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
Really? I thought Affliction broke even with a little to spare...oh well, still a good movie.
I've been in the indie film biz for five years. Rule of thumb is that the film must do 250% of production and P&A in BO in order to break even. That translates to $53 million in this case. This film will not come close to one third of that. Foreign and rentals will not ride to the rescue.
Go see Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
Have any numbers on Nobody's Fool and Light Sleeper?
My attitude is: gay cowboys? Fine, but not for me. I don't think anyone's updated the western for modern times since Hud (Horseman Pass by). But maybe they'll start making small movies again that are about actual people and not CGI.
Shane Black? No thanks.
Though he was funny in Burn Hollywood, Burn.
Light Sleeper - cost (w/o p&a) was $5 million. It did $1 million domestic BO. (I thought it sucked...if you like Schrader see Blue Collar).
Ah, yes. And of course........Hollywood thought they pulled the wool over our eyes by ramming yet another thinly-veiled gayfest down the collective US throat.
I think the producers will be standing sheepishly before the studio heads to answer for themselves.
Big Paul Shrader fan (with the stubborn exception of Taxi Driver). Did you know he didn't see a movie until he was a teenager because his parents were religious?
Walk the Line was incredible!
Go see Walk the Line. Phoenix is amazing.
Yep, a Calvinist IIRC. Hardcore came out of that.
He's best when not dealing with extreme subjects or dealing with the banality of them. Light Sleeper is a much better movie than Auto Focus.
But he's still uner appreciated.
Want to see a great performance by Bruce Willis, check out In Country.
Best news I have heard today. I hope that gay cowboy movie disappears from the theaters very soon. They better not hope for DVD sales to help them, either. Most Americans are sick of Hollywood pushing this "lifestyle" on us.
Yeah Butt..."two thumbs up" where?
"Brokeback Mountain "
It looks like this sodomitic epic has lived up to its name.
Hollyweird - Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin
I heard second hand , but I dont know fer shore, this is a sample of the script...
"Howdy pardner...I lost mah job at the fudge plant, which is a shame considerin all ah learned, and now ahm herdin sheep like ewe. Les ewe an me round up some sheep an head on over to Cowpoke Mountain. Me an ewe, bein cowpokes an all, should KNOW our way around, in the biblical sense of course.
When the moon rises, we kin sang some cowpoke songs, and serenade the ewes. After which time, we kin head over to Hog Waller and bond with each other. If ewe dont squeal on me, I wont squeal on ewe..."
Lindsay Graham is heartbroken.
Agree 100% about Walk the Line.
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