comment #1

The Winchester says ...

I believe this is the first Coen brothers' flick to be #1. Am I wrong?

comment #2

D.Z. says ...

I'm actually more surprised that Perry flick did so well, in spite of Kathy Bates.

comment #3

D.Z. says ...

Unfortunately, I had to endure a new Triumph of the Will- MTV-style-video from the Army and Kid Rock in front of my screening of Burn After Reading. And the best part is that they exploit Dale Earneardt, Jr., since I guess people got upset about the 9/11 victims being used to sell the war, while a guy who died in a race car crash in a red state automatically makes him a pro-war supporter. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHzSBEVbXtM

comment #4

York "Budd" Durden says ...

Yep, that ad is particularly offensive. I thought it was the National Guard, though, and not the Army.

Yeah, sign up for a weekend every month and two weeks out of the year to help feed your family, but instead get sent to deal with some hegemonic, geopolitcal reality well beyond anything you should have to worry about as a regular guy. Rah rah. Them's the makin's of a real man/woman there.

comment #5

D.Z. says ...

York: "I thought it was the National Guard, though, and not the Army."

They're the same thing to Bush.

comment #6

MickTravis says ...

This is neither here nor there but I still can't stand that Full Sail University kid.

I want to yank that hat down so hard that his goofy "duhhhh?" face bursts through the top.

I think he's part of a film crew. Oh, yes, he is, because his T-shirt says, "film crew."

I want to whip him with his cables, him and his stupid trousers and necklace.

I want to drag him crying into an oil puddle and slap petroleum into his face.

What can I say. I'm grouchy. It's Sunday night and David Foster Wallace is a suicide ....

comment #7

LFF says ...

the army commercials are just that. ads. you don't like it, go out and get some popcorn.

Lighten up francis.

comment #8

BurmaShave says ...

D.Z, your Tyler Perry comment proves you never pay attention to these things at all. That National Guard one was very funny though.

comment #9

MickTravis says ...

I'm sorry, someone here is *pro* commercials before the movie? Sgt. Hulka, that's bullshit.

I love trailers but commercials -- any commercials -- offend my very being. Moviegoers pay too much to be a captive audience for car ads, Coke ads, anti-piracy ads, tickets-online ads and armed forces ads.

One theater in my town shows commercials *before* the start time, before the lights go down. Then they start the previews at the time stated on the box office. So I support that theater by going there most often.

comment #10

D.Z. says ...

Burma: Well, other than dressing in drag, Perry rarely casts homely people in his films or even puts them on the posters. So it's a real surprise that the target audience went for it, especially after he briefly slipped with "Daddy's Little Girls". I don't count "Why Did I Get Married?", since that was a holiday-oriented flick which gave it an advantage over the competition.

comment #11

D.Z. says ...

http://www.darkhorizons.com/trailers.php

Oh, and Aronofsky didn't learn a thing from Evan Almighty. http://www.darkhorizons.com/news08/080914e.php

comment #12

T. S. Idiot says ...

I've had to endure the Kid Rock tripe three times. Yet another reason to wait for DVD.

comment #13

Chicago48 says ...

Tyler at his best makes nothing more than made-for-TV movies, but somehow manages to keep getting money to make big-screen movies. His scripts are pedestrian and the actors are so-so with little to do. How he keeps getting the audience is amazing.

comment #14

huisache says ...

If commercials offend one, there are two options I know of: one, ignore them and two, move to a non commercial country where nobody is trying to peddle goods. Cuba is the closest.

And anything that encourages rural youth to try something like the film industry instead of truck driving or flipping burgers is all to the good; those of us who grew up in these benighted regions need all the encouragement we can get.

comment #15

D.Z. says ...

huisache: "If commercials offend one, there are two options I know of: one, ignore them and two, move to a non commercial country where nobody is trying to peddle goods. Cuba is the closest."

How about three, express my disagreement with the material, given my right as a consumer? As for Cuba, nobody's trying to peddle goods, because no one is allowed to own goods, since we've banned the country from the same economic opportunities we've given China.

comment #16

Deathtongue_Groupie says ...

Hate to bring this back to the topic and all, but come next weekend Brendan Fraser will have managed to see two films gross $100M domestic when Journey to the Center of the Earth currently at $98M joins The Mummy 3.

Also, Momma Mia is quietly closing in on $150M.

comment #17

D.Z. says ...

Deathtongue: 'Journey still has at least a $60 million budget, not counting P+A, while neither of those films' grosses likely had anything to do with him.

comment #18

jimjonesiii says ...

that´s not what his agent says...

comment #19

MickTravis says ...

Huisache, as I said, I exercise another option -- I take my money to theaters that don't force ads on me. And that Full Sail University kid? If you think he's a hick, then you really are benighted.

comment #20

corey3rd says ...

shouldn't Kid Rock be covered under the army's Don't Ask - Shut the Hell Up policy?

comment #21

EDouglas says ...

"I believe this is the first Coen brothers' flick to be #1. Am I wrong?"

Nope, you are correct... also Focus Features first #1 movie (at least for the weekend--Brokeback had a couple days at #1 during the week around Oscar time)... also the biggest weekend gross for both Coens and Focus.... ALSO the biggest grossing weekend for Picturehouse AND the biggest grossing weekend for an Overture Films movie. Not too impressive for Lionsgate :)

comment #22

D.Z. says ...

It might also be the first Coen movie to attract a mainstream teen audience, if my screening is any indication. People in that age group did watch Fargo, when I was growing up, but only the artsy crowd. The stoners and geeks were into Pulp Fiction and Trainspotting. Everyone else saw Goodfellas, Silence of the Lambs, and Seven.

comment #23

D.Z. says ...

More Katzenberg bs about 3-d....
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3iebfd8fe8494c12b2b35f8f44dfc5f156

comment #24

BurmaShave says ...

Yeah it was rough back then when we only had 5 movies.

comment #25

D.Z. says ...

Burma: That's not what I meant. I'm saying certain flicks appealed to certain subcultures back then, that's all.

comment #26

MickTravis says ...

Back then -- which is apparently 1989-1996 -- I belonged to a subculture that found appeal in "Bye Bye Love." I was on a lot of medication then, and eating a lot of McDonald's food. Now I get to see Coen Brothers movies with all the other subcultures. Shazam!

comment #27

LexG says ...

Maybe too late for anyone to care, but on the subject of trailers and commericals....

Ever been in a mass audience showing and have some asshole(s) groaning at the start of each trailer, like, OOOOOOHHHHHH, ANOTHER ONE? Usually it's some douchewad who sees like one movie a fucking decade, but this happens with some frequency at regular multiplexes. I LOVE trailers, but there's always a (clueless) faction of any multiplex crowd that isn't used to the experience and audibly starts bitching around trailer 2. When we all should know it's standard 5-6 trailer before any movie.

Yesterday I had some thug type loser trying to impress his gf bellowing IF THERE'S ONE MORE TRAILER, THAT'S FUCKING IT!.... at trailer number three, then proceeded to YAWN and YELL at each subsequent ad.

People are so fucking stupid; PLEASE someone tell me you know what I mean.

And while you're at it, back me up that in every mainstream paying audience, THERE'S ALWAYS ONE ASSHOLE WHO SUCKS ON THEIR CANDY.

comment #28

Gordie Lachance says ...

LexG- Count me as one of the people groaning (and cursing) loudly at the trailers I had to sit through before Burn.

I went to an early show (3:30) and had somewhere to be at 5:15.

When the trailers were STILL PLAYING at 3:55, yes, I'm going to get angry.

comment #29

btwnproductions says ...

BURN AFTER READING runs 96 minutes. Even if it had started exactly at 3:30, and you left at the start of the closing credits (which no true cinephile ever does), you weren't giving yourself much leeway. I always factor in 10-15 minutes of trailers. Twenty-five is a lot, but the studios are trying to get your attention for the slower fall season.

comment #30

Richardson says ...

I thought 'Burn After Reading' would fail because the ads were so horrible. Obviously, it would beat De Niro / Pacino, but beating Tyler Perry is a real accomplishment for the Coens. And I'm glad the movie was as good as it was.

comment #31

D.Z. says ...

Richardson: It's not really that tough to be #1, if the Coens got Pitt on their side. And since Clooney was in, too, I imagine people expected another Ocean's-style flick, so it worked out well for them. Now if Perry cast Will Smith in the new one, then that might end up being some real competition.

comment #32

/3rtfu11 says ...

"The Family That Preys" is Tyler Perry's best movie it's Hollywood mediocre instead of amateur shitty like his play adaptations.

comment #33

Richardson says ...

DZ - the fact that you posted above how Tyler Perry movies don't do well makes your opinion on this subject even more worthless than usual.

comment #34

D.Z. says ...

Richardson: I didn't say his films don't do well, only that some of them have been slipping as of late. I just noted that Kathy Bates is not normally someone you put on the marquis.

comment #35

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