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
Bad Taste was one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. Far ahead of its time.
Not that I'm that kind of guy, but some people would say that someone who comes down hard on a movie they haven't seen doesn't know what they're talking about.
I know it because that's what all the papers and movie reviewers say!
Mark
Yea they spent too much time flying over flyover country and never stopped and asked our opinion.
Naw, all they have is "attitude." Cramming this movie down our thoats and insisting this movie is beyond excellent by all the liberal reviewers is their version of a "victory" over conservatives, no matter what it costs them in lost revenues. Oscar sponsors are heavily vested in advertising within the gay venue:
Walgreens takes heat for sponsoring 2006 Gay Games in Chicago
Budweizer sponsors gay pride events
Proctor & Gamble bedroom scene ad
Ford - driven to gay advertising
They've attempted to remove the word "Christmas" and we've raised a firestorm of objection to THAT. We now have the "insertion" of gaydom into our lives. TV, cable and satellite are filled with it. It's movies, magazines, newspapers, groceries, vehicles and other items that pander for our $$, forcing us to back their support for the gay lifestyle, like it or not. Every time we buy P&G products (Tide/Downey), we contribute to it and provide them more $$ to invest in the movies and "causes dear to their little hearts."
>>Actually, I said that measure was quite good. But I also said you have to consider where those screens are and what they represent as a portion of the audience... that's where the film's weakness is revealed>>
So how much money per theater would indicate strength to you? The movie's doing very well in very limited release. To draw a conclusion that it's doing poorly is just wishful thinking on your part.
I know Lewis said the Narnia series were not an allegory; but he called them "suppositional." Still seems like allegory to me!
Wikipedia:
Lewis, an expert on the subject of allegory, himself maintained that the books were not allegory, and preferred to call the Christian aspects of them "suppositional". This is similar to what we would now call alternative history.
Sarah J. Parker is so tinny, so wound-up, so plastic, so superficial that watching her do anything for more than 20 minutes (running time of a tv show) is guaranteed to turn everyone off.
Lisa Kudrow too. Jennifer Anniston too. They all belong back on tv. In shampoo commercials.
Flamin' eyes of people fear
Burnin' into you
Many men are missin' much
Hatin' what they do
Youth and truth are makin' love
Dig it for a starter
Dyin' young is hard to take
Sellin' out is harder
I never understood the King Kong clamor PJ raised. The story never got into my blood the way it did Jackson's. And although I was never a big fan of Johnny Cash, I am thinking of seeing "Walk the Line" instead of "King Kong," because I like Reese Witherspoon's acting so much. In time, I'm sure I'll see both on DVD, if not sooner.
With George Clooney, let me guess its a rehash of Michael Moore MOONBAT CRAP, about Blood for Oil, and dark conspiracy to depose a great Leader like Saddam, and his sons Oday Qusay.
Let Block Buster go Bankrupt trying to rent it, LOL!
The family and I went to see Narnia the first weekend. We all thought it was great. I liked it better than Harry Potter, frankly
Saw it Friday afternoon - it was wonderful. But there were only a handful of us in the theater.
Secondhand Lions with Duvall was FABULOUS.
It also inspired an hilarious "Simpsons" parody.
Don't forget that!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.