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Box Office: 'Atlas Shrugged' collapses, even without a NY Times review
NY POST ^ | April 26, 2011 | Lou Lumenick

Posted on 04/26/2011 12:48:34 PM PDT by Beaten Valve

My esteemed colleague Kyle Smith may not qualify as a box-office Nostradamus ("I smell a hit,'' he once wrote of "An American Carol'') but he was certainly on the mark in predicting that "Atlas Shrugged -- Part One'' would flop in his Sunday column a couple of weeks ago.

After a middling performance during its opening weekend that was hyped in some quarters (i.e., The Hollywood Reporter), the per-screen average for this amateurish Ayn Rand adaptation (even Kyle could only muster 2.5 stars' worth of enthusiam for the movie, though he liked its message) plunged to an alarming $1,890 from $5,640 during its opening frame. Overall, the weekend's take was a scant $879,000 -- a whopping 48 percent drop despite adding 166 locations. Which certainly suggest they're running out of audience quick.

That means that at some locations, distributor Rocky Mountain Pictures will be writing checks to theaters to cover the difference between receipts and operating expenses. The only way they're likely to get the 1,000 screens the producers say they want next weekend is to rent them. And, as Kyle put it at his personal blog, "Whether the sequels get made is purely a matter of how much desire the producers have for losing money.''

Surely rubbing salt in the producers' wounds is the performance of Robert Redford's left-leaning "The Conspirator,'' which also added screens in its second weekend and managed a decent hold and a $2,696 per location average. Its current cumulative gross is $6.9 million vs. a hair over $3 million for "Atlas Shrugged.''

(snip)

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: New York
KEYWORDS: atlasshrugged; hollywood; moviereview; movies; nytimes
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Comment #1 Removed by Moderator

To: Beaten Valve
If I didn't have to make a 200-mile round trip I would have seen it by now.

I'll buy the DVD when it comes out.

2 posted on 04/26/2011 12:50:39 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (When and why did Steve Dunham change his name to Barack Hussein Obama? When he converted to Islam?)
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To: Beaten Valve

I liked it. Not great acting but gets the point across very well. Waiting for the 2nd part!


3 posted on 04/26/2011 12:50:47 PM PDT by WellyP
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To: Beaten Valve

The success of this movie probably won’t depend on public viewings, but what was negotiated on the back-end for cable, Netflix, DVD, international distribution, etc.

I rarely go to movies any more.

I wait for it to get on the net or cable.


4 posted on 04/26/2011 12:55:03 PM PDT by radpolis (Liberals: You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

DVD sales is where the money will be made. If they did the job it’s reported they did, this film will be shared with a lot of folks in DVD.


5 posted on 04/26/2011 12:55:59 PM PDT by Dick Bachert (2012 CAN'T COME SOON ENOUGH FOR ME. HOW ABOUT YOU?)
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To: WellyP

I liked the movie too.

Marsden in his opening scene as James Taggart was obviously saying his lines without really believing it.

Marsden surprised me, though. He got a lot better as the movie progressed.


6 posted on 04/26/2011 12:55:59 PM PDT by stylin_geek (Never underestimate the power of government to distort markets)
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To: Beaten Valve

I guess atheist materialism doesn’t sell as well as the producers hoped.


7 posted on 04/26/2011 12:58:04 PM PDT by wideawake
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To: Beaten Valve
Regardless of what may occasionally appear to our liking on its sometimes un-PC "Page Six" feature, the New York Post is by no means a reliable friend to Constitutional Conservatives.

Sure, it's under different ownership now, but this rag and its executives (Villard and company) were largely responsible for the creation of the overly racist scam known as the NAACP. During the Schiff years, the Post was a decidely leftist organ. A long and sordid heritage of opposition to Conservative Capitalism isn't ready dropped no matter whose name is curently on the masthead. Murdoch should have killed the paper, purged everyone and relaunched it under a different name.

8 posted on 04/26/2011 12:58:12 PM PDT by re_nortex (DP...that's what I like about Texas.)
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To: Dick Bachert

agreeed. and in tough economic times in Obamas America, it is more cost efficient to purchase/rent the movie and have a viewing party and ensuing discussions.


9 posted on 04/26/2011 12:58:25 PM PDT by sappy
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To: stylin_geek
Marsden surprised me, though. He got a lot better as the movie progressed.

You know movies scenes are not usually shot in sequence, right? Then again, with this movie...

10 posted on 04/26/2011 12:59:07 PM PDT by Huck (We must have universal healthcare. -- Donald Trump.)
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To: Beaten Valve

That’s because MOST workers are busy WORKING....and going Galt.....


11 posted on 04/26/2011 12:59:23 PM PDT by goodnesswins (Unlike the West, the Islamic world is serious.)
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To: WellyP

We might not get part 2 if part 1 doesn’t do well. :-(


12 posted on 04/26/2011 1:00:56 PM PDT by Twotone (Marte Et Clypeo)
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To: Beaten Valve

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER-—

Despite its “awful” marketing plan, as one distribution exec calls it, the movie earned a $5,640 per-theater average opening: “Things have turned for us,” producer Harmon Kaslow tells THR.

This and the NYT article doesn’t square, or am I missing something?


13 posted on 04/26/2011 1:01:02 PM PDT by burroak
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If the movie is like the bombastic novel, then no wonder!


14 posted on 04/26/2011 1:03:37 PM PDT by Revolting cat! (Let us prey!)
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To: Huck

Thanks for reminding me, I’d forgotten about that.

It could very well be they had to go with the scene the way it was, due to budget constraints.


15 posted on 04/26/2011 1:04:46 PM PDT by stylin_geek (Never underestimate the power of government to distort markets)
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To: Beaten Valve

Copyright restrictions apply downthread every bit as much as in the main article box, thanks.


16 posted on 04/26/2011 1:06:11 PM PDT by Sidebar Moderator
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To: burroak

Check out Rotten Tomatoes:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/atlas_shrugged_part_i/

Rotten Tomatoes has a 6%/85% split.

6% of critics like the movie, 85% of theater audiences like the movie.


17 posted on 04/26/2011 1:09:55 PM PDT by stylin_geek (Never underestimate the power of government to distort markets)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Uh.....white folks don’t go to the movies much anymore. Tired of getting jumped.


18 posted on 04/26/2011 1:10:12 PM PDT by The Toll
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To: wideawake

I was concerned about this, but the flick does not seem to say much about God at all, so it’s really an agnostic materialism. There are philosophies better than this, but there are also philosophies much worse.


19 posted on 04/26/2011 1:10:12 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Hawk)
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To: goodnesswins

That is an interesting question. If you went Galt, would you want to go for a picture about going Galt?


20 posted on 04/26/2011 1:11:32 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Hawk)
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