The Hot Button by David Poland

Friday, 19 June 1998

WEEKEND PREVIEW
It should be clear sailing for The X-Files this weekend. The Truman Show, in its third week, should drop by another 35 percent to third place with about $13 million. That will leave the second spot open for Mulan, which should do well despite the marked lack of buzz and the fact that its opening on even fewer screens (1,800) than Can't Hardly Wait (1,987). But, it's a Disney movie, right? $14 million. How much do I think The X-Files can do in its first weekend? Between $30 and $40 million. Any higher than that would be a real shock. Any less than that will be a disappointment. Based on what really works in the film, I would have spent a lot less than the reported $60 million budget, not worried so much about the marginalization issue and with what should be around a $100 million domestic box office take and had one of the most profitable films of 1998. In this film, it's truly a case of size doesn't matter. The weakest parts of the film are the ones where they try to "open up" the show for the big screen. Oops. I said I wouldn't make any more comments until Monday. I'll shut up about it now.
There are no other new competitors in the box office race outside of the art world. (More on some of those below.) Six Days, Seven Nights is still a nice traditional alternative in this summer's high concept marketplace. Fourth place with $11.5 million. Fifth place should go to the very imperfect A Perfect Murder (with a first act as great as The Devil's Advocate's third act -- If Warner Bros. could find a great second act, they'd finally have a watchable movie.). A 35 percent drop to $7.9 million should put the film close to the $50 million mark.
The second five should all be between $5 million and just under $3 million. Tight. Can't Hardly Wait can't hardly drop more than 40 percent this week, can it? Four-point-eight million for sixth. Godzilla will finally break the $130 million barrier (they're going to be writing books about this one) with $4 million in a weak week four. Hope Floats to another $3.2 million and eighth place, while The Horse Whisperer continues steadily (again, as an alternative for the over-30 set) and should jump just ahead of Deep Impact to take ninth place with $3 million. Unlike Godzilla, Deep Impact ($2.9 million for 10th) will have already passed $130 million before the weekend, but not by much. And unlike previous predictions of mine, Godzilla may end up outgrossing Deep Impact domestically by the hair on his finnie fin fin.
THE GOOD: I was asked to take a look at High Art, an art film that is going as wide as most art films go this week. I saw it. It was OK. But the film, which last night opened the San Francisco International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, wasn't really in my range. So I asked my lesbian landlord, Maria, to take a look. Here's a bit of what she had to say: "The more times you view the movie, the better the storyline gets. The lead character, Sid, would have been much better if they had cast a different actress. Greta's lipstick actually got newer and shinier as the scenes progressed HOW many times? And too many shots of the women's heads. You couldn't see emotions that way! Overall, from a lesbian's point of view, real life doesn't happen like it happened in High Art. But good job, Ally. A great character, played very convincingly by Ally Sheedy. I was attracted to her very much."
THE BAD: Lots of moaning over the AFI Top 100 American Films of All Time. (Check out roughcut's answer -- The 100 Worst Films.) As much as he can bug me, I thought Ken Turan of the L.A. Times did a pretty good job listing some of the complaints. (And by the way, AFI's official definition of an American Film is "English language film with significant creative and/or financial production elements from the United States." In other words, virtually every English language film with a budget over $10 million belongs to us. Screw the UK dwellers and the Aussies and the Kiwis. We should keep in mind that AFI's 100 Best isn't a real feat of judgement, but a clever marketing ploy by the American studios to sell more videos -- an effort in which TNT is participating. Which I guess is OK on both counts. People who love films should see all of these titles.)
THE UGLY: The most disgusting Midnight movie ever is on screens in seven cities. It's called The Beyond. Click here to see if you agree. (WARNING: TNT and Time Warner take no responsibility for any resulting psychotic medical conditions caused by viewing the page on The Beyond. If you are sensitive, pregnant or a really big fan of Michael Bolton, please consult a physician before viewing. In fact, even if you aren't going to check the page out, if you are a fan of Michael Bolton, please seek help. A little penicillin should fix you right up.)
TWO MOVIES EQUAL: A Perfect Murder + Hope Floats = A Perfect Float. Michael Douglas, married to the young, vibrant Sandra Bullock, must drink ice cream floats and other soft foods since he has become so old he has no teeth left in his mouth. In fact, the impairment becomes his only viable tool in the bedroom with young Sandra. When Gwyneth Paltrow hears about his skills at the Beautiful-Young-Actresses-
Who-Better-Pick-Their-Movies-Better Convention, she tries him out, causing Brad Pitt to start dating Jennifer Aniston, who dumps Tate Donavan, who once broke Sandra Bullock's heart. Now, this upsets Winona Ryder, who used to date Christian Slater who also used to date Samantha Mathis, who is Sandra Bullock's best friend. Directed by Roman Polanski.
JUST WONDERING: Are Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich ever going to be free of abuse? As I've noted before, Armageddon takes its shot at Godzilla. And now, in The X-Files movie, there is a direct assault on ID4. Maybe this is the price of success followed by disappointment. But can't we all just get along?
BAD AD WATCH: Dirty Work's ad campaign seems to think that just using dirty words will make people over 17 laugh. "Put the 'FU' back in fun!" and "Tired of eating *#!@?" are the ingenious tag lines. (And I am quoting symbol for symbol here.) Perhaps Fox should be using this tact for The X-Files. "Hear Mulder say, 's--t!'" and "See Scully's back naked!"
READER OF THE DAY: First, thank you all for responding to the Wednesday ROTD (THB 6/17) who was complaining about the amount of box office chat. I appreciate the support, even if I can't print many of the letters due to language considerations. As you can see, things remain the same on your say so. And now, Aaron S: "Tell that goofball who 'un-bookmarked' you to go read People. A Hot Button without lots of box office news is like an AFI top 100 movies without The Shawshank Redemption. Errrr...OK, bad example."

E ME: Looking for your X-Files and Mulan experiences.