Mike Welch to Appear on Criminal Minds

Joe Mantegna let the cat out of the bag yesterday via Twitter that Mike Welch would be appearing on an episode of Criminal Minds where Joe Mantegna is a series regular. Joe and Mike previously worked together on the short-lived but critically acclaimed Joan of Arcadia.

Larry 411 has more details including the air date.

“Welch came to prominence as uber-nerd Luke Girardi on two seasons of Joan of Arcadia, in which he co-starred with the masterful Joe Mantegna in 45 episodes from 2003-2005.

Now he reunites with Mantegna (Special Agent David Rossi) on a new episode of Criminal Minds. The show, titled JJ, will air on September 29th on the CBS network. Joan of Arcadia alum Chris Marquette, who’s worked with Welch several times since then (Choose Connor, Remember the Daze), will also be appearing on the episode.

The series has been in the Nielsen Top 20 for the past two seasons and is on the DVR Top 10. Criminal Minds is produced by The Mark Gordon Company and CBS Television Studios.”

See more at Larry’s site.

Eclipse 92.8 Million Domestic in 48 Hours

Our friend Larry has the analysis to go with the numbers. He points out clearly what a lot of news sources are missing in his apples and oranges comparison!

“Early estimates as of Friday 12:00 noon show The Twilight Saga: Eclipse finished #1 again on Thursday, taking in another $24.2M from 4,416 locations. Adding in Wednesday’s numbers gives the film a cumulative total of $92.8M domestic…How does this compare with New Moon? That film took in $72.7M its opening day and dropped 41.8% to earn $42.3M the next. That gave it $115M after its first two days. But, again, that was a Friday-Saturday as opposed to a Wednesday-Thursday. Apples to oranges, as the saying goes… Once Friday numbers are released early Saturday morning, when the film will be in competition with the rest of the movie marketplace, we’ll be able to begin to judge the success of the film’s early days.”

See Larry’s full coverage here.

Eclipse By The Numbers: Noon Totals and Where It’s All Headed

Our good friend Larry411 has a great article on the Eclipse box office numbers going in to the midnight opening. In about an hour (noon eastern) we’ll have some solid numbers on what Eclipse did at the midnight and early morning showings today(and we will edit this article to reflect the change). The theater in NYC where Pel was had 12:15, 12:30, and 1:00am showings…nine…count em…nine screens and they were all filled. The other thing happening here is that we will have solid numbers not just estimates on the first three days because the movie opened well in advance of the weekend when estimates only are traditionally given.

Now on to Larry’s analysis:

The Twilight Saga was the biggest opening of all time at 4416 venues. So it’s no surprise that early reports say theaters were mobbed not just in America but overseas as well.

There are a few things to watch for (click the links for daily numbers and extensive analysis). The Twilight Saga: New Moon opened on November 20, 2009 with $26.27 million from 3514 midnight screenings at 4024 locations.

The film took in $72.7M its first day, on its way to a $142.8M weekend, making it the #3 all-time and #1 non-summer opening weekend of all time. After the second weekend, its domestic total was $230.95M and worldwide was $473.95M. The film passed the $1/2 billion mark worldwide in its third weekend. After four weekends, New Moon sat at $267.32M domestic. And the film ended its fifth weekend with a total $274.6M domestic and $634.7M worldwide on its way to a current theatrical total of $296.6M domestic and $709.7M worldwide.”

See more on Larry’s site

Amanda Bell, the Twilight Examiner, also has a great article that concurs with Larry’s findings and expands more.

“All along – during the downtime between The Twilight Saga: New Moon‘s release and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse‘s – fans have been asking this question: will The Twilight Saga: Eclipse surpass the incredible numbers set forth by The Twilight Saga: New Moon?

No doubt, the biggest achievement of New Moon in the box office was to set the record for biggest opening day ever. So, the topic has definitely lingered as to whether the summer Eclipse showing will top that record.

Also, the staggering opening weekend numbers (3rd highest ever) for New Moon reached $140.7 million in the first three days. So, whether Eclipse will eclipse New Moon‘s opening weekend figures is prominent as well.

According to TheWrap.com, industry predictions give the nod to Eclipse in at least the second portion of the inquiry.”

Read more on Twilight Examiner

Waiting on the Box Office Numbers

Thanks to Larry from ProNetworks who’s been following it all. He’s been Tweeting updates. Here’s where we stand according to Larry (will update this post as figures come in):

Early word is that New Moon could break Dark Knight’s midnight record.

Dark Knight did 18.4M from 3040 midnites, 67M Friday, -29% Fri-Sat = 47.6M, 43.6M Sun = 158.4M

New Moon did 3514 midnites. So it needs >18.4M to break TDK’s record. Some think New Moon could be all time #1 opening day.

But as I said earlier this wk, key is Fri-Sat drop. Twilight dropped 49% Fri-Sat. That’s the key to the weekend.

Reports coming in from all over, ppl in line starting Thu AM (if allowed), tweens, older women, some boys & men. Males key to wknd numbers.

Summit would not release midnite estimates this morning so waiting for hard numbers now.”

Industry expert and insider Nikki Finke backs up Larry’s assessment.

“This pic is doing phenomenal. It’s breaking records,” one rival studio exec gushed to me at 5 PM PT Thursday night. “It’s ahead of Dark Knight. It could break every existing record for Friday. But Saturday will be a different story.” That is quite a statement.

Xavier Samuel at the Toronto Film Festival

Larry from ProNetworks caught up with Xavier Samuel, whose career he has been following way before the Eclipse madness started, at the Loved Ones party. He has pictures with Xavier’s co-star Victoria Thaine and the promise of more to come.

“Greetings once again from the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival!…Needless to say, TIFF 2009 is shaping up to be another winner….I have a brief break from the action before my next screening so I wanted to post a few pictures I just shot. Tonight is the International Premiere of Sean Byrne’s The Loved Ones, one of the choices I previewed last week. The screening is part of the Midnight Madness series — this is my fourth night attending the program — and I’ve just returned from a party thrown by Midnight Madness programmer Colin Geddes to celebrate the 10-night series and the debut of The Loved Ones in less than three hours. ”

Later on Larry tweeted during the party. Here is what he had to say about Xavier:

” Xavier LOVES his fans and is humbled.”
“Xavier Samuel performance in The Loved Ones gives new meaning to the term “tortured actor”
“Xavier Samuel will #Eclipse most young actors in this awesome performance. It’s too bad they don’t have Oscars for Best at Enduring Pain.”
“Xavier Samuel pulls off a stunning agonizingly horrific performance in The Loved Ones …NOT for the faint of heart.”
“.Xavier Samuel does NOT have a Twitter. My source is Xavier Samuel.

Xavier Samuel Interview on PROnetworks

Larry of PRONetworks, who is pretty much our go-to guy covering the indie film scene, interviewed Xavier Samuel before he suddenly became a household name. Larry writes:

“While many media outlets have focused interest on him by virtue of his sudden rise to fame as the newest member of the Twilight franchise, my perspective is slightly different.

I was fortunate to have actually met and interview Xavier Samuel and cover the premieres of two of his four previous feature films: Newcastle, at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2008, and 2:37, at the Santa Barbara Film Festival in January 2007. So I’ve been happy to be able to actually write a bit about who he is and what he’s done, in addition to reporting the news that he’s been Twilighted.”

Check out Larry’s perpective here and listen to the interview.

Photogallery 100 Monkeys at Khyber

Larry at PROnetworks (the guy who recently shot that great footage of Michael Welch, Justin Chon, and Christian Serratos at the  American Dream premiere) shot some amazing footage of the 100 Monkeys concert at Khyber in Philadelphia yesterday. 87 photos in all that totally capture the energy of the band.

Khyber is a really small space. We are guessing that it held about 150 people in a room that was about 15 feet wide and 100 feet long. The drop ceiling was also pretty low. All this lead to a very sweaty environment in the audience even with the A/C on.

Now if you think we were sweaty, imagine the band, 4 guys their amps and a row of fresnels (lights), and monitors that all put out heat. Seriously the stage lighting on the keyboard was practically on top of the keyboard. It’s a wonder the band could see a thing. You pretty much could have wrung them all out after the first 10 minutes. The guys were dripping wet after the second number, and we are sure the folks up at the front were sprayed quite a bit (not that they minded) every time the guys flicked their hair out of their face. However, other than commenting occasionally as they switched off instruments on how hot they were, you never would have known it.  100 Monkeys has energy like you wouldn’t believe. They are completely committed to their music and entertaining the crowd. They clearly feed off the energy.

Don’t just take our word for it, here’s what Larry had to say:

“The band features Ben Graupner, Jackson Rathbone, Jerad Anderson, and Ben Johnson, all of whom switch up on instruments throughout the show. For example, Rathbone started on drums, moved to guitar, then on to keyboards, back to guitar, and so on. All are excellent singers as well, with Rathbone primarily providing lead vocals.

…Fans came from as far away as California

for the gig, although most had traveled from points up and down the East Coast. I met some wonderful lades from Baltimore and Allentown, and was thrilled to finally see some folks from Twilight Moms and Twilight Lexicon in person.”

Get Larry’s full report and pictures on PROnetworks

We are still editing the video footage that we saw and hope to have it up tomorrow. Good news is that there are more 100 Monkeys shows in the area and that the band will shortly be launching their website.

The latest show is in Allentown, PA on June 14 at 8:00 at the Crocodile Rock Cafe. Tickets are $10.00 (and in our opinion are easily worth double that) and even better, the show is open to all ages. So, under 21, no problem you can go! Buy the tickets before they sell out, because you know they will, and at $10.00 you can’t beat the price. Get the details here, and you can buy the tickets here.

The Lexicon is also going to have something incredible coming up in conjunction with the band, just working out the details.