In Los Angeles, California on the eighth the winners of the ninth annual Golden Trailer Awards were unveiled. All trailers, TV spots, and posters from 2007 were considered and over fifty awards were handed out, with the most notable listed below (The rest of the awards are listed at the GTA site):
This weekend was particularly sad for Warner Bros. as their big-budget project Speed Racer finished in second with a mere $20 million. With a budget in excess of $160 million, it will be notoriously difficult for the studio to actually break even on the movie. Unlike last week, which all but confirmed an Iron Man sequel, this week puts any rumors to bed of a second Speed adaptation.
Iron Man, of course, stayed in the lead for a second straight week with another $50 million in tickets, bring it’s total gross up to an estimated $177 million, which eclipses the production budget by over $30 million. Following Iron Man and Speed Racer was the Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz comedy What Happens in Vegas which made $20 million in third place, $15 million short of the budget, but sure to make money in the coming weeks. Rounding out the top five was Made of Honor with $7.6 million in its second week and the Tina Fey comedy Baby Mama with $5.7 million.
The entire top ten is listed below (Box Office Mojo has the full chart):
These numbers are merely studio estimates. The actual results of the weekend will be released on Monday afternoon.
Looking over the posters that have been unveiled this year, many stand out but here are the top five best released from January until April. The movies don’t have to be in theaters and they don’t have to be good nor expected to be good. The only requirement is the poster being publicly released in the first four months of this year. This article will return in September, to cover May through August, and finally in January of 2009, for the rest of the year. Each image can be clicked for a better look.
An obvious homage to the original poster for The Breakfast Club (Which can be found here), this teaser for the upcoming documentary American Teen perfectly recreates that classic image with the main characters of its own story. It works so well because of accurately it reproduces the poster. Even most of the text at the top of the poster is word for word, including the last three lines: “Before the year was over, they broke the rules. Bared their souls. And changed in ways they never dreamed possible.” Yahoo! has the trailer available at their site in both flash and HD.
Michel Gondry’s latest cinematic effort pits Jack Black and rapper turned actor Mos Def together in a story revolving around two video shop owners recreating favorite moments from movies with their handheld video cameras. The poster for the film is in a classic style with the two actors surfing on a video tape like something out of an old 60’s image, cheesy and cliched and very fun. The trailer is available everywhere, as the movie was released to praise a couple months back, for the best HD version check with Apple.
While this is not the basic poster for the movie seen in theaters, Charlie Bartlett’s variant has a unique presentation of the credits and title in a form that looks like something from the Woodstock era. The color combo of red and black also works to enhance the unique quality of the image, giving it a distinctive look. While the movie only received a luke-warm reception (53% rating at Rotten Tomatoes), the poster highlights the beginning of the year. Apple has the HD version of the trailer in a variety of resolutions.
One of the most popular films of this year was Cloverfield and its poster is equally popular. The poster features a controversial image of the Statue of Liberty beheaded that is equally shocking in its simplicity. No further explanation is given, only a date resides at the bottom of the image with a subtle path of destruction in the background. Just like the trailer, this poster helps build the mystery behind the look of the monster which could cause such destruction. Fans of the movie, of which there are many, will no doubt be purchasing this for months to come.
No doubt one of the most anticipated films of the year, The Dark Knight, just like Batman Begins, is gaining a lot of attention for its many excellent posters. Only one could be chosen, or else this would be a feature of all the movie’s posters, and it’s incredible for its subtlety. Fans of the character of Harvey Dent will understand the many meanings behind the button and how it is covering a certain side of Dent’s face. The full-length trailer was released not too long ago and can be found at one of TDK’s many viral sites.
