I’m only posting this to get that darned religious story off the lead here. I was hoping my BlogPatriots would take up my slack today! (nudge, nudge)
Best of the Web – OpinionJournal.com, Tuesday Feb 28, 2006
I Wish I Knew How to Quit You, Oscar
Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson asks: “Why is it that Washington often seems so out of touch with the rest of the country?” He answers this cliché with an absurdity:Maybe it’s because people here are so busy taking themselves seriously that they don’t have the time, or the inclination, to go to the movies. Just look at this year’s contenders at the Academy Awards.
When homosexuality is raised as an “issue,” which is the only way anything gets raised around here, politicians in the nation’s capital tend to fall into two camps: those who invoke Sodom and Gomorrah in flights of demagoguery and those who suddenly realize they have pressing appointments elsewhere.
Yet the leading contender for the Oscar for best picture is “Brokeback Mountain,” a love story about two gay cowboys–not Village People “cowboys” prancing up and down the streets of some godless big city where “values” means nothing more than a half-price sale at a fancy boutique, but real cowboys who live in the flyover, red-state American West. (Okay, it’s been noted by some that actually they herd sheep, but they’re definitely what most of us think of as cowboys.). . . .
Hollywood, which doesn’t make movies to lose money, seems to have decided that most Americans will neither faint dead away nor riot in the streets if homosexuality is openly depicted and discussed.
Well, maybe, but as GayPatriot notes, as of last week “Brokeback” had grossed a mere $67.8 million domestically, less than a quarter of the $285.3 million for “The Chronicles of Narnia.” Washington may be out of touch will Hollywood, but that doesn’t mean it’s out of touch with the rest of the country.
I think this may be our first (maybe second) time on Best of the Web, which is one of my favorite blog summaries of the day! Woo hoooo!
-Bruce (GayPatriot)
Way to go, Bruce!
– a regular (okay, lurking) reader of both BOTW and this blog.
So what is the article saying exactly? That because Brokeback Mountain hasn’t made as much as Narnia, Hollywood should stay away from films which have gay subject matter? This has been said over and over again, and the problem is that Hollywood makes tons of movies with different subject matter, tons of films which make different amounts of money. Should Hollywood only make Chronicles of Narnia 30 or 40 times a year and shut down production on every other film?
Compare, compare, compare…
On average, studios earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.
Brokeback Mountain has a domestic gross of $75,598,000.00 on a production budget of $14,000,000.00. Then there is marketing. 55% of the current domestic gross is $41,758,900.00. Think Focus Features has spent $27,758,000.00 on marketing?
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe has a domestic gross of $288,193,914.00 on a production budget of $180,000,000.00. Then there is marketing. 55% of the current domestic gross is $158,506,652.70. Think Buena Vista spent -$21,493,347.30 on marketing?
Don’t like that comparison? How about comparing Brokeback Mountain to the 2005 “blogger” movie?
Serenity had a domestic gross of $25,514,517.00 on a production budget of $39,000,000.00. Nevermind.
Compare Brokeback Mountain to anything you like. The people who made it are busy counting their profits. So are the people who made Narnia. The rest of the world made that happen. The Serenity numbers are, alas, the typical box office story.
The Omaha World-Herald, a moderately conservative newspaper, Tuesday ran the following headline on a locally-written story: “It was a good year for kid friendly films”.
The article includes this statement: “…mothers and fathers with preteen kids had a banner year in 2005”.
The author gave his “Kids’ Oscar” to “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”. Other kid-friendly films praised and recommended were:
“Zathura”
“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”
“The Corpse Bride”
“March of the Penquins”
“Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit”
“Chicken Little”
“Howl’s Moving Castle”
“Mad Hot Ballroom”
“Because of Winn-Dixie”
“Sky High”
At least one MSM journalist, a family man with kids, by the way, makes a good argument that that awful liberal Hollywood didn’t totally ignore America’s families.
–
“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”-
I think this film was very disturbing for kids (and why did Johnny Depp seem to be doing a Michael Jackson impersonation), but I’ve never understood what constitutes family-friendly anyway. I think it was Pauline Kael who complained about “family-friendly” films like Bambi that involve brutal murder and suffering.
I think it was Pauline Kael who complained about “family-friendly” films like Bambi that involve brutal murder and suffering.
I have read the original story of Bambi–“Bambi, ein Leben im Walde.” It dates from 1923 and is definitely not “family-friendly.” The Disney-fied versions of that story and of several of the Grimm brothers “Fairy Tales” are travesties.
Carl Charlie and the Chocolate factory was written to be sort of dream like-where things aren’t always what they seem. Have you ever read the book? This movie was far more in line with the book than the Willie Wonka movie.
My kids also liked Sky High and Narnia, but were split on several of the others.
Chicken Little was total garbage.
numbers aside any movie that can attract kids and parents should theoretically do better than any movie that is only going to draw a segment of the population. really how many kids are going to go see medea. and any movie that starts getting dissed by gaypatriot and gpw will probably lose viewers within seconds of the post. that said, i guess curious george will break the bank. and while my i am thoroughly confused by the wsj write-up, on this I am certain – you deserve BIG PROPS.
ncaa or nit