北美迎来弱九月

　　NORTH AMERICA BRACES FOR A WEAK SEPTEMBER

　　2014 has been a mediocre year at the North American box office.Unfortunately，September looks like it will continue this year’s losing streak.

　　2014年的北美票房平平无奇。不幸的是，九月份看起来还会继续这种无精打采的势头。

　　Even though September has long held a reputation as a month that features less-than-great movies，September 2013 proved that didn’t need to be the case.Last September saw the release of a handful of serious hits including Insidious Chapter 2，Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 and Prisoners.The strength of those titles and others helped keep a record-setting year on the right track.

　　即便九月的名声一直都是放映差强人意的影片的月份，但2013年的九月却表明这未必正确。去年九月我们见证了几部严肃大片的上映，包括：《潜伏2》、《美食从天降2》和《囚徒》。这几部加上其他一些电影的强势表现帮助这一年继续其创纪录的势头。

　　September 2014’s slate is certainly diverse，but there’s not a whole lot of strength in it.There’s a title for families inD olphin Tale 2，but we doubt that will match the impact thatC loudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 had last year.A Walk Among The Tombstones is a dark thriller starring the often reliable Liam Neeson，yte we currently predict that it will gross less than Prisoners did.This Is Where I Leave You is an ensemble dramedy that features Tina Fey and Jason Batema nand it could end up turning into a sleeper.However，even though Fey and Beamt an have had huge successes in the past，their resumes are also filled with duds.Fey struck out with Admission in 2013 and Muppets Most Wanted earlier this year，while Bateman’s

　　Bad Words—his directorial debut—fell flat after trying to gain momentum from a limited release in March.The Maze Runner will try to tap into the recentH unger Games-driven craze focused on teenagers put in perilous dystopian futures—an admirable goal. Even thoughM aze Runner is based on a popular seires of books，we are not optimistic that it will be able to post significant numbers.Our expectations were cooled down whenD ivergent—another film adapted from a popular futuristic book series about teens facing adversity—didn’t quite live up to expectations.

　　2014年9月的电影排期表依然五花八门，但却没什么重头戏。有个家庭片《海豚的故事2》，但我们怀疑它能匹敌去年《天降美食2》的影响力。《行过死荫之地》是部黑色惊悚片，由基本靠谱的连姆·尼森主演，但我们此刻预测其总票房不会盖过《囚徒》。《守丧七日晴》是家庭情节喜剧，主演蒂娜·斐和杰森·拜特曼，或许最终会成为意外的惊喜。然而，即便斐和拜特曼曾经名噪一时，他们的履历表也充满了失意之作。斐2013年的《爱在招生部》和今年早些时候的《木偶大电影2》连败麦城，而拜特曼的《脏话》——其导演处女作——3月有限发行试图蓄势待发但却表现平平。《迷宫行者》将尝试挖掘最近由《饥饿游戏》带动的青少年热，专注他们身处的反乌托邦的未来窘境——不失为一个值得欣赏的目标。即使《迷宫行者》是基于畅销的系列书，我们对它能狂揽巨金的前景并不乐观。我们的期望值有所冷却，因为另一部根据描述逆境青少年的畅销科幻系列小说改编的电影《分岐者》并不怎么争气。

　　One of the strongest films in September is actually opening close to the end of the month.We have high hopes foTr he Equalizer when it opens on September 26.The action film stars Denzel Washington in the kind of intense，hard-hitting role that led to successful grosses for such past efforts asT raining Day，Man on Fire and Safe House.Washington is one of the most reliable actors working today：the Oscar-winner hasn’t had a true box office flop since 2007’s The Great Debaters.We think that The Equalizer will turn into a massive hit，but that will mean more to October’s bottomline than it will September’s.

　　9月最强的电影之一其实是在接近月底的时候开画。当《伸冤人》9月26日开映，我们对其寄予厚望。动作明星丹泽尔·华盛顿有些紧张兮兮的硬汉角色带来过往《训练日》、《怒火救援》和《藏身之所》之类影片的票房成功，也让他成为今天还活跃的明星中最靠谱的之一：这个奥斯卡得主自2007年《伟大的辩论家》以来还未在票房真正失手过。我们认为《伸冤人》将会获得票房的巨大成功，但那只意味着十月会得到更多的票房，而非九月。

　　The conventional wisdom is that moviegoers spend a lot of mone iyn the summer，so therefore it’s not wise to opens trong movies in September.We’re optimistic that this way of thinking will die soon.A strong film can succeed in an ymonth if people are genuinely interested in seeing it.We hope next September will be better.

　　按照常理，观众们一个夏季花钱不菲，所以还选在九月开映重磅电影并非明智之举。但我们乐观地认为，这种逻辑不久将销声匿迹，因为强势电影在任何月份都会光彩夺目，只要人们真正喜闻乐见。我们期望明年的九月将会更好。

　　By Phil Contrino菲尔·康崔诺

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