Posted on 08/19/2013 11:08:40 AM PDT by servo1969
Love her or hate her, co-star Oprah Winfrey and her big media blitz helped open the pic even if it did little to help her public image by providing more dirt for her detractors. Yet a survey by Fandango found that 72% of Butler ticket-buyers claimed Oprah’s involvement increased their interest in seeing the film which was her first movie role in 15 years. But The Butler still trailed the opening weekend grosses of two recent and similarly race- and civil rights-themed adult pics: 42 and The Help. No one, and certainly not The Weinstein Company, expected director Lee Daniels’ or screenwriter Danny Strong’s biopic (playing in 2,933 theaters) to double its $15M weekend projection much less land on top of the weekend box office. But on Thursday morning it already was the #1 ticket-seller on both Fandango and MovieTickets – a welcome event for such a modest $25M negative cost film. Its 73% Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews and ’A’ CinemaScore from audiences surely helped word of mouth as much as Oprah. (Note that in 1998. at the height of her syndicated power when she could sell anything to anyone, Oprah starred in and produced the film flop Beloved. Now she’s on her struggling cable network. But I’m assured she had no financial investment in the film nor contributed into the P&A nor bought up advance tickets in bulk like the rumors claimed.)
(Excerpt) Read more at deadline.com ...
No scripted drama is passed off as fact.
IMHO even if they spent 20 bucks on it... it is a failure... at least in truth.
LLS
Truth shmuth, it’s a movie. There to make money entertaining people.
Recently saw “REDS 2” and I highly recommend it to fans of the first movie REDS.
Any other good movies out there?
I wouldn’t go to see Orca’s movie even if it was shown for free.
It’s a movie that is filled with left wing propaganda and that came from couple that I know and trust. They both said it was filled with History that was not true. It sets out to bolster those that want to claim Victim-hood... to be used solely as a political tool.
Maybe it is just a movie... but we can certainly disagree about that.
Because it’s a movie. People looking for truth in a movie are already doomed. And the folks that like to be victims will still be victims long after this movie is forgotten, which should happen early next year.
I disagree... as is my right. I am open to the possibility of what you say... but I also know how oprah and hollyweird operate.
LLS
I disagree... as is my right. I am open to the possibility of what you say... but I also know how oprah and hollyweird operate.
LLS
I know how pop culture operates, it’s always putting more stuff out there pushing old stuff out of the brains. When was the last time you heard somebody reference The Help? That movie is just 2 years old, with a lot of the same “message” and faulty history. 3 more major releases are coming out next week, 3 more the week after that, by mid-september this movie will be in the cheaps, then the DVD comes out right between Thanksgiving and Christmas, unlikely it will even be up for any major awards (award bate almost never gets released in August), by mid January it’ll be in the past. Just like the other movies released Friday.
Liberals I know still talk about The Help. You discount the power of entertainment. Low info voters will see this movie and take it’s “history” as fact. The comments on Twitter prove exactly that.
Liberals I know still talk about The Help. You discount the power of entertainment. Low info voters will see this movie and take it’s “history” as fact. The comments on Twitter prove exactly that.
I don’t know anybody that mentioned it more than 6 months after it came out. Yes the idiots will take it as historical fact, but they were idiots already, they weren’t going to be any smarter if this movie hadn’t come out.
Unless your name is ‘Ofal’
Dramas based on historical events have never been accurate. Ever. Shakespeare’s history plays certainly weren’t. ‘War and Peace’ certainly wasn’t. It’s fruitless to treat them as documentary accounts.
LLS
The definition of a lie is a falsehood passed off as true. Dramas do not claim to be ‘true’. ‘Based on a true story’ is not a claim of truth. ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ was another example of a ‘true story’ that was mostly fiction (as was T.E. Lawrence’s ‘memoir’ that it was based on).
When they are directed towards the low information voter, they are taken as the truth.
LLS
That’s a separate issue. People need to educate themselves and understand the nature of drama. BTW the Butler in this story was apparently a lifelong Republican. I wonder if that gets mentioned. :)
I never disputed that some of these docs are false and have been for years. They have been used to destroy people and the republican party and are used as a tool of electioneering by the left. You are missing the point that they must be attacked and the truth must be pointed out for to not do so is to allow for them to be passed off as the truth. Bush tried ignoring this type of thing with his “new tone”... didn’t work well did it?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.