Sunday, April 10, 2011

Hop Is Hoping For Long Run At No.1 Box Office

 



LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - New box office champ "Hop" delivers plenty of wit, verve and surreal mayhem to entice even the post-adolescent crowd into this jolly (and strangely Christmas-like) Easter egg hunt.
         Easter movies have never had the same cache at the box office as Christmas movies but Universal and the minds behind "Despicable Me" -- meaning Chris Meledandri's Illumination Entertainment -- want to change all that in a skip, jump and "Hop." Imaginatively combining live action with digital animation, "Hop" delivers a story that slyly borrows from Santa Claus mythology as well as Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."
        While director Tim Hill, who helmed "Alvin and the Chipmunks," skewers things toward children, there is plenty of wit, verve and surreal mayhem to entice the post-adolescent crowd into this Easter egg hunt. Besides any movie about the hare apparent to the Easter Bunny throne arriving in Los Angeles and going immediately to the Playboy Mansion -- a logical mistake if you think about it -- can't be strictly for children. The Universal release opened at No. 1 in North America with a better than expected estimated weekend haul of $38.1 million.
         The screenplay by Cinco Paul & Ken Daurio ("Horton Hears a Who!") along with Brian Lynch imagines an Easter much like Christmas. The Easter Bunny (Santa) sets out from a candy factory (toy factory) on Easter Island (the North Pole) to deliver sugary treats (gifts) to children all over the world. Well, the Easter Bunny hasn't quite cracked China but that's another story.
The story starts out with two families thoroughly dissatisfied with their sons. These would be the O'Hare Family that is wearying of the lay-about propensities of slacker son Fred (James Marsden of Enchanted) and the Easter Bunny (voiced by a rather jolly Hugh Laurie) whose son E.B. (a hilarious Russell Brand) wants to be a drummer rather than the Easter Bunny. And not just any drummer but the best rabbit drummer in the world -- a goal he has a more than decent shot of achieving.
           So faster than you can wiggle a cottontail, E.B. runs away from his destiny, plunges down a rabbit hole -- these guys will steal from anywhere -- and lands in Hollywood looking for a record contract. As his first gig is with the Blind Boys of Alabama, who aren't absolutely sure about the species of their new drummer, things go okay for E.B. at first. (You get the drift of the film's sense of humor?)
          E.B. and Fred become a reluctant team with E.B., whose ability to talk (much less play the drums) has Fred wondering whether he's asleep or awake, moving into a hillside mansion Fred is house sitting. E.B. lands a spot on a talent search TV show while Fred ... well, Fred develops a curious and never quite explained ambition to become the Easter Bunny himself.
         There is a Hellzapoppin', anything-goes sensibility at work here where gags, personalities and cultural references fly every which way but the discipline behind the animation merged with live action is top-notch. Best of all -- no, second best of all, as we'll get to what's best here in a minute -- is the cast. Where to start? Brand was born to be a slacker Easter Bunny (among other things), Marsden is more animated than many of the animated characters and if you want someone to play the Easter Bunny's right-hand chick with a Latin American accent, the one who ferments a palace coup, look no further than the always uproarious Hank Azaria.
        Let's not leave out the Pink Berets -- ninja bunnies who go searching for the wayward E.B. -- or David Hasselhoff as the host of a star-search reality show.
        Okay, Hop lets down with a sappy ending that isn't quite as smart as the rest of the movie. But you cut it some slack since getting there is so much fun. Oh yes, and now here is the promised best thing about the movie: It isn't in 3D! [Source from: reuters.com]



# Title Apr 1 - 3


Weeks
Cumulative Distributor










1 Hop $ 37,543,710


1
$ 37,543,710 Universal
2 Source Code 14,812,094


1
14,812,094 Summit
3 Insidious 13,271,464


1
13,271,464 FilmDistrict
4 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules 10,040,822


2
38,196,168 Fox
5 Limitless 9,307,896


3
55,509,640 Relativity
6 The Lincoln Lawyer 6,829,050


3
39,416,066 Lionsgate
7 Sucker Punch 6,020,403


2
29,811,118 Warner Bros.
8 Rango 4,505,572


5
113,728,874 Paramount
9 Paul 4,245,560


3
31,844,445 Universal
10 Battle: Los Angeles 3,536,435


4
78,502,566 Sony










11 The Adjustment Bureau 2,142,630


5
58,530,595 Universal
12 Red Riding Hood 1,776,234


4
35,592,341 Warner Bros.
13 Jane Eyre 1,215,132


4
3,479,513 Focus
14 Win Win 1,138,864


3
1,947,944 Fox Searchlight
15 The King's Speech 1,133,162


19
136,586,305 Weinstein Co.
16 Beastly 821,881


5
26,786,409 CBS Films
17 Hall Pass 755,155


6
43,754,971 Warner Bros.
18 Just Go With It 632,813


8
101,425,320 Sony
19 Gnomeo & Juliet 429,732


8
96,866,076 Disney
20 Mars Needs Moms 346,864


4
20,370,610 Disney
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