Posted on 12/17/2005 11:10:22 AM PST by dangus
A gross of $11,000 per screen is quite good. If you're an autumn Wide Release, opening on 3500 screens across the country. When a movie opens on only 69 of the nation's largest theaters in a few dozen of the largest cities, with almost all of your target audience within range of those theaters, it's pretty bad.
Brokeback Mountain played in fourteen times more theaters this Friday than last Friday, and made less than four times as much money, only $760,000. It looks like the movie will make considerably less than its $15 million budget before the Academy Awards come out. How many tens of millions of dollars in free promotion, reduced pay and credibility were spent on this film?
King Kong also appears to be a flop. I've seen this movie: Peter Jackson has mastered many movie-making techniques with the Lord of the Rings, and the movie is an amazing spectacle with much positive and true to say about human nature. But Jackson did not learn how to discipline his budgeting or story-telling. His movie is also bloated, over-long, too violent, very horrific and a bit tooo preposterous.
The early part of the movie centers around a movie director too obsessed with his story, prone to overkill, and swindling a movie company out of far more than they would have been willing to spend. Given that actor Jack Black even slightly resembles Peter Jackson, I can't help but to wonder if how consciously auto-biographical the film is. It will make many, many, many times more than Brokeback Mountain, and still become known as a flop. I sincerely hope Peter Jackson learns the right things from the experience; he is very talented, very passionate, and, from the messages of his movies, very decent. King Kong made $14 million last night... It will probably easily pass $100 million, but land short of its $200 million budget. On the other hand, it is precisely the sort of movie that translates well overseas, and does well on DVD. But it will not be the Box Office savior hoped for.
Chronicles of Narnia will apparently need a rebound in the Christmas vacations to be profitable. Except for a literally rushed ending, it's almost perfect, a purely magical delight. But it seems to have very weak legs; it's not surprising since everyone who wanted to see this movie knew they did so a long time ago, and most rushed out to see it immediately. Today's movie markets don't allow for the sort of excellent word of mouth that Narnia is getting.
That word of mouth means probably good DVD sales, and strong anticipation of a sequel, so Narnia's Box Office is by no means a failure... just it'll take some time to become profitable. Narnia sold about $9 million worth of tickets, down over 60% from last Friday.
But there doesn't seem to be any great challenger to Narnia for the Holiday season. The Family Stone opened weak ($4 million), Harry Potter is mostly played out ($1.5 million), as are Walk the Line ($1 million) and Yours Mine and Ours (under $1 million) Syriana also fell hard, too... ($1.6 million).
Don't look for any saviors at the box office next week either... Cheaper by the Dozen 2, Fun with Dick and Jane, The Ringer, and Rumor Has It all open, but none look too strong
Who is Hutton Gibson? (too laazy to google)
Speilberg's "Munich" is the movie I am saving my pennies to see. It will be released on December 23rd.
"Ah wish I could quit youuuu!" LOL!
You've seen it?
Pride and Prejudice was well done, BTW, but definitely a chick-flick.
You mean "Bareback Mountain?" ;)
Sorry...I plan on missing A$$pack Mountain...
no....Buttpoke mountain....nooo....Humpback mountain....I fergit....Fudgepack mountain...nope...Brokebutt mountain...dang it...
OK, how about "High Plains Poofster"?
You mean, no Homo on the Range?
"A gross of $11,000 per screen is quite good."
Yes, but imagine having to clean all those theater seats...
No point in calling them something they aint.
I believe he did not trash Israel enough for liberal tastes.
Well if you like PC movies then you will like this one. Spielberg said himself (WARNING HERE IS THE BARF ALERT):
http://www.itn.co.uk/news/678027.html
Spielberg said he was very proud of the fact that the film did not demonise either the Israeli or Palestinian side.
"When we face terror we have to respond to it. But how do we ensure we didn't become what we are going after and that is sort of the key in our story," he said.
"One of the things highlighted here is that these people did not lose their humanity. That was very important for me.
"If anything, for me that is heroic, not a criticism. It is a reminder that if we have to respond in certain ways, and it is pretty clear that you have to respond.
"What is most important is that we never lose our perspective or out humanity."
no....Buttpoke mountain....nooo....Humpback mountain....I fergit....Fudgepack mountain...nope...Brokebutt mountain...dang it...
brown eye for the back door guy,,,,lmao
It was too easy. I don't think the producers realized just they stepped into naming this movie.
Ah, being a Christian doesn't exclude you from liking Harry Potter. You have to let your imagination run wild sometimes.
I've enjoyed the Harry Potter flicks but not been a big fan until the most recent one, which I thought was great.
Looking forward to Narnia, I must say.
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