#1 at the Box Office

Comic-book fugitive Hellboy unleashed its wrath at the box office this past weekend, taking in an estimated $23.5 million, while with $15.3 million in box office receipts, The Rock had to settle for runner-up status with his remake of the vigilante justice flick, Walking Tall .
In the also-ran category: the second weekend of Scooby Doo 2 brought in $15.2 million for a third place finish, just ahead of Disney’s animated Home on the Range, which bowed in fourth spot with a disappointing $14.1 million. Also emerging in the ‘disappointment’ category, Paramount’s quite lovely Julia Stiles film, The Prince and Me, which opened to only $10 million.
Coming up this next weekend to a multiplex near you: the troubled Disney production, The Alamo; Miramax’s fairytale flick for girls, Ella Enchanted; the quite surprising, naughty, and sure-to-be-controversial The Girl Next Door; and the Warner Bros. sequel The Whole Ten Yards.

Previously on VanRamblings, we’d introduced you to David Poland’s The Hot Button, one of the first (if not the first) daily, web-based cinema column. Poland’s been around since 1994 on the web, in one form or another.
Today, we introduce you to Jeffrey Wells, who’s been around almost as long, doing much the same kind of work Poland does, covering cinema on the web. At the end of this item (you’ll have to click on the Continue Reading prompt a few centimetres below), you’ll find Wells’ 2004 Oscar contention ‘balloon’. This is well-worth reading, so look for it.
Both David Poland’s The Hot Button and Jeffrey Wells‘ Movie Elsewhere are available as links on the left, under the Cinema category.
Jeffrey Wells began his entertainment journalism career in Connecticut before moving to New York in 1978, where he wrote for the New York Post, along with other papers. In 1983, he moved to Los Angeles, quit journalism and went to work in the publicity department at Menahem Golan’s Cannon Pictures, then at its height. He married in 1987. In 1991, following a bitter divorce (is there any other kind?), Wells once again returned to journalism, becoming a freelance writer for the Los Angeles Times.
Throughout the early 90s, Wells earned Sony’s enmity by writing tough pieces about Sony chief Mark Canton. He also wrote about the troubled Bruce Willis movie Striking Distance in the Los Angeles Times. Wells is given credit for contributing a scathing column, employing the byline Celia Brady, to Spy magazine, which indicated that Canton had slept through a screening of Martin Scorcese’s The Age of Innocence. Brady/Wells wrote that when Canton was at Warner Brothers, he oversaw Franco Zeffirelli’s Hamlet, starring Mel Gibson. Canton reportedly asked for a plot summary.
While investigating Columbia Pictures executive Michael Nathanson, who was involved in the Heidi Fleiss scandal, Wells had his phone tapped by a private eye, the recently jailed Anthony Pellicano. Pellicano conducted a thorough background search on Wells, looking for information to discredit him, but found nothing. On June 4 1993, Wells wrote a column for the LA Times about a disastrous test screening for the bomb Last Action Hero.
Sony went nuts.

Continue reading Jeffrey Wells: Cinema’s Last Action Hero →

The juggernaut that is The Passion of the Christ continued to top the box office, taking in an estimated $33 million dollars in its third weekend of release. Slipping 41 percent from last weekend, “The Passion” has now grossed $264 million domestically since its release 18 days ago. By next weekend, it will have topped The Matrix Reloaded ($281.6 million) as the highest-grossing R-rated film ever.
Johnny Depp’s thriller Secret Window had to settle for second place, premiering with $19 million, behind the $23.4 million début of his last film, Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Mostly poor reviews didn’t help bring audiences in to Depp’s film.
Coming up the rear this week: third place finisher Starsky & Hutch, which fell 43 percent to $16 million, followed by Viggo Mortensen’s Hidalgo, which slipped 39 percent to $11.7 million. After 10 days, the two films have earned $51.5 million and $35.5 million, respectively.
Coming exactly one year after the first Cody Banks film, Frankie Muniz’s Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London opened with only $8 million, compared to $14.1 million for its predecessor. But at least it performed better than Val Kilmer’s drama Spartan, which couldn’t even manage $2,500 per theater, débuting with a relatively paltry $2 million.

We’re all familiar with Spalding Gray’s demons—venting his despair was his art and profession. But after a crippling car crash in 2001, his depression began to overwhelm him. So when he went missing in early January, after several previous suicide attempts, his wife, children, and friends were left to fear the worst.
Sunday morning, March 7th, a body surfaced in New York’s East River. The following day, the city medical examiner identified the body as that of Spalding Gray, the confessional monologuist and actor who disappeared two months ago.
Although the cause of Mr. Gray’s death has not as yet been determined, police were investigating reports that Mr. Gray, who had a history of depression, had committed suicide by jumping off the Staten Island ferry.
After his disappearance, an article in New York magazine, chronicled Mr. Gray’s despair after a devastating car accident which occurred while he was on vacation in Ireland in 2001, fracturing his skull and crushing his hip.
Spalding Gray will be missed, as will his wit, humanity and grace.