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Untraceable (2008)

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3 articles from 2008

29 January 2008 | From Studio Briefing | See recent Studio Briefing news

When final box-office figures were counted up, only about $300,000 separated the take of the No. 1 film, Meet the Spartans, from the No. 2 film, Rambo, according to box-office trackers Media by Numbers. Spartans took in $18.5 million over the weekend, compared to Rambo's $18.2 million. Both films performed according to expectations, but several box-office gurus had predicted that Rambo would edge out Spartans, instead of the other way around. The Romantic comedy 27 Dresses held up well in its second week, to place third with $13.4 million, but last week's top hit, Cloverfield, suffered a monstrous setback, dropping more than 70 percent to $12.7 million. A third new release, the horror-thriller Untraceable, placed fifth with $11.3 million.

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28 January 2008 | From Studio Briefing | See recent Studio Briefing news

Untraceable , which had been expected to take in less than $10 million, turned out to be a pleasant surprise for Sony. So, too, possibly were the handful of solid reviews the film garnered from several critics on Friday. (Most despised it.) Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert (who wrote his review of the movie before entering the hospital last week for surgery to correct damage that had resulted from previous operations last year) described it as "a horrifying thriller, smart and tightly told, and merciless." Ann Horniday credited Diane Lane's performance for pulling it all off: "An otherwise slick, well-crafted police procedural, Untraceable dabbles in the kind of torture porn that has made movies like Saw and Hostel such hit franchises with the very teenagers Lane's career has so triumphantly defied." On the other hand, Joe Morgenstern wrote in the Wall Street Journal:"This joyless thriller runs the gamut from unconscionable through unwatchable to unendurable." Then there was Stephen Holden's curious review in the New York Times, which said, "You may view Untraceable, as I do, as a repugnant example of the voyeurism it pretends to condemn. Or you may stand back and see it as a cleverly conceived, slickly executed genre movie that ranks somewhere between Seven and the Saw movies in sadistic ingenuity."

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28 January 2008 | From Studio Briefing | See recent Studio Briefing news

The low-budget Meet the Spartans, a spoof of last year's 300 from Warner Bros., earned as much as it cost to produce at the domestic box office over the weekend, taking in an estimated $18.7 million and edging out Rambo, from Lionsgate and the Weinstein Co., which finished in second place with about $18.2 million, according to box-office trackers Media by Numbers. The two films knocked last week's winner, Cloverfield to fourth place. After grossing $44.3 million over the four-day Martin Luther King Day holiday, Cloverfield garnered just $12.7 million in its second weekend, a 72-percent drop. It was beaten by the film it trounced a week ago, 20th Century Fox's 27 Dresses. Debuting in fifth place was Sony's Untraceable, which took in a better-than-expected $11.2 million. Continuing to amaze was Fox Searchlight's Juno, which passed the $100-million mark an upped its gross from last week despite losing some 100 theaters. The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Media by Numbers: 1. Meet the Spartans, $18.7 million; 2. Rambo, $18.2 million; 3. 27 Dresses, $13.6 million; 4. Cloverfield, $12.7 million; 5. Untraceable, $11.2 million; 6. Juno, $10.3 million; 7. The Bucket List, $10.2 million; 8. There Will be Blood, $4.9 million; 9. National Treasure:Book of Secrets, $4.7 million; 10. Mad Money, $4.6 million.

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3 articles from 2008