The LA Times Worries For Week Two Box Office

Steven Zeitchik has an impressively overwrought piece on the very large falls in the second week box offices of Godzilla 33, Spider-Man 5, and X-Men 7. Mr. Zeitchik worries that the big falls in week 2 for these movies might represent a problematic trend in movie-going and may even represent a problem with American culture (really). He says:

But the fact that it’s happening so consistently suggests there’s a larger cultural force at work, a get-them-in-at-any-cost mentality that is coming home to roost not long after. It is a mind-set that acknowledges, and plays off, an attention-deficit-disorder culture.

The very simple response: it is three movies! That isn't "happening so consistently" - it is happening three times. Trying to divine some broader trend from three movies, and, worse, trying to spin it into some cultural critique is ridiculous.

Worse still, Mr. Zeitchik undermines his very own argument by pointing out that this hasn't happened to big tentpole films as far away as...last year. But he need not have gone back even that far.

On Cruise and (Amy) Nicholson

Amy Nicholson has an interesting, readable article on Tom Cruise's career and the problems with the press he has faced. Nicholson makes a good case that Cruise has been treated unfairly by the press.

I do have a few problems with Nicholson's article, particularly some assertions made on the first page and the scope of her conclusions at the end.

Want To Have More Interesting Movies in the Theaters? Start By Making More Interesting Movies.

Are audiences abandoning the likes of Gloria?

Anthony Kaufman at Indiewire discusses various reasons why audiences are not going to see foreign films.

Two points:

The Dissolve Interviews William Friedkin

The Dissolve has a pretty interesting interview with William Friedkin. His take on DCP and 35mm is an interesting one - let's just say he's a fan of digital exhibition.

My own view is that while I certainly understand and feel romanticism about 35mm, there simply is no point in trying to fight digital filmmaking and projection at this point. The studios have to catch up, and there are problems with how the studios are handling archiving and repertory availability, but I believe/hope a lot of those issues will be solved just through time. I'm also hopeful, but perhaps foolishly so, that once the studios catch up it might actually end up making repertory exhibition cheaper and easier, and thus more viable. Fingers crossed.

Every new format requires time. My greater concern is that not all DCP projection is quite up to snuff. Whether through poorly rendered DCPs themselves or shoddy projection equipment/handling, I've seen too many movies in the last couple years that bring to mind old video projection (i.e., not good).

Friedkin also provides an interesting story about working with the studios to try and figure out who had the rights to his film Sorceror. I think it says a lot about the studios and how some of them aren't really fully invested in their libraries. If it isn't a major work from which they can continually squeeze out money by reissuing it every few years on the latest video formats, then they do not seem terribly interested.

I really believe that the studios have not fully realized the value from their libraries to be had from internet streaming distribution. They're repeating their stubborn mistakes from early TV and the dawning of the video age. Warner Brothers, which, owing to the sheer size of their library, has the most invested in repertory exploitation, had to step in to give a jolt to re-releasing Sorceror on Blu-Ray. Paramount, which recently licensed its library to Warner Brothers for video releasing, was obstinately disinterested at first.

There's a lot more in The Dissolve's interview worth checking out.

Some Links (4/16/14)

- Karina Longworth has posted a roughly 30 minute podcast about Kim Novak that is a solid listen. There are some audio clips from and brief discussion of The Legend of Lylah Clare, which I reviewed earlier this week.

- Clueless writer, part I: A Wolf of Wall Street writer thinks the subject of his movie is genuinely repentant. Even though a significant takeaway from the end of the morally suspect movie is that he isn't sorry at all (and brags about his lack of true punishment).

- Clueless writer, part II: One of Noah's screenwriters was asked why there are no people of color in the film and he gave an utterly oblivious, idiotic answer.

- Amy Nicholson asks whether Pussy Riot can conquer Hollywood.

- The NY Times ran a story by Neal Gabler on Carl Laemmle's efforts to relocate Jews from Germany to the United States in the years before World War II.  Two interesting notes: (1) other Jewish studio leaders did not join Laemmle's efforts because they feared a backlash from religious conservatives in the  United States; and (2) some American consular officials in Germany actively worked against Laemmle's efforts.

- Given the importance of the internet to movie-watching these days, you may want to catch up on the latest evil-doing from the country's big telecom companies.  Short version: after collecting massive fees in return for promising to bring broadband to all Americans, the telecoms are now trying to rig the game so they can renege on their promise and keep all the dough anyway.

- In non-film news, the Center for Public Integrity won a well-deserved Pulitzer for their series on miners sick with black lung that are denied benefits by a corrupted system. Read it.