Hollywood's Biggest 2011 Flops

First futures market for films about to begin

(NEWSER) - 3D isn’t the only immersive movie experience out there—soon, filmgoers will be able to play Hollywood mogul and bet on box office in the nation’s first film industry futures exchange. Cantor Futures, expected to gain regulatory approval next month, will allow anyone to buy contracts starting at $50, with $1 equal to $1 million in domestic box office. More»

Woody Harrelson vehicle dethrones Meatballs in debut weekend

(NEWSER) - Zombieland raked in $25 million to dominate the box office in its debut weekend, easily dethroning Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, which had held the top spot the previous two weekends. The R-rated comic horror movie starring Woody Harrelson drew an overwhelmingly young audience, with 56% under 25, Variety reports. Director Drew Barrymore's Whip It disappointed, taking in just $4.85 million and tying for sixth place with Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story. The top five: More»

(NEWSER) - Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs dominated the box office for the second straight weekend, racking up $24.6 million in ticket sales and running 10-day total to $60 million. That represents just a 19% fall-off from its opening weekend performance, a notably strong showing in a generally weak autumn market, the Hollywood Reporter notes. Surrogates, a sci-fi flick starring Bruce Willis and a bad wig, lagged expectations in totaling $15 million. More»

(NEWSER) - Julia Roberts is poised to step back into the spotlight with next month’s Duplicity, and Hollywood is hoping she can do again what none of her successors has been able to—pull boffo box office, the New York Times reports. “It’s just so clearly there,” said a producer of the industrial espionage-cum-romantic caper, costarring Clive Owen. “I don’t know how we know it, but we do.” Roberts hasn’t headlined a flick since 2001. More»

Franchises, concepts drive movie receipts more than A-list personalities

(NEWSER) - The lure of A-list movie stars is on the wane, the Hollywood Reporter notes after an examination of recent box-office receipts and extensive polling of Tinseltown insiders. Due in part to ubiquity on the internet and magazine racks, big names like Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts have seen their films gross far less than those driven by franchises—think Pirates of the Caribbean or Bourne. More»