Monday Morning Quarterback Part I

By BOP Staff

January 15, 2013

That's a unique version of the Dirty Bird.

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Kim Hollis: I think if you'd told me a few months ago that this film would open to almost $25 million in wide release, I would have looked at you funny. I always presumed it would do extremely well with critics and be mentioned numerous times for awards, but the subject matter is such that I thought the audience would be more limited. With that said, people are really interested in this story because it resonates for the entire nation.

Zero Dark Thirty's Oscar candidacy has taken a pretty hard hit over these last few weeks. I truly believe that the torture in the film has damaged it. What you have to remember is that most of the Hollywood elite are doves, not hawks. Anything that makes them uncomfortable or shakes up their belief system is going to have a tough go of it. I will agree that this is not a pro-torture film, but it does challenge people in a way that they might not be expecting.

David Mumpower: I am fascinated by the manner in which politics undid the Academy Awards candidacy of Zero Dark Thirty. I agree with the rest of you that the film's chances at Best Picture are dissipating if not totally gone. And I agree with Edwin that Zero Dark Thirty is a hard movie to love. Clinical is the best description I can give for its depiction of the (presumed) real events of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. Kathryn Bigelow has given her movie the vibe of an extended 60 Minutes piece.

Given the above, I consider the box office spectacular. Zero Dark Thirty is one of the least likely blockbusters in recent memory. It asks a ton of the viewer, perhaps as much as Cloud Atlas, albeit in a different manner. Missing the wrong five minutes of the movie here or there would leave the viewer totally lost. Yes, they know what the ending is going to be but the getting there is exponentially more challenging than the average $25 million opener. The fact that Zero Dark Thirty is going to be a huge box office winner speaks volumes about the level of interest about this subject matter in North America.




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Kim Hollis: A Haunted House, a $2.5 million-budgeted production, opened to $18.1 million this weekend. How did upstart distributor Open Road Films pull off such an impressive result?

Jason Barney: However they did it, the numbers here are beyond remarkable. Open Road Films has done with this film what many studios only dream of happening with much safer products, much larger pictures. It almost seems impossible that a film that was made for only $2.5 million could perform so well. An $18 million opening is fantastic for a film like this. Studios only dream of being able to claim a profit after the first NIGHT of release, let alone the first weekend. Even though the reviews over at Rotten Tomatoes are bad, it doesn't matter. If A Haunted House falls off a cliff next weekend, which it most likely will, Open Road can claim victory at this point.

I'm just speculating here, but even with such glowing numbers to start off with, I wonder if it is possible for A Haunted House to DOUBLE what it has earned so far. This is just looking down the road a bit, but I don't think that is an insane possibility. It might have a huge drop in weekend #2, but I don't think $36 million is out of the picture now.


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