August 25, 2003

It’s always amusing when a 63% drop is cause for celebration…

The most remarkable thing I see when I look at Len Klady’s box office charts at MCN is that Disney’s four titles in the top fifteen dropped a reported 29%, 35%, 30% and 32% this weekend. Meanwhile, our friends at MGM are reporting a 9% drop for Legally Blonde 2 as they crawl towards the $90 million mark. A tale of two extremes.

Marci X’s reported $810,000 is truly sensational. Of course, it will get none of the attention of Gigli. But the gross is about 2.5 times less than Pluto Nash’s start… more than 7 times less than Serving Sara… it is only $142,000 better than Gigli’s 82% drop second weekend. It just goes to show… it’s all perspective.

I went looking for a worse showing from a wide studio release in late summer… going back six years, the only one I found that came close was A Dog Of Flanders, which WB dumped out on August 27, 1999. The numbers are, in fact, so close, that I wonder whether Paramount knew the record and reported just above Flanders so as not to be smeared with the “worst ever” tag. Of course, A Dog of Flanders was a Belgian pick-up that WB turned up when they were experimenting (and failing) with indie-style releasing. Marci X is a big studio picture with a seven-figure writer, Paramount’s favorite fallback comedy director (Frank Oz was busy becoming a dramatic director and WB fave Howie Deutsch was busy destroying The Whole Ten Yards, I guess) and at least $40 million all in. Ouch.

And one more thing… it goes to show that talent participation in publicity does matter, even in a disaster. There is little doubt that any publicity effort at all by Lisa Kudrow and Damon Wayans would have been worth a few million dollars at the box office… still not enough to cover the cost of a conservative marketing campaign. (The current projected total on this film will not cover the outdoor advertising costs.) But these are the moments that define movie careers. Jackie Chan worked his ass off for The Medallion and while $8.1 million may be less than dreamed of, it is the best opening for a Hong Kong-made Chan film since Rumble In The Bronx made him a viable name in this country in 1996. Chan and Screen Gems deserve and will get credit for making it happen.

I don’t know the details of the situation of Marci X at Paramount. It was sitting in the can forever and, no doubt, the film was a problem movie. But there are definitely studios that will think twice about working with Ms. Kudrow or Mr. Wayans because of the bail out. Some will accept the reasons/excuses. Others will not. But as Tony Kaye learned to as a great a degree as anyone, when you are seen to be dumping on your own project, you become too dangerous to hire again.

No one will worry about hiring Kudrow to play “The Girlfriend/Wife” again. But when she bails on her first shot as The Lead… fuggedaboudit. She may be, sadly, forced to learn the lesson of her Romy & Michelle co-lead, Mira Sorvino, who has not had The Lead in a studio film since she drove people nuts on The Replacement Killers five years ago. (It was also Sorvino’s third financial tank in three tries… followed by At First Sight, which buried the hatchet deeper in her neck.) Kudrow also had her Lucky Numbers. But Travolta ate the cyanide cake on that on that one. When taking a shot with a talented but untraditional leading actress like Kudrow is weighed, many factors come into play. And now she is the “she doesn’t draw… and she fucked publicity on her last film” quirky actress. Perhaps she is so TV rich that it just doesn’t matter. So be it…

CHECK IT OUT: Still scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday and next Sunday is Rosanna Arquette’s Searching For Debra Winger on Showtime. After reading Andrea Gronvall’s passionate look at the film, I made sure to take a look at it over the weekend and it’s great fun. In a weird way, I think was almost more intrigued as a journalist than I was as a movie fan. I try, as an interviewer, to break the cycle of “What was it like working with…” questions when I sit down with talent. Arquette gets instant access to the real people beneath the veneer when she turns her camera on. She is one of them and the trust is palpable.

Sure, Whoopi Goldberg is always willing to say anything. But the mixture of passion and ambivalence of a Robin Wright Penn or the spontaneous explosion of enthusiasm about Charlotte Rampling when the then-just released Under The Sand is mentioned, uniting Juliana Margulies and Melanie Griffin in surprising a sisterhood of acting or Patricia Arquette openly discussing what it is like to have a leering producer on set or Vanessa Redgrave with face work so good (and looking do beautiful at 65) that you almost believe she’s had none, talking about being Granny and babysitting and not having enough money to retire on… amazing.

My favorite thing in the film, however, is Charlotte Rampling herself… smiling. My Lord. When relaxed, she has this big, goofy smile that is just enchanting. She is a beautiful woman and known for her moody characters. But to see her light up as she goofs with the dear departed Katrin Cartlidge… a whole different kind of delight.

Arquette occasionally overfawns, to the degree to which you almost think that this is a way of conning some of the actresses into opening up. But if you care about film and actors, this film is an absolute must.

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE TUBE: The quiet and furious turf battle over the domestic release of Liliana Cavani’s Ripley’s Game is over. The John Malkovich take on an older Tom Ripley that premiered at Venice last August and has opened across most of the globe to decent, if not overwhelming, reviews premieres in the U.S.A. on September 4 on IFC TV.

I will be in Toronto, but my Tivo is set.

SPEAKING OF TORONTO: I got a tip from a friend to make sure to check out Chokher Bali up at the festival. No matter how good it is, the odds of a Bollywood non-musical getting a pick-up in America is very, very… well, zilch. But that doesn’t mean it is not worth seeing when we get these kinds of opportunities.

READER OF THE DAY: UNDERPASS writes:
Edward Scissorhands Vs. Harvey Weinstein
City of Angels vs. Wings of Desire
All of the Kevin Spacey smug self-righteous bastards versus each other.
Gollum versus Dobby the House Elf
The ladies of "The Hours" versus the ladies of "Personal Velocity"
Forrest Gump versus John Nash (A Beautiful Mind)
Jim Caviezel's Jesus vs. Willem Dafoe's Jesus
Gigli versus Glitter versus Swept Away

TAKING THE LEAD writes: “The idea of pairing two horror franchises is not new. Frankenstein Met the Wolfman in 1943, and Dracula joined the fun in House of Frankenstein the next year. The monster mélange enjoyed curious popularity in Latin America for decades. And of course there was King Kong vs. Godzilla, which I guess furnished Freddy vs. Jason with its watery, semi-inconclusive ending.

Myself, I'm holding out for Michael Myers vs. Jaws.”

Finally, WENDY’S DEAD DAD writes: “I've always thought you could make a great series of "X vs. Y" films from the AFI's Heroes and Villains list. Just read across and you'll get...

Atticus Finch vs. Hannibal Lechter - Actually, he'd probably be defending Hannibal Lechter.

James Bond vs. Darth Vader - The storm troopers have as bad aim as any Bond villain's henchmen.

Zorro vs. The Joker - They're talking about doing another Zorro film anyway, and the Batman franchise needs a shot in the arm.

Serpico vs. Freddy Kruger _ OK, Serpico would get his ass kicked, but it would still be entertaining. Freddy taking on the form of corrupt cops, etc.

Woodward & Bernstein vs. the Martians - Now this would rock. It would seem that the Martians would have the upper hand, what with their superior technology and all, but once the intrepid reporters exposed corruption within the highest echelons of the Martian power structure (with the help of “Deep Tentacle”) the in-fighting and impeachment hearings would dissolve the Martian Army from within. In the ensuing chaos, Ford would take over the Martian Administration, and that would pretty much do it.”

E ME: Forgive? Forget? Both?

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