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Entertainment behind the scenes
Russell Crowe the $200 million man at foreign box office
Russell Crowe’s career may cooled a little in North America, but the New Zealand-born Australian resident remains a firm favorite with international audiences.
His latest release, “Robin Hood,” just passed the $200 million mark at the foreign box office, the first time he has hit a double-century since his Oscar-winning “Gladiator” ended up with $270 million in 2000.
On a worldwide basis, including respectable U.S./Canada sales of $104 million, the period action-adventure has earned $305.7 million. The only films ahead of it in Crowe’s canon are “Gladiator” ($457 million) and “A Beautiful Mind” ($313.5 million). Crowe will likely have to wait until later this year to see if “Robin Hood” can move up to No. 2. The film has yet to open in just one market — Japan, in December.
According to “Robin Hood” distributor Universal Pictures, top foreign markets so far include: Britain ($22 million), France ($17 million), Australia ($16 million), Italy ($14 million), Germany ($14 million), Spain ($12 million), Russia $12 million, South Korea $10 million, Mexico $9 million, Brazil ($8 million) and China ($7 million).
Can Cannes live with low U.S. turnout?
So, Cannes 2010 is about to get underway and the usual bout of soul-searching, navel-gazing and nail-biting is occupying minds in the Mediterranean resort.
No one knows whether it will be a strong year or not until the end, of course, so the main focus for a lot of critics and journalists in the runup to Wednesday’s opening (with Ridley Scott’s “Robin Hood”) has been the lack of U.S. titles in the main competition lineup and also in sidebar events. Doug Liman’s political “Fair Game”, based on the true story of outed CIA agent Valerie Plame, is the country’s sole representative out of 19 competition movies. That said, Oliver Stone and Woody Allen are both in town with films, and they don’t come much bigger or more respected.
Joan Rivers kicked off British chat show
Joan Rivers is not quite eating crow, but profanities she let fly about actor Russell Crowe got the comedienne kicked off a British talk show.
Rivers, 75, was making a guest appearance on “Loose Women” when the Hollywood interviewer was asked if she likes meeting celebrities on the red carpet. She responded that she likes “nice” celebrities, but that Crowe is not one of those.
