Posted on 12/17/2005 11:10:22 AM PST by dangus
A gross of $11,000 per screen is quite good. If you're an autumn Wide Release, opening on 3500 screens across the country. When a movie opens on only 69 of the nation's largest theaters in a few dozen of the largest cities, with almost all of your target audience within range of those theaters, it's pretty bad.
Brokeback Mountain played in fourteen times more theaters this Friday than last Friday, and made less than four times as much money, only $760,000. It looks like the movie will make considerably less than its $15 million budget before the Academy Awards come out. How many tens of millions of dollars in free promotion, reduced pay and credibility were spent on this film?
King Kong also appears to be a flop. I've seen this movie: Peter Jackson has mastered many movie-making techniques with the Lord of the Rings, and the movie is an amazing spectacle with much positive and true to say about human nature. But Jackson did not learn how to discipline his budgeting or story-telling. His movie is also bloated, over-long, too violent, very horrific and a bit tooo preposterous.
The early part of the movie centers around a movie director too obsessed with his story, prone to overkill, and swindling a movie company out of far more than they would have been willing to spend. Given that actor Jack Black even slightly resembles Peter Jackson, I can't help but to wonder if how consciously auto-biographical the film is. It will make many, many, many times more than Brokeback Mountain, and still become known as a flop. I sincerely hope Peter Jackson learns the right things from the experience; he is very talented, very passionate, and, from the messages of his movies, very decent. King Kong made $14 million last night... It will probably easily pass $100 million, but land short of its $200 million budget. On the other hand, it is precisely the sort of movie that translates well overseas, and does well on DVD. But it will not be the Box Office savior hoped for.
Chronicles of Narnia will apparently need a rebound in the Christmas vacations to be profitable. Except for a literally rushed ending, it's almost perfect, a purely magical delight. But it seems to have very weak legs; it's not surprising since everyone who wanted to see this movie knew they did so a long time ago, and most rushed out to see it immediately. Today's movie markets don't allow for the sort of excellent word of mouth that Narnia is getting.
That word of mouth means probably good DVD sales, and strong anticipation of a sequel, so Narnia's Box Office is by no means a failure... just it'll take some time to become profitable. Narnia sold about $9 million worth of tickets, down over 60% from last Friday.
But there doesn't seem to be any great challenger to Narnia for the Holiday season. The Family Stone opened weak ($4 million), Harry Potter is mostly played out ($1.5 million), as are Walk the Line ($1 million) and Yours Mine and Ours (under $1 million) Syriana also fell hard, too... ($1.6 million).
Don't look for any saviors at the box office next week either... Cheaper by the Dozen 2, Fun with Dick and Jane, The Ringer, and Rumor Has It all open, but none look too strong
Another blow for Blue-State America.
We're in a agreement then. I understand the difference between allegory and metaphor, but some people understand those terms are being interchangeable, even though they aren't. You are 100% correct.
I knew this was going to happen, but it makes me feel really good to see it in print.
Actually, they are two actors who have probably ruined their careers.
Heath Ledger already has another movie -- Casanova -- coming out.
bump
The elitists have embraced this movie as a kind of Passion of the Christ of their own, and it's being (so to speak) forced down our throats in a number of ways; in spite of being (from most accounts) an overlong, boring, unpleasant film, it's going to win all the awards just to show the "fundies" who's in charge of the culture.
That's why it's not going to be popular here.
He better hope it comes out soon and that he looks very very believable in it.
I want to see Narnia but I was waiting until after the Christmas rush to go. Maybe I'll go sometime this week if it's not that crowded.
-Snip- Personally, I think millions of men are just itching to see Bareback Mountain -snip-
Personally, I think the ones who want to see this movie are just dripping... and burning too. They really should see a doctor, and a counselor, and a priest, or a rabbi, etc...
"I suggest another crappy remake of a TV show that no one watched."
I'm telling you, the last truly original movie that was made was "The Sixth Sense", I loved that movie. Completely clean, good story, a wee bit scary, but I stood it so most wouldn't find it scary at all. No bad language, romance but clean, good story, good acting. An excellent flick, like the old days.
There certainly aren't many good movies.
I think maybe the best American movie I've seen in the past few years is "The Incredibles."
I also recommend just about any anime film directed by Hayao Miyazaki, which are fun for the whole family. Spirited Away, Kiki's Delivery Service, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Princess Mononoke, Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, The Cat Returns, and especially Porco Rosso, which reminds me of Casablanca (except that the Bogart role is played by a World War I biplane pilot who has been turned into a pig because he flew too high). It even has a woman singing chansons in an Aegean nightclub.
Miyazaki has what some might consider too strong a concern for "the environment," but he's much too good for it to bother me, and I don't think the left should have a monopoly on nature. The films are made by a company which seems to be half Japanese and half Italian, although Disney has picked up and distributed the last few of them.
no....Buttpoke mountain....nooo....Humpback mountain....I fergit....Fudgepack mountain...nope...Brokebutt mountain...dang it...
"Did they really think a movie that appeals to such a small proportion of the population would do well?"
That's their whole problem, in a nutshell. Liberals are completely koolaid convinced that they are the majority and we are the minority.
The only reason Bush won FL in 2000 was he disenfranchised voters; the only reason he won OH in 2004 was Diebold stole the election.
The are convinced that most of America is more "tolerant" and liberal, and it is the evil uberconservative capitalists corporations that keep this from coming out. It's a giant conspiracy, that VRW one.
Most of America has gay tendencies and will view this as a tender love story. Listen to anyone from DU and they are firmly convinced of this garbage.
That might explain the famous Sheep-Cattle Wars. The Cattlemen didn't want the shepherds fowling their water holes, and spreading their scabies (no joke, I think that's pretty much what the shooting was about).
One problem with the movie may be that they weren't entirely honest about what sort of a relationship this could have been forty years ago. If that sort of thing happened it all it would have been more casual or more pathological. But they had to make the relationship look at once "normal" and monumental. Romanticizing it introduces a false note. Another problem is that once you get the "gay cowboy" concept something of significance has to happen in the film. Apparently, not much does.
When it's your turn in the barrel.
I took the whole family to see it yesterday. It's wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. I enjoyed it as much as LOTR. Just be sure to go in as a little kid, ready to be enchanted. The lady who plays the White Witch is marvelous, as are all four of the children.
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