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SATURDAY PM/SUNDAY AM: Mamma Mia! Talk about a spicy meatball: now that's one fair weather 3-D toon! By comparison, all the big Hollywood stars of the moment flopped in their 2-D films despite allowances for middling releases. Although you wouldn't know that by the spin every studio has given me this morning. Do they think I just fell off the turnip truck? So let's get down to the numbers.
1. The beloved children's book turned Sony Pictures Animation's movie Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs scored an easy No. 1 by attracting not just kids but also tweens, teens, and twentysomethings as well as parents to North American screenings at a record 1,828 3-D sites (which did $18 million), including 127 Imax locations (which did $2.45 million). That's why four-quadrant family films like this are such a favorite of Hollywood. All day and night, Sony kept upping its box office predictions as the money just kept rolling in. By Sunday, the studio was looking at a total $30.1M opening for the weekend -- $8.1 million for Friday's in 3,119 theaters, and $13M Saturday. The Saturday matinee family bump really kicked in (+65%)! Cloudy scored a CinemaScore of "A-", and "A" for the under-24 set. Plus, the marketing campaign for it was sassy (not stupid like too many other family films). Overseas, where Meatball opened in just a few territories, it debuted #1 in all the markets, including the UK, Mexico, Chile and Ecuador.
2. Warner Bros' R-rated caper comedy The Informant! featuring Matt Damon in a tour de force performance playing against type (bumbling vs Bourne), and directed by Steven Soderbergh (who can't, or more likely doesn't care to, direct a cash cow anymore) was a distant No. 2. But with a CinemaScore of only "C-", it opened to $3.6M Friday and $4.5M Saturday in 2,505 runs for a paltry $10.5M weekend. The lack of box office will hurt any Oscar chances. Good thing the pic was cheap to make: the budget was only $22M in a 25/25 split with two partners, Groundswell and Participant. Problem is no film these days is cheap to market.
3. Tyler Perry's holdover I Can Do Bad By Myself for Lionsgate placed 4th with a $3.1M Friday (-65% from a week ago) and $4.6M Saturday for a $10M (a -57% drop from its No. 1 position last Sunday) and new cume of $38M.
4. Relativity's and Universal's 50/50 mawkish romance Love Happens (even the execs expressed embarrassment by the lame storyline) showcasing Jennifer Aniston and Aaron Eckhart placed 3rd with a weak debut of $3M Friday and $3.2M Saturday in 1,898 venues. With a CinemaScore of "B", it opened to just a $8.5M weekend. In her last 3 wide release films, Aniston has helped open pics to $26M, $36M, and $39M. But Universal points out those were comedies, not dramas dealing with loss. And all were more costly. Half this production is covered by Universal partner Relativity Media. Even with audiences staying away, because of this pic's financial structure, "anything over $7.5M puts Universal in a position to make a tidy return on its investment," an exec spins. "This is because the studio has limited exposure on this film. The negative cost was covered via foreign pre-sales. Not a financial flop by any means."
5. And not even Megan Fox's body could tempt moviegoers into Twentieth's R-rated feminist horror flick Jennifer's Body, DOA with $2.8M Friday and $2.6M Saturday from 2,707 dates and a CinemaScore of "C-". It did a pathetic $6.8M weekend for No. 5. As a 20th exec emailed me, "Jennifer's Body only cost $16M and is the last of the Fox Atomic films." Thank gawd. Worse, it shows that screenwriter Diablo Cody may be filmdom's one-hit wonder.
The rest of the Top 10 this weekend were holdovers.
6. 9 (Focus) Week 2 [2,060] Wkd $5.5M, Cume $22.7M
7. Inglourious Basterds (Wein/Uni) Wkd $3.6M, Cume $109.9M
8. All About Steve (Fox) Week 3 [2,159] Wkd $3.4M, Cume $26.6M
9. Sorority Row (Summit) Week 2 [2,591] Wkd $2.4M, Cume $8.8M
10. The Final Destination (Warner) Week 3 [1,805] Wkd $2.3M, Cume $62.3M
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The Informant! was only cost $22-million to make, so The Informant! will be a moneymaker for Warner Bros.
$22m split with Participant plus the $30m (+) on p&a. It’ll top out at $20m domestically, of which Warners will see about $10m. It’s a terrible video title. No way they get anywhere near the $70m(+) of worldwide revenues they need to break even.
Anonymous,
That’s ridiculous. They were never expecting it to make more than $10 to $14 million this weekend. They also projected it would finish second.
They were right on both counts.
Since you want to get all technical, what about the cable/TV sales? The DVD can sell 1 to 2 million easily worldwide (it’ll probably be released around the time Matt Damon wins the Golden Globe for his role here, hardly a “bad title”) — and as you said, Warner is only in for $11 million (dividing the cost with Participant). If it’s sharing the profits 50-50 then it’s sharing the P&A as well. Meaning Warner’s entire exposure is $26 million. $26 million.
Twenty-six. Million. Where do you get this $70 million crap?
It’s going make exactly what was expected in the first weekend (it’ll do far more than $20 million in total for its run, what’s wrong with you?) and we don’t even know what it will do abroad, where these kind of comedies work better and Damon is a big star (at least in Europe).
Trust me, no one is about ready to kill themselves at Warner over this film. You, however, have to learn how things work before you start predicting that a film will/is failing.
I have to agree. Nikki, did you expect a pseudo-experimental Soderbergh film to do $20 mil opening weekend simply because Matt Damon is in it?
I’ve seen The Informant!, and it’s a weird little film. $11 million en route to $35 million or so is more than acceptable for an amusing, original product that Warner Bros. should be proud to put their name on.
And as for CinemaScore, that’s not a barometer of quality, it’s a barometer of playability. $11 mil is a big enough weekend to carry this film to profitability, with foreign territories adding a little on Damon’s name alone.
Bottom line: after a flop like “Whiteout,” WBros is probably happy that a roughly $20 million investment in a pet project will keep Soderbergh around when he finally decides to do a commercial franchise and Matt Damon continually signing on to do Eastwood’s latest WB project.
It seems unfair to tag Cody as a one-hit wonder given that she’s already at two hits – Juno and her series for Showtime, United States of Tara.
I agree with you Philip. Surely it’s premature to call her a one-hit wonder, Nikki, regardless of whether or not Jennifer’s Body tanks..surely she will have other films in her future.. As for Tara, she had some help there on the episodic writing of course but it is a very compelling show and she created it (with a little help from Spielberg):-)
Warner Bros co-financed the relatively inexpensive The Informant with two other entities, if I remember correctly, and I’m told that Love Happens cost under $20m to make as well.
All in all both films can be claimed as ‘wins’ for their respective studios, especially The Informant. It may have Damon in the lead but there is no way it’s a broad, mainstream comedy. It really just depends if it has legs or not.
But I do know of those who are already claiming that Jennifer’s Body delivers a lethal judo chop to the neck of both Megan Fox and Diablo Cody’s respective careers.
I’m assuming that Ms Cody will be fine in the long run (script Doctoring ahoy!), but I’m not so sure the same can be said of Megan Fox’s potential as a leading lady.
There must be a mistake with Jennifer’s Body. The film has been promoted all over the place. It may be backlash.
It’s not about Juno’s dialogue. It’s not about a woman having success, even if the feminist message sort of gets lost in, Hey, girls, want to be discovered? The best way is by taking your clothes off even though your socioeconomics don’t compel you to. (And yes, I know that stripping, in and of itself, has nothing to do with feminism.)
It’s that people were sick of the woman, charming and intelligent as she may sometimes be, coming at them through their television 24/7. There’s promoting the movie, then there’s promoting it as if you’re an actor. It’s non-stop, Diablo. Yes, you changed your name, it partially helped sell Juno/catapulted you to an Oscar, but you have this terrible habit of being way too self-satisfied, regardless of how much self-deprecating humor you may employ. A lot of people did not like you from the start, and a lot more are tired of your relentless self-promotion. We get it. You wrote a movie in two months, it made you and the people who love you quite wealthy. When you keep appearing in every news outlet, it becomes gloating after awhile. America doesn’t like that. The industry doesn’t like that. It’s not jealousy, it’s conducting yourself with a degree of restraint. I love you to pieces, but I’m beginning to feel like I’m the only one left.
Cool it.
Love happens cost only 18M so it will be profitable. If not on theaters probabbly on DVD. If these numbers are close, this one actually did better than Jennifer’s body and The informant because it was on less theaters (1800+).
I want to see The informant, probably next week but definitely NOT Jennifer’s body, not even a rental for me.
Nikki..you are hysterical to act like Informant has been a poorly reviewed film “C-!”
this film has gotten great reviews across the board…and ‘pathetic opening’ to a film that was so cheap to make..
And it’s not supposed to be a “cash cow”. Why go after these guys for trying to do something unique? They could easily make a big dumb super successful action movie if they wanted, but then you’d probably write something about how they’re out of new ideas.
Why attack Soderbergh and Damon for trying to do something unique? They could easily make another “cash-cow” if they wanted to, but instead they cut their fees to make a challenging movie that cost less than quarter as much as the cartoon you’re applauding, and you call it a flop.
thanks so much for adding the cinemascores — no one ever does that and cinemascore no longer makes that public knowledge, so thanks!
Well, Cody still has the Showtime series “The United States of Tara” as job security. I guess the marketing for next June’s “Jonah Hex” will play down Megan Fox’s role and emphasize Josh Brolin’s.
I saw “the Informant” at an advanced preview screening last week and found it underwhelming. Nikki, you are right about Steven Soderbergh. I worked at one of the few theaters that showed his dismal “Girlfriend Experience” and heard many complaints about that one.
And finally, I’m glad Jennifer’s Body is a big ol flop with a terrible CinemaScore rating. Diablo Cody is a one trick pony and loathe everything about her.
I think meatballs is expected to be number 1. It’s a kid movie, and obviously parents and the whole family will see it..aside from the fact it is shown in 3,119 theaters. We saw Love Happens last night, and we love the storyline. It’s more about grieving, but it made made me laugh and cry. The actor/actresses played their roles well, specially Aaron & Jennifer. I would recommend to see this, specially to those family that lost a loved one. In my opinion, if they open this to more than 1,898 theaters..it will probably be in number 2.
Nikki,
Do you maybe wonder if Soderbergh really cares about directing blockbusters anymore? Say what you will about his multi-platform release projects he did with Mark Cuban, at least Soderbergh isn’t willing to coast in big studio schlock anymore. He spent next to nothing filming the Informant and only took a month to shoot it. What’s the problem again?
As for Diablo Cody, the United States of Tara shows that she has some writing chops. Funny when Charlie Kaufman films bomb, no one declares *him* to be a one-hit wonder or flash in the pan. Double standards?
“Funny when Charlie Kaufman films bomb, no one declares *him* to be a one-hit wonder or flash in the pan. Double standards?”
Funny, but Charlie doesn’t write shitty horror movies in the first place. Moronic comparison?
When Charlie Kaufman set out to make a horror film it became Synechode New York.
Jennifer’s Body was “feminist”? They sure didn’t promote it that way. They should’ve have. Seemed like dumb soft porn exploitation. It probably started out more like “I Spit On Your Grave” and the studio turned it into soft porn. Even the title was misleading. They probably told poor Diablo Cody to throw in a fem kiss and trite garbage like that. The whole promo campaign was about that one dumb scene like it’s the 90s. Such horror films starring women aren’t made for women – they’re exploitative so the loser dude demo advertisers curiously prize will show up. People can sense a turkey before it opens. Maybe loser dudes have finally had their fill of exploitation.
Feminism my ass. This just makes women look stupid, not smart, strong and independent.
What are we guessing the budget on Jennifer’s Body is?
Hopefully this will shut Megan Fox’s big mouth. She – and her ego – needed to be taken down a peg or two. This bomb of hers should do the trick. She’ll be crawling back to Michael Bay in no time.
Man, did the Jennifer’s Body marketing campaign suck. It’s a comedy, not a horror movie. Still, it cost 15 mill. It’ll creep into profit but what a missed opportunity. I saw it in Toronto and thought it was quite good.
I’ve never understood the strategy of trying to turn Aaron Eckhart into a romantic leading man. Hid best performance ever remains as the total dick in “In the Company of Men.” He’s reinvented himself over the years and it’s been one bomb after another because nobody buys him in those roles. He needs to go back to being an actor and not a leading man.
Meanwhile I can assure you that every writer around town is doing a silent cheer over the flop of “Jennifer’s Body.” Nice to have “Diablo Cody” taken down a few notches.
“I’ve never understood the strategy of trying to turn Aaron Eckhart into a romantic leading man. Hid best performance ever remains as the total dick in “In the Company of Men.” He’s reinvented himself over the years and it’s been one bomb after another because nobody buys him in those roles. ”
One bomb after another ? Ever heard of The dark knight ?
These “stars” need bigger stars in their movies to make hits. Aniston box office movies ALWAYS have a big male lead… she doesnt to as well when she’s the biggest name in the movie. Fox needs robots and Shia.
I am about to win a bet with a friend from two years ago when I told him that Diablo Cody was a no-talent PR invention. And speaking of no-talents, Tyler Perry’s drop will be closer to 70% when all is said and done. Finally, the public seems to be rejecting his bufoonish crap. Pride before the fall, tranny.
Your name is “No Country for Black Man”? Really? In today’s day and age, you really want to go there?
And It sounds like you have envy problems my friend. Jealous of Tyler Perry’s success, are we? You wish you could have a fraction of his career? The public is rejecting his “buffoonish crap”? Wait until his next movie comes out, which will also be #1.
Instead of hating, you may want to use that energy to improve yourself. Karma is a bitch my friend and she is kicking you to the curb.
And speaking of “Curb”, let’s not forget that the new season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” begins on Sunday on HBO.
NCFBM, you’re an ignorant ass.
I’ll second that.
Dude, grow up. I’m anotehr black (well, mixed0) man that doesn’t really care for Perry’s work very much, but watching his movies you really do see that his heart is in the right place.
And who cares if it dropped 70%? You hardly have to market his movies and this one only cost $13million to make. Done deal.
I disagree. I think the messages of his films are often confused. He’s big on the independent woman angle…but all of his female characters are ultimately weak and in need of a man. All of them except for Madea…who IS a man.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it over and over again. MADEA IS FUNNY.
The movies storylines may be lacking, but that character is hilarious.
I wish Perry would just drop the heart-wrenching drama portions and make a flat out comedy that revolves around Madea from start to finish.
Or do a stand-up concert movie with the character.
when you make a billion dollars, you can pass judgment on Tyler Perry’s talent
No talent ? Kiddo, Cody is an Oscar winner, what’s your greatest accomplishment ? Burping the letters in your name.
Winning an Oscar is more about political style campaigning, not talent recognition. Akiva Goldsman won an Oscar too, and he’s got no talent. This chick won hers as a flavour of the month, nothing more.
The Informant! is doing as well as the studio had expected. It was projected to make $10 million to $14 million, according to estimates, and finish at number two. It looks like it’ll do exactly that. The film didn’t cost that much to make and it appears the studio has recouped half of its investment in the FIRST WEEKEND.
“Love Happens” is actually overperforming. It cost less than $20 million and the costs were split between Universal and Relativity. It was projected to make $8 million this weekend and it looks like it’ll do that and much more.
The only true bomb of the weekend is “Jennifer’s Body” which was supposed to be competitive for number 2 with “The Informant!” It appears that “Jennifer’s Body” will do HALF of initial projections. Also, I think the budget for JB was a lot higher than both “The Informant!” and “Love Happens.”
Who actually wants to see Jennifer’s Body?
The trailer came off way too lesbian for a mainstream audience. It looks like the nerdy girl wants to go down on Megan Fox. It’s not helped when Jennifer says to Needy that she “goes both ways” or how they used to sleep in the same bed together. It almost looks like a relationship between a lesbian and a bisexual chick who is seeing guys on the side. Straight girls would prefer to see a guy-girl relationship. Guys are ok with lesbians as long as they’re porn lesbians rather than the real thing.
If the film had a strong male lead that was stolen by Jennifer from the nerdy girl (IMDB lists as “Needy Lesnicky”), it would have sold more tickets. And the nerdy girl has to be pretty hot, but wear glasses Clark Kent style. So every female watching can see the nerdy (but really hot) girl and imagine they too would be really hot with a makeover.
You can’t sell sex directly to an audience anymore. They would just watch porn in the privacy of their own home. Even the women, although it’s more likely to be a steamy novel or a soft core pay tv movie. Instead sex flavors the product. Take the movie “Wanted” for instance. The trailer shows that it is an intense action film, but also suggests that you’ll be able to see Angelina Jolie’s bottom if you go to the movie. It’s like a sundae were the action is the ice cream and Jolie’s bum is the cherry on top. Jennifer’s Body is all cherry. And people can get cherry at home over the Internet. It doesn’t look particularly funny or scary.
I guess the glut in horror films right now doesn’t help it either.
Feminism has never helped a film’s revenue, sexism has never hurt it.
I’m not in the industry so take what I’m saying with a grain of salt.
i think steven soderbergh is one of the most talented directors working. he chooses materials that doesn’t scream moneymaker, but if he wanted to, he could continue to be a cash cow.
also, diablo cody may not be a one-hit wonder, but she is exceptionally overrated. i realize that will cause a bit of ire from potential posters, but “juno” is about a sarcastic girl. a few witty quips and you win the oscar? i almost went into cardiac arrest when tony gilroy was passed over.
diablo cody is talented, no doubt, but to market the film as “from the mind of diablo cody” makes all the failure fall on her lap.
I saw “The Informant!”; it looked really cheap. It had subtly funny moments, but overall felt insignificant, and I regret watching it.
I’m shocked The Informant! really received a CinemaScore of a C-. It was a great film and it seemed like the entire (sold out) screening I attended was filled with people loving the film as well.
Anniston’s done. Not giving Brad the baby he wanted was the biggest mistake she ever made. Now she’s over 40 and looks, well, kinda pathetic.
Though I’m no fan of Diablo Cody’s (what is her real name anyway?), is it really fair to blame a screenwriter for a movie’s failure? Since when do people go to see a movie because of the writer (unless they’re also the director)??
Go back to PerezHilton.com, loser.
For one who’s angered by dumb people, it’s kind of ironic that you never actually countered any of my assertions nor did you answer any of my questions…
well said. I think anonymous is on the wrong site for statements like this. what does Aniston having or not having a baby have to do with the box office of her latest movie?
RE: (From a previous post in this thread…)
is it really fair to blame a screenwriter for a movie’s failure? Since when do people go to see a movie because of the writer (unless they’re also the director)??
XXX
My answer is this: you’d be on solid ground to raise this question, but when you are 1) Diablo Cody, who got most of the success for Juno as its writer and 2) you are touted in movie posters for Jennifer’s Body as the creative wunderkind above the other “talent”, then, HELL YES, you can be blamed for a movie’s failure, especially when the faults in this recent mess is clearly a writer/structural/genre problem. I once heard a screenwriter say that the paramount issue for a writer is to have solid STRUCTURE. I think, Diablo Cody is a wonderful dialogue writer and stylist, but she does not have the command of structure that other, more seasoned writers have. But I have to admit that her dialogue is something fierce. She’s perfect…..to write a blog.
And when does the screenwriter get props or draw a crowd. Um, can you say Charlie Kaufman or Nora Epron or Orci and Kurtzman, the dynamic duo behind every BIG SCREEN summer tentpole as of late. Yes, a name can, and does, matter.
Oh, good Lord. A woman, over 40, who doesn’t have a baby or a husband, and therefore no reason to live. She should just kill herself!
Seek therapy, anonymous. It’s you who needs it, not Aniston (one N, by the way).
Jennifer’s Body flopping might throw a monkey wrench into Diablo Cody’s plans to segue into directing. The failure of the film also proves that people will tolerate Megan Fox only when she’s being overshadowed by enormous CGI robots or posing for a mens’ magazine. She’s not an “above the marquee” talent, something that will be further cemented when her future attempts to headline films are met with the same audience apathy and financial ruin. Her comparison to Angelina is malapropos because she doesn’t have that level of acting talent or the provability under her belt to lure in female moviegoers.
i like to hate on people as much as anyone, but in diablo cody’s defense, the script of jennifer’s body (at least the version i read) was much better than the movie it became. i remember the script as fun and funny, but the movie is about as fun as a punch in the nose.
I don’t know what script you read, but the script sucked. It was legitimately flawed and Diablo rewrote on set so much of the blame can fall in her lap. Oh wait, can’t say it because then you’re labeled a “hater.” Not a hater but the script was not good.
Apparently, predictions that Megan Fox was the next Angelina Jolie were overrated. Men (and teenage boys) might like to ogle her body, but apparently not enough to pay money to see her in anything other than a Michael Bay action flick.
This was her chance to shine and despite a HUGE marketing push… it flopped.
Once she stops making “Transformers” movies (which may be sooner than later thanks to her outspoken diss on Bay), I predict a quick fall. Remember when Denise Richards was the hot new thing?
As for Diablo Cody… she’s been a master of hype since the beginning. (Supposedly, she hired a publicist before even getting an agent!!) Her exaggerated stripper claims got her in the door, but I think she’s got a bigger future with her Entertainment Weekly blog. After all, JUNO was little more than a Lifetime movie with snappier dialogue.
I remember another young female writer with a colorful backstory… anyone else remember Riley Weston?
I wouldn’t worry about Diablo Cody’s directing aspirations being de-railed. She’s in the door and part of the machine. She has Uncle Stevie in her corner just like Shia does (and Drew did). Once you have his mensch-like tentacle around you, you get what you want in Hollywood.
She’ll pretty much get to do what she wants to do and survive this flop which they are already blaming on Megan Fox.
Yes, string Soderbergh up. How dare he try to make a movie that isn’t paint-by-numbers. Would you rather see more movies made like Wolverine or Transformers that are calculated to bring in movie but suck? You’re definitely part of the problem and not the solution, Nikki Finke.
Everyone knew Jennifer’s Body was a stinker. The script read like syrup. Same as Juno. Diablo is a one hit wonder. United States of Tara was only greenlit because Alexa Junge agreed to be the showrunner. Alas, her very quiet departure from the series last spring, just after they announced its renewal, will show the world how horrible a writer Diablo really is. I know Showtime isn’t happy right now.
Did the industry actually think society would fall for this new manufactured voice of a female filmmaker like they so blindly did back in 1997 with Ben and Matt “writing” Good Will Hunting?
Sorry, but no. Just like Ben & Matt, if they can really write something like that, why don’t they do it again??? Maybe Alvin Sargent and William Goldman will crank out something for them and Diablo to put their names on.
Another conspiracy nut. Why would Damon and Affleck write something again ? Affleck is coming in movies and focusing on directing…. and family.
Damon is a huge star and getting great offers.
Matt and Ben wrote Good will hunting because they thought it would help them break into the big time, it did. They have no reason to write another movie.
Well done. You cracked it, kid.
Not the Ben and Matt stuff – the stuff about “Tara”
“Cloudy…” is a laugh riot. Honestly, the joke to minute ratio is off the charts. Congrats to Phil Lord and Chris Miller for one of the funniest movies in recent years.
And the opening credit, “A film by… A lot of people,” very very nice.
you are insane – there were maybe two laughs – the movie is pathetic
Anonymous couldn’t have seen Cloudy. Anyone who has seen Cloudy knows better.
Only two? Really? What were they?
I’m shocked that you’re shocked that Diablo Cody is a one-hit wonder.
The Informant! did just fine. I don’t think anyone will be crying about that. To the poster above, I both read the script to Jennifer’s Body and saw the film. The film is a very good representation of the script, and I thought both were really fun. 16 million is exactly what it cost, by the way. As for Love Happens, it’s a miracle it made what it did based on the subject matter and the reviews. Aniston should get credit for that, not jeers.
I think one lesson that (I hope) Hollywood will take from this is that it’s THE STORY that counts in this day and age. Make a film about something that seems amusing or interesting (or is based on something else that is amusing/interesting), and people may give it a chance.
Make what seems like a silly/dull film with lots of “name” people (actors or writers) and the audience isn’t going to go for it.
Megan Fox hasn’t shown that she can carry a movie. Jennifer’s Body sounded too challenging for Diablo’s still-growing skill set (trying to do a comedic horror film with satirical elements is a bit much for a second film).
Love Happens sounds like dreck. When will studio execs realize that just because someone is a tabloid queen doesn’t mean people will show up to see them in the theater? (HJNTIY and Marley and Me weren’t successes because of ANY of the cast members but because the BOOKS were bestsellers).
And I don’t care how much you like the Bourne films, if Matt Damon isn’t doing Bourne, then there’s no guarantee the audience will show up. The Informant! sounds like a fun rental but not worth the ticket price for the theater.
I have no problem with Diablo Cody’s doing interviews; I didn’t see a ton of them. Megan Fox, on the other hand, was grating on my last nerve by Friday. She tries WAY TOO HARD to be shocking.
Just my (long-winded) 2 cents.
Nikki I thought your site was a spin free zone, Has the Huvane brothers got to you too on behalf of Anniston?
The last release she had without a big male lead was Management which did not even make $1m. The dog movie was promoted on the back of the cute dogs and never had Anniston on the poster or most of the TV promo.
At least $30m was spent promoting this movie, so how exactly do they make their money back with a $7.8m opening weekend?
Anniston cannot open a movie and the sooner she goes back to TV the better for her.
I agree 100%. I too want to know why Nikki gives Jennifer Aniston a pass while dogging on Damon and Soderbergh. At least they’re risk takers who try to make intelligent films. Aniston’s PR team earns its paycheck because no other Hollywood actor has been given A-list status without actually earning it. Aniston shared a screen with Drew Barrymore, Scarlett Johansson, Ben Affleck, and Academy Award winner Jennifer Connelly and SHE is the one who gets the credit for the movie’s success. I’m still scratching my head over that one. Then comes Marley & Me, another best seller where the marketing team makes the calculated and admittedly smart decision to keep all humans off print adds and billboards. Just present a really cute puppy with a red bow around his neck and hope people forget Aniston and Wilson are in the movie. Again Aniston is given credit for that one. As time goes on I’m more and more convinced that people treat Aniston like a slow witted child who gets a gold star for remembering to wipe her butt. The bar has been set that low.
[i]The last release she had without a big male lead was Management which did not even make $1m. [/i]
This wasn’t a wide release. It was limited and NO promotion from trailers, etc. Most people didn’t even know Jennifer had a new movie coming out that’s why ‘Management’ doesn’t get mentioned here or in most articles regarding ‘Love happens’. ‘Love happens is being compared to her previous wide releases, Marley, HNTIY and The break-up. However those had the advantage of being rom-coms wherease ‘Love Happens’ was a drama with no known director, no hype over the film, no famous book, which is tough to sell. It basically relies on the likability of the co-stars. Looking at the numbers on Friday ‘Love happens’ had the second biggest per screen average so the movie didn’t do bad at all considering September usually has very poor box office.
‘Cloudy with a chance of meatballs’ did really well but the high numbers can also be atributed to the 3D showings which are more expensive. Had this movie opened on a summer it would have been looking at a 50-60M opening.
What are you talking about I saw trailers and ads for Management. I also seem to recall Aniston promoting it on talk shows. Isn’t that the one where Steve Zahn asks to touch her butt and later parachutes into her pool? That was all over the place. What was the point of that promotion?
I think people are right about the spin. Universal is spin central. “Limited exposure” in its financing means limited profits for the studio. Do you really think the financial backers don’t get a proportional return on their investment?
Love Happens had tons of marketing and promotion so I think you have to easily double the $18 million figure – and as we all know there are other costs apart from production and marketing that normally come out of the BO. Unfortunately the days of counting on dvd sales to reap a windfall are over. Those numbers have been dropping steadily.
Maybe the real news is that they couldn’t open Management wide at all and it should have gone straight to DVD. But I’m sure that preventing that kind of embarrassment was part of Aniston’s contract. You also have to ask yourself why they couldn’t get Love Happens into more theaters. Those are the telling points for any talent.
Glad to see Nikki is out of the hospital and back at work.
I agree, all of Annistons movies are heavily promoted, she’s just not movie material. She can’t compete with Julia & Sandra in romantic comedies, and as far as dramatic, forget it. I just saw Derailed on cable, she was AWFUL. If she’s good at sitcoms why not do them?
I don’t know why the studios waste the money on her…..was that part of the divorce settlement? a few movies guaranteed.
and now she’s going to sing in her next movie!
To Maria, Jimmy, Oscar, Guy, Jake, Pete, Dan et al – same poster, am I right?
Thought so. Not sure Nikki is the ‘hysterical’ one here.
Meanness, sorry I’m just me. Not posting under different names. So, no, you’re not right.
Cloudy with a chance asshole, enjoy your life defending crap movies and being lazy/dumb. BTW, this is not actually Dan — it’s your mom.
People are taking the Soderbergh comments a little too personally. The article is analyzing the box office, not the quality of the films. The Cinemascores have nothing to do with critics, it’s from audiences who are polled after the movie. I loved The Informant!, but clearly a lot of the audience was expecting something a bit more mad cap, and they got a slow burn.
If The Informant had been released by Searchlight or Focus — we’d all consider this a reasonable success. Instead, it doesn’t feel like a Studio flick so it somehow becomes a failure despite (according to most sources) for having been made at a speciality style budget — and that may be right, because if they spent Studio level p+a on the film, they’ll now get cold feet overseas and all in all, lose money. Now, that would be a shame.
Love Happens IS awful, JUST AWFUL. Releasing a tropical bird into the Pacific Northwest to die? Pretending to be deaf is funny? Touching your hair pulling it over your frozen in place facial nonexpression in every scene like in every movie she has done is supposed to be acting? This film like her last film Management will not make any money no matter how PR is spun. Jen Aniston is not funny, is not believable, cannot act, and she and Aaron have no chemistry. She needs to go back to tv sitcoms where she belongs, and Aaron needs to take more care in choosing his films.
Don’t mess with Michael Bay. He’ll bring the beat down on you Megan!!! Too bad this industry is run by a bunch of MBA’s and lawyers. For all their focus groups and mathematical formulas to determine which star who would bring in the most foreign pre-sales, they have left out the most important element, Filmmakers! Not A-List directors or stars. Not high concept scripts or franchise films with endless sequels. No. The studios need to back Filmmakers who have total command of their script, casting, and physical production. Filmmakers who love this country and want to tell stories about what is great in our world. But I guess they rather continue losing money with overrated directors, telling uninspired stories, in the most saccharine way. Where are the William Wellman’s!
All due respect, Tai, but first of all, if you go to the very top of the Hollywood food chain, you’ll find very few people who have MBA’s or JD’s. Most of the old guard who are at the highest levels are hustlers who maybe had some college education. I think of my time spent at a couple of agencies and the people at the very top usually only had high school diplomas. It’s mostly middle management who are the more educated (and since when did earning an MBA or a JD become a bad thing??)
And as for who should be running the show, I think it’s got to be a combination of both the artists and the businesspeople. Artists tend to not have the most business sense and businesspeople tend to not be creative enough and too risk-averse.
Im so glad Jennifer’s Body was tanked. Both Megan and Daioblo seemed to hit the lucky train. Megan, hit the jackpot with Transformers–highlighting her body and hiding her lack of talent–while Juno was also a lucky draw. Megan portraying a cheap copy of Angelina JOlie to the media in interviewa was pretty sad. Get your own personality Megan and stop being a bitch to the man that made you famous. No one likes their boss but we don’t bitch about it publicly. Especially if you’re making millions. You are unique–you’re not Angelina–there are millions of girls waiting in the wings waiting to see you fall. Just waiting to take your place.
“Jennifer’s Body sounded too challenging for Diablo’s still-growing skill set (trying to do a comedic horror film with satirical elements is a bit much for a second film).”
Okay so exactly what would be okay to do for a 2nd film exactly? The subject matter is not exactly Godfather material. It’s not really something that has never been attempted before.
/
Doing something that is just comedy (so you can focus on making the film funny), or doing something that is straight horror (so you can focus on making it scary) would be more straightforward.
Trying to balance the two is more complicated. And satire, of course, is difficult in its own right.
That’s how Jennifer’s Body ended up being not all that funny, not at all scary, and the satire is kind of lost in the mix.
kusama may be the one hit in all this… Since Girl Fight, Aeon Flux??? Ugghhh….
It is so clear that Aniston cannot open a film on her own. All her hits are films with the more popular leading men like JIm Carrey, Ben Stiller and the Dog.
All her movies with lesser known leading men like Mark Ruffalo, Clive Owens, Steve Zahn, and Aaron E, flopped.
If she is that bankable, her movies which are all ligt comedy or light drama and never R rated, should do very well, and they are normally heavy promoted. And yet its proven once again, without support of other more popular stars, Aniston is nothing!
I agree with you. Plus, and I believe Nikki has said this before, but Aniston is not a film star. She’s a TV actress who happens to be cast in films (why is beyond me).
However, if Hollywood wants to waste their money by putting her in films, then I wish them luck. It’s not my money so I don’t care.
I wonder how long it will be, though, before Hollywood requests a federal bail-out because of all the flops that Aniston has been in.
What has been a disappoint and deception on the part of Wilcox Cinemas is they put up the posters of Inglorious Bastards,Jennifer’s Body and they don’t open in these small markets like backward Vicksburg Ms. This has been done in the past when Regal UA Cinemas and now non-existant Village Entertainment did it. Well the Meatballs movie did open and Gamer as well. But to advertise posters trailers is bad business. Why? it only makes the audience anticpate the movie coming that opening weekend. But Wilcox has been facing stiff competition from the Madison and Clinton Cinemas. They still have thier hold on the Vicksburg marketplace. Becouse the teen market is going to there over Vicksburg. Why? Wilcox has made another mistake of holdover of Halloween 2 which isn’t doing so well. I suspect too when Vicksburg lost it’s only cinema eighteen months ago distrubtors too immediately overlooked this market. And this cause startup cinemas to play catch up with thier competition.
Yeah, how ’bout that siege of Vicksburg by General Grant. Man, that sucked, huh???
the bourne audience had a built in audience because the author. like john grisham. it didn’t matter that matt damon was the star.
Damon’s performance in The Informant! is amazing. Really exciting work from a great actor.
Jennifer’s Body failed because of a very simple reason – it’s rated R.
Megan Fox appeals mostly to junior high school guys.
Soooooo…Universal is already spinning the failure of yet another Jennifer Aniston flick, huh? I think we all knew that was going to happen. Their assertion that Love Happened failed because it was a drama about loss is baloney. They didn’t market it as a drama about loss. They marketed it as a love story with a goldenly lit Aniston and her perfect blow out smiling and looking happy and in love. Would it be mean of me to point out to Uni that Aniston’s last film also tanked at the box office and it was a comedy? I realize that Aniston’s PR machine is doing all they can to sweep Management under the rug, but it’s on the books as a total flop. The distributor couldn’t even get the movie shown in more than 212 theaters. It made a paltry $1.3 MILLION WORLDWIDE.
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I really would like to know when studios and indies are going to stop wasting money hiring Jennifer Aniston. She cannot open a movie. Saying she “helped open” movies in the past is being disingenuous. Neither of her last 2 movies were marketed as “Jennifer Aniston movies.” Marley & Me was marketed on the strength of a best-selling book and a cute puppy with the occasional glimpse of Owen Wilson and very rarely was Jennifer Aniston seen in the trailers and she wasn’t on the posters at all. A lot of people didn’t even know she was in the movie until she showed up on screen. He’s Just Not That Into You was an ensemble piece based on yet another popular book. Aniston playing 4th or 5th lead in that movie and Drew Barrymore played a much more prominent role in the advertising campaign than Aniston did.
It’s long past time that studios threw in the towel on Aniston as a movie actress. Hiring her is a waste of money. Love Happens was filmed over 18 months ago. Before Aniston even signed to do Marley & Me. It sat in the vault at Uni for that length of time for a reason – it’s a dud. Just like Management. Just like Rumor Has It – another Aniston comedy that bombed. Just like Derailed. Just like any other Aniston solo lead. She’s got 2 films coming out next year – The Baster and Bounty. After the pitiful box office results for Love Happens you can bet the farm that the producers and distributors are swearing bullets over their investment and second-guessing their decision to back an actress with as many bombs as Aniston has. People can whitewash the totals of Love Happens all they want. Mark my words – The Baster and Bounty will both tank at the box office. Aniston has zero screen presence and can’t carry a movie. She’s just not a very good actress. Why should people pay money to see Rachel Green on the big screen when they can stay at home and watch Friends re-runs for free? Sooner the studios are going to realize that hiring Aniston is akin to burning money.
For years now I’ve called Aniston the female George Clooney – without the awards. Neither one of them can open a movie to save their lives. At least George can occasionally have a hit by working with Brad Pitt. However, something tells me that Pitt, who even had Marley & Me director David Frankel removed as a producer from his Moneyball project, won’t be so volunteering to help his ex-wife salvage her failed movie career. Call me silly though.
Stacy we get it YOU are a brangeloonie!!!!
So you can stop with your long winded posts now. LOL LOL LOL
They might like you better on justjared, although something tells me you already knew that. LMAO!
BTW George Clooney is already getting oscar buzz for his new movie and already has an oscar for best director so I doubt he wants or needs Pitt’s help for anything.
I like how you kept typing “LOL” it convinced me that you were really laughing.
She didn’t say Clooney couldn’t win awards. That’s actually EXACTLY what she was saying, that Clooney wins awards but doesn’t have box office smash hits without Pitt (three of the four biggest box office grosses of his career were from the Ocean series, and Burn After Reading did better than any non-Ocean for Clooney since 2000). So stop crying. Whoops, I mean “laughing” because that’s obviously what you were doing otherwise you wouldn’t have kept typing in “LOL.”
Since spin for Aniston is in full effect let me help out Fox. JB would have done better if it were a PG rated movie. Alot of Fox’s fans are teen boys. Fox has proven she can open PG movies at the rate of $70 and $108 million.
No the Autobots and Decepticons proved they could open a PG movie at the rate of 70 and 108 Million. You could have replaced all of the have characters in the movie with mannequins and it wouldn’t have made a difference.
Some people need to stop making excuses for Jennifer Aniston. She has just about the disaster as Megan Fox. She was every promoting the film just as bad as Megan was; on talk shows after talk shows, on magazines and on entertainment shows. The biggest average of the weekend? Her average was around 1,500. How the hell is that even considered big? Maybe when you’re comparing it with the drecks that are out now. Unless she has a big male lead or a famous cast behind her, she cannot carry a film.
I’m happy Cloudy beat all those Alisters (except Matt Damon, who I think deserves his second spot and any other success).
So let me see if I understood your post. Love happens and of course Jennifer Aniston did really bad but The informant (Matt Damon) was successful????
DUH The informant took the second spot because it had more screens than Love happens. Love happens had a better per screen average.
If you look at the per screen average the Tyler Perry movie was actually in second place.
So basically ALL the new releases underperformed (maybe except Cloudy with a chance of meatball but since this had a 100 million budget iot is still have a long way to go.)
Matt can’t open a film unless it is an action film heavily promoted.
Jennifer can’t open films unless they are overly promoted romantic comedies.
Megan can only be popular next to a bunch of robots.
To review, BIG STARS DON’T OPEN FILMS BECAUSE OF THEIR POPULAR NAMES ANYMORE. Another example to this was Sandra Bullock and in her case she was in two romantic comedies one a huge hit another a flop. I think the only exception to this is Will Smith, he is able to carry movies with crap reviews, unknown directors and pure dramatic films.
As time goes on I’m more and more convinced that people treat Aniston like a slow witted child who gets a gold star for remembering to wipe her butt. The bar has been set that low.
””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””
ITAWU 100%. Not just that but she slams every film she’s in if it doesn’t do well and/or complains about the title and whatnot. I continue to be puzzeled why she gets hired
wow. stars continue to fail. you can actually hear their quotes falling. i really thought cloudy would have done better. it did what Beverly Hills Chihuahua did last year. In fact, if you factor in the 3D, they actually sold less tickets than the dog movie.
Informant!: $22m to produce; $30m for P&A = $52 approx. total costs. Due to the downward sloping revenue sharing agreement with studios a widely used method to ascertain the break-even point (for all players) is to double total costs. This means Informant! would have to make roughly $105million to. Yes, one’s exposure may have been $10, $20, $30 million but when you consider advertising costs, the amount of revenue theaters get, and when applicable split revenue sharing agreements, it isn’t so easy to recoup funds. Now, if the exposure was low it also means a loss isn’t as painful.
Informant! will probably top out at around $28 million. DVD, international, and other ancillary (action figures?..lol) will have to bring it to profitability. It’s extremely important to note that a movie that makes its budget in boxoffice grosses IS NOT profitable at that point.
“It’s extremely important to note that a movie that makes its budget in boxoffice grosses IS NOT profitable at that point.”
This is the reason why it is too early to call Cloudy with a chance of meatballs a success considering the high budget.
I’m just delighted the Clone High guys finally have a hit.
Aniston’s movie looked like every other Aniston movie, they could have been using trailers from different ones and nobody would have noticed.
Everything flopped this weekend, even cloudy could have done a lot better. It’s a 3D kids movie…
Jennifer’s Body was fun (Megan and Diablo had more “star power” than Aniston if you remember that JB is R rated and LH is pg13). I thought the movie and script were fun, but marketing was just awful.
Good for The Informer!, haven’t seen it yet but at least seems original.
Diablo Cody 2007-2009 unless she starts from scratch and build a new team around her. Gersh, the manager, and the publicist have got to go. A more tiffany team of CAA, etc. could do wonders. The C team had their shot but that’s why they’re the C team.
The “C-Team” is kind at best.
Lolollololololololol RE: Jennifer’s Body. If you can’t turn a quick first week #1 (or against an animated movie #2) with a teen horror movie with no big stars to pay, you truly truly suck. Goodbye, Burke Busey (I refuse to call that no-talent by her fake name.) Enjoy teaching screenwriting at some small liberal arts college. You suck, and Hollywood is laughing at you.
Um, first off Diablo Cody’s real name is Brook not Burke. Secondly, she’s already got 3 or 4 projects in some state of development so I don’t think she has a lot to worry about. And that’s not counting her column in EW.
As far as Hollywood laughing at her maybe you should take a look at the pics from Toronto and guess again.
I’m not a fan of Diablo’s work, but she’s doing just fine so don’t go overboard. And she’s really no different than Seth Rogan and his writing partner who went from Superbad (talk about overrated) to Drillbit Taylor – one of the worst movies ever made. I haven’t seen Jennifer’s Body but no way is as bad as that flick and they had a John Hughes story to riff on. How do you botch that?
Jennifer Aniston couldn’t even get her own celebrity friends to come to the premier of “Traveling/A Brand New Day/Love Happens”. Tired, formulaic drivel and dreck! I won’t be surprised if it makes money. Is that any measure of film quality Nikki? And the product placement is nauseating. A CinemaScore of “B” only tells me that some people will sit through anything for free.
When Jennifer Aniston says a film is “really good” think John McCain saying Sarah Palin was qualified to be President of the United States or Rupert Murdoch saying FOX News is “fair and balanced” then act accordingly and run in the opposite direction.
Based on my experience (I attend a lot of advanced screenings in the Denver metro area), Cinemascore is conducted opening night and not during free preview screenings.
Once again, America’s favorite sport appears to be women bashing. Plus the slams are so unimaginative. Really hope the ‘greenlighters’ aren’t taking notes from this as guidelines for what people want to see as much seems to be planted agenda, or pure idiocy at least.
All the bloodthirst for Diablo Cody, Aniston, Megan Fox, but slim pickings for Soderburgh, Damon and Aaron Eckhart (whose movies also flailed) who could all be equal targets about being no talent, self-promoting, Botoxed failures. At least jab the pitchforks equally. And Soderbergh gets a wide berth for repeat flops but Diablo Cody who is still fairly new is already done? Isn’t this only her 2nd movie?
Gotta make sure the successful females don’t get too uppity, right? Men are threatened and women are jealous. Hilarious when comments, i.e. “Jackie Venice” accuse others of being jealous for criticizing Tyler Perry after inanely ripping on Megan Fox. Smells like planted agenda. Hope Megan Fox keeps telling it like it is. She didn’t say anything many before her haven’t said. If Shia L. had said the same, it would’ve been a passing radar blip. In life, hell hath no fury like a man slighted by a pretty woman.
i agree with you up to a point, ’same old’.’ but diablo cody has a short resume. and when your short resume includes a huge clunker, this is a prob in hollywood. as for soderbergh, i think he should’ve been set out to pasture a while ago. the oceans films are okay. the first was quite fun but the others are trite and relentless.
alan eckhart is a character actor his star ain’t gonna ever get much higher. and i like him. but its hard to criticize someone no one would ever even consider using to open a big budgeted film. the problem actresses have is finding a man with a small enough ego to play second fiddle to an actress with a bigger name.
i agree with the general consensus her about aniston. she’s TV fodder. not film fodder. that ain’t her fault. but her indie films are pretty good.
it has been pointed out by myself and at least one other person here that matt damon can’t really open a film unless it’s a heavily promoted action film. although i would argue that any heavily promoted action film with a random actor in the same role could probably do as well.
it’s the changing of the guard. plain and simple. julia roberts, tom cruise, denzel washington, russell crowe, johnny depp, and matt damon have all had spectacular flops this year. these cats are old. doesn’t explain megan fox though.
Yes, let’s all praise Megan Fox in the name of feminism. The girl who comes out with quotes about how she’s too badass to hang out with girls, and how she’s so sexy that women hate her because they feel bad about themselves. Go sisterhood!
If you are going to do a movie with a tramp like Megan Fox called “Jennifer’s Body”, you had better show nipples.
I think Jennifer’s body tanked because Megan Fox is not a leading lady but she’s eye candy.
She’s not going to carry a movie. Transformers is a blockbuster but her role could easily be replaced by another hot babe that can read lines.
I think if Megan is serious about acting, she needs to do what Johnny Depp did.
Depp could have kept playing pretty boy roles and made money but he took roles that didn’t emphasize his looks and then people could see the acting.
Megan needs to take on a role like Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married or if she still wants to play on her looks, a role like Mira Sorvino in Mighty Aphrodite or Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny.
Jennifer’s body was obviosly promoted as see Megan Fox in a school girl outfit.
I actually saw Jennifer’s Body Friday. The real story is that Amanda Seyfried did 70% of the dialog, overdubbed the movie’s narration, and went from nerdy girlfriend to avenging angel at the end of the film. Amanda was good in Mamma Mia and she’s good in this film too. No doubt a lot of Hollywood professionals will notice this.
Yeah, Seyfried salvaged the film to a large extent. I had never seen her in anything before and she definitely made a strong impression with me. It’s rare for a girl that beautiful to also be that talented at acting. She’s very unlike Megan Fox in that regard.
I really have to applaud Soderbergh and Damon for The Informant!, I saw it this weekend and it was the funniest comedy I’ve seen in ages, although I was pretty much the only person in the audience laughing my head off. It’s sad but I guess people would rather see another “comedy” cranked out by the Judd Apatow machine, that is if there are still any out-of-work Jewish twentysomething male leads left in Hollywood.
Ah, the stupid bigotry comes out. Jealous of success, blame “the Joooz”.
As far as the other topics go:
1) Megan Fox is trashy, has nothing but looks (and hers don’t appeal to me), but there are plenty of others as good looking or better than she is.
2) I liked Juno. United States of Tara isn’t my cup of tea but it’s done reasonably well. For those complaining about Diablo Cody’s overexposure and quick success, that’s just the normal movie PR – they always push whatever angle they can to get people interested. I suspect that a lot of the writers’ negativity is in fact jealousy that she succeeded so quickly, not that she necessarily deserved it more than some other writers.
3) The box office is generally on a downwards slide – too much competition, including from pirated stuff. That’s why 3D is being stressed – it’s an experience people can’t readily get at home. Hollywood salaries, especially actor salaries, just won’t be what they used to be.
give it a rest you labored retard, my point is that Apatow writes what he knows, it just happens to be a tiny sliver of life experience that is already grossly overrepresented in Hollywood product…when every other comedy has a male Jewish lead (not even a female lead to shake things up) reliving the writer/director’s experience as an awkward adolescent, it just gets old
also lol you liked Juno was it the creepy sex scene between Michael Cera and whatsherface? JEALOUSY IT’S ALL JEALOUSY I TELL YOU funny how bitter you sound saying that
Interesting side tidbit. I just was speaking with my friend who asst. manages a theater in the midwest. They don’t have the staff or care enough to prevent it, but he said the night time screenings of Jennifer’s Body all had sizable groups of 14-16 year olds who bought Cloudy tickets and walked into Jennifer’s Body. It couldn’t be a huge difference, but could it be 750 grand? A million? They all aren’t the Grove.
How over-exposed is Megan Fox?
So much so that several weeks ago, a popular men’s site declared a ‘No Stories About Megan Fox Day’, which defeats the purpose, no?
The general public’s attention span is about the amount of ‘fame time’ the late Warhol declared we would all have at some point in our lives, but with teenagers and early to mid-twenty-somethings(the key demographic for ‘Jennifer’s Body’), it’s around 7 1/2 minutes. Fox will be primarily starring in either direct-to-DVD or online productions two years from now- look it up, write it down, lock it in…
As far as Busey is concerned, she’s given herself a physical makeover and appears to have dropped out of sight in the online/blogosphere world as of late- which is good for her, because she’d better be concentrating on her fucking ‘writing’…
I see all the Diablo Cody hatred is still going strong. I think it’s a bit premature to call her a one hit wonder at this point. She’s written all of 2 completed features. One was successful and one was not, but time will tell as far as what she does from here on out.
Jennifer Aniston has NEVER acrried a movie on her own and never will, she is simply a Sitcom Actress who has a very manipulative agent/PR man. She’s one of the biggets frauds in Hollywood history, right up there with Rock Hudson. Her fans are mainstream sheep who buy into the “girl next door” illusion.
Seriously her agent is not God. People like rom-coms and these films, despite critics opinions, usually have an audience. Love happens was a drama, not a comedy and still manage to have a better per screen average than The informant (comedy) and Jennifer’s body (overly hyped) so I’ll say Jennifer is doing pretty good for herself. I am not sure what she has next but if it is a comedy it will do good. Her fans are the usual rom-coms fans and Friends fans. The average movie goer couldn’t care less about tabloids and crap so I don’t see how her “PR” machine works any diffrently than for the rest of the people in Hollywood.
Ok, I must be definitely getting old, because I cannot see how any of these movies appeal to audiences…
I must be really outta touch, or these movies are going to tank by next weekend…
Jennifer’s Body – Another Debbie Liebling production/destruction.
Jennifer’s Body had potential but AGAIN, where was the marketing. I have heard so many people say that Fox is an incredible marketing machine but I am not convinced. Where was the grassroots marketing? Where was the marketing in general? Having Megan Fox on the cover of a magazine does not translate into box office dollars.
Perhaps Jennifer’s Body will have a second life as a cult hit a la Heathers?
Wouldn’t be surprised if Jennifer’s Body did have a cult life. It’s weird enough and good enough.
Sorry to disappoint you Greg civil war isn’t my forte. I’m more world war two histoy buff and movie buff than the way boring civil war. But you made me laugh.
Now I do watch Gamer and it had elements which reminded me of the matrix. But the storyline too had some satrie about it. Now Jennifer’s Body I want to see becouse I like good horror/comedy movie too.
Now there could be more reasons why Jennifer’s Body isn’t doing to well. But I don’t put the blame on Diablo Cody. One thing it could’ve been over promoted or the studio place expections on itself that it would be weekend hit wonder becouse of Megan Fox. Also marketing,the number of cinemas it opened in this past weekend,like not all cinemas didn’t carry Jennifer’s Body nor the Informant. In fact the Informant didn’t open in Vicksburg at all but in the Jackson metro area. But even lack of promotion can cause a film to be a flop. But word of mouth can also hurt it as well depending who saw it. Now Jennifer’s Body might do better in dvd sales later on. But the idea of a cult hit? that’s real possiple.
um- I enjoyed Jennifer’s Body. I thought it was good for what it was. My boyfriend agreed. Some of the diablo codyism lexicons were annoying but not enough to make me not like the movie overall. But to say Cody’s career is over is stupid and premature.Sorry Nikki.
Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfreid (sp) were good together. I liked the ending. I think they didn’t market the gist of the movie properly. Half the people I talked to weren’t quite sure what-was-what with the trailor.
RE:Love Happens- no thank you. Talk Soup said it best- Jennifer Annistan will die alone- enough with the whoa is me, I am single and beautiful and alone. It’s old. I don’t care if Jennifer Aniston ever finds love again, onscreen or off and that’s why the movie failed…oversaturaton. There is no buzz about this movie with the ladies of the office.
However, they’re still talking about 500 days of Summer for what it’s worth.
I want to correct myself on one point: The Informant will hold up next weekend while the other films tank. People (adults) will discover the “Bourne Comedy” and enjoy it…
Why most people here are blaming the Writer for Jennifer’s Body flopping, and not the Director is a complete mystery to me. If the Director had any talent worth its salt (or vice versa), the film would have been better. Isn’t Kusuma the same Director who made that other flop (again with a strong female) Aeon Flux? The sad excuse for an actioner practically reduced poor Charlene’s stock by 50%. Some say it’s the Marketing that did a bad job on JB, but that’s not true, the Ads were there, people knew about the movie, because Megan Fox was in it, and she is Hot now (most googled, Hot), so it’s not Marketings fault. It’s also not Fox’s fault, her Star has just started rising, and if anything she should have helped the movie. One could blame it on the subject mattter, but this was marketed as a horror, and that should be easily the strongest thing going for it, but just like Halloween, it sucked, therefore Rob Zombie got the blame. If a film is bad, more than 50% of the time, it is the Director’s fault.
“Jennifer’s Body” a cult hit on the DVD circuit? Don’t think so. This movie was marketed out the yang, had trailers attached to all of the major films of the summer AND, at my big-city metro-plex, they even had a table full of JB posters and stuff. (The day I saw the table no one was flocking to grab posters, and at the time I simply chalked that up to it being mid-week,matinee time.) Perhaps, just perhaps, the zeitgeist was already turning a cold shoulder to this coming Cody/Kusama flick.
My theory is that a couple of things converged to conspire against Fox, Cody et al…. First, there was this Megan Fox backlash a-brew (people giddily lambasted her for her lack of cinematic acting chops!), and this came as America was, inexplicably, still suffering from a Juno gag reflex. (I wonder if that was because people just got tired of seeing Diablo Cody on all the talk shows coupled with gnashing of jealous teeth over her Oscar hardware haul) It’s funny, though, because I have never seen in recent time a big blockbuster like “Juno” get the gasface by an adoring public.
It would be akin to “The Hangover” getting pissed on a year from now — something I just don’t see happening. (By the way, “The Hangover” – not “Jennifer’s Body” will enjoy both hit status AND cult status.) Cody’s flick, if it lucks out, my snare the latter, but I am not counting on it.
Jennifer’s Body marks the end of the huge debacle known as Fox Atomic. Horror/comedy is box-office poison. Who makes an R-rated film aimed at teens? Megan Fox doesn’t appeal to girls. The production values were cable movie quality. The marketing was clueless. But I guess they figured after Juno, Diablo Cody could do whatever she wanted.
This film was extremely well directed, regardless of anything else. Great shots, great performances, funny… where do you think that comes from? The marketing was, I agree, clueless. Show me a better-reviewed horror movie this year besides Drag me to Hell. Friday is because marketing blew it.
Jennifer’s Body is an incredibly boring watch. I could usually sit through just about any film, but Jennifer’s Body had me staring at the speakers on the walls. The director did not know how to build suspense, excitement, and surprise the audience. A few words to the producers, if your director makes a boring movie, chances are people will not like it, and you will not make good returns on your investment. To find a good director, he/she doesn’t have to be an award winner – the awards are all political and full of sh*t. Find a director who’s films make you remember the film, and you’ve found a good director.