Posted on 05/08/2005 2:48:52 PM PDT by Hawk44
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The lucrative summer movie season suffered its worst start in years Sunday, as the costly Crusades epic "Kingdom of Heaven" crawled into the No. 1 slot at the North American weekend box office with meager ticket sales of just $20 million.
The film, which cost nearly $150 million to produce, stars Orlando Bloom -- "Hollywood's No. 1 pretty boy," according to Rolling Stone magazine -- as a humble French blacksmith who takes on the Arabs during the 12th century.
It was directed by British filmmaker Sir Ridley Scott, who had better luck with such films as "Gladiator" and "Hannibal," and released by 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp.
Industry hopes that "Kingdom" would pull the business out of a lengthy slump were dashed: the box office has now endured 11 "down" weekends when compared with the year-ago periods. According to tracking firm Exhibitor Relations, this ties the longest losing streak, which ran from July to October in 2000.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.netscape.cnn.com ...
GOOD!!!
Maybe they shgould market their pro-Islamic version of the Crusades in Mecca or Medina. Itr might sell better there.
Make some conservative films and I might go see 'em.
"The film, which cost nearly $150 million to produce"
""Twenty (million) is very, very good," said Bruce Snyder, Fox's president of domestic theatrical distribution."
--> You still got 130million to go to break even buddy! Do the math.
Earlier post - same article, different title:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1399142/posts
I'm waiting for a version of "Bambi" from the perspective of the hunter who shot his mother. Did he turn her into venison stew, roast venison, or what?
In any event, he's a cinematic hero who has long gone unrecognised. Furthermore, they ought to take some artistic liberties and have him turn Thumper into rabbit stew as well.
Regards, Ivan
One day, Hollywood will get the message that PRO AMERICAN and PRO CHRISTIAN films sell...
Keep raising up the bad and raunchy instead of the good and this will continue to happen IMO.
Even with Star Wars, I don't think it will do as well as they would hope for.
I do think the remake of War of the Worlds and the Fantastic Four might do real well.
People don't want to see liberal Hollywood's PC distorted version of history, they want to see the truth. The crusades were a huge success in that they halted the invasion of Europe by the barbaric Islamic armies. Europe stood together and said NO to tyranny. The prosperity of freedom in Europe and the United States can be directly attributed to the sacrifices of the crusaders.
I believe the split with the theaters is 50% so the production company still has $140 million to go, but there are a lot of soft costs that are padding that number.
They say you know business is bad when even those who aren't paying won't come in the store...
yes, and last year would have been down too if Passion of The Christ were not released.
Funny, they refused to honor the best selling movie in a long time, yet they dont tell that last year they would have had a decline in ticket grosses...
Further more, ticket sales have declined annually since the 40s, and price increases have made up the differences in "total grosses"
It may have more to do with people spending twice the amount for gas that they have previously. An extra 20-50 bucks a week used to buy that extra grocery or theatre trip.
May it continue. Hollywood is dead. Long live CommieWeird!
They have to do a lot better than that if that is the cost to simply put it on celluloid. Advertising budgets often double the costs. Think 300 million before red ink turns to black. Granted worldwide takes and all the anciliary income from videos, cable sales, etc. usually allow films to at least break even eventually.
Thanks for the quicki edumacation :) Now i'm smarter than your average hollyweirder :)
i stopped going to movies and stopped watching tv in 1994 when i saw how the media and hollywood protected the clingons.
why pay money to people that are out to destroy you and your country?
Hollywood, put some ice on it.
YEah sure. I can see it now...
War of the Worlds: A peaceful alien offers the entire world a utopia of peace, sex, drugs, and Kumbayah before the Evil Oil Cartel, Big Business, and Military Industrial Complex assassinate him.
The Fantastic Four: Four Superhomos fight Gay bashers and the Christian Taliban. Features a cameo by Pope Benedict 16.
Wake me up when Commieweird dies a horrific, painful death and Hollywood returns from the grave triumphantly and returns American values and conservatism to the media.
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