I will be going out tonight, but not to a theater.
"A summer without swagger for Hollywood" by Jake Coyle | Associated Press July 10, 2014
NEW YORK — Hollywood’s summer at the box office is not just missing nearly 20 percent of last summer’s revenue. It is lacking swagger.
Summer is the season for mega-budget, chest-thumping, globe-trotting monstrosities — films so big they lure droves of Americans with heavily promoted promises of shock and awe.
No wonder Hollywood's latest batch of crap is faring so poorly.
I've had it with a war-promoting pre$$ and its reporter's internalization of war lingo, I really have.
Btw, all the commercials running for a month before the films open obviously not getting it done. Feel like I've already seen them before they open.
But this season’s blockbuster output has been curiously low on the summer’s stock in trade: bigness.
That's the sad part. Hollywood still has that one thing you can not replicate at home: the big screen that immerses you in the movie. I suppose the endless stream of shit starring a bunch of untalented Jewish kids who failed out of college and needed a job isn't very appealing anymore, never mind the atrocious and disgusting fare that is trotted out ad nauseum.
Two months into the summer, there have not been any $300 million grossers at the North American box office. The only movie to surpass $100 million in its weekend debut was ‘‘Transformers: Age of Extinction,’’ and it did so by such a small smidge that some box-office watchers claimed it was artificially inflated. The Fourth of July, the customary launching pad for some of Hollywood’s flashiest fireworks, was the worst July Fourth weekend in at least a decade.
‘‘The first half of the year was extremely strong, as was last year,’’ says Dan Fellman, domestic distribution head for Warner Bros. ‘‘Then all of a sudden, it turned the other way.’’
Since kicking off in May, the summer box office has totaled $2.25 billion, a 19.3 percent downturn from last summer.
But when you bet big, you can also win big.
This plot better pick up because I'm nodding off.
While Hollywood’s summer has featured no shortage of major blockbusters, it has in some ways been more content to hit a double than swing for the fences.
The only major new July 4 release was the Melissa McCarthy comedy ‘‘Tammy,’’ made for just $20 million. (It debuted with a lackluster $21.6 million.)
With all due respect, an obnoxious fat woman really isn't funny. She better be careful or she will soon find herself typecast. Grab the fame while you got it, I $uppo$e.
One of the season’s biggest sensations, ‘‘The Fault in Our Stars,’’ was a niche-based hit that appealed to the ardent fans of John Green’s young adult book.
I'll pass even when it comes on cable.
A whopping 82 percent of its $48 million opening weekend was female. The ensemble comedy sequel ‘‘Think Like a Man Too’’ topped a weekend in June with $29.2 million despite little crossover appeal.
These movies will probably be quite profitable for their respective studios due to their cost-conscious budgets, but are not superhero-sized hits.
Many of the blockbusters have seen revenue quickly tumble after the first weekend or two.
Meaning they are not good movies.
Paramount’s ‘‘Transformers’’ — the biggest movie of the summer — nosedived 63 percent in its second weekend. ‘‘Godzilla’’ bowed with $93.2 million only to drop 67 percent.
Then they must have sucked.
Large declines are not uncommon in the business, where so much of the marketing push is for opening weekend. But such steep fall-offs contribute to anxiety over the ability of movies to capture and hold the attention of moviegoers.
Nobody wants to watch mind-manipulating, Jewish garbage anymore, sorry.
‘‘How to Train Your Dragon 2’’ from DreamWorks was set up to be the big animated option of the summer following the popularity of the Oscar-nominated original. But it has seen a muted reception, thus far totaling $141.7 million domestically, well below the $368 million domestic haul of ‘‘Despicable Me 2.’’ DreamWorks Animation head Jeffrey Katzenberg has been cynical about the movie industry of late, saying it is ‘‘not a growth business.’’
Uh-oh.
Instead, the studios have been banking on their biggest growth coming from overseas markets.
No money left here in Amurka.
Michael Bay’s ‘‘Transformers’’ for Paramount emphasized China more than North America.
That's where the money -- and the factory jobs -- went.
It launched its global assault from there and was rewarded by becoming China’s all-time top box-office film, with $223 million in just two weeks.
Related: China Transformed!
I wish the AmeriKan war pre$$ would transform its terminology.
Overseas, star power and spectacle often go further than in North America. Angelina Jolie and Disney’s ‘‘Maleficent’’ has brought in $416 million internationally, while Tom Cruise’s ‘‘Edge of Tomorrow’’ has nearly tripled its domestic total of $91.4 million abroad, where it took in $248.6 million.
I thought about going to see Cruise's new movie, but decided to wait.
As for the other one, I think it is sick.
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Awwwww, poor Hollywood!
Good thing states like Massachusetts are picking up 25-40% of the production costs!
"School busing protests replayed in South Boston; Reenactment for film recalls chaos of busing protest" by Billy Baker | Globe staff July 01, 2014
On Monday, the dark days of 1974 returned to the streets of South Boston, as the crew of “Black Mass,” the Whitey Bulger biopic, reenacted the volatile protests over the court-ordered desegregation of the Boston public schools.
For 40 years, South Boston has been defined by, and has attempted to move past, the busing riots, arguing that those who say the protests were simply about race are using an oversimplified explanation for a very complex social issue.
Among the longtime Southie residents who gathered on G Street to watch the production, there was a fear that the high-profile film, which stars Johnny Depp, will again paint the neighborhood with that broad brush.
“This is just an attempt to show people in a bad light,” said one 60-year-old South Boston native, who refused to give his name. “It’s just going to bring up bad memories and open bad wounds, and now people around the world are going to watch this movie and think this is what we’re like, a bunch of racists.”
He said his younger sister, who dropped out of school after being told she would have to be bused to Roxbury, refused to come out and watch the film.
*****************
The filming, which is expected to continue for two more days at South Boston High School, features hundreds of extras in period garb — bell bottoms and afros, leisure suits and mutton chops — as well as a smattering of 1970s cars parked on the street. Several people watching pointed out, with much nostalgia, that there were plenty of available parking spaces between each car.
Anne McGrath, 34, brought her four young sons to the high school to watch the crews film, with a specific purpose. She said they had been sitting outside their house on K Street, several blocks away, yet even from that distance they could hear the crowd of extras chanting “No more busing,” over and over. Soon, the children began chanting it, which created an interesting situation for McGrath, since she has three biological children, who are white, and one adopted son, a 3-year-old from Ethiopia, who is black.
So she put the baby in the stroller and marched the other three up toward the high school and tried to explain to them what “busing” was about.
“A lot of white people didn’t want brown people in their schools,” she said to her children as the crew filmed another scene and the chanting started again. “But he gets to go to our school,” one of her white children said, looking confused as he pointed to his black brother.
Things are different now, she said.
Not too much, though.
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Think I'll also skip that one when it comes out.
Last good movie I can think of was Avatar, and the Globe hated it.
At least I don't have to worry about a sell-out at the box office.
