I’m not feeling so great about the mockery (here’s Mark Caro’s) of Dan Glickman’s suggestion yesterday that the movie exhibitors and studios get together to promote the joys of the theatrical experience. It is one of the great forms of denial that somehow movies are not sold like pork chops. This is the same naivety that argues that
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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
“This is the same naivety that argues that
What is “better,” Crow? And why would that inspire people to go to a movie theater? Why not just want to buy a DVD more… even if I bought the premise that quality by any group’s standard was a Top Three determiner of the ticket purchase choice, which I don’t?
The problem of teenage boys’ minds is not distraction, because distractions are their passions. But as wrong-headed as it is to say they are too distracted, it’s also wrong to assume their current levels of distraction will remain fixed. Kids that come later will only be given more choices, and they will no doubt find those choices even better or perhaps not even realize it could be any different.
But even if the PSA campaign works, it just highlights another problem exhibitors face: they just love to blame distributors for failing to market the films and producers for failing to make “good” movies. Instead, they should be talking about making theater-going classier, inexpensive, and, for lack of a better word, more civilized.
More appealing movies would make for better box office more so than better movies. Marketing and timing can matter a whole lot more than quality. Are any of the top movies from this year any better than the tops from last year? Not really, but box office is. Spider-Man 2 made money because it was appealing and great. Batman Begins made less money, because while good, it did not appeal to as many peopleMaking better movies is not going to help a lot, but making better movies that are more appealing will.
Ugh, better movies has nothing to do with it unless we’re talking blockbusters. The Summer period could indeed help with some better movies.
But, really, look back over the ’80s and ’70s. Many of the highest grossing movies were straight-forward ADULT dramas. Movies like Million Dollar Baby and Capote (just two random examples) would’ve easily doubled their domestic takes back then, but nowadays a movie like Capote barely gets to $30mil and M$B only just gets to $100mil. There was a time when movies like Kramer Vs Kramer grossed something like $250mil!
I don’t think M$B would have ever made $200 mil, but yes, something had happened to the adult drama — and that something is TV, which has really usurped that kind of storytelling. Kramer vs. Kramer would fight a hard battle today not to be tagged as a “Lifetime movie,” despite its quality.
Oh come on, theaters have survived every media plague you can name… TELEVISION, VCR, CABLE, DIRECT-TO-VIDEO, THE NET, PAULY SHORE… simply due to the cultural communal experience of sitting in a theater. Believe me, as long as there are people congregating for sporting events and sunday church and public sex with George Michael they’ll do the same for this medium. But just like the others, if there’s something better on the menu (or in the bathroom stall), they’ll most certainly seek it out. People aren’t looking for newer or sexier or most distracting… they’re looking for the real deal. That’s all in quality.
To put it to you in movie terms: Audiences are like Sabrina coming home from Paris, mature, worldly, a knockout… while Hollywood is still in William Holden mode, trying to fuck her with the old charm and tricks instead of making the effort of the enduring, substantial, (and classically entertaining) Humphery Bogart.
Just look at The Wedding Crashers… the success of that film is all about its quality of charm. No CGI, no niche, no bullshit… just smart storytelling that happened to be R-rated. I’m not saying all movies have to get to that place, but let’s face the facts, acceptable entertainment has been degraded these past few years by a cynical, cowardly industry that has no understanding of cinema’s role in our culture (even the critics seemed to have dulled themselves to this — busting a nut over Crash and Brokeback more for their ideas than craft).
But you said it yourself, DP, the Oscars this year weren’t anything to get excited about. And that’s not the fault of marketing or technology or the rising costs of whatever. No sir, that’s just a simple case of excitement-free movies.
Oh I dunno James. It mightn’t have made that much actually in the 1970s, but if today’s audiences today still had the same mentality for adult films that they did back then I’m sure it could’ve done a lot more. Okay, maybe not $200mil, but definitely much more than $100mil (which is not to say that $100mil for an adult drama is bad).
But that was also the time when horror movies like Wolf Creek and Hostel could’ve made $100mil on limited late night circuits alone. So… things have definitely changed.
Ticket sales were down an estimated 10 percent last year — 10 percent of 1 billion+ tickets sold. To a big industry it’s a drop in the bucket. To the unaided eye it’s a helluva lot.
One reason ticket sales were down in ’05 was a summer slate that was heavy on franchises, remakes and sequels. Summer ’06 looks to be heavy on franchises, remakes and sequels.
“M:I3”, “X-Men 3” and whatever installment of “Superman” are not going to save Hollywood.
2004, the best single year for box office ever, was also heavy on franchises, remakes, and sequels. Alot of 2005’s big films were “original,” some did well like Wedding Crashers and some failed miserably like The Island and Stealth. It’s true that Superman won’t save Hollywood (in the sense that it won’t require them to innovate the way they make and sell films), but it’s probably not going to make ticket sales go down either.
Know Your Timing
After a series of very dark blockbuster, Fantastic Four quickly capitalized by being the only thing remotely for kids. As mentioned before, there was an old-fashioned simplicity to Wedding Crashers. Hell, look at the surprise success of Four Brothers, a movie that was totally off the radar. You know why Cinderella Man did so poorly? It arrived too soon in a summer that was already off to a late start, with none of the CGI blockbusters to serve as a palette cleanser to.
Your Enemy’s Enemy Is Not Your Friend
People seem to live under the bizarre assumption that anyone who doesn’t want to see Van Helsing wants to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. “Movies for adults” doesn’t neccessarily mean “Mature and challenging”. The marketplace is starting to become a warped version of only the kinds of movies movie-geeks watch. There’s not enough mashed potato type films out–movies that are not particularly rich with epic settings, or too full of vegtable nutrients. Or just plain junk food.
No remakes that are against the point
Why remake The Manchurian Candidate? You just get the remake stigma, very dangerous when you’re trying to appeal to an older audience. Come on.
For God’s Sake, Sell it Like it’s the Best Movie in the World
You don’t have to market harder, just smarter, people.