to-back weekends during the normally busy month of November. This has not
occurred during this month since 2000. Also, the weekend before Thanksgiving is
routinely used by Hollywood studios to launch some of their biggest holiday
season blockbusters. Beowulf generated the worst opening for a number one film
over this high-profile frame in nine years. Clearly the box office is lacking
strength right now and moviegoers are losing excitement over the current menu of
films that studios have served up. To make things worse, the next two weekends
lack any film expected to see explosive sales.

American Gangster
shot up another $13.2M in ticket stubs, according to
estimates, and raised its 17-day cume to $101M. Off 45%, the
Denzel
Washington–Russell
Crowe hit became the 21st film of 2007 to break the century
mark and the fifth for Universal which leads all studios. Warner Bros, Fox,
Buena Vista, and Sony have all claimed three such blockbusters each this year
with Paramount close to joining them when Bee Movie crosses the barrier later
this week. Gangster should head towards $130-140M domestically.

In Europe, the
Ridley Scott-helmed crime saga began generating heat with number
one openings in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Belgium, Portugal, and
Switzerland for an international weekend haul of $14M from 1,471 theaters in 14
markets. In the U.K., Gangster went head to head against the debut of Beowulf
and beat it by 13%.

Vince Vaughn‘s Christmas comedy
Fred Claus
fared well in its second weekend
losing only 35% of its business and grossed an estimated $12M for fourth place.
The Warner Bros. title has collected $35.8M in ten days and with the lucrative
Thanksgiving holiday session around the corner, could go on to bank $70-80M from
North America.

Fox attracted mediocre numbers for its new kidpic Mr. Magorium’s Wonder
Emporium which opened in fifth with an estimated $10M from 3,164 sites. The G-rated tale
starring
Dustin Hoffman and
Natalie Portman averaged a mild $3,168 per theater.
Reviews were mostly negative and competing family films from a busy bee and
Santa’s brother provided ample competition for the target audience.

For the third straight weekend, the Steve Carell dramedy
Dan in Real Life
enjoyed the smallest drop in the top ten as the Buena Vista release continued to
benefit from solid word-of-mouth. The romantic comedy dipped only 25% to an
estimated $4.5M in its fourth frame and pushed its total up to $37.1M. A $50M
final could result.

The latest offering from the
Coen brothers
No Country for
Old Men expanded into
wider release and posted sensational numbers allowing it to enter the top ten at
number seven while still only playing in 148 theaters. The R-rated thriller
starring Tommy Lee Jones,
Javier Bardem, and
Josh Brolin grossed an estimated
$3.1M for a scorching $20,932 average lifting the total to $4.9M from limited
play. Strong reviews, good word-of-mouth, and a loyal fan following for the
filmmaking duo helped to keep Country going strong. On Wednesday, Miramax will
go nationwide by widening the pic to about 800 locations giving upscale adult
audiences something meaty for the turkey frame. Paramount Vantage co-financed
the pic.

Tumbling 57% in its sophomore frame, the political snoozer
Lions for Lambs
fell to eighth with an estimated $2.9M giving the MGM release a wimpy $11.6M in
ten days. Produced for $35M, the
Tom Cruise–Robert Redford–Meryl
Streep vehicle
should end its run with about half its budget in domestic grosses. Poor reviews
and off-putting subject matter negated the starpower that the film tried to rely
on for commercial success. Redford will have the honor of directing Cruise’s
lowest-grossing movie since
Legend which took in a mere $15.5M in 1986.
Factoring in inflation over the superstar’s quarter-century career, Lions For
Lambs will end up selling the second fewest number of tickets for Tom Cruise
beating only 1983’s Losin’ It which found most of its audience on VHS tapes and
late-night cable television airings.

The horror sequel
Saw IV fell 53% to an estimated $2.3M in its fourth weekend
and lifted its cume to $61.8M. Look for a $66M final gross putting it ahead of
Saw‘s $55.2M from 2004, but behind the $87M of
Saw II and the $80.2M of last
year’s Saw III.
Together the four torture flicks will reach $288M in combined domestic grosses
with another installment in the works.

It’s a rare weekend when Javier Bardem stars in two films that reach the top
ten, but the acclaimed actor also saw his romantic drama Love in the Time of Cholera debut in the ten spot with an estimated $1.9M. Panned by critics, the
R-rated pic averaged a poor $2,201 from 852 locations for New Line. Thanks to
Cholera, the box office has now seen wide releases bow to averages of less than
$2,500 during nine of the last ten frames.

Despite mixed reviews from critics, the
Nicole Kidman–Jennifer Jason Leigh drama
Margot at the Wedding
opened to muscular numbers in its platform bow in
Manhattan with an estimated $83,000 from two locations for a sizzling $41,465
average. Paramount Vantage will expand the R-rated dysfunctional family drama
into 35 theaters in the top dozen markets across North America.

Four films dropped out of the top ten this weekend. Disney’s hit family comedy

The Game Plan
was the top-grossing picture during the September-October corridor
and fell 51% to an estimated $1.2M. With a robust $87.4M to date, the sports
flick should finish with just over $90M matching The Rock’s biggest film in a
leading role – $90.5M for 2002’s The Scorpion King. Summit’s fright flick
P2 tumbled 62% in its sophomore session to an estimated $800,000. With a weak $3.6M
in ten days, the suspense title should conclude its run with only $5M.

Sony’s $30M vampire thriller

30 Days of Night
has grossed $39.1M to date and looks headed for a finish of just north of $40M.
New Line’s
John Cusack
flop
Martian
Child crashed 75% to an estimated $465,000 for a $7.2M sum. Don’t expect
the cume to get much higher than $8M.

The top ten films grossed an estimated $92.4M which was down a troubling 29%
from last year when Happy Feet opened in first place with $41.5M; and down a
disturbing 45% from 2005 when Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire debuted in the
top spot with $102.3M.

Author: Gitesh Pandya, www.BoxOfficeGuru.com

This week at the movies, we’ve got epic poems come to life (Beowulf,
starring Ray Winstone and
Angelina Jolie), a magical toy shop (Mr. Magorium’s Wonder
Emporium, starring
Dustin Hoffman and
Natalie Portman), and romance in the
midst of infectious disease (Love in the Time of Cholera, starring
Javier Bardem). What do the critics have to say?

First, the bad news: critics say
Beowulf will inspire English teachers
and literary scholars to tear out their hair. The good news? The scribes also
say it’s a flick that fans of bombastic action and phantasmagoria will want give
their right arms for. If you didn’t read the epic poem in school, get thee to a
library; suffice to say the story involves a dude named Beowulf (Ray Winstone)
tangling with mead hall-crashing beast Grendel (Crispin Glover) and
his vengeful, seductive mom (Angelina Jolie, much more attractive than her fictional
progeny would indicate). The pundits say Beowulf‘s amazing visuals are
the biggest draw here, as director
Robert Zemeckis uses dazzling CGI to bring
the classic tale to vivid life. (They also note it’s not for the kiddies,
despite its PG-13 rating.) At 79 percent, Beowulf is Certified Fresh, and
it’s well above Zemeckis’ previous animation/live-action hybrid,
The Polar
Express (57 percent). (And
check out
our Total Recall feature on Beowulf and animation.)

Grendel waiting until somebody invents Jergens.

Everyone can use a dose of magic and whimsy from time to time, right? But
frippery requires a light touch, something critics say
Mr. Magorium’s Wonder
Emporium lacks. Emporium stars
Dustin Hoffman in the title role as
the proprietor of a magic toy store, a place where baubles can come to life,
fueled by imagination;
Natalie Portman plays his protégé. The pundits say the
big problem with Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium is that it ODs on
zaniness in an effort to make up for a bland storyline. At 24 percent on the
Tomatometer, business isn’t all that brisk at this Emporium.

“Does Mr. Magorium sell cornballers?”
Nobel Prize-winner
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
is widely acknowledged to be one of the world’s great men of letters.
Javier Bardem, hot from his performance in
No
Country for Old Men, stars in the adaptation of one of Marquez’ most
celebrated works,
Love in the Time of Cholera. Unfortunately, critics say
it’s more like Love in the Time of Narcolepsy. Bardem stars as a man who
is so enraptured by a woman he waits 50 years for her, despite her shifting
affections. The pundits say Love misses the spirit and passion of
Marquez’ magical realist tale by miles, with fine actors in miscast roles and a
too-literal approach, bogging down material that has a sense of sweep and
romanticism on the page. At 17 percent on the Tomatometer, Cholera is
under critical quarantine.

Chaplin, post-‘stache.

Also opening this week in limited release: the documentary
I for India,
the story of an expat corresponding to his family, is at 100 percent;
What
Would Jesus Buy?, a doc that explores the commercialization of Christmas, is
at 94 percent; Gregg Araki‘s
Smiley Face, a stoner comedy starring
Anna
Faris, is at 67 percent;
Redacted,
Brian De Palma‘s mixed-media look at the horrors of the Iraq war, is at 52 percent (read
our interview with De Palma
here); the Icelandic import
Eleven Men Out,
about a soccer star who comes out of the closet, is at 50 percent;
Noah Baumbach‘s
Margot at the Wedding, starring Nicole Kidman in a tale of
familial strife, is at 47 percent (check out our take from Toronto
here); and
Southland
Tales, a wildly ambitious sci-fi/political satire starring
Dwayne "The
Rock" Johnson and
Seann
William Scott, is at 42 percent (see our interview
with director Richard Kelly
here).

"Boy, these Dean Martin celebrity roasts are hilarious!"

Recent Angelina Jolie Movies:
————————————-
77% — A Mighty Heart (2007)
55% — The Good Shepard (2006)
59% — Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005)
16% — Alexander (2004)
34% — Shark Tale (2004)

Recent Natalie Portman Movies:
—————————————
84% — Paris, Je T’Aime (2007)
29% — Goya’s Ghosts (2007)
24% — Free Zone (2006)
72% — V for Vendetta (2006)
80% — Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)

One animated film will bump another from the number one spot at the North American box office. But the new warrior Beowulf is no B movie but an A-list production from an Oscar-winning director offering action audiences something new. Also opening this weekend but likely to see more modest grosses are the family pic Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium and the romantic drama Love in the Time of Cholera. Without a compelling selection of great films, the marketplace should once again fall well below year-ago levels.

Paramount looks to capture the box office crown without the help of DreamWorks this time with Beowulf, a computer-animated action adventure based on the ancient epic poem. The PG-13 film comes from Robert Zemeckis who expands upon the motion capture technology he used in 2004’s The Polar Express. This time around his film is aimed at somewhat older moviegoers as young children will be too frightened by the violence, gore, and yes, nudity. Beowulf aims to pry 14-year-old boys away from their videogame systems and into the multiplexes with a new type of action film that is presented in 3D in selected theaters. Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, and Angelina Jolie lend their voices and digital likenesses.

The marketing has been terrific on the part of the studio. The core audience of young males is excited and ready to buy tickets and the film might even pull in part of the literary crowd curious to see how this classic tale is adapted to the big screen. The marketplace needs something like this now with hits like American Gangster skewing more adult and kidpics like Bee Movie not offering enough violence. If last December’s Eragon could open to $23.2M, then surely Beowulf can target the same crowd and go higher. Launching in over 2,800 theaters, Beowulf could conquer the box office this weekend with about $32M.

The digitally-altered likeness of Ray Winstone in Beowulf
Dustin Hoffman stars as the eccentric owner of a magical toy store in Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, a new entry for family audiences from Fox. The G-rated film co-stars Natalie Portman and Jason Bateman. With Bee Movie and Fred Claus already out there doing solid business, and likely to collect a combined $30M this weekend, competition for Emporium will be intense. Bad reviews will make parents hesitate, but if kids respond to the TV commercials, then they will find a way to force their parents to take them. Opening wide in around 3,200 locations, Mr. Magorium could bow to about $11M this weekend and try to remain a relevant choice over the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday session.

Dustin Hoffman and Natalie Portman in Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium
To counter his current role as a brutal killer in No Country for Old Men, Javier Bardem stars in the romantic drama Love in the Time of Cholera. The R-rated tale from New Line is getting a moderately wide release and will play to an older adult audience with a female skew. The Oscar buzz Bardem has been receiving for Country could rub off on Cholera helping its case. And Latino audiences are being counted on to show up as are fans of Oprah who has endorsed the book that the film is based on. But overall, the Columbia-set film has not generated enough excitement to deliver a solid debut. Plus poor reviews will turn away much of the target audience. A slot on the lower end of the top ten could await. Opening in about 800 theaters, Love in the Time of Cholera might gross around $3M over the weekend.

Love in the Time of Cholera
Bee Movie should fall from its spot at the top of the box office and slide by about 30% since there is not too much new competition for young kids. A weekend tally of $18M could result giving Paramount $97M to date. Universal’s American Gangster should drop by 40% to about $14.5M giving the crime saga a total of $102M. The holiday comedy Fred Claus could dip by 35% in its second weekend. That would leave the Warner Bros. release with a weekend take of $12M and a ten-day cume of $35.5M.

LAST YEAR: In a major pre-holiday showdown, the penguin toon Happy Feet edged out the new James Bond film Casino Royale for the number one spot with a strong opening of $41.5M. The Warner Bros. family hit went on to collect $198M domestically and a stellar $384M worldwide. Sony’s relaunched spy series still posted a muscular debut grossing $40.8M over the weekend on its way to $167M domestically and a sensational $595M globally making the Daniel Craig-starrer the top-grossing 007 flick ever. After two weeks on top, Fox’s Borat slipped to third with $14.6M. Rounding out the top five were Disney’s The Santa Clause 3 with $8.3M and the Sony release Stranger Than Fiction with $6.6M.

Author: Gitesh Pandya, www.BoxOfficeGuru.com

She’s been wowing critics (and attracting a fanboy army) with her work in front of the camera for half of her life. Now, what Natalie Portman really wants to do is direct.

As Variety reports, she’s set to do just that, via her newly minted Handsomecharlie Films imprint, which has just signed a two-year production deal with Participant Productions. From the article:

Banner’s first project is “A Tale of Love and Darkness,” on which Portman plans to make her feature helming debut. Story is based on the bestselling memoir of Amos Oz, with Naomi Foner (“Running on Empty“) in negotiations to adapt the screenplay.

Handsomecharlie’s mission statement, according to the report, is to “develop socially relevant films,” which fits right in with Participant’s focus on, in Variety’s words, “such forward-thinking projects as Syriana, Good Night, and Good Luck, and An Inconvenient Truth.” Portman is quoted as saying:

“We all have the same desire to make meaningful and artistically fulfilling films and are committed to the idea of stories leading to greater empathy and action for world issues.”

In addition to her work behind the scenes, Portman will surface repeatedly on theater screens in the near future — the next few months will see her appearing in Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, The Other Boleyn Girl, and My Blueberry Nights.

Source: Variety