Posted on 12/28/2005 6:59:55 AM PST by bulldozer
These days, the film industry bemoans decreasing box office sales by crying about illegal downloads of movies. If all the major providers of peer-to-peer software had not been shut down, they might have a point.
Industries who think consumers are slaves to their products usually end up in this boat. The consumer goes elsewhere.
“Brokeback Mountain” has netted a paltry $4.9 million in box office sales, nearly identical to “Memoirs of a Geisha”. Both movies have been out for about two weeks. King Kong has earned twenty times more in only eight days of apish reincarnation.
Here is a wake-up call for Hollywood: Nearly one-fourth of viewers gave Brokeback Mountain an “F”, while 69.4% gave it an A, leaving no middle-ground. We can easily guess who these votes came from on both sides of this tin coin.
Golden Globe elites went into plebian parinirvana over the idea of two married cowboys rustling something more than livestock on the range. Monkeys go “ape” seeing themselves in the mirror, too. A “Gone With The Wind” this is not.
The business model for film distribution is changing rapidly in ways Hollywood is loathe to admit. With cable and satellite, viewers do not need to waste money going out to see movies they do not really want to see, out of sheer boredom. We can more easily surf cable to watch the best of the worst, in far more comfortable surroundings, with our favorite snacks just a few steps away. The box office and DVD rentals merely give us time to figure out what we really want to see.
Hollywood no longer has a monopoly on entertainment. The internet and video games are where celluloid ex-pats now reside.
Consumer dollar-votes are most instructive. The fish now know the difference between a real worm and a fake one with a hook on it. We are no longer addicted to seeing the latest insult to family values just so we can pretend we are hip while complaining about it at lunch.
Shock entertainment will be an increasingly marginal market. Those who wish to be successful in film and television will look to the great box office hits, shows, and the legendary acts for new foundations for the film industry.
David R. Usher is President of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children, Missouri Coalition
I've never seen "Birth of a Nation", but I was loaned a VHS copy of "Triumph of the Will" by a college professor for a history class I took. I don't speak German, and it didn't have subtitles, so I missed what was said, but there's no missing the message Hitler, Goering, etal. were sending. An interesting sidenote is that John Ford, drafted into the Army after Pearl Harbor, used much of the movie for his own "Why We Fight" series.
Well, at least they won't have to worry about the number of illegal downloads of "Brokeback Mountain"!
LOL!
As soon as Quentin was brought in to fix them after the Carver had his way, I kind of had a thought that he was it. However, the twist with his police photos of his nether-region was a suprise, especially after the whole 4some incident.
I guess for next season we'll see what happens to Matt after the whole crazy ex-girlfriend's dad incident.
I've sat through it and nothing I can remember about it was overtly racist for its time. I haven't watched the film in years so I'm sure I'm forgetting much of it but now that you mention it I'm going to have to watch it again to see what this may or may not be about...
If it makes about 11 million at the box office, DVD sales might put it at the break-even point, but seeing that it has increased the number of theatres dramatically and still declined 28% shows that the movie has just about run its course. Considering how much controversy it's generating, and it's brilliant marketing, it's a rather tepid box office showing.
I love "Rescue Me". It's twistedly funny. Never could get into "The Shield" or "Nip/Tuck" though.
That's the whole Marketing thrust (pun intended) of that movie, which is limit its distribution to a few theaters so as to be able to cite viewers per theater numberse (these would be higher as the die hards who want to support the movie would be able to make much more of a difference by cramming in only a few theaters). Having created buzz by creating the fake excitement around the movie, they then open the movie nationwide.
Problem is that everybody now knows what the movie is about and its political propaganda message. With the advent of the internet it's really tough for producers to fool us anymore. Witness what happened to Million dollar baby. They tried to sell it as a boxing story, but the message got out about its euthanasia message and a lot of people who would have been fooled didn't.
Yes. I saw it on X-mas afternoon. Hilarious. But would have been picketed as an anti-gay movie if not for the cast. The 'gay rights' lobby is as sensitive as CAIR to perceived slights and injustices. You can be damn sure that if the cast had been all heterosexual, the movie would have been picketed.
"I think the left will do a movie glorifying pedophiles before they tackle bestiality."
Been done. The Professional. At least in its Japanese release. They may have cut scenes for the US market.
You have hit upon the difference. Lane is a talented actor who happens to be gay. Degeneres and O'Donnell are professional lesbians.
[Disclaimer: I loved Rosie O'Donnell when she was doing stand-up comedy - and at that time she was still in the closet, and working on her talent rather than her sexuality.]
I was fortunate enough to see it on the stage in NYC, albeit without Lane and Broderick. I laughed so hard my sides hurt. One of the best parts of THE PRODUCERS was its retro non-PC take on homosexuality.
Using logic.. since queers are 25% of the population it should have done about 25 million by now. I wonder is the studios will see that if you make a movie for 5% or less of the population it just will not draw the dollars.
Idiots
We go to an historic theater that gets movies after they've played at the multi-plexes. The movies are $3, an organist plays for 20 minutes before the show on Sat. nights, and the owner wears a tuxedo on Saturdays. The popcorn and soda are reasonable. He tries to get good movies there. It's a nice evening out.
http://www.roxytheaternorthampton.com/
That's true, but they have increased it from 69 theaters the previous week to 217 theaters this week, and it dropped from 8th on the box office to 13th. It is on the downslide.
For Ledger to have made this movie, he must like men more than the average guy does.
It's not playing here, which is 60 miles north of Phila. and 70 miles west of NYC. The gays are probably driving out of town to see it.
You're being too hard on Comedy Central, which would be redeemed by "South Park" even if it were a lot worse.
As for the History Channel . . . well, ever since the Military Channel started up, I've worried where History will get its programming from. 80% of History's shows are World War II-related, which is why those in the industry call it the Hitler Channel.
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