Posted on 10/30/2007 8:40:06 AM PDT by Pyro7480
Bella to Anti-War Movies: Show Me the Money!
The independent pro-life film trounced Hollywood's anti-war movies in per-theater revenues, in spite of hostile mainstream media reviews.
You won’t see this fun movie fact in any mainstream media outlets, but the little pro-life movie Bella, which just opened, beat the socks off of several anti-war/anti-American movies in opening weekend per-theater revenues.
This despite the fact that Bella was panned by critics in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Variety and other mainstream outlets.(For an interesting article on how movie critics inject their politics into reviews, click here.)
Here’s the breakdown. Bella opened with a limited release, meaning it was only shown in 165 theaters, according to the Web site Boxofficemojo.com. It grossed $1,324,000 or roughly $8,024 per theater.
Compare this to the recent opening weekends for three anti-war movies: Valley of Elah, Rendition, and The Kingdom. Valley of Elah opened in 762 theaters and grossed $1,512310 or $1,984 per theatre. Rendition opened in 2,250 theaters, and grossed $4,060,012 or $1,804 per theatre. The über violent The Kingdom opened in 2,793 theatres and grossed $17,135,055 or $6,135 per theater....
Hollywood pays attention to box office numbers. Given that this little independent, pro-life movie did better than many major players, will it get an “expansion” too?
Tune in next week to find out.
(Excerpt) Read more at cultureandmediainstitute.org ...
Ideology is more important to producers and directors. They say it’s about money, but it’s not.
I don’t know the stat, but it’s long been exposed that a highly disproportionate number of R rated films are produced which consistently fail to break even. They’re made solely because sicko directors want their “vision” of whatever filth is foisted upon us.
IIRC, strict wartime censorship rules were imposed on the media up until the Korean War era, and we were actually a much freer country back then than we are today. If we are really serious about winning this war, we need to start worrying less about the "rights" of those who want to see America defeated, and more about defeating the enemy on every front, including (and especially) the propaganda front.
Not just entry-level youngsters either. Think “Desperate Housewives.”
I forget who wrote the article estimating the incomes of the characters in question then estimating the cost of the houses they were living in. Think Alfre Woodard’s piano teacher.
That impression of America long pre-dates the movies. There's a joke from about 1900 about an immigrant just stepping off the boat. As he walks away from the docks he sees a $20 gold piece lying on the ground. He starts to pick it up, then stops. "My first day in America. Why should I work?"
Why are you hijacking this thread?
If you’re using ‘Elah’ as an example of ‘defeatist propaganda’ than you can use just about anything that’s not ‘uplifting’. Ever see ‘They Were Expendable’ (1945)? The Steel Helmet (1951)? There were plenty of melancholy, ambiguous war films back then as well.
Oh yes. Quite fascist.
Actually you aren’t to far off, Cruise has a new anti-american movie coming out this week or next; with Redford. Apparently he thinks he can get back in Hollywood’s good graces by being liberal.
I was responding directly to another comment.
“Hyperbolize much? Most classic works of literature would be ‘R’ rated if faithfully adapted.”
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Not necessarily, there’s been some recent criticism in recent years of sexual references and nudity being injected into Jane Austen or Henry James film adaptations.
Now as for the much-filmed “Gulliver’s Travels;” whooie! That Jonathan Swift sure loved to write about his characters poopies.
No, they're made because those directors have had success in the past and the money people at the studio want to be in business with them, gambling that they know how to make a crowd-pleasing movie. And don't think that box office receipts are the whole thing here. They're an easy stat to find, but a movie makes money lots of different ways (DVD, PPV, the web now), and no one except the studios knows how much comes in through those channels. The impending writers strike hinges on those revenue streams, with the studios basically refusing to admit how much they make off them, much less share them.
Even with the end?
“Actually you aren’t to far off, Cruise has a new anti-american movie coming out this week or next; with Redford. Apparently he thinks he can get back in Hollywood’s good graces by being liberal.”
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His performance in 1989’s “Born on the Fourth of July” would have to take the cake in that regard. I read the book and I don’t know how Oliver Stone’s friendship with author Ron Kovic survived the way Stone degraded and humiliated the character far beyond the actual story.
An excellent showing in limited distribution will make it much more likely that theater owners will snap it up for wide distribution
That wasn't the message I took from that scene - IMO it didn't equate morality, it equated motivation - both sides believed they were right, that's the reason for talk of "the long war" - such belief lasts for generations.
It cut directly between the terrorist grampa telling his kid, “Kill ‘em all” and Jamie Foxx telling Jennifer Garner “We’re gonna kill ‘em all.” That is making a direct correlation between the two.
Munich and Kingdom have the same problem: lack of conviction. In Munich, we’re supposed to believe this Mossad badass is so shook up by hunting down the Black September dudes he has to retire to Brooklyn, and whenever he humps his wife, he sees Palis whacking Israeli Olympians.
Balderdash.
Kingdom: there is no difference between a three-fingered bombmaker and the FBI.
Nonsense.
Both Kingdom and Munich have many great scenes and performances, but they sell out at the end.
Too bad.
If you don’t understand that the intention was to show that there is no difference between us and those we are fighting, you need to take a media literacy course. The direct cut in this case, without inflection, is meant to link the two. Not just in terms of motivation, which is manifest, but also purpose.
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