| Title | Weekend Gross | Total Gross | | The Prestige | $14,818,000 | $14,818,000 | | The Departed | $13,675,000 | $77,148,000 | | Flags of Our Fathers | $10,200,000 | $10,200,000 | | Open Season | $8,000,000 | $69,602,000 | | Flicka | $7,700,000 | $7,700,000 | | The Grudge 2 | $7,700,000 | $31,380,000 | | Man of the Year | $7,035,000 | $22,516,000 | | Marie Antoinette | $5,300,000 | $5,300,000 | | Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning | $3,875,000 | $3,875,000 | | The Marine | $3,725,000 | $12,547,000 | This week’s number one spot went to Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige. This comes as no surprise given the fact that the movie had a great cast and a great director and dealt with a topic that was broad enough to attract a variety of movie goers. I truly agree with the notion that people go to the movie to distract themselves from their every day lives. People nowadays don’t want to see a movie that reflects their reality as it was proven again this weekend. No one went to go see Flags of our Fathers which BOMBED in the number 3 spot with only $10 Million. Sure $10 Million sounds like a lot of money but that hardly even paid for the advertising budget for this movie. Boxofficemojo.com reports that the entire films production budget was in the range of $90 Million. Throw in another $15-$30 Million for advertising and this movie needs to do business in the hundreds of Millions of dollars to be considered successful. The better question is…Is it good? I don’t know. I didn’t see it. I didn’t want to spend my money and my time watching a movie about a war I didn’t live through. Especially at a time where war dominates every medium I pay attention to. I am not saying I want to deny the fact that there is a war. Far from it. I read the news paper and I watch the news on daily basis. And that is exactly where I want to get my fill of War. In the press and not in watching a movie. Another Great example is the movie Man of the Year. Nobody wants to see a movie where the President is an incompetent comic. No one saw that either. People want to see movies about magic and cartoons about animals that talk. They also want to see films with a great cast helmed by a great director. To put it simply, people want to escape their lives when they enter a theater with a tray full of $10 popcorn. They want to escape the fact that they had to work half a day just to be able to pay for the movie. They want to escape their kids, their jobs….and sometimes their lives. And for those 2 hours they want to laugh, think, and feel better about themselves. Does this make for better film making? No. I am sure the movie Flags of our Fathers is 100x better than The Prestige or even half of the movies that have made hundreds of Millions this past year. Aaron Sorkin put it best when he said “There is a struggle between art and commerce.” People will always pay to see what is cheap and entertaining over what is good. There I think I am done with my rant.
Like always click on the Movie title to watch the Trailer. |
