Saturday, January 21, 2006
You Can't Fool All of the People All of the Time
The movie I think I hated most last year, Munich, has dropped out of the top ten for box office receipts. It is showing on 1498 screens in the US and has taken in about $35,000,000. It's tough to earn another ten million, let alone another twenty, once you're out of the top ten. Munich has been playing for 4 weeks and is R rated. I doubt it earns its budget back [with domestic box office receipts--I should have said].
A movie I thought was good, Brokeback Mountain, is now showing on 1196 screens and has a gross, in seven weeks (playing on ever increasing numbers of screens), of $36,5000,000 (about twice its budget). It had good but not excellent numbers on Friday of $1,806 per screen. It might make $50,000,000 domestically, but I doubt it goes much above that number. It's only made $2,000,000 overseas. It too has an R rating.
The first Narnia movie The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (from the second book by Christian writer C.S. Lewis), which was also good, and is about courage and redemption, with a PG rating, has made $590,000,000 world wide in its 7 weeks.
So, of course, Hollywood is planning more agenda driven, anti-Western values, depressing, R-rated movies, chief among them--The Da Vinci Code. No wonder box office receipts are nosediving.
A movie I thought was good, Brokeback Mountain, is now showing on 1196 screens and has a gross, in seven weeks (playing on ever increasing numbers of screens), of $36,5000,000 (about twice its budget). It had good but not excellent numbers on Friday of $1,806 per screen. It might make $50,000,000 domestically, but I doubt it goes much above that number. It's only made $2,000,000 overseas. It too has an R rating.
The first Narnia movie The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (from the second book by Christian writer C.S. Lewis), which was also good, and is about courage and redemption, with a PG rating, has made $590,000,000 world wide in its 7 weeks.
So, of course, Hollywood is planning more agenda driven, anti-Western values, depressing, R-rated movies, chief among them--The Da Vinci Code. No wonder box office receipts are nosediving.
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 6:53 PM 
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Munich has yet to be released outside of the United States. It cost $70 million to make and has earned back half of that after one month. It will easily earn a profit.
# posted by 
: 11:10 PM
: 11:10 PM
Roger. Roger, Roger, Roger.
You may disagree w/ the political agendas of many of the political agendas of those who make and act in movies. But never in life should you think for a NY minute that Narnia isn't agenda driven. The reasons for box office success or failure are more complicated than you suggest. It's like figuring out what 13 year old girls are going to buy @ the mall. Figure it right and you laugh all the way to the bank. Figure wong and you sink like a stone.
Do you suggest that Hollywood feed us a steady diet of PG movies promoting Christian values?
I would write more but I am off to see my children @ the insanely liberal institution of higher learning where they are being educated to think and to love and serve he United States.
You may disagree w/ the political agendas of many of the political agendas of those who make and act in movies. But never in life should you think for a NY minute that Narnia isn't agenda driven. The reasons for box office success or failure are more complicated than you suggest. It's like figuring out what 13 year old girls are going to buy @ the mall. Figure it right and you laugh all the way to the bank. Figure wong and you sink like a stone.
Do you suggest that Hollywood feed us a steady diet of PG movies promoting Christian values?
I would write more but I am off to see my children @ the insanely liberal institution of higher learning where they are being educated to think and to love and serve he United States.
# posted by : 6:39 AM
: 6:39 AM
Anon. It will earn back its costs-almost all movies do, if only from DVD and movie rights sales. It might do well overseas too--I hear anti-semiticism is on the rise there. It still stinks.
Tony, glad to have you back. What agenda is the children's story serving? (other than making a ton of money) Yes, Hollywood should make more PG movies that promote virtue and make us feel good, but only if they want to make money. If they want to serve art, more Syrianas and Brokeback Mts. and numbers will continue to decline sharply. What insanely liberal institution are you visiting?
Tony, glad to have you back. What agenda is the children's story serving? (other than making a ton of money) Yes, Hollywood should make more PG movies that promote virtue and make us feel good, but only if they want to make money. If they want to serve art, more Syrianas and Brokeback Mts. and numbers will continue to decline sharply. What insanely liberal institution are you visiting?
"I doubt it earns its budget back"
"It will earn back its costs-almost all movies do".
Well, which is it? You backtrack more than Bush and Cheaney do about WMDs.
"It will earn back its costs-almost all movies do".
Well, which is it? You backtrack more than Bush and Cheaney do about WMDs.
# posted by : 11:24 AM
: 11:24 AM
"Who is Cheaney?"
A typographical error for this guy who dodged his way out of serving in Viet Nam, even though he supported the war, because he had "other priorities". Thus it could be argued that his incredible mismanagement of the currrent Iraq affair is due to his lack of military experience.
A typographical error for this guy who dodged his way out of serving in Viet Nam, even though he supported the war, because he had "other priorities". Thus it could be argued that his incredible mismanagement of the currrent Iraq affair is due to his lack of military experience.
# posted by : 12:52 PM
: 12:52 PM
Rog,
A disappointing day for the Broncs. The other guys played well and the balll did not seem to bounce our way. Kismet, I guesss.
I will respond privately @ length when I return from NE.
The school is VC, alma mater of my mother, my wife, and, God willing, both ladies. K returned from her JYA semester @ the U of Bologna, purportedly the oldest U in the world, founded a mere 22 years after the Battle of Hastings, and I was charged w/ moving her back into the dorm. She is living in a tower on the 5th floor of a building that was built in 1861. 10' ceilings are the norm so you can imagine the stairs. @ every landing, there was a flyer reminding one how may bilions of dollars are made from the internatonal sex trade.
So far as movies are concerned, I daresay you would attend < frequently if they were all PG.
2 caveats. W/o bad movies there would be no good ones, much < great ones. Perhaps my favorite movie is Casablanca, for my $, the greatest American movie, notw/standing a lack of "action." Movies made from plays tend to have better dialogue, I think. Anyway, if every movie were as good as Casablanca, and inspiring, how many could you watch? If you kept watching them, how would they affect you. Wouldn't you run the risk of becoming brainwashed, in a way? I am certain you agree that it would be bad to become dependent on inspiration from movies. It would be just another version of the feelies.
Last thought b/f the meaningless NFC game--I know, I know, this is a value judgment on my part-- Steven Spielberg made Saving Private Ryan didn't he. What did you think of that movie?
A disappointing day for the Broncs. The other guys played well and the balll did not seem to bounce our way. Kismet, I guesss.
I will respond privately @ length when I return from NE.
The school is VC, alma mater of my mother, my wife, and, God willing, both ladies. K returned from her JYA semester @ the U of Bologna, purportedly the oldest U in the world, founded a mere 22 years after the Battle of Hastings, and I was charged w/ moving her back into the dorm. She is living in a tower on the 5th floor of a building that was built in 1861. 10' ceilings are the norm so you can imagine the stairs. @ every landing, there was a flyer reminding one how may bilions of dollars are made from the internatonal sex trade.
So far as movies are concerned, I daresay you would attend < frequently if they were all PG.
2 caveats. W/o bad movies there would be no good ones, much < great ones. Perhaps my favorite movie is Casablanca, for my $, the greatest American movie, notw/standing a lack of "action." Movies made from plays tend to have better dialogue, I think. Anyway, if every movie were as good as Casablanca, and inspiring, how many could you watch? If you kept watching them, how would they affect you. Wouldn't you run the risk of becoming brainwashed, in a way? I am certain you agree that it would be bad to become dependent on inspiration from movies. It would be just another version of the feelies.
Last thought b/f the meaningless NFC game--I know, I know, this is a value judgment on my part-- Steven Spielberg made Saving Private Ryan didn't he. What did you think of that movie?
# posted by : 4:42 PM
: 4:42 PM
Anon. How do you get from my statement that anti-Semites might like Munich to anyone who criticizes Israeli policy is an anti-semite? The two statements are completely different. I made the one, but not the other. Your criticism is welcome here but you gotta play fair. Also you seem a deeply unhappy person with no real sense of history. Were you involved with the draft in the late 60s and early 70s? I ask because you apparently don't have any idea what draft dodging is although your ignorance doesn't stop you from making a false charge of it. Finally, making back the budget with gross box office receipts doesn't get you close to making a profit. But of course you probably knew that already.
Tony, cool about K, and the bad Broncos showed up. I like R movies. I like movies that make me think and challenge preconceptions and I don't think I was saying we need nothing but feel good PG movies (and I watched enough G rated ones when the kids were young to last a lifetime). I liked many parts of Saving Private Ryan a lot but not all of them. Talk to you by email soon.
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Tony, cool about K, and the bad Broncos showed up. I like R movies. I like movies that make me think and challenge preconceptions and I don't think I was saying we need nothing but feel good PG movies (and I watched enough G rated ones when the kids were young to last a lifetime). I liked many parts of Saving Private Ryan a lot but not all of them. Talk to you by email soon.
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