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
Wait until it goes overseas and they love it to death in Europe.
That's pretty sick Baynative. :)
"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. "
Really great stuff. You left out "Count ???'s Castle". I need to buy the ones I haven't seen, especially for my niece.
A few small updates to Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" will get us close to reality as it is today. Ultraviolence is with us.
Yes, I agree it will. I loved Narnia, and hope they make the whole series.
Even instant pudding mix?
"69 of the nation's largest theaters . . ." LOL.
Good one! LOL!
Some good ones from yesterdays thread:
"Flaming Saddles"
"Raw Hind"
"The Rump Riders"
Heath Ledger has never been a good enough actor to make me believe he was ever hetero. Methinks he'll have problems convincing anyone else, too. Then again, it's good that he's found his "screen calling".
The problem with King Kong is bad casting.
There are no actual men in the cast. Instead you get a pudgy nebbish and a somewhat metrosexual guy with a beak nose.
I would amend it more accurately to "Bareback Mount'n".
The Castle of Cagliostro. Yes, it's a bit different, but my grandchildren loved it. Unless you mean Howl's Moving Castle, which hasn't bee released on DVD yet.
Also, the first two DVDs of Sherlock Hound were done by Miyazaki, and then unfortunately they changed directors. They are very amusing--Holmes and Watson as dogs.
I think my two favorites are probably Spirited Away and Porco Rosso, but they're all good.
Trey and Matt said it best...
As an homage to them..I now will no longer call Specter or McStain RINOs...
They are now "Brokeback Republicans", because there's not a spine among them...and I have my suspicions about some other asspects of their lives.
Now as for the pudding they serve at the RNC...
Sorry, you don't have to live 'west of the Mississippi' you just have to be LITERATE to understand the difference between cowboys and sheep herders. Lives have been lost over this distinction.
Good one, liked your profile page also
Down for the count?
Mel Gibson's dad. Quite the anti-Semite, one gathers: the Holocaust never happened, and so on.
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