Columns | Stumped Magazine

Article Preview

Almost Everyone Loves Avatar… Almost…

Director James Cameron's Avatar is receiving almost universal praise from both critics and audiences alike. Chris Neumer investigates the 'almost'.

[ Read More... ]

America Takes A Leak… And Downloads It

Chris Neumer has a hard enough time finding good movies to watch when they're complete, he can't fathom who would want to watch an unfinished print. Here he gets into the world of illegally downloading incomplete films.

[ Read More... ]

Another Self-Serving Controversy

During a recent meeting, one of the magazine’s editorial assistants pitched a story to me about the negative stereotypes that surround Italian-Americans in film and on television. She simply said the words ‘Jersey Shore’ and everyone within earshot knew exactly …

[ Read More... ]

Because Someone Like You Has Gotta Give The Holiday Two For the Money

When it comes to romantic-comedies, Hollywood has finally crossed a line: industry professionals are becoming completely and totally confused by the broad, non-specific names of these projects.

[ Read More... ]

Ben Affleck vs. Superman

Ben Affleck joins the Superman franchise as the titular character... Batman. Chris Neumer investigates.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – April 1 – 3, 2016

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! This week, Chris Neumer delves deeper into the first 'Too Big To Fail' movie Hollywood has ever produced: Batman vs. Superman. With an almost 70% drop from weekend one to two, Batman vs. Superman is not on a path that Warner Brothers is particularly excited about. It's getting close to, gulp, Twilight territory!

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – April 10-12, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office. This week, it's more of the same as Furious 7 continues its impressive run. Chris Neumer investigates how history suggests a mega blockbuster should perform in its second week, a pillow that costs $500 and why Furious 7 could not be performing more to expectations.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – April 17-19, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office. This week, it's even more of the same as Furious 7 continues its impressive run, taking its third box office title in as many weeks. Chris Neumer gets really bored with this and starts investigating when the worst time to write about the box office would have been (hint: it was in 1998), what having a series of #1 weekends means and what impact The Avengers: Age of Ultron will have on things.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – April 2-5, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office. This week, Furious 7 came out and broke box office records right and left. Probably more impressively, Furious 7 also managed to changed the definition of the word 'weekend' to include Thursday. Chris Neumer investigates.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – April 22 – 24, 2016

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! This week, Chris Neumer investigates who truly loses when a movie bombs at the box office. The answer is not Charlize Theron; the actress who was paid $10 million for a veritable cameo in The Huntsman: Winter's War.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – April 24-26, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office. This week, Furious 7 takes its fourth weekend box office title in a row. Chris Neumer investigates the other surprise hits of April, delves into whether Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 would have made more money if it was even halfway decent and talks to box office expert Paul Dergarabedian to get inside the studios' new tactic of a stealth opening day, the Thursday before a film actually opens.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – April 29 – May 1, 2016

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! This week, Chris Neumer explains why all hits are not made equal. In the eyes of the new media, it's better to look like a hit than to actually be successful. Somewhere, The Jungle Book's director, Jon Favreau is weeping and nodding vigorously.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – April 8 – 10, 2016

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! This week, Chris Neumer ponders whether the media is benefitting more from the weekly box office write-ups than anyone else and marvels at how a mere $45,000 made Melissa McCarthy a box office queen vs. a disappointment.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – April 9 – April 11, 2017

Get behind the numbers of last week’s box office! This week, Chris Neumer investigates the oft unseen pros of whitewashing your Asian lead and why studio executives continue to put their personal gains ahead of the moral victory of doing the right thing.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – August 14 – August 16, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! Chris Neumer discusses dating, how it relates to green lighting Hollywood productions, why Straight Outta Compton's success will not be able to be replicated and whether Armie Hammer has the worst financial prowess of any leading man in history.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – August 21 – August 23, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! Chris Neumer dives head first into the morass of the worst box office weekend of the year. It's pretty ugly... and, as he discovers, it's only going to get worse in the future.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – August 28 – August 30, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! Zac Efron's We Are Your Friends hit theaters and no one came. Chris Neumer gets behind the nature of stardom, investigates 2014's Neighbors and wonders what having 30 million social media followers means if you can't use them to get more than a $1.7 million opening weekend.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – August 7 – August 9, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! Chris Neumer looks at the survival instincts of studio executives and how this allows movies that shouldn't be green lit to enter production, investigates whether The Fantastic Four's director, Josh Trank, is proactively attempting to sabotage his own career and debates whether the Mission: Impossible series is ready to take a Fast and Furious like jump

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – December 10 – 12, 2016

This week, Chris Neumer STILL isn't done dissecting Thanksgiving weekend. As Neumer does his Christmas shopping, one question continues to haunt him: who stood to benefit from the green lighting of Bad Santa 2? Here he investigates all the suspects and sniffs out the reason that audiences did not respond to the sequel.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – December 11-13, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! This week, Chris Neumer dives into Hollywood's infatuation with actor Chris Hemsworth and why it will ultimate lead to heartache and pain.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – December 12-14, 2014

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office. This week, we look at what's behind the weak opening of Exodus: Gods and Kings and investigate how much of a predicator a film's opening weekend box office is towards its domestic total.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – December 16 – 18, 2016

Get behind the numbers of last week's box office! This week, Chris Neumer investigates Rogue One and why we're all so goddamned miserable all the time.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – December 18-20, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! This week, Chris Neumer investigates the idea that brevity is the soul of wit.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – December 19-21, 2014

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office. This week, everything is upside down and nothing makes sense.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – December 23 – 25, 2016

Get behind the numbers of last week's box office! This week, Chris Neumer investigates, for the last time, why there are no A-list stars anymore. You can call Passengers' stars Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence anything you want, but try not to refer to them as box office draws.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – December 25-27, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! This week, Chris Neumer dives into the crazy numbers being generated by Star Wars: The Force Awakens, ponders whether the Star Wars property is bigger than Jesus and writes a warm opus to the original Point Break.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – December 26-28, 2014

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office. This week, we look at whether families really go to movies on holidays and delve into the surprising box office results of The Interview.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – December 3 – 5, 2016

This week, Chris Neumer isn't done with last week. He revisits the opening weekend of Warren Beatty's Rules Don't Apply and investigates one of the stranger statistics Hollywood has to offer: one one director over the age of 65 has ever delivered multiple box office hits.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – December 4-6, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! This week, Chris Neumer investigates why everything sucks.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – December 5-7, 2014

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office. This week, we look at the dead zone of the first weekend of December and continue to keep an eye on the strangest release ever, Fox Searchlight's Birdman.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – February 13-15, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office. This week, Chris Neumer delves into whether 50 Shades of Grey is the most unsurprising hit of all time, looks into how you should and shouldn't start a franchise and gets into how studio executive wanting to keep their jobs have changed the industry.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – February 20-22, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office. This week, Chris Neumer delves into what 50 Shades of Grey's enormous drop at the box office means, why Titanic was such a God send for theater owners and why a $100 million box office is sometimes worse than $75 million take.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – February 27-March 1, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office. This week, Chris Neumer delves into what is going on with Will Smith's career, how an actor gets the benefit of the doubt, why SpongeBob can't be stopped and continues to examine to always curious Birdman box office experience.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – February 6-8, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office. This week, Chris Neumer investigates the accomplishment behind doing something, how the Wachowskis keep doing what they do, and what a difference of seven days can mean to a film's box office.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – January 1-3, 2016

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! This week, Chris Neumer again looks at the insanity of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and then ponders the drama surrounding the release of The Force Awakens and how show business is exactly like every other business on earth.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – January 13 – 15, 2016

Get behind the numbers of last week's box office! This week, Chris Neumer investigates whether Hidden Figures is the box office juggernaut it is purported to be and why, even if it is, this doesn't let Hollywood off the hook for its lack of diversity.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – January 15-17, 2016

And just like that, it’s a regular January again. With Star Wars: The Force Awakens coming down to earth in its fifth weekend in theaters and “only” grossing $26.4 million, it allowed room for other fascinating stories to emerge like …

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – January 16-18, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office. This week, we look at two major outliers in Hollywood history: the supremely successful American Sniper and the incredibly disappointing Blackhat.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – January 22-24, 2016

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! This week, Chris Neumer wakes up from his Star Wars induced coma and wonders, "What the hell is all this crap? And why isn't anyone going to see the Oscar nominees?"

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – January 30-February 1, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office. This week, Chris Neumer investigates the unusual disappearance of the film middle class, why American Sniper's great February is going to help the 2014 books and how 2015's January was the worst month in more than 8 years.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – January 8-10, 2016

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! This week, spurred by The Revenant's record-breaking second place finish, Chris Neumer investigates how wise it is to release a movie in the weeks after the biggest box office hits. The extreme nature of the results will surprise you!

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – January 9-11, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office. This week, we look at the lessons of Taken 3 and why Selma has its work cut out for it.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – July 1 – July 3, 2016

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! This week, Chris Neumer revels in unique box office trivia and how it relates to the 70s sit-com Sanford and Son. It was an interesting weekend at the box office to say the least.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – July 10-12, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! Chris Neumer plays studio head and sends down several decries, including why animation rules the box office, why Pixar plays by its own rules and the benefits to making a sequel to Sixteen Candles.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – July 15 – July 17, 2016

Get behind the number, singular, of the last weekend's box office! $46 million. That's what Ghostbusters pulled in. This week, Chris Neumer examines what that number means to different people and how that total can magically be both a huge hit and a failure.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – July 17-19, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! Down is up, cats are chasing dogs and hamburgers are eating people! Chris Neumer gets into why earning $60 million opening weekend is disappointing (ahem, Ant-Man) and why taking in half that amount is the stuff hits are made of (ahem, Trainwreck). Buckle up for a wild ride.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – July 22 – July 24, 2016

Get behind the numbers of last week's box office! This week, Chris Neumer continues to examine last week. In an attempt to figure out whether Ghostbusters opening weekend was a success, he goes looking for similar films to find out just what the story is... or was. Was it a hit? A flop? Something in the middle? We can't lie. It was in the middle.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – July 24-26, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! Chris Neumer investigates the copious amounts of media hatred directed towards Adam Sandler, how this impacted Pixels and why the budgets for Sandler's films haven't changed in the last ten years.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – July 29 – July 31, 2016

Get behind the numbers of last week's box office! This week, Chris Neumer seeks out hard and fast statistics to determine whether a given project is a hit or not. This leads him to realize that, in the end, Jason Bourne has about a 23% chance of being a blockbuster hit.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – July 3-5, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! Chris Neumer investigates Inside Out's improbable rise to the top, how much of a statistical outlier the summer of 2015 is proving to be and why the many sequels that have flopped this season should scare the hell out of studio executives.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – July 31 – August 2, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! Chris Neumer looks at the positive narrative now surrounding Tom Cruise and how haphazard the labeling of 'hits' has become.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – July 8 – July 11, 2016

Get behind the numbers of... next weekend's box office? This week, Chris Neumer changes things up and looks at the impending release of Ghostbusters and investigates why good movies rarely come from horrible decision making, how Star Wars: The Force Awakens got everything so very right and why complexity is so confusing.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – June 10 – June 12, 2016

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! This week, Chris Neumer puts on his 'old man hat' and looks at why headlines sensationalize stories that don't deserve sensationalizing, explains why Warcraft's $150+ million Chinese take doesn't mean what you think it means and complains about his soup being cold.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – June 12-14, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! This week, Jurassic World took everyone by surprise by pulling in more money its opening weekend than any other film in history. Chris Neumer investigates why no one saw this coming, why everyone is wrong about everything and gets into how Chris Pratt became the world's biggest star in just two movies.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – June 17 – June 19, 2016

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! This week, Chris Neumer gets inside the severe drought of successful movies aimed adult audiences, investigates how box office expectations for a Dwayne Johnson/Kevin Hart action/comedy were as low as they were and posits that a $400 million cum for Finding Dory is plenty reasonable.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – June 19-21, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! Jurassic World continues its domination of the box office. Chris Neumer looks at the new paradigm in Hollywood where a small handful of films take the lion's share of box office receipts, investigates how to deal with this changing landscape and ponders how this could backfire on the film world .

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – June 24 – June 26, 2016

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! This week, Chris Neumer tries to stay positive and find something--anything--that Independence Day: Resurgence could boast about. And what he finally determines is something that, cue the click-bait, you will never believe!

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – June 26-28, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! Jurassic World takes the top spot at the box office again. Yawn. Chris Neumer changes things up and looks at how hard it is to talk negatively about a dog who joins the Marines, why Ted 2 was dated before it opened, why it took Cinderella eight weeks to earn less than $4 million and investigates the unfairness surrounding Boaz Yakin's directorial career.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – June 3 – June 5, 2016

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! This week, Chris Neumer wonders why everything sucks.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – June 5-7, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! This week, Chris Neumer looks at the train wreck known as Entourage, ponders why anyone would make a movie based on a flawed TV series and include the very same flaws in the movie and attempts to get to the bottom of whether Entourage or Tomorrowland is a bigger flop.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – March 13-15, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office. This week, Chris Neumer delves into hidden franchises, how Disney's live-action adaptation of their earlier films is going to impact Harry Potter, the popularity of princesses and why Liam Neeson might be a little late in quitting action films.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – March 20-22, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office. This week, Chris Neumer investigates the horrific opening of The Gunman, whether audiences are tired of 50-something action heroes or just horrible movies and gets into the peculiar situation revolving around The Divergent Series: it's making money, but not what Lionsgate had hoped.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – March 25-27, 2016

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! This week, Chris Neumer ponders how you can call Batman vs. Superman a flop or a success if you don't know how much it cost to make or market and how its performance will impact Warner Bros. future DC Comic Universe.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – March 27-29, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office. This week, Chris Neumer looks at the impact of Kevin Hart on Get Hard, investigates the most shockingly high budgeted film in history, ponders the future Moneyball-ization of Hollywood and wonders how Will Ferrell is able to stay so consistent.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – March 31 – April 2, 2017

Get behind the numbers of last week's box office! This week, Chris Neumer investigates why upsetting your built in audience in favor of people who don't like your franchise yet is not the way to go. Ghost in the Shell take note!

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – March 6-8, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office. This week, Chris Neumer delves into what it takes to fail in Hollywood, the Demi Moore Razor, why Warner Brothers has no future with American Sniper and the strange career path of Chappie's writer/director Neill Blomkamp.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – May 1-3, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office. This week, The Avengers: Age of Ultron was unleashed on theaters and took home the second biggest opening weekend ever. This being current society, some people have found fault with that. Chris Neumer delves into what the studios think of this and what will send shivers up Disney's spine in the coming months.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – May 13 – May 15, 2016

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! This week, Chris Neumer realizes that movie stars don't do anything anymore. It's interesting to consider that stars used to be stars because of their ability to draw audiences in; now they're just recognizable (pretty) faces.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – May 15-17, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office. This week, Pitch Perfect 2 surprised the hell out of everyone and took in more than $70 million. Chris Neumer delves into surprise franchises, whether Pitch Perfect 2 has any historical comparisons (it does) and what a restaurant in a wooden shack in the Cayman Islands has to do with living longer.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – May 22-25, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office. This week, more flops hit the theaters! Chris Neumer delves into whether a film can be successful and disappointing, why Disney is still happy in spite of Tomorrowland and how Kevin Hart factors into Tomorrowland's weekend from hell.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – May 27 – May 30, 2016

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! This week, Chris Neumer wonders whether a change in the current Hollywood business model is forthcoming. How many more $250 million investments can open to $30 million before someone acknowledges that something is broken?

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – May 29-31, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! This week, Chris Neumer investigates what constitutes a 'success'--hint: San Andreas is not on solid ground--and why Tomorrowland is more of a disaster than all of San Francisco being destroyed. Suffice it to say, it's never good to be negatively compared to John Carter.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – May 6 – May 8, 2016

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! This week, in a nod to nihilism, Chris Neumer looks into why nothing actually means anything. Captain America: Civil War's social media presence was roughly half as large as Batman vs. Superman's and yet it did substantially better at the box office. What the hell is going on?

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – May 8-10, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office. This week, The Avengers: Age of Ultron continued its rampage through theater box offices, vanquishing Reese Witherspoon's Hot Pursuit in brutal form. Chris Neumer delves into the concepts of 'box office rain shadows', whether there is a finite amount of money that can be taken in at the ticket booth and why May of 2013 was such an unusual month of movie releases.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – November 1-2, 2014

There are a lot of box office myths that circulate throughout the media. They may also circulate throughout the film industry itself, but I can’t lay claim to knowing that. The studio executives and presidents whom I know are all …

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – November 11 – 13, 2016

With the presidential election taking place last week, Chris Neumer steps away from the latest weekend numbers and investigates how statisticians can get their mojo back, how this impacts the film world and why Hollywood is facing a similarly rocky road ahead.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – November 13 – 15, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! Chris Neumer investigates the peculiar case of Spectre. Through its first 10 days in theaters, Spectre has earned more than 75% of its revenue from overseas. This puts it in league with some of the biggest box office debacles of the last two years like Terminator Genisys, Exodus: Gods and Kings and The Expendables 3. What Spectre will have to do to right itself is pretty historic.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – November 14-16, 2014

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office. This week, we look at the non-surprising, yet unexpected success of Dumb and Dumber To and get further into the continuing bizarre release of Fox Searchlight's Birdman.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – November 20 – 22, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! Chris Neumer investigates what people are calling the first $100 million opening weekend flop, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2. After much digging, he realizes that, as crazy as it sounds, it doesn't appear that the problem lies with the movie's performance; rather it lies with the inaccurate predictions.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – November 21-23, 2014

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office. This week, we look at why the box office analysts predictions for The Hunger Games: Mocking Jay, Part 1 were off, the precipitous drop for Dumb and Dumber To and keep an eye on the down right weird release of Fox Searchlight's Birdman.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – November 24 – 27, 2016

Get behind the numbers of last week's box office! This week, Chris Neumer tries to figure out whether studios will ever stop trying to create franchises out of long dormant hits... like this week's flop, Bad Santa 2.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – November 27 – 29, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! Chris Neumer delves into the biggest box office flop in history that no one is talking about. Victor Frankenstein did so poorly at the ticket counter, it's become gauche to speak of!

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – November 28-30, 2014

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office. This week, we look at the flop of two unnecessary sequels, Horrible Bosses 2 and Penguins of Madagascar, investigate the wretched run that Dreamworks Animation has had and continue to keep an eye on the strangest release ever, Fox Searchlight's Birdman.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – November 4 – 6, 2016

Get behind the numbers of last week's box office! This week, Chris Neumer tries to figure out whether Marvel Studios is just showing off or whether they have hit upon the exact right formula that even unusual films like Doctor Strange can be enormous hits.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – November 6 – 8, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! Chris Neumer investigates whether The Peanuts Movie's $44 million opening is good or not and found out something that goes against the grain of everything that is known in Hollywood: animated movies with built in audiences have done worse this year than completely original animated works. What? Are we living in Rand McNally?

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – November 7-9, 2014

I don’t experience many genuine surprises in life any more. If you follow GPS, do your research and stay up on the news, it’s hard for something to sneak up on you. That’s why this last weekend’s box office was …

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – October 14 – 16, 2016

Get behind the numbers of last week's box office! This week, Chris Neumer investigates why the current top ten movies at the box office are $131 million away from simply getting their budgets back. Hubris and self-preservation are involved.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – October 17-19th, 2014

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office. This week, we look at the "success" of Fury, director David Fincher's completely unhelpful skill set and exactly how big of a movie star Robert Downey Jr. is.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – October 2 – October 4, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! Chris Neumer investigates how bad of a month September was, gets inside one of the most unusual box office statistics of all time and dissects the strange and baffling (box office) career of director Ridley Scott.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – October 21 – 23, 2016

Get behind the numbers of last week's box office! This week, Chris Neumer delves into why the teen pregnancy rates are dropping in the United States and what the hell that has to do with a cross-dressing grandmother (Boo! A Madea Halloween) and the worst titled film of the year, Jack Reacher 2: Never Go Back

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – October 23 – October 25, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! Chris Neumer gets inside the two types of victories, why The Martian continues to role at the box office and how Steve Jobs went from a record-breaking hit to a flop in less than two weeks.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – October 24-25th, 2014

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office. This week, we look at how to make money in film, why Annabelle should be turning heads everywhere and why John Wick suffered through a very unusual opening weekend.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – October 30 – November 1, 2015

Changing things up, Chris Neumer gets behind the numbers of... next weekend's box office? Neumer investigates the long road to getting The Peanuts Movie in theaters and wonders one question: who is excited about seeing this film? With tracking numbers dipping by a sizable number, experts are beginning to wonder the same thing.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – October 7 – 9, 2016

Get behind the numbers of last week's box office! This week, Chris Neumer looks at the tale of Nate Parker's Birth of a Nation and realizes that, despite the near unanimous media narrative that the film flopped, it finished exactly where you'd expect it to.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – October 9 – October 11, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! Chris Neumer investigates the skill of being successful, what separates Disney from the rest of the studios and why Pan's horrendous opening weekend will result in job losses at Warner Brothers.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – September 11 – September 13, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! Chris Neumer looks at the target demographics of different films, investigates why M. Night Shyamalan's return to competency got taken to school by a horrible film starring Michael Ealy (The Perfect Guy) and ponders what the most important color is in Hollywood.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – September 18 – September 20, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! Chris Neumer investigates Fox's unique new franchise, The Maze Runner, looks at why September is such a horrible month at the box office and explains why George Clooney and Johnny Depp are not on the A-List any more.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – September 25 – September 27, 2015

Get behind the numbers of the last weekend's box office! Hotel Transylvania 2 broke all kinds of September box office records and Chris Neumer puts a damper on the Adam Sandler love affair; there are many reasons for Hotel Transylvania 2's success, but Sandler's presence is not one of the major ones.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Round Up – September 4 – September 7, 2015

Labor Day Weekend's box office is generally speaking one of the worst of the year. Chris Neumer ignores all the terrible movies that were released and that didn't make any money and investigates why Labor Day Weekend is really a market inefficiency to be exploited.

[ Read More... ]

Box Office Roundup: 2014

A look back at the 2014 box office to see what lessons could be gleaned. It turns out that studio executives are not predicting hits as well as they used to, Hollywood is hoping and praying that franchises continue to be cash cows and that the flop of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 isn't an indicator of anything to come, and that the future of movie making is on display is... The LEGO Movie? Chris Neumer investigates.

[ Read More... ]

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Conspiracy Theories & Unusual Leads

Flipping channels with a friend on a lazy Sunday afternoon recently, we stumbled upon a broadcast of director John Hughes’ wonderful film, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. As luck would have it, we’d missed roughly the first hour and a …

[ Read More... ]

Getting Inside the Least Formulaic Movie Ever Made

The only thing worse than a formulaic action movie is a non-formulaic action movie. Chris Neumer delves into the short lived period in Hollywood history where Whoopi Goldberg, Action Hero was a thing. And while this period didn't go much beyond 1987, it was as beautiful a train wreck as one will ever see.

[ Read More... ]

Getting Smarter

If you've ever wondered what it would be like for a sixties era television series in another time period, Get Smart's revival has the answer. Chris Neumer is amazed at the results.

[ Read More... ]

Greed is… Bad?

The new moral outrage sweeping the internets isn't racial or homophobic in nature; it's people asking, nay, demanding to be paid for working. How. Dare. They! Welcome to the world of actors wanting money to perform. Chris Neumer investigates the Bruce Willis and Adrian Grenier case studies.

[ Read More... ]

If a Smurf Smurfs in the Smurf and No One Smurfs, Does It Smurf?

The most entertaining Hollywood scandals are the ones that don't take. Columbia Pictures found this out the hard way last week when a poster for its upcoming The Smurfs movie got leaked... and no one cared. Chris Neumer investigates and learns that this is only one of many reasons that The Smurfs is going to be a horrible movie.

[ Read More... ]

Indiana Jones and the Legend of Capitalism

Hollywood is about one thing and one thing only: making money. From the key grips to the actors to the studio executives (especially the studio executives), money remains paramount. America is going to see a new Spider-Man orBatman film …

[ Read More... ]

John Travolta Is Not Gay…

It’s mid-May and the heat is still on in my apartment. This is enough to make any man a hair depressed, especially given that I have many friends in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles who love relaying the fact …

[ Read More... ]

Knowledge… Isn’t Power?

I see a fair amount of movies with my brother. One thing I’ve learned over time is that he and I have wildly divergent methods of vetting potential viewing choices.

I go by feel. If I decide that I want …

[ Read More... ]

May the Force Be With Them… Please?

I’ve been working on a lengthy series of pieces on the original trilogy of Star Wars films that will be posted soon. I’m a big fan of Star Wars and it was an incredibly fun experience for me to re-watch …

[ Read More... ]

Meryl Streep is on Acting Steroids

Actress Meryl Streep has nine Best Actress Oscar nominations in the last twenty years. That's more than Robert Deniro, Al Pacino and Johnny Depp have in their careers combined. Is Streep just that good? Or is there more to it. Chris Neumer investigates.

[ Read More... ]

Million Dollar, Buck Naked Baby

What's wrong with the above picture? Give up? Hilary Swank is in bed and wearing clothes. Chris Neumer investigates Swank's revealing statement that she walks around her boyfriend's six year old son naked and wonders whether interviewer Joanna Coles could have handled the matter any worse than she did.

[ Read More... ]

Musings on Paul Walker’s Passing

When I learned that Paul Walker had died, I experienced a range of emotions that was broader than for any other celebrity passing that I've encountered. Part of it was that Walker was so young in the grand scheme of things and part of it was due to the new online world in which we live. It all lead me to wonder, how does one accurately report the news, show respect and not anger anyone in the process? This is the best I could do.

[ Read More... ]

My Nemesis

Most people are lucky enough to not have a nemesis. Chris Neumer is not one of those people. He breaks down his most nefarious archrival here: himself at age 16.

[ Read More... ]

OMG, C Saw Gossip Girl… WTF?

As a misanthropic, 33-year old, near hermit who is grumpier than both Waldorf and Stadtler, Chris Neumer is not in Gossip Girl's target demographic. This doesn't stop him from taking the plunge and attempting to get into the completely and totally off-the-hook world of Gossip Girl. The results are shocking. LOL ROFLMAO.

[ Read More... ]

Oscar Nomination Reactions 2012

I have been making a concerted effort to remove the word ‘unique’ from my lexicon. The reason for this is simple: everything is unique. Every movie, person or city is different than every other movie, person or city. Richard Feynman …

[ Read More... ]

Oscar Nomination Reactions 2013

The 2012 Academy Award nominations were released this week. Chris Neumer gives his reactions and gets inside why nobody is ever snubbed, why dramatic film making and good film editing don't go hand-in-hand and what Daniel Day-Lewis' new nickname should be.

[ Read More... ]

Oscar Nomination Reactions 2014

The 2013 Academy Award nominations were released this week. Chris Neumer gives his reactions and gets inside how Meryl Streep is even better than you think, why The Lone Ranger deserves its multiple nominations, how the Academy is working to create a new country and a bit of Oscar trivia that will win you money.

[ Read More... ]

Oscar Nomination Reactions 2015

The 2015 Academy Award nominations were released this week. Chris Neumer gives his reactions and gets inside how no one is ever snubbed, why television ratings will probably be down and gets inside the strange philosophical quandry surrounding Bennett Miller's Best Director nomination.

[ Read More... ]

Rearranging Deck Chairs on the Academy Awards

The Academy Awards ceremony to honor the best of 2013 was so bland, inoffensive and non-substantive that the telecast was about one step removed from being a series of BuzzFeed lists. This is what happens when anything vaguely resembling personality, wit and charm is removed from the show.

[ Read More... ]

Remaking the Unremakeable

Red Dawn is the single most unremakeable film in history, just ahead of Indiana Jones and Scarface. Most interesting of all, this didn't stop MGM from taking a stab at it. Chris Neumer investigates.

[ Read More... ]

Some House Cleaning

I started publishing Stumped in late 1997. From early 1998 to 2001, I requested screener copies of what now seems like every single movie to have been released to the home entertainment market during that time period. Worse yet, I …

[ Read More... ]

Stone Cold Crazy Too

The core idea behind director Michael Hoffman’s surprisingly underrated film Soapdish is that the behind-the-scenes lives of the actors working on a soap opera were far more bizarre, comical and horrendously managed than anything fictional that a group of writers …

[ Read More... ]

Surfers are Everywhere… Except on the 1,000 Foot Wave That’s Heading Toward New York City

Surfers go to great lengths to be wherever the big waves are. Why, oh why, wouldn't they be trying to surf the once-in-a-lifetime wall of water heading towards the United States in the disaster film of your choice?

[ Read More... ]

The 2015 Oscars Were Fantastic. Who Saw That Coming?

In a most unexpected twist, the 2015 Academy Awards were an almost enjoyable experience. Who would have guessed that by removing the elements of previous Academy Awards shows that didn't work, the producers would greatly improve things? Chris Neumer investigates.

[ Read More... ]

The Bizarre Case of Donald Sterling, Racist

Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling is making headlines for his racist comments that were recorded and leaked to TMZ. This is truly one of the most backwards scandals to ever be reported. Chris Neumer investigates.

[ Read More... ]

The Curious Case of the Academy and the 10 Best Picture Nominees

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences couldn't have found a worse year to expand the number of Best Picture nominees from five to ten. Chris Neumer investigates the train wreck and is truly scared; America is closer that it ever should be to the phrase "Academy Award Best Picture nominee, The Hangover".

[ Read More... ]

The Great Profit

Deadline.com recently released one of the most advanced studies on the finances of the top feature films. It is fascinating, thought-provoking and extremely worthwhile... if you can just get by the unverifiable nature of the numbers they use.

[ Read More... ]

The Incredible… Failure?

Marvel Studios learned from the mistakes of director Ang Lee's 2003 film, Hulk and went about correcting them in 2008's The Incredible Hulk. The unusual part of this is that the 'corrected' version is an even bigger disappointment than 2003's flop.

[ Read More... ]

The Most Influential Filmmaker in the World: N.B. Nakoula

Entertainment magazines often release yearly power lists of the film industry players to rank who the most influential filmmakers are for a given year. The lists are especially scientific and occasionally seem designed to sell more magazines (shock!) than for …

[ Read More... ]

The Most Unusual Superhero Movie Ever

Superhero movies earn more money than almost any genre of films. From The Dark Knight to Spiderman to Iron Man, these comic book adaptations rake in box office. Chris Neumer investigates the strangest superhero movie of all time, Batman: The Movie. Prepare yourself for one hell of a... trip.

[ Read More... ]

The Mysterious Case of the Wolverine Leak

A work print of Fox's summer tentpole, Wolverine, was leaked online and almost immediately downloaded hundreds of thousands of times. Chris Neumer picks up his magnifying glass and pipe (and talks to the FBI) and investigates The Mysterious Case of the Wolverine Leak.

[ Read More... ]

The Nigerian Connection

If you told Chris Neumer there would be fans of his writing in Nigeria, he wouldn't have believed you. If you told him that those Nigerian fans would go on to hit him up for money, that might have held a little more water.

[ Read More... ]

The Problems with Knowledge

Chris Neumer watched Speed for the first time in twenty years and was amazed what gaining a knowledge of the Los Angeles area roadways did for his opinion of the movie. Sometimes knowledge isn’t power.

[ Read More... ]

The Sloppiest Movie Ever Made…

The artistry of author Michael Crichton’s fiction was the level of almost insane detail he included in it. It wasn’t just that he would come up with interesting plot lines, but he’d then research them down to the finest detail …

[ Read More... ]

The Stink of Success

How many industries reward abject failure? Not many. Interestingly, Hollywood is one, particularly when it comes to screenwriters. Chris Neumer delves into the sweet, sweet smell of... horrible failure.

[ Read More... ]

The Tenth Time is the Charm

Director by Tim Burton, starring Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci, with a score by Danny Elfman, Sleepy Hollow should be the perfect atmospheric, late fall movie. This is, however, not the case. Chris Neumer has yet to learn this lesson though and is convinced that his next viewing will right all previous wrongs.

[ Read More... ]

Wandering Eye of the Tiger

There are a lot of sad things surrounding the adulterous Tiger Woods at present. None are sadder than the fact that Tiger seemed to think that his mistresses were into him... for him! Chris Neumer investigates how adultery is impacted by fame and how to avoid the pitfalls of this if you have to, you know, cheat.

[ Read More... ]

Watching Snakes on a Plane on a Plane

Chris Neumer takes movie watching to another level... that of 35,000 feet. Nothing could have prepared him for the experience of watching Snakes on a Plane on a plane.

[ Read More... ]

What Didn’t Happen Last Night

An unfinished copy of Wolverine leaked to the Internet five weeks ago. The MPAA and FBI immediately got involved and then nothing happened. Chris Neumer ponders what this means.

[ Read More... ]

When the ‘It’ Girl Hits the Fan

'It' Girls are the most coveted resource in Hollywood. The Unborn's director, David S. Goyer, stumbled onto a new and extremely interesting way to get the latest 'it' girl, Megan Fox, into his debut film: he cast a dead ringer for her in the lead. Say hello to Odette Yustman, Megan Fox when you can't get Megan Fox.

Contents

Article Preview