Discland
edited by Jonathan Doyle
Cloverfield [BLU-RAY] (Paramount Home Entertainment, 6.3.2008) Disguised under deliberately goofy, yet deliciously edible-sounding, aliases such as Cheese and Slusho, Matt Reeves' Cloverfield was produced and rushed into theaters under an equally appetizing shroud of secrecy. From last year's incredibly elusive Super Bowl ad to the film's viral marketing campaign, Cloverfield had everybody scratching their heads and drooling in anticipation. Aside from the as-yet untitled title and the Blair Witch-ian visual style, the film's biggest appeal was the enigmatic creature who was last (un)seen hurling the decapitated head of the Statue of Liberty onto the crowded streets of New York City. All we knew about the mysterious beast was that it was big and angry. Now that the highy-anticipated project has come and gone, one question has fortunately been answered: Cloverfield was a major success. (continued)

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Geezer moviegoers

N.Y. Times contributor Stephen Farber on the difficulty of getting Hollywood distributors to wake up to older moviegoers, and the resulting struggles that have occupied the makers of Boynton Beach Club Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont and Ladies in Lavender. The best quote is from Richard Zanuck, producer of the hugely suiccessful older-folks flm Driving Miss Daisy. "After the movie succeeded,"Zanuck tells Farber, "one executive told me that Driving Miss Daisy was a 'nonrecurring phenomenon.' Millions of people went to the theater to see it. Why is that nonrecurring?"

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on June 30, 2006 at 3:04 PM

comment #1

Dixon Steele says ...

Isn't this, to some extent, the same audience that thronged to see MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING?

Posted by Dixon Steele at June 30, 2006 6:19 PM

comment #2

billy Cash says ...

Dimwit, it's also the same audience that goes to see most of the Oscar nominated pictures and everything that is deemed "independent." Not every theater goer in America is a brain dead, adolescent obsessed with comic books and graphic novels. American popular culture isn't complete hijacked by the teenage male mentality. Not yet.

Posted by billy Cash at June 30, 2006 7:12 PM

comment #3

billy Cash says ...

To the first coment: Hey, dimwit, it's also the same audience that goes to see most of the Oscar nominated pictures and everything that is deemed "independent." Not every theater goer in America is a brain dead, adolescent obsessed with comic books and graphic novels. American popular culture isn't complete hijacked by the teenage male mentality. Not yet.

Posted by billy Cash at June 30, 2006 7:13 PM

comment #4

Dixon Steele says ...

Hey, dimwit, learn how to spell the word "comment".

It's at the top of the page...

And why the hell go off on that? I'm actually in agreement with you, turd brain.

Posted by Dixon Steele at June 30, 2006 7:24 PM

comment #5

zoey says ...

It has always amazed me how studios and advertisers instinctively go for a younger deomgraphic (18-34) when the people with the most disposable income and time or willingness to sit in a theater are older.

And Dixon, I also thought your note about My Big Fat Greek Wedding was a slam, probably because that move was a piece of crap and a broad spectrum just kept going and going and going to it. But thank God, still no sequel in sight.

Posted by zoey at July 1, 2006 4:09 AM

comment #6

Dixon Steele says ...

You got that from one innocuous sentence. Hmmm.

Not at all. Personally, I didn't care for it, but one can't deny its huge popularity.

And the two times I tried to get through it, the audience was noticibly older and loving it.

In fact, it tested older, and the distributors went for the adult audience, which kept coming, and coming in record numbers.

Believe me, Zoey, when I'm slamming something, you'll know it...

Posted by Dixon Steele at July 1, 2006 8:46 AM

comment #7

zoey says ...

Dixon,

Point taken. (-:

Ps, Nothing is innocuous on this site. All wording must be pulled apart for inner meaning hahaha.

Posted by zoey at July 1, 2006 9:28 AM

comment #8

Steve C. says ...

DRIVING MISS DAISY is one of my favorite Hollywood business stories:

A moderate success on Broadway
A Pulitzer Prize winner
A Well Respected cast with name recognition
Said cast willing to work for scale
A $7.5M budget

And no one wanted to make it.

According to an interview Zanuck did at the time for the NY Times, if memory serves, he was told basically there just wasn't enough profit potential.

To me it was a no-brainer: it was no-lose project. You knew it would recoup it's costs and make some money. It was clearly positioned to be Oscar-bait. Why not just go ahead, make it and take the chance on doing even better?

Because even when it comes to matters of business, these MBA trend watcher execs who think they know this industry's fiscal realities don't know dick.

DAISY did $106M domestically and $145M Worldwide gross. Factor in video and you can see that it was one of Warner Bros. top earners that year.

And no one wanted to make it.

Posted by Steve C. at July 2, 2006 2:26 AM

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