Thursday, 9 July 1998

ARMAGEDDON SPIN WATCH: There was some really good spin on Monday, with Variety surprisingly headlining a foreign box office story, "Armageddon sets record in overseas opening." Sounds pretty important until you realize the record opening was in South Korea and was good for $1.4 million, surpassing the age-old record set by Godzilla. Of course, Godzilla's numbers dropped by half in the second week.

By Tuesday, Jerry Bruckheimer started distancing himself from the fiscal stench in an L.A. Times interview. Does this sound like a proud parent or subtle finger-pointing by Jerry B.? "[Bay] is a director who likes to use a lot of set-ups. A lot of times they're real interesting shots and he (italics are DP's) wants to get them all in. So in order to get all the set-ups in, you've got to make a lot of cuts." Huh? That would be called wasting time and money. How about this one? After saying how the film had a "very rushed production schedule": "If the original editor put the rough cut together and was cutting another reel, another editor would work on the sequence. More than one editor cut just about every sequence." What this excuse doesn't take into account is that this practice is not unusual these days. It's not like the editors, Mark Goldblatt, Chris Lebenzon and Glen Scantlebury (each of whom has major credits including other Bruckheimer films) were delivering stuff from interns to Disney's screening rooms.

And in Wednesday's Daily Variety, Disney movie chief Joe Roth (one of the guys I respect the most in this industry) went public, claiming, "Before the opening, I said internally that if we could average $10 million a day over the weekend I would be happy," said Roth. "I probably should have spent some time talking to the press about my expectations." I don't believe that at all. And I'll tell you why (besides that it's obvious). Last year, Con Air made $8 million a day through its first three days. Disney didn't move to the July 4 date with hopes of increasing its box office by $2 million a day. Disney didn't buy a $2 million Super Bowl ad in order to generate another $2 million a day in the opening weekend. And Disney didn't approve a $140 million-plus budget in hopes of generating $2 million more a day. Why didn't Roth and other Disney execs express their feelings that a $50 million five-day weekend would make them happy? Because there's not a journalist this side of Ron Brewington who wouldn't have laughed in their faces.

MORE SPIN: Variety also reported that John Travolta and wife Kelly Preston will appear together for the first time on-screen in The Shipping News. I guess they just "forgot" 1989's The Experts, the dud film that brought the duo together in the first place. Not exactly Holocaust denial, but yet another example of media types turning our heads and coughing up disinformation for publicists.

READER OF THE DAY: From a Disney employee who will remain nameless and sexless because who wants to get a guy in trouble just for having an opinion? Oops!: "Denial abounds at the house of mouse, my friend: Armageddon is the best opening in BV history and the best...blah, blah, blah... Love my company, but man! What happened? OK, now, here's why I'm phoning in -- Small Soldiers. I smell a bomb. Why? It's not some juicy bit of gossip I've heard, Dave, it's what I don't know. There's not a stitch of non-SKG info anywhere on the web. No sneak reviews, no buzz from the set, no unwarranted predictions of box office glory -- Nothing! This smacks of a cover-up, and I'd bet an Armageddon Chocolate bar that Katzenberg and his boys are shrouding a shoddy movie due for an unceremonious fall. All studio brawling aside, I hope it's great, but I remember hearing about The Truman Show at least a month before release. We're four days from curtain, my friend, and not so much as a peep."

RESPONSE OF THE DAY: Well, I would normally have some of the same concerns. But first, a touch of history. DreamWorks didn't have a print ready for their junket, which was scheduled for June 26. So, they canceled the junket. Some thought that it might be a cover. But now I have seen the movie, and I can tell you that they had no reason to cover. Perhaps, in this summer of failed hype, DreamWorks decided not to push that button. On the other hand, many of their other releases (Mousehunt, Paulie, Deep Impact) would be considered underhyped by today's high-priced standard. The film, which is a technological marvel (you never get thrown out of the moment by the computer graphics), is essentially a kinder, gentler Gremlins. Kids are going to love this movie. Their parents will be happy to be in the theater with them. I only wonder whether the choice to focus the story on two young teens (perfectly appropriate for the story, placing the heroes right at that awkward age when dolls become embarrassing) will bite the box office in the ass. There is some secretly adult stuff, but nothing as profanely, profoundly hysterical as Phoebe Cates' father dying while stuck in the chimney as Santa. The microwave is limited to verbal threats this time around. And the sexual heat that an 18-year-old Phoebe Cates generates is nowhere to be found, even though Kirsten Dunst has never been lovelier. I would, perhaps, have crafted a story with a couple of generations of kids to broaden the box office appeal. Oh, well. But a good movie. And there was plenty of space to rib Disney. Never happened. No Mickey dolls in the 50-percent-off bin at the toy store. Small Soldiers should be a surprise hit. People will enjoy discovering this film. But we are still looking for the surprise $200 million hit of 1998.

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E ME: Did you come to the Small Soldiers premiere last night? Did you enjoy it? And are you at all excited by Lethal Weapon 4, or is it just another film to see, maybe?