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David Poland

By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

Box Office Hell – Feb 9

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18 Responses to “Box Office Hell – Feb 9”

  1. MattM says:

    I’m surprised no one’s playing upmarket/prestige this weekend with a drama. For instance, “Breach” is likely to get completely lost next weekend amidst two big openers (deserved or not, “Ghost Rider” and “Daddy’s Little Girls” are 25M openers), and might have found some traction this weekend.

  2. EDouglas says:

    Box Office MOjo has posted their predictions late on Friday for a second week in a row, maybe so they can see if movies are selling out on the East Coast. At this point, they may as well post their predictions on Saturday morning.

  3. Eric says:

    So very bitter over something so very meaningless.

  4. Oh, that’s an original argument. If it’s so very meaningless, why even bother responding.
    What’s the harm in Doug being peeved that a competitor (sort of) is cheating (sort of)

  5. Oh, and Matt. Daddy’s Little Girls doesn’t have Tyler Perry in it. I have no guage for these movies (none of them have even been released in Australia for starters), but will that effect it?

  6. Direwolf says:

    Also isn’t Bridges To Terabithia out next weekend. It is getting a huge push from DIS and looks a lot like Narnia. I suspect it will do very big business.
    Tyler Perry has very high awareness in African American communities. The issue for Daddy’s Little Girl’s will be crossover appeal to white auds without the now familiar Madea character. Liosgate knows what it is doing with Perry, however.

  7. EDouglas says:

    Not bitter or peeved.. just pointing out that for a site that boasts “The most accurate box office predictions since 1998.” (which isn’t true), they should at least try to post their predictions at the same time as their main competitor (BoxOfficeGuru) who posts his predictions Thursday morning.

  8. waterbucket says:

    For the love of god, let Gong Li have at least one box office hit in America. I really don’t want her to disappear until she does a kick-ass Hollywood movie.

  9. MattM says:

    I’ve got no feel for whether the absence of Madea hurts the film’s grossing potential (as someone who’s neither African-American nor a woman, I’m decidedly not the target audience). The other question for Daddy’s Little Girls is whether there’s room for two romantic flicks over the long Valentine’s-President’s Day weekend or if they only hurt each other. The other flicks all have different niches they’re going after.

  10. EDouglas says:

    I have this feeling that Daddy’s Little Girls is Tyler Perry’s attempt at crossing over into the mainstream and I think part of the way to do that is to take off the dress and be taken seriously as a filmmaker. I’m going to be seeing his movie on Weds morning (missing La Vie en Rose harumph).. and I’m going in with an open mind despite LOATHING Diary of a Mad Black Woman. I think taking Madea and Perry’s incestuous uncle out of the picture might help.

  11. MattM says:

    SBD has Friday stacking up as follows:
    Norbit–10.7
    Hannibal Rising–4.8
    Because I Said So–2.8
    Messengers–2.3
    Epic Movie–1.2

  12. jeffmcm says:

    It seems strange for Disney to be releasing Bridge to Terabithia in February – seems like they’re kind of dumping it, or else it’s not a movie they have any big hopes for.
    But dear lord, that Norbit figure!

  13. MattM says:

    Actually, I think Terabithia is a brilliant play at this point for two reasons:
    1. It’s a compeltely empty marketplace for family flicks right now. The Christmas movies are now played out, and I don’t see another kid-targetted movie until “Last Mimzy” on March 23.
    2. They’ve played “hide the ball” very well with the marketing. While they’ve sold it as a Narnia-esque fantasy adventure, the book is very much NOT that, and early word is that the movie isn’t either. It’s much darker and heavier than folks may be expecting.

  14. jeffmcm says:

    “It’s much darker and heavier than folks may be expecting.”
    Sounds like a recipe for bad word of mouth, not brilliance.

  15. Eric says:

    You know, as I went to bed last night, I decided that my comment above was bitchy and unnecessary. I complain about people that do that all the time. So, sorry Ed.

  16. EDouglas says:

    No worries, Eric. I try not to let stuff like that bug me, but I can see how my earlier comment might have come across.
    Bridge to Terabithia won’t have any problems making money… just see how Eight Below (AKA Snow Dogs 2) did last year with a lot more competition for the family market. If the movie is too dark or isn’t good, it’ll falter after opening weekend but for the four-day holiday week, it’s likely to end up in the Top 5, maybe even the Top 3.

  17. jeffmcm says:

    I never saw Snow Dogs, but I did see Eight Below and enjoyed it. It’s better than you might think, especially since the dogs don’t speak CGI-style. It’s kind of a throwback to classic Disney True-Life Adventure type movies.

  18. Tofu says:

    Terabithia is nothing at all what the advertisements present. I eagerly await to see if audiences embrace the superior storyline to what is being marketed.
    Chances are… Slim.

Quote Unquotesee all »

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