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Psychotic Reactions
-- John Shea
30 June, 2003
It was inevitable. Someone would open a movie to less than $50 million in the first weekend and be labeled a disappointment. Never mind that only 8 movies managed that feat last year and that we had already seen it happen 7 times this year. The movie industry is becoming more and more focused on that opening weekend and the recent success pretty much guaranteed that expectations would quickly get distorted. Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle was pushed hard by Sony. The ads were everywhere and the actresses were seemingly on every magazine cover in the universe. But the film opens to an estimated $38.4 million and it thus seems likely to be viewed as a disappointment. It's opening weekend is a tiny bit below that of the original movie which would seem to indicate the franchise has a limited potential. Or maybe it means that there is such a thing as media overload. Or perhaps what the marketers failed to do was explain what the sequel could offer us that the original didn't. While I consider the original to be a guilty pleasure, a bad film rescued in the editing room, my expectations for similar or better pleasure from a sequel were low. Sony wasn't offering me any screenings, so it was a matter of spending my own money on seeing it. I found my self instead looking for the nearest showing of 28 Days Later.
The real star of the weekend has to go to the indie zombie flick 28 Days Later which scored an impressive $9.3 million, approximately double expectations. Even more impressive is that it did it with 2200 fewer screens than Full Throttle. The big losers were Hulk, which toppled a nasty 71%, and From Justin to Kelly, which plummetted 74% from its already pitiful first week's showing. It would seem that people's enthusiasm for "reality" entertainment drops significantly when asked to pay for it. As for Hulk, it was probably too brainy for its own good. This is the season for action and Hulk has long sections of character development that sap the energy out of younger viewers. Hopefully it still spawns a sequel because I think Ang Lee and James Schamus have laid the groundwork for some great stuff to follow.
The saddest part of the weekend is of course the death of the legendary Katherine Hepburn. She was one of the greats, an original and someone we will truly miss.
News
Fat Albert: Joel Zwick is apparently in negotiations to direct Bill Cosby's live action version of his cartoon Fat Albert. The project was underway a year ago and then came to a sudden halt when Forrest Whitaker exited as director over a conflict of vision with Cosby. At the time, Omar Benson Miller was set to play the lead but at this point, no actors are attached to the project. (The Hollywood Reporter)
The Passion: It appears that Icon Productions is starting to screen the rough cut of the film to small groups. You can read the review from one of those screenings here. Interestingly, it appears that the film will now have subtitles. According to the reviewer, Gibson actually said that it has a few too many subtitles at this point and will be trimmed.
Star Wars Episode III: SMH reports that production begins today on the final Star Wars film. A crew of 1000 is on hand for the 12 week shoot at Fox Studios in Sydney, Australia. All of the film, except for some exterior shots in Italy, New Zealand and Switzerland, will be shot at the studio. The film is budgeted at $115 million. Details are still sparse but producer Rick McCallum joked that the story would follow Anakin "from a sweet youth into a producer." He wouldn't say why Anakin turns to the dark side but did indicate that was the driving force (sorry) behind the story.
Writer/director George Lucas finished the script early this time around, 5 days prior to the start of shooting. "I think they're always tough for him to write," McCallum said. "Especially this one, because it has to tie everything up from the prequels to the original trilogy. And you've got really big themes and issues in this one - how and why Anakin turns into Darth Vader."
Reviews
28 Days Later (mixed/positive, mild spoilers)
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