Monday, September 15, 2008

Box Office Truth

They are good, my film fans...Cohen Brothers

Ok, let's talk film. So I think we all know that there are two separate entities in Film. One is Hollywood and the other is the Box Office. Hollywood represents the execs, the sharks, the ones who are out to make a gazillion dollars each film. The other entity is the audience, who pay 11.50 to see a good story. These two divisions never see eye to eye. Hollywood wants to make the same movie over and over again. They think we want the same movie over and over again. You know what movie I am talking about. They make the Hero movie, the film where the hero doesn't want to be the hero, yet becomes the Hero anyway. The underdog story. That's what Hollywood keeps making over and over again.

Well there is a point here. If you look at the Box Office this weekend. Let's just post it and take a look at it here.

1 Burn After Reading $19,404,000 2,651
2 N Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys $18,020,000 - 2,070
3 N Righteous Kill Over. $16,500,000 - 3,152
4 N The Women (2008) $10,088,000 - 2,962
5 4 The House Bunny $4,300,000 - 2,763

Well the first number is of course the weekend gross and the second number is the number of theaters. Here is the tomatometer for the opening films.

78% Burn After Reading
52% Tyler Perry's The Fami… $17.4M
23% Righteous Kill $16.3M
10% The Women $10.1M
84% Tropic Thunder $4.2M
40% The House Bunny $4.2M
95% The Dark Knight $4.1M
10% Bangkok Dangerous $2.6M
52% Traitor $2.1M
38% Death Race $2.1M

This speaks for itself. The big ticket for the weekend according to Hollywood was Righteous Kill. Hollywood marketed that like it was the next Godfather. And they had high hopes with Diane English's The Women. But, look how it turned out. The audience went to see the film that got the best reviews. How upset does this make Hollywood? I could not even tell you. It takes their wind away. They can't fool us anymore. This has been going on all summer. All summer long we as an audience has told Hollywood to shove it when it comes to sub par film.

They are gonna have to do better. Well don't think that this is gonna sink in right away. We are gonna have to boycott more films. Yes of course. Hollywood is aware but they are not going to learn instantly. They still have the studio formula stuck with them like cancer. That will be the biggest thing for them to overcome. They have to stick to their inbred formula and realize that it is time for change. Well this is a bolder of an industry that is not willing to change anytime soon, yet the Box Office demands it. It is there in plain black and white. Until Tomorrow, let's talk film.