Gods and Generals

Release Date: February 21, 2003

Axl Rose doesn't need your war.

New at BOP:
Share & Save
Digg Button  
Boasting a massive and diverse cast of everyone from Party of Five's Jeremy London to Pulitzer-winner-by-blood Malachy McCourt, Gods and Generals, the prequel to the TNT film Gettysburg, was made with a theatrical release as its specific intention. Covering four major battles of the Civil War and based on the book of the same title by Jeff Shaara, Gods and Generals has 157 speaking roles.

Among the relatively notable (for a semi-cable movie) cast are Oscar winners Mira Sorvino and Robert Duvall, Soul Man's C. Thomas Howell, Jeff Daniels and CNN founder Ted Turner. Focusing on the battles of Manassas (Bull Run), Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville, Gods and Generals is budgeted at $51 million, five times the theatrical take of Gettysburg and twice the budget of that film. With a likely three hour-plus running time, the odds of a hard historical drama grossing over $50 million seem slim. (Les Winan/BOP)


Box Office Autopsy
The February 21st 2003 weekend brought four openers, and two of them were very big misses. One of those flops was Ted Turner's Gods and Generals, the 231 minute epic (it felt longer) about the American Civil War.

The film was financed by Ted Turner and cost the ex-CNN cheif a higher-than-originally-thought $60 million. The film was distributed by Warner Brothers, but it would have been Ted who felt the financial pinch on this one. The film's length kept the venue count low at only 1,533, so Ted was going to have to hope for word of mouth for his pricey pic. Turner even went so far to tell the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "I'm a movie man. ... It's very important that [Gods and Generals] do well and be critically acclaimed because I'm playing for the history books. I'm writing the final chapters of the Ted Turner story."

I almost feel sorry for the guy. Almost. Gods opened to only $4.7 million over its three-day opening frame, finding a lame screen average of $3,050. Reviews were horrid. Of the 102 reviews counted at RottenTomatoes, only a lonely 9 were positive, leading to a rotten rating of 9%. 9%. Nasty.

Post opening weekend, the film's fortunes did not improve, in fact they got nastier. Gods didn't expand its screen count over its second weekend, and the film dropped 37%. After that, Gods and Generals had consecutive weekend drops of 54%, and was pretty much finished at that point. Gods and Generals grossed only $12.9 million, a loss of about $45 million for Ted.

The DVD for Gods has just been released. So Ted, we at BOP hope that you can make a bundle off DVD sales, and recoup some of your heavy losses. This is a case of a man doing what he loves, and failing miserably at it.


(John Hamann/BOP)




Vital statistics for Gods and Generals
Main Cast Mira Sorvino, Robert Duvall
Supporting Cast C. Thomas Howell, Jeff Daniels, Chris Conner
Director Ronald F. Maxwell
Screenwriter Ronald F. Maxwell
Distributor Warner Bros
Trailer Click Here for Trailer
Official Site http://www.godsandgenerals.com/
Rating PG-13
Running Time 231 minutes
Screen Count 1,533
Talent in red has entry in The Big Picture



Comparison films for Gods and Generals
Title
Date
Opening
Adjusted Opening
Screens
PSA
Adj PSA
Total BO
Adjusted Total
Mult
Black Hawk Down 1/18/0233.63 34.96 3101 10844.00 10844.0 108.58 112.89 3.17
Saving Private Ryan 7/24/9830.58 39.31 2463 12416.00 15354.5 216.12 277.86 7.07
Patriot, The 6/30/0022.41 25.07 3061 7321.00 7877.9 113.30 126.74 4.64
We Were Soldiers 3/1/0220.21 21.01 3143 6431.00 6431.0 78.12 81.22 3.87
Three Kings 10/1/9915.85 18.88 2942 5387.00 6150.5 60.65 72.27 3.83
Windtalkers 6/14/0214.52 15.09 2898 5010.00 5010.0 40.91 42.53 2.82
Enemy at the Gates 3/16/0113.81 14.73 1509 9152.00 9395.0 51.40 54.85 3.72
Braveheart * 5/26/9512.91 17.89 2035 6344.00 8458.7 75.59 104.78 5.65
Thin Red Line, The 1/15/999.77 11.64 1528 6394.00 7300.2 36.39 43.36 2.93


     


 
 

Need to contact us? E-mail a Box Office Prophet.
Thursday, December 5, 2024
© 2024 Box Office Prophets, a division of One Of Us, Inc.