Thursday, April 21, 2011

42nd Annual GMA Dove Awards

The Gospel Music Association Dove Awards show was held and recorded last night. It was a night that paid tribute to gospel music’s veterans and recognized the industry’s emerging talents as the show entertained a sold-out crowd at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre. Hosted by Sherri Shepherd, the show will be broadcast Sunday night on gmc at 7 PM.

Francesca Battistelli was the evening’s top winner. The show touched other areas including country music (Kenny Rogers performed), TV (TBS' Tamela Mann won Traditional Gospel Album) and Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow introduced Third Day.

Monday, April 18, 2011

‘Dawn Treader’ Nearing Caspian’s Box Office

Even though "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" is now out on Blu-ray and DVD, it has still not quite completed its box office run. This past week puts the film’s total at $415.6m worldwide. This is still slightly short of "Prince Caspian" ($420m) and well short of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" ($745m).

The film’s domestic total ($104m) is still well below the other two films ($291 for LWW, and $141 for PC). However, internationally, "Dawn Treader" has grossed $311m, which tops "Caspian’s" $278m, but falls short of "Wardrobe’s" $453m.

The most recent issue of Variety includes an ad touting the film's box office total.

Soul Surfer Riding High in Its Second Week

Soul Surfer rode the wave into fourth at the box office this weekend, falling a slim 30% from last weekend to finish with $7.4M, according to estimates, bringing its total to $20M. A final gross in the area of $40M is possible.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Soul Surfer Makes a Splash at the Box Office

The inspirational drama "Soul Surfer" exceeded expectations and debuted in fourth with an estimated $11.1M. Posting the best screen average among the new films, the PG-rated true story of a teen surfer who gets her life back on track after a shark bites off her arm averaged a good $5,014 from 2,214 screens. Overall, “Soul Surfer” came in fourth, but lost the #2 spot only by a nose to “Hanna,” which banked $12.3m on 300+ more screens, and the “Arthur” remake, which played on 1,000+ more screens but took in only $12.6m. Per screen, “Soul Surfer” beat “Arther” by $1,200. No small thing, especially since surfing movies tend to wipe out.

Nikki Finke reports that Sony was hoping for $10 million and is obviously very happy with the results: “If we do 10 million this weekend (or close to it), it would be a home run for Sony and Film District.”

The movie earned mixed reviews from critics, but "Soul Surfer" earned an A+ grade from CinemaScore which is rare these days so word-of-mouth should help the pic to play well for the rest of the spring season especially with the Easter holiday still to come. So the $15 million production should prove to be quite profitable.

Exit polls showed that a whopping 80% of the crowd was female and 56% was under 25. Moms and daughters made up a big portion of the audience.

“Soul Surfer,” which is based on the true story of Bethany Hamilton, a young surfer whose Christian faith and family help her to overcome a shark attack that cost her an arm, stars AnnaSophia Robb, Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt. Thanks to some very good marketing to the teenage crowd in general and to the Christian market specifically, what Hollywood has here is one less excuse to keep ‘em coming.

Friday, April 8, 2011

The Lion, the Dawn Treader, and the Box Office

Just in time for the Blu-ray/DVD release of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Christianity Today has an interview with Micheal Flaherty, Walden Media co-founder and president.

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe opened in December 2005 to a massive audience, earning more than $1 billion in box office ($745 million) and DVD sales ($332 million) combined and critical reviews were good.

2008's "Prince Caspian" brought in less than half of the domestic box office that LWW had drawn, and 2010's "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" only about a third as much. Critical ratings have also dropped for each successive film.

"The Silver Chair" comes next in the sequence of books, but Flaherty said Walden and 20th Century Fox, which distributes the movies, have mostly decided on "The Magician's Nephew" — Narnia's "origins story"— for their next project. (Narnia scholar Devin Brown says Lewis himself would agree with that choice; see his reasons here.)

The producers think "The Magician's Nephew" has the best opportunity to draw the largest audience. The box office has pretty closely followed the sales pattern of the books. "Prince Caspian" sells about half of the books of "Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe," and it did about half of the box office. Caspian sells about a third more books than "Dawn Treader," and it did about a third more box office domestically. That pattern continues to decline with "Silver Chair" being the weakest book in the series in terms of consumer demand.

Flaherty states: "We just think the origin tale of 'The Magician's Nephew' is a great one, and it brings back the characters that have proven to be the most popular—a lot of Aslan and the White Witch. It explains the origin of the lamppost and the wardrobe."

While the domestic box office dipped significantly with each of the three films, the foreign has remained fairly strong. Domestic accounted for 39 percent of the earnings for Wardrobe, 33 percent for Caspian, and just 25 percent for Dawn Treader. In fact, because of overseas sales, "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" is approaching the same box office of Prince Caspian.

The films are obviously tied closely to the books and Flaherty makes an interesting point about the Narnia series in comparison to current book franchises. He notes most popular book franchises (e.g, Harry Potter and Twilight) are consistent in sales from book to book, but that's not the case for Narnia. Part of the problem may be that there is no character beyond Aslan that runs through the entire series.

"Lucy has the greatest run out of all the characters, but she only appears in three books. So there's something different in terms of the anticipation of not being able to follow one character from the first book to the last."

Secular critics aren't sticklers for whether the films stick to the books; they're mainly judging the movies as movies. But some reviews and opinions are from "Narnia police" types who nitpick every detail.

Flaherty has interesting insights to why they value comments from Narnia purists. You can read the full article here.

Carrie Underwood: My Faith Is the Reason for My Success

Carrie Underwood is one of the world’s most successful country music artists, but she tells us that it isn’t only a result of talent and luck. Instead, she credits her strong faith and Christian upbringing for all her life’s charms.

“I grew up in church and have a wonderful family that always supported that,” Underwood told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column. “I grew up going to church camp and reading my bible and having different faith books and movies in my life.”


The 28-year-old “American Idol” winner makes her film debut in a supporting role in the heartfelt drama “Soul Surfer." And Underwood hopes that the film will enable American audiences to see the power that faith has in the healing process.

“I hope that it is very clear that the faith in this movie is more than an undertone, and that the reason Bethany got through everything was because of her faith in God," she said.

“It’s easy to have faith when things are going great and you’re on top of the world – I’m winning, I’m selling, I’m on tour and this is all great! But this story is about having faith when the chips are down and how to deal with that. We can all learn something from Bethany’s story, even when the little things in our lives don’t go so well, we can take a lesson from her and realize how small that problem really is.”

And although the Oklahoma native embraced the new experience of working on a movie set, joining her co-stars between the waves on a surfboard was not an option.

“I enjoy being by the water, but being on the water is scary. I’m a horrible swimmer, I’m a fear of drowning kind of girl,” she explained. “But (acting) was a totally new animal for me, it was so different but everyone on the set really helped me along. They were patient and understood I had never been in a movie before and helped me through it.”

So it’s pretty safe to say this down-home girl has come a long way – but she hasn’t forgotten what started it all, and tells us she is greatly immersed in the current season of “Idol.”

‘American Idol’ is the only reason I'm in the music business, period. I had no idea how to get in any other way,” she told us.

Read more

Carrie Underwood Makes Acting Debut in 'Soul Surfer'

Carrie Underwood says she's happy with her first acting performance on the big screen. The country music star plays a small but pivotal role in the film "Soul Surfer," the inspirational tale of shark attack survivor Bethany Hamilton.

"I'm happy with myself for the role and for the movie," Underwood said. "Am I going to win an Oscar? No. It was so much fun and the important thing is getting the story out there."

Underwood plays youth pastor Sarah Hill, a key figure in Hamilton's life and recovery after the attack. Hamilton, then 13, lost her left arm when a 14-foot tiger shark ripped it off while she was surfing with friends in Hawaii.

Read more here.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Surfer’s Tale of Strength and Faith Portrayed in ‘Soul Surfer’

Bethany Hamilton was little known outside the competitive surfing community until a tiger shark took her arm off along the coast of Kauai when she was 13 years old.


That moment and that loss do not define Bethany Hamilton. They merely galvanize who she already was. And she doesn’t want anyone to feel sorry for her, because she certainly doesn’t.

“Ultimately, I hope that my struggles and what I went though can hopefully be encouraging,” says Hamilton, now 21. She’s out promoting the film Soul Surfer, based on her autobiography and starring Dennis Quaid, Helen Hunt and AnnaSophia Robb as Bethany.

The movie, which opens today, captures not only that fateful shark encounter, but also her return to the ocean and the family and faith that ground her.

READ MORE.

Friday, April 1, 2011

'NCIS' Star Pauley Perrette Records Song With Navy Veteran

"NCIS" star Pauley Perrette met a new music partner on the show's set, but it took a church visit for the pair to see their potential.

The result is "Fire in Your Eyes," an R&B-pop duet with Perrette and B. Taylor, a Navy veteran with a fledgling recording career. The single is set for iTunes release May 3.

Perrette and Taylor were introduced when he paid a visit to CBS' legal drama about Naval investigators, invited by a friend who's an adviser to the series.

The two hit it off and she invited him to attend her church, Hollywood United Methodist. Their time together inspired Taylor to write "Fire in Your Eyes." A music video is planned.

"We were just hanging out afterward at church, playing piano and messing together," Perrette said. That was enough to inspire Taylor to write "Fire in Your Eyes."

"She was just so charismatic and had great spirit," he said. "I wrote the song and Pauley put the magic to it."

Read more