Posted on 12/09/2006 3:38:57 AM PST by Mel Gibson
Call it a Hollywood shocker: Mel's Apocalypto will have a bigger weekend opening than his Braveheart. Despite scandal, an R-rating, subtitles because of an ancient dialect, no stars, and direct competition from movieland AAA-listers Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz, Gibson's Mayan epic won Friday's matinees and evenings, I'm told. At first, box office gurus were warning me that the weekend victor among three very competitive films all opening against each other would be too close to call. cameron_jude.jpgBut now I've learned it looks certain that Apocalypto will win the weekend -- bearing out my reporting back on December 1st when I was told that early tracking showed Mel's movie (playing in 2,465 theaters) would edge ahead. Tonight, I'm told Mel's movie took in nearly $6 million Friday for what's expected to be at least a $15 mil, and possibly $16 mil, weekend total -- exceeding Disney's hopes for the box office gross. That easily beats Mel's Braveheart, which made $9.9 mil for Fri-Sat-Sun when it opened in 2,037 theaters during Memorial Weekend back in 1995 ($12.9 mil for the four-day holiday) and went on to make $75.6 mil in the U.S. and $210.4 mil worldwide, helped by winning the Best Picture Oscar. Based on today's matinees, the No. 2 spot went to Sony's The Holiday (in 2,610 playdates), a date movie from director-writer Nancy Meyer, known for capturing that man-woman zeitgeist. The studio's hard work to deftly market this PG-13 debut (also starring Kate Winslet, Jack Black and Jude Law) obviously paid off because the movie earned $4.5 mil Friday despite all the rivalry. In 3rd place was Warner Bros' Blood Diamond (in 1,910 theaters), an African-set action-adventure pic. Important to note that this film is playing in 500-to-700 less theaters than the other two films...
(Excerpt) Read more at deadlinehollywooddaily.com ...
I didn't want to say this yesterday but I gotta tell you, you know, I screened "Apocalypto" which opens tonight in over 2500 screens across the country, Mel Gibson's movie. It's fascinating to read the reviews in the liberal papers. My gosh, folks, you would think I produced this movie. These reviews are of what a sicko Gibson must be. They do give the film plaudits for the cinematography. It is gorgeous. It's digital photography, it's a stunning thing to see but it's got its blood, guts and gore. No question about it. Three of the women walked out first 30 minutes, and it wasn't because it was too gory. When I talked to them later when we were having dinner, "Nah, I just don't like all this macho stuff." It was an ancient culture of men who ran the show. But they were loving and protecting of their women as the movie depicts. So macho is bad. Men being men. That's not good, except secretly it really is because that's what women really want. But even they're afraid to let it be known en masse. All right. I know this stuff, folks, but I know many of you do not like somebody sounding so certain, so sure of himself and so right, that bothers a lot of people. "Nobody is that sure of themselves." So I've said what I have to say about it.
The film starts with a quote by Durant: "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within." Certainly applies to our times.
There are people who are offended by what they think his personal beliefs are, and choose to display their dislike by attacking his work
---With each of his movies, Mel has tried to teach true history, as it comes from his heart. Some don't want to see the truth, just condemn the source.---
And with each new law liberals have tried to help people, as it came from their hearts...
I would agree that the glorification of human sacrifice is not particularly healthy. However, I saw the movie, and I did not get the impression that human sacrifice was glorified. The depiction of it was far from glorification. It would be like stating that the depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus was "glorifying crucifixions."
If not, how can you say that it is 'violent' ?
Real insanity is the inability to separate truth from fiction.
Otherwise we should just ban cartoons since they have the most violence of all, and kids watch them to boot !
BUMP
Liberals have hearts?
We're talking make-believe here... :^)
Nutcase or not, Mel isn't remaking old, bad movies. Hollywood is in a funk. They have had very few original ideas in the last 5 years.
Just the fact that a movie that doesn't fit the current formula is successful, is a good thing.
The mean mother-in-law of Jaquar Paw's brother was too old to bring a buyer...so they just let her go free to walk among the Mayans.
She walked along and touched her son-in-law in sadness...as Mary did with Jesus.
Now if Mel Gibson were truly into gratuitous violence, she would have been dispatched instead of let go.
Who needs to state the obvious?! Hello! What's so hard to understand about that?
As best as I can see, no one is doing any psychoanalysis on the makers of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre".
The 'other guys' are usually very upfront as to their motives. What's interesting here with Mel is that his dark side is becoming more and more exposed.
---She walked along and touched her son-in-law in sadness...as Mary did with Jesus.---
Maybe church groups should be organizing to go see this thing then?
LOL!
It's simply a miniature of the larger population who haunt FR threads, howling about a life they have no intention of living.
I won't spoil it for you, but I will alert you to one part of the movie to compare to another part. In the sacrificial scene the high priest is making the usual speech about how important their nation is etc. Keep that in mind when you get near the end of the movie when Jaguar Paw and two of his pursuers are on the beach. Personally, I thought it was a magnificent point of teaching.
Now, does that statement really make any sense whatsoever? Answer: No, unless you think Freepers can't discuss homosexuality, pedophilia, Marxism, socialism, serial killing, soldering, etc., etc, unless we are, or have, intentions of living those lives.
This is a part of the movie that could be discussed at length from different perspectives. The MIL was worthless at auction. Yet, just a short time before, she was part of a community and had a status, IOW a worth, in that community. She had a daughter and a SIL. She didn't appreciate her SIL and berated him because he hadn't yet produced a grandchild. And now, as he was going to his death, she touched him and in that moment, regretted that she did not appreciate what she had before. It was an apology.
I thought that film was awful, for many reasons. I found it to be profoundly anti-semitic, and filled with untruths.
Now I have the facts about Mel's anti-semitism, right from his own mouth. So he can stick his new film where the sun don't shine, as far as I am concerned. :)
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