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
And less people will go to the movies next year.
Only movies with a liberal message. Yuck! Give me special effects any day over that!
You have missed the whole point of the obsession. We are laughing and watching unfold the total stupidity of Hollywood.....in a year with terrible box office and after a year where Hollywood thumbed its collective nose at Americans through its anti-American, anti-war, anti-Republican, and anti-Christian attacks whether through individuals voicing it or through their preaching movies. They are telling us that this movie is in the lead for the Oscar. This pro-gay tripe is worthy of an Oscar but of course a movie like "The Passion of Christ" was not Oscar worthy.
Daily now we are seeing articles trying to figure out why they are loosing so much of their audience and they are coming up with every answer in the book but the true one that is staring them in the face.
We are just enjoying the show, and it is a hoot!
Question: What did Brokeback Mountain Shepard/Cowboy #1 say to Shepard/Cowboy #2 after they had an "intimate interlude"
and the answer is...BAAAAAAA!!!!!
On purpose? Why?
I went to the theater to see Pride and Prejudice. The preview for BBM was shown prior to PAP. I was actually very surprised that it was shown. I didn't, and don't plan to, see the movie.
Just like the teenage girls that made Titanic an Oscar Winner.
I have seen the movie. I didn't see any pudding. But they did leave a bunch of elk meat drying on a rack, a few days after they had a bear encounter. I couldn't help thinking, every time I saw that rack, "that bear is gonna be back real soon."
The sex scenes in Deliverance were more graphic.
I keep hearing about the pudding. Do they actually eat pudding,tapioca?, or is it a euphemism?
Aint he got a purty mouth.
Joaquin Phoenix is the best American actor we have right now, hands down. He can do anything. I'm looking forward to seeing Walk The Line.
He did win an Oscar a few years ago, for The Color of Money. He should have won for The Verdict. He was fantastic in that. I think he's a great actor. I think the reason he didn't do as well as he could have in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was that the homosexual relationship hinted at in the play was very watered down for the movie, for obvious reasons, so Newman had to hedge his performance.
Joaquin Phoenix is a great actor too. I agree with you. But Heath Ledger was better in Brokeback Mountain than Phoenix was in Walk the Line, IMO. But this is why the Oscars is very silly on some level. Comparing great performances in very different projects is pretty goofy.
This lady has it all wrong...Brokeback Mountain is what America wants to see and will win all the Academy Awards.
After all, every man has a homosexual fantasy.
>>>“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.
Just as an FYI - King Kong is playing in over 3000 theaters, while Brokeback is still in limited release, showing in slightly over 600 (and it was fewer than that before last weekend.) Box office is not just measured in total dollars at any one given moment. You have to analyze the numbers of theaters, and other data. But it would be the rare art film that would gross more than a big thriller like King Kong. It does happen, though. Little films can take off, films like The Full Monty, which for one reason or another capture the public's attention.
Surprising is right. Those who want to prop up Brokeback Mountain by fudging the figures claim it tops the box office. They are using figures from homosexual metropolitan areas where the movie was only shown, then claim a box office success – what a shame.
Here are some figures to date (Jan. 3). Brokeback Mountain has only made 15.1 million in the 25 days it has been out. Now use the “$15.1 million figure achieved in only 25 days” and try to claim a box office success.
Using these figures I would prefer to claim this: Brokeback Mountain is U.S. box office flop.
Box Office Mojo
Hollywood may well be stupid, but not in this case. The movie has already made over 15 million (more than its production costs) while still in limited release, and before it's released overseas. This movie will make money, perhaps a lot, and seems likely to win some major awards.
How is that stupid?
Hollywood isn't losing money on the small, independent films like this one. Their costs are negligible compared to one King Kong.
And I really don't understand trying to turn this into a competition with The Passion.
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