1. There has been exactly one July opening of over $90 million in history. That was for the first Pirates of the Caribbean sequel, which opened to $136 million. Number two is Spider-Man 2 at $88 million. Transformers did $155m by the end of its first weekend… but that also was 6.5 days worth of box office.
2. The biggest opening weekend EVER for a musical was last summer
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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
Um, I called for Simpsons 60 million open:
http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/archives/2007/07/simpsons.html
And Simpsons 180 million:
http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/archives/2007/07/sunday_estimate_45.html
And I was high side on Iron Man.
I guess we got a lot of good pictures out this summer. I haven’t really regretted any picture I’ve seen this summer.
someone passed me the script to “Inglourious Basterds” [sic] which is rife with spelling errors, has significant issues with a lot of basic English grammer and is badly written in terms of sentence structure and passive voice. On the other hand the dialogue is spot on Tarentino and it has a glorification of torture/inhumane actions (in the name of good) that I didn’t expect but feel like I should have. I honestly don’t know if it’s a fake or not. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? But if it’s real I think I’ll be rooting for the apparently (relatively) ethical Jew Hunter to take out all of the reprehensible Basterds [sic] that Tarantino apparently means to be our heroes. Of course that could be the point of whole movie, to get you to question what is moral and what is acceptable and whether or not its okay to root for the axis. I actually gave up on the script at page thirty, when we cut to Bostin [sic] . Misspelling that city’s name is pretty pathetic.
David: Have you considered Swing Vote in your calculations?
Also: What effect, if any, will the Olympics have on the box-office? Especially this year, when NBC is making so much available in so many media?
Mamma Mia has already made 24 million overseas. If it only makes around 60 million in the U.S., it’ll probably still end up having done quite well.
I saw Mamma Mia. And while I agree with Dave that it is poorly choreographed and ineptly lit, the whole thing wins you over by sheer dint of its music and enjoyment of a sing-a-long. The audience was almost all female, with the demographic on the older side, but I reckon it will be a HUGE hit with both mothers and daughters. I reckon $100m in the US and another $200m foreign. And then come Christmas time, if you don’t buy it on DVD for your nearest and dearest…
I wouldn’t say Simpsons-level numbers are out of the question for The Clone Wars. Don’t underestimate The Force…..
Pope, I agree that the music is what makes it as enjoyable as it is along with the female portion of the cast, but… but… the choreography is so boring. The photography lazy. The Pierce Brosnan too awful. I gave it a B- and won’t be buying the DVD. I’ll just listen to ABBA Gold instead.
“The Clone Wars” won’t make it to $100M. Its release date and product flow argue against that.
“”The Clone Wars” won’t make it to $100M. Its release date and product flow argue against that.”
Wanna bet?
Chucky: Hard as this is to believe, sometimes people go to the theater based on what movie is playing there. I know, I know — I don’t get it either! Like you, I always base my cinema pilgrimages based on the number of pet peeves I dig up in the marketing.
Product flow is usually the first thing I check before making weekend plans.
Leaving aside issues of plot, dialogue, etc. (which I’m sure will be awful), Clone Wars just looks bad. I mean worse-than-Hoodwinked bad. It’s slightly insulting they even think it merits a theatrical release instead of the Saturday morning TV berth it obviously deserves.