… and all that’s opening out here is the sea… not that I’m complaining.
I will likely take a look at the box office here tomorrow morning… afternoon, boat time.
There doesn’t seem to be an enormous amount happening in L.A… outside of the continued shrinkage at Paramount.
I know that it is shocking that I am not all over The Pink Panther, Curious George, Firewall and Final Destination 3, but we will all have to deal with the stunning reality.
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
Looks like it’s “First Weekend of the Winter Olympics Dumping Ground for Bad Movies…”
Regardless of quality, it seems strange that they would release four high-profile movies all on the same weekend when last week only gave us When a Stranger Calls and next week is Date Movie and Freedomland.
It’s nice to see an animated movie out there that isn’t all CGIed up.
Only interesting thing to me this weekend is the theater loss for the Best Pic nominees…Brokeback Mountain is losing 126 in most of its earliest, played-out locations (leaving it at 1963). Walk the Line’s getting cut down 329 to 1,248, Good Night, and Good Luck is slimming to 685, and Munich is losing more than half its theatres to hit 545. I don’t foresee leggy nominations business for most of these films with these theater counts (especially with the Olympics as competition), so they’ll have to rely on awards bumps come March.
Whoops, didn’t mean to imply Walk the Line was a Best Pic nominee, but it certainly had a nominations boost last week that was similar to them.
I think Brokeback will do better with fewer theaters. People who want to see it will be willing to go a little farther to see it.
I love Brokeback so much, if i’m a girl, I’d have its illegitimate baby.
In my area “Brokeback” started with 3 theatres on 1/6, went up to 8 on the 27th, then 10 the Friday after the Oscar Nominations. For some reason, today it went up to 12. So we’re actaully growing in screen numbers. I think in addition to some places losing screens there’s also just some shifting around to better serve demand. It’s still going to have a high per-screen average for the next couple of weeks, I daresay.
The Paramount shrinkage doesn’t seem to be affecting the East Coast. Went to a junket screening tonight and all the usual Paramount people were there.
BTW, I understand that “Final Destination 4: Yes, Really Final This Time!” will be taking place on an ocean liner… no, wait… that’s Poseidon. Nevermind.
FWIW–“Firewall” was 98% full in the theatre I was in and “Pink Panther” was selling out at the same theatre. I think in spite of the Olympics thing, we’re going to see some very healthy BO this weekend, with all four movies having audiences that seem likely to turn out.
The thing is, while there are four substantial flicks out, I’m shocked there’s no romance or romcom out there to capitalize on Valentine’s Day.
Valentine’s Day…hate to say it, but Brokeback may spike with a lack of rom-com-petition. None of the other films coming sound particularly good, but they don’t sound terrible either. Harrison Ford, Steve Martin, a beloved pet, and a cult franchise doesn’t sound like a bad weekend for films despite one’s initial “dumping ground” disdain.
PINK PANTHER, FIREWALL, FINAL DESTINATION 3 – guys this is a tough competitive weekend – it dont know what gives you the impression its gonna be a lacklustre one – i think all the above films will find their audiences.
The CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN/family crowd will go for PANTHER. The action crowd will go for FIREWALL and the dumb teenager demographic will go for FINAL 4. CURIOUS GEORGE for the children.
I think all 4 films will find audiences. They might not open huge but they will do well.
BROKEBACK, WHEN A STRANGER etc get knocked fown the list further.
“Pink Panther” has been on the shelf for nearly 2 years and is being dumped. “Brokeback Mountain” lost a lot of smaller theaters — I had a post on that in another thread 2 days ago.
This weekend’s box office will be weather-affected. New York City, Long Island and southern New England are under a blizzard warning starting tonight.
From showbizdata:
1) Final Destination 3 – $7.4 million
2) Pink Panther – $5.9 million
3) Firewall – $4.4 million
4) Curious George – $3.8 million
FD3 will almost certainly drop Fri-Saturday, and George will bump Friday-Saturday. A question begged by this–is Harrison Ford no longer a reliable opener of a movie star?
Firewall is not doing typical Harrison Ford numbers because it’s not a very good movie. This doesn’t mean Ford has lost his box office clout. He just needs to find another smart script like What Lies Beneath or Presummed Innocent and he’s back in business. I predict he tries his hand at a semi-indie movie real soon.
BTW: Why is it that 23 years after WarGames no one is able to make a smart and entertaining movie about computers? By all accounts WarGames should not hold up, but it does. Movies like The Net, Hackers, and AntiTrust have all failed in capturing the public’s imagination.Virtuosity is trashy fun but still trash. Strange Days is great but isn’t exactly a “fun” movie. Anyone have any theories?
because Gent
…the rain softly falls and..
computers are f*cking boring
as proven
by Office Space characters
The last interesting “computer” was Hal.
The computerized end of the world in Dr Strangelove was good also…
I’d like to know where MattM lives, where cinemas are 98% full for FireFall and sold out for Pink Panther. Obviously that’s an anomole when looking at the Friday numbers. BIG anomole.
Me and my friends go to a movie every Tuesday ($6.50 is el cheapo considering they’re usually $12) but we didn’t know about going on next Tuesday cause it’s Valentine’s day but then looking at the movies out on Tuesday we couldn’t figure out what people would see. Casanova is out on Valentine’s Day so that will be popular, and Walk the Line was out 2 weeks ago and is very popular still. Other than that? Brokeback? Imagine Me & You (in preview screenings).
We’ve decided to see Munich or Jarhead – surely they aren’t considered romantic, right?
you should see MUNICH – at least just for our friend Dave Poland – and trust me that film needs the business
New York City.
I just saw Hustle &Flow on DVD last night and I have a few words to say about the Black commentators (newsweek, couch, et al) who claim it’s demeaning to Black people…to have black actors portray pimps, etc. (‘negative’ types)…on the behind the scenes part of the video Paula Jai Parker said she was approached by none other than Bill Cosby about playing an “urban” type of Black woman – stripper, etc. And she had second thoughts about playing the stripper part because of the negative feedback by the black elite,i.e. Cosby.
Look — let’s face it, there are pimps and ho’s in the world some high class some low class…for the Black elite to tell people that they shouldn’t act those parts, come on! But nobody mentions that Harry Belafonte played a pimp in Altman’s movie.
There are black strippers. It’s not for me to say this is judge their occupation, most of them are working single mothers or trying to get through school…and what about white strippers? It’s Ok to tell an actress not to play a black stripper but Demi Moore, et al, play strippers & working class girls all the time.
How say you?
I just saw Hustle &Flow on DVD last night and I have a few words to say about the Black commentators (newsweek, couch, et al) who claim it’s demeaning to Black people…to have black actors portray pimps, etc. (‘negative’ types)…on the behind the scenes part of the video Paula Jai Parker said she was approached by none other than Bill Cosby about playing an “urban” type of Black woman – stripper, etc. And she had second thoughts about playing the stripper part because of the negative feedback by the black elite,i.e. Cosby.
Look — let’s face it, there are pimps and ho’s in the world some high class some low class…for the Black elite to tell people that they shouldn’t act those parts, come on! But nobody mentions that Harry Belafonte played a pimp in Altman’s movie.
There are black strippers. It’s not for me to say this is judge their occupation, most of them are working single mothers or trying to get through school…and what about white strippers? It’s Ok to tell an actress not to play a black stripper but Demi Moore, et al, play strippers & working class girls all the time.
How say you?