After Tom Cruise mentioned on a TV talk show that he was a fan, he and Stone became friends. “I went over to his house for lunch,” she says. “He has this trampoline in the back garden, and of course he does all the flips, because he’s Superman; he can do anything. He’s so nice, just a normal guy. And I love it because he has no agenda. What does he need from me? He’s Tom Cruise.”

“Collateral grabbed six No. 1 debuts over the weekend, including terrific debuts in South Korea, Italy, Australia and Spain. The biggest start came in Italy where the Michael Mann thriller grossed $2,710,036 from just 260 screens. That easily unseated Hero ($1.1 million second weekend, $4 million total) and topped such other Tom Cruise movies as Eyes Wide Shut ($2.5 million from 300) and Vanilla Sky ($2.2 million from 287) openings.

La Mala educación remained in third place in Italy with a second weekend haul of $995,300 (€809,800) from 231 screens, falling just 20% for a $2.9 million (€2.4 million) total. Director Pedro Almodovar’s latest openes Stateside on Nov. 19. In Spain, Collateral recorded a $2,183,384 debut from 337 screens, besting The Bourne Supremacy by 16% and Enemy of the State by 9%. South Korea was most surprising, however, with a massive $1,664,988 start from just 141 screens. That was better than Minority Report’s $1.2 million and one of the biggest openings for a U.S. movie this year.

In Australia, Collateral was able to keep fellow openers The Notebook and Open Water at bay with a $1,726,542 launch from 233 screens. It has a strong $7,410 per screen average, but wasn’t released widely enough to top most Tom Cruise pictures.

Collateral also had two strong No. 1 debuts in Finland and Turkey. Finland registered $128,802 from 30 screens narrowly unseating Home on the Range while Turkey had a $470,854 debut from 150 screens.

Collateral continued to do well in holdovers as well, lead by France’s third weekend gross of $1,211,259 from 470 screens for a 19-day total of $7,928,831. It was off 39% from last weekend.

Collateral ended up with a $12,305,376 weekend overall from 2,618 screens in 19 countries, shooting its total to $59,485,867. Still to go for the Tom Cruise-Jamie Foxx vehicle are Scandinavia and Japan, where Cruise has extreme star power.”

1 and 2.

Thanks Alberta for this news!

Tom Cruise and Oprah Winfrey will host December’s traditional Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway, honoring the 2004 laureate, Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai, organizers told the AP Wednesday.

The Nobel concert will be carried live in more than 100 countries, and traditionally draws some of the biggest names in show business. Last year, the event was hosted by Hollywood husband-and-wife Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

When DreamWorks’ double-disc “Collateral” DVD hits stores Dec. 14, film buffs will get an unprecedented look into director Michael Mann’s style of filmmaking and a view into how stars Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx trained for their roles. The DVD’s bonus materials capture Mann’s private exchanges with the cast and crew and include a wealth of footage that unveils the creative and technical process that brought the actioner to life.

Another DVD bonus feature, “Special Delivery,” shows Cruise donning a Federal Express uniform and striding through a busy marketplace in Los Angeles to hand-deliver a package, all captured on hidden camera.”
From Q Magazine.

…..“This is a movie that had legs, a concept that has all but vanished from the movie lexicon,” said Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations Co. “It didn’t open with this huge bang but slowly and successfully built this audience. It hung in there and was always in the mix.” …..

…..Collateral” is Cruise’s fifth consecutive film to gross at least $100 million domestically and 12th overall. Dergarabedian said it has been “the Cruise factor” that has enabled the actor’s last five movies, all vastly different from each other, to be commercial hits. They include “The Last Samurai,” “Minority Report,” “Vanilla Sky,” and “Mission Impossible II.” “The Cruise factor to me is that he does something like ’Samurai,’ ’Collateral,” or ’Vanilla Sky’ — which are not ’Mission: Impossible’ — and the audience will follow him wherever he goes,” he said. “Tom Cruise appears on the screen and $100 million is almost guaranteed, even if it takes awhile.”

Ending “The Village’s” five-week reign, “Collateral” was the weekend champ overseas, nailing $8.9 million from more than 1,800 screens, propelling its cume to $38.5 million in 24 territories. But, typifying the general malaise, it was the first time since the dog days of early March that the weekend’s top title earned less than $10 million. Tom Cruise (news) starrer ruled in France, Belgium, Holland and Poland and held reasonably well in its second assignation in Germany. Gallic crix raved about the hit-man saga, one hailing it as a “triumph of the American system when it’s put together by artists: entertainment in its highest form,” and another saluting director Michael Mann’s “new form of melancholic lyricism.”

“Collateral” knocked “Look At Me” off its perch in France but exhibs were satisfied with the perf of the dark comedy from helmer/thesp/co-writer Agnes Jaoui