George Clooney's 'The American' Wins … 
Danny Boyle Comes Back To Telluride Film … 
Weir's 'The Way Back' Has Telluride World … 
Paramount Reacts To Film Extra Seriously … 
Filmmakers Reveal That Hidden 'Machete' … 
'CSI' Creator Takes On Robert Ludlum With … 
EXCLUSIVE: Summit Walks Away From MGM To Go … 
Paula Patton Joins 'Mission: Impossible 4' 
Angelina Jolie Pass Puts 'Gravity' In Shaky … 
Apple To Offer ABC & Fox Shows For … 
3RD UPDATE: Hostage-Taking Gunman Killed At … 
Fox Orders Jamie Foxx Sketch Comedy Series … 
Deadline Hires Pete Hammond From LA Times … 
Conan's TBS Show Will Be Called 'Conan' 
SAG Notice Without Explanation: More Members … 
SUNDAY PM UPDATE: This is one of those box office weekends which Hollywood will be talking about for days. Here's the Friday, Saturday, weekend, and cume grosses for the Top 10:
1. More good news for Pixar and Disney. As expected, Toy Story 3 tops the North American box office for the 2nd straight week, recording the highest second weekend ever for Disney/Pixar. It's also the second fastest Disney film to pass $200 million domestic box office -- 9 days, compared to Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest's 8 days. Thanks to higher 3D ticket prices and a wide release into 4,028 theaters, the toon with massive appeal did $18.0M Friday and $22.6M Saturday and an estimated $18.4M for Sunday. It's vital to Hollywood summer grosses that so many families are having a great experience at the cineplex because of this pic. It logged a $58.9M weekend, only a 47% drop following its monster opening a week ago, and domestic cume of $226.6M. Its international cume is now $100.0M and its worldwide cume is $326.6M. On IMAX, it took in $4.3M domestic from 180 theaters, and $1 million overseas from 47 theaters, for a global cume of $19.5M. "To infinity ... and beyond!"
2. Sony Pictures' Grown Ups scored the third highest grossing 3-day weekend opening of Adam Sandler's career with $41M. It continues his near-perfect string of 6 films over $40M and 10 films over $34M weekend comedy openings. It finished with a strong 2nd place after opening to $14.5M Friday and $14.8M Saturday from 3,434 locations. "Adam has been one of the most consistently performing summer box office draws for over a decade," one Sony exec emailed me. (But only so long as he's in raunchy pictures featuring fart jokes.) The audience breakdown was 47%/53% male-female with the demo 52%/48% under-over age 25. The film earned an A- Cinemascore for audiences 18 and younger. Tracking had been strong, but even the studio didn't expect this poorly reviewed frolic to pass Click's $40M. I credit the marketable ensemble cast including Kevin James but also Chris Rock, David Spade, and Rob Schneider. The cast helped promote the film starting as far back as the Super Bowl to NASCAR events as well as the MTV Movie Awards, the CMT Country Music Awards, and a series of promotions during the recent NBA Finals for ABC and ESPN and this weekend’s sell-out Yankees versus Dodgers series. Additionally, the outdoor marketing campaign used actual photos of the principal cast as 12 years old boys. Sony is claiming a negative cost of only $70M. How much do bathing suits cost anyway?
3. Twentieth Century Fox's Knight And Day now sits in 3rd place with a slightly better-than-expected $20.5M for the 3-day weekend and $27.7M for its 5-day cume from 3,098 theaters. The pic took in $6.3M Friday and $8M Saturday. So no one inside Building 88 will be horribly embarrassed, which is all the Fox studio execs ensconced there care about. Especially after the pic received a failing grade of only $3.8M when it opened Wednesday in 3,043 venues (when $5+M would have been passable) and -9% for $3.4M Thursday for only a weak $7.2M cume going into today. Yet this is the kind of $117M rom-com ($107M with the Massachusetts tax breaks, split among New Regency, Fox, and Dune) that should have grossed $35+M easy. "It's an original movie aimed at adults that is really good," a Fox exec insisted to me. "It takes longer to catch on with audiences. And this movie is doing that."
Then again, I have rarely seen Hollywood so transfixed on a movie before it opened. But with starry casting, and promotion aplenty, everything about this pic was high-profile -- so a spotlight comes with the territory. (Those stunts for junketing journalists in Spain cost a fortune but translated into media value.) Plus, Fox is the studio Hollywood loves to hate, even more so after the insane success of Avatar, because it regularly takes medium-budget mediocre movies and makes big hits out of them because of killer marketing. Knight And Day should have been no exception. But the media keep gunning for Tom Cruise post-Oprah's couch and wishing him to fail. Cameron Diaz becomes guilty by association because she can't open a movie. And the weeks of poor tracking on this pic so unnerved the studio that it made a big PR deal of sneaking the film last weekend to counter the bad buzz building up.
The truth is that the film does play. Although once classy James Mangold should find different representation for letting him direct this long-in-development-hell Joe Roth produced drek. The script passed through the hands of 9 writers as well as Mangold who did an uncredited polish. (At one point titled Trouble Man And Wichita, and then just Wichita, it was Fox film boss Tom Rothman who came up with the treacly Knight And Day.) For that matter, I don't understand why Cruise did the movie either, especially when he had so many better bake-off options back in February 2009. Like The Tourist, now starring Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. Back then it would have paired Tom Cruise with Charlize Theron and put him again with Valkyrie scribe Chris McQuarrie. But I digress.
I'm told test screenings were troubled, with audiences cruelly complaining that Tom Cruise is "weird" and Cameron Diaz is "old". And yet Tom Rothman and Emma Watts were buoyed that they got the pair for bargain basement prices, especially since Tom is still a huge star internationally. Knight And Day opened this weekend in 12 mostly small overseas markets - 8 in Asia/Pacific, 2 in Latin America and 2 in Europe. The film earned $12.6M on 2,238 screens and opened #1 in Russia, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Hong Kong. But most openings are in the middle of July after the World Cup.
The public may pile on Cruise for the movie's domestic underplay, but Hollywood thinks responsibility lies with Tony Sella's and Pam Levine's marketing suckfest. The one-sheet graphic didn't even show the stars' faces, the trailers "made the movie look a USA Network TV show", to quote one rival maven, and the lame line that it's "Tom Cruise at his Jerry Maguire best" compares apples to oranges. On the other hand, I hear Rothman micromanaged the movie down to approving publicity stills and picking the release date, while Cruise pushed to have the pic sold as Mission Impossible 4. I can't wait for The Blame Game to be played on Monday morning because there's plenty to go around.
4. Karate Kid (Sony) Week 3 [3,740 Theaters]
Friday $4.7M, Saturday $6.0M, Weekend $15.4M, Cume $135.6M
5. The A-Team (Fox) Week 3 [3,242 Theaters]
Friday $1.8M, Saturday $2.4M, Weekend $6.1M, Cume $62.9M
6. Get Him To The Greek (Universal) Week 4 [2,188 Theaters]
Friday $975K, Saturday $1.1M, Weekend $3.0M, Cume $54.5M
7. Shrek Forever After (DWA/Par) Week 6 [2,340 Theaters]
Friday $845K, Saturday $1.1M, Weekend $2.8M, Cume $229.3M
8. Prince of Persia (Disney) Week 5 [1,851 Theaters]
Friday $855K, Saturday $1.1M, Weekend $2.8M, Cume $86.2M
9. Killers (Lionsgate) Week 4 [2,271 Theaters]
Friday $660K, Saturday $790K, Weekend $2.0M, Cume $44.0M
10. Jonah Hex (Warner Bros) Week 2 [2,825 Theaters]
Friday $500K, Saturday $615K, Weekend $1.6M, Cume $9.1M
This colossal failure's seismic drop, -70%, from even last Friday's tragic opening, is the sort of humilitainment that Hollywood loves. Problem is, this total writeoff's $100+M losses will eat into the profits that Chris Nolan's Inception will make for the studio this summer. Warner Bros' Alan Horn, Jeff Robinov, Greg Silverman, and DC Comics' Paul Levitz, Gregory Noveck, and Dan DiDio have a lot of explaining to do. I can't just shove this one under the rug, fellas.
Overall, the weekend looks like a strong $161M, but that's still -19% from last year when Transformers 2 powered up the box office.
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Where’s Tom Rothman? Is he too busy with the TV side to oversee the movie marketing? They obviously need some serious help. Time to get worried about Predators.
MARMADUKE + A-TEAM + KNIGHT & DAY = 400 million production / P&A.
Total box office is barely 100 million for all three….wow.
What’s that end-of-the-summer FOX title that will soak up all this red ink?: “VAMPIRES SUCK” Should be “FOX MOVIES SUCK”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
You’re right. JIm Gianopulos and Tom Rothman management sucks. Whatever they gained from AVATAR they are going to waste on BS.
FOX MOVIES SUCK but so does the failed management team.
I agree! Fox’s marketing department is poorly managed and it is one of the most toxic places to work!
Jeffrey Godsick is the biggest joke, Pam Levine – who by the way flies to Los Angeles once every 3 months from New York – does not manage her team – and let’s not even discuss Tony Sella! I’m surprised he is still employed.
They dont manage their teams; they operate out of fear.
Saw Knight and Day yesterday and it was just alright. Nothing that I’ve not seen before. Just like the A-Team, which I think is slightly better actually. I actually enjoyed Killers more. This genre just been done to death.
Grown Ups look like shit. But probably even sadder is that I’m not surprise that it’s making a lot of money. I guess I just don’t “get” Sandler movies.
I’m just glad for Toy Story 3, the movie is pure genius. Pixar should be commended for saving summer.
It blows my mind that crap like “Grown Ups,” “Couples Retreat,” & “Wild Hogs” makes money. Then again, Larry Cable makes $30 mil a year.
People like stupid crap. I suppose the movies above have something to do with mid-life crisis too. People like to re-live their glory days, at least at the cinema.
Thank God. Sometimes I think I’m the only person on earth who doesn’t get Adam Sandler’s appeal.
The saddest thing is I heard they did the junket in Austria and spent lot’s of money. What idiot thought of that lame idea? Who cares about journalist going to Austria to interview talent?
Another lame idea from Fox’s marketing dept.
I’m taking my daughter to see GROWN UPS over the weekend. it’ll be her first SANDLER film. I hope she enjoys him as much as I do. ROTTEN TOMATOES is shitting all over it, but I know the theatre will be packed and the audience will eat it up. it’ll be a good time at the movies.
Rotten Tomatoes isn’t shitting on Grown Ups. 92% of North American film critics are shitting on it. Apparently it’s awful and even more lazy that Sandler’s usual junk.
Can someone tell me WHY Sandler is so lazy? The guy plainly has talent, has shown it from his SNL days. Yet time and again he does these half-assed comedies staffed and cast with cronies. He should be accumulating a body of enduring comedy classics, not doing a series of high-grossing but short-lived shit. WHAT GIVES?
I think they are made because they are extremely profitable and his other ‘conceptual’ movies aren’t. Think ‘Jim Carrey.’
saw it. it’s like watching 5 old friends hang out and make lame jokes that they came up with off the cuff. There were probably a dozen references to Chris Rock’s character’s mother-in-law’s bunyon…”Come on, Toe-be Bryant.” Ugh.
It wasn’t focused at all, it was episodic, it underutilized all of the talent, there was a long ridiculous summation speech by Rob Schneider’s girlfriend. If you want your daughter to see a Sandler film, rent Billy Madison. Or Happy Gilmore. Or Big Daddy. Or even Mr. Deeds. You could probably rent all of them for the price of two full-price tickets.
This country is hopeless. We’ll never get good movies if people are willing to pay to see this garbage.
Sir WCJ,
Right on! My friend said he want to go see a movie where he doesn’t have to think. So he’s seeing Grown Ups. I guess not having to think is fun?
Morons keep paying to see the crap. It’s unstoppable.
Thank you for recognizing this.
Thank you.
Seems like the toys have the lead in terms of mass audience appeal as well as overall brand recognition and affection. Job (continued) well done!
It’s kind of weird to conceive of a Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz action-comedy opening in third place. I know it’s not a huge flop or anything, but I did think it would open a bit bigger. Ten years ago I think the numbers would have been very different.
It’s actually pretty good, save for the fact that the action scenes are shot in master shots without enough close-ups and details to make them white knuckle (the motorcycle-between-two-trains shot is woefully undershot and abandoned.) Cameron is still ripely sexy and Cruise does cocky better than anyone in the business. I laughed and had a good time; certainly more than any of the other action films this summer so far.
the first part is really great and funny and if the second part is more generic ,it’s all fun fun fun!
Agreed. Cruise and Diaz have great chemistry. The movie is a lot of fun.
Norma,
Are you serious. “The movie is a lot of fun.” Because if you are, I am going to see it on your recommendation alone. If it is not a lot of fun I will let the world know that Norma Desmond thought it was a lot of fun. What is a lot of fun to you? Seeing the same special f/x over and over? Will I be ready to walk in under 20 minutes? Are you better of looking at a picture of Cameron and Tom in US magazine?
Norma, sweety, I am going to make my Saturday night movie. Instead of seeing the Joan Rivers documentary, I will go see this movie you recommend as “a lot of fun.”
Thank you.
…having said that, I’m extremely happy that “Toy Story” is doing so well. It deserves it. It’s a shame that “Grown Ups” is actually making as much as it is, although I suppose its success was predictable.
I feel bad for Cruise in a weird way. As Les Grossman would say…kids just aren’t dressing up like Scorcher for Halloween anymore. “Knight” was only average, but I’m sure it’s light years better than “Grown Ups.”. That looks like another “Couple’s Retreat.”. How does crap like that make $$?
GREAT for Grown Ups. I saw it tonight and it was alot of fun. The audience loved it! Rotten Tomatoes critics really just need to get off their high horses. This is the perfect summer comedy.
Say what you will, but there’s no way to spin this. Knight and Day is a FLOP. $30m 5 day? The execs at Fox can’t be at all happy about this. My TV was bombarded with ads for this for the past month and that’s the result? Cruise is washed up. This may finish below 80 million.
Very surprised with the Knight and Day numbers especially given the weak weekday numbers. With better marketing and release date this film might have had a chance to be a hit. Fox really dropped the ball on this one with their promotional campaign. Should have moved it later to July or August and gotten rid of that idiotic title. I still don’t know what the hell the title refers to.
Better Marketing? Tom Cruise and Cami Diaz have been on my t.v. from morning to night on every show that will have them for the last month. Not to mention all the “breaking news” reports of EACH step of the filming process and each stunt performed. This movie was over-exposed before it was ever released. Even then, I just didn’t care to see it, I can predict every step of the movie. For such predictable movies, it comes down to how much I like the actors. Don’t care for Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz’s only talent is to laugh and wear bikinis. Not a bad job if you can get it.
There’s a difference between better marketing and more marketing. These Fox executives think if they just keep running more and more trailers and ads and clips then people will eventually come running to see their films. But it doesn’t matter how much you advertise if the way you advertised is flawed to begin with. The entire promotional campaign for this film has been disjointed, confused and erratic from the beginning. They never seemed to identify which audience they were targeting with their ads nor how they wanted to sell this movie. Is it a romantic comedy, an action film, a spy thriller; what type of film are you selling? And what the hell is up with the name of this movie, Knight and Day? What does that even mean?
Just take a look at the abysmal trailer Fox put out for Knight and Day that revealed almost nothing about what the plot of this film is. Outside of the fact that Cruise is a rogue spy and Diaz is supposedly his girlfriend I still don’t have a clue what this movie is about. Who are they running from, why are they running from them, why did Cruise apparently go rogue, why is Diaz’s character even involved. Their whole trailer was basically here is Tom Cruise, here is Cameron Diaz, now go see this film. It’s a lazy and uninspired campaign especially these days where people are drawn less to the big name stars and more to the concept of the film.
I think you’re spot on here. The concept really does seem to be what brings people out these days, and word of mouth about the execution, but it’s like these Fox execs have not gotten that memo and thought the stars attached could sell it on their names and faces alone.
They did the same thing with Body of Lies: “DiCaprio.Crowe.director of many Crowe movies, Scott. Go see it!” Didn’t work and it was a mess anyways although Crowe is really good in this movie.
I’m not saying that I’m going to rush off to see this movie, but I actually appreciate a trailer that doesn’t give everything away. All I really need to know is that it’s Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz in an action comedy.
But that’s the point, that DIDN’T work. Once you’ve seen the vastly superior Bourne movies and MI:III, just having Cruise in a movie (without the word “MISSION” in the title)just isn’t going to cut it. And if you’ve got Cameron Diaz in the movie you know it’s bad. No offense to her but, why is she a star exactly? She’s got the worst skin in the world and she’s just not pretty. You know her 15 minutes are up when she talks about being a lesbian and goes whoring around with A-Rod or stars with Tom Cruise in a wannabe Rom Com/Spy flick.
@ Aileen
When it comes to marketing, quantity is not quality. Those two were all over the circuit, yes, but they never gave any good reason why anybody should see their film
Better marketing doesn’t necessarily mean more marketing.
i really liked Grown Ups. Very entertaining.
All empires crumble from within.
The marketing is terrible.
The thing about Sandler and the crew there is, I used to watch their SNL stuff back in their prime and none of their movies ever came close to making me laugh so much as their years on that show. Man, that was great. Come to think of it, Sandler’s Waterboy was the only movie starring him I ever actually went to see in the theaters.
Anyone care to rank ADAM SANDLER movies (in which he’s the star) from best to worst? And not just in terms of box office, but QUALITY?
I’m curious…..
I feel like we need to distinguish between signature Sandler comedies and Sandler branching out. In that case,
Signature Sandler: 1) Happy Gilmore, 2) Big Daddy, 3) Billy Madison, 4) Click, 5) 50 First Dates, 6) Bedtime Stories, 7) Mr. Deeds,
Little Nicky, 9) The Wedding Singer, 10) The Waterboy, 11) Bulletproof, 12) I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, 13) Anger Management, 14) The Longest Yard, 15) You Don’t Mess with the Zohan
Arthouse-ish Sandler: 1) Reign Over Me, 2) Funny People, 3) Punch-Drunk Love, 4) Spanglish
And Vintage Supporting Sandler: 1) Airheads, 2) Mixed Nuts, 3) Shakes the Clown
Looking foward to seeing Grown Ups.
Mixed Nuts-My favorite Xmas movie of all time!!
Terribly underseen and underrated!!
I guess I’ll take a stab at it… these are my personal favorites. Just comedies, none of his dramas.
1. Big Daddy
2. Happy Gilmore
3. The Wedding Singer
4. Billy Madison
5. I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry
Im going to see Grown Ups tonight, so maybe that will make the list some day.
1. You Don’t Mess with the Zohan
Zohan was one of the most insightful und smart immigration-comedies ever – and far superior to Spanglish, for example. The Zohan story written as a drama would have garnered critical acclaim (it did remind me a tiny bit of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s similarly themed drama ALI: FEAR EATS THE SOUL. The writer mus
2. Chuck & Larry
3. Anger Management
Clearly, I’m not looking forward to Grown Ups
I hope that Toy Story can surpass the dreck known as Shrek 2 to become the highest grossing animated film of all time.
Honestly, I think Toy Story may be one of the best films to be produced, animated or not, in the past five years.
Well done again Pixar.
I agree, but PIXAR filma have been the best ones in the past 5 years, not only this 2010,,,,
I hope too, TS3 surpasses shrek 2, week day numbers will help ts3 more than weekends, next week it could probably have between 10 to 7 millions per day, avatar and eclipse will affect it a little bit, but it will come back with strong numbers after july 2-4 weekends
Avatar? I think you mean The Last Airbender.
yeap, I mean the last airbender, but I call it avatar, we all know it is its original name from the tvshow
People who willing pay to see Grown Ups and liked it, should not be allowed to breed.
Add people who live in Los Angeles to that non breeding list
The heck? I hope your daughter is a teen at least because Grown Ups is not a kid’s movie. WTF.
Is that true Grown Ups cost 75 mil?
It cost AT LEAST 75 million, depending on who you ask. Sandler’s films get more expensive year after year since he has an entourage of sycophants on the payroll, and it’s not as if his films rake in huge international dollars. Diminshed returns over time mean the budgets for his home movie crapfests should be dropping over time, not increasing.
Didn’t they just say 70M?
Marketing for Knight and Day should have mentioned it was a Mangold film. I wrote it off the first time I saw the trailer, as I’m sure many did who think Cruise and Diaz are washed up (which I don’t necessarily agree with) and that the story looked ridiculous (which I do agree with). It would have lent the movie some credibility to the more serious movie going crowd – and maybe mainstream – if they had mentioned it was by the director of 3:10 to Yuma and Walk The Line. The first time I heard of this was earlier today and definitely piqued my interest, but it was too little too late. Now rather than never watching it, I’m just going to wait for dvd.
Personally, I agree with Elmore Leonard’s opinion of James Mangold. I can tell everyone that this article is filled with appallingly incorrect information about Knight and Day.
mangold probably gave back a point or two not to be mentioned!
embracing cruise might have worked better than trying to hide him from the haters
internationally this will be big….as usual for him
mangold probably gave back a point or two NOT to be mentioned
embracing cruise in the marketing might have proved better in the states vs. hiding (well trying to hide) him
internationally this will be big for cruise…as usual
Knight & Day was certainly not as bad as it’s made out to be. I was entertained. It was a lot better than
the rather awful A-Team.
I thought the A-Team was good, it was a lot better than Charlies Angels.
“The script passed through the hands of 9 writers as well as Mangold who put an uncredited polish on it.”
Big deal! EVERY GODDAMN Hollywood flicks have been polished by tons of script doctors!
“I’m told test screenings were troubled, with audiences cruelly complaining that Tom Cruise is “weird” and Cameron Diaz is “old”.”
Really? Been told on the contrary and I, for one, liked the film. It was a 100% fun summer flick and original. Yup, this is not an adaptation or a sequel so in a long term it has a fair chance of respectable domestic score, I think.
“EVERY GODDAMN Hollywood flicks have been polished by tons of script doctors!”
Except for: Avatar, Dark Knight, Inglourious Basterds, Tropic Thunder, The Matrix, Star Wars, Passion of the Christ, Austin Powers, Lord of the Rings, 300, Bourne Ultimatum, The Sixth Sense, Watchmen, 8 Mile and every Pixar movie.
Don’t forget about Terminator, Terminator 2, Seven, Lethal Weapon, District 9, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Trek, and Zombieland.
Hmm. What’s the pattern here?
Actually… on that list a number of those scripts DID pass through the hands of script doctors…. including Star Wars (Huyck/Katz — it’s well documented), Tropic Thunder, ALL the Bourne films, Watchmen, 8 Mile, not to mention all the Pixar movies. And let’s be clear on Cameron — while he is a visionary, ALL of his movies have used other writers, credited or not.
It’s a simple truth — and it’s not a knock on any of the writers involved — film is a collaborative medium. And sometimes outside eyes are helpful.
I saw Knight and Day last night. It was really a fun summer movie – very Hitchcock in is the hero a psycho or a hero? I’m thinking it should have opened sooner than it did. The title didn’t do much for the film in marketing or plot. Anyway, I’m sending out the buzz that it’s one to see.
“Day And Knight” should have opened-up on a Friday to maximize its box office!!! This was just a bad strategy. Mid-week openings are not smart, unless you are dealing with a holiday falling midweek.
My suggestion to Tom Cruise, and I hope that he listens. Do a movie co-starring Will Smith, shoot it in 3D…and surround yourselves with a a ensemble cast made-up of people that have sizable Q-Ratings as individuals. As well, enough of the spy yarns, we have seen Tom as a spy before, show us something new! No more spies!!! Diversify a little–give us a musical, a independent film, an animated movie, a sex comedy, a super hero movie, a gangster film (Stallone’s new “John Gotti” movie would be great for Tom; feature Cruise as a street thug in Gotti’s crew), etc. Continue to play against type; Play a side-man in a movie, a homo-sexual, a nerd, etc.
Place Tom in an already successful film franchise where he can benefit from being exposed to a new audience, allowing him to lure in new fans, and new demographic, while earning back others!!! He’d be great doing a role in The Twilight series, for instance. The possibilities are endless.
Next, give us “Top Gun 2″. Here’s my own original outline: We open with Tom as a Top Gun instructor who is surprised when his son, or daughter, makes it to Top Gun Academy, an unconfortable situation where he must train his kid to be a Top Gun pilot. The climax will be as expected, we see the kid and dad placed in harms way in a war action, and they both come through as heroes. It’s a guaranteed hit, so do it already!!!
Tom Cruise would kill to do a movie with Will Smith. In fact, he would kill to do a movie with a lot of big stars in town, and believe me he’s trying. The problem is at this point he needs them a hell of a lot more than they need him. Will Smith can open a movie just with Will Smith – why would he want to share the spotlight with Tom Cruise? Or spend three months doing publicity with him? Not to say something like this won’t happen, but the person who has to be convinced in this hypothetical isn’t Tom Cruise.
Are you serious with that rubbish or was it a big slice of comical irony? Will Smith? Top Gun 2? Twilight? Here’s my original outline? What, more manipulative crap for this astoundingly overrated, out-of-control, arrogant has-been to appear in?
They say the public has a short memory, maybe, but not when you jump up and down on talk-show couches to the horror of the host, actually tick off reporters(on air I might add) thus indicating you’re used to controlling EVERYTHING and mustn’t be challenged and have the sad misfortune to have a recruiting video you starred in for your wacky religion leaked on-line so the whole world can see what a hypocrite you are.
Only a fool would’ve expected Knight & Day to do incredible business.I do agree with you about one thing. He needs to try something new….anything but make another movie.
Finally saw Killers. I liked it much more than I expected, and I began to think about why it flopped. Firstly, I did not pay to see the movie, someone else did. If it were up to me to pay, I never would have gone. Heigl’s public persona as a shrew put me off and made me forget that her movie persona is completely delightful. We may have reached the point where people can’t get over “real” Heigl to appreciate “movie” Heigl. She needs serious PR recovery work. Makeup and lighting did her no favors here. She frequently looked older than Kutcher.
The movie was also a hodgepodge. Action, slapstick comedy, romantic comedy, and relationship drama. Each piece was done well, but it caused the film to be all over the place. The action bits were well choreographed, but never developed tension because they were book ended by zany comedy. The audience’s emotions can’t whip back and forth as quickly as film wanted them to do. The plot was not grounded in any sort of reality and didn’t make much sense emotionally or logically. This is ok in a comedy of the Austin Powers type, but doesn’t work in any sort of action film or romantic comedy. Despite all this, I think when people see the movie for FREE on cable, they’ll find it a generally likable piece of fluff. It’s the fact that they paid for it that is pissing people off.
Another major problem is Ashton Kutcher, but that deserves a post all its own.
Really? You liked Heigl on film? I didn’t realize until I saw the “trust circle” bullshit that while the writing was poor, Heigl made me hate the movie that much more. Even her “I don’t want to see you swat a fucking fly” line wasn’t that good for me.
If you want to pay for a woman-meets-spy story, go see “Knight and Day.” Number 1 – there’s a story. Number 2 – Cruise and Diaz are better than Kutcher and Heigl. Number 3 – rather than showing you a pretty European city than jetting back to Atlanta, GA, “Knight and Day” jumps back and forth from US locales (mostly in Mass) to Salzburg, Austria, and Sevilla, Spain. Overall, it’s much better product.
I don’t think most people in the U.S./World know or even care who the real Katheryn Heigl is. She’s not a nobody, but I don’t she’s the topic of too many water cooler discussions at work.
Kathryn Hegel is a slut who backstabs all who help her, that’s why it bombed.
Excellent analysis on Killers. Action comedies always have a tough time getting the right mix of serious action and comedy. People will accept absurd situations but (except in farces/spoofs) the characters need to act believably and not always do the stupidest thing possible. The Kutcher casting was terrible because no one could picture him as a veteran, retired hitman.
Correction–Heigl’s character wasn’t a shrew–she was a childish ditz even by gruesomely-low rom-com standards. There’s a big difference between being someone who’s inexperienced/afraid, but can rise to the occasion–and being a whiny idiot no one can believe in. And for female viewers, that’s a very big deal because they’re sick of twerpy, twittering women characters.
In a minority as most hated it, but I enjoyed “Killers” too. Kutcher was slightly better than expected. I thought he looked awful in the trailer. He’s not much of an actor, but he wasn’t awful.
I liked “Killers” more than “Knight.” Diaz doesn’t do much for me. The comedy in “Knight” was too silly. “Killers” wasn’t great, but I enjoyed it.
Knight and Day will do much-much better overseas. Tom Cruise is still have a big name out there. It could do a 200-300 millions overseas.
Tom Cruise IS weird. It belongs to a bizarre cult religion, wears lifts in its shoes, and seems terribly insecure about its sexuality (“I LOVE KATIE HOLMES!”). On top of that, it is an incredibly wooden actor.
I’m loving that America has finally woken up to what that thing is really like.
Wow, thank you for showing us the effects of blind jealousy…
Why would anyone be jealous of a talentless midget voluntarily involved in an alien-worshipping cult?
“the smart bet is on Grown-Ups going higher because of the marketable ensemble cast including Kevin James.”
I’d change that sentence to “the smart bet is Grown-Ups going higher despite the un-marketable ensemble cast, excluing Kevin James.” Rock, Spade, and Schneider were marketable in 1997, but are not on par with Sandler or Farley-lite. Poor Schneider didn’t even get to go to the Laker game!
Rob Schneider is one of the funniest comic actor working. Go see Big Stan, his finest moment.
Knight and Day will make plenty of money worldwide. Classic Nikki — rooting for it to fail, predicting it will so, then praising it when it doesn’t and saying she’s been behind it all along.
“Knight & Day” = proof that audiences aren’t lapping this “Killers”-esque movie.
And Tom Rothman needs to quit micromanaging this film slate. No wonder a lot of people complain about little to no creative freedom there.
Where’s that guy that SWORE Jonah Hex was going to do at LEAST 45 million…? I believe he bet his left nut on it. Shit man, how’s that One Ball thing working out for you?
Yeah, and while we’re at it, where’s the guy who swore the A Team was going to have legs, and still be in the theaters in August?
Couldn’t be happier about Toy Story 3 and its success. I, too, hope it goes on to surpass the Shrek crown for highest grossing animated film in history. As for Knight & Day, I used to be one of Cruise’s most ardent fans. Then came Katie…the Matt Lauer interview…the Oprah debacle…etc. Am I forgiving? Yes. But why continue eating something that no longer tastes good? I wish no ill on Cruise. But I can’t digest him anymore. He made too much of a lousy impact with his…um…asinine antics.
I don’t get it…why is it that whenever Hollywood has a bomb they blame the marketing? I don’t work in the industry, or in marketing, but as a businessman looking in from the outside it appears the marketing department is the one area not in ‘power’ or have managers/agents to defend itself. Their argument falls on deaf ears when a film is essentially universally panned by the majority of critics across the country (as is the case with K&D), as well as paying audiences.
Audiences have fallen for the marketing of bad Tom Cruise movies for years, and finally appear to have figured it out. Just like they appear to finally realize not every 3D movie is worth paying $18.50.
As Abraham Lincoln said, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”
they blame the marketing because it’s a HUGE part of why a movie fails or thrives opening weekend. there are well reviewed movies that bomb all the time because the marketing department failed to reach the right demographic with the right campaign; there are also critically reviled ones that do splendidly (grown ups is at 10% on rotten tomatoes, far lower that K&D, and yet it’s doing better at the box office). as a businessman surely you realize that in any sales situation making sure you reach your potential customers with the right message/ads/branding etc… is key.
this isn’t to let the film’s creatives off the hook if the movie sucks, but when it comes to box office- opening weekend, the importance of good marketing can’t be underestimated.
Also because at most studios marketing greenlights the movies or a former head of marketing is running the studio.
Kevin James… Middle Earth hearts the fat man.
Grown-Ups is the model for bottom of the barrel crap. Anyone involved in that should be ashamed of themselves. Why not just film Sandler walking around all day, wiping his ass, watching tv. Same thing. Sad.
Listen Gross Man. I don’t see any one green lighting your punk ass shit. Have you even seen the film.
Grossman, I bet you liked Knight & Day and Jonah Hex though… enough said.
I’m tired of every ent mag slamming the “poor opening of Knight and day” it’s a fab film. I saw it. Treat yourself to something fun…
All of Mangold’s films are good.
- I’m told test screenings were troubled, with audiences cruelly complaining that Tom Cruise is “weird” and Cameron Diaz is “old”. –
I read on another forum that significant “Benjamin Buttoning” was performed on both stars in post.
This summer is full of epic fail of apocalyptic proportion. It has to be the worst summer for movies we have EVER seen for content AND box office tally.
In my opinion, we have 2 good films (Iron Man 2 and Kung Fu Kid) and 1 stellar film (Toy Story 3) and June is done. Really pitiful.
As I understand it, Jonah Hex was made before the redesign of DC into DC Entertainment – back when people on the comics side (DiDio, Levitz, etc) had absolutely nothing to do with the film end of things. So I’m not sure what they have to answer for here – if anything, this seems a stellar example of why DC Entertainment was formed and DC was rejigged – precisely so that people who know the characters like DiDio would have some actual involvement with movies. I mean, that was the whole idea behind making Geoff Johns CCO, no? Taking DC’s best writer who has proven himself incredibly adept at revamping and updating concepts and putting him in charge of adaptations to other media so train wrecks like Jonah Hex wouldn’t happen?
Yea, unfortunately we’re never going to get another Jonah Hex film. These lesser known characters need to hit one out of the park from day one because they don’t get a second chance.
A character like Batman can bomb but that’s ok because WB will just reboot the franchise in a few years.
And then you’ve got the middle-tier characters like “The Punisher” who have had a few films, none of which became mega-hits. There are plenty of scribes who could turn out an amazing film for the character but unfortunately they’re never going to get a chance.
DC comics have one big problem. Other than Batman and Superman no one gives a crap about their characters. (MAybe Wonderwoman back in the dat, but not now.) You can only polish a turd so much.
Jonah Hex shouldn’t have been made for a lot of reasons, and the execution was terrible. But no one cared about an obscure character in the first place so it was always doomed. Now their gonna make Dr. Strange. Who’s gonna see that? Answer – no one.
Nobody gave a crap about Iron Man either — until someone made a great movie about him. DC has an endless supply of interesting characters to develop. Doesn’t matter how many people have heard of them. Just make cool movies and people will go see them.
The thing you said about K&D’s marketing being all over the place…sometimes that works. The marketing for the Blindside emphasized the sports angle when playing during things like sporting events, whereas it showed the dramatic side during more female or dramatic programming.
Blindside succeeded because of the massive faith-based promotions in the Bible Belt, not because of marketing to sports or anything else. Fun movie.
NOTHING this summer will be better than CYRUS. NOTHING
NOTHING this summer will be better than Miley Cyrus in The Last Song, NOTHING
Thank you for the above post Mr. or Mrs. Publicist for Jonah “I can’t act” Hill.
To borrow a phrase from Nikki, Jonah Hill’s thespian aspirations is one, big “suckfest” !!!!! He, just like David Schwimmer of “Friends” fame, should kiss the ground upon waking each morn in eternal gratitude they have a career in Hollywood.
Sheesh. Talk about the celluloid equivalent of the Peter Principle. Hill is IT personified. I will not be seeing the indie schlocky Cyrus. Sounds like bores-ville.
Fox = Killer Marketing? Because A-Team, K&D and (the upcoming) Predators all over-performed? The only consistent killer marketing by a studio this summer belongs to Sony. Everyone else has been mixed or FAIL.
Why would anyone pay to see a Sandler film in theatres? I mean I enjoy some of his stuff, but it’s more of a “I can wait for this to hit video” type quality that his movies have.
I think the problem with Night and Day is audiences are having genre fatigue. If I am counting right this is the 4th film in 6 months with the same premise but different stars. Killers is still out there and it hasn’t found an audience. I think audiences were not ready to embrace another action/comedy/romance no matter who is in it. I also think the critics have been he overly generous with their reviews of Night and Day this was a big budget summer film and they are critiquing it like it had a $40 million dollar budget.
I saw Knight and Day on Wednesday and enjoyed it. Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz had great comedic timing and the action and scenery/locations in Europe were beautiful.
Grown-Ups is depressingly awful. Overpraised comedians slogging through weak material. One of its running jokes is that David Spade, who looks surprisingly old and fat, starts to gag every time someone mentions sex with an older woman.
Your taking it awfully personal. Do people gag when they have sex with you.
It’s interesting to me that a guy like Spade, who made his career as a stand-up making fun of bad career decisions celebrities make, has turned into the very guy he mocked as a comedian.
Hey, Eddie Murphy has been blazing that path for years–and Chris Rock is getting dangerously close to doing the same.
Wow you haters have a real hard-on for Big Tom. From what I can see, “Knight and Day”:
a) Opened on a Wednesday. Why?
b) Lesser flick with lesser stars and same premise opened right before it (Killers), and both pale in comparison to the originator, “Mr and Mrs. Smith”
c) Poster didn’t even feature the stars. Weak
d) Lackluster promotion
Much as I love Tom and Cameron, they are indeed a bit dated as well, especially in this kid-centric era where nobody remembers 10 minutes ago, let alone 1999-2000.
Tom should have held out for MI:4 if he wanted to do a summer action flick. No confidence in Brad Bird, though, despite animation successes. Would much rather J.J. return to the director’s chair.
My .02
so, again BOUNTY HUNTER has done better than Knight & Day, as well as Killers!!!!so why is BH termed a Bomb when it has lower budget than these two???
Because Knight & Day will be huge overseas. Bounty Hunter did the same business overseas that it did here, which wasn’t much. That’s the difference. Cruise movies still make money, like it or not.
Actually Bounty Hunter has done slightly more overseas than domestic. But what’s important is that it has made more than $135 million world wide to date and counting – with a budget of just $40 million. Knight & Day is going to need to make more than $350 million world wide to see similar profit versus budget numbers. That’s going to be quite an uphill climb based on this opening.
Fact is Bounty Hunter has performed as expected or greater – and so far better than Killers (which had double its production budget), and headed for a better opening than Knight & Day (with nearly three times its production budget). It should never have been designated an “embarrassing flop” out the gate.
All of you IDIOTS think making a comedy is easy, but whenever you try they suck. Adam owns you over and over and over again. If all it took was fart jokes to make a hit, then all studios would make are comedies. People who can’t make good movies make “important” films because then no one can say they suck without losing face.
Nikki you are an average wit and should refrain from insulting Adam when you aren’t even talented enough to work in the movies, so you leech off other people’s work and report on it.
I heard the studios are making ten films of just farting. Since Nikki thinks that is all it takes to succeed in comedy.
A few years ago it would have been Chris Rock’s face right next to and as big as Adam Sandler’s on a movie poster. Now it’s Kevin James.
Because of PAUL BLART!? Rock’s been around longer, is more talented and sharper and I’m sure has made as much money for studios these past 20 years as James did for MALL COP if not more. NEW JACK CITY, LETHAL WEAPON 4. These movies made money.
Studios think we’re really stupid.
Yeah, that was odd. They barely even let Chris speak in the trailer. I guess they figure his demographic will come no matter what. Chris seemed to get demoted to the “token black guy” like the one in “Couples Retreat”.
Referencing Lethal Weapon 4 and New Jack City isn’t going to change their minds.
I’m guessing it’s because Rock hasn’t ever opened a film on his own, is coming off multiple flops while Kevin James has starred in four films since leaving his wildly successful TV show, Hitch – 179 mil domestic, I Now Pronounce You Larry and Chuck 120 mil domestic and Paul Blart – 146 mil domestic – that would make Kevin James a movie star while Chris Rock is a stand up comedian who has never opened a film, ever. Hence why James is the bigger face on the poster.
This was one of the worst movies i have seen in a long time> Tom Cruise looks every bit the lunatic that jumped on Oprah’s coach. Cameron Diaz looked like leather face. The story was stupid
Knight and day is way better than Buhay and even killers wasn’t as bad as the horrible script of Buhay. Perhaps Bh ruined it for the opening weekends of the two that followed.
No one in the 14-25 demographic is going to the movies, but don’t blame us for all this lackluster performance: We don’t have any money! Downsizing comes down the hardest on retailers, so it’s a little hard for me to go splurging on these outrageous ticket prices when I don’t even work forty hours a week delivering pizza.
The last straw for me was Alice in Wonderland: Me and my friends were all fired up to see it, and even though we weren’t making much, we somehow mustered the $14 a pop required for IMAX seating and took the long drive from our rural town to the theater, not to mention the joint we smoked before the movie. And what happened? The movie sucked, that’s what happened: Totally squandered all of its thematic and 3-D potential.
I didn’t see another movie until Kick-Ass, and most of my friends stayed home for that one, waiting for Nightmare on Elm Street. You see how this works? We really don’t have the money to go and gamble on whether or not Knight & Day might be “pretty entertaining.” A dime-sack is pretty entertaining, too.
Seriously, I’m waiting in line for my ticket and I look at the admission fees: Most theaters around here are pushing ten bucks for a matinee! Are we going to the movies or boarding a train? Remember when eight bucks for a night show was considered steep?
We did end up seeing Toy Story, though… if you create something that’s genuinely damn good, it will attract patrons, period. Not just semi-good, ala Knight & Day, or pretty good, ala Get Him to the Greek, or something debatable like Shrek Forever After. Make a great movie and it will eventually find its audience.
The music industry is supposedly dead, right? Well, earlier this week, I marched my broke ass to Best Buy and picked up Recovery, the first CD I’ve purchased in a really long time. Great album, by the way: Just the kind of creative adrenaline this washed-up industries need. Same for film with Toy Story 3.
I hope Hollywood is reading your post, because it tells them more than their douchebag marketing departments ever could. (And I DO work in the industry).
Mediocrity = mediocre returns
Fact is fact. Just put this entire summer in your Netflix Queue, because it’s not worth going to the theatre for. (Hopefully, Inception is the exception).
Second that, college kid here and besides the astronomical prices of tickets these days (‘Alice’ was also the last time I do 3D unless it is something like ‘Avatar’ where the movie is planned from the very beginning to be in 3D and utilized effectively), the general lack of original movies has caused me to just stick with Netflix for the most part this summer.
The creative drought in Hollywood is just depressing to me. I am a huge cinephile, love masterpieces like ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ and ‘Citizen Kane’ just as much as I do summer blockbusters and superhero films. Just a couple of years ago I went to midnight showings of big movies because I had to be one of the first to see it. These days? Not one movie has been worth going to the midnight showing, much less paying matinee prices in general.
DK hits the nail on the head, those of us who would be considered the core demographic of movie-going people are not just going to lap up anything thrown at us. Oooo, another Adam Sandler sophomoric comedy? Can’t wait. The only movie I had to see on opening weekend this summer was ‘Toy Story 3′, not only because it got great reviews, but because it resonated with me due to my having grown up with the original movies as well as having a number of themes that affected me on much more than a superficial level. Besides that one outstanding film (I will see anything Pixar puts out, and I am in my twenties), this summer is a complete dud, and many of my fellow twentysomethings are doing as I am and not wasting the money on these decent or crappy films in theaters.
I trust Chris Nolan so here’s hoping ‘Inception’ is as good as the early buzz has been, that will be the only other movie this summer that I (and from discussions many of my fellow movie-going twentysomething friends) have to see in theaters. Hollywood, put out good movies that we actually WANT to see and we will come, trust me.
DK, Handy–dead on. The industry seems to have designed this summer’s slate for a 2005 (or 1985) rolling-in-discretionary-income audience. Every teen/20-something I know is working retail (and getting their work hours cut,) dropping out of college to earn money, or just barely staying in college. None of them have money to blow to see even good movies more than once–and they sure as hell don’t have it to throw away on flicks that don’t deliver at all.
And my (somewhat older that you) friends agree with yours–INCEPTION looks like the only upcoming summer movie worth spending to see.
Just looked over the July slate, and Hollywood won’t be getting more than twenty bucks from me next month: My buddy and I are psyched for Inception, and I’ll probably watch Predators, but other than that, it’s barren… I’d like to watch Despicable Me and Sorcerer’s Apprentice, but it’s not worth the gamble, especially for the 3-D Despicable.
It’s sad to say because I really do enjoy a good movie, but after Inception, I probably won’t return to the theater until Saw VII. Do they really expect me to shell out for The Other Guys and Charlie St. Cloud? Times have changed and money’s tight. I anticipate a lot of sub-$10 million openings this summer; Jonah Hex may be the first big bomb, but I have a feeling it won’t be the last.
There’s a tendency, especially in the summer and holiday seasons, for people to want to label everything either a hit or a bomb immediately. People are more interested in extremes and quick labels than in the middle, which requires more detailed consideration and often the passage of time to evaluate.
Look at the final summer box office tallies and you’ll see there were fewer “bombs” than you were led to believe.
Here’s my deal. I like Cruise. I have always liked him and always will. However, I’ve seen him be the kick butt/agent/superhero guy sooooo many times. He needs to do more character work. He was great in Magnolia, he rocked as Lestat, he was hilarious as Less Grossman. He shined in Vanilla Sky much more as the guy with the disfigured face than he did as the playboy with everything he could want. I feel I’ve seen him be this (Knight and Day) character way too many times over (or some variation of). I’m not saying never do it again. I’m just suggesting he leave it for a while and make the return to it exciting after having done some different things. He is very underrated as an actor because of his Movie Star status. I don’t know if just gaining weight like Stallone did for COPLAND will suffice, but something along the lines of what Charlize Theron did in MONSTER would be good. Play the ugly Tom and they will love you for it. I know you got lotto mo inside you.
Dear Jack–FINALLY, someone with the intelligence to praise Tom Cruise as a highly underrated actor! So far on these posts, I have yet to come across anyone commending Cruise on his Oscar-worthy performances in BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, A FEW GOOD MEN, RAIN MAN (I know, Hoffman’s one-note role won the Oscar but Cruise, as a spoiled yuppy’s gradual transformation into a loving, compassionate young man, deserved it), etc. And can we please forget about his couch-jumping on Oprah! I, for one, found it a touching declaration of a young man’s love for a lovely young lady (after his marriages to those twin beasts Mimi Rogers & Nicole Kidman, who only snagged him to further their mediocre careers, he certainly deserved some happiness in his life). Yes, I personally find scientology not to my taste, but everyone should be respected for his choice of religion (Richard Gere’s a Buddhist, Madonna & many others have chosen other non-popular ideologies, and the much-beloved Travolta and many others are also scientologists but have escaped the public pounding inflicted on poor Tom). And, yes, I’m prejudiced. In the late ’80s-early ’90s, I worked for the publicity firm that handled Tom, and whenever he came to NYC to promote a new movie, I was happily assigned to cover his interviews. He was a modest, intelligent, engaging, thoughtful young gentleman, and a sheer pleasure to work with (unlike dozens of others “stars” I could name but won’t). When another client, Tom Berenger, with whom I was close friends, did, as a favor to Oliver Stone for “Platoon”, one scene in “Born on the Fourth of July”, he flew back home to Beaufort to find a delivery truck driving to his house and giving him an elaborate floral/balloon arrangement tied to a bottle of champagne, the card read “it was an honor to work with an actor of your caliber, sincerely, Tom C”. Berenger was deeply moved by such a warm, sincere gesture; it had never happened to him before in his life. In the years since, Cruise & Kidman adopted two children during their ill-fated marriage. I have never seen any mention of or evidence of Nicole having any ties to these children, but often, while watching one of those TV entertainment shows, see their adoptive father taking them to Knicks games. Since today’s moviegoers seem to have such a hate-on for one of our finest actors, I’d advise Tom to do what so many others who have hit career snags have done: hit the Broadway stage for a 6-month revival of a classic play. It would put an end to the foolish national pastime of “hating Tom” and remind critics, moviegoers, and theater-goers why we fell in love with Tom Cruise to begin with!
JasonTHX,
Chris Rock wasn’t the star of New Jack City or Lethal 4 – he’s a great stand up comedian (when he’s on) but he stinks in the movies – always has. Bad Company anyone? The crazy thing is the fact that isn’t a story in Grown Ups. It’s paper thin and not funny. Spade, Schneider and Rock all suck in this thing yet it crushed the weekend. That’s Adam… almost all of it.
I agree it’s mostly Sandler – but don’t count out Kevin James contribution – this will film number 4 over 100 mil when his name is over the credits – and don’t forget that his smash hit show still plays well on the small screen in reruns – people like to watch Kevin James they just do – and no amount of hate from people who don’t get his appeal will change that.
Cameron Diaz and many of her past roles remind me of the mean girl who went out of her way to be mean to ugly guys in high school. I think many American guys can’t relate to her( although lately on some interviews she appears more sincere and humble…)
Heigl? Gross roles…doesn’t have the approachability for most American guys…and her sense of humor has been suffering because of it.
I think there is a vacuum waiting to be filled by a younger “Sandra Bullock”( more sweet, approachable, funny) There are too many lead actresses who aren’t funny and appear way stuck up.
Flea, I TOTALLY agree with you on there being a need for a young actress to fill the “young Sandra Bullock” vacuum that Sandra Bullock has grown way too old for (though she is still very gorgeous and vivacious…. in my 30-something humble opinion!)
The actress that intrigues my writer-producer friends but also confounds them (because of her poor choices) is Anna Faris. She is billed as funny (and does exude great comic potential), she is delectable eye candy (as shown in the less than lustrous “House Bunny”) and she seems sweet off camera in a ‘Sandra Bullock homespun kind of way.’
I live in Seattle, where Ms. Faris grew up, and run into her friends/ former classmates on the regular and they all say she is the real deal – nice, witty, sincere, down to earth.
So what is Hollywood waiting on to make her a STAR? She’s got more talent than a lot of those revolving door clowns cast in many a Judd Apatow movie.
Ugh, Sometimes this Hollywood biz-ness is not for the faint of heart. C’mon, is there ANY Anna love in da house?
YES.
Just saw Grown Ups. Some of it was very funny….some decent …some ehhh… Good to see a movie about family values. Not into the potty humor but that’s part of Sandler’s act…so what? You gotta look a bit deeper into his movies. At the heart is a regular guy who doesn’t do the fake Hollywood stuff. And believe me much of Hollywood is fake… He manages to appeal to many in America by being real and having a good time. (And he managed to play a humane agent— although I don’t believe that truly exists…you know what they say about agents, right? It IS pretty lonely here in my navel…caraway seeds, anyone?)
And comedy? Stand up before an audience and get them to laugh …it’s a hard gig….Making someone laugh can be just as tough as making an audience cry…. And yet take any decent actor and have them throw a temper tantrum on screen or play some dark character and rest assured they’ll get the gold trophy..What’s up with that?
Speaking of comedy and regular guys has anyone read the script “Regular Guy”. I saw it on Storylink. It’s one of those comedies that people can…..sorry I digress….that’s for another post?
-F.N.
@JJJ: Tom Cruise and Will Smith are supposedly very close friends, if not, best friends, at least…according to them, hence, they would make a great team in a film. There is no doubt that Cruise needs Smith, we know that, and that is exactly my point, for him to rebound theatrically, he needs a co-star who can open-up a movie and draw female audiences, and is respected among all demographics.
Also, I would suggest that Tom Cruise change his audience demo. Tom use to have Middle America in his front and back pocket, but they are largely Southerners, White, and Bible-Belt people…who are bigots and are very unforgiving, ironically, and highly judgmental (not to say that all Whites are like that, as they are not, but…Bible-Belt folks and Southerners tend to be very conservative…and right leaning, to the extreme, and they tend to be White), and that is my point! Tom needs to go for ethnic audiences, as Steven Seagal once did.
Blacks, Latinos, and other people of color, love Tom…and are less judgmental, as they have been discriminated against, thus, they understand the discrimination Tom constantly receives over his Scientology beliefs, although they may not agree with Scientology, or understand it–their colective view is largely, live and let live. Cruise needs to tailor his films toward them, the Urban audience, as he has lost Middle America, and he has lost women, at least, White women, that is. Fine, he can bring in co-stars that are liked by that demographic, in order to draw them in…but if I were on Cruise’s strategy team, I would propose that Tom do a film that is, again, geared toward Urban audiences–which are responsible for a lot of box office.
I’d have Tom work with people like Tyler Perry, Spike Lee, Samuel L. Jackson, Jackie Chan, Vin Diesel, Eddie Murphy, George Lopez, Beyonce, and Denzil Washington. Tom’s films are largely cast White, and again, he is losing, or has lost, that audience…due to religious issues, and the media trying to, and successfully so…in many cases, demonizing him as being crazy or weird over those religious issues. It now has become sport for them to reflect religious bigotry, and openly so, against Cruise, and no one is saying a thing in his defense…to stop said bigotry? That said, he should ignore them, his lost audience, and aim to cast his films as being more ethnically diverse…across the board, films with more urban settings and themes, and go for minority audiences that still love him, no matter what he does or says.
I’d also have Cruise work with more interesting filmmakers like David Fincher and Quentin Tarantino.
Lastly, Tom should attach his star to some young…up and coming talents, like Channing Tatum. They would make a good teaming in “Top Gun 2″, for instance. If your star is falling, catch a ride on someone else’s…that is rising!!!
“Also, I would suggest that Tom Cruise change his audience demo. Tom use to have Middle America in his front and back pocket, but they are largely Southerners, White, and Bible-Belt people…who are bigots and are very unforgiving, ironically, and highly judgmental (not to say that all Whites are like that, as they are not, but…Bible-Belt folks and Southerners tend to be very conservative…and right leaning, to the extreme, and they tend to be White), and that is my point! Tom needs to go for ethnic audiences, as Steven Seagal once did.”
This is one of the most ignorant and offensive things I’ve ever read on this site. I work in the movie business. I can only hope you don’t.
Offensive as it may be, it’s also true, shrewd and viable.
Welcome to the new reality.
Shrewd? Viable? The new reality?
America has a black president, Will Smith is our biggest movie star, Will Smith’s kid has just opened a movie to huge numbers, and somehow you both want to view Tom Cruise’s declining stardom through a racial lens?
Give me a break.
Even racists love Will Smith.
Jebus, this is a stupid post. This is the biggest problem with Hollywood for the most part (and I work here). They are so busy labeling other parts of the country that they can’t realize it’s the product that sucks and maybe, just maybe, Tom Cruise is old.
I love Tom, but did it ever occur to anyone that maybe people are just tired of him and want to see new stars? That it has nothing to do with conservative, liberal, what have you?
The goal is to entertain first. Make better product.
Tom is a well-known lover of old films, perhaps that’s where the 1970s-redux title came into play. I understand targeting adults since Cruise and Diaz are older but still, an ancient title like “Knight and Day” would target Adults 55+, don’t see anyone under 40 possibly being motivated by such a moniker.
“Knight and Day” is an entertaining outing if you put your brain on hold for a couple of hours. The film is a typical action flick that is fast moving, charming, with implausible situations and lots of action sequences many of them well executed. I enjoyed the flick and Diaz in a Bikini, wow, and it just may play well into the summer.
I pledged to see knight and Day and I did. But before I plunked down by 4.75 I was tempted to see the Toy Story.I was discouraged by the two vans of about 30 people ( adults/teens) that went in to see Toy Story 3D, they were like kindergartners headed to the zoo on a sunny day.
I was also tempted based on the EW mag that said it made Barbie and Ken look better then that insurance commercial from a few years ago. Toy Story 3 is the Twister of 2010.
On to Knight.
Well Knight and Day was a beautiful film. It reminded me of To catch a thief without the drama. Playing off the comedy skills of Cameron it pays homage to past films with a glimpse of Mary, Kill Bill 1, Demolition Man and a host of action films from the eighties.
Jamaica, Boston, Austria and Spain are shown to perfection.
Tom even plays off his MI3 opening scene. Their were only four people for the second showing,mostly older, so as time goes by it will make $200 million US plus DVD and Europe for a $400 million take in one year.
The previews before knight were not bad, I was reminded of Leonardo’s film and Matt Damon’s scifi flick.
I had seen the previews of Grown UPs and it didn’t look funny. I like Maya Rudolph so I might see that film at the dollar show in two months.
Go see Knight, I think you will like it. Nice North by Northwest concept with comedy and some Viola Davis.
Tom Cruise is weird. That works when he plays a villain, or a comic buffoon. As a hero, not so much. Cameron Diaz is old. She’s not a sexy young twenty something, working on pure sex appeal and a smoking body and face. That does not make her value-less, but doesn’t mean she can do what she did in the Mask.
Stars don’t matter any more. Concept and execution as mentioned above do. Will opening big abroad save the movie? Doubtful. Most folks abroad will probably see it on pirated DVDs.
3-D can stave off the piracy problem for a while, but not forever. Ultimately, Hollywood will have to make cheaper films that have broader appeal to make money.
What’s hilarious about your post, Whiskey, is your last comment that Hollywood will have to make films with “broader appeal”. After all, any time a movie has a black actor as a lead, you’re on here saying that such casting offends white audiences. Or did you really mean that Hollywood should make films with broader appeal to YOUR preferred group of folks?
Black leads don’t “offend” White audiences, they mostly don’t care. Unless it’s Will Smith kicking Alien Ass. Nobody came out for Wild Wild West.
Taking a well known White character and making him Black, like say Superman, would offend White audiences, just as much as taking Shaft and making him played by Christian Bale would for Black audiences. That has to be said. Shaft is Black. Nobody wants to see even the best White actor play him. Superman is White. If you got Paul Robeson reincarnated, no one would want to see him. Any more than folks would pay to see Buffy the Vampire Slayer played by say, DJ Qualls.
The biggest money is making a movie that appeals to the broadest audience (that’s Whites at 65% of the audience) without turning off folks who could see it (Blacks at 12.5%). Hispanics are irrelevant since they mostly watch Spanish language movies, though they do show up for Action stuff like Iron Man.
If you want a uniquely Black movie, like Tyler Perry’s stuff, you have to do it cheap enough. Because White audiences just don’t care.
They are indifferent to Madea. They don’t hate Perry. They just don’t want to see his movies.
How much has Jaden Smith cost the remake of Karate Kid? Probably IMHO around 40% of possible box office. That’s because first he’s obnoxious bottled, and spoiled, but second because the fundamental story of a Black kid being beaten up by Chinese kids in China leaves the majority (65%) indifferent. No one can relate. The movie is all Jackie Chan.
Jackie Chan (the closest Kung Fu Movie Legend we have) is why this movie did better than the one with the girl.
There’s plenty of diversity. Perry AND OTHERS have shown Black film-makers can make plenty of stuff of interest really only to Black movie goers and make a profit. There’s no need for profit denying Affirmative Action in movies that don’t really need or deserve it.
Because its like casting Christian Bale as Shaft. He’s a good actor. But he’s not the character.
Whiskey, are you suggesting that we should have segregated movie casts unless aliens or comic book characters are involved? You certainly seem to be saying that.
BTW, can you explain your methodology that you used to assert that Jaden Smith’s BLACKNESS cost his film 40% of its box office take.
@ Whiskey:
I have no idea why I am getting involved in this, but look,
I am white. I recently re-watched 48 Hours for the first time since I was a kid, and was surprised at how much I empathized with Eddie Murphy’s character this time around. Nick Nolte’s by the books cop, not so much.
The idea that white audiences can’t or won’t care about a black character just because he’s black is just absurd. If the writing is good, and the acting is good, people will care. The problem is that African American actors are all too often deprived of real meaty parts, because many people on the top think like you do.
“Most folks abroad will probably see it on pirated DVDs.”
What a bigoted man you are! Folks in London, Paris, Stockholm etc. see movies on pirated DVDs! You heard it here, folks! People in Europe don’t have cinemas! Or they just don’t go to the cinema and that’s why international numbers for some films like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Avatar etc are higher than domestic numbers, because people abroad watch films on pirated DVDs!
“Hispanics are irrelevant since they mostly watch Spanish language movies, though they do show up for Action stuff like Iron Man.”
The only one irrelevant here is you, hilly billy. Why don’t you go back to playing with your horses and leave the rest of the world to those who are actually interested in it.
YIIHAAAA!
I like how Fox insists Knight and Day is aimed at adults. Do the people at Fox even know what an adult is?
1. There was a time when every old actor wanted to co-star with Tom to be relevant, get box office, and win an Oscar (Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man and Paul Newman in Color of Money). Ironically, the time has now come for that in reverse — Tom must co-star with a young stud to be relevant, get box office, and perhaps win an Oscar. Problem is he is not old enough yet to want to co-star with a young stud who would make him look old and flabby by comparison.
2. The last thing Will Smith wants to do is co-star with Tom when Will has had to deal with Scientology rumors. Why endanger his rep by getting ensnared in that PR trap? Scientology was concocted by a science fiction pulp writer who indisputably said that the way to get rich in America was to invent your own religion. How can intelligent people fall for that?
SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! Knight&Day – Attn Screenwriters – Apparently it is no longer a requirement to solve action plot points. You can just drug your characters and move forward in time. And you can do it at several points in your screenplay!! So next time you are staring at your keyboard wondering “how am I going to get my protagonist out of this?” you can say”I know! Ketamine!!” This movie was not an homage to any classic. It was a reminder of why the classics will always be classics.
The stupidity of some dude commentary is mind boggling. First the whiny little babies screeching cuz someone insulted their pathetic fart and pee pee movie. Nikki told it like it is, as did others, and the little babies throw tantrums and call names. Why anyone would spend not just money, but time, watching multiple ugly, old, unfunny, redundant buffoons doing the same old same old is baffling. The tools who say Heigl is too outspoken and you couldn’t get Diaz in high school are frighteningly lame. A woman is not hot enough, or is too hot, or “stuck up” or this or that or the other. Waa waa waa. Are you planning on being fossilized in high school mentality forever. And Cameron Diaz is old? Hilarious. She’s younger than Cruise and the fugly buffoons. Go back to your fart flick
Media Messiah do the world a favor and don’t ever post your thoughts again. Please. I’ll pay you.
“the trailers “made the movie look a USA Network TV show”, to quote one rival maven”
Actually, USA Network does a damn fine job promoting their series, perhaps they SHOULD have done the marketing.
As I left Knight and Day earlier today ( the crowd, mostly much older folks in their 70s) a man said, “I wish Cary Grant was still around!”
Predators will bomb because of the taint of the two “Aliens vs. Predator” movies. Fox has prison raped both those franchises.
Avatar – and a filmmaker like Cameron allowed to do his thing – should set an example for Fox ($$ wise) but it won’t as long as Rothman is in charge of the movies.
Rothman is a monster that needs to be removed in order for Fox to re-establish a creative order that will result in more blockbusters like Avatar.
Fox has so many potentially great franchises – Avatar, Apes not to mention Fantastic Voyage and especially the Marvel franchises – X-Men, Fantastic Four and Daredevil.
As long as Rothman is in charge and holds strong creative producers like the Marvel guys at bay, Fox’s “franchises” will continue to suck and under perform.
Rothman is a creative cancer. Dump him, Murdoch, and you will see a lot more blockbusters like Avatar. Bet on it.
AVATAR is basically a Cameron dependent sequel, with production costs so expensive it will be a huge challenge to find co-financers, particularly since sequels historically have done poorly.
If AVATAR cost “only” $200 million to make, you’d see a sequel in the works already. Since it cost around $500 million with marketing, Fox has to look around for co-financers like it did for the original movie.
X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Daredevil are in the process of being “clawed back” by Disney/Marvel. Because they have far more value interacting with Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and so on along with Spidey than on their own with license fees paid by Fox for a movie that does not do well.
Dirty little secret: outside AVATAR most money will be made in big budget movies for toys, licensing, and so on. Dragon made most of its money from licensing and cosponsoring deals, not box office. The same is true for “Up.”
Fox does not have “franchises.” Apes? Fantastic Voyage? Tired rehashes of stuff done forty years ago is a “franchise?” At least for most people not comic geek fans, the superhero stuff is new. Girls/women in particular have never seen it. Guys probably not since they turned 14 and put away the comic books.
Rothman may or may not be a drag, I have no idea. But the slate of films/projects known at least is not very inspiring.
IF money really is made off ancillary stuff like toys, games, bedsheets, with beloved characters, Fox ought to develop its own stuff in-house, where it retains copyright/ownership, of characters that appeal to broad families. Toy Story type stuff, in other words, or Up, or superheroes. It should be treated as R&D the way say, Dow Corning comes up with new cookware.
But that would require a move away from deal-oriented Hollywood to “development” or Pixar style Hollywood. Probably not in the cards.
From Box Offie Mojo….
Knight & Day scooped up an estimated $6.35 million on around 4,100 screens at 3,098 locations, increasing its total to $13.6 million in three days. The action comedy’s first Friday was a bit better than the similar Killers’ $5.67 million from earlier this month, though it was less than The Bounty Hunter’s $7.64 million. For star Tom Cruise, Knight & Day is a far cry from his last summer action spectacle, Mission: Impossible III, and it is shaping up to be one of his lesser launches in a leading role.
What does KNIGHT and DAY and Gigli have in common. The former was produced by Joe Roth and the latter was made by Joe Roth. When are people going to get that he’s talentless. Except for Alice, and Across the Universe which he had NOTHING to do with!
Tom Cruise is awesome. What is he thinking with this flick? Makes me want to throw up whenever I see the trailer. Hope somebody likes it.
Sorry but KNIGHT AND DAY’s one-sheet was a breath of fresh air — a welcome return to the days when a movie’s poster could actually be stylish and not just a glamourized mug-shot of its stars.
Yet ANOTHER bomb for Joe Roth
I doubt that Joe Roth can read a script. This corrupted old, geriatric Hollywood has to go. They are making expensive flops with their cronies to satisfy anyone else than their shareholders.
They have plenty of cash but no fresh ideas. They are dead and unburied.
I’m an avid reader of your blog since its early inception and I found it shocking, Nikki dearest, that you don’t want (yet) to analyze the heavy responsibilities of the FOX FILMED ENTERTAINMENT team (Gianopulos, Rothman, Watts).
Most of your readers, especially those working for PR firms, or studios, are talking about GROSSES, Nikki, like they are supposed to get a bank loan tomorrow and have to inflate the numbers.
When people exit the movie theater nobody asks the other how much the movie cost. Only if the experience was worthing the admission price.
Will you have the kindeness please to educate once more the public and explain the difference between TOTAL GROSS, STUDIO SHARE (usually 50%-55%), OVERSEAS SHARE, PRODUCTION COSTS, P&A COSTS,ROI, BACKEND…simple mathematics for the uneducated. Average filmgoers can actually think that a film is good if they love a MUSIC TRACK, or A GADGET, if the other people laughed at a line, if they were on a date while watching the film etc., but that has nothing to do with the overall quality and the weight of a film.
I love Tom Cruise but this movie was a mistake. This is a b movie—for a B list movie star. This is the bottom of the barrel crap that Ashton Kutcher and Gerard Butler do. Tom Cruise you’re an A lister. You should be doing stuff like Collateral again. That would get the public back on your side. Just do a GOOD movie. Everyone will love you again. Guaranteed. That is all.
I agree. This movie was completely beneath Tom Cruise. It’s almost like he did this movie as a big favor to someone, but who? If this had been a good movie, it probably would have done well via word of mouth. We know he’s got the chops, he just needs the SCRIPT. (Yes, he was awesome in Collateral!)
Too bad romantic action comedy KNIGHT & DAY doesn’t establish at least one of its lead characters properly before it gets the action ball rolling.
June and Roy’s convo on the plane, June talking to herself in the restroom — that’s the best they could do? Total joke. Especially the bathroom scene seems so copy-and-paste from any lame teen comedy. Unless you label your film “spoof” and then *totally* go for that angle, it’s not that cool to serve up tired clichés.
Perhaps it’s that indecision re: tone that kills the film? Waste of a fun cast and some hilarious action scenes. Bottom line: flat und unimaginative. After KILLERS now this disappointment…
word on the street is that Emma is in real trouble over this one and Marmaduke. Both her babies. It wasn’t the marketing department who cast Tom Cruise and went over budget $25 million.
Coming from someone who hasn’t liked Diaz since The Mask is ‘94, and who rarely likes Cruise (except when he is taking risks like in Collateral or Magnolia), this movie is a blast. I went in despite the stars because of Mangold, and he didn’t fail me. Somehow he avoided the human plague that is Tom Rothman and delivered one of the few movies that have been out this year that I will be picking up on blu-ray.
And yes, I dug the poster – bring me that over giant head Photoshop garbage anytime. Remember back when movies had posters with real artwork, and weren’t just giant heads and a title logo? If I recall, movies still made money back then.
Beautifully put, Nick. I 100% agree. One merely has to compare a random sampling of movie posters from 2000-2010 with a similar number from 1970-1980 to know that the difference in quality between them is (you should pardon the expression) night and day.
Glad to see Adam Sandler’s being paid to go on vacation with his friends.
Oh, what’s that? Eh, have Kevin James fall down. There, it’s totally justified as a comedy.
Ugh.
I find it amazing that Toy Story 3’s second weekend is almost higher than most of Pixar’s other first weekend takes!
There are people who want to escape their realities, including me.
It’s too much for me to think in my daily life.
So time to time, I choose to see escapist movies, and it’s just a great way of life.
Both Grown Ups looks horrible and Knight and Day looks like recycle trash. No way I’m going see those.
If anyone thinks this movie was produced by anyone other than Emma Watts and Tom Rothman they are delusional. Emma and Tom micromanage every aspect of “their” movies and absolutely hate everyone in the process. I agree with Nick that Rothman is a plague and anyone who has ever worked there knows that the disease sticks with you for a long time.
HOW DARE YOU! Tom Rothman is an absolute genius! Especially when he takes an entire day off to rehearse his pat teleprompter schtick when he’s introducing films like “Predator 2″ on Fox Movie Channel. Can’t wait until he does the bumpers for “Knight & Day” in a few years!
What happens when the movie keeps holding its own despite the shitty marketing and tracking? What do all you rabid folks say then? Cause that’s what’s happening. Yes The truth is that the marketing failed but the film has so far succeeded. Anyone with even a little experience could tell you if the film opens like shit, that’s marketing. If the film rises more than most on natural growth days and falls less than most natural decline days then the film, the film, the thing featuring the actors some of you love to tear apart, this film is actually reaching audiences. Nikki, why not present some interesting facts? Grownups cost with a hundred million too. And it has severe back end deals too. It will make far less in the long run cause it has no international value whereas K&D is the number one film in almost all the foreign territories it has already opened in. Think and read and see before you speak.
Escapist entertainment for me is reading the comments. Hilarious! And FUN!
No one is arguing against entertainment for entertainment’s sake. But one need only see TOY STORY 3 to realize that an audience can have (and deserves) both a quality story and escapist entertainment. It’s easily the best thing in theaters right now.
As for films like GROWN UPS, it’s quite simple: a facet of the movie-going public can relate to the reunion scenario. It’s the same reason day-to-day, recognizable concepts end up as safe products with titles like DATE NIGHT and COUPLES RETREAT. Again, safe. Easy. Just the way bottom-liners at the studio like it. They keep their jobs. And the audience gets caught on the hook.
Fox needs a housecleaning from top to bottom. This is the studio where creativity goes to die. And Tom and Emma are tyrants. After years of mistreating filmmakers, writers and agents, she’s finally getting her due. Can’t wait for Gullivers Travels. That looks like a winner!
Knight and Day is one of those movies that will divide audiences. It won’t appeal to everyone, but it will have it’s fans. The question will be how it holds up over the 4th of July holiday after the Eclipse madness starts. It can easily be the “overflow” film at the multiplexes more so than Grown Ups.
Grown Ups is the type of film that always does well because it appeals to the lowest common denomenator for its humor. Like it or not, low-grad bathroom humor is popular with the under 18 crowd and they spend their money on the silly crap like it. Like it or not, the studios know what to do to make money and unfortunately they are not making well-thought out, adult action or comedy entertainment anymore. Once in a while, you get lucky with something like the Bourne franchise, but it’s rarity now.
I recently read an article comparing the blockbusters of the 70s and early 80s and it was interesting how many of those big money making event movies were also Oscar winning and nominated films. W rarely get those anymore. A truly sad reflection of the industry today.
That’s more an indictment of the Oscar process than the anything else. Does anyone think that a “shock the bourgeoisie” movie like “Little Children,” “American Beauty,” or “the Reader” would appeal to a wide audience? Or that it is on its face more “artistic” than: the first two Lord of the Rings movies, the first Spider-Man movie, the first Iron-Man movie, the first Chris Nolan Batman movie, to take a few examples?
These were movies beautifully shot, composed, with intelligent scripts combining entertaining action, something original to say, that was not deeply offensive to the audience core values. None of them were nominated for Best Picture, Director, Actor, etc. to the best of my recollection.
Hollywood’s problem is it makes crummy, formulaic, shock the middle class stuff that no one wants to pay to see. Most of it pretty depressing too. Comedies too get the short shrift — classic films like Ghostbusters, Stripes, Groundhog Day, Caddyshack, National Lampoon’s Vacation films, Blues Brothers, all were ignored. Action/Suspense films like the Fugitive get ignored too. Possibly Ford’s last decent acting job, ever. No Star Wars film was ever nominated (original trilogy). No Indiana Jones / Raiders movie.
A hundred years from now, people will still laugh at Ghostbusters, the Vacation films, Caddyshack, Stripes, and so on. They’ll still thrill to Raiders and Star Wars. The Reader? Not so much.
Where to begin,
1. Star Wars was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, AND Best Supporting Actor, among others.
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark was nominated for Best Picture AND Best Director, among others.
3. The Fugitive was nominated for Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor, among others.
4. American Beauty made $356 million worldwide, so let’s not pretend there wasn’t “wide appeal” there.
5. Surely you didn’t really think that Lord of the Rings missed out on major Academy Awards love, did you? Here’s a hint, 33 nominations, 17 wins. Three Best Picture nominations, two Best Director.
It took me all of three minutes to find this stuff out. Maybe you should do some research before speaking so authoritatively next time…
Pete,
Thanks for exposing whiskey for the poorly informed, fatuous windbag that he is. Yet again, his opinion is made up of delusion and inaccuracy.
Thank you for shutting him down!
Saw this movie last night. A huge fan of Tom cruise. Can take or leave Cameron diaz. Sorry to say this movie does not work on any level. Within the first 5 minutes it is clear the picture is over. Very sad to see a bunch of talented people fail in such a huge way . It is really hard to make a good movie. Fox and. Cruise get a great big F for this one.
Interesting write-up on the title changes. I still don’t quite get “Knight and Day.” Is Cruise’s paid mercenary character some sort of Galahad on a shining white horse or something? Is the character’s last name, Knight? Is Diaz’s character named “Day”? What am I missing here?
HEY HOLLYWOOD
EXPENSIVE TICKETS + MEDIOCRE PRODUCT = SHITTY BOX OFFICE
you’ve been peddling garbage for the past fifteen years now and the public has responded with a collective YAWN and APATHY–which can only be bad for your business and your losing cultural importance
and yet your actors (there are NO MORE STARS) still lecture us on politics and you continue to give us product written by committees of twelve writers and test marketed swill!
3-d is just temporarily staving off your inevitable COLLAPSE
in another ten years you will be IRRELEVANT
and I’m a movie fan
SUCKS TO BE YOU HOLLYWOOD
The Tourist is a very average script. I’d contend that Wichita (Knight And Day) was better.
K&D was a terrible script. The first minutes in the airport and on the plane started the movie on the downturn. DiCaprio, Pitt and Will Smith have been able to fine interesting, challenging fun script. Tom needs to do the same. Please don’t lower yourself to star with Diaz or actresses like her like Aniston.
Yes, Tom is a little strange but that wouldn’t have kept me from seeing his movie. Tom’s a great actor and has had a lot of great movies over the years.
Diaz is what kept me from seeing this. Can’t stand her (or Heigl for that matter). Now if it had Aniston I would have seen it.
Dare anyone to go up against Toy Story and you will lose. So, with that out of the way, then you have Grownups and Knight and Day.
My husband and I really liked Knight and Day. Wonderful romp. Which, by the way, is sans potty humor. Refreshing. It’s funny, exciting, and original.
I think Knight and Day should be marketed to age 30+ couples/adults. The humor in it is only funny for people with a bit of life experience. Plus, there’s satire in that movie, which generally a younger crowd isn’t going to get or enjoy.
Just because I like fun, relatively clean movies like Knight and Day made for adults (there are so few of them), I hope that more people find this movie and it gathers steam by word of mouth.
The bad mouthing of Cruise is unfair, I think. Baffling.
I don’t know if Tom Cruise is already “too ripe” at the young age of 46. I saw K&D with my wife,it was just “meh” at best. Not terrible,not great,not as entertaining as “The A Team”,either.
I can’t beleive Cruise wanted to market this dribble as “MI:4″. The whole problem with action/comedy is people already know nobody gets seriously hurt. There is no sense of danger. That would be OK,if the comedy was there BUT at no point during this movie did I laugh out loud. Like others have said,this film looked like something from the ’90’s. Actually,it was done a lot better in the ’60’s. It was called “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”
In action comedies, plenty of villains and henchmen get killed — just like in regular action movies. It’s true that the protagonists in action comedies never die but how often are they killed in regular action movies? Almost never. So that’s not the problem. But your point about no laugh-out loud moments is well taken. Any kind of comedy — including an action comedy — needs such moments.
The reason Knight And Day didn’t do well is pretty simple. Tom Cruise is NOT funny and highlighting his attempts at “comedy” in the trailer was a recipe for disaster. Although the public thinks that Cruise is incredibly strange I think they would still pay to see him in a good action/thriller sort of role because he is very good at those sans comedy.
Cameron Diaz is not funny or talented in any way. Her career is 110% based on looks, and she didn’t look that good in the trailer. She needs to hit the gym, fix her face a little. It might be cruel, but the fact is that she has millions of dollars simply by looking hot and being somewhat likable to women. If she wasn’t super hot with a great body she would never have gotten anywhere as she is a TERRIBLE actress
The “public” doesn’t think Tom Cruise is “incredibly strange”.
Only, those that spend way too much time obsessing about the personal lives of celebs bother with such silliness.
Saw K&D today w/boyfriend-really liked it. Also liked that Tom and Cam are not “post-teens” any longer. I thought it was a reasonably funny movie.
Bravo to “Whiskey” for his/her post. You really nailed it with this post. I don’t even pay attention to the Oscars anymore because most of movies this select group picks as nominees or winners are crap.
I also don’t pay attention to critics because they are too entrenched in Hollywood.
And this is coming from someone who watched, on DVD, Little Children (it stunk), American Beauty (can’t believe this piece of crap won 5 Oscars) and The Reader (thought this was ok).
I’m a female who liked a lot of the movies you listed such as Bourne, The Fugitive, Star Wars, Star Trek, Spider Man, Dark Knight and comedies such like Groundhog Day, Ghostbusters etc and also romantic comedies.
This is a great point. Take note Hollywood.
“A hundred years from now, people will still laugh at Ghostbusters, the Vacation films, Caddyshack, Stripes, and so on. They’ll still thrill to Raiders and Star Wars. The Reader? Not so much.”
I stopped paying attention to the Oscars when Shine won. I left the theater loudly complaining about the 2 hours I’ll never get back.
I had the best time at Knight and Day. It was hilarious and great fun.
I enjoyed A-team and Knight and Day. They aren’t genius, but a lot of fun to watch. Also, they’re both doing/are going to do fairly well internationally. Looks like Fox is actually thinking globally in their approach, and it seems to me like Nikki has a personal vendetta against Fox lately.
Dave, your windbag post about Nikki’s alleged “vendetta” against FOX shows that you are one undeniable thing: a stark, ravin, uninformed butt-wipe exuding galloping douchebaggery.
How ya like them apples?
If your post were any more stupid I would have to respond in “Nihongo” or some other foreign language. People like you cause this 30-something’s cardiac pacemaker to fire like the Fourth of July!
Grownups theatre was empty ; ten people watching, ir was a home movie relatives vacation video w dirty camera lens.
Who bought 40m in tickets when the theatre was empty??? Sandler???
The people in the ticket line were buying Tom cruise and toy story.
Grownups was terrible. A waste of ten bucks and two hrs.
I asked it once, only for the comment to disappear, so I’ll ask again:
What, exactly, do Paul Levitz and Dan Didio have to explain about Jonah Hex, when they had nothing to do with it? Levitz already stepped down from his management position before this sniffed a cineplex. Why the obsession with Didio and company?