'Brokeback' a Box Office Success So Far

AP in Yahoo News ^ | December 29, 2005 | Sandy Cohen

[rightwingintelligentsia]

LOS ANGELES - Who's afraid of a couple of gay cowboys? Not moviegoers, who helped "Brokeback Mountain" post the highest per-screen average over the film-flush holiday weekend.

The Ang Lee film, which follows the 20-year forbidden romance between two roughneck ranch hands, earned $13,599 per theater, compared with $9,305 for weekend winner "King Kong" and $8,225 for "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."

The big question is whether "Brokeback" can maintain its momentum as it moves from selected cities, where audiences are receptive to the subject matter, to suburbs far and wide, where that might not be the case.

Early numbers — and early awards buzz — establish the picture's staying power, industry insiders say. "Brokeback" earned a leading seven Golden Globe nominations.

"It delivered very strong growth in what is truly a highly unforgiving, competitive, cruel market at this Christmas period," said Jack Foley, president of theatrical distribution for Focus Features. "It showed it has breadth beyond the gay community."

Distributors planned to roll out the film slowly. It opened in just six theaters, where it earned an "unprecedented" $109,000 per venue, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracker Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc.

[theFIRMbss]

>I must say that this post adds cogent insight rarely seen in a thread. My understanding of the thread's subject is greatly clarified

Hey. The thread's about
gay cowboys. Why not discuss
termites in your desk?

In fact, now that I
think about it, why not have
an Anna picture!

[sono]

Early awards buzz only among self-absorbed Hollywood moviemakers. Talk about Spiro Agnew's "effete corps of impudent snobs."

[DonGrafico]

They'll get a good turn-out from the highway, rest-stop crowd.

LOL! Here in Massachusetts* we call 'em Pickle Parks*.

*the "M" is now silent
*the "r" has always been silent.

[Old Professer]

I really do have termites in my desk.

[DonGrafico]

"You show me a cowboy who rides sidesaddle and I’ll show you a gay caballero,"

-Ernie Kovacs

[johnny7]

Just one of the many ways MA legislators AIDS its citizens.

[Cuttnhorse]

Meet the Flockers...geeez, saw it at camp here in the Andes and does that movie ever stink.

[Red Badger]

Did you see Meet the Fokkers, too?..........

[Cuttnhorse]

Is the movie about a couple of poofter sheep herders or cowboys??? Being from Nevada and Idaho, we don'ts call cowboys sheepherders. In fact, now, almost 100% of sheepherders in the west speak Spanish y muy poco English.

[Steppenwolf]

I heard that at first the producers wanted to call the movie "Flaming Saddles," but the screenwriters felt that was not appropriate. They then suggested "The Rump Wranglers," but the screenwriters got angry saying this was not politically correct. The producers then suggested, "The Colon Cowboys," but this only enraged the screenwriters who threatened to break an antique lamp in the producers office. Finally, they suggested "The Butt Broncos." This last suggestion sent the screenwriters into such a screaming, hair-pulling, hissy fit that the producers gave in and they settled on "Brokeback Mountain," which, alas, to me does not seem to convey the same thematic message as the other titles.

[Cuttnhorse]

Hi Quill,

From the article, "If you want to be a well-informed viewer on Oscar night, you should probably see this movie."

There you go, you have been warned.

Cheers

[napscoordinator]

That was pretty funny, but I believe they have too much time on their hands.

[rightwingintelligentsia]

I have termites in my desk; living there, active colonies. ...

I thought for a moment that the Professer was trying to draw a metaphor between the gradual erosion of our culture through films like this and the infestation of his desk with termites, but perhaps I was mistaken

[Old Professer]

I was perfectly happy until the little beggars "outed" themselves.

[magslinger]

Or Rustler's Rhapsody:
Colonel Ticonderoga: Throw another fag on the fire.
Henchman: A what?
Colonel Ticonderoga: A log! Throw another log on the fire.

[Cuttnhorse]

No...one Flocker movie is one too many.

[B Knotts]

There is something fishy about the numbers for this film

My guess is they're fudging them.

But seriously...I really think they're fake numbers, particularly the earliest ones.

[DOGEY]

They're still $10 million in the hole

Let's clean this up.

[SauronOfMordor]

Ok, class, the question is which movie is more of a success, the one that earns $700,000 per day or the one that earns $3,150,000 per day. Anyone caught using a calculator or a cell phone to get the answer will be failed.

Big Monkey production costs: $207
Bare Back Mounting production costs: $14M

Bareback doesn't need much revenue to be profitable.

I'm wondering if we'll be seeing it in wide release. Currently it's in 217 theaters and has decent but not huge per-theater grosses

I'm also wondering how much of its reported revenue is from fraud, as in gay activists buying tickets to BBM at the multiplex, then seeing some other movie instead. Such fraud is easy to conceal on a small scale (particularly if they pick theaters where the owner/staff are pro-gay), but difficult to sustain on a large scale (if only due to the finite number of pro-gay activists willing to take part in the fraud)