Brokeback Family Values (Brokeback Mountain)

TheRealityCheck.org ^ | 12/26/05 | David R. Usher

[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

[veronica]

It was sold out where I went to see it, which was not a big city metropolitan venue. I am not defending the film per se. I thought Heath Ledger was great but beyond that I was somewhat disappointed after all the hype that I had read. I am sure I will much more offended and angered by Munich, which apparently is soft on terrorism and hard on Israel. A double outrage considering a Jew directed it and a Jew wrote the screenplay.

[veronica]

Actually I misspoke about Brokeback. It's only in 269 venues. I transposed the numbers when I read it I guess.

[BurbankKarl]

It is in a few theatres to pump up the $$$ per seat average. If it was a hit it would have expanded by now.

[BurbankKarl]

if they want to be picky, year-old Polar Express did more per theatre last week than Brokeback Mountain....

BBM 13,599 per theatre (217 theatres)
PE 20,837 per theatre (66)


I am guessing that is the IMAX version of PE

[dennisw]

I am totally uninterested in movies that cover gay subject matter. I'm not too interested in anything Hollywood puts out these days "Flight Plan" got me into a movie theater. One glance at Philip Seymour Hoffman and I can tell he did a great Capote. I'll see that one on DVD eventually. TC was an American original. He invented himself. Same reason I liked the movie "Pollock"

[MAWG]

" After all, every man has a homosexual fantasy."

One need only to look at your picture on your home page to understand where this ridiculous statement came from.Of course the fact that you live in El. A./ Burbank has nothing to do with it.

[veronica]

One glance at Philip Seymour Hoffman and I can tell he did a great Capote. I'll see that one on DVD eventually. TC was an American original.

Indeed he was. And his influence on the culture was nothing short of revolutionary. He pretty much reinvented the true crime genre of nonfiction, and ushered in the age of tabloid journalism, which permeates all forms of media to this day. He also happened to be gay, and wasn't shy about it. So what to do. Not go see Capote, even though it's about a fascinating person, stars a great young actor, because the fascinating person happened to be gay? Do I stop watching Doris Day-Rock Hudson movies, because Rock Hudson died of AIDS?

Plus I am involved in the film industry, and I have to make it my business to see what's out there, regardless of my political and personal beliefs. And there is a great deal of crap out there, to be sure. But I need to see and judge for myself.

[BurbankKarl]

That is what is taught in college these days....dont blame me.

[veronica]

At least we can have a rational discussion about it here without some hysterical closet case screaming "fag hag."

:)

[Hoops-a-plenty]

I couldn't agree with you more, SampleMan. It's glaringly obvious that the studio and media are manipulating the "per box office sales take" numbers, as well as handpicking selected markets to "slowly" distribute the film. The only problem here is that the manipulation in reality only reflects a very, very small success with a very small minority of people in large cities. When all is said and done, I dare Hollywood to compare gross sales of "Brokeback", and even "The Producers" with say, "Chronicals of Narnia" and "The Passion", which obviously have a lot of action as well as conservative themes.

[Darksheare]

Welcome to FR.

"Regardless, I guess this means that all those Jews in Hollywood aren't as money-conscious as they're made out to be after all-- "

Excuse me?
"Jews"
Doku, that you?

[Darksheare]

Actually you shouldn't even be trolling.

[Darksheare]

Slings, check this guy out.

[Das Outsider]

Actually you shouldn't even be trolling.

Did the DU reach carrying capacity already, Darks?

[Darksheare]

Your penance for trolling to is say one Impetus Ailuropoda Melanoleuca.

[Darksheare]

I guess so.
Their overspill is stinking up our floors.

[Darksheare]

Trolls are non-gendered.
Sorry to spoil your thought on that.