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
No, near Allentown and Bethlehem
Went to see WALK THE LINE today and loved it. Phoenix deserves an Academy Award for his performance.
That would leave BM at about $30 million.
If it does significantly more than $30 million, are you going to have to revise the numbers of gay, and gay-friendly Americans?
Both groups probably have allies numbering about 2.5:1 (meaning 75% of Americans approve of Christianity as an organized religion, and maybe about 7-10% of Americans are "gay-friendly".)
A little problem with your assumptions here, even if I do give you your numbers (which I strongly doubt). The number of people who are tolerant of hard-line Christianity has no bearing on how many people went to see "Passion". The word on "Passion" was out, too, and if you really wanted to help Mel Gibson make a statement, you bought a ticket to that movie, if you really didn't want to see a man being tortured to death, you stayed away.
Word is out on BBM, too, the gay sex scenes are not considered graphic, there is a considerable amount of female nudity instead, and there are positive reviews of the acting, the story, and the cinematography. Going to see it will not mark a man as gay, at least in most suburban American cities.
Box office is already starting to grow on this picture, frankly, as it seems to be a political statement from the left in answer to the "Passion" numbers, I fully expect it to do as well as Narnia, and possibly as well as "Passion". Anyone who is cheered by last week's numbers is going to be painfully disappointed within a month.
This is an excerpt from the pluggedinonline.com review about this movie:
Once, the camera keeps staring as kisses give way to anal sex. (There's no nudity shown, but the sequence is explicit; it includes sexual motions and sounds.)
What is your defintion of graphic?
>> If it does significantly more than $30 million, are you going to have to revise the numbers of gay, and gay-friendly Americans? <<
No, the contect of what I wrote was that the movie had not yet reached beyond its core audience. If it does better, it would mean that the movie reviewers were at least partly correct that the movie resonated with non-gays, and I would agree, at least in part, with this statement:
>> Word is out on BBM, too, the gay sex scenes are not considered graphic, there is a considerable amount of female nudity instead, and there are positive reviews of the acting, the story, and the cinematography. Going to see it will not mark a man as gay, at least in most suburban American cities. <<
On the other hand, over the past few days, I have been blitzed in three different metro areas (as I am travelling for the holidays) with advertisements for the movie, pushing how it is a certain Oscar winner. The voice-overs proclaim it a beautiful love story (as it shows men hugging and kissing women), and a glorious triumph of the heart (as it shows men huggung their children).
The movie-makers apparently think they can deceive people into thinking it is a heterosexual, family movie... and the movie grosses over the last few days show strong growth.
Wow, a pretty little trollie to play with, scary, hunh?
I haven't seen the movie yet, so I'm going on what has been written, and apparently the male-female sex scenes are supposed to be more graphic.
Kissing itself doesn't bother me. Men kiss each other on the cheek in many other cultures, and they are some of the most macho ones on the face of the earth.
I don't watch a lot of TV (too busy with my Star Trek Enterprise DVD's these days!) but I agree, they seem to be "Trojan Horsing" this movie into American moviegoers. I think any serious movie fan knows about the gay storyline, though. Even if one heard a rumor, they'd check it out on the Internet, so its not likely to be an enormous shock for too many people.
I can imagine a few movie theatre operators being prepared to give back ticket money, and perhaps might not mind that publicity, as it brings in other people to see what the controversy is all about. I think what the producers of this film REALLY would like is some fire and brimstone words from Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson. They'll be smart not to say much about the movie.
An accurate description of the Hollywood "Elite".
It's also the perfect explanation for why "Shakespeare in Love" won seven Oscars in 1999 (including "Best Picture"), beating out the superior films "Elizabeth" and "Saving Private Ryan".
"Shakespeare in Love" was all about actors, producers, and writers -- so when the actors, producers, and writers of the Academy of Motion Pictures voted on what they thought was the best film, well... Narcissism won out.
I think some of the great reviews have as much to do with the perceived "bravery" of making a movie like this, which isn't fair to the public. It should be judged as a film - not a gay film - or a groundbreaking film. It is being touted as the first gay cowboy film, but in fact Midnight Cowboy could be seen as that, and Midnight Cowboy was a stronger film. I think it's a good film, not a great film. Not at the Best Picture Oscar level if you ask me, but worth seeing.
I thought Joaquin was the Oscar frontrunner.
Was Michelle Williams as good as everyone says?
I don't think so. Reese seems like a shoe-in though, for Walk the Line. Joaquin will probably be nominated though. And he should be. Ledger struck me in this as being the inheritor of Paul Newman's place in films. I can't say anyone up till now could fill those shoes. Definitely a career-making turn.
She was great.
I saw a preview for it in a theater in Omaha, Nebraska just last week.
By the way, one of the kooks at CP has deemed me a "fag hag" for even going to see Brokeback Mountain. Perhaps the poster (Bad Santa) who made that post has personal "issues" he hasn't quite dealt with. :)
That's creative.
Destined to be a "classic." It's good to know that at some sites they are really posting meaningful threads about important topics. ;)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.