Monday, June 30, 2008

James Mangold was responsible for her Oscar. She could not have done it alone.

Ok, let's talk film. Well I am shocked and stunned. I am surprised. And I have to stand corrected on my prediction of the weekend box office. I predicted Wall E would shatter the competition. It did not. Wanted with Angelina Jolie raked in 51 million as compared to Wall E's 62 Million. Crazy. But this is really not about my embarrassment, this is about Hollywood being thrown into a sea storm. I will tell you what is really going on and I will tell you what Hollywood will see.

Here's the rub. Here is the X factor. Here is the crazy thing that is keeping Hollywood execs scratching their heads. Wanted is rated R. Yes R! So what business does it have pulling in 51 mil! The execs are torturing themselves trying to figure out what happened. Why you say? Well, let's go back to May 30th. And if you remember another R rated film made 51 million and that was considered to be record breaking. On the weekend of May 30th, it was so groundbreaking that this particular film made over 50 mil that Hollywood completely shifted its gears from completely focusing on the main demo of 15-35 to changing aim to the female demo of 18-65, or more. Sex and the City was the film that changed the greenlight schedule for some studios.

After Sex and the City made all that money last month, Hollywood thought that the audience out there was just too savvy for the normal big bang action flick. Well as it turns out this last weekend, the main demo showed back up for a run of the mill, stylized action flick. Now this got me confused all day. I too scratched my head as to why this film made so much money, that I and a lot of studio execs could not figure out. Well it comes to this.

I hate to admit it, but Angelina Jolie is a huge movie star. She was the draw for the weekend. I don't see it. I cannot see why she is popular. I don't think she is a good actress, I don't thing she is that pretty. I don't. Sorry. Some people who read this may stop reading forever by learning that I do not like Jolie. I think her face is expressionless and pouty and it does not do it for me. I don't think I have ever seen an honest expression has ever left her face. Sure, I know what you are gonna say. Girl, Interrupted was wonderful, she was wonderful. Let me remind you that James Mangold directed that film and he has a knack for working with actresses. He also directed Walk The Line and helped Reese get her Oscar. So it was not all Jolie's doing for that award.

So what makes her popular? Well, most people out there, the majority of people, think she is amazingly beautiful. I don't see it. I can't see it. Its not going to sink into me. Yet, she was the draw of the weekend. The film get good reviews also. It was hyped up and marketed to the nth degree. And that was it. The main demo showed up. Now I think Hollywood can look at this two ways. They can say "Hey, the main demo is still out there, they still want stylized, action." Even though this entire idea I thought was left in the late 90's.

Or they can say, we have both demos out there. I think Hollywood will ignore all the logic I provided and think that marketing and big name stars are the key to its success. Because that's what it really came down to. We as an audience gave Hollywood back its confidence in what it has been doing for decades, hiring big name stars in a big budget action flick.

You might even say that all that groundbreaking work that SATC did was thwarted by Wanted this weekend. And we as an audience gave it to them. We said to Hollywood this weekend, that it is ok to cheat us. You can just throw a big star out there in a big budget film and we will still come running. Well this is sad my film fans. We had Hollywood on its toes when we demanded better film. Today Hollywood sits back and relaxes again. And we gave it to them. Until Tomorrow, Let's talk film.