Borrrrrrrr-ing…

The Hollywood’s Reporter’s venerable Gregg Kilday wrote of this weekend, “studios are momentarily digging in, serving up demographically targeted features aiming for very specific slices of the market rather than attempting to draw the whole family into one big tent.”

In other words, borrrrrrrrr-ing!

Welcome to the calm in the middle of the summer storm.  It was supposed to be windier about now, but welcome to the new millennium of the movie business.  Don’t misread this.  The quiet of this weekend is not a rip on the box office runs of Spider-Man or Attack of the Clones or The Sum of All Fears or even Undercover Brother and About A Boy.   This is about people expecting Spider-Man to be less front heavy and to still be in the 20s this weekend, for Star Wars to be bigger and still in the 30s, for Sum to be in the high 20s and for Undercover Brother or About A Boy or Spirit or Insomnia to have broken out. 

The Divine Secrets of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood, a late summer movie in my opinion, is classic counter-programming.  Bad Company is trying to offer something to adults (Hopkins) and something to black audiences (Rock), though you have to wonder why Buena Vista decided to go up against Undercover Brother and The Sum of All Fears so closely.  (Could be that they hoped that the summer wave would carry this floating turd to shore.) 

Fact is, last weekend’s Top Five delivered about $90 million and this weekend, that group will be fortunate to produce $50 million… which means that the weekend is wide open.  It would be rather unusual for a studio to release two movies in one weekend, but you gotta’ know that Warner Bros. wishes that it had Scooby-Doo filling this void this weekend, following quickly on the heels of the Scooby star Sarah Michelle Gellar co-hosting the MTV Movie Awards, giving them an extra free weekend with the kids before Lilo & Stitch dominates every pre-teen and without Cruise and Spielberg taking over all the good e-show slots with Minority Report.  Hindsight is, of course, 20/20… or pre-hindsight in this case, I guess. 

In the meantime… zzzzzzzzzzzz….

Two NBA Finals games this weekend… zzzzzzzz…..

Barry Bonds versus The New York Yankees…. zzzzzzz…..

Even the weather is participating here in L.A… laconic, cloudy and oh so moderate… zzzzzzz…

Monsoon Wedding is still around… so is Y Tu Mama Tambien and Dogtown & Z-Boys and CQ and even Amelie in some theaters.

Maybe this is the weekend to go outside… rent a DVD… make out on your couch…

JUST WONDERING:  When James Toback’s new film, Harvard Man, played on three very carefully selected screens and still managed less than $400 a day per screen over the weekend, why are people revving up the hype for the New York/LA release anyway?  They couldn’t get 20 people a show in San Francisco and Boston!!!!  Could it be that Toback, while clearly a fascinating guy, has carved out a niche with his still-in-the-70s attitudes and limited directing skills as the poor man’s Henry Jaglom?  (Festival in Cannes opened to $6834 per screen on 6 screens in March.)

HYPE TRAP:  A reader was kind enough to send me to the website that houses SHRINK!, the collection of comics that are now being developed into a feature film to start Jennifer Lopez.  Unlike Undercover Brother, where you can get a real feel for the movie to come from 12 animated episodes, there are four, count ‘em, four single panel (see: Family Circus) cartoons featuring no name superheroes complaining in the most obvious of ways.  (Not included, “She used to like that I was the man of steel.”)  In any case, you can check them out by clicking here and clicking on the “Read the previous SHRINK!” link on the bottom of the page.  It’s still a great idea for a movie, but it’s obviously a page one project.

TV TOO:  Just when you thought that the promotion of movie grosses was completely out of hand, welcome to the new world of TV promotion.  As described in a Variety article by Michael Schneider and Craig Offman, the networks are now crowing about their ad sales numbers in detail, positioning themselves as winners of the fall race before the first show is even produced for air.  Of course, all the numbers are, ultimately, projections, since the networks have to hit ratings figures to make these goals.  It’s kind of like a studio estimating way high intentionally to make the Sunday night newscasts and then backing off on Monday, knowing that no one is going to run that story.  And the beat goes on…

QUESTION CORNER:  “I was watching the MTV movie awards last night, and I wondered what happened to this movie?  I remember seeing previews for it around the beginning of the year, and then I heard it got bumped to (I thought) August.  Eminem has got a new album out, and he's at the show with co-star Brittany Murphy, and I didn't see any previews.  It seems like now would be the best time not only to be promoting this movie, but to actually have it in theaters.  Have I missed something?”

Answer:  Universal will release the Curtis Hanson film on November 8, pushing away from its original July release date.  It’s an Imagine movie, so you know that Universal is taking extra special care of the film… but I am not holding out a lot of hope.  According to Greg Dean Schmitz, whose name I butchered earlier this week, Variety’s Army Archerd referred to this film in a May column as Fight Song, so there may still be a title change. 

MTV MOVIE AWARDS:   Geez, did anyone tell these people that they were winning MTV Movie Awards and not real awards of some kind?  There was an awful lot of excessive sincerity on stage for an award show where every single winner appears, even if they have to be taped.  Hmmm…  My favorite comment was from Nicole Kidman, who, after taking home two awards, complained that she didn’t take home a third.  The biggest surprise of the night was the revelation that Kelly Osborne could actually sing and that remaking Papa Don’t Preach as a rock song was a good idea, even if there seems to be a marketing tie-in.  Finally, I felt vindicated by the Spider-Man opening piece… after being mocked by some for pointing out not only the obvious points in the movie’s wet T-shirt sequence, but Ms. Dunst’s yolks as well, the MTV gang went for the full monty when it came to Ms. Gellar’s false-y portrayal of Ms. Dunst.  So there!

BOX OFFICE & TOMATOES:  After wondering aloud at the New York Times’ piece on the Woody Allen trial, I was pointed towards Roger Ebert’s letter to the New York Times regarding the same… thing is, he had a different perspective because the website didn’t offer the chart that offended him so.  And while I agree with Roger that RottenTomatoes.com is a terrific site to use to look at criticism, it too needs to be taken, like any raw tomato, with a grain or two of salt.  A show of hands (aka the Tomato-meter) works as a broad stroke.   But the true value of Rotten Tomatoes, to me, is the ability to get a feel for the sweep of domestic criticism and the specifics of critics you may connect with.  What I would love to see at RT, now that they have been around for a while, is a revision poll.  Send out a simple rotten or ripe request to all participating critics on the movies of five years ago and see whether the tomato-meter numbers hold.  That would be fascinating. 

READER OF THE DAY:  Not The Shark writes:  “Because of your glowing reviews of this weekend's films, I think I'll drive on down to the Laemmle on Sunset and see "Cherish" with the uniquely gorgeous Robin Tunney. Have you seen the trailer? She looks great in that bikini!”

And this from Alfred Six Vowels:  “Yo Dave.  I spent the weekend doing various things.  Among them was a visit to see Eddie Griffin and co in Undercover Brother.  Is the movie funny?  Hell yes!  It's *SOLID*  Is it among the greatest comedies ever?  Let's wait and see.  People forget that comedies are much tougher to digest.  You have to let them become a part of cultural life before you realize their true greatness.  (Example: The first Austin Powers.  No one went and saw it and it wasn't until video and TV that people got a chance to digest all Mike Myers was doing.  Now everyone can quote the damn thing verbatim).

As for Clones:  Yes, it is a better movie than Phantom Menace.  What made Phantom Menace so big was that it was the first Star Wars movie in 16 years. People were dying to see it and many felt burned afterwards that it wasn't the movie that they wanted.  It was the movie Lucas wanted.  (If Clones had been the movie to come out 3 years ago, it would have toppled Titanic's numbers.  But Lucas went a different route).  On top of that, you have more "event" movies out there (Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Matrix,

Spider-Man) than ever before.  So, where once upon a time Star Wars may have been the only major game in town, now there's more and more product to compete with it.  (Not against it, but on its same turf).

Oh, and as for the Death of Independent Films?  Never happened.  If you want to label indie films as what Miramax and New Line and Dimension were coming out with, then you may say that it's over and done with.  I don't think that's necessarily how they should be categorized.  After all, the whole idea behind independent films is that you are "independent" from major studios, from focus groups, marketing campaigns and big star salaries and egos.  It's not a line that can be determined by money, it's about an attitude.  An ideal that you can tell a competent and engaging story, where the focus is on the characters and the action on the screen and not whether you're going to beat last week's gross or how this actor and that actress hooked up/divorced.  I mean, Woody Allen has not made an independent film in a long time.  He's been making Woody Allen films.  Same with Spike Lee, Kevin Smith, etc.

Till later, always remember to keep that funk alive."

E ME:  Keep that funk alive…. How are you going to do it this weekend?