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R. Dittmar
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
420 Posts |
 Posted - 05/13/2006 : 11:21:03 AM
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I'm sure no one has mentioned this because we're all sick to death of the man. But perversely, that's what's interesting about this:
http://www.boxofficeprophets.com/column/index.cfm?columnID=9551
There could be a lot of reasons for this. I thought the last one stunk, so I wasn't very enthused about another one smelling up the multiplexes. But the other possibility touches on something we've debated on the board before - does a star's offscreen antics and idiocies eventually drive people away from his films? We've talked in terms of politics before, but this could be the same phenomena. Did Cruise's relentlessly bizarre behavior keep people away from the theaters? |
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flellis
Archdeacon of Jabootu
USA
17 Posts |
Posted - 05/13/2006 : 3:36:58 PM
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Yes, sort of in some ways, his remarks on Brooke Shields' post-partum depression certainly didn't endure him to the ladies. Since then, he started losing his female audience, not just mothers but teenage girls. In fact, I remember in the 80s, seeing all these teenage girls trying to get into the R-rated Cocktail. Today on Veronica Mars, the teenage Mars has a fear of marrying the guy. Shows how times have change.
The box office poll shows more guys than girls went to Mission Impossible III. And girls were part of Cruise's demographic. War of the Worlds didn't do too bad because it had the name of Spielberg attached, but Mission Impossible III carries the name of Tom Cruise and the film is his. I can only imagine how worse the film would do in box office and reviews if Katie Holmes play Michelle Monaghan's role of his in-the-beginning-of-the-movie finacee/and-at-the-end wife. Even though Holmes doesn't play the role, when Cruise looks at Monaghan and says he's gonna marry her, it's a really creepy moment, cause you can't help thinking of TomKat.
I hope Cruise get all the damage he gets from this, but I hope Philip Seymour Hoffman remains undamaged (and he probably won't cause he gives the best performance here and his Oscar win is fresh in people's minds) and Michelle Monagahan also doesn't get hurt by this film. She did a real great job in the little seen Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Watching the film, it's not hard to see why the New Yorker's film reviewer wishes her character was his girlfriend.
flellis |
Edited by - flellis on 05/14/2006 09:07:55 AM |
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Neville
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Spain
1590 Posts |
Posted - 05/13/2006 : 3:54:53 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by R. Dittmar
does a star's offscreen antics and idiocies eventually drive people away from his films? We've talked in terms of politics before, but this could be the same phenomena. Did Cruise's relentlessly bizarre behavior keep people away from the theaters?
That's a very interesting question. Unfortunately, Cruise antics have been so extreme and his status is so big that there's absolutely nobody else to compare him to. Edward Furlong did some really wacky things in his days (like freeing lobsters from a breeding facility and getting arrested in situ), but by then he had no career. Nick Nolte has a real nutty side, but he still can act, so it has not yet affected his career much.
There's Anne Heche, but the things she's done are real bizarre, even when compared to Cruise's recent behaviour, and now that she has found some stability her career seems to be in decent health. |
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Jethro
Altar Boy of Jabootu
Australia
7 Posts |
Posted - 05/14/2006 : 6:17:14 PM
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MI:3 had an opening weekend of 3.8 in Australia, for the 14th widest released movie in our history. Apparently the industry down here is starting to have some concerns following Poseidon less than fantastic opening weekend in the U.S.
IA:2 is the only blockbuster downunder so far this year and is still charting on a falling gross, (blockbuster being 20+ in Australia). :)
Timmy Cruise did not impress Commonwealth movie goers with that episode of South Park being pulled from our TV schedules. For anyone outside the U.S do a google the episode is available for the download with the complete support of the show's creators. "You're not fooling anyone Tom." |
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Ken HPoJ
Supreme Potentate
USA
1530 Posts |
Posted - 05/15/2006 : 2:44:25 PM
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It could just be that folks are not in the mood for mediocre action flicks. This has been a good year at the box office so far, but now that the first two big guns have been rolled out, one has done so-so business (M:I3) and the other has outright tanked (Posiedon). Prayers must be a lot more common in Hollywood than is usually the case right now, with people hoping that Da Vinci Code and X-Men 3 do a lot better.
I do think Cruise has definately put himself in that place, though, where people (including many entertainment writers) will be looking for excuses to tear him down following an almost unprecedented period of success. That's just a universal component of the celebrity age, however, and they would have turned on him sooner or later.
The age of the star might just be dying out, anyway. I don't really see any new Hankses or Cruises out there, and the false sightings of the new Julia Roberts (or even, for that matter, the old one) are about as credible at this point as those of Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster.
PEGGY: I don't see how having a girl on the team would ruin it. Did a woman judge ruin the Supreme Court?
HANK: Yes, and that woman's name was Earl Warren.
--King of the Hill |
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Neville
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Spain
1590 Posts |
Posted - 05/15/2006 : 4:21:19 PM
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The situation must be really dire if we are already missing people like Julia Roberts or Cruise... although it's true that they might be the last super-stars.
I just saw MI3. You can tell it is a vehicle tailored to suit Cruise almost from second one, and J J. Abrams camerawork made me dizzy, but it is still a vast improvement over MI2, which was for me an instant turn off. We'll see how the movie works, it still has time to earn lots of money, even before the DVD arrives. If by then it hasn't made as much as MI2, then maybe Ken is right and Cruise's era of super-stardom is starting to fade.
I don't think it may mean his end. He probably loves to be a star, to be in control of everything while serving cups of the same stuff he made 10 years ago, but on the recent occasions he has taken chances (Minority Report, Collateral), the results have been more than possitive.
It just had to happen, you know, Cruise is close to 40, I think, and he can't just keep on playing young men full of virtues and with boyish looks. Unless he wants to become another Harrison Ford, that is. |
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Ken HPoJ
Supreme Potentate
USA
1530 Posts |
Posted - 05/15/2006 : 4:35:49 PM
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For myself, I won't miss the age of Cruise and Hanks and Roberts. (Although I do miss the age of Bogart and Hepburn and Stewart.) I think we're just moving towards a time when the movie concept and execution will be comparatively more important than having a 'star' in it. There will still be popular actors, but I think fewer people will be considered draws just in and of themselves.
PEGGY: I don't see how having a girl on the team would ruin it. Did a woman judge ruin the Supreme Court?
HANK: Yes, and that woman's name was Earl Warren.
--King of the Hill |
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tam1MI
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
558 Posts |
Posted - 05/15/2006 : 7:16:49 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Ken HPoJ
This has been a good year at the box office so far, but now that the first two big guns have been rolled out, one has done so-so business (M:I3) and the other has outright tanked (Posiedon).
Just to play devil's advocate here, MI:3 featured a star who's dumped a whole heapin' helpin' of atrocious PR on himself, and POSEIDON had no stars at all in it. And neither of these films scored well on people's "want to see" polls that the studios conducted in the last couple of months. (The movie that ran away with these polls? PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 2).
My absolutely worthless predictions?
1. THE DA VINCI CODE will be a soild hit.
2. X-MEN 3 will open strong but fade fast.
3. The box office will sputter along until July, when the back-to-back releases of SUPERMAN RETURNS and PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 2 will charge it back up again.
4. MIAMI VICE will provide a late summer kick to box-office returns as an unexpected hit.
But hey, I could be wrong... |
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tam1MI
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
558 Posts |
Posted - 05/15/2006 : 7:46:00 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Ken HPoJ
For myself, I won't miss the age of Cruise and Hanks and Roberts. (Although I do miss the age of Bogart and Hepburn and Stewart.) I think we're just moving towards a time when the movie concept and execution will be comparatively more important than having a 'star' in it. There will still be popular actors, but I think fewer people will be considered draws just in and of themselves.
As it should be. Actors should provide some proof that they actually get some butts planted in the seats before they get gazillion-dollar salaries lavished on them and are asked to carry huge-budget pictures.
I, as I've stated before, believe that Hollywood has hit one of those periods it gets into every decade or so where the old stars aren't drawing like they used to but no new stars have yet come up to take their place. A good example of this is the 60's.
Here's a list of the Top Ten stars of 1960 (according to the Quigley poll):
1960
Doris Day
Rock Hudson
Cary Grant
Elizabeth Taylor
Debbie Reynolds
Tony Curtis *
Sandra Dee *
Frank Sinatra
Jack Lemmon *
John Wayne
Notice anything unusual about this poll? How about the fact that most of the people on it had been headlining movies for at leat 20 years? The only "newbie" on it is Sandra Dee.
Now here's the results of the same poll, merely seven years later:
1967
Julie Andrews
Lee Marvin *
Paul Newman
Dean Martin
Sean Connery
Elizabeth Taylor
Sidney Poitier *
John Wayne
Richard Burton
Steve McQueen *
The only two people still on it on La Liz and the Duke. Poor Sandra Dee, the "hot young newcomer" of 1960, is now out of the picture entirely, relegated to a footnote in film history. And we are seeing some now-legendary stars make the list: Newman, McQueen, Connery.
Now here's the same poll, only three years later:
1970
Paul Newman
Clint Eastwood
Steve McQueen
John Wayne
Elliott Gould
Dustin Hoffman
Lee Marvin
Jack Lemmon
Barbra Streisand
Walter Matthau *
With a few exceptions, this list is dominated by what we would think of as the top stars of the 1970's. Most of these guys would continue to dominate the polls for the next decade. And ina couple of years Redford and Pacino would join them in the pantheon.
So, I think we are now kind of where we were at about the same point in the 1960's... the old stars aren't quite what they were, but the new stars haven't yet established themselves. We've still got a few Sandra Dees to suffer through before we start getting our next generation of Newmans, Eastwoods, etc. |
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Prankster
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Canada
727 Posts |
Posted - 05/15/2006 : 7:55:42 PM
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MI3 (Or as Stephen Colbert calls it, "Miiiiiiih") beat "Poseidon at the box office this weekend. I'm not sure whether to count that as a rebound or what.
I thought it was the best of the M:I flicks, which is of course not saying much. Also, I've never watched "Alias", so I wouldn't know what Abrams "stole from himself" (in his own words), and I was also really in the mood for a popcorn flick (last summer didn't do it for me at all) so that may be skewing my judgement. But I liked it and am vaguely disappointed that it's "bombing". If indeed it is.
Will celebrity overexposure become something the media shies away from? We can only hope. But I seriously doubt it. Don't Bennifer and Brangelina and Filliam H. Muffman (I seem to be on a Colbert kick today) count as "new" megastars?
It *is* interesting to note that there are probably more viable mid-range stars in Hollywood than at just about any other time in history, though.
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Check out my online comics at [URL]http://www.phantasmictales.com[/URL]! |
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BradH812
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1294 Posts |
Posted - 05/16/2006 : 06:27:50 AM
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quote:
Will celebrity overexposure become something the media shies away from? We can only hope. But I seriously doubt it. Don't Bennifer and Brangelina and Filliam H. Muffman (I seem to be on a Colbert kick today) count as "new" megastars?
It *is* interesting to note that there are probably more viable mid-range stars in Hollywood than at just about any other time in history, though.
I may be out of touch, but who exactly is "Filliam H. Muffman"??
By the way, the first Bennifer has crashed and burned, as a whole and as its two parts (seriously, what's the last big thing either of them have done?) and the second could easily do the same, unless Jennifer Garner proves she has staying power. Bradgelina has the advantage of its two stars being better actors, but it could easily reach a critical mass and mess up their careers. |
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Ericb
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
648 Posts |
Posted - 05/16/2006 : 07:31:31 AM
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quote:
I think we're just moving towards a time when the movie concept and execution will be comparatively more important than having a 'star' in it
True, especially when you consider that many of the biggest money makers of the past 30 years, Jaws, Star Wars, E.T., Titanic were not star vehicles and largly had casts of unknowns and moderately knowns.
"I reserve the right to look as well as be boring." - Robert Fripp |
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Ericb
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
648 Posts |
Posted - 05/16/2006 : 07:41:59 AM
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quote:
1. THE DA VINCI CODE will be a soild hit.
Well the thing has gotten so much free publicity that it probably can't fail at this point. There will be people showing up who might not have orginally gone but are now interested to see what the fuss is all about(seeing that watching a 2 hour movie is a lot easier and takes up much less time than slogging through a mediocre book).
"I reserve the right to look as well as be boring." - Robert Fripp |
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Evil Matt
Diocesan Ecclesiarch of the Sacred Order of Jabootu
USA
51 Posts |
Posted - 05/16/2006 : 7:17:35 PM
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Filliam H. Muffman = Felicity Huffman and husband William H. Macy. Greatest mashed together movie star name ever.
Everything's funnier with monkeys. |
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R. Dittmar
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
420 Posts |
Posted - 05/16/2006 : 8:15:57 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by tam1MI
1. THE DA VINCI CODE will be a soild hit.
I'm willing to risk an egg facial here and be contrarian because the casting in this movie really smells. I read the book and enjoyed it, but who thought it was a good idea to cast a chubby-looking mullet-coiffed Tom Hanks as a Harvard linguistics professor? Hanks should be playing the guy next door, not some Ivory Tower pointyhead. And isn't this Audrey Tatou thirteen years old? Who is going to buy her as a French policewoman/cryptography expert? Denise Richards still gets grief for pretending to be a physicist in that James Bond movie, but at least she came across as someone old enough to have graduated high school.
The price tag on this is rumored to be close to $150 million. I'm willing to wager that it will struggle to break even. |
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Prankster
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Canada
727 Posts |
Posted - 05/16/2006 : 10:52:05 PM
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If "the Da Vinci Code" fails, it'll be because of the general box office doldrums this summer, not because Tom Hanks is miscast. But I suspect it'll be the first big smash of the summer.
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Check out my online comics at [URL]http://www.phantasmictales.com[/URL]! |
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