The Hot Button by David Poland

Friday, 18 September 1998

WEEKEND PREVIEW

Well, it looks like we may actually get the first opening gross over $10 million in a few weeks. The last one was Blade, which did $17.1 million. This one should be Rush Hour, which I think will take first with about $15 million. Is it a coincidence that both films are from New Line? Not really. While other studios are dumping projects left and right, New Line basically stayed out of the summer, starting their prime time schedule with Blade. Miramax is similar in its tactics and Rounders should hold up well, falling just about 20 percent to $6.8 million. This will be good enough for third place, but not good enough to beat Universal's newcomer, One True Thing, which should manage about $11.8 million to take second place.
In fourth, look for There's Something About Mary to drop about 25 percent to $5.3 million and about $146 million in domestic total. (It passed up Dr. Dolittle and Deep Impact on Wednesday to become the third highest grosser -- so to speak -- of the summer.) Simon Birch, expanding on last week's 600 screens to (Disney hopes) 900, should rise to about $4 million even though its per-screen average will fall.
Sixth place should be close to a tie, with Blade and Saving Private Ryan neck and neck (that should be a two movies equal, huh?) at $2.9 million. (That's 45 percent off for Blade and 35 percent for Ryan.) In eighth, look for Ever After to start wrapping things up with a 35 percent fall to $1.5 million. The last two slots in the Top 10 look to be a matter of "how low can you go?" (Though there are some art house releases worth checking out: Permanent Midnight, War Zone, the over-rated but sure to be culty Six String Samurai and the blaxploitation sags from Quentin Tarantino's recovery operation, Detroit 9000).
Knock Off should fall faster (55 percent) than Snake Eyes (40 percet) leaving Jean-Claude Van Damme with just $880,000 and Nicolas Cage with $950,000. But Armageddon will go lower, taking ninth place with a 30 percent fall for Armageddon (making $1.1 million) and coming within $250,000 of the $196 million mark. By October 12, Disney will obtain its only goal, making Armageddon a $200 million movie. Saving Private Ryan won't hit that mark in its initial run, stopping at about $190 million, but look for the film to be re-released next January or February for a serious Academy run, grab a load of nominations and add about $20 million to pass Armageddon and finally be crowned Summer 1998 box office king.
THE GOOD: Disney showed that it's not so old fashioned and stodgy by booking Grace Jones to appear live at Disney World last week.
THE BAD: Grace Jones gave Disney a reason to go back to being old-fashioned and stodgy by baring her breasts at her performance at Disney World last week. Slave to the rhythm indeed.
THE UGLY: This could be the kind of tawdry occurrence that keeps the Marilyn Manson/Boy George "Look at me, PLEASE!" Tour 1998 from getting booked at The Magic Kingdom. What a tragedy! And I guess they'll have to scrap plans to add Monica Lewinsky to the Hall of Presidents.
TWO MOVIES EQUAL: Saving Private Ryan + Blade = Saving Private Blade. Tom Hanks leads a rag tag crew of seven young soldiers on a search for Wesley Snipes' Pvt. Blade character. (Studio press releases say that Snipes was picked for the role before, uh, uh, Wildcats?) The problem is that no matter how many times they save him, he keeps running in front of tanks and gets shot repeatedly, causing his fellow soldiers to try to save him and get killed themselves. By the time Hanks has lost 127 men trying to save Pvt. Blade, he finally figures out that the guy is part vampire, so Snipes bites him and he to becomes invincible. Hollywood is then subjected to The Money Pit 2, The 'Burbs 2 and Turner and Hoochula. And audiences can't help but go. But Hanks goes too far and buys MGM (the Hollywood version of a stake in the heart) and dies a bitter death when Kirk Kerkorian buys the studio back from him for 8 cents on the dollar.
JUST WONDERING: Are you all ready to rush out to see John Waters' Pecker, Ronin, Urban Legend, Antz or What Dreams May Come or is it all a soft-focus blur? This is not a "will you go?" question, but rather a "are you anxious to go?" question. Somehow, it seems like these films are being either undersold or soft sold to the point of disinterest.
GREAT AD WATCH: Normally, I rag on ads in this space, but I am truly bowled over by the Psycho campaign from Universal. This is easily the best work I've seen from this studio in years. It's edgy, it's funny and I'll tell you, it really makes me look forward to seeing this movie. Seeing these ads, I feel as though I will indeed be seeing "a new film from Gus Van Sant," despite its history. Likewise, the Meet Joe Black trailer is 70 percent more effective on the big screen than on TV. You really get the feel for Martin Brest's kind of laid back pacing on a big screen. (It also has four screenwriters listed in the credits. Can't wait for that to hit the WGA arbitration committee.)
READER OF THE DAY: Conor wrote: "I have a question concerning a SFX shot in both The Avengers and Mars Attacks. In both movies an explosion destroys the London landmark, Big Ben. It appears as though both movies use the same SFX shot; same angle, explosion from the same direction, color, everything. Do you know if this happened? Did director Jeremiah Chechik just phone up Tim Burton and ask if it was OK to use some film? Since Mars Attacks came out first, one would think that's the order in which the shots would be completed. If it isn't the same shot, then someone worked real hard to make it similar, and if it is the same shot, you would think they would've reversed the film to try and disguise it a little.
"P.S. Two bad movies equal: Mars Attacks and The Avengers = The Avengers Attack Mars. Uma Thurman as superhero Wanda the Witch and Jack Nicholson as Tony Stark. Iron Man and the rest of The Avengers (including Danny Devito as Ant Man) travel to Mars to prevent an imminent alien colonization plot. After vanquishing the alien foe, they inadvertently leave Spiderman (Tom Cruise) behind."

E ME: First, anyone have any idea of whether those shots really seem to match up? Next, I'm wondering whether the ever growing Hot Button is becoming just too much to read each day. I'm not looking for compliments (much as I enjoy them), but I would really like to hear from as many of you as possible about whether you are finding THB too long, too short or just right. And please feel free to let me know which parts of the column you like best, least or not at all. After all, if you aren't a Hollywood type being slimy, I aim to please you. I thanks you for your input ahead of time. (As I can't respond to every e-mail) Start flaming!