AVATAR Box Office: #58 All-Time (Inflation-Adjusted) Domestic

Zoe Saldana in Avatar (WETA / 20th Century Fox)

Following an estimated $48.5 million take over the weekend, the total gross of James Cameron’s Avatar currently stands at $429m. The sci-fi spectacle is now the seventh biggest blockbuster ever at the domestic box office (not taking inflation or higher 3D/IMAX ticket prices into account), slightly ahead of the Johnny Depp vehicle Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest ($423.3m) and slightly behind George Lucas‘ Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace ($431m). By next Friday, Avatar will likely be #4, right behind Lucas’ 1977 Star Wars ($460.9m).
Now, things change quite a bit when inflation is added to the box-office mix, even without considering Avatar’s 3D/IMAX premium surcharges — and [...]

by Michelle Hutton | January 10, 2010   
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CASABLANCA Vs. EVERYBODY COMES TO RICK’S

Worth checking out:
Martin N. Kriegl’s brief 2004 essay on the differences (in html) between Murray Burnett and Joan Alison’s "Everybody Comes to Rick’s," the unproduced play that was the basis for Casablanca, and the film’s screenplay credited to Philip G. Epstein, Julius J. Epstein, and Howard Koch.
Here are a couple of snippets from Kriegl’s text:
"Upon first reading both stage play and screenplay, one is tempted to jump to the conclusion that Casablanca is one of the rare occasions where a story, through adaptation from one medium to another, is elevated from a mediocre (if promising) source material to a gem of rare beauty. …
"The character Rick, a former rebel with apparently inviolable values and principles, who has lost [...]

by Andre Soares | December 22, 2008   
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CASABLANCA IV – Ingrid Bergman

Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca

CASABLANCA III – Humphrey Bogart
That brings me to the last and least of the trio of star performances: Ingrid Bergman’s rather mediocre portrayal of Ilsa Lund. First, it’s not a truly bad performance, but it’s nowhere near great. One need only look at contemporaneous performances by, say, Katharine Hepburn, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, or even Judy Garland, to see how much Bergman pales in contrast. Ilsa is a pawn, a toy, a heroine whose life is the plaything of the two men in her life — and, incidentally, isn’t it interesting how similar in facial construction both Henreid and Bogart are? A fortuitous development that adds some [...]

by Dan Schneider | December 22, 2008   
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CASABLANCA

Casablanca (1942)
Direction: Michael Curtiz
Screenplay: Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch; from Murray Burnett and Joan Alison’s unproduced play "Everybody Comes to Rick’s"
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Conrad Veidt, S. Z. Sakall, Dooley Wilson, Joy Page
 

Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca
 

By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica:
About three years ago, I finally gave in to watch It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) for the first time. I had hesitated because of the five- and ten-minute snippets of the film I had seen, and for its reputation as a hokey Christmas story ‘chestnut.’ Well, was I wrong, for It’s a Wonderful Life is a truly great film — arguably the best [...]

by Dan Schneider | December 22, 2008   
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Hedy Lamarr III: CASABLANCA, Private Life

Charles Boyer, Hedy Lamarr in Algiers

Hedy Lamarr – Q&A with Author Patrick Agan: Part II
Is it true that Hedy Lamarr refused the lead roles in Casablanca, Gaslight, and Saratoga Trunk? If so, do you know what her reaction was after those three films became huge hits for Ingrid Bergman?
Let’s get one thing straight off the bat. Hedy Lamarr never turned down Casablanca.
L. B. had her solidly booked for several movies, two of which, I think, defined both her talent and her image. True, [producer] Hal Wallis wanted her for it, but Mayer said no as he had Tortilla Flat, Crossroads, and White Cargo already lined up.
Why should L. B. have loaned her over to [Warner [...]

by Andre Soares | February 13, 2007   
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