Film ON AIR

Hollywood grandpas Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman did it again. After an mildly impressive worldwide gross of $173 mill, the oldies are topping both the sales and rental chart in the US.

Again we sadly don’t have actual numbers, but ‘The Bucket List’ was followed by ‘Jumper’ on both charts. The Doug Liman (‘The Bourne Identity’) movie made $80 mill in the US earlier this year and had a total gross of $221 mill. The good worldwide performance (for its $85 million budget) recently justified talks about a sequel, although nothing has been planned yet.

‘The Other Boleyn Girl’ debuted at number 4 and ‘John Adams’ by HBO at 5.

‘Iron Man’ is joining the $300 million club today, making daddy Marvel very proud. By putting more dollars into ‘The Incredible Hulk,’ the company was clearly expecting ‘Iron Man’ to do less. And I think nobody was expecting this kind of success. ‘Iron Man’ will be the first movie this year to pass the mark, even before ‘Indiana Jones 4′ will. The old Indy currently has a domestic gross of $280 million.

The $300 million club is a quite exclusive one and only two, maybe three movies make it per year. ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest’ was the fastest movie to reach $300 million in just 16 days in 2006.

‘Iron Man’ has grossed over $550 million worldwide by now, where ‘The Incredible Hulk’ might barely beat half of that in its lifetime. The new Hulk is projected at around $150 in the US, with the overseas total going into the same direction.

Sadly there aren’t any new tracking numbers floating around. But we do have a better idea of what to expect, just a little over a day before release. Last week’s tracking numbers indicated a soft launch for both ‘The Love Guru’ and ‘Get Smart,’ with the last one tracking a little higher. And while the expectations for Steve Carell’s movie are still in line with last week, Mike Myers doesn’t seem to be doing so well.

Both are rumored to have about the same budget, $80 million, but ‘The Love Guru’ might struggle to make some profit in the US alone. Most analysts are expecting a $20-$25 million opening, but some say it might not even top $20 million. An opening in the high teens will definitely be considered a failure by Paramount and won’t do Myers’ future projects any good.

‘Get Smart’ is doing better and would end the coming weekend with a little under $40 million. We will take a look at the reviews tomorrow, when most of the quotes are in, but it looks like the critics are projecting the same view. The first ‘The Love Guru’ reviews are burning and ‘Get Smart’ is doing just a little bit better. No, this won’t be a big weekend.

Famous photographer Annie Leibovitz took these photos for the Vogue magazine of July. Promotion for ‘Australia‘ (and Australia) is starting. The movie won’t be out until winter, but the coverage is already growing. The only question is, will the story be as ‘beautiful’ as the screens?