Fan Fare
Entertainment behind the scenes
Did holidays, “Christmas Carol” come too early in Hollywood?
When Disney’s animated “A Christmas Carol” debuted over the weekend in U.S. movie theaters, it marked the beginning of Hollywood’s holiday season — the second most-trafficked period at theaters after the summer. But the movie failed to generate a huge amount of excitement with fans judging by its box office tally of $31 million. By contrast, last year’s animated film that opened on roughly the same weekend, Dreamworks’ “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa,” took in $63 million.
But does that spell “humbug” for “A Christmas Carol”? Maybe not.
You can read about the movie here and the box office here. Or, you can watch the video below and see what people coming out of the theaters thought.
(Video by Marc Price)
Fans might remember that the same scenario played out for 3-D adventure “The Polar Express” from the same director, Robert Zemeckis. Like “Christmas Carol,” “Polar Express” was an expensive, motion-capture animated movie, and it too opened in November to just over $30 million. At the time, that figure was deemed a disappointment by box office watchers, but the film kept on chugging along at box offices throughout the holidays. It eventually earned more than $180 million in total domestic ticket sales ($300 million worldwide) and has become something of a modern holiday classic.
Jim Carrey offers glimpse of his “psychedelic” brain on Web
It’s hardly news these days when a celebrity launches their own web site.
But when it’s Jim Carrey, who is best known for for portraying multiple and often manic personalities, you’ve got to wonder which Carrey you’re going to run into online.
The Canadian-born star of “Me, Myself and Irene” and “Liar, Liar” tantalized reporters on Friday by announcing that his new website would show off “the psychedelic landscape of my brain.”
Forget 3D. Jim Carrey does Christmas in 4D!
Every year, movie distributors pull out all the promotional stops to gain the media’s attention here at the Cannes film festival. Two years ago, it was Jerry Seinfeld, dressed in a bee outfit and attached to a cable at the top of a roughly 10-story hotel that gently “flew” him down to the beach below. He was promoting his ” Bee Movie” from DreamWorks Animation.
This year, so far, the stunt of Cannes belongs to Disney, which turned on snow machines in the heat and sun outside the Carlton Hotel, covering the road with white stuff while comedian Jim Carrey was driven to the front of the hotel in a horse-drawn carriage. Hundreds of photographers snapped away as he promoted his upcoming title, “Disney’s A Christmas Carol.”
Christmas comes early with Disney “Christmas Carol” train
Christmas is coming early this year, courtesy of a 40-city train tour of the United States to promote the upcoming 3-D animated movie “Disney’s A Christmas Carol.”
With a snowy backdrop complete with carolers, decorations and all the sights and sounds of Christmas, the four vintage rail cars will offer Americans a sneak peek of the new movie as well as artwork, costumes from the film and artifacts from the Charles Dickens museum in London.
Stooges reloaded: Penn, Carrey and Del Toro
Larry, Moe and Curly, better known as the Three Stooges, never won an Oscar, but in a new movie two of the actors said to be playing the classic comedy trio will have three Oscars between them. Sean Penn has two Academy Awards and Benicio Del Toro has one of the trophies.
Hollywood trade paper Variety reports that Penn will play Larry and Del Toro has been tapped to play Moe. “Yes Man” star Jim Carrey is reportedly in negotiations to play Curly, which will require some weight gain on his part.
