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David Poland

By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

Box Office Hell – A6

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13 Responses to “Box Office Hell – A6”

  1. Gonzo Knight says:

    I have a feeling that ‘Extraordinary Measures’ are being rightfully underestimated by a couple of million.

  2. Interesting $12mil gap there between the highest and the lowest for Avatar. Is a Golden Globe boost (which is the only explanation for a rise) really going to occur?

  3. Geoff says:

    The Finkester is reporting that Avatar dropped barely 10% last night and is probably heading to about a $35 million SIXTH weekend – pretty impressive, looks like there was a bit of bump. I have a feeling this thing is going to sail until it loses it 3D screens to Alice in March – $700 million domestic now looks very possible. Edge of Darkness could beat it, next weekend – am I the only one who really wants to see that?
    Legion also had a solid opening at about $7 million, but it also looks like it chopped off Eli’s legs.

  4. Stella's Boy says:

    I’m with you on Edge of Darkness, Geoff. The return of Mad Mel. Danny Huston and Ray Winstone in supporting roles. Co-written by William Monahan. I want to see it, Mel’s bad accent and all.

  5. Chucky in Jersey says:

    The biblical rain that’s flooding over Cali may finally wash “Avatar” out of #1. I’d say 75-80% of the theaters with “Avatar” have it only in 3-D.
    Remember, boys and girls, “Avatar” in 3-D is “Titanic” on steroids!

  6. I’m very much looking forward to Edge of Darkness, purely because I’m a big Martin Campbell fan. Granted, I’m disconcerted about the rumors of studio tinkering, especially from Warner Bros who has been distburbingly hands-on since Watchmen disappointed. Having said that, I just watched the original miniseries and while it’s very good, it’s not particularly cinematic, so perhaps adding an extra action beat or two was a necessary evil. We’ll see…

  7. Nicol D says:

    Does anyone know what Edge of Darkness is tracking? I have been looking for pre-numbers and coming up nothing.
    Is there any awareness on it?

  8. David Poland says:

    There is no such thing as a Golden Globes bump.

  9. christian says:

    Chucky, how many more failed bad weather = bad box office predictions will you make on AVATAR?

  10. gradystiles says:

    “The biblical rain that’s flooding over Cali may finally wash “Avatar” out of #1.”
    Chucky, it stopped raining yesterday.

  11. Dave, exactly! Which is why I was surprised to see people predicting it would rise this weekend. Those numbers are still yowza.
    Chucky, you’ve been using that ridiculous weather excuse each and every weekend and yet it never pans out. NEVER. You’re an idiot.

  12. yancyskancy says:

    The sun is out in SoCal today, and the tree pollen count is up, too. So anyone who’s not out enjoying the sunshine will be cooped up at home with their air purifiers, not lining up for 3D glasses at the cinema. Sunday estimates for AVATAR should be tempered accordingly.
    Hoo boy.

  13. Joe Leydon says:

    Well, at the risk of sounding like Chucky: There are two pretty important NFL games airing today, so…

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