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SATURDAY PM/SUNDAY AM 3RD UPDATE: Late shows made the difference after a sluggish Friday box office, especially for matinees. But attendance picked up dramatically on Saturday, as much as +24%-to-+38%, allowing a clear winner for the 3-day weekend to emerge, Focus Features’ The American starring George Clooney with $12.9M. Sony’s holdover Takers was close behind Saturday. But Machete from Robert Rodriguez should finish the 3-day weekend with $11.3M, good enough for 2nd place. Here are Friday, Saturday, and estimated Labor Day holiday weekend grosses for North America. Analysis coming:
1. The American (Focus Features) NEW [2,823 Theaters] Opened Wed
Friday $3.8M, Saturday $4.9M, 3-Day Weekend $13.3M, Est 4-Day Holiday $16.1M, Est Cume $19.2M
This is the way a Clooney picture should be sold from now on. Even though early exits show that attendance was partly driven by the “George Clooney factor”, he just can’t muster wide domestic appeal even if he is still a big name on the international scene. Focus Features marketed Clooney’s The American to his core +35 adult audience as the more cerebral and sophisticated choice that was a counterprogramming alternative to the summer’s mindless crap. (Focus did the same with 2005′s The Constant Gardener.) Problem is, moviegoers didn’t like what they saw: the CinemaScore was a poor “D-”. Focus execs say Control helmer Anton Corbijn’s performance exceeded internal projections which undoubtedly it did. But a star of Clooney’s status should be able to muster a better 6-day opening than just $16.1M — and didn’t.
2. Machete (Fox) NEW [2,670 Theaters]
Friday $3.9M, Saturday $3.9M, 3-Day Weekend $11.3M, Est 4-Day Holiday $14.7M)
With an opening of only an $11.3M three-day weekend, it helps that 20th Century Fox acquired this Robert Rodriguez pic for only $6M. ”We always believed the movie would be so strong in the Latino community. After all, it’s a Latino director with cachet, a great Hispanic cast, and part of our sell has been that Machete is the first Latino superhero,” a Fox exec explained to me before the pic opened with a “B” CinemaScore. 
Fox did everything it could to attract a Latino audience: big ad buys on Telemundo and Univision and Latino newspapers and radio and crossover stations. The studio also brought the cast to Miami for a press day to do 26 shows. At the premiere screening in Downtown LA, all the cast arrived at the Orpheum in low-riders. Sure, cineastes knew the pic had a big cool quotient as that famously fake trailer by Rodriguez from Grindhouse. It was considered the single best thing about that Weinstein Co double-feature flop. (Machete‘s YouTube video alone had 1.4 million views back then.) Fox beat back 5 other studios all very interested in domestic distribution rights to Rodriguez’ latest – again, made outside the studio system with indie financing help from Rick Schwartz’s Overnight Productions. Rodriquez raised $20 million from selling international rights to Sony and making some other global sales and another $5 million he borrowed. Rodriguez not only wrote and produced the pic but he also co-directed it with Ethan Maniquis. So Rodriguez asked for a big backend gross participation in the 10%-12% neighborhood. But even with an eclectic cast of Robert De Niro, Michelle Rodriguez, Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan, and of course Danny Trejo, why didn’t it do better at the box office? In the end, that Hard “R” may attract some moviegoers but also repels others and always depresses grosses.
- Filmmakers Reveal That Hidden ‘Machete’ Message Is Exploitation – Not Immigration
- Danny Trejo Hits Comic-Con With ‘Machete’ And Plans To Craft Tough Guy Vehicles
3. Takers (Screen Gems/Sony) Week 2 [2,206 Theaters]
Friday $3.1M, Saturday $4.3M, 3-Day Weekend $11.2M (-45%), Est 4-Day Holiday $14.5M, Est Cume $40.5M
4. The Last Exorcism (Lionsgate) Week 2 [2,874 Theaters]
Friday $2.3M, Saturday $3M, 3-Day Weekend $7.8M (-62%), Est 4-Day Holiday $9.5M, Est Cume $34.3M
5. Going The Distance (Warner Bros) NEW [3,030 Theaters]
Friday $2.2M, Saturday $2.4M, 3-Day Weekend $6.8M, Est 4-Day Holiday $8.5M
Ugh, what is there to say? Drew Barrymore may still be appealing to some moviegoers (though not in this dumb rom-com), but Justin Long never was. As one of my commenters said, time for both to do television.
6. The Expendables (Lionsgate) Week 4 [3,398 Theaters]
Friday $1.6M, Saturday $2.4M, 3-Day Weekend $6.6M, Est 4-Day Holiday $8.2M, Est Cume $94M
7. The Other Guys (Sony) Week 5 [2,607 Theaters]
Friday $1.3M, Saturday $1.9M, 3-Day Weekend $5.4M, Est 4-Day Holiday $6.6M, Est Cume $108M
8. Eat Pray Love (Sony) Week 4 [2,663 Theaters]
Friday $1.3M, Saturday $1.8M, 3-Day Weekend $4.8M, Est 4-Day Holiday $6.5M, Est Cume $70.5M
9. Inception (Warner Bros) Week 8 [1,704 Theaters]
Friday $1.1M, 3-Day Weekend $4.5M, Est 4-Day Holiday $6M, Est Cume $278.4M
10. Nanny McPhee Returns (Working Title/Universal) Week 3 [2,708 Theaters]
Friday $875K, 3-Day Weekend $3.6M, Est 4-Day Holiday $5M, Est Cume $23.9M
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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well we can now confirm that fox’s entire summer slate is the most epic fail for a studio since their summer of 08. terrible movies marketed by clueless people is not a good business strategy!
I am very happy that Machete is going to be an epic fail.
“epic fail”
Until DVD and a year long run on Cinemax. Anyone who doesn’t think it’s going to have cult status (like most of the director’s action flicks) is fooling themselves.
What the hell are you talking about??? Machete is #1 for the weekend, and will probably end up taking in about $40 million domestic. How much did it cost to make, $10 million? Factor in DVD sales and foreign and you have a big hit. Someone doesn’t know much about the business…
you are right. and the movie cost $5M
Epic fail? That is a joke. It will easily make make 35 to 40 million domestically when it is done in theaters. Far from an epic fail.
Epic fail? The movie cost $25 million to make. They’ll make that back and then some, easily.
Um – $16m opening wkend in the US alone on a $25m budget is not an epic fail.
Um, yeah. It’s a successful movie, if your definition of “success” is “almost no one wanted to see it”.
The only epic fail is your math. $25 million production budget. Will do $35-40 million domestic, probably twice that overseas. Then DVD/Netflix/Redbox/iTunes/etc. Fail it up!
Huh? How is a #2 opening for a cheaply made film a “fail”?
Let’s review Robert Rodriguez’s last four films-
MACHETE = BOMB
PREDATORS = BOMB
SHORTS = BOMB
GRINDHOUSE = BOMB
Now coming off of big back to back bombs, Shorts and Grindhouse, was it really a smart idea for Tom Rothman to give two of Fox’s summer/fall slots to Rodriguez? I think not.
And there is no Avatar to cover these losses.
Gulliver’s Travels is the next bomb.
Rodriguez is the Hispanic version of M. Night, they both don’t know when to Quit.
What are you talking about?
Machete is a $25 mil film that opened with $16.1 million – it’ll be in profit before next week is over. Where did you learn to do math?
Predators (which was not directed by Rodriguez btw) was the same – cheaply made, made a profit back almost immediately.
And perhaps you’re forgetting that this guy made the “Spy Kids” movies, which were ALL HITS?
Rodriguez doesn’t make films to be huge hits. He makes films that a certain kind of audience enjoys.
This movie will not be in profit by next week. The studio gets roughly half of the box office. So if Fox bought the movie for six and then put say 15 into p&a that means they have to get to 42 to break even. Then you take Ridriguezes 12% gross and whatever they gave to DeNiro to get him to work so cheaply. So while it might turn a profit eventually it definitely won’t be next weekend.
And yet they are in the business and you are not.
Worst studio management in history.
Rothman deserves a lifetime achievement award.
FOX is The Cheescake Factory
and Davis is no better. I mean, Marmaduke! What’s with all the talking animals!?
The Expendables will now pass the 100 million mark in less than thirty days.
That crushes the 77 million dollar total of The A-Team in 90 days.
No wonder Expendables is getting a sequel and A-Team ain’t.
That’s REAL slow.
A 4-day holiday weekend and the top film is The American with $16 million? I guess there should be no real surprise that this weekend’s numbers are so weak. I know September is typically a dumping ground for studio film but this year’s slates of film have been even more tepid than usual. The only films I’m even remotely interested in seeing are The Town and Buried. Everything else is barely worth a DVD rental.
Actually, if you throw out that bad “Halloween” movie from a few years ago, the $16 million that they project The American to make will be the largest gross for a Labor Day weekend movie to make in the last 5 years. It’s pretty typical of Labor Day.
Maybe this will put a sock in Geoff Latulippe. Not a good idea to go around trashing other people’s movies and telling would-be writers that they’ll never have the same talent or be good enough. And I thought I should feel bad when my first picture got a 60-something percent on Rotten. This movie was terrible, and it was the directing and acting that made in tolerable in places. What an uninspired, tacky script. This was Black List material? Lordie!
The reviews are right. These romantic comedies are just written by people who aren’t good writers. They just try to make sex and dick jokes, but they’re not even FUNNY ones. Crude is great if it’s biting and sardonic and well-constructed. This stuff is just bad. It’s just the inability to make a joke about say, a freaking apple or something. About a 20 pound dumbell. Anything, really.
… I didn’t think the script was that bad. And Geoff’s a ‘fun’ guy. at least he has personality.
The 30 DAYS OF GTD art didn’t work. At all. The trailer didn’t work, they pushed the release b/c they knew they had a flop, and the new ‘guys only’ ads were even worse.
But mostly I think they had a casting problem. I won’t go see Justin Long as a lead. Ever. And I guess I’m not alone there. Add the aging, fruity Drew B to that and this is a dvd title.
The script “wasn’t that bad” and the writer’s a “fun guy” – is that what Hollywood is down to?
No wonder 70% of product fails. How about hiring people with talent? The clerks who work at the Video shop here in South Pas are fun. Probably more fun than this Geoff character.
Oh, and if this was on the “black List” can we finally put a fork in that BS. At this point it seems like they should call that sucker “most likely to lose money list” or perhaps “a list of films that prove Hollywood development people don’t know anything about the film business” -
Right on man…you and your buddies at the South Pa video shop know more about films that the people who actually work in the business.
And yeah, all the people who compile and vote on the Black List know nothing either…why do those people even have jobs when there are people like you around?
Maybe you and your South Pasadena buddies should run your own studio…I’m sure you guys would rock it! Yeah…go Bill!
When did he “go around trashing other people’s movies?”
“These romantic comedies are just written by people who aren’t good writers. They just try to make sex and dick jokes, but they’re not even FUNNY ones.”
I completely agree. Whoever wrote this one and the one w/ Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler last year should be ashamed of themselves for inflicting such garbage on the world.
These writers do seem to have the mentality of a 11 year old, that any sort of sex themed joke is somehow edgy and clever. Dick jokes can obviously be incredibly funny if they are written by someone with talent, like Larry David for example, but not when it’s done by the likes of the bozos responsible for “Going the Distance”
In what manner has Geoff bashed other movies and other writers? I know him and he’s nothing if not self-effacing and humble. He talks about how “lucky” and “fortunate” he is all the time. Sure, he cracks wise, but that is his personality — and he can be quite charming. I would be shocked to learn that any comment he made about someone’s project was earnestly laced with malice — mischief, perhaps, but not malice.
Yes, a ton of things he’s said are humble. Yes, he is personally nice to me. In many ways, that’s all that matters.
The dude goes out of the way to encourage you, but also tell you that, face it, you’re probably not talented enough to write a screenplay.
That screenplay, got less than 50% on Rotten Tomatoes. Look at some of the movies that get in the 70′s — there are a lot of bad ones.
People hate on Garden State, but it was made for 2 million, made 20 before Searchlight reaaaally figured things out, and they pushed Sideways harder that year anyway, or Garden State would have gotten best original screenplay (nomination, not a win.) I rip on Garden State all the time, but it is a masterpiece compared to Going the Distance, yet Geoff continually talks like he is talented.
Bill Monahan is talented. 100 writers who have been unlucky (yet have 1 or 2 amazing, acclaimed films) are as talented as Bill, but they’ll never get the credit he does. That’s part of the game. But Going the Distance is no better than 5,000 scripts you can find submitted to the contests every year.
With all that said, I think it does matter if someone is a nice guy. Because work and talent and money is only so important. You do have to rub shoulders with people, and if he’s not controlling about his writing, it’s better than the most talented writer in the world who will fight tooth and nail about EVERY SINGLE CHANGE.
Another point. Directors don’t just make movies look like a music video, or come in under budget.
Directors who are great are also GREAT AT STORY.
You need three great writers on every film. The screenwriter, the director, and then the editor. 2 out 3 is good enough, but you need a director who will cut terrible, crass dialogue, and be able to guide the writer to reach within and come up with jokes about LIFE. And by life, I don’t mean about BJs and debating manscaping pros and cons. I mean timeless jokes. Timeless forlorn glances, whatever you’re thing is.
But Judd Apatow’s movies I like, yet they have issues too. The problem is, every single romcom that’s not a chick flick, they’re all writers without talent, aping Judd Apatow. We are seeing the death of the original voice, and with distribution the way it is, it’s only going to get worse.
Going The Distance is a fine script but you can’t sell a romcom with Justin Long as the male lead. As a supporting character in Galaxy Quest maybe but not as the lead in a chick flick. That plus the feeling that we’ve all seen every Drew Barrymore romcom and can probably predict the plot turns and facial expressions from memory. She has real talent and if her reps can convince her to do a straight-up drama she’ll kill it.
I agree with your last line. I quite liked her in “Riding in Cars With Boys.” Not impressed with her after that, however.
I stand corrected. Went back, and he didn’t trash anyone’s movies. I’m a jerk.
I can’t speak to Geoff as a person, because I don’t know him, but the script he wrote for Going the Distance was incredibly well-written and very funny, and better than 90% of the comedy scripts out there. Say what you want for the movie, but the guy is a great writer. The problem is that these low-concept, character-driven comedies are VERY hard to execute, and by all accounts this one was not. I haven’t seen the movie yet, but to blame the script largely for the movie’s failure, as some are doing, seems naive and unfair.
no kidding! You mean the same “you only make it on your writing talent” LaTulippe who co-wrote this with a NL exec and then they sold it to NL?
Yeah, karma’s a bitch.
He didn’t co-write it with an exec – he happens to be friends with an exec who brainstormed an idea with him. Pretty sure an exec giving you the concept of a long distance relationship isn’t anything but what normally happens in any meeting around town. Maybe I’m wrong but having an allie at a studio that cares about the idea and wants to buy it is kind of ideal, right?
The movie was marketed poorly – maybe this and The Switch will teach them not to make posters for anything “romcom-y” look like a Katherine Heigl body switch movie.
Correct. Geoff was a reader for NL and developed a friendship with the executive — and I believe they even lived together for a while (right?). The exec was brainstorming this idea and, as a young, aspiring writer looking for a break, Geoff was clever enough to spec the idea with the guidance of the NL executives.
Damn, Going the Distance bombed. I’ll put the blame on Justin Long. How the hell does a guy like Justin Long end up with a gal like Drew Barrymore.
I thought Machete would do better, but I guess it’s just a niche action film.
Drew Barrymore is able to get a movie green lit to hang with her boyfriend. Must be nice.
I agree Rodriguez’ movies are all camp niche films. He’s got a following, that’s for sure. But, he’ll never be able to make anything critically acclaimed a la Quentin.
birds of a feather…
No offense but why would anybody think a spinoff of a major flop would open better than $15 million? I’m amazed it did even this much business.
Also wasn’t Drew Barrymore with Tom Green at one point? That one never made any sense to me.
Drew needs to make better choices in both men and projects. Ah well, at least Switch is out of the top 10.
That is a good question, considering Justin isn’t a drummer in a grunge band….
The summer was a letdown with only very few hits despite epically large budgets. I think September is going to be even lower. School is back in session and job numbers are not improving. Americans are getting tighter with their money and waiting for DVD’s of a lot of films. With Netflix you can see many movies a month for what it costs to take two people to the theater. Plus, the theaters are nasty and some in NYC have bedbugs.
The Town is getting a lot of hype but I don’t think it’s going to be a hit. A Boston crime drama with Ben Affleck as the lead and director might not go over too well. He should have let Renner or another guy be the lead. Never Let Me Go is definitely going to flop because the trailer gives it away and besides Keira, none of the leads are box office draws and it’s a British movie. M. Night’s latest movie The Devil should end his career once and for all. I cringe each time I see the trailer. I expect the box office to be down until December.
I am still confused as to why George Clooney is cuch a big star. The American has so much press and advertising galore and it is going to open to less than the last Miley Cyrus movie. In fact, Clooney has no hit movies outside of Oceans which is an ensemble cast. That is why I say movie stars are irrelevant. All people want to see is sequels, remakes, and books or video games come to film. Machete is making more money than I thought it would, but I wouldn’t pay to see it. Jessica Alba and Danny Trejo do not interest me in the least. I am just glad that Hollywood is learning that Clooney, Julia Roberts, and Jennifer Anniston are not relevant anymore. You can cast unknowns or small time stars and get the same results for a lot less money.
“No hits besides Ocean’s.”
You obviously skipped Up in the Air when doing Clooney BO research.
So all people want to see is remakes, sequels or adaptations? Is that why Avatar and Inception did so well? Is that why Salt beat Prince of Persia’s numbers as well as Robin Hood’s, and The Expendables should do the same? And why Grown Ups and The Other Guys beat Eat Pray Love? Or why Date Night beat Sex and the City 2? How about Step-Up 3D and Cats and Dogs 2 versus, say, Takers? Remember that even Machete is actually a spin-off of sorts. Yes, some sequels and adaptations are enormous hits, but to say that’s all the audience wants you’d have to ignore mounds of evidence to the contrary.
Original screenplays can succeed if they click with a big enough target audience. It’s simple as that. Nobody is going around saying “I have no interest in watching anything except a remake, sequel or adaptation!” If anything, that line of thinking is being rejected by the financial failures of Robin Hood, The Wolfman, Prince of Persia and The A-Team. I don’t know if Sex and the City 2 lost money once overseas is factored but it definitely underperformed to the point that we probably won’t see #3. The second half of this summer seems to be the audience telling Hollywood that original screenplays are welcome.
I think there are relevant stars, Hollywood just has to root out the ones that don’t belong(starting with the three you listed, you’re right about that) and start promoting new ones. New ones that are not Lindsay Lohan or Megan Fox, preferrably.
The American is a mid-budget film that will open #1 in the US and do huge numbers abroad. A serious, R-rated adult film and you want to bitch about Clooney’s star power? If he wanted to do a four-quandrant movie, don’t you think he would? It’s a movie made for a price that will have a long tail and make $$$. Ditto your ‘sage’ prognostications on Never Let Me Go. A bomb? Again, it doesn’t need to do huge numbers b/c of its budget. And most of all, the people involved have a movie they’re actually proud of.
If you want to see something exceptionally good and satisfying go to The Last Exorcism. A lot better than the title.
There are so many incorrect statements in that comment, it’s comical.
1) Clooney has had financial and critical hits outside of “Oceans.”
2) Any fool can see why Clooney is a star. He started with a built-in 10 year A-list TV drama fanbase from ER, he’s an attractive lead, and he makes smart, good movies.
3) Good films with proper marketing that feature STARS in the lead ALWAYS perform better at the box office than the same films with unknowns. Perhaps you think Expendables and Grown Ups would have made dime one without their casts? And maybe you don’t think “Going the Distance” would have done better if Clooney and Roberts were the leads? Funny.
4) Using films like “The American” to postulate that Clooney is not a bankable star anymore is ridiculous. It’s a FOCUS film that was never meant to be a blockbuster.
5) Putting Jennifer Aniston in the same category as Clooney and Roberts is laughable.
6) “The American” had less marketing than “Takers.”
7) The majority of the top 30 grossing films of 2010 so far are not based on games or books, and they aren’t sequels.
9) Lauding Netflix and using bedbugs as an argument against ticket sales tells the rest of us all we need to know here.
Your comments are stupid and so are you
Uh – what? The man listed facts. You have a problem with facts?
Fans always have problems with facts because they like their delusions better.
Oh and for the record, FOCUS features are dancing in the streets that “The American” did so well. It was a tiny film in late summer with almost no marketing. Let’s keep things in perspective.
Little flick called Up In The Air made 161 million off a 25million budget, bro…
Michael Clayton, 83 mill off a 25mill budget
And as much as I can’t stand the Coens’ movies… Burn After Reading made 155 off 37
Anniston’s useless, but look at the money Eat Pray Love is pulling in
thanks for the useless, ill-researched post
I notice you left out the Good German with 5 mil worldwide, Leatherheads with 41 mil worldwide on an announced production budget of 58 mil, The Men Who Star at Goats with 68 mil worldwide gross – 25 mil production budget and an advertising budget at probably 35 mil min,
Clooney has very, very limited appeal. And most of his films do worse overseas than domestic. Although not all. He’s not really a movie star. He’s an indie star with good PR.
Huh? In my opinion, THE AMERICAN had very little advertising presence and it’s on track to be first this weekend. Plus, it’s on nearly 300 less screens than EXPENDABLES and many other films in the frame.
If you checked the budgets on his recent films vs worldwide grosses, you’d see that Clooney makes the studios money.
You’re cherry picking the facts, but I’m sure you know that. The Good German, Syriana, and Leatherheads all lost tens of millions of dollars. Take away the Oceans movies and Clooney is probably about 100 to 150 million in the red overall. His films bleed money.
Right. I guess that’s why the studios CONTINUE MAKING FILMS WITH HIM – because he puts them “in the red”. lol
does this signal the end of Justin Long’s career?
Did it ever start? It’s telling that he always be 1) “I’m Mac” and 2) the guy that got hit in the head by a wrench in “Dodgeball” because that’s the only way you can describe him so anyone will know who the hell he is!
That’s hilarious! I always describe him as the “kid who gets hit in the head with the wrench” as well!
His face signals that
Thank God Machete will not win weekend.
Because you’re a teabagger from Arizona, no doubt.
And you are a bitter leftist ashamed of America, no doubt.
Aren’t stereotypes fun?
Oh, we’re not ashamed of America – we’re just ashamed of teabaggers.
And judging by the fact that in the latest poll, over 54% of Americans disagree with them and only 2% – yes, 2% – say they’re participants in the “tea party”, we’re all ashamed of them.
And studios continue to allow Drew Barrymore to keep making movie becauuuuuse?
Oh yeah, that’s right — because Music and Lyrics was such a runaway hit.
Music and Lyrics’ budget was $40 and it made $145 mil worldwide–those are just general numbers, Charlie’s Angels has made a lot of moola too. She’ll be aiight. Her average works just fine to get the green light.
I’ve actually come to the conclusion that if you cost a studio money, they won’t have you in another film. Because the executive who greenlights such a movie would be going against the internal institutional knowledge and risking his career. BUT, if you’ve made a studio money on another project, they will give you more chances. Drew Barrymore made money for New Line/WB on He’s Just Not Into You. Fox has made a little money with her too. Music & Lyrics did actually make some money, too. But I’m not a Barrymore fan either.
One more nail in the coffin for the traditional rom com. Heartbreaking (no pun) to see what has happened to a once great genre. More bromances to come.
This is not true. The problem is the studios keep tapping the well of people who made these movies in the 90′s. It’s obviously time to tap new ones. I have heard some real funny stuff since January, but I know it’s going to be a hard sell with a newbie scribe.
It also wouldn’t hurt if people stopped pitching and would write some of these funny ideas on spec.
why don’t you show up to your studio job on spec?
the studio will pay you when you bring a script in, get stars and a director, get financing in place, make the movie and market and release. then if it turns a profit you can get paid. otherwise you work for free.
only hack hollywood producers think the fundamental building block of the industry’s product – the script – should be created by writers working for free. good producers have more faith in writers and know they should get paid.
why do all the films this weekend suck? because bad producers have no appreciation for writing, much less any capacity or even desire to understand the mechanics of a well-written script.
I am not saying writer’s should work for free. I’m just saying that more writers need to think like producers and write their ideas, rather then just hoping someone loves an idea and then will pay you to write it. Packaging a script isn’t as hard as you think (especially for a film budgeted in the 7-15 million dollar range).
Sorry Brick, my tone was a little feisty. The truth is, you are right. If you don’t have a name actor, director or writer pitching an idea, you save a lot of time and angst writing it as a spec rather than trudging around to studios hearing how talented you are but getting no’d to death because you’re not a name. Your advice is sound. Just too bad studio development people only develop marketing packages, not great scripts. When they go back to thinking story first, packaging second, maybe the business will not be such a cluster**** of fear-driven hacks.
Amen, jumptheshark.
Exactly right. Working for free is always the answer, as long as it’s only the lowly writers with their pathetic union (Free producer passes??? WTF are you doing, WGA????) doing the free work.
Exactly!
And the 2000′s trend of execs and agents BEING WRITERS TOO
needs to end now.
GOING THE DISTANCE was co-written by an exec who sold it to his own company.
I can’t tell you how many supposed Creative Execs tell you, “Oh well I am also a writer!”
Oh yippie.
GOING THE DISTANCE is what happens when the industry has placed all emphasis on connections and not pure writing talent.
THE BLACK LIST is washed up — it’s a popularity contest, not about the quality of writing. Yes some scripts that make it on there are great but there are many, many great scripts that don’t make it on there.
The execs need to just do their job and be execs and they need to PAY WRITERS and STOP ASKING FOR FREE TAKES/SPECS all the time!!!
you got a problem with the system…maybe you can:
1) get a job as an exec or agent and then write your own scripts
2) become such a great writer that nobody asks you to do things for free
It’s not that hard unless you aren’t that talented. None of my a-list writer friends are complaining–they just keep going out and winning jobs, selling specs or selling pitches.
Grow up and either get with it or get lost. Go sell shoes or something where connections won’t hold you down.
Hey Two Solutions,
Sorry, but that’s a smug douchy idiotic agent/exec thing to say. Writing’s “NOT THAT HARD UNLESS YOU’RE NOT TALENTED”? Really? You’ve obviously never written a word in your life professionally. And your statement actually reveals just how little regard you have for how hard writing is for even the best writers. And that folks, right there, is the BIG PROBLEM WITH HOLLYWOOD. Two Solutions (the most ironic moniker of the day because he actually has NONE) truly reveals what agents and execs believe — Writing is not that hard unless you’re not talented. Only someone who has NO IDEA what is going on in a good script would say that. I guarantee Two Solutions couldn’t break down MICHAEL CLAYTON or MARATHON MAN or AVATAR even and tell me all the reasons those scripts worked. Maybe on a packaging level, but not on a story level.
William Goldman couldn’t sell a word for 5 years when he started (read his book). Matt Weiner didn’t sell anything for 3 years until he got a spec Sopranos script sold. Tony Gilroy wrote for 4-5 years before he sold his first script. Paul Haggis wrote for some of the worst TV shows for 25 years before he wrote CRASH.
What did most of these guys have going for them? A tolerant and supportive wife. I’m not being glib. Writing well is really really hard and the sacrifices are HUGE. It takes years of figuring it out. And there is no training program to support you while you learn (OK, Diff’rent Strokes, Walker Texas Ranger, etc, can put food on the table and every writer should think about doing TV. And actually cable is the new indie character driven film so it’s even better than that now).
Even when you have developed great chops, it’s still takes so much more work to write a great script than 95% of execs understand. That’s one of the insights of A-list writers exploit, making execs think they sh*t great stories out in their sleep. Keeps the studio hacks all wide-eyed and paying seven figures for endless rewrites of the same idea.
Look, life is life and you have to deal with realities. The business sadly isn’t changing anytime soon. Studios are filled with politically adept glad-handing bureaucrats who operate intuitively when it comes to story but have no true training or understanding of the fundamentals of story. That’s not the total insult it appears to be. It’s just that they should stick to managing studios and not harbor the secret but destructive desire to be considered “creative”. That’s why they miss more than they hit. They’ll never know what they don’t know.
Writers have to deal with this. And as smugly ignorant as Two Solutions is, he’s right in that you have to work the system you’re given.
It would just be so much better if live action story development could follow the Pixar model. Really smart people who get story are assigned to spend as long as it takes to develop a great story and then as long (and as much) as it takes to make the story work in production and post. 11 films from Pixar. 11 number 1 movies. Every studio should be asking, what are they doing that we could replicate in live action? My answer — respect how hard good stories are, hire great writers and then get the F out of the way. Because you don’t know. And you aren’t fooling any of the rest of us who do.
For the love of… The NL executive did not write the script. He pitched an basic concept — vague at best — to a friend who happened to be a writer looking for his break. Geoff wrote it with guidance from NL because the dude used to work there. The executives knew him and they liked what they read and encouraged him to continue. Dave Neustadter, the exec in question, pushed and pushed to get the film made. He did his job. I can’t say that about a lot of the other fear-mongering no-men(and women) who populate the ranks of studios and production companies.
What like the hilarious concept behind “Motherf#%ker” – a pitch that won’t even be able to be advertised in the US or even sold in most foreign markets? Yeah, some hilarious stuff. Hey want don’t you buy some more Mumblecore films out of the Brooklyn crowd. Especially now that Cyrus, Humpday and Greenberg burned up the BO this last year.
It’s not really a nail in the coffin. Romantic Comedies have always had average performances.
I use to think Glooney was a big star…anymore he’s just looking old and The American has already been done before…by his buddy Matt Damon as Jason Bourne! Clooney’s steam has evaporated lately.
I’ve been saying it for years – Clooney is overrated and has been since he made the jump to movies. Name one iconic Clooney role or classic movie. His buddy Brad Pitt has a handful – Tyler Durden, One Punch Mickey O’Neill, Tristan Ludlow, Louis de Pointe du Lac – and even Jesse James. Matt Damon has his Jason Bourne franchise. And Clooney’s got – Danny Ocean? Please. His sucky Batman movie? Double please. Or do people really consider Everett from O Brother Where Art Thou to be iconic and I’m clueless about it?
Clooney’s only movies this decade to make over $50 million at the box office co-starred Brad Pitt and a huge storm that killed a bunch of fishermen. Clooney’s a decent enough actor considering he mainly plays himself, but he has nothing special or exceptional to offer on screen and his box office results reflect that. Clooney’s got the same basic problem as Jennifer Aniston, his fellow former tv star and another actor who mainly plays a variation of herself or her tv character in movies – people can see his most popular tv character, Dr. Doug Ross of ER, in syndicated reruns for free, so why pay money to see him do the same thing at the movies?
While he has a few more $50m domestic earners than that from the last decade, obviously, I do find it interesting that people here are ignoring the sheer amount of Oscar nominations his small projects generate. He’s an Oscar winning actor who has also been nominated for directing and co-writing. Up In The Air earned six nominations, Michael Clayton earned seven. Good Night And Good Luck earned six nominations, including a best director nod for Clooney. Syriana earned him a supporting actor win. That’s pretty damn successful in addition to being able to headline the occasional blockbuster.
Wow, the weekend really brought out the Clooney haters. Washed up? Over the hill? Over-rated? Really? Thank god a fifty year old Cary Grant (remember Dream Wife 1953?) didn’t have a film out this weekend that was number 1, he’d be getting slaughtered.
My point is this. He’s just an actor. Actors don’t make films good or bad. That’s pretty much decided long before the camera turns on. Good scripts in the hands of a good director who chooses and directs good actors with an adequate budget with the singular goal of creating great entertainment (laugh, cry, whatever) can often but not always make a decent film. Risk and alchemy is always involved, particularly in the wild process of production.
Go back and watch Michael Clayton, Oh Brother Where Art Thou, Three Kings, or Syriana and tell me he doesn’t put it on the line with all he’s got. Any filmmaker will tell you, they’d kill to have him in the saddle in the right role. The guy’s a pro and has the magic. You can’t hold the star responsible for all the million decisions that go into a feature film. I haven’t heard one person in this thread talk about Anton Corbyn, THE DIRECTOR OF THE FILM!!!! The guy who made ALL THE DECISIONS!!!!!
Why does the conversation about making films so often devolve into a conversation about movie stars? Oh right, the people having the conversation usually aren’t people who actually make movies. And that includes agents and execs. You don’t make movies guys, sorry.
Dream Wife was a terribly weak movie, and I’m a huge Cary fan.
SYRIANA.
What is it one critic called “The American?
Oh yeah. That’s right. He called it “Jason Boooooring”
Gee, what an IQ that critic must have. To come up with THAT all by himself. Wow. Gee. What an intellectual heavyweight of the film reviewing community he must be.
If you think “The American” is anything like the frickin’ Bourne movies, you haven’t seen it.
1. Will check out the American. Clooney makes smart movies.
2. Not sure about Machete. The timing, premise and intent of the film are suspicious to me.
3. Takers gave plenty for a 20m budget. It was predictable but decent. TI and Chris Brown exceeded my expectations. Not a big fan of musical talent in film but they weren’t bad.
4. The Last Exorcism will hopefully be the last one made.
Haven’t had time to see the others yet. Will most likely see “The Other Guys” and Eat Pray Love this wknd. I’ll pass on the rest.
You will?? But… there’s no black people headlining those two films, Curtis??
And how do you figure TAKERS was merely “decent”? It starred black people?!?!?!
“TI and Chris Brown exceeded my expectations. Not a big fan of musical talent in film but they weren’t bad.” LOL!! Curtis, you’re PRICELESS!!
@Kook Sat Sept 4th, 2010 @ 10:15am PDT –
@wow Sat Sep 4, 2010 @ 1:24pm PDT
@Politix Sat Sep 4, 2010 @ 3:59pm PDT
…Promo’ed by T.I/Idris Elba/Chris Brown to an URBAN audience. Disowned by Matt Dillon, who was a primary character.
Paul Walker/Hayden Christensen/Matt Dillon invisible during its marketing; YET-STILL, on its way to $40-MILLION(domestic)..!
Y’all mad? …STAY MAD..!!
X,Y,”and Z” — OUT..!
thank you for your breakdown of what you will and will not do. i hope i speak for everybody when i say that i really care. next time, please mention when you think you might have your next bowel movement or if the release of TAKERS was your bowel movement.
If you watched the Grindhouse flicks then you would see that Machete was an exploitation flick. Its not to be taken seriously and made to look cheesy.
“It was predictable but decent.” Hey Curtis, I think it’s racial discrimination that TAKERS isn’t doing better at the box office, don’t you? (Yes, we KNOW you do…)
Interesting ideas you have Mr. Scoon: Idris Elba not as Jim Brown; Vivian Blake, maybe? I see “a likeness” between Stringer Bell and Vivian Blake.
I’m not sure if you know this, but “Born Fi Dead” was passed hand-to-hand, and was much-debated/commented on! They were older than I, but I rubbed shoulders with some of THOSE…”ancillary players,” and let me tell you, the stories I heard: debauchery, deceit, murder, mayhem, political-intrigue. All told with dry humor, wit, regret and a undefinable-charm, that touched two-different cultures from near-separate hemispheres. Wow..!!
X,Y,”and Z” — OUT..!
I think it is the Labor Day Weekend, the start of school dampens everyone’s desire to see a movie, maybe a sequel to Transformers would do better LOL And I think audiences have disconnected with George Clooney he is no longer seen as an actor who delivers a fun entertaining film. His films are just too dire & who needs to be depressed all the time. He needs to stop trying to getting awards for awhile and regain his audience appeal, I miss that George Clooney.
And that movie “audience appeal” would be from what marginal-to-flop film he carried, outside of his ensemble Oceans hits?
That guy was NEVER anything but a TV star, and only the media talking up “one of their own” (liberal loudmouth) has artificially kept his undeserved profile up.
americans in flyover country and on the coasts (that would equal the entire u.s.a.) don’t like george clooney. and the trailer is terrible.
machete is it a good movie? i don’t know. haven’t seen it yet. but i think marketing people have to quit only relying on comic con to sell their films to audiences. most comic book fans can’t even get into the convention anymore. the word for the 21st century is diversification.
also –and i’m about to fly off the PC cliff now. since the latino-american audience is a diverse audience more so than the african-american audience it is a difficult audience to market to. a person of latin-american heritage isn’t going to turn up to a movie just because jessica alba is in it. so you can’t just rely on telemundo and la opinion, etc. to sell a movie. you have to identify other niches too.
I agree with the Latino comment. Not to mention the Latino immigrants, there are so many sensibilities within the cultures, it’s not the same as African American/American audiences. Accents alone drive us nuts within our various cultures.
Is it Benjamin Bratt or is it Gael Garcia, is it Penelope Cruz or is it Jessica Alba? might as well cast Hayden Pennetiere (sp?) she’s as Latina to us as Michelle Rodriguez. Insert actress.
sorry, off topic a bit. What? Oh yeah…”Machete” it’s not Latino audience, it’s Rodriguez fans.
“since the latino-american audience is a diverse audience more so than the african-american audience it is a difficult audience to market to…”
You tell ‘em Dudette. Everyone knows that black people are a socio-political monolith so marketong to us is a breeze. We all speak with a dialect, all listen to rap, all voted for Obama, all eat watermelon on Sunday, and all rush to theatres to see any gangsta rapper Hollywood chooses to canonize in the name of a quick buck. Hard to explain then, why I am waiting for films starring actual trained black ACTORS rather than career criminals before shelling out my theatre dollars.
I am sure you will apply your sociological expertise, dudette, and explain how it is that I have failed to follow, lock-step, the marketing plan aimed at a race that you seem to think shares a common brain. (You know it IS the 21st century. You are permitted to at least entertain the notion of formulating opinions about blacks based on a statistical universe that extends beyond your company mailroom)
Um…I am in “flyover country” and happen to love ‘Michael Clayton’ (powerhouse performance from Clooney), and ‘Up in the Air’ is one of my favorite films of 2009.
Clooney might not be an action-hero star (i.e., Sam Worthington), but I highly, highly doubt either of those two movies would’ve done as relatively well as they did without Clooney being in them, especially the latter, which needed his patented charm in that role where he kind of was a jack***.
George Clooney, once again playing George Clooney, in yet another George Clooney movie.
On a more positive note however; viewing ‘THE AMERICAN’ is guaranteed to bring immediate relief to anyone currently ailed with insomnia.
I guess I must be in the minority. I love his choices and I am not really what you would call a fan but I think it is silly to sniff at Syriana, Michael Clayton, Good Night and Good Luck, Solaris, Oh Brother Where Art Thou?, etc. ‘The American’ looks good. I know this column is all about box office but I am surely glad these films were made and will be around for posterity. The day box office is the sole deciding factor on whether a film gets made will be one sad day for film making.
I saw it on Saturday and I did fall asleep during the majority of it. Woke up in time to see the dopey ending. Treated myself to “Takers” and “Salt” both which were fun and entertaining.
Barely worth a DVD rental? Wow, you must be old.
I loved The American so good news
Yay Sella!! Yay Southerly!! Luv those campaigns!!! Wait a minute…those movies gotta make money????!!!!! ….never mind.
yay they’re both idiots! and they got nothin’ without james cameron. he better hurry up with another simple-minded, manipulative video game. news corp is going to lose many more lawsuits (hacking voicemails anyone?) and they need the money to pay everyone off.
I think Machete will see a bump and wind up doing a bit better by the end of the weekend. Word of mouth has been so positive as have reviews. Give it time, it’ll improve a notch.
I knew this weekend’s box office would be anemic, but geeze this is pathetic. Does no one use the long holiday weekend to go see a movie?
Labor Day weekend is the last chance to get in some beach/woods/outdoors time. Why _should_ people waste part of that watching lame/lousy movies?
Machete was great. Just like Grindhouse. Apparently nobody wants to see movies about ugly Mexicans. At least that whitebread trash Going The Distance flopped. I’ve seen every movie in the top 10 and Machete >>>>>
I would say the numbers prove that Americans have no taste, but the success of Vampires Suck already proved that.
I’m not saying to just go see schlock. I know it’s a cheesy movie, it’s so stylish and fun.
That “Going The Distance” would open below the rest of the new movies, I suspected, but opening below “Takers”, “Last Exorcism” and eking out a win over 4 week old “Expendables” is a nasty surprise.
Farewell to stardom and leading man hopes, Justin Long. Say hello to your late 30s Drew Barrymore. It’s all downhill from here.
Grandpa Clooney can keep his bony clutch on stardom, despite dubious box office, because he possesses the Y-chromosome. But your days are numbered Drew. Once you hit 40, dig a grave and pull the dirt in over you.
Wow. WB tried to buy an opening for “Going the Distance” with a barrage of tv spots and it didn’t take. Not that it’s their fault; the movie looks like the SOS and unless you want to see Drew Barrymore in yet another movie that looks like her other rom-coms….
Eh, I’m not surprised. There’s not one thing up here that’s motivating me to go spend even matinee price money on it.
Glad that GOING THE DISTANCE shat the bed. It looks embarrassingly bad in the trailer. Can this please be the end of Justin Long?