"Django Unchained" on pace to be Tarantino's biggest box office film ever

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - After nine days in theaters, "Django Unchained" is on pace to be Quentin Tarantino's highest grossing movie ever.

That's right, if the trend holds, the blood-soaked slave-revenge fable will rack up more at the box office than "Pulp Fiction" ($213.9 million worldwide), "Kill Bill Vol. 1" ($180.9 million worldwide), "Kill Bill Vol. 2" ($152.1 million worldwide) and previous record holder, "Inglourious Basterds" ($321.4 million worldwide).

Even though "Django Unchained" has only debuted stateside, with $82.4 million through January 2, it is outstripping all of the previous Tarantino movie mash-ups. At a similar point in its rollout, "Inglourious Basterds" had netted $67.6 million domestically, according to Box Office Mojo.

"It's the Quentin Tarantino brand," Phil Contrino, vice president and chief analyst with Boxoffice.com, told TheWrap. "People appreciate what he's doing. He makes these purely cinematic movies that allow even casual moviegoers to feel like they get to be a film snob and the great cast helps."

With a Cinemascore rating of A- (something of an imperfect arbiter of quality given that "Parental Guidance" has the same score) and a RottenTomatoes ranking of 89 percent "fresh," the film has been embraced by both audiences and critics, which bodes well for the proverbial "word of mouth" business.

"The exit polls are fantastic, the results have been outstanding and we're looking forward to a long run," Erik Lomis, head of theatrical distribution at The Weinstein Company, told TheWrap.

Not that "Django Unchained" has been immune to criticism. A fierce debate has erupted over Tarantino's proclivity for using a certain racial epithet that begins with "N," with directors like Spike Lee boycotting the film and decrying it for making light of slavery.

However, the red-hot controversy does not appear to have singed ticket sales.

And Fandango Chief Correspondent Dave Karger argues that the controversy may be helping the film. He notes that the plethora of opinion pieces on the subject as well as a viral video of star Samuel L. Jackson trying and failing to get an interviewer to use the racist term have kept "Django Unchained" in the public eye.

"This is the kind of movie that, as the best movies do, really inspires conversation and debate afterward and that only helps it," Karger said. "There are going to be people turned off by the use of the word, but they're going to just avoid the movie, and clearly it hasn't been a huge deterrent."

Indeed, as of 7 a.m. PT, "Django" was the number-one ticket seller on Fandango, ahead of other holiday hits like "Les Misérables" and "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey." It currently accounts for 21 percent of the ticketer's sales and, based on studio tracking, it should add another $18.5 million to its haul over the weekend.

That will likely push it over the $100 million mark after two weeks in theaters.

In contrast, it took "Inglourious Basterds" 23 days to hit a similar figure domestically. Moreover, by that point in its release schedule, "Inglourious Basterds" was never showing in less than 3,165 theaters whereas "Django Unchained" has never unspooled across more than 3,010 since it debuted, giving the Nazi drama a major per-screen advantage.

Starting on January 16, "Django Unchained" will find out if its film grindhouse humor translates abroad when it opens in France and Belgium and then rolls out across Russia, most of Europe and much of Latin America later that week. Sony will handle the international launch, while The Weinstein Company is overseeing the movie's domestic release.

Of course, highest grossing doesn't mean most successful. Adjusted for inflation, "Pulp Fiction," which amassed its $200 million-plus nearly 20 years ago, would be the top earner among the Tarantino oeuvre. Moreover, it still ranks as the director's most successful film having been produced for a meager $8 million.

Operating under the principle you have to spend money to make it, the Weinstein Company shelled out $87 million to produce "Django Unchained." Still if foreign audiences embrace the picture and the film picks up Oscar nominations, the studio will ride out of the holiday season with an awful lot of green-backs in its saddlebags.

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"Star Wars" creator George Lucas engaged to businesswoman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Star Wars" creator George Lucas will marry his longtime girlfriend Mellody Hobson, the director's production company Lucasfilm Ltd said on Thursday.

Lucas, 68, and Hobson, the president of Chicago investment firm Ariel Investments LLC, have been together for the past six years. It will be Lucas' second marriage. He was married to Oscar-winning film editor Marcia Lucas from 1969 to 1983.

No date or location for the wedding has been made public.

Hobson, 43, serves on the board of directors for Hollywood studio Dreamworks Animation SKG Inc, cosmetics company Estee Lauder Companies Inc, coffeehouse chain Starbucks Corp and Internet coupon company Groupon Inc.

Lucas, who rose to fame directing the 1971 science-fiction film "THX 1138," launched "Star Wars" in 1977 developed it into one of the highest-grossing film franchises of all time.

Lucas sold Lucasfilm and the "Star Wars" franchise to the Walt Disney Co in November for $4.05 billion.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Lisa Shumaker)

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Adele's "21" scores again, beating Swift for 2012's top album

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - British singer Adele's Grammy-winning "21" scored a rare feat in 2012 as it topped U.S. album sales for a second straight year, beating out U.S. country-pop star Taylor Swift's "Red, Nielsen Soundscan said on Thursday.

It was the first time a single album had been a top-seller for two years in a row since Nielsen began tracking album sales in 1991, the organization said.

But U.S. album sales overall fell 4 percent in 2012 to 315.96 million albums, after 2011 saw a rare 3 percent bump in sales.

Adele's "21" sold 4.41 million units in the United States in 2012 to top Swift's "Red," which sold 3.11 million copies. In 2011, "21" sold 5.82 million units.

"It's a sort of a once-in-a-lifetime album," Keith Caulfield, associate director of charts at Billboard, told Reuters of "21." "Only a few of these albums come along in history."

The heartbreak record, with hits like "Rolling in the Deep" and "Someone Like You," earned Adele six Grammy Awards in early 2012, boosting the profile of the 24-year-old singer and songwriter, who records on indie label XL Recordings.

The album sold at a furious pace, reaching the 10 million albums-sold plateau in the span of two years, Caulfield noted. The last album to achieve that feat was boy band 'N Sync's "No Strings Attached," which was released in 2000.

"It's really the right combination of artistry and hit singles," Caulfield said of "21's" success.

"She really crossed over from pop to Latin to adult contemporary to dance," he added. "Young and old consumers bought it, and because of its mixture of fans, she was able to sell it as well as she did."

Adele's success came despite the drop in 2012 U.S. album sales.

"Last year (2011) was a fluke," Caulfield said. "A year gain in album sales is a mega achievement. ... It's the way the market works now, people buy songs and not albums."

Indeed, digital song sales rose 5 percent in 2012 to a record high 1.336 billion downloads.

The year's best-selling albums in the United States had a particularly British flavor as Swift was the lone American in the top five. Swift records for the independently owned Nashville-based Big Machine, distributed by Universal Music Group.

British boy band One Direction's "Up All Night," released in 2011 on Sony Music Entertainment's SYCO/Columbia label, placed third with 1.62 million units sold, while their 2012 follow-up, "Take Me Home," took the fifth spot with 1.34 million units sold.

Britain's folk revivalists Mumford & Sons, on indie record label Glassnote, placed fourth with their album "Babel" selling 1.46 million units.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Peter Cooney)

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Ex-film star Bardot may seek Russian nationality

PARIS (Reuters) - Former French screen goddess Brigitte Bardot on Friday threatened to follow Gerard Depardieu in asking for a Russian passport, in protest not at tax hikes, but at the treatment of two circus elephants.

The animals, named Baby and Nepal and owned by a touring circus, are thought to be carrying tuberculosis and were ordered to be put down by a court in Lyon, southern France, on Friday as a precautionary measure.

Bardot's threat comes a day after fellow actor Depardieu caused a storm in France by becoming a Russian citizen in protest at high tax rates proposed by the Socialist government, which he accuses of penalizing success.

"If those in power are cowardly and impudent enough to kill the elephants... then I have decided I will ask for Russian nationality to get out of this country which has become nothing more than an animal cemetery," Bardot said in a statement.

Owners Cirque Pinder also said on Friday they would appeal to save the elephants, which first tested positive for tuberculosis in 2010 but have since been kept in a zoo in Lyon away from the general public.

Bardot, who first rose to fame as a screen siren in the 1956 Roger Vadim film "And God Created Woman", has become an increasingly controversial figure with her outbursts on animal rights, but also on gays, immigrants and the unemployed.

Since retiring from the screen in the 1970s she has become a semi-recluse, devoting herself to her Brigitte Bardot Foundation for animal rights, and has frequently taken aim at Eid al-Adha festivities when Muslims ritually slaughter sheep.

In 2008 she was convicted for a fifth time in 11 years for incitement to religious hatred, over a 2006 tract on Eid al-Adha in which she said the Muslim community in France was "destroying our country by imposing its acts'.

(Reporting By Vicky Buffery, editing by Paul Casciato)

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Venezuela searches for fashion boss Missoni's plane

CARACAS/MILAN (Reuters) - Venezuelan emergency services mounted a sea and air rescue mission on Saturday after a plane carrying fashion executive Vittorio Missoni went missing off the coast of Venezuela.

The plane carrying Missoni, 58, his wife, Maurizia Castiglioni, another couple and two Venezuelan crew members disappeared after taking off from the resort of Los Roques, an archipelago off the coast of Venezuela, Italian media said.

"It disappeared yesterday. They have been looking for it with helicopters and ships, but have not found anything yet. They are still searching for it this morning," the Italian consul in Venezuela, Giovanni Davoli, told Reuters by phone.

Missoni is the oldest son of the founders of the fashion house famous for its exuberantly coloured knits, featuring bold stripes and zigzags. He is co-owner with siblings Luca and Angela, who handle the technical and design sides of the firm.

"The Missoni family has been informed by the Venezuelan consulate that Vittorio Missoni and his wife are missing, but we don't know any more," said Missoni spokeswoman Maddalena Aspes.

Other members of the Missoni family are travelling back to Italy from a holiday in France, Aspes said.

Missoni and his siblings took over managing the company from their parents Ottavio and Rosita in 1996, aiming to relaunch the brand to a larger, younger market as rivals Gucci and Burberry have done. Under Vittorio's tenure, Missoni has opened hotels in Edinburgh and Kuwait and launched the Missoni Home collection.

By 2011, the brand's appeal was wide enough for U.S. mass-market retailer Target to ask it to design a collection.

The brand will celebrate its 60th anniversary this year.

(Reporting by Jennifer Clark and Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Louise Ireland)

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Putin makes French film star Depardieu a Russian

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has granted citizenship to Gerard Depardieu, the French movie star whose decision to quit his homeland to avoid a tax hike prompted accusations of national betrayal.

The "Cyrano de Bergerac" and "Green Card" actor bought a house across the border in Belgium last year to avoid a new tax rate for millionaires planned by France's Socialist President Francois Hollande, but said he could also seek tax exile elsewhere.

Putin said last month that Depardieu would be welcome in Russia, which has a flat income tax rate of 13 percent, compared to the 75 percent on income over 1 million euros ($1.32 million) that Hollande wants to levy in France.

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault called Depardieu's decision to seek Belgian residency "pathetic" and unpatriotic at a time when the French are being asked to pay higher taxes to reduce a bloated national debt.

"I am leaving because you believe that success, creation, talent, anything different must be sanctioned," the actor retorted in a letter published by a newspaper, saying he would hand in his passport and social security card.

Depardieu is well known in Russia, where he has appeared in many advertising campaigns. He worked in the country in 2011 on a film about the eccentric Russian monk Grigory Rasputin.

French media teased Depardieu, showing clips of the actor's Russian work that were unknown at home, including the Rasputin film and a commercial for ketchup.

Magazine L'Express put together a slideshow on its website of other countries that he could flee to, suggesting Italy where he has starred in commercials for Barilla pasta, or Japan, given that the actor owns a Japanese food shop in Paris.

Depardieu welcomed the move to grant him Russian citizenship, according to excerpts of a letter published by a Russian state TV website.

"I love your culture, your intelligence," the letter read. "My father was a communist of that era. He listened to Radio Moscow! That is my culture too."

Depardieu's publicist Francois Hassan Guerrar was not immediately available to comment on the letter.

Depardieu was one of several Western celebrities invited to celebrate the birthday of Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's Kremlin-backed leader, in 2012.

Depardieu, 63, had told friends he was considering three options to escape France's new tax regime: settling in Belgium, relocating to Montenegro, where he has a business, or moving to Russia, French daily Le Monde reported in December.

Putin told a news conference last month: "If Gerard really wants to have either a residency permit in Russia or a Russian passport, we will assume that this matter is settled and settled positively.

"I know that he (Depardieu) considers himself a Frenchman. He loves his country very much, its history its culture - this is his life, and I'm sure he is going through a tough time now," Putin said.

The Kremlin's website said on Thursday that Putin had signed a decree granting Depardieu citizenship. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was not necessary for Depardieu to move to Russia - that would be the actor's decision.

Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Westerners still knew little of Russia's tax regime.

"When they find out, we can expect a mass migration of rich Europeans to Russia," Rogozin, a nationalist politician and former envoy to NATO, said on Twitter.

WELCOME TO RUSSIA

Muscovites said they would welcome Depardieu. "He is a normal guy. He is fond of drinking too, I suppose, the Russian way, so let him come here," said one resident, Lev Nikolaevich.

Putin has in the past spoken of good relations with France, which he visited last June, but he is a frequent critic of the West. He had a tense summit with the European Union last month and wants the bloc to move faster toward visa-free travel.

Since the Cold War, Moscow has often expressed support for Westerners at odds with their governments - a way to counter what Putin says is hypocritical U.S. and European criticism of the Kremlin's treatment of its own citizens.

In 2010, a Kremlin official suggested Wikileaks founder Julian Assange should be nominated for a Nobel Prize.

News of the decree granting Depardieu citizenship set off a frenzy of wry commentary on Russian social networking sites, some musing on why a Westerner would want a Russian passport.

One cartoon posted on the Internet depicted Putin and Depardieu as characters from the French comic books Asterix.

Another showed what appeared to be a nude photo of Depardieu on vacation, with a caption that referred to him as "our compatriot", playing on foreign criticism of how Russians behave on holiday.

Russia does not require people to hand in their foreign passports once they acquire a Russian one. Many Russians have citizenship of other countries and travel without problems.

Depardieu could also request Belgian nationality but has not yet made such a request, said Georges Dallemagne, head of Belgium's parliamentary committee that oversees naturalizations.

"As a Russian he could certainly remain in Belgium, he would possibly need the necessary visas but for a short period he could stay here," said Dallemagne.

France's Constitutional Council last month blocked the planned 75 percent tax rate due to the way it would be applied - but Hollande plans to propose redrafted legislation which will "still ask more of those who have the most".

(Additional reporting by Steve Gutterman, Nikolai Isayev and Alexander Fedorov in Moscow, Catherine Bremer in Paris and Robert-Jan Bartunek in Belgium; Writing by Megan Davies; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)

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Helen Mirren "happy" her Hollywood star next to Colin Firth's

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren finally got her wish on Thursday, receiving a star along the Hollywood Walk of Fame right next to dashing fellow Briton Colin Firth.

"I couldn't be prouder and more happy that I'm actually going to finally lie next to Colin Firth, something I've been wanting to do for a very long time," Mirren said wryly.

Mirren, 67, who won the best actress Oscar for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth in 2006's "The Queen," was honored with the iconic terrazzo and brass star along Hollywood Boulevard in the historical heart of the U.S. film industry.

Mirren's star, the 2,488th since the Walk of Fame began in 1958, serves as a de facto lifetime achievement award for those in the entertainment industry.

Firth, who received his Walk of Fame star in 2011, won an Oscar as best actor for his portrayal of Britain's King George VI in 2010's "The King Speech."

"Well I'm very pleased and proud and I think it's very good for the British monarchy that here on Hollywood Boulevard, the King and the Queen are going to actually sleep together, for the rest of history," said Mirren said at the unveiling.

The actress posed for photographers lying on her side next to her star and blew kisses to the crowd.

Writer and director David Mamet introduced Mirren.

"Helen's performances reap higher praise than being praised, they're loved," Mamet said.

"And by one who's had the absolute kick of working with her, I want to say as (British poet) Rupert Brooke said, somewhere there will be a little piece of foreign ground that is always a bit of England, and that's right there," Mamet said.

Mirren is starring alongside Al Pacino in Mamet's upcoming TV film about troubled music producer Phil Spector's murder trial.

The Hollywood Walk of Fame is administered by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.

(Reporting by Alan Devall, writing by Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Sandra Maler)

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"Django Unchained" on pace to be Tarantino's biggest box office film ever

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - After nine days in theaters, "Django Unchained" is on pace to be Quentin Tarantino's highest grossing movie ever.

That's right, if the trend holds, the blood-soaked slave-revenge fable will rack up more at the box office than "Pulp Fiction" ($213.9 million worldwide), "Kill Bill Vol. 1" ($180.9 million worldwide), "Kill Bill Vol. 2" ($152.1 million worldwide) and previous record holder, "Inglourious Basterds" ($321.4 million worldwide).

Even though "Django Unchained" has only debuted stateside, with $82.4 million through January 2, it is outstripping all of the previous Tarantino movie mash-ups. At a similar point in its rollout, "Inglourious Basterds" had netted $67.6 million domestically, according to Box Office Mojo.

"It's the Quentin Tarantino brand," Phil Contrino, vice president and chief analyst with Boxoffice.com, told TheWrap. "People appreciate what he's doing. He makes these purely cinematic movies that allow even casual moviegoers to feel like they get to be a film snob and the great cast helps."

With a Cinemascore rating of A- (something of an imperfect arbiter of quality given that "Parental Guidance" has the same score) and a RottenTomatoes ranking of 89 percent "fresh," the film has been embraced by both audiences and critics, which bodes well for the proverbial "word of mouth" business.

"The exit polls are fantastic, the results have been outstanding and we're looking forward to a long run," Erik Lomis, head of theatrical distribution at The Weinstein Company, told TheWrap.

Not that "Django Unchained" has been immune to criticism. A fierce debate has erupted over Tarantino's proclivity for using a certain racial epithet that begins with "N," with directors like Spike Lee boycotting the film and decrying it for making light of slavery.

However, the red-hot controversy does not appear to have singed ticket sales.

And Fandango Chief Correspondent Dave Karger argues that the controversy may be helping the film. He notes that the plethora of opinion pieces on the subject as well as a viral video of star Samuel L. Jackson trying and failing to get an interviewer to use the racist term have kept "Django Unchained" in the public eye.

"This is the kind of movie that, as the best movies do, really inspires conversation and debate afterward and that only helps it," Karger said. "There are going to be people turned off by the use of the word, but they're going to just avoid the movie, and clearly it hasn't been a huge deterrent."

Indeed, as of 7 a.m. PT, "Django" was the number-one ticket seller on Fandango, ahead of other holiday hits like "Les Misérables" and "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey." It currently accounts for 21 percent of the ticketer's sales and, based on studio tracking, it should add another $18.5 million to its haul over the weekend.

That will likely push it over the $100 million mark after two weeks in theaters.

In contrast, it took "Inglourious Basterds" 23 days to hit a similar figure domestically. Moreover, by that point in its release schedule, "Inglourious Basterds" was never showing in less than 3,165 theaters whereas "Django Unchained" has never unspooled across more than 3,010 since it debuted, giving the Nazi drama a major per-screen advantage.

Starting on January 16, "Django Unchained" will find out if its film grindhouse humor translates abroad when it opens in France and Belgium and then rolls out across Russia, most of Europe and much of Latin America later that week. Sony will handle the international launch, while The Weinstein Company is overseeing the movie's domestic release.

Of course, highest grossing doesn't mean most successful. Adjusted for inflation, "Pulp Fiction," which amassed its $200 million-plus nearly 20 years ago, would be the top earner among the Tarantino oeuvre. Moreover, it still ranks as the director's most successful film having been produced for a meager $8 million.

Operating under the principle you have to spend money to make it, the Weinstein Company shelled out $87 million to produce "Django Unchained." Still if foreign audiences embrace the picture and the film picks up Oscar nominations, the studio will ride out of the holiday season with an awful lot of green-backs in its saddlebags.

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"Star Wars" creator George Lucas engaged to businesswoman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Star Wars" creator George Lucas will marry his longtime girlfriend Mellody Hobson, the director's production company Lucasfilm Ltd said on Thursday.

Lucas, 68, and Hobson, the president of Chicago investment firm Ariel Investments LLC, have been together for the past six years. It will be Lucas' second marriage. He was married to Oscar-winning film editor Marcia Lucas from 1969 to 1983.

No date or location for the wedding has been made public.

Hobson, 43, serves on the board of directors for Hollywood studio Dreamworks Animation SKG Inc, cosmetics company Estee Lauder Companies Inc, coffeehouse chain Starbucks Corp and Internet coupon company Groupon Inc.

Lucas, who rose to fame directing the 1971 science-fiction film "THX 1138," launched "Star Wars" in 1977 developed it into one of the highest-grossing film franchises of all time.

Lucas sold Lucasfilm and the "Star Wars" franchise to the Walt Disney Co in November for $4.05 billion.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Lisa Shumaker)

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Adele's "21" scores again, beating Swift for 2012's top album

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - British singer Adele's Grammy-winning "21" scored a rare feat in 2012 as it topped U.S. album sales for a second straight year, beating out U.S. country-pop star Taylor Swift's "Red, Nielsen Soundscan said on Thursday.

It was the first time a single album had been a top-seller for two years in a row since Nielsen began tracking album sales in 1991, the organization said.

But U.S. album sales overall fell 4 percent in 2012 to 315.96 million albums, after 2011 saw a rare 3 percent bump in sales.

Adele's "21" sold 4.41 million units in the United States in 2012 to top Swift's "Red," which sold 3.11 million copies. In 2011, "21" sold 5.82 million units.

"It's a sort of a once-in-a-lifetime album," Keith Caulfield, associate director of charts at Billboard, told Reuters of "21." "Only a few of these albums come along in history."

The heartbreak record, with hits like "Rolling in the Deep" and "Someone Like You," earned Adele six Grammy Awards in early 2012, boosting the profile of the 24-year-old singer and songwriter, who records on indie label XL Recordings.

The album sold at a furious pace, reaching the 10 million albums-sold plateau in the span of two years, Caulfield noted. The last album to achieve that feat was boy band 'N Sync's "No Strings Attached," which was released in 2000.

"It's really the right combination of artistry and hit singles," Caulfield said of "21's" success.

"She really crossed over from pop to Latin to adult contemporary to dance," he added. "Young and old consumers bought it, and because of its mixture of fans, she was able to sell it as well as she did."

Adele's success came despite the drop in 2012 U.S. album sales.

"Last year (2011) was a fluke," Caulfield said. "A year gain in album sales is a mega achievement. ... It's the way the market works now, people buy songs and not albums."

Indeed, digital song sales rose 5 percent in 2012 to a record high 1.336 billion downloads.

The year's best-selling albums in the United States had a particularly British flavor as Swift was the lone American in the top five. Swift records for the independently owned Nashville-based Big Machine, distributed by Universal Music Group.

British boy band One Direction's "Up All Night," released in 2011 on Sony Music Entertainment's SYCO/Columbia label, placed third with 1.62 million units sold, while their 2012 follow-up, "Take Me Home," took the fifth spot with 1.34 million units sold.

Britain's folk revivalists Mumford & Sons, on indie record label Glassnote, placed fourth with their album "Babel" selling 1.46 million units.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Peter Cooney)

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