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 wonder how many times the "popcorn trick" from Diner is going to happen in those theaters?
Don't like the outcome? Change the rules!
They'll get a good turn-out from the highway, rest-stop crowd.
Right. It's sort of like saying that Rolls Royce makes more money per vehicle produced than Toyota does -- and yet nobody considers Rolls Royce a giant in the auto industry.
It's a financial flop. $14 million to make. $4 million in revenue. $10 million in the hole and the hype is wearing off in the homo markets. Look at the per screen averages.
How is it going to make another $10 million dollars to break even? They're out of homo markets.
Domestic Total as of Dec. 26, 2005: $7,573,000 (Estimate)
Running Time: 2 hrs. 14 min.
Production Budget: $14 million
that doesnt include marketing and * gifts *
Brokebutt, I can't wait to not see it.
What is it with people who think that when normal people are repulsed by the gay life style that they are afraid of it?
It's kind of silly to call a movie a flop a few weeks after its opening when they're still planning to expand it to more theaters. It's like calling a basketball game exceptionally low-scoring after 4 minutes.
All the signs indicate the movie's going to do very well for a small independent film, make its producers some money, and not be seen by the large majority of Americans.
And we're talking millions and millions of free publicity; through the Globe nominations, the evening news spots, the newspaper articles, etc. The MSM is going to the mat with this and maybe theyll make a few bucks on it. More hype than anything else.
BBM has already played to it's demographic and has nowhere else to go. In the end (a year down the road) the producers may make a couple of million bucks.
Assuming it was a year in the making, and 2 years before the full returns are realized, not a great return on $14M dollars, but I suppose a person could do worse.
"Flaming Queers on Blazing Saddles"
If my memory serves me, "limited market roll-outs" are generally subject to "special" (read: higher) pricing per ticket.
The rules are that the makers of the movies need $28 million dollars in box office revenue in order to break even. The box office gross is only around $8 million. Their liberal math skills can't disguise the fact that they're $20 million short of break-even.
"The hack flacking for this film is unreal! Every other box office tally lists the amount of million$ the film grossed over the period. In order to inflate this one, they have to use the "per-screen average." Pure propaganda."
I agree. I have never heard of a movie being evaluated on its "per screen average." There is obviously an agenda.
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