Posted on 04/18/2011 6:46:58 AM PDT by raccoonradio
THANK YOU. After an incredible opening weekend, it would appear it's time to expand. In only 300 theaters, Atlas Shrugged made 1.67 million dollars averaging $5,590 - 3rd only to Rio and Scream 4 in averages. Atlas Shrugged Movie = Free Market Working. Spread the word. This is our moment. Here we come.
‘Thou shall have no other gods before me.
Thou shall not make any graven image or likeness of anything that is in heaven above,or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth. Thou shall not bow down to them.
Thou shall not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain
Honor thy father and mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God gives thee.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy
Do not kill (murder),
Do not steal,
Do not lie.
Do not covet, .... anything that is they neighbors,
Do not bear false witness against his neighbor,
Do not commit adultery,
These are good commands and makes for a civilized, honest, good society and life. For good not for evil.
Well, the theater can probably afford to show that movie cheaper than the others. The won't have to pay for security to deal with fist fights or people sneaking in, and they won't need a pressure washer and a bobcat to clean up afterward.
If it's that easy, why don't you write a book. Cover the same themes, make it entertaining, and simplify it enough so the masses can enjoy it too...
Bwahahahahaha...that’s a riot...er...in this case the lack of one!
You might be right! The theatre was very clean, no popcorn and sticky stuff on the floor. And a very polite audience, no screen talkers or crying babies....a very pleasant experience!
If it’s that easy, why don’t you write a book. Cover the same themes, make it entertaining, and simplify it enough so the masses can enjoy it too...
In the same class of statement as “if we can put a man on the moon, why can’t we...” Pretty much pointless.
I’ve said in the past that the points she makes in the book are almost prophetic. Certainly her insight is pretty deep. But the fact is her writing style hard to read. It just is what it is.
Recently I downloaded some short stories in epub format from a site that has areas for new and little know authors. I didn’t really look at the author’s names, but just read the some that had descriptions that looked interesting. After I finished one, I thought “that was a great read.” It was so well written that I forget I was even reading. Turned out it was an old short story by Frank Herbert (author of Dune).
I’ve read Dune several times, just for the fun of reading. It deals with complex ideas, yet (imho) it doesn’t bog down and is an entertaining read.
Atlas Shrugged (imho) is a hard read. I’m not critisizing the ideas found in the book, but the writing itself is hard to handle. That’s just (again imho) just the way it is.
An article in the LA Times stated the movie will be screened in 1000 theatres this coming weekend.
Judging by the theatre list on the website, it's looking better day by day.
I saw it first showing (admittedly bargain matinee, $6) and loved it. Would have paid full price. Will buy DVD.
LMAO. If a per-screen average of under $10,000 for a 300-screen release is bad, then by your definition, the film “RIO” must a dismal failure: 3,826 screens and a PSA of only $3,248.
Check the numbers for yourself:
http://www.the-numbers.com/charts/today.php
“Atlas Shrugged’s” PSA ($1,428) is 44% of “RIO’s” and it’s number of screens is only about 10% of “RIO’s”.
That tells me that had AS been shown on 3,800 screens this weekend, it would have easily been #1.
thot you might find this interesting...
Piper on Rand:
http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/articles/the-ethics-of-ayn-rand
Ayn Rand was a psychologically stunted human being (Aspberger’s is my guess) who had a schoolgirl crush on a psychopathic killer and kidnapper and exalted him as her ideal man:
In her journal circa 1928 Rand quoted the statement, “What is good for me is right,” a credo attributed to a prominent figure of the day, William Edward Hickman. Her response was enthusiastic. “The best and strongest expression of a real man’s psychology I have heard,” she exulted.
At the time, she was planning a novel that was to be titled The Little Street, the projected hero of which was named Danny Renahan. According to Rand scholar Chris Matthew Sciabarra, she deliberately modeled Renahan - intended to be her first sketch of her ideal man - after this same William Edward Hickman. Renahan, she enthuses in another journal entry, “is born with a wonderful, free, light consciousness — [resulting from] the absolute lack of social instinct or herd feeling. He does not understand, because he has no organ for understanding, the necessity, meaning, or importance of other people ... Other people do not exist for him and he does not understand why they should.” (Journals, pp. 27, 21-22; emphasis hers.
Now go look at an online copy of the DSM-IV and read the definition of “Sociopath” It matches that second paragraph very closely.
There’s a reason for that: This William Hickman Ayn Rand was so impressed with was a forger, an armed robber, a child kidnapper, and a multiple murderer.
In December of 1927, Hickman, nineteen years old, showed up at a Los Angeles public school and managed to get custody of a twelve-year-old girl, Marian Parker. He was able to convince Marian’s teacher that the girl’s father, a well-known banker, had been seriously injured in a car accident and that the girl had to go to the hospital immediately. The story was a lie. Hickman disappeared with Marian, and over the next few days Mr. and Mrs. Parker received a series of ransom notes. The notes were cruel and taunting and were sometimes signed “Death” or “Fate.” The sum of $1,500 was demanded for the child’s safe release. The father raised the payment in gold certificates and delivered it to Hickman.
At the rendezvous, Mr. Parker handed over the money to a young man who was waiting for him in a parked car. When Mr. Parker paid the ransom, he could see his daughter, Marion, sitting in the passenger seat next to the suspect. As soon as the money was exchanged, the suspect drove off with the victim still in the car. At the end of the street, Marion’s corpse was dumped onto the pavement. She was dead. Her legs had been chopped off and her eyes had been wired open to appear as if she was still alive. Her internal organs had been cut out and pieces of her body were later found strewn all over the Los Angeles area.
THAT monster, is, by Rand’s own admission, her ideal human being, and she wrote that AFTER he’d committed that monstrous act.
and here’s another:
DO you consider yourself Pro-life? Ayn wasn’t. Her love of selfishness included her belief that abortion was a MORAL RIGHT for women. These are her own words:
“An embryo has no rights. Rights do not pertain to a potential, only to an actual being. A child cannot acquire any rights until it is born. The living take precedence over the not-yet-living (or the unborn).
Abortion is a moral right—which should be left to the sole discretion of the woman involved; morally, nothing other than her wish in the matter is to be considered. Who can conceivably have the right to dictate to her what disposition she is to make of the functions of her own body?”
I cannot for the life of me imagine why anyone who considers themselves a moral or decent person finds any value in Rand’s writings. She’s basically institutionalizing selfishness and break the moral and social compact that has been a part of our country from the founding. When we say that our country was founded on “Judeo-Christian Values” what DO you think that means? Christ told us that one of the two great commandments was “Love your neighbor as yourself” Rand tells us “Screw your neighbor he’s just a leech on you”
Pointless for you to try or pointless to try and get these ideas out there to more people?
Neither are pointless IMO.
I'd do it, but I am very well aware of my limitations in regards to authoring a book like this. I could write the book, but I can guarantee it wouldn't appeal to any more of the general public than any of Ayn's writings.
If folks along Rand's philosophical bent want to make a more entertaining version of a political screed, they need to look into L. Neil Smith's Probability Broach. Or RA Wilson, T Prachett, UK LeGuin, or any number of authors out there with interesting, liberty centered, stories.
The message does sell, or it would have gone away by now.
It looks like the invisible hand is turning thumbs-down on this one.
Some people (e.g. objectivists) just have no use for social conservatives except as useful myrmidons.
Presumably, the pricing was based on a business judgment that few people would shell out $10-$12 to see this one.
With limited releases like 300 screens, high PSA’s are needed to justify expansion.
Laugh away. With a limited release, high PSA’s are needed, to justify the added expense of expanding the release. PSA for RIO is not great - but it is expected to have legs. BTW, none of this is “my definition.” It’s SOP in the movie business, wherein I have made my living for 30 years. I’d love Atlas Shrugged to be a theatrical success. But with these numbers, it won’t be.
Well, it’s going to 1,000 theaters this week.
Why would it go from 299 last week to 1,000 this week, if the PSA was so anemic?
I’d love Atlas Shrugged to be a theatrical success. But with these numbers, it won’t be.
Cheer up, FRiend:
By your standards, RIO's PSA is simply atrocious. Dismal. So why should it be expected to "have legs"?
Yet Atlas Shrugged exceeds expectations, and you expect it to die in the cradle.
You may know something the rest of us don't, but you haven't explained what that something is.
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