The Hot Blog

I don't know any of the songs from Rent by name other than "Seasons of Love" or whatever. Is this an original song or what?

one thing about dawson. she is hot as hell

"Rent" just seems so 1997. My feeling is that this movie is a couple of years late at least. Its moment has passed.

Don't underestimate the "Renties" out there. They are some hardcore fans. But we also said that about Phantom.

If Rent gets reviews like DP's, then we can expect a solid second week drop off.

Rent does seem like a mid 90's vehicle but I guess it all depends on how good the movie is. I'm sure the die hards will come out but after that?

Rosario. Ohh la la.

Hell, I'm gay and I fancy Rosario!

I find it funny though that the blog has adverts for Rent.

Counter productive much?

I can see why "Rent" wasn't made in the '90s b/c the musical was commercially dead until "Moulin Rouge!" in 2001 What I wonder, though is why it's taken 4 years since Luhrmann's pic to bring "Rent" to the big screen. As others have said, it seems as if Rent's time has come. I mean, also in 2001, there was the brilliant "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" which was already referencing "Rent." As some have noted, the Renties will still be there, and the film will do fine, but it still could have been a much bigger event.

dave is not above keeping mcn up and running and doesn't let his personal feelings cloud his advertising. and the rent people don't seem to care. its funny.

I saw Rent a few years back on Broadway. Not much of a theatre and shows guy but I got to say I did enjoy the heck out of it. But I have a hard time thinking the director of Home Alone can get this on film.

How the hell can you mess up Rent? Well lucky for us,Dave's a columnist, not a film critic.

One thing Dave has a clue on is good films and what their box office prospects will be. He may really like some that fail but that doesn't cloud his projections of what they'll make.

I expect Rent to make about $50 million in the U.S.

Doesn't make it any better... that is for anyone but Rentilites.

Hey... I loved Eight Legged Freaks, but I didn't delude myself into thinking it was art.

50 sounds like a solid number. If it gets to 70 then they can be happy.

$50mil seems to be a good number for musicals these days. There was Evita, then Moulin Rouge! and Phantom of the Opera, all of which got to $50mil+

Rent looks like it could get there as well because of it's fan base, it's a well-known name (people who haven't seen it performed will be intrigued and feel safer seeing this than an original musical), and it appeals to a lot of different age-groups.

Eight-Legged Freaks was fun. But, yeah, nowhere near art.

I never saw Evita. Did it deserve $50 million? It seems high for a movie that nobody I know saw, whereas Moulin Rouge felt like it made a lot more than it actually did, because it seemed to build a bigger fan base. I would guess Moulin Rouge sold a lot more DVDs than either Phantom or Evita ever did.

if rent doesn't hit 50 it has to be considered a huge bomb.

Jeff Wells/jeffmcm just gace Rent a huge rave in his column. The guy was gushing about it.

He practically gushed. You could even see him smiling as he typed it. Two reviews. On complete opposite ends of the spectrum.

"if rent doesn't hit 50 it has to be considered a huge bomb."

Apparently you've forgotten David's recent column about "niche" titles. RENT is not MY FAIR LADY or FUNNY GIRL; it's not even PHANTOM. It's had a long run in NY, but here in L.A., the first national touring company only played for four weeks, and I suspect it did even worse in the flyovers. Fifty mill would be a fine gross for a musical with so many negative factors (NY, gay, AIDS, downer, no real stars). Given that THE PRODUCERS has its own set of negatives (though only the NY and gay angles are common), I think the real under-reported story is which of these two will ultimately do more business.

The Producers has bigger stars in its cast, has better name recognition (Mel Brooks helps here), and is a real crowd-pleaser (at least in its original incarnation). I think it's obvious that it will be the higher-grosser.
Was Chris Columbus' hire the Rent folks' way of minimizing all those negatives? Hire someone who could wipe away the gritty, downbeat qualities of the show and make it more middle-America friendly?

u can't even compare rent to the producers. its not even close. its not even comparable. the producers will be a blockbuster.

The Producers is in a different league than Rent. It is not a valid comparison to make.

Going to be interesting to compare the old version to the new version of The Producers.

Saw this tonight and I also hated it. Rosario was definitely the best part of it both from this song and "Without You". I didn't know the musical, and I'd never seen it before, but it was so obvious that this would have worked much better ten years ago then it does now...it's just way too dated and frankly, I didn't need to be reminded when Avenue A was so grimy and disgusting that you woudn't want to go there after dark.

Saw this tonight and I also hated it. Rosario was definitely the best part of it both from this song and "Without You". I didn't know the musical, and I'd never seen it before, but it was so obvious that this would have worked much better ten years ago then it does now...it's just way too dated and frankly, I didn't need to be reminded when Avenue A was so grimy and disgusting that you woudn't want to go there after dark.

(Sorry for the double post..new laptop)

Jeff, Evita is pretty good actually. Better than Phantom, anyway. But Moulin Rouge! is leagues ahead of them in terms of quality. And Moulin Rouge probably felt like it made more because in 1997 (when Evita was released) the internet wasn't there to make a ruckus about it.

But, yes, MR did make much more in DVD. It's already a Rocky Horror type cult movie.

Don't you mean in that last sentence, 'MR!' ?

Moulin Rouge, doh! ;-)

Sigh...!

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: