The Hot Blog

"Serenity" recovered a little bit. Maybe the fans can come down off the ledge.

9th place and under $5 mill. recovery? It won't make $25 mill. It's over Johnny, it's over.

Can we end this Cameron Diaz thing now? Hopefully this knocks her down a few pegs.

Is it safe to call Serenity a failure yet?

^ I thought it was safe to call it a failure after last weekend.

"Waiting is Lions Gate fifth best opening of the year and likely to break the studio’s Top 20 all-time."

Wow..that's pretty sad...and to think that someone may want to buy this company?

Actually, Box Office Mojo estimates In Her Shoes at 10.03 million...so that means it's an unmitigated success? :)

You can't put In Her Shoes in the same company as those other movies. This one will probably be more like Shall We Dance in terms of legs. It's targetted towards older women and they rarely rush out opening weekend to see a movie.

Can we end with the jabs at Rob McKittrick, the guy spent nearly a decade working on his flick - he's done the hard yards. And its paid off to all asundry. First (cough) someone says he'll never work again. Now he's doing quite okay. So LG gave him some loose change - whooopdeedoo - I love how the rebellious spirit and flipping the bird to studios (in bravado flagrante only) these days gets you hauled over the coals by some. But they still worship that same spirit their fave 70s director expressed towards the studios back in the day.

McKittrick deserves everything he is going to get for his stunt.
It's too bad he's going down this road. I actually found Waiting funny.

Waiting looked like Office Space in a restaurant as directed by a less funny version of Kevin Smith. McKittrick's career is in decent shape with this opening, but I wouldn't put any bets on this guy being the next Smith or the next Mike Judge. I mean.. 10 yrs to get this film made? Isn't that kind of embarassing? You'd think the guy was working on the next Citizen Kane for that long.

Imagine waiting(no pun intended) ten years to get that film made? I guess it explains a lot about his self destruction.

i know if i was the director of "Waiting" I'd play it off as a calling card movie that I took to get some $$ for more personal work. To outright publicize the fact that it was a decade-long artistic endeavor just makes you sound like a real moron.

The sad thing is that it's the truth.

I sorta feel bad for him but he is such a jerk. He really needs a better PR firm working for him.

I'm waiting for Doom in two weeks.
Saw a commercial for Zathura (terrible title) and it looks decent...
Kids In America has a, umm, nice poster

Cameron Diaz is fading... if she was smart she would have taken Fun With Dick And Jane.

In Her Shoes is about as good as chick-flicks can get. Curtis Hanson elevated the material and Cameron Diaz is amazingly hot in her underwear. I'm surpirsed that it didn't do better, but I am willing to bet it will have great legs.

Just saw Good Night. And Good Luck. Clooney stepping up big-time here. Classy as usual. Strathairn was terrific and there are moments that are positively riveting. Beautiful Bob Elswit cinematography. A gem of a movie.

The trailer for Syriana was fucking awesome as well.

Lot's of promising stuff coming out...

It should be a really good Winter for flicks. Can't get much worse than Aug-Oct here. Not much in the way of good flicks.

ZATHURA was great the first time when it was called JUMANJI.

David, I'm assuming you've seen Stay. I would hate to think that Marc Forster screwed up.

I thought Monster's Ball was a great movie and Finding Neverland a more than worth followup.

I saw Into the Blue Friday night. Disposable enetertainment that is worth it for Jessica Alba in a bikini. Mmm Mmm Good! :)

The original Stay script was pretty good. And they have a real good cast to it. That's disappointing.

You're talking about the Stay draft that was leaked online, I assume? I found that to be one of the dullest, most unoriginal scripts I've ever read, complete with the twist you can see a mile away. The fact that Benioff got $1.8 million for it is astonishing...

JBM has no taste. But what else is new?

I don't recall JBM posting often enough for the last post to make sense.

ditto to what Jeff just said.

I'm glad W&G picked up! Definitely deserves everything it receives but it's true that the film's real success will most likely lie overseas with countries that "get" Wallace and Gromit (don't yell at me, it was people on here who said Americans don't get W&G)

In Her Shoes could easily get to $40mil if they keep advertising. As someone up there said, mature women (god, what a horrible term) don't need to rush out to see these movies opening weekend.

-Glenn

Well here comes an insult or five, but I agree JBM. I think Benioff is an extremely talented writer, but Stay's screenplay bored me to tears. Very unoriginal indeed, and the twist is awful.

"JBM has no taste. But what else is new?"

Yeah. I'm not fawning over a low-rent, nonsensical, "psychological thrill-ride." Sorry I can't follow your lead. What's next -- Simon Kinberg's next script will revolutionize the action genre?

in her shoes will need every female moviegoer to get to 40 because guys will not see this.

I was hoping Stay would be good. A real nice cast on that movie too.

Benioff can definately write. And remember. What you read isn't always what you see on screen. Many things change in the pre process.

True that Mark Z. Hopefully Forster and the more than able cast have come through and elevated the material (assuming the script is the same). Quick questions though: hasn't Stay been delayed for a while? Didn't Forster shoot it before Finding Neverland?

He really couldn't get a better cast for it. But the advance word hasn't been great.

Does Ryan Gosling play the same role in every movie?

Benioff sold Stay in October 2001 and it started shooting in September 2003. According to IMDb, Forster shot Neverland BEFORE shooting Stay.

The script online doesn't give a date or specify the draft, so it could be Benioff's spec script, a revised draft, the final white draft, or a shooting script. Doesn't matter. This script is slow, predictable, and insulting, and I hope that the filmmakers are able to salvage the threadbare story they're working with. And this is coming from a fan of Benioff.

isn't this the same hack that did 25th hour and Troy??

Actually he wrote the novel 25th Hour before he wrote the screenplay. So, I would hesitate before calling him a hack.

unless you're using the term "hack" to refer to a well-paid bad writer.

25th Hour was good. Troy was not.

How did the same man write both of those?

Just because you see some end product on screen doesn't mean you are seeing the authors vision.

Benioff can write. If you have doubts pick up the novel and try to get his original screenplays.

Just don't read Stay since, you know, it's a piece of shit.

They should have hired that Homer guy to write "Troy." His version was a lot better.

I much prefer the movie to Homers boring version.

Apparently JBM has a grind to ax with Mr. Beniof. I hope he at least paid for dinner.

I don't have a problem with Benioff. I'm a big fan of his last outings. I just happen to think Stay's just a big misstep from a very talented writer. Seriously man, it *is* a piece of shit.

His piece of shit sold for almost 2 million bucks. I'd like to write horseshit myself.

Go for it. Just make sure your central character sees a minimum of 300 dead people.

Stay is a car wreck.

And Benioff is not a good screenwriter. Perhaps the most overrated screenwriter in Hollywood of his generation.

He is very smart about establishing important issues... and he never has anything of value to say about them. Never.

Stay is that bad????

Ouch. A lot of talent wasted.

Mark Z, do you think there are any bad screenwriters in Hollywood or is it always the director's fault?
Angelus: Ha ha.

It's the directors job to get the thing from paper to film. It's his choices that effect everything. He gets all the credit.

He deserves the blame.

That's somewhat true but there are plenty of directors who don't have a lot of control over the scripts they're using. If you're Spike Lee you probably have more control over the script than this Forster guy.

not to get back on topic or anything, but anyone notice how many screens Wallace and Gromit opened on? Over 3,600. No film that does $16 mill. opening weekend opens on that many screens without much higher expectations. A 3,600 screen release for a kids animation is expecting a high 20s/low 30s opening. 16 mill. opening for this film is not very good. Flick might hold on well, we'll see. But this opening is not at all close to what DW was expecting. Not Island bad but somewhere nearby.

and yes, it may make good $$ overseas. But $50 mill. domestic on W&G makes one doubt there will be sequels.

I thought 50 for W&G was a disappointment. Wrong?

For those who are bemoaning W & G's (is it just me or does that look like an ad agency everytime it's written?) "poor" performance this weekend, take a look at the nose dive the entire box office has taken for the last two weeks compared to the same weekend a year ago. SHARK TALE'S second weekend made around $34M. Oh, I'm sorry, did that resurrect the non-existent "slump" again? My bad.

What's with the SERENITY bash, Angelus? Did some fans piss on your favorite franchise?

As a latecomer to the whole Firefly/SERENITY 'Verse (I didn't watch the show until 10 days before the film), I don't know what sort of fan/geek boy skirmish went on this summer but it seems that some are just hell bent on spinning the BO for it as a "failure," "flop" or "bomb." I'm sorry, but when did a minor release of a low-end of middle budget film on track to make at least a small profit at this point rate this sort of abuse?

What is really disheartening about it is that the spin about the domestic box office just re-inforces the outdated view of it being the end all. Here is a project that from the first week has shown that all revenue streams can make a project most execs would pass on a possiblity. With the box set of the tv show jumping back up the Amazon and Barnes & Noble sales charts last week, it seems very likely that the DVD sales are going to much bigger than most thought last Sunday. That with what seems to be a worldwide haul of $100M means Universal gets rewarded for their gamble.

Put it this way, would you rather it fail or have some exec who is mulling over greenlighting some beloved project of yours with low public visibity but a devoted fan base (Grendel anyone?) or something else creatively bold but financially risky think to herself "No sure thing, but damn that Whedon thing sure did clean up in the end and those Universal guys have nice offices now."

first of all, $100 mill. worldwide for serenity just aint happening. Now lets look at a more realistic figure, $80 mill. You take a $40 mill budget, add another $40 mill in worldwide marketing costs, and subtract 20 percent from box office grosses (which goes to the theaters). That leaves you a little short of profit.

and this is not to bash Serenity, which may well hit profit down the road with DVDs. But at this point everyone might as well admit that the franchise is over. If Whedon really does desperately want to keep it going, I'm sure there are ways, such as a sci-fi channel miniseries or something, or a direct to DVD sequel. But chances of a theatrical sequel at this point are slim to none.

$40M for worldwide marketing? Just how many primetime network ad buys did you see? I saw none, only spots on the Sci-fi channel which is, surpise, owned by Universal. The only figure I saw anywhere was $15M for the domestic and that sounds high considering the lack of billboards and bus stop ads. But if we go by the accepted rule of thumb about grosses, then a film will hit break even at 3 times production, which factors in P&A, exhibitor splits, etc. At this point, it's headed towards $30M US and opened well in Australia (where it dropped only 31% this week) and No 1 in the UK. But I will concede that it could very well only hit $80M worldwide.

If, as has been widely reported, Univesal jumped in with both feet when the TV shows DVD box set sold well (500K units as of 9/5/05 per USA Today), don't you think the DVD sales are gonna figure in significantly in the final appraisal for Uni? At this point, even Poland says the film will reach profit.

All those current DVD sales for the TV show (which has been out for 21 months, so it's more than hardcore fans now) suggest many are going to wait for the DVD while they catch up on the show, driven in no small part I'd wager by the critical reaction.

But in the end, I really don't care if it gets a sequel (I'd prefer something longer) or even it it makes a fucking profit. I'm just wondering when everyone other than the studios and producers will stop thinking the goddamn domestic box office is end all, be all to a film's success or failure. There's a mountain of cash flowing into their pockets that is just that much easier to deny when everyone falls for finacial misdirection games.

perception is the reality in hollywood, and when movies like Kingdom of Heaven do $48 mill. in the US and a ton more international, the perception of failure still sticks. Perhaps because the foreign numbers are not printed in commonly read media in the US. No Foreign box office listings in USA today. So $48 mill for Kingdom of Heaven - it's a loser. $25 mill. for Serenity - loser. If a film is perceived in hollywood and in the media as a loser, which Serenity surely is, then it becomes unlikely more of those movies will be made.

People point to Austin Powers as an example of a movie that died in theaters and got sequelized once word of mouth on home video hit. But Austin Powers was not seen as a box office loser. Perhaps a slight underperformer with it's $50 mill. but not a loser, it didn't have the bad stigma, so the good home vid $$ put it over the top.

And the fact is, most Hollywood films end up making back their money once DVD is through. Perhaps Serenity will do exceptional on DVD, but I doubt it. Core fans will come out again with perhaps a 20-50% boost based on all the new exposure. Serenity ancillary will be profitable, and in the end Universal will be reasonably happy with their deal. They got their money, they got out by the skin of their teeth domestic box office-wise. Chances of taking that risk again? Nil.

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

URL:
Remember me? YesNo

Comments: