April 26, 2024
Box Office
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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
Well well well… Megan Fox ain’t that big a star now, is she.
I bet she signs on for TRANSFORMERS 3 by Monday.
Megan Fox is too fucking hot. That’s her problem.
All of the top actresses are pretty, but girl next door pretty (Anne Hathaway, Julia Roberts, Reese Witherspoon, Drew Barrymore, etc.). Jennifer Aniston at her peak fit the mold perfectly — guys wanted her as a girlfriend, women wanted her as a best friend. (Both Lohan and Johansson had it, but blew it.)
But Fox falls into that Uma Thurman, Angelina Jolie, pre-Monster Charlize Theron category. It’s very limiting. They’re too intimidating. Too exotic. Jolie only does b.o. when she does action. Same with Uma.
So for now Fox is perfect in Transformers or playing the beautiful nemesis of the lead girl next door.
Time will tell.
Wow this is the strangest weekend in awhile. If you’d have told me The Informant! would open stronger than Jennifer’s Body yesterday, I’d have never believed you. Apparently audiences hate all 3 of the underperforming films this weekend, so don’t look for them to last long…Meatballs may have a shot at $100 million (the next 3D release, Astro Boy, is a month off), and Sony may finally stay in the animation game this time. Also MORE evidence that 3D is here to stay…
More evidence horror and comedy don’t mix at the box office…
Soderbergh’s biggest non-Oceans opening since “Erin Brokovich..”
Not the start the studio was looking for, for “Bright Star.” This might kill any major awards hype for it…
“But Fox falls into that Uma Thurman, Angelina Jolie, pre-Monster Charlize Theron category. It’s very limiting. They’re too intimidating. Too exotic. Jolie only does b.o. when she does action. Same with Uma.”
Uma Thurman only does box office when she’s in a Quentin Tarantino movie…period (see “My Super Ex-Girlfriend).
I disagree to an extent on Jolie…especially considering 6 of her last 9 movies were action or voicework only. Of the other 3, one was a supporting role, and one was a flop, but $35 million for “Changeling” sure as heck isn’t chump change. It’s a smash given the subject matter.
And Theron was never a b.o. draw, and certainly isn’t now. ^ The Burning Plain?
And what types of movies does Tarantino make? Kill Bill = action. Pulp Fiction = crime (cousin of action).
And v.o. work aside, prior to Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Jolie’s only real lead b.o. success was the first Tomb Raider (action). Her other films were all trade-ins on her sex appeal, and even in Girl, Interrupted she was the hot but deranged supporting character.
Theron might not be b.o. now or before, but she’s taken seriously as an actress after Monster.
Right, but most of Thurman’s other action movies have been total flops. My Super Ex-Girlfriend, The Avengers, Gattaca…
Mutiny –
Your theory at its core mostly rings true, though I think there’s a few more layers that need to be added in your comparisons. For instance, Uma Thurman’s resume is littered with crap. And when she was probably at her box office peak her big action movie, THE AVENGERS, was a notorious bomb.
Still, your looks theory has some merit. I would just add the ‘personality’ dynamic as well. The public personalities that the successful (box office-wise) actresses have cultivated or concocted seems to be paramount to their success. Uma Thurman – probably a zero on this regard to your average moviegoer. Charlize Theron – likely the same or even viewed more negatively. Megan Fox – clearly in the negative.
Granted other factors play a significant part, such as the film itself and marketing even more so.
Now I await Dave scolding all of us with a hearty “Nobody knows anything!”
What happened to BRIGHT STAR?
Buzz off of festivals, solid reviews, Cornish Actress (I know its very period and materials are not great)
Why would Apparition go 19 screens to open? 6 screens deep in LA?
Could they have killed it opening weekend?
Challenging expansions/holds when you wind up with an $8-10k screen average
Anybody have any thoughts/insights?
Ethan – None of which changes my general point that actors/actresses often have a limited range that audiences will buy them in. And it’s particularly difficult for actresses who are too beautiful/exotic. How is somebody you’d never run into in real life ever supposed to be believable to an audience as a real person?…
I agree in general on the subject of actors needing to play into a certain persona (or directly against it – Brad Pitt broke away from being the pretty-boy by playing ‘crazy’ in 12 Monkeys and gritty in Seven – and both in Kalifornia).
The thing is, though, that the apparent flop that is Jennifer’s Body was still right in what was expected to be the comfort zone for Megan Fox since she’s playing the evil hot nemesis girl. I’d say offhand that the Transformers movies didn’t do a good job of actually fostering Fox as a star since her job in both movies is pretty much just eye candy with no personality.
Nothing against Diablo Cody or Megan Fox, but I’m delighted that I’m going to be hearing less about them for the next year or so.
Haven’t seen JB. No idea if the movie or Fox are good.
That said, it’s not exactly a favorable position for an actress to be in where everybody’s judging her first starring role as make or break.
That said, the movie it keeps getting compared to is Heathers. And that only grossed a total of $1.1M…
Anyhow. She’s 24. See where she’s at in 5 years.
That’s why they needed more of an emphasis on Seyfried. She’s who the audience identifies with. They also didn’t sell the tone of the movie well.
“Nothing against Diablo Cody or Megan Fox, but I’m delighted that I’m going to be hearing less about them for the next year or so.”
Well…Jonah Hex is coming in less than 9 months!;)
I’m actually kinda bummed about Jennifer’s Body, not so much for Megan Fox’s career as a leading lady (how many actresses really have that, total? Like six?), but because I found the movie thoroughly enjoyable, and the reviews talking about how it’s not really scary sort of miss the point. Ebert, A.O. Scott, and Dana Stevens all have nicely appreciative (and realistic, not hyperbolic) appraisals of its strengths.
This pretty much seals it for me: with the occasional exception of something truly interesting/unexpected like The Ring, horror movies do better business if they’re as mediocre as possible — to the point where the most interesting ones barely get released (Lucky McKee’s May, for example — or stuff that may not be good but sounds more interesting than Saw XI, like Trick ‘r Treat or All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, that wind up hitting DVD directly).
The fourth and easily worst Final Destination makes the most money of the series the same summer that Drag Me to Hell barely cracks $40 million. Even Sorority Row is a more-enjoyable-than-average slasher movie, which of course means it doesn’t do anywhere near as much as the dull Friday the 13th remake or The Unborn or whatever crap kids will go see ’cause it’s January. The closest we’ve had this year to a hit horror movie that was actually good was My Bloody Valentine 3-D, which was more so-silly-it’s-fun, not actually well-crafted.
What’s with Nikki’s bizarre trashing of The Informant’s gross? Number 2 for the week… nothing wrong with that. Oh right, she’s insane.
I love when people bemoan the quality of films then bash a director for taking a chance on something new.
I found MEATBALLS to be 10X better than ICE AGE 3 and MONSTERS V. ALIENS. It was genuinely funny, and does a clever riff on the disaster movie formula towards the end. Shame it’s going to get the ass-end of the 3D/CGI stick. After UP and CORALINE, it’s top of the heap.
As if Nikki Finke cares about film.
“How is somebody you’d never run into in real life ever supposed to be believable to an audience as a real person?”
Because that’s one of the biggest reasons audiences go to movies in the first place?
I don’t think so at all. There’s a difference between movie star beautiful and model beautiful. Movie star beautiful is basically an idealized version of people you might meet. Model beautiful is like a different species than mere human. And it’s a drawback for an actor/actress to be model beautiful.
I interviewed Guy Pearce a number of years ago, and I started my article by remarking that he was somebody you would never meet in real life; he was too handsome and chiseled to ever be anything other than an actor or model.
Which is why, if you pay attention to the roles he plays, a lot of the time he tries to ugly himself up with fake noses and beards and so on.
Is Astro-Boy really in 3-D? That’s the first I’ve heard of that.
LYT, what isn’t in 3D anymore? I heard even the next Woody Allen is in 3D.
> I heard even the next Woody Allen is in 3D.
Yeah, but the sound mix will still be mono…
Yep it’s going to be in 3D, though Im not sure for how long since “A Christmas Carol opens just 2 weeks later,” and “Planet 51” (also in 3D) soon after that. What boggles my mind is that “The Princess and the Frog is in 3D. Wtf?
http://www.china.org.cn/video/2009-08/14/content_18336055.htm
3D is overrated for animated films, but I’m psyched for “Avatar” and “Alice in Wonderland” in 3D…and more importantly…Piranha 3D!!!!
That film is going to be kickass assuming Aja can bounce back. Have you seen the cast??? Richard Dreyfuss, Eli Roth playing “Wet T-Shirt Contest Emcee,” Jerry O’Connell, Elisabeth Shue as the town sheriff (Hah!), Ving Rhames, Steve McQueen’s grandson, and Chris Lloyd! I am so onboard with this one.
“More evidence horror and comedy don’t mix at the box office…”
“Zombieland” might be raising a sustainable objection to Exhibit JB in a couple of weeks time.
I agree with Hal on the above. Let me also throw in there, that women hate Meghan Fox. Seriously. She’s as anti-four quadrant as an actress can get. She may be too hot, but until the ladies like her. She’s not a star. She’s just a hot chick, that appears in films.
It’s just like Lex says in his rare lucid moments. Guys don’t go to movies to see hot chicks. And as others have said, girls probably don’t like her either.
I wish it had done better though, if only to ward off the Diablo Cody haters, who are as boring now as the Juno disciples were 2 years ago.
Kiki, Diablo did get a TV show on the air, and it did get another season. So if the movie people get sick of her. The TV people will give her a shot. Especially given the fact that TV is the more creative medium at the moment, and Diablo has a very distinctive voice.
Anne Hathaway is way hotter than Megan Fox, in my opinion.
Of course women do better in action movies. Most actors do. Who goes to see an Ian McKellan movie unless it’s based on a comic book or he’s playing a wizard?
“Right, but most of Thurman’s other action movies have been total flops. My Super Ex-Girlfriend, The Avengers, Gattaca…”
Have you actually seen any of those movies, or did you just skim her filmography and pull some titles with a cursory examination of the plot synopsis?
My Super Ex-Girlfriend was (an unfunny) comedy, not action. And Gattaca was FAR from an action movie, nor was Uma Thurman even the lead. The climactic scene in Gattaca was a *swimming contest* for god’s sake. It was a science fiction-themed drama.
Avengers was action, or at least meant to be. It was also godawful.
FOX POWER. BOW TO HER.
Well, unsurprisingly, everybody here but jesse is WROOOOOOOOOOONG, because Jennifer’s Body was SPECTACULAR. Maybe second or third best movie of the year, Karyn Kasuma proving a refreshing exception to the Female Director rule.
Honestly, except for Lou and a couple others here, I give up. And on critics at large while I’m at it. HOW COULD YOU NOT be entertained by that movie? How much of a sexless, pent-up, NON-VISUAL DOUCHE do you have to be not to be DELIGHTED by Cody’s script or Kasuma’s Spielbergian mise-en-scene or the dual brilliant performances of Fox and (HOLY SHIT WHO KNEW???) Amanda Seyfried. Both of them should get serious Oscar consideration for this, but of course never will, because all but like three people in Hollywood are either asexual or gay.
In fact, I’m throwing down a new observation that will BLOW YOUR MINDS:
DIABLO CODY is the FEMALE LEXG. Yep. In fact, even though I’ve been on the net for more than a few years, when I started really amping up the LEXG mayhem, Diablo was kind of my business model: a distinctive and original and divisive voice who became so read and beloved on the Web by industry types that they gave her a shot at filmdom. I am her male equal. But even though I don’t go for camp or that horrific looking Tara show, a lot of the lines here were genuinely clever and funny, and that shit about Fox renting AQUAMARINE and the chick’s blowhole was the funniest thing all year. GOOD WRITING.
This was NOT indifferently shot, it had a sharp, colorful visual style, full of bold primary colors against beautiful green foliage… I like Jason Reitman a lot, but JUNO’s mise-end-scene was like a 1981 drive-in print of GORP as run through a copper filter. This is bold and alive and electric (especially as digitally projected where I saw it.) The colors bring to mind the simple beauty of John Hughes’ uncluttered ’80s style, with detours into DePalma (split diopter shots, the way Seyfried is filmed at the big dance) and Spielberg (the beautifully-composed pool showdown has Kaminski framing and elements of War of the Worlds and Minority Report.)
Cody’s writing of course has its trademark indulgence and popcult quirkiness and smart-aleck bullshit, but it didn’t grate, certainly not compared to other tart-tongued high-school campfests that are clearly the fantasies of former male high-school misfits who wanna diva-ize every catter cheerleader and turn the entire milieu into either a coming-out parable or a revenge-of-the-misfits score-settling.
No, this was a script and a directing job by talented, smart women who can STILL HAVE FUN with the genre, who retain a fun feminist streak but keep it accessible and sexy for the guys, too… And as other smarter, better reviwers have pointed out, it’s effective as comedy, drama, and horror born of adolescent female neuroses, all without being ham-handed or cloying or obvious.
And it works just as a pop, pulp horror flick, anchored not just by Fox’s AMAZING, STUNNING, HOLY SHIT LOOK AT HER hotness, but Seyfried’s incredible acting prowess. This chick is a STAR waiting to happen… Check out that AWESOME beat where Kasuma lingers on her crying on the sofa, and it’s like an emotionally legit moment in a smart indie… then two minutes later we get that SMOKING HOT LESBIAN SESSION OH MY GOD LOOK AT THEM!
In short, this movie HAS EVERYTHING THAT ARE THE REASONS WE GO TO MOVIES. To not have been turned on is to be a eunech, to not have laughed is to be a fussy buzzkill… The horror works, the visual style works, the chicks are INCREDIBLE…
Easily better than obvious inspiration “Heathers.” MASTERPIECE. FIVE STARS.
I decided to go with Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. That’s the reason I go to the movies, you fucking twit. Your insulting of Heathers is reason NUMBER ONE for me to take you down to chinatown!
I’ll reiterate: I didn’t hate Jennifer’s Body, but it was pretty far from a good movie. Lex is stupid. Like we didn’t already know. 4/10.
Yawn, Lex saying that about Heathers is one of his lamest jabs. Quite obviously just saying it to get a rise.
“Have you actually seen any of those movies, or did you just skim her filmography and pull some titles with a cursory examination of the plot synopsis?”
Yes…My Super Ex Girlfriend was not marketed as a comedy and was not a straight comedy period. Gattaca wasn’t action but it was more film noir than romance or comedy. Close enough.
And no, I haven’t seen The Avengers.
Haven’t seen Jennifer’s Body, but Lex’s review would’ve made a great column. I guess that ship has sailed, huh?
BTW, here’s one person (the only one?) who thought My Super Ex Girlfriend was quite funny, for the most part. And the audience I saw it with seemed to really get into it, at least for the first hour or so. I haven’t seen it since though.
SEYFRIED POWER.
Get on your KNEES.
Karyn Kasuma: BEST DIRECTOR SINCE SCORSESE.
YEP YEP. DIABLO, lex_mch@yahoo.com let’s collaborate on the next one.
Yancy, this is like digging up a dead horse from the pet cemetery and trying to beat its dusty remains but I have to say, I pretty much hated My Super Ex Girlfriend, and I liked the concept and enjoy pretty much everyone in it: Thurman, Wilson, Faris, Wilson, Izzard… but just an awful movie with no rhythm whatsoever. Even when they came across good jokes, the writing and/or directing would bungle it. This is a small thing, but I remember a shot where the bad guys open a fridge because they’re keeping some superpowered rock or something inside. So you see the fridge, and there is a giant ham on the shelf, and then a tiny bit of rock. Funny. But then the filmmakers step all over it by having someone say “is it that rock?” and someone else (Izzard) say back sarcastically “no, it’s the ham… OF COURSE IT’S THE ROCK.” And completely killed a good visual joke by calling attention to it in the dumbest way possible.
Faris is pretty funny it, but she can be funny in just about anything. Wilson and Thurman need a little more help than you’d get from your average CBS sitcom.
“Diablo has a very distinctive voice.”
As does Sarah Palin.