Monday Morning Quarterback Part IV

By BOP Staff

January 10, 2013

Furries are so weird.

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Bruce Hall: The elephant in the room whenever this movie is discussed is that so many people secretly expected it to have made a lot more money by now. Sure, we'll probably pack it in somewhere in the $70 million range. But in the elevated world of Judd Apatow, that puts us somewhere between The Cable Guy and Anchorman. I happen to like those movies, but considering the energy that was put into marketing this film do you really think that's what Universal was shooting for?

In and of itself, this is a good result, and nobody should be ashamed of it. But I still think there will be whispers...

Max Braden: I agree with Bruce - I'd heard so much good buzz about this movie I would have expected it to be the $100 million movie by now.




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Brett Ballard-Beach: I thought this would be the How Do You Know of 2012 (and once again starring Paul Rudd). It looked like Judd Apatow's take on Blake Edward's That's Life! (if you were born in the '90s or later look it up), and that wasn't going to sell any tickets. Rudd is wearing a fucking Ween shirt in the poster! I wanted to see it because I am both fascinated and devastated by Apatow's increasingly insular navel-gazing and I thought it would wow me over with its uncompromising bluntness about something related to the American entertainment industry... or by encompassing a trainwreck of tonal deafness. I disagree that there was money left on the table. I think anything that this has pulled in has been in spite of its premise. But I must say, where have all the "This Is Zero Dark Forty" jokes been? (Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd are the only two men in the world who can bring down the biggest terrorist leader of all time... if they can get over their mid-life crisis and their excessive bong hits.)

Edwin Davies: This is a more than good enough result for a $35 million budget, but only so-so for a Judd Apatow film. It's a big step up from Funny People, which earned less and cost more than This Is 40, but it's also a big step down from the highs of his first two directorial efforts, both of which earned over $100 million. Then again, he's had relatively few hits as either a director or producer since the salad days of 2007-08, so this probably comes out as an uptick for him at the end of the day. But, much like Parental Guidance, I get the feeling that this one was propped up by the festive period and would have struggled if it had come out in the summer like Funny People did.

David Mumpower: At the end of the day, this is a movie that stars Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann. Its target audience is not the sweet spot of Hollywood, even during the holidays. So we have a pair of recognizable faces in a movie that appeals to people outside the primary revenue demographic for the industry. The popularity of the movie can be directly attributed to the concept, which is basically, "How did we come to this point in our lives?" You know what people don't want from movies? Introspection. I'm surprised it earned this much.


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