Posted on 12/29/2005 6:11:43 AM PST by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I will probably see "Brokeback" sometime in the future, if I can take it out for free from my library. Just to see what all the fuss is about.
Well said, comrade!
It's probably the single most deceptive movie ad campaign in history.
Yep. This probably makes over a hundred threads now-or at least, seems like it. I had the audacity to say on one of the many a while back, "Um, how many threads on this movie have we had now? About 96?" Somebody responded whith: "96 threads on this subject is a paltry sum." Yep. If this abortion of a 'movie' had simply been ignored....but, of course, the people behind it already knew this backlash would happen, and therefore, knew all the free publicity it would get-including the adoring praise from 'critics' like Ebert & Roeper, as well as the MSM.
It's probably the single most deceptive movie ad campaign in history.
this is just a rehash of an article from weekend before last.
hype....AP hoping for a queer blockbuster....not gonna happen
Good...let locals make their own culture.
Naw, everyone knows
it's about gays. Remember
Julia Roberts
did a weird film called
"The Mexican" with Brad Pitt?
They kind of billed it
as romance, but then
film goers found out it was
"romance" between guys . . .
That was deceptive
advertising for a film.
Happens a lot, though.
Of the current films,
it occurs to me King Kong
is MOST deceptive.
The original
was fun and entertaining.
This new remake is
relentlessly dark,
manipulative and just
depressing all through.
These days, the best bet
is to skip theaters and
watch home DVDs.
Studios are like
guys after girls -- they will say
anything to get
us where they want us.
Once we buy the ticket then
they don't care if we
think they lied to us.
But when is advertising
ever built on "truth?"
Yeah, I saw the Mexican on home video. And I have NO desire to see Kong-it's still another unecessary remake. I have to admit Speilberg's (I usually don't care for his movies) remake of War Of The Worlds was fairly good. It stuck closer to the original story than the 50's version, but had some flaws. Worst part was putting it in modern times, IMO.
Coming this summer,
Eisner's ("Sahara") "Creature
From The Black Lagoon."
----------------------------------------------------------------
Breck Eisner Goes from "Sahara" to "Black Lagoon"
Scott Weinberg writes: "Breck Eisner made his debut with last April's "Sahara" for Paramount, and he'll soon be helming Universal's remake of "The Creature from the Black Lagoon." Gary Ross ("Pleasantville") will produce and contribute the first draft of the screenplay.
Breck Eisner is, of course, son of former Disney head Michael Eisner, but there's a lesser-known (and more interesting) trivia tidbit regarding this project. The original "Creature" was directed by Jack Arnold and written by Arthur A. Ross ... who is the father of Gary Ross. (How often does a son get to pen a remake of his own father's screenplay?)
From Variety: ""As a kid, I remember loving Jack Arnold's original version of this film," Eisner said. "What I really want to do is update an iconic image from the '50s and bring in more of the sci-fi sensibility of 'Alien' or John Carpenter's 'The Thing.' "
(The) original introduced Gill Man, who terrorized archaeologists exploring in the Amazon. Plans for the update call for shooting in the U.S. as well as a Central or South American location.""
Still not fair. KK and Narnia are open in more theaters which will dilute per screen earnings. If Narnia and KK were only open on the same number of screens as BB, then a comparision could be made. But the fact of the matter is more people (alot more) are going to see KK and Narnia than BB, but hell, let's not let the facts get in the way.
I don't think they really believe that. They just know that saying someone is afraid is a much better way to push people's buttons than saying they are repulsed.
I told a friend the other night I wasn't going to see Brokeback Mountain, and he said "what are you so afraid of?". I promptly informed him that I had outgrown proving I'm not afraid when I was in junior high school and that that argument wouldn't work on me.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
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