As the holiday season nears, the entertainment industry is kicking into high gear to capitalize on consumer spending. A handful of key developments makes this season an exciting one to watch.
With Gore Verbinski’s sleeper “The Ring” leading all box office sales, movie studios are licking their chops at the chance to waltz into the top spot. Reese Witherspoon’s “Sweet Home Alabama” and Sir Anthony Hopkins’ “Red Dragon” have peaked out, leaving the box office landscape ripe for a heavyweight hit. This weekend Paramount’s “Jackass: The Movie” will debut in the top spot, reeling in more than $30 million in its first week.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Punch Drunk Love” will earn Oscar nominations and slim profits in November, but expect “Jackass” to dominate the box office until the next James Bond installment “Die Another Day” debuts alongside the second Harry Potter film “The Chamber of Secrets” in November.
Record buyers will have plenty to choose from this fall. Most notably, the long awaited Nirvana “Greatest Hits” CD featuring the new release “You Know You’re Right” will debut on Tuesday. Expect all modern rock audiences to be in full-on Cobain-appreciation mode throughout the fall, especially when Penguin Putnam Books releases a collection of his diaries called “Journals” on Nov. 4.
Songstresses Tori Amos, Jo Dee Messina and Christina Aguilera also will debut albums on Tuesday, but Nirvana will own the Billboards while Elvis Presley’s “30 #1 Hits” will likely fall to No. 2. Other notable fall releases include U2’s second greatest hits collection “Best of 1990-2000” and Beatle George Harrison’s swan song “Brainwashed,” his first new material since 1987’s “Cloud Nine.” The season’s biggest commercial record likely will take the form of Elton John’s “Greatest Hits 1970-2002,” set for release Nov. 12. With any marketing whatsoever, the collection will boast several million sales by Christmas.
Guns N’ Roses new album “Chinese Democracy” may be the most highly anticipated comeback of all time, but that’s only because the band’s been promising it for six years. Axl and Co. probably will release the album on Dec. 10, but the band won’t wait that long to launch a tour in support of the album. Guns fans: Get tickets while you can — the tour’s stop in New York City’s Madison Square garden sold out in 15 minutes.
Ventura Distribution will release a DVD collection of all 19 episodes of “My So Called Life” Nov.19. The early 90s series failed commercially, but became a cult favorite for its, like, sleepy portrayals of the ever-depressed Angela Chase by Claire Danes and the aloof, James Dean-esque Jordan Catalano by Jared Leto. One fan with an advance copy noted, “The surround-sound audio is crystal clear and the video was clear enough for me to sometimes see the makeup on Jared Leto’s face!”‘
How can you, like, miss with an endorsement like that? At any rate, the remainder of 2002 promises to be an entertaining one. Keep a lookout.
Contact Grant Widmer at [email protected]