THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES Eying $1 Billion - Opens To $50m In China!

THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES has opened to $49.5m in China which is just about as much as the first Hobbit movie made during it's entire run in the country! Goes to show the recognition that the movie brings now to the Chinese as well as the further development of the theater industry there - especially 3D. With FIVE ARMIES being made in native 3D with world leading 3ality Technica rigs, these box office results underscore what great movie making can achieve.

Peter Jackson's finale to the Hobbit trilogy has raked in $866 million worldwide as of now and as China is it's last major market the echos of the release may be enough to push it to the magic billion dollar mark despite being obviously snubbed by the Academy for Oscars this year. The movie only managed to be nominated for Sound Editing. How it is not at least nominated for Visual Effects is beyond me.

Will THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES hit $1 billion? Will we ever return to Middle-earth again any time soon? I'd dearly love to see some spin offs from these movies - character origins stories, adventures and the like. I doubt the Tolkien estate would allow it, but there would definitely be a huge market for it. Even a bridge movie bringing Legolas together with Strider as described at the end of the movie would be huge.

Can't wait to get the extended trilogy versions on Blu-ray! All the behind the scenes action is what I really enjoy in these boxed sets. Stay tuned for further box office updates!

What Has The Academy Done Anyway? Nothing Short Of Lighting A Fire Under James Cameron

Jim here. To say I am disappointed with the Academy is an understatement. THE HURT LOCKER is an ok movie. Just ok. Could have and should have one an award or two, sure. But BEST PICTURE? C'mon. It is a political joke. THL made 2% of the gross of AVATAR. Think about that. 2%. It is the lowest grossing movie to ever win the Best Picture.

Bigelow is a great director, sure. Given another year and I could see myself leaning toward THL as Best Picture. But NOT 2009.

Yes, Chartier's email was wrong and yes it probably did swing some votes, but it was not the deciding factor here. It was good old fashioned politics. THL is NOT the best movie of the year - by any means you wish to measure it. AVATAR introduced new technology, and heck, a new paradigm in acting! A revolution was created with this project and further than that - it launched the S3D era with such a huge force of nature that we will never look back again to wonder how long 3D is here for. The answer is it is staying. AVATAR cemented that.

So now our children and our children's children will look back at 2009 and see THE HURT LOCKER as the crème de la crème of the entire year. They will wonder why AVATAR wasn't honored by the Academy because it will be AVATAR that will be in more trivia questions. It will be AVATAR that is viewed more often by future generations. It is AVATAR that will have spawned a franchise. They will see that other movies from previous generations that were nominated and then did not win too - like THE WIZARD OF OZ in 1939. Of course it lost to GONE WITH THE WIND. Wait a minute... Both of those were starting a new era of Hollywood too - COLOR.

Trouble is THL was not starting anything in Hollywood. It is an average film. I have no interest in seeing it a second time - even at home. Heck I would have chosen INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS over THL. There was nothing that excited me about the movie. It is not even a truly accurate representation of the effort being made overseas by the troops.

I saw THL in the theater. It was good. Enough said.

I think what happened Oscar night was ridiculous. Giving Bigelow the Best Director was about as far as I would go without wanting to throw up in my mouth a bit. And don't get me wrong - If Bigelow could have directed AVATAR to the same glorious outcome as Cameron than I would have backed her just as ardently.

Further, AVATAR clearly had the best editing in 2009 because it has the best editing for the whole decade put together. They were editing together live action, CG characters, CG environments and all on a scale UNHEARD of in Hollywood history. What they did was not even possible before they actually did it! I ask this question in all sincerity: How DARE the Academy NOT give AVATAR Best Editing? Heck Cameron was even editing the movie while he was shooting it with his Simulcam and Virtualcam.

Best Picture. Is it too much to ask that the most embraced movie of all time WORLD WIDE be recognized as Best Picture? I am not going to spend anymore time describing why AVATAR should have prevailed. Suffice to say the Academy messed up yet again.

Which brings me to my final point. The only thing that the Academy has done (other than make the Bigelow team VERY happy) is that they have lit a fire under James Cameron. In a similar vein to what Peter Jackson went through with his LOTR trilogy, Cameron is now facing with his AVATAR trilogy.

Some ask if Cameron will be coming back to direct the sequels for AVATAR. Get real. Of course he will be. He wants to hold those reins when it wins Oscar. Will he have to wait for the final part of the trilogy to do that? I don't think he will have to. I think AVATAR 2 will be everything that the original was - but amplified 10 fold.

The saddest thing of the entire night (yes even sadder than seeing Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin work together) was the fact that James Cameron did not set ONE foot on that stage. I was almost sick to my stomach. Almost like a slap in the face to Cameron. All that work. 10 years. Innovation and genius up the wazoo. At least the fans pay him homage. And in the end, they are the only ones that really count. And James Cameron? He's ok. He knows that the tricks he has up his sleeve will make it impossible for the Academy to ignore future AVATAR efforts... and of course, he still has f*ck you money.

Nicolas Chartier Tries To Put THE HURT on AVATAR's Oscar Chances! Landau Responds...

Jim here. If you are not aware of Nicolas Chartier's enormous Oscar blunder here is your chance to catch up. Chartier is a producer of THE HURT LOCKER and he took it upon himself to mass email many if not all his contacts (not sure which) in an effort to sway their votes - and their friends of friends' votes.

Trouble is, this is all very illegal activity with the Academy. You simply cannot ask for votes, let alone mass spam everyone in your network. Further, you can't ask your network to ask THEIR network to do the same! The Oscars are all about which movie is generally voted as being the best and is not a social networking driven affair - despite the politics that are involved. I see "For Your Consideration" ads everywhere, but I suppose they are regulated and treated much as political election campaigns are run.

Here is what he said in his email (via LA Times):

From: "Nicolas Chartier" Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010

I hope all is well with you. I just wanted to write you and say I hope you liked Hurt Locker and if you did and want us to win, please tell (name deleted) and your friends who vote for the Oscars, tell actors, directors, crew members, art directors, special effects people, if everyone tells one or two of their friends, we will win and not a $500M film, we need independent movies to win like the movies you and I do, so if you believe The Hurt Locker is the best movie of 2010, help us!

I'm sure you know plenty of people you've worked with who are academy members whethere a publicist, a writer, a sound engineer, please take 5 minutes and contact them. Please call one or two persons, everything will help!

best regards,

Nicolas Chartier Voltage Pictures

Of course once this hit the LA Times it was game over and he quickly "apologized":

Last week I emailed you regarding the Oscars next week, generally, and
"The Hurt Locker," in particular.

My email to you was out of line and not in the spirit of the celebration of
cinema that this acknowledgement is. I was even more wrong, both personally
and professionally, to ask for your help in encouraging others to vote for
the film and to comment on another movie. As passionate as I am about the
film we made, this was an extremely inappropriate email to send, and
something that the Academy strongly disapproves of in the rules.

My naivete, ignorance of the rules and plain stupidity as a first time
nominee is not an excuse for this behavior and I strongly regret it. Being
nominated for an Academy Award is the ultimate honor and I should have taken
the time to read the rules.

I am emailing each person this very same statement asking to retract my
previous email and requesting that you please disregard it.

I truly apologize to anyone I have offended.

Sincerely yours,

best regards,

Nicolas Chartier
Voltage Pictures, LLC


Chartier pleads ignorance. I say that is a load of you know what. I think they were trying to bend the rules with today's social networking technology. I suspect even using Facebook would lead you to trouble with the Academy - which THE HURT LOCKER team has done apparently.

Chartier goes even further than begging for votes: He denounces AVATAR as a $500m movie and that indie films should get more attention. Right. This is coming from a producer no less. Not a grip from the film. My opinion is if a movie warrants attention, it will get it. Head(s) should roll for this clear violation.

For the year 2009, there is only one movie that has captured the world's attention like NONE other in history. No other movie that has revolutionized Hollywood for not only stereoscopic 3D, but for performance capture and crossing the "uncanny valley". We all know it is AVATAR.

So what would you think Cameron's reaction would be to this? I don't really know (other than the mutual admiration of work between Cameron & Bigelow) - but we DO KNOW what Jon Landau's (Producer - AVATAR, TITANIC) reaction is:



I fall squarely on AVATAR's side here of course. But really that is beside the point. $2.5 billion in box office essentially forgives practically ANY cost the film incurred in its making, not that he should be denouncing anything that any other movie has done. And $500m has not even been proven. He doesn't even mention Bigelow or the others who are up for awards here. It is as if it is his own movie.

I find the whole thing very, VERY ugly. The only positive coming out of this is the class act response from Jon Landau.

Thanks to Jo for sending in the heads-up of the Jon Landau comments on the situation!