"Juno"'s exceptional connection

• email this story
• read comments (32)
• post a comment
• 
  
  

I guess some of us aren't fully appreciating what a huge crossover hit Juno has become, so interested parties are pointing this out by comparing Juno's numbers with the four biggest indie hits of recent times -- Little Miss Sunshine, Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Sideways -- which also became Best Picture nominees.

Juno grossed $3.285 million on 998 screens last night (i.e., Friday the 28th), Sideway's best Friday gross was $1.69 million on 1694 screens, Crouching Tiger's best Friday gross was $2.3 million on 693 screens, Brokeback Mountain's best Friday gross was $2.019 million on 1196 screens and Little Miss Sunshine's best Friday gross was $2.028 million on 1430 screens.

The logic is that since Juno is connecting with paying customers in a bigger way than these other four, it deserves consideration as a Best Picture candidate and then some. Juno is a very spirited, agreeable, good-hearted film with exceptional performances up and down, especially from Ellen Page and Jennifer Garner. I respectfully don't believe it's good enough to be a top-fiver, but the current seems to be overwhelming views like mine. I'll be fine if it winds up getting nominated.

comment #1

hypeful says ...

The advanced screening I went to a couple of weeks ago was filled with people who were seeing the film for a second and even third time before the film's actual release - and this was in OKC. I was a bit surprised...

comment #2

Hash says ...

I wonder if Im the only one in America who didnt like the movie at all.

comment #3

p.Vice says ...

I don't know about this speculation, because I saw Juno Christmas day at a small local theater and it was in the second-largest auditorium; I was back there today and it had already been downgraded to one of the shoeboxes. Taking its place? The CGI chipmunk movie.

comment #4

arch451 says ...

By that logic Transformers should be considered for Best Picture because it obviously connected with so many people. What a pointless observation.

comment #5

cjKennedy says ...

You're not alone Hash. Almost though.

comment #6

LYT says ...

Ebert calling it the best film of the year might have helped.

In terms of the other titles mentioned and their grosses, JUNO has an appeal to mainstream teens that BROKEBACK and SIDEWAYS probably didn't, a simpler plot than LMS (yes, a van ride to a beauty pageant is easy enough to describe, but the movie wasn't really "about" that compared to the way Juno IS about dealing with teen pregnancy in a funny way), and isn't foreign language like Crouching Tiger.

And teens buy more tickets. Or so think the marketing people, and I don't know enough to contradict them.

When was the last time a popular indie was also a teen comedy? That'd be a more instructive comparison -- Napoleon Dynamite, maybe?

comment #7

actionman says ...

PG-13

comment #8

hypeful says ...

I'm with LYT - you can't ignore the teens' interest for this flick. I think they're all expecting another Napoleon D (luckily they're getting a lot more...)

comment #9

Nick J says ...

I seem to be the only person around who hated Juno--truly hated it. "He was so boss"..."I am really cheesed off at you"..."Honest to blog"..."Phuket, Thailand!"-- I was writhing in agony. The nonstop barrage of affected, trying-too-hard dialogue...insufferable. I can't remember the last time I've hated a movie this much. It's full of actors I love, and if it had been muted I'd probably have thought it looked like great fun, but man...I was in pain.

comment #10

JosephB says ...

Hash,

You're not the only one. I've been reading a little backlash on a few blogs here and there, but we're certainly in the minority. Now, I don't think "Juno" is by any means a terrible film... it just felt lackluster and artificial to me. I don't for one second believe there exists a teenager as whip-smart and savvy as Ellen Page... a 16 yr old who knows who Dario Argento is, or who Mott the Hoople are, or who The Melvins are. Anytime I'd begin to gather a little interest, Juno would throw out a reference that would remove me from the warmth building up in the narrative. I don't need films to be believable, but I need characters I can believe exist somewhere and somehow. Juno isn't one of them.

comment #11

JosephB says ...

Hash,

You're not the only one. I've been reading a little backlash on a few blogs here and there, but we're certainly in the minority. Now, I don't think "Juno" is by any means a terrible film... it just felt lackluster and artificial to me. I don't for one second believe there exists a teenager as whip-smart and savvy as Ellen Page... a 16 yr old who knows who Dario Argento is, or who Mott the Hoople are, or who The Melvins are. Anytime I'd begin to gather a little interest, Juno would throw out a reference that would remove me from the warmth building up in the narrative. I don't need films to be believable, but I need characters I can believe exist somewhere and somehow. Juno isn't one of them.

comment #12

kadoogan says ...

JB--

I am 30 now, but when I was 16 (okay, 17) I DID know who Mott the Hoople, Dario Argento and the Melvins were. I actually saw The Melvins open for Nirvana and was an advocate for SUSPIRIA as a scarier movie than THE EXORCIST.

Just sayin'.

comment #13

lazarus says ...

I was won over eventually by Page, who didn't have to deliver as much Diablo Cody blog-speak in the second half of the film, and the adults were all very good throughout.

Better than Napoleon Dynamite, which was godawful, but this is without a doubt the most overrated film of the year, and I'm cringing at the thought of Cody winning an Oscar, especially because of what that acceptance speech would sound like.

comment #14

Terry McCarty says ...

LYT wrote:
In terms of the other titles mentioned and their grosses, JUNO has an appeal to mainstream teens that BROKEBACK and SIDEWAYS probably didn't, a simpler plot than LMS (yes, a van ride to a beauty pageant is easy enough to describe, but the movie wasn't really "about" that compared to the way Juno IS about dealing with teen pregnancy in a funny way), and isn't foreign language like Crouching Tiger.

And teens buy more tickets. Or so think the marketing people, and I don't know enough to contradict them.

It doesn't hurt that Michael Cera is in JUNO.

comment #15

Zac Bertschy says ...

Here's a tip: hating on a good movie doesn't make you the superstar.

comment #16

nakedmanatee says ...

Hello, cynical bastards. You're right--real people do not talk the way that Juno does. It's a comedy. Be prepared for irreverent one-liners and non-sequitors. Sure, comedy is subjective--you either are amused or not--but let's not condemn Juno for its lack of cinema verite. Juno's success (for me) is that there is enough of a balance between reality (her parents for example remind me of my own family) and the unreality (Juno's hipster dialogue), that I am able to slip into the film's fictional bubble and just enjoy the experience. Most movies require this...If I thought too hard about the unbelievability of a rich, urbane, boozing husband and wife team solving mysteries and exchanging bon mots, I certainly wouldn't be able to enjoy "The Thin Man." (Just as an example.)

comment #17

Zimmergirl says ...

The funny thing about the movie is that the buzz on it has all but flatlined. Not sure if this is because of Jamie Lynn Spears or what but suddenly, its like whooooosh. It was there, now it's gone. It may come roaring back when the directors and writers guild announce next week.

comment #18

ASD says ...

Zimmergirl

I'm not really sure what you're basing that on exactly. Ballots went out in the past few days. Hollywood's more or less emptied out. Everything is in hibernation mode till January. No more critics’ awards or preliminary trinkets to hand out for a few more weeks. But in just the month of December the film was nominated for 5 BFC awards, 3 Golden Globes and a SAG award for Page. Ebert named it best film of the year, Cody and Page have racked up dozens of awards from smaller critics organizations and according to the MCN big board, it's appeared on the 6th most critics lists.

Now factor in the film's incredible box office in a crowded marketplace without a) a big star b) the benefit of the talk show circuit (seeing as how films that are underperforming will invariably point to that as the reason behind their poor grosses) and I'd say the film's surging at the moment. It's only setback is a lack of an ensemble nod at SAG but if that means the film's flat-lined what does that say about Atonement, Michael Clayton, Sweeny Todd, Diving Bell etc...?

comment #19

K. Bowen says ...

I don't hate the film. In fact, I mildly like it. But I think it's a teen-ager of the early to mid 90s running around in the clothing and language of teen-agers of today. Which is why a thirty-year-old is saying that she relates. A hip teen namedropping The Melvins, Iggy and the Stooges, etc, and whose goal is to be in an indie band strikes me as very 1994. Teen pregnancy also is not the issue that it was a decade-plus ago.

The experience is like an episode of The Wonder Years set at Ridgemont High, in which Fred Savage tries to get Spiccoli and Judge Reinhold to walk out of school and and join the peace march.

comment #20

lazarus says ...

Naked Manatee, the difference is that with The Thin Man you can actually believe those words are coming from the characters. Witty, fast-paced banter is not the same as making all these bizarre puns on the spot and talking like a blog column.

And no one's saying it isn't funny. But like Kevin Smith, what is clever on the written page sometimes falls flat when spoken, as it does for PART of Juno. The other parts spoke to me, but I can't just give the whole thing a pass because it's a comedy. It's a flawed film that's a bit too precious, and the soundtrack is forced as well because it isn't appropriate to the musical tastes of the characters.

comment #21

George Prager says ...

What is zzzzZimmergirl's proof that the "buzz" on "Juno" has flat-lined? What could her proof possibly be? Because the barista she has a crush on at her local Starbucks (who sort of looks like what you'd get if crossed Jared Leto with a donkey) didn't know what "Juno" was when she tried to strike up a conversation with him while she waited for her Vente Light Mocha Frappucino?

I agree with K. Bowen just wrote. It also reminds me of the fantasy world of PUMP UP THE VOLUME, where high school kids listen to the Bad Brains instead of Guns n Roses.

comment #22

Sean says ...

The reason it's doing well is that teenage girls are going to see it and enjoying it.

Maybe if some of you went to the theater on a Saturday afternoon once in a while, you'd realize that.

But the Oscar buzz is as ludicrous as when people briefly believed 'Napoleon Dynamite' might get nominated; this movie is nowhere near as good as 'Little Miss Sunshine', and even that wasn't anything special.

comment #23

Sean says ...

The thing that I do think is very cool about 'Juno', though, is that it was clearly *not* written by a man. It caused me to look back on all sorts of movies which were about female leads, but primarily in terms of their relationships with men. for instance, her father was a very two-dimensional character, and their relationship was fairly one-dimensional... but her step-mother? that was more complicated. Another example: her best friend was more important than the "boyfriend". And the way that Bateman was a BAD PERSON just because he didn't want to be a father (well, because he didn't tell her sooner, but not wanting to be a father was clearly part of it).

I thought that was great. Most movies, between the male director, the male suits, etc., Bateman would've been lovable and wacky, Garner would've *just* been the Type-A bitch you think she is at first, Simmons would've had a big scene about feeling older or something stupid, and Juno would've required Michael Cera to be the mature person who decided to give up the baby.

It's not a great movie, but the point of view of it is (very unfortunately) all-too-uniquely female.

comment #24

Sean says ...

And, by the way, 'Napoleon Dynamite' did $3,742,949 on a Friday on only 886, after having been out for a month. let's see if 'Juno' has those kind of legs; I predict it will start dropping soon.

comment #25

ASD says ...

The Oscar buzz is "ludicrous" because Sean thinks is it is people! Let's all move on.

Napoleon Dynamite had neither SAG nor Globes nor BCFC support. Nor the reviews. Nor Ebert. Juno's grosses are already more than half of what ND did after about 4 weeks of mostly limited release.

Apples and oranges even if you can't see the difference.

comment #26

tfresca says ...

Does anybody else think the marketing of the movie is deceptive since it makes it out to be a vehicle for the Superbad kid when it's in fact Ellen Page's movie. Just asking.

comment #27

JTag says ...

I have to kind of laugh at how many of you are saying how unrealistic the dialogue was. At times, it maybe got a little too hipster, but I work at a high school, and nothing in this movie seemed too outlandish to me. My own students respond to my questions in texting lingo (jk and lol being the most popular).

comment #28

JHRussell says ...

"Does anybody else think the marketing of the movie is deceptive since it makes it out to be a vehicle for the Superbad kid when it's in fact Ellen Page's movie. Just asking."

Ummm, tfresca, what the hell are you talking about? I haven't seen ANY marketing suggesting this...give an example or better yet a link to some of this "deceptive" advertising...

comment #29

Webster says ...

I've seen this movie on both coasts (on a Sunday morning at the Block in Anaheim on its opening weekend, and Dec. 26 at a multiplex in Asheville, NC). i was impressed by the size of the Asheville crowd, which definitely skewed teen and twentysomething. I'm not surprised it's a coast-to-coast hit (and the things that irked me the first time, like Rainn Wilson's character and some of the too-trite lines, mattered less than the truly wining performances by both parents and Garner, whom I appreciated even more on second view).

comment #30

tfresca says ...

Sorry I don't have a link to EVERY tv spot I've seen in the past two weeks but anybody who has seen the ads will notice that Page is barely in them. The entire add is about the Superbad kid's reaction to the pregnancy, as if he is the star. I don't care one way or another. I think they got lucky with the kid being popular.

comment #31

Sean says ...

"Apples and oranges even if you can't see the difference."

'Juno' has more in common with 'Napoleon Dynamite' than it has with 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon', 'Sideways', or 'Brokeback Mountain'. [I'll leave 'Little Miss Sunshine' out, since comparisons to that movie is the only reason that there is any Oscar buzz around 'Juno'.] So, fine, I'm comparing apples to oranges, but it is in a thread celebrating the comparison of apples to aluminum.

comment #32

Sean says ...

"The Oscar buzz is "ludicrous" because Sean thinks is it is people! Let's all move on."

You're right, what was I thinking adding my opinion to a conversation about people's opinions about a movie. Who wants to hear my opinion, when clearly yours should be sufficient for everybody? Thank you for being willing to be asshole enough to point that out to me, you're a truly good friend. No, "thank you" is not sufficient. Bless you, sir. ALL HAIL KING ASSHOLE.

Post a Comment