THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5. 2012
MOVIES
PAGE 5A
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ralph, left, voiced by John C. Reilly, in a scene from "Wreck-It Ralph." The new Walt Disney Animation Studios film was released in theaters on Friday.
Hurricane Sandy doesn't wreck 'Wreck-It Ralph' at box office
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — The weekend box office was not only undeterred by the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, it was buoyed by it.
Disney's "Wreck-It Ralph" opened strongly with $49.1 million and Robert Zemeckis' "Flight," starring Denzel Washington, soared to a $25 million debut. Both opened above expectations, capitalizing on East Coast audiences looking for distraction amid the recoverv from the storm.
"Wreck-It Ralph," a 3-D animated family film about a video game villain who tries to break free of his role, is the largest box-office opening ever for Walt Disney Animation, which has produced countless cartoon classics (though doesn't include Disney's lucrative Pixar Animation).
Though the hurricane had forced the closure of hundreds of movie theaters in the New York, New Jersey area, most were open for business by the weekend. As many as 100 theaters were still closed on Friday, but many of those were restored during the weekend.
"We didn't really have a playbook for this," said Hollywood.com box office analyst Dergarabedian. "But the numbers show that audiences across the country, and particularly in the Northeast, wanted to go to the movies
With many East Coast children out of school on Friday, Disney saw an uptick of business for Friday matinees to the well-reviewed "Wreck-It Ralph."
and they did."
"Wreck-It Ralph' became something of a distraction and an opportunity for families to do something separate of the storm," said Dave Hollis, Disney's head of distribution. "Schools being shut down on Friday also played a role as parents were looking for things to entertain the kids and keep them out of the cold."
Paramount's "Flight," which had a smaller opening — 1,884 theaters, or about half the number of "Wreck-It Ralph" — might have been expected to be more harmed by Sandy, considering adult dramas generally depend heavily on the New York City market. But the film, which has found critical raves and Oscar buzz, proved particularly enticing to moviegoers, many of whom were surely pulled in by the star power of Washington, who plays an airline pilot of both heroic skill and debilitating alcoholism.
"When you look up his filmography — it doesn't matter whether it was yesterday or 20 years ago — Denzel opens movies," said Paramount distribution head Don Harris.
Harris said the studio counted only about 15 theaters lost to "Flight" due to power outages.
Aside from the draw of Washington, "Flight" is also the first live-action film in 12 years for Zemeckis. The director, whose films include the "Back to the Future" trilogy and "Cast Away," had spent the last decade on performance-capture animated films like "The Polar Express" and "A Christmas Carol." Harris called the return "spectacular" and said: "It's almost like: Where have you been?"
Ben Affleck's Iran hostage tale "Argo," in its fourth week of release, expanded to 2,774 theaters. The Warner Bros. film added $10.2 million, bringing its cumulative gross to $75.9 million — a healthy haul for a film expected to be in the thick of the Oscar hunt.
The Universal kung fu flick "The Man With the Iron Fists," directed by RZA of the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan, opened with a debut of $8.2 million.
Overseas, the James Bond film "Skyfall" continued to dominate. It took in $156 million over the weekend bringing its international total to $287 million. The film opens in North America on Friday.
The strong box-office weekend — up 21 percent from the same weekend last year — bodes well for Hollywood ahead of the arrival of "Skyfall" and the upcoming holiday movie season.
MILITARY
'Lt. Dan' supports troops with music
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN DIEGO_ Under a gray sky, not far from San Diego's Balboa Park, actor Gary Sinise is getting ready to strap on his bass guitar and play before a crowd of more than 2,000 people.
It's the last day of a recent weeklong celebration for the fifth anniversary of the Comprehensive Combat and Complex Casualty Care (C-5) program at the Naval Medical Center San Diego for the war wounded. Members of the Cirque du Soleil Street Team are performing. There are balloons, face painting and rock climbing for kids, plus barbecue from Food Network star Robert Irvine.
Before he takes the stage, Sinise, better known as Det. Mac Taylor on CBS' long-running "CSI: NY," but best known in this crowd as Lt. Dan from his 1994 role in "Forrest Gump," bats away a recent suggestion by Newt Gingrich that he would make a good secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs if Mitt Romney were elected president.
"Government, that's not my thing." Sinise tells a reporter. "I get more done doing what I'm doing."
What he's been doing is playing 40 to 50 concerts a year as leader of the Lt. Dan Band at military bases and other sites in the U.S. and abroad, sometimes as part of a USO tour, sometimes teamed with the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation to raise funds to build "smart homes" for the most severely wounded, and sometimes as part of his own Gary Sinise Foundation's efforts to raise public awareness about the accomplishments and needs of American military personnel and their families.
He's also the spokesman for the Disabled American Veterans organization, has done recruiting commercials for the Army and Army Reserve as well as a public service announcement for
the marine Corps, and is a leader in the drive to build a monument in Washington, D.C., to America's war wounded. The monument is set to be dedicated next year.
"I want it so our congresspeople can look out the window and be reminded of the cost of war," Sinise says.
"Gary is the Bob Hope for this generation of combat warriors," says Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., a retired Army lieutenant colonel.
For his efforts, Sinise has been awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal by President George W. Bush and been declared an honorary Navy chief petty officer and a USO Goodwill Ambassador for his native state of Illinois.
"I play bass guitar," Sinise says with a laugh that betrays his discomfort with praise when West's comment is mentioned. "I didn't know that Bob Hope played bass, did he?"
That experience led to his continuing involvement with the Disabled American Veterans organization.
Sinise's concern for veterans predates "Forrest Gump" by more than a decade, back to his days with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, which he founded with two friends. He was so moved by a play about the plight of Vietnam veterans and their anger at being discarded by an uncaring public that he looked for ways to become involved.
Still, it was Lt. Dan that propelled Sinise into greater activism. He jumped at the role, in part because "Forrest Gump" provided a positive portrayal of Vietnam veterans; Lt. Dan lost both legs in combat and journeys from despair and anger to optimism and hope.
"A lot of people say they care about the troops," says Poadillach. "But with Gary, you know he means it. He backs it up with action."
It's Time to Start a New Chapter
PATRICK BENGTSON for STATE REPRESENTATIVE 44th District
- Policy Grounded in Economics and Law
- New Ideas and a Fresh Approach
- Results, Not Rhetoric
A Background to Get Things Done in Topeka
J. D., Univ. of Pennsylvania Law School
Co-Valedictorian, Lawrence High School
B. A. (Economics), with highest distinction, Univ. of Kansas; Phi Beta Kappa
> Fifth-Generation Kansan
Lawrence Native
Increasing State Education Funding
✓ Getting Medicaid Right
✓ Low and Balanced Taxes
Visit VOTE4PAT.COM for more information
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