Unhappy Endings:Big Studios Find Quality Films Too Often Are a Losing Proposition (Hollywood FAILS!)

The Washington Post ^ | May 7, 2003 | Sharon Waxman

[Timesink]

Unhappy Endings
Big Studios Find Quality Films Too Often Are a Losing Proposition

By Sharon Waxman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 7, 2003; Page C01

LOS ANGELES

When Amy Pascal, chairman of Columbia Pictures, gave director Spike Jonze a green light two years ago to make his offbeat film "Adaptation," she also gave him a warning: Don't go over budget, she said, or she'd have to get involved in the production.

Jonze didn't exceed the $20 million budget, and the studio didn't tinker with his vision. But "Adaptation" still ended up costing a small fortune, because Sony (Columbia's parent company) spent another $20 million to market the film. Despite Oscar nominations for screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and stars Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper (who won), the film brought in just $22 million at the U.S. box office.

"I wish it had done better," laments Pascal. "It deserved to find a better audience."

But "Adaptation" is not the only prestigious, critic-pleasing picture from a major Hollywood studio to run into trouble at the box office of late.

[L.N. Smithee]

I liked The Salton Sea.

It appears that a lot of the few who did see it liked it a lot. It has a average viewer rating of 7.2 on IMDB.

[okiesap]

Goodfellas, Casino, Raging Bull, King of Comedy, Taxi Driver......Scorsese movies can't be beat but I'm waiting for the DVD. The movie theatre experience is like a trip to Wal-Mart...Hellish! And no discounts! With DVDs (plus the goodies) about the same price as two tickets to the first run cinema, why would someone with a big HDTV screen ever leave the house?

[justshutupandtakeit]

I rarely go to the movies but GoNY and LotR are two that are best seen on the big screen.

Would you believe I have never seen Mean Streets?

[McGavin999]

How can Hollywood make or market films to a country they don't even know? I used to go to the movies on a regular basis, but now the movies are so far removed from anything I know or love that it's a waste of time and money.

Entertainers aren't entertaining anymore, they're a bunch of shrews lecturing us about how to live our lives, they portray people who's values are totally foreign to us, they pretend to be a people they don't understand. It's just not cutting it anymore.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding was a hit because Americans related to it, understood it, and found it refreshing. It cost a paltry amount, marketing was word of mouth, and I could watch it a dozen times and still laugh.

Studios better wise up.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Maybe it's explained in the article, which I didn't finish reading but, exactly how is the author equating "critic-pleasing" with "quality" films?

Most films I see, which have rave reviews from "The Critics", suck.

Big time.

[CyberCowboy777]

The wife hated it...

Of course she hated "Lock Stock and two Smoking Barrels" as well! She must be crazy!

[lurky]

Samo samo. This aint newz.

[lurky]

Add to that fact that America is pissed at Hollywood right now,

Yeah, if by Hollywood you mean Sarandon and Robbins and Penn. If people aren't going to movies because their pissed off at Hollywood (what about that pro-Iraq war list of actors that I saw), well, that's pretty dumb. There's plenty of good entertainment out there where consumer politics doesn't even factor. Even good movies.

[js1138]

I suspect that film acting and stage acting are as different as swimming and SCUBA diving.

You are correct, but competent actors do both. Most well known Hollywood actors do some stage work to sharpen their skills, and nearly all British actors perform on stage.

The problem I see in Hollywood is not in production or acting; it is in the scripts. Most are pathetic. Even blockbuster movies with expensive special effects are painful to watch a second time. Science fiction is the worst offender.

the other category of bad script is the one in which all the characters are rotten, the situation is rotten, the aftertaste is rotten. Who wants to pay money to spend an hour and a half with people you would edge away from in the subway?

[lurky]

They really do not have a clue, do they?

Did you see Adaptation?

[lurky]

not the emotional struggles of drag queens.

Ah right, the hallmark of the beast. Talk about taking one example to represent the whole in the extreme.

[N. Theknow]

Gee! A Clooney movie bombed?

He will probably now do a remake of Waterworld to see if he can tie Kevin Costner for the Most Bombs Lifetime Achievement Oscar.

[Timesink]

Gee! A Clooney movie bombed?

That was QUITE an achievement actually. The original "Solaris" was world-reknowned as one of the single most tedious, interminable motion pictures of all time. And Grand Master Clooney managed to crank out a remake that was WORSE.

[discostu]

The summer movie season just started (well technically not yet but with the pre-Memorial Day release of X2 functionally it has) and there are already 3 hundred million dollar grossers this year (Chicago, Bringing Down the House, and Anger Management). Hollywood isn't bombing like crazy, but they do seem to be losing their touch in figuring out which movies will succeed.

[lurky]

I used to go to the movies on a regular basis,

Before MBFGW, what was the last movie you loved? The last one you hated? Just curious.

[Centurion2000]

Maybe if they made more quality, pro-American films, people would open their wallets

BINGO .... there's a director and production team out there that is going to figure this out and make BILLIONS.

[miss marmelstein]

No one wants to see Nicole Kidman in a fake nose that throws The Wicked Witch of the West in shadow. Ridiculous!

[Richard Kimball]

why would someone with a big HDTV screen ever leave the house?

Move out of your parents basement! Have you ever kissed a girl?

[NathanR]

why would someone with a big HDTV screen ever leave the house?

Move out of your parents basement! Have you ever kissed a girl?

LOL. Seriously however, okiesap has a point. A friend of mine was recently talking about movies, and said that she no longer goes to movies (they cost too much), unless they absolutely must be seen on the large screen. Otherwise, she just waits for the DVD and watches it at home with her husband.

To her, no special effects; watch the movie at home later.

[valkyrieanne]

Solaris's marketing was completely brain-dead. Apparently the film was marketed to middle-aged women who wanted a glimpse of George Clooney's unclothed rear end. They paid to see the rear end, but got a science fiction story instead - and didn't like it one bit. If Solaris had been marketed to the sci-fi crowd (the same people who saw A.I. and Minority Report), they probably would have broken even at least.