Posted on 07/24/2005 10:40:27 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
A candy man and a couple of randy men handily squelched a weak attack of the clones, though overall business suffered. The year-to-year down trend returned as the top 12 pictures generated an estimated $128.9 million, down seven percent from the comparable frame last year.
Intended as a summer tent-pole, DreamWorks' The Island transplanted a meager estimated $12.1 million from 3,122 theaters. Director Michael Bay's $122 million clone thriller, co-produced by DreamWorks and Warner Bros., earned a fraction of such similar summer science fiction events as I, Robot and Minority Report and stands as a massive misfire along the lines of XXX: State of the Union or Rollerball.
"Clearly, this is a disappointing opening," said DreamWorks' head of distribution Jim Tharp. "The tracking had indicated that we were looking at this kind of opening, but it is still disappointing. I liked the movie. We can only hope the film finds an audience down the road." According the studio's exit polling, 51 percent of the audience was male and 52 percent was over the age of 25.
The Island marked Michael Bay's first movie away from mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer and his first outright financial failure. Guided by Bruckheimer's slick, crowd-pleasing aesthetic, Bay's track record was five for five with the hits Bad Boys, The Rock, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor and Bad Boys II. The Island looked like Bay's past movies superficially, replete with cacophonous pyrotechnics and choppy editing, and it carried over the Bruckheimer tradition of off-beat casting with leads Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson.
Gone from the equation were an appealing premise and savvy marketing. The Island had a genre identity crisis, crudely mixing futuristic sci-fi with present-day action in what looked like a cross between Logan's Run and The 6th Day.
(Excerpt) Read more at boxofficemojo.com ...
Rather to a better director. Michael Bay is an uberhack.
OHH HE SUCKS
Hey guys did you guys read Roger Friedman this weekend he report that War of the world offically flop HA HA maybe talking about scienltogy might not be good idea for your career TOM LOL!
Or maybe he shouldn't have the director saying the Martians represents the US and the humans are the Iraqis.
I don't call that five for five.
PEARL HARBOR. Where Hollywood could take TWO movies that were classics (Tora Tora Tora & 30 Seconds Over Tokyo) and make one long bad movie..
If THE ISLAND was his and the failure they are calling it, he deserves it for making Pearl Harbor..
WOTW has made over 200 million in the U.S. It's not remotely a flop.
Actually 3 of 5 - Bad Boys II flopped too, didn't it?
Hollywood is so over, wonder when they're going to figure it out?
It made back its cost...barely.
Friedman's column is sort of foolish. "If not for the international market. . . ." When the international market contributes $300M to your picture, I don't think there's any scenario where it makes sense to cut those numbers out. Also, WOTW was is nearly a month old and has just now dropped from the top five. I'd like a flop like that.
For the record, I'm not a fan of Spielberg's, though I know you are, but I did like WOTW.
This whole 'slump' thing is a bogus non-story. Not counting a non Hollywood film pushing up last year's grosses (Passion) this year is actually up from last year. IT's shapipng up to be one of the highest grossing years in Hollywood history.
If it hangs around a bit longer and pases 'Ryan' it becomes his highest grosser since Jurassic Park. Flop? Nope. I don't like everything he cranks out but loved WOTW. As you well know. :-)
Yeah compare to how much it was made for it is techically a flop
I don't go to many movies in a given year, but I've been to the theater six times since May to see five unique movies. And, there are a couple more I might be persuaded to see in the short term.
It was budgeted at around 125-135 range. According to every source I checked. The 200 + domestic doesn't even count overseas where its done very well. If you categorize this is as a flop then just about every movie is.
I think there needs to be a national campaign to target Hollywood studios for boycotting until at least one is forced to file Chapter 11 (that means boycotting all revenue sources, including rentals). The "big people" in Hollywood need to be forced to understand that the "little people" have had it with them. For decades they have declared war on our culture, our values, and our way of life and perhaps it's time the battle was taken to them.
With a WinTV capture card, Sage TV, and a cable mouse that your PC can control (USB-UIRT), you can record movies from cable and burn to DVD at will (with a DVD burner of your choice). Movie tickets and rentals carry little-to-zero value with such a setup.
This is not just a bad summer. This is a trend. People just arene't going out to the movies as much.
WOTW's success is very encouraging to me. A big budget summer movie that's so serious...no wisecracks or incoherent MTV cutting. It's almost classical. It would have been even better with someon other then Cruise but then it wouldn't have been financed.
I didn't mind him, and I usually do. I mainly went because I love the book, and it seemed a pretty reasonable translation to me. I'm just sorry that the Pendragon version turned out to be a wretched nightmare.
Anyway, I'm pretty much planning to see WOTW a second time before it leaves the theaters. And then, the DVD.
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