January 5, 2004

Back to life… back to reality…

Nothing much magical happened while Hollywood vacationed. No movie made a great sprint for the Oscar finish line. No one finally closed their deal to take Arthur Cohen’s old job. No one made any noise about all the screeners that have ended up on the web according to VCDQuality.com.

And no one paid proper tribute to the success of Cheaper By The Dozen, which has been overshadowed by the third Rings that rules them all. After two weekends, Cheaper is outpacing Steve Martin’s previous biggest hit, Bringing Down The House, by 29 percent. The film has a very real chance of hitting the $150 million mark, which would put it right between Anger Management and Elf on the domestic gross list of 2003-released comedies.

Another surprise at year-end is that Intolerable Cruelty has passed the $100 million mark worldwide, more than doubling its $35 million domestic gross with $74 million so far overseas. Likewise, the “disastrous” The Matrix Revolutions has more than doubled its domestic gross overseas, $278 million to $138 million, making it the seventh biggest film in the world in 2003. Combined with The Matrix Reloaded, the franchise was responsible for $1.15 billion dollars in theatrical box office in 2003. It’s not the overwhelming cash cow that WB dreamed of, but it is going to provide a lot of milk to a lot of people for a long, long time.

The Last Samurai made a strong recovery to go with a significant increase in TV ad buys by Warner Bros. No doubt, the couple of million extra that came from the buys didn’t come close to covering the cost of the TV spots. But if WB can change perception with some increased numbers, perhaps it can revive lost Oscar hopes and then, the reward would be well worth the financial risk. Likewise, Oscar aware ad buys and screen count adds by Mystic River and Lost In Translation helped both films to 60% and 70% respectively.

FAVORITE AD LINE OF THE WEEK – Warner Bros.’ ads for Mystic River lead with Clint Eastwood saying, “It’s not about special effects.” When the ad first ran, Eastwood opened with that comment, but went on to explain the human drama of the film. Apparently that detail’s not necessary any more… just a (verbal) flashing red sign saying, “Lord of the Rings is a special effects movies and should not be taken seriously, our Academy friends.”

GOSSIP MISSES AGAIN: While Roger Friedman was busy trying to make hay by attacking real journalists, he seems to have missed the news that The Producers is actively being worked at Universal Pictures by Mel Brooks with Susan Stroman behind the camera, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick set and ongoing conversations with various people about supporting roles, including one Oscar-winning actress who has expressed more than a passing interest in playing Ulla. There is more than a small chance that the current Broadway run is a warm-up for the boys to get back into fighting shape for the movie and not just a harbinger of a possible London run. And if the film does start in May, it could theoretically be ready for an Oscar run next December.

LAST WEEK: You may have missed the New Year’s piece, which turned into a reflection piece and didn’t run until Saturday. Click here to read it now.

READER OF THE DAY: BUFFALO BRI writes: I could call Roger Ebert soft for not calling on Roger Altman to specify how much he makes on movies that lead him to say “I didn’t make any money” statements. See Ebert’s interview here (done December 26): http://www.suntimes.com/output/eb-feature/cst-nws-altman26.html.

One highlight: “(Roger Ebert) You just came off a big hit, "Gosford Park."

(Robert Altman) And I didn't make any money. Somebody did. That's all right. I've got to do it, and I wanted to do it.”

I would have liked to follow up that answer with “Mr. Altman, what type of car do you drive?” So, I guess you throw some softballs and hope the interviewee says something honest by mistake. I personally think Altman doesn’t drive Nissan Sentras, probably something more expensive. I wonder how much more he needs to make on a picture to say that he actually made money. Asking that question endure someone to get future access to Altman. It happens to all journalists covering every arena of human interaction, if you ask tough questions you don’t get invited back for interviews. Ted Koppel and others have tried to interview Vice President Dick Cheney over and over; Diane Sawyer had kid gloves on for her interview with President Bush a few weeks ago.

I saw Gosford Park, not the most entertaining movie (like a lot of art house movies I see) and I think it made as much as it should have made. The art house crowd just has this ego that only movies in their areas of interest should make all the money, not the crowd pleasers like Star Wars, LOTR, Terminator, etc. Actually, I saw the trailer for Altman’s The Company and thought for the first time I might actually look forward to one of his movies. I saw part of Charlie Rose’s interview with that 21 Grams’ director complaining that audiences have gotten lazy and only want straight narrative (a beginning and an end). I saw 21 Grams and it’s pretty good, but not groundbreaking. Big deal, he told a story chopped up into little pieces and flipped them all around into mess. Other than Penn sucking on Naomi Watts’ tits, I probably will not remember any other scenes in ten years.

The art house loves to insult moviegoers and then bitches when they don’t come to their movies. How about respecting me and not calling me lazy? I see all types of movies. I actually own Battlefield Earth on DVD and have listened to the director’s commentary and went to see 21 Grams and will see In America next weekend. Maybe it’s good that Mexico’s film industry is dying, so they can’t produce more directors to insult me.”

E ME: So… how does the new year look to you?

 

Monday - December 29 - The Movies You Didn't See, But Should Have
Tuesday, December 30 - The Ten Worst Films Of 2002
Wednesday, December 31 - The Best Films Of 2002
Friday, January 2– Reflections on a New Year