Top 10 at the Weekend Box Office

Notes:

• Click on the chart to enlarge.
• With $22 million, Shutter Island maintained the #1 spot in its second weekend -- holding off newcomers Cop Out and The Crazies.
• Avatar became the first movie ever to top the $700 million mark domestically. By adding another $14 million in its eleventh weekend, the 20th Century Fox release now is at $706.9 million domestically and $2.5 billion worldwide.
  
• All figures are industry estimates. Actual figures are released on Monday.
• Reviews of Crazy Heart and other movies not in the top ten can be found by clicking on the Film Reviews archive image at left.
• Don't forget to vote in the Oscar poll at left -- which film most deserves to win for Best Picture?
  
• Sources: Nielsen EDI, ew.com, AP
  

Top 10 at the Weekend Box Office

Notes:

• Click on the chart to enlarge.
• Shutter Island, the fourth collaboration between director Martin Scorsese and actor Leonardo DiCaprio, landed them on top of the weekend box office -- despite the film's mixed reviews and a delay from its original release date last October. The $40.2 million debut was a personal best opening for both of them.
• Scorsese's previous personal best was $26.9 million with his 2006 Academy Awards champ The Departed, which also starred DiCaprio. The biggest previous debut for DiCaprio was $30.1 million for 2002's Catch Me If You Can. Besides The Departed, the two previously worked together in Gangs of New York and The Aviator.
• Roman Polanski's thriller The Ghost Writer got off to a big start in limited release, pulling in $179,000 at four theaters in New York City and Los Angeles for a whopping average of $44,750 a cinema. That compares to a $13,440 average in 2,991 theaters for Shutter Island.
• Avatar earned another $16.1 million in its tenth weekend, continuing to add to its record as the all-time box office champ. Its domestic total is now $697.8 million -- and its worldwide haul is now at $2.47 billion.
• All figures are industry estimates. Actual figures are released on Monday.
• Reviews of Edge of Darkness, Crazy Heart and other movies not in the top ten can be found by clicking on the Film Reviews archive image at left.
• Don't forget to vote in the Oscar poll at left -- which film most deserves to win for Best Picture?
  
• Sources: Nielsen EDI, ew.com, AP
  

MusicMonday: Performances at Olympics, More Festival Updates and Free Downloads

Olympic Performances

Live performances at last Friday's opening ceremonies of the Vancouver Winter Olympics included:

• Nikki Yanfosky - Canadian National Anthem
  
• Measha Brueggergosman - Olympic Hymn
• Bryan Adams and Nelly Furtado - "Bang the Drum" (which Adams co-wrote especially for the Vancouver games)
• k.d. lang - "Hallelujah"
• Sarah McLachlan - "Ordinary Miracle"
• Garou - "Un peu plus haut, un peu plus loin" ("A Little Higher, A Little Further")

Not sure if I would award any gold medals to any of the performers -- but Brueggergosman, McLachlan and lang definitely deserve silver! "Hallelujah" happens to be one of my all-time favorite songs. I prefer the late great Jeff Buckley's haunting version here. But lang did a fine job -- here she is in 2005 with another strong performance of the Leonard Cohen song.


Summer Festivals

Lineups for more summer festivals have been announced. Here is the latest round-up:

• This year's Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival will be held on June 10-13. Once again, the festival returns to the Great Stage Park on a 700 acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee. This year's lineup includes the Dave Matthews Band, Kings of Leon, Stevie Wonder, Jay-Z, Tenacious D and Weezer. The full line-up can be viewed by clicking on the image above. Website: www.bonnaroo.com
  
• Eric Clapton has announced the lineup for his Crossroads Guitar Festival to be held at Toyota Park outside of Chicago in Bridgeview, Illinois on June 26. Participating artists include John Mayer, ZZ Top, the Allman Brothers Band, Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy, Vince Gill, and, of course, Clapton himself. The complete lineup can be found on the festival Website: www.crossroadsguitarfestival.com
  
• And later tonight, the lineup and dates will be announced for the Sasquatch! Music Festival. It's held annually at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington. Website: www.sasquatchfestival.com
  

Free Downloads

Here are this week's free offerings:

• Compliments of Good Housekeeping, Brad Paisley's new single "Letter to Me" can be downloaded here.
• Download Kellee Maize's entire "Aligned Archetype" album here.
  
• Still feeling lovey-dovey even though Valentine's Day has passed? Download the free "Romance Around the World" sampler from Green Hill here.
  
• Coca-Cola presents a weekly free download on 'The Formula for Happiness' MySpace page here. The current freebie is Ok Go's "This Too Shall Pass."
  

And don't forget to continually check the following sources for more free downloads -- new songs covering all genres are added frequently. Just click on the links below and enjoy some new tunes.

• AbsolutePunk
• Amazon singles
  
• Amazon albums
  
• Fuse.tv
• MTV
  
• Spinner
• Stereogum
• VolumeVote
  
• Walmart

Top 10 at the Weekend Box Office

Notes:

• Click on the chart to enlarge.
• Three new films took the top spots -- with the aptly-titled Valentine's Day leading the pack. Valentine's Day distributor Warner Bros. estimated its love story will be in the $60 million range after Presidents Day on Monday. That would break the Presidents Day weekend record of $52 million set by Ghost Rider over the four-day holiday weekend in 2007.
• Avatar earned another $22 million in its ninth weekend, continuing to add to its record as the all-time box office champ. Its domestic total is now $659.6 million. Globally, Avatar was still #1 with $59 million drawn from 8,453 screens in 71 markets. Its worldwide haul total is at $2.35 billion.
• Reviews of Edge of Darkness, Crazy Heart and other movies not in the top ten can be found by clicking on the Film Reviews archive image at left.
• All figures are industry estimates. Actual figures are released on Monday.
• Don't forget to vote in the Oscar poll at left -- which film most deserves to win for Best Picture?
  
• Sources: Nielsen EDI, ew.com, AP, The Hollywood Reporter
  

MusicMonday: More Songs for Haiti Relief -- and Free Downloads, Too!

Songs for Haiti Relief (cont.)

Since a MusicMonday post from last month (here), there have been several more musical relief efforts for Haiti:

• The Mary J. Blige and Andrea Bocelli version of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" from last month's Grammy Awards is available on iTunes here. Proceeds from the $1.29 purchase price go towards the American Red Cross' Haiti relief efforts.
• The 25th anniversary recording of "We Are the World" was completed the day after the Grammys. A complete list of participants can be found here. The new version is scheduled to debut on NBC this Friday during the coverage of the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver (telecast begins at 7:30pm ET). Academy Award-winning director Paul Haggis (Crash) is reportedly working on the video. The single will then be released as an mp3 download and CD single. 2/12 update: the full video, participants list, donation link, etc. can be found at www.world25.org
  
• An all-star version of REM's "Everybody Hurts" was spearheaded by Simon Cowell -- and officially released in the UK yesterday. A complete list of participants can be found here. The song can be purchased in the UK on iTunes here -- and pre-ordered for U.S. release on Amazon here. Proceeds from the single will be split between The Sun's Helping Haiti fund and the Disasters Emergency Committee. View a video here:
  

Free Downloads

Here are this week's free offerings:

• Download Josh Ritter's "Change of Time" from his site here.
  
• Compliments of Macy's, you can download Ne-Yo's "Heroes" here.
  
• Coca-Cola presents a weekly free download on 'The Formula for Happiness' MySpace page here. The current freebie is Alkaline Trio's "This Addiction."
  

And don't forget to continually check the following sources for more free downloads -- new songs covering all genres are added frequently. Just click on the links below and enjoy some new tunes.

• AbsolutePunk
• Amazon singles
  
• Amazon albums
  
• Fuse.tv
• MTV
  
• Spinner
• Stereogum
• VolumeVote
  
• Walmart

Ho Hum TV Performances

Anybody blown away by music performances on tv the last two Sundays? None of the artists at the Grammy Awards wowed me. I guess I was most impressed by P!nk because she threw in some upside-down acrobatics, resisted lip-synching and actually sang well. Otherwise, some of the groupings didn't exactly live up to their hype -- or just seemed ill-fit (Stevie Nicks doing background for Taylor Swift? Absurd!). So what was your favorite performance? Still time to vote in the Grammy poll at left.

And how about the Super Bowl half-time show by The Who? They sure sounded better with a few beers in me last night than they did on YouTube replays this morning (you can view part 1 here and part 2 here). Sure, they're legends -- but I would think that more than half of the record 106.5 million viewers would have appreciated more current music. Hey back off, I'm a fan. Just saying that it was a bit too retro for most.

Top 10 at the Weekend Box Office

Notes:

• Click on the chart to enlarge.
• The new romantic drama Dear John unexpectedly ended the seven-week reign of Avatar at the weekend box office in North America, pulling in large numbers of young female moviegoers. Audiences for the film were 84% female and two-thirds were under the age of 21.
• Avatar earned $23.6 million in its eighth weekend, taking its total to $630.1 million. James Cameron's sci-fi blockbuster surpassed the $601 million haul of his 1997 release Titanic last Tuesday to become the biggest movie of all time in the United States and Canada. With a record $2.2 billion worldwide, Avatar also recently soared past the $1.8 billion Titanic took in globally.
  
• Reviews of Edge of Darkness, Crazy Heart, Sherlock Holmes and other movies not in the top ten can be found by clicking on the Film Reviews archive image at left.
• All figures are industry estimates. Actual figures are released on Monday.
• Don't forget to vote in the Oscar poll at left -- which film most deserves to win for Best Picture?
  
• Sources: Nielsen EDI, ew.com, The Hollywood Reporter

Academy Award Nominations Announced

The nominations for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards were announced this morning -- with Avatar and The Hurt Locker leading the pack with nine each. The full list of nominees can be found on the official Oscars site here.

Not a lot of surprises this year -- the biggest one being The Blind Side earning a Best Picture nod. Movie-goers loved it, but the critics did not. The film is definitely riding the wave of nominee Sandra Bullock's recent success at other award ceremonies. I think the biggest snubs include Julianne Moore losing out for her terrific supporting role in A Single Man -- her slot went to the well-deserved Maggie Gyllenhaal in Crazy Heart. In fairness, Moore's screen time was brief. Also, (500) Days of Summer was one of my favorite films of 2009 -- and there was talk that it could receive a Best Original Screenplay or Best Picture nod. Sadly, it was shut out.

Every year, I make it a goal to see all Best Picture nominations and as many of the nommed performances as possible. Of course, the Academy had to make it a bit tougher this year by upping the total number of Best Picture nominations from five to ten. Luckily, I've managed to see most of them already. Here is where I stand:

• Best Picture nominations: 7 out of 10 seen
• Acting nominations: 14 out of 20 seen

Combining the missing links from the Best Picture and acting categories, I only need to see five more films to complete my mission. With four-and-a-half weeks to go til Oscar night, I should be able to achieve this goal and issue my predictions with some validity! Stay tuned!


Notes:

• The Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 7. The ABC telecast begins at 8pm ET -- with Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin serving as co-hosts.
• Take the poll at upper left -- which film most deserves the Best Picture Oscar?
• Click on the Film Reviews icon at left to read my reviews of the movies being honored.
  
• Coming soon -- in the spirit of the Oscars, look out for a NEW EntertainmentBlogger contest celebrating the great year in movies.