Box Office of March, Mathieu Kasovitz's Rebellion and Marlow FM slot

My second box office report for Tastic Film has just been published covering the biggest box office hits of the month of March. Check out the box office report here. Family friendly fare unsurprisingly took the lead this month and I'm looking forward to hopefully writing about more horror success stories like the Evil Dead remake in April. It will also be interesting to see how Spring Breakers does with its clear mainstream appeal but also experimental and art house elements.

My review for Mathieu Kassovitz's Rebellion is also up at Filmoria today. I loved the film and am glad to see director Kassovitz back on form. I'm also going to be participating in a roundtable interview with the director on Sunday which is absolutely terrifying but also incredibly exciting. His La Haine is one of my top 3 films of all time so I will have to resist the urge to not just ask him about that and keep questions focused on Rebellion. It probably would not be very professional of me to try and get a photo with him or get him to sign any of my copies of his films but we'll see how it goes! If you have any questions for Mr Kassovitz, then please drop me a comment and I'll try and ask them!

In other exciting news, I've just been given a regular weekly slot on a local radio station called Marlow FM,  to talk about upcoming films. You can listen to Marlow FM here and I should be on soon after 5pm today if you want to check it out. It's very exciting to be on the radio and I'm looking forward to telling the people of Marlow what films to watch out for at the cinema every week.

If you live in London, you can go to a Q&A with Mathieu Kassovitz on Sunday at three different venues. Here are my tweets and links to where you can get tickets. It also means you get to see the film almost a week before general release!

Q&A with #Rebellion and #LaHaine director Mathieu Kassovitz @picturehouses Hackney 2pm Sunday!!! Get tickets here http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/cinema/Hackney_Picturehouse/film/Rebellion/

Q&A Screening #Rebellion director Mathieu Kassovitz @ODEONCinemas  Covent Garden 4pm this Sunday! Get tickets here http://www.odeon.co.uk/fanatic/film_info/m100564/Rebellion_Q_amp_A_With_Mathieu_Kassovitz/

#Rebellion #LaHaine director Mathieu Kassovitz at Cine Lumiere 6pm this Sunday! Get tickets here http://www.institut-francais.org.uk/cine-lumiere/whats-on/new-releases/rebellion/

Any questions for Kassovitz, then let me know!

Movies in March Round-up

I haven't watched or reviewed quite so much this month. In 2013 I have now watched a total of 50 films for the first time and 15 re-watches. I blame all the TV shows for the slow down this month. I've also been doing quite a lot of work on my thesis on found footage movies so that has been keeping me busy. Anyway without further ado, here's a round up of what I have been watching and writing this month:

Robot and Frank
Sinister
Killer Joe
Tape 407 (Terrible, terrible found footage)
Baise-Moi
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
Sleep Tight
The Lords of Salem (review imminent)
Trance
The Liability (out in May, review currently embargoed)
Side Effects

I didn't review many of these but The Lords of Salem and The Liability will be reviewed soon at Filmoria. I also started Game of Thrones series 1 and Breaking Bad series 4, both ace so far. I feel like this series of Breaking Bad could possibly be the best yet. Game of Thrones has grabbed me and I'm just waiting for more discs from Lovefilm! I was worried the boobs might put off my wife but we're in the clear so far, two episodes in.

My reviews of Stoker and Broken went up at Filmora this month. I also wrote for Filmoria about who I think should direct the next Bond film, James Cameron and his carbon neutral Avatar sequels, and some news stories about the following:

Roman Polanski's Tess released on Blu-ray
The Lords of Salem new poster and pictures
Rebellion new trailer

I re-watched Shallow Grave, Sunshine, Millions and 127 Hours in preparation for my Danny Boyle retrospective at Filmoria. And I re-watched Terminator 1 and 2 with my Film Studies class at college so that we could talk about genre analysis and feminism analysis in films. We are studying Fight Club in another of my classes so I have been writing about Fight Club a bit and I also tried my first video essay.

I've been doing more writing for Yahoo about all sorts of strange things from praying to dog attacks to the Iraq war. Other stuff I've been writing about here are music videos and job roles in the TV and Film Industries. Overall it's been a fun month. Best films: (apart from re-watches) Trance and Side Effects. Worst film: Tape 407.

What' s been your best and worst films of the month?

Box Office Reporter for Tastic Film

I have just been given the proud title of Box Office Reporter for the Tastic Film website. My first piece on what is big at the US Box Office in March 2013 is now online at Tastic Film here. It looks at the top 10 of the month and discusses what is big, what is making lots of money and what is profitable.

I met the guy that runs Tastic Film at the Flight premiere where we were both scrambling to get some words from the man of the moment Denzel Washington. Tastic Film also has a great YouTube channel full of red carpet reports and other bits and pieces so head over and check it out. It's also available in print and is likely going to expand across the pond to having writers from America on board.

I will be doing one or two box office reports every month for Tastic Film, mainly focusing on the US box office and the top 10 films of the month. Box Office Mojo is going to be my essential tool for gathering information on the biggest grossing films and their production budgets.

It is interesting to focus on the business side of things and particularly keeping an eye on what films do well at the box office, but more specifically which films become the most profitable. Some of the budgets on these films are astronomical and must be huge gambles for the Hollywood studios. This month for example Jack the Giant Slayer cost nearly $200 million and though its got some serious star and special effects power, surely it will have to be pretty damn popular to make a profit off a budget that huge.

Other big releases of the month include Oz the Great and Powerful, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone and The Last Exorcism Part 2 so head on over to Tastic Film and check out the biggest box office hits of the month.

More box office reports at Tastic Film:

Week of Magical Action
The Scare Off
Iron Man 3
Star Trek Into Darkness