The $11 Question: How The Worst Movie EVER! Scored the Worst Opening Ever

The little movie that couldn’t has become the little movie that still probably won’t but will have fun trying: Since Tuesday, when we brought you the story of The Worst Movie EVER! and its unprecedented $11 opening weekend, a groundswell of lookie-loos from around the world have made the trailer a mini-hit on YouTube and initiated something of a cult following on Facebook. It still has a ways to go before reaching The Room levels of notoriety, but for now, anyway, it can still claim one critical distinction: Nobody has any idea who its one ticket-buying viewer is. Movieline finally heard from filmmaker-actor Glenn Berggoetz a few days ago as WME! and its box-office futility began stirring interest around the Web. In a nutshell, he insisted not only that the $11 midnight gross from last Saturday (and the $0 gross from Friday) was not a publicity stunt, but also that his efforts to turn up the identity of his lone theatrical patron has yielded no success to date. The Denver-based schlock impresario added that the last 48 hours have turned up a few Facebook sources claiming to have attended the screening at the Laemmle Sunset 5 in Los Angeles, but he hasn’t been able to confirm any of them as Viewer Zero. Nor has Greg Laemmle’s team at the Sunset 5. “We’re anxious to find out as well,” Laemmle told me today. “We need proof. Glenn said he’s already had a few people claim that they were the ones. I think we need a ticket stub here. We’re going to poll the staff to see if it’s maybe someone they recognize, someone who comes to see everything we play. Who knows?” Even more baffling perhaps: How did this even happen? “There were a number of factors — and I’m not going to comment on the aesthetic qualities of the film,” Laemmle said, laughing. “There was some miscommunication, there were some delays in confirming stuff. I was rushing off to a vacation and sort of said, ‘Oh, by the way, we can go ahead if you want to.’ Glenn, I guess, was anxious to do it and said yes. But clearly, because we hadn’t necessarily confirmed the date in an appropriate fashion, he hadn’t done the work promoting the screening that he thought he could have should have done. These things happen. “Is it one of the worst showings we’ve ever had? Yeah, probably.” According to both Berggoetz and Laemmle, they had begun speaking as early as this past May about programming WME! this summer. The idea was to prime its debut by screening the now infamous trailer in front of the Sunset 5’s monthly midnight screenings of The Room. But Berggeotz said that on Aug. 14, he got word that Laemmle was ready to go ahead with an Aug. 19-20 engagement. The theater’s idea, he explained, was to test WME!’s potential as another midnight institution, with an eye on giving the last two weekends of each month to Berggoetz’s film and The Room, respectively. “I had few apprehensions,” Laemmle said, “if only because we were screening a few other midnight screenings that weekend, and I figured, ‘What’s really the loss to Laemmle in putting one more film into the theater that weekend?’ That’s why we targeted that date from the very beginning. We knew that we would be open for midnights anyway, so let’s give it a shot.” Laemmle consulted with Berggoetz, who approved and commenced a hasty marketing effort for the coming weekend screenings. “I figured I would promote the film as I had done with my previous film that received a theatrical release, To Die is Hard,” Berggoetz told me in an e-mail. “Do a bunch of social networking through e-mail and Facebook, and contact local media people and schedule interviews and reviews. I was busy all day last Monday the 15th traveling, so on Tuesday the 16th I began contacting media outlets in the L.A. area and sending out e-mails and postings.” That’s when things started to look bad. Like, very bad.

Bounce TV To Launch With The Wiz

Bounce TV said today that the first show to air on the network will be the Diana Ross-Michael Jackson musical The Wiz when the over-the-air African American-targeted channel launches at noon ET on Monday, Sept. 26. That will be followed by the Sidney Poitier starrer A Raisin in the Sun at 3 PM and Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing at 8. Other highlights during Bounce’s first week include Lee’s School Daze (Sept. 27), a CIAA conference college football game pitting Bowie St. and Virginia Union (Sept. 28), and films The Siege (Sept. 29) and The Rundown (Sept. 30). The full schedule will be released Sept. 1.

Kate Winslet Assisted Save Bransons Mother From Fire

LONDON, U.K. -- Academy Award-winning actress Kate Winslet assisted save Richard Bransons seniors mother from the fire that destroyed his Caribbean home. The Virgin Group boss stated in the blog he desired to offer thank you to Kate Winslet for assisting to carry my 90 year (old) mother from the primary house to safety. He joked that Winslet wondered whenever a director would shout CUT! Inside a separate statement Tuesday, Branson recognized Winslets two children, 10-year-old Mia and 7-year-old Joe, who have been also remaining in the home if this ignited. He known as them a couple of the bravest kids Ive ever run into. Branson stated he was remaining in another property around 100 yards (meters) away together with his wife, Joan and boy Mike, 25. He stated Mike observed the primary house in flames and went to make certain all of the visitors had got out. Branson stated he also leaped from mattress and went to help. I attempted to obtain some sympathy for the truth that Id leaped from mattress naked and rushed towards the Great House in pitch darkness and hurricane pressure winds and went straight in a cactus rose bush, Branson stated. The sympathy wasn't forthcoming for my injuries. Branson stated the fireplace started around 4 a.m. Monday throughout an exotic storm with lightning and high winds. He stated Tuesday that there's still smoke rising in the house. Branson, 60, bought the area in early eighties and started building the truly amazing House in 1982. He also offers developed a unique eco-resort about the island featuring alternative energy technology. His daughter Carol, who had been remaining in the house together with Winslet, was because of got married there in December. Branson stated the marriage would still occur on Necker Island, and stated visitors may camping on thebeach if a home is not reconstructed over time. Winslet, 35, shot to worldwide fame together with her appearance opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in James Camerons Titanic, and sealed her status having a best actress Academy Award last year for that Readers. Winslets speaker, Sara Keene, confirmed the actress was about the island and was unscathed. She stated Winslet had no comment. Her two youngsters are from partnerships to company directors Jim Threapleton and Mike Mendes. Copyright 2011 by Connected Press. All privileges reserved.These components might not be released, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Eric Stonestreet to Play Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle in New HBO Movie

Pioneering silent film comedian Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle — whose career was ruined following charges that he raped and murdered actress Virginia Rappe in 1921 (he was acquitted) — is getting a proper biopic treatment in the HBO movie The Day the Laughter Stopped, with Modern Family star Eric Stonestreet set to star. The tragic story will be spun by John Adams scribe Kirk Ellis, with Barry Levinson attached as director. Seems like a perfect storm of talents; I just wish HBO titled it something a little more Arbucklian, like Fatty’s Big Murder or Mabel’s Confounding Demise. [Vulture]

Report: Overseas Audiences Powered three dimensional Ticket Sales This Year

Although U.S. audiences have cooled to three dimensional movies, overseas ticket purchasers still loved the technologyin 2010, a study today from IHS Screen Digest Cinema Intelligence shows.Scientists state that ticket purchasers worldwide spent $6.1B on three dimensional movies this past year, that was 19.3% of total box office. Which was up from $2.5B last year, comprising 8.6% of ticket sales. However the large growth came outdoors the U.S.: Overseas audiencesaccounted for 63.9% of last year's three dimensional sales, up from 53.8%. Hollywood may take credit: "The worldwide market is still centered by U.S. releases, which paid for in excess of 90% of revenue from worldwide three dimensional screens, states Charlotte now Johnson, senior analyst for cinema at IHS. Japan was the greatest market following the U.S. producing gross three dimensional receipts of $471M from films including Fox's Avatar, Disney's Alice's adventures in wonderland and Toy Story 3, along with a local release Umizaru 3: The Final Message. Trailing Japan were the United kingdom ($427.6M), France ($364.7M), and Russia ($336.5M). But on the per-capita basis, movie-goers in Colombia demonstrated probably the most curiosity about three dimensional. The technology paid for for 35.6% from the country's total box office sales. One of the least interested: Norwegian, where just 15.8% of ticket sales were for three dimensional. IHS states that moviegoers in China and Mexico saw the greatest markups for three dimensional tickets. Still, Mexico had the cheapest average ticket cost for three dimensional.

Disney, Ben Stiller's Red Hour Turn 'Quantum Hoops' Doc Into Comedy About Caltech Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight

EXCLUSIVE: Disney has acquired remake rights to Quantum Hoops, the 2007 documentary that followed the 2006 Caltech basketball team that had 21 seasons and 245 conference games without a single win, routinely getting walloped by 60 points or more. Ben Stiller and Stuart Cornfeld's Red Hour will produce a comedy based on the story of a group of brainiacs -- future political and industrial titans -- who tried to overcome a lack of athletic skills by getting an exiled NCAA coach to lead their team to what seemed for two decades an impossible dream: one in the W column. The script will be written by Stan Chervin, who was the first writer to adapt Michael Lewis' Moneyball (Chervin emerged from an arbitration with story credit, while screen credit on the upcoming Brad Pitt film went to Steve Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin.) Red Hour's Erica Steinberg brought in the project and will be executive producer along with Brian Truman, Jeremy Platt and the doc's director, Rick Greenwald. ICM brokered the rights deal to the documentary and repped Chervin.

Lady Gaga Debuts 'You and I' Single Art

Beware the invasion of the alter egos.our editor recommendsLady Gaga Confirms Next Single on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live'Justin Bieber Shows Off Rap Skills on Chris Browns Mixtape (Audio) A few days ago, Justin Bieber brought back his rapping alter ego, Shawty Mane, for a track on Chris Brown's mixtape. Now, Lady Gaga, a master of fashion and costuming, has brought back her male alter ego, Joe Calderone, for the cover of her next single, "You and I." AUDIO: Justin Bieber Shows Off Rap Skills on Chris Brown's Mixtape Gaga tweeted the images on Friday, Aug. 5. "You will never find what you are looking for in love, if you don't love yourself," she wrote. The black and white images show Gaga dressed as a man in a jacket and t-shirt with short black hair, smoking in a cigarette. Joe Calderone, supposedly a mechanic from Sicily, first appeared on the September 2010 cover of Japanese Men's Vogue. Rumors flew that the male model was actually Lady Gaga, especially when Calderone mentions Gaga in the interview. PHOTOS: Lady Gaga's Fashion Forward Style "I met [Gaga] at a shoot [photographer] Nick Knight was doing. I was a little nervous for Nick to start shooting. She said, 'Don't be baby, you were 'born this way.' I took her out after. The rest is private," Calderone told the magazine. Nick Knight is one of Gaga's favorite photographers, and Gaga's stylist, Nicola Formichetti, posted the magazine's photos on his website. Fans are eagerly awaiting Lady Gaga's 1,000th tweet, which she has promised will be the premiere of the single off of her latest album, Born This Way. She is now at 992 tweets. Gaga announced her next single on Jimmy Kimmel Live! where she also performed the song on a stage in Hollywood on July 28. She spoke on a radio show about filming the video in Nebraska. "I've got to tell you, I don't think there's anything hotter than being in a cornfield in Nebraska," said Gaga. Related Topics Lady Gaga