comment #1

Craptastic says ...

Shit. Did "The Mist" just vanish? Fuck! Thought maybe some word of mouth might help.

Check it out before it leaves the theaters!

comment #2

Webster says ...

Hmmm. Jeff's fingers must have hit the wrong keys. Enchanted and Beowulf are off 51 and 52 percent, respectively. The most interesting number from last night, I think, is that The Golden Compass only sold out 50 percent of its previews. Not a great harbinger of a big opening.

comment #3

jeffmcm says ...

Okay, so this 'People in Redville aren't smart enough...' thing is a permanent feature of Wells's brain, I guess. That's too bad because it's insulting to pretty much everyone, including himself.

It should be noted that if it passes about $45m it becomes the Coens' highest-grossing movie ever (currently held by O Brother).

comment #4

Josh Massey says ...

O Brother, another film nobody outside of the enlightened meccas of NY and LA bothered to see.

comment #5

The Hoyk says ...

Yes, but O BROTHER was an overrated, smug, self-satisfied piece of crap. You know, like most Coen Brothers movies.

NO COUNTRY, however, is a disciplined, lean, no-bullshit epic which is likely the best thing the brothers have ever done. It deserves to be discovered by wider audiences.

comment #6

Terry McCarty says ...

No Country for Old Men added theatres, took in 4,468,000...$4000 a print. Joel and Ehtan Coen's film is looking at a $40 milllion tally during its initial run & another $10 million or so once the awards and nominations start coming in. My numbers guy says "it's basically an urban uptown picture that will do very little business in the boonies."

Why is that, I asked? People in Redville aren't smart enough to appreciate a first-rate arthouse thriller? "Hinterland audiences don't want to know from arthouse," he said. "Arthouse shmarthouse...they just want to be entertained." If by clapping my hands I could permanently vacuum this attitude out of humans and send it into the hottest caverns of hell and keep it there, I would clap my hands.

To the above, I would add that I saw the film in Chatsworth on November 21st at the Pacific Winnetka--two days later it was moved into a smaller house to accomodate HITMAN.

I'm sure that some "boonie" audiences will hate the ending because it doesn't have a good-guy-kills-bad-guy-with-vigilante-force genre finale.

But perhaps it's not an issue of how smart people are, it's more an issue of how people can't cope with artistic curveballs. And that's an issue transcending "smart" when one considers the negative response to NO COUNTRY's ending here.

comment #7

Chris Willman says ...

Dear The Hoyk: I think Josh Massey was being sarcastic.

comment #8

Josh Massey says ...

I was.

comment #9

Chris Willman says ...

Variety: "On the specialty side, Miramax's "No Country for Old Men" cracked the top 10 in its second weekend in wide release, grossing an estimated $4.5 million from 995 theaters for a strong per location average of $4,524."

Breaking that down, I think we have to assume that that $4500 per location figure represents an exact average between the $9000 per print it made in blue states and the $0 per screen it grossed in red states.

(Sorry, Jeff, I couldn't resist.)

comment #10

Jack Price says ...

In one sense, yes, your numbers guy is right. The majority of people who call themselves casual moviegoers aren't necessarily seeking out films that will rattle them to the core and show the world as a more complex place than they may like to admit. Especially in this case, where the question "why do bad things happen to good people" simply doesn't apply.

I've probably made this case before, but middle-of-the-road fare like Wild Hogs (note: being extremely polite here) succeeded because it was sold precisely as such. I don't think anyone's expectations were to the point where they expected more than mild amusement out of that particular film. And more often than not, I'd assume most people don't see films by themselves. In group settings, I'm sure even more adventurous individuals feel like they have to bite the bullet in order to appease the rest of the group.

With No Country, I'm still optimistic that the thriller/horror aspects in the first two-thirds are visceral and lasting enough to the extent that the ride outweighs the final destination. The only other recent film I can compare it to in terms of accessibility is The Bourne Ultimatum, which brilliantly found a way to appeal to both more intellectual viewers and ADD-laden mall rats. Maybe I'm being incredibly naive here, but I feel like innumerable top-grossing films from years past haven't been deterred in spite of their so-called lackluster endings.

That aside, your numbers guy isn't exactly impressing anyone with his wisdom of the world outside the comfort of his gated townhouse community.

comment #11

Jack Price says ...

One other thing, I don't want to give the impression that The Bourne Ultimatum and No Country are on an equal playing field in my comparison. Ultimatum definitely ends on a crowd-pleasing note, which helped it out significantly. But I do feel the level of tension in both films is extraordinary, so much so I'm hoping people would rewatch No Country just for the cat-and-mouse chase alone.

comment #12

Undercover Brother says ...

Of course Wells is right about the rednecks and movie morons not getting, and not wanting to get, "NCFOM." I sat in a theater last week with a dozen of them and the chatter after the movie was embarassing.

"I'm going to go home and blog about that movie. Don't waste your time."

"It would've been good but they killed all the good people."

"That's it? There better be another scene at the end of the credits."

I'm not making any of this up. "NCFOM" is the kind of art film that draws hostility from Joe and Jane Movie Watcher. The pack of dim, spoiled, middle agers behind me who wouldn't shut up about the violence were the worst of them all. Every time something violent happened it was one stupid comment after another. I wanted Bardem and his airgun to come right out of the screen and pop them all.

I even lost a small amount of respect for a co-worker of mine becasue she dubbed the ending 'artsy-fartsy.' No arguement or debate. Nothing valid to critique. She didn't understand it, wasn't terribly interested in trying to, so it simply became the movie's problem. It was artsy-fartsy and that was it.

I learned ages ago that you pick and choose your movie friends. That once you go down the path of foreign films, independent features and that which is generally regarded as out of the norm, you can no longer discuss cinema with about 90% of the people around you. Maybe 95%. The vast majority are either not capable of engaging movies like this, or simply not interested. I have rarely known a movie going population that didn't function this way. So when my co-workers talk about seeing the new Madea movie and "Santa Clause 7" and go on and on about how great they were, I just nod and say okay. If I had to stop and have an argument with everyone who liked crap flicks, I'd be fighting with people all day long.

comment #13

GML says ...

Awake was a surprisingly entertaining little thriller. Not what I expected. It deserved a little better box office. Hope it picks up next week.

comment #14

Discman says ...

"Enchanted, off 61%, will have earned $16,822,000 as of this evening. Up to $70 million at this tonight, certain to top $100 million within 10 to 14 days."

Where's D.Z. to explain how the Bush economy is holding back the box-office take on this film?

comment #15

actionman says ...

ENCHANTED is the surprise of the year for me. Loved it. Huge crush on Amy Adams.

comment #16

Jack Price says ...

Damn Undercover Brother, that's fucking terrible.

I was incredibly fortunate the first two times around. Not so much as a stifled cough broke the silence; the audience was completely invested

When I had the chance to catch it a third time with my folks in Fort Worth, we ended up turning it down because it was only playing at the Parks Mall in Arlington, and mall theater-chains are a rats nest for the biggest fucking invalids alive.

Case in point, during the climax of the Mist some stupid broad couldn't refrain from answering her cell phone, and she tried to carry on a conversation over the screaming on screen. The entire theater was shouting at her to shut the hell up, and finally this agitated war vet literally marched over to her seat and screamed his head off at her. Once the credits started rolling, she came BACK IN and was still on her cell phone.

comment #17

rocco says ...

I agree wholeheartedly that 5/6ths of the general public have pedestrian tastes and average or below intelligence. That's just the bell curve...Nice people maybe, but not very bright...you want to refer to them as Redville, go ahead, so long as everyone understands "Redville" is filled with about 45% blue-voting liberals.

Speaking of box office...

America shuns Hollywood's take on Iraq: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2220421,00.html#article_continue

comment #18

Craig Kennedy says ...

Actionman, you never cease to surprise me.

I admire your enthusiasm about movies and the utter lack of pretension you bring. I don't mean that as a backhanded compliment either. It's safe to say we probably agree only about 60% of the time (and I find your worship of Michael Bay to be completely mysterious), but your reasoning is usually well considered which is more than I can say for even some of the blowhards I agree with.

I'm not sure why I'm telling you all this now, but I've gone to all the trouble to type it and it seems a shame not to click post.

Before I go, one last time, Jeff please release yourself from the tyranny of box office data.

comment #19

Terry McCarty says ...

Undercover Brother wrote:
Of course Wells is right about the rednecks and movie morons not getting, and not wanting to get, "NCFOM." I sat in a theater last week with a dozen of them and the chatter after the movie was embarassing.

"I'm going to go home and blog about that movie. Don't waste your time."

"It would've been good but they killed all the good people."

"That's it? There better be another scene at the end of the credits."

My favorite response along these lines was when I saw THE GRIFTERS at the 1991 Palm Springs Film Festival. A clearly agitated senior citizen sitting behind me said after the film ended:
"I thought it would be like THE STING."

comment #20

actionman says ...

thanks CJ, I always find your posts to be some of the best on this site.

I was truly won over by Enchanted, and minor quibbles aside, it's an extremely entertaining and clever film with a ton of heart. And Amy Adams was spectacular.