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Finnegan

Let's have a films thread.

By Finnegan, in General Chat

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MikeyT

MikeyT

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Found this quite amusing. Story from March 2010.

It should have been a red carpet event. When just one British cinema was given exclusive permission to launch Uma Thurman's new film earlier this month, the film's producers presumably hoped that exclusivity would create a buzz around the movie. Though limiting the release would obviously limit takings, they must have hoped word of mouth could make it a slow-burning success.

But the tactic backfired catastrophically. Instead of audiences queueing round the block of the Apollo West End in Piccadilly Circus, London, to see the star of Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill, they stayed away in record-breaking numbers.

Over its opening weekend, no more than a dozen people went to see Motherhood, a semi-autobiographical account of stressed-out Manhattan parenting written and directed by Katherine Dieckmann. The film made just £88 on the weekend of Friday 5 March. On its debut Sunday, box office takings were £9, meaning one person bought a ticket.

The disaster has now degenerated into a bitter confrontation between Metrodrome, responsible for marketing the film in the UK, and producer Jana Edelbaum, who blames the company for Motherhood's atrocious performance.

The film, thought to have cost $5m to make, earned just over £40,000 when it opened in the US last October, but Edelbaum had no idea quite how badly it had performed in the UK until contacted this week by the Guardian. "You're kidding?" she said. "We must have broken a new record for grosses."

Edelbaum is adamant that Metrodome must be to blame, and insisted that she would demand a full explanation. "Think how much crap succeeds at the cinema," she said. "Motherhood is not bad. It's a very decent movie. I've seen movies that are not half as good."

In fact, Motherhood, which also features Minnie Driver, Anthony Edwards and a cameo by Jodie Foster, cannot lay claim to the dubious title of Britain's lowest-ever grossing film on its opening weekend: that honour is taken by My Nikifor, the 2007 film about Polish artist Nikifor Krynicki, which took just £7 on its launch.

But it has, according to the veteran film critic Barry Norman, confounded expectations of quite how resounding a flop a mainstream film featuring a bona fide star can be. "Good God. I have never heard of anything like this before," he said. "This is not some small, independent movie. It's astonishing that only about 11 people could be bothered to go and see Uma Thurman.

"The reviews were very poor indeed but that alone isn't enough to explain this. It's a reasonable assumption that there was a marketing and advertising catastrophe, and people didn't know it was showing. But it should have attracted more than 11 people in passing trade alone. Apollo cinemas, after all, aren't in tucked-away places. They're all prominently located. I'm baffled."

The Apollo cinema chain – which later briefly screened the film in Burnley, Fareham, Redditch, Stroud and Altrincham – failed to return calls from the Guardian.

But Metrodrome, which has manoeuvred films including Monster, Donnie Darko and The Counterfeiters to financial and critical success, defended its approach in the week after the launch.

"Over the course of the week leading up to Mother's Day we also released the film on DVD, video on demand, and pay per view so customers could choose how to watch the film," the company said. "Inevitably some films will work better on some platforms than others. In this particular case the DVD was stronger than the theatrical result.

"It is important that experimentation is encouraged at a time when the entire film industry is in transition," the statement continued. "We all need to adapt to new models of distribution in the future and discover new opportunities."

There were, however, signs that Metrodrome had already begun to suffer a lack of confidence in Motherhood before it was premiered.

At the beginning of the month, 70 tickets were given away to members of the website Mumsnet for a special screening at which they were asked to give detailed responses.

"Interested to know why the company wanted opinion on the film so close to its general release?" queried one after the screening, to which fewer than 20 of the winners went. "It is proper pants. In fact it's one of the rare movies I didn't stay until the end for."

But Edelbaum defended the film: "Our effort was noble. It's a love letter about how difficult it is to be a mum and an individual, and have an identity outside of that. I think we have proved that mothers are too busy to have fun. That they are overstretched and overburdened by the difficulties of their job."

Others, however, disagreed. "It's a yummy-mummy newspaper column splurged onto celluloid, like baby sick on your best cashmere sweater," said Ellen E Jones on film review website, Total Films. "This whiny drivel makes me ashamed to be a woman," said Wendy Ide on the website Rotten Tomatoes – which gave the film a rock-bottom 20% Tomatometer success rating.

Edelbaum admitted she dreaded telling Dieckmann, who also directed the 2006 comedy drama Diggers, how badly Motherhood had gone down in the UK. The film was, she said, a labour of love that had "taken up many years" of Dieckmann's life. "I can't bear to ring her and tell her," Edelbaum admitted . "I'm a producer; I've got a thick skin but, well, she's a creative."

The film is no longer being shown at a single cinema across Britain. Indeed, it has sunk so quickly and untraceably that, back at the Apollo West End, it has not even left a ripple.

The woman behind the popcorn counter in Piccadilly Circus didn't remember the screening at all. "It's very strange," she admitted. "Even if I'm not paying attention to what's being screened here, I can usually tell you every film because customers talk to each other and the names just stick in your head. But I'm sure I've never heard that one being mentioned."

The man selling tickets also had no memory. "Have you got the right cinema?" he asked, looking puzzled. "There's another cinema down the road – perhaps it was on there instead?"

EDIT: Just seen this. Go and have a look at what this films budget was and then see how much it grossed. Haha

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0429277/

Edited by MikeyT
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lcfcadam

lcfcadam

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Catching the end of Falling Down on ITV4. A firm favourite. Slightly concerning how many parallels I end up drawing between my personality and those of Michael Douglas characters...

Edited by lcfcadam
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Christoph

Christoph

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drive-lawyer-explains-movies-anti-semitism__oPt.jpg

What a film. A lot better than I thought, and the score was amazing. Starts off a bit slow then it just gets really dark. Definitely recommend it.

Tried watching Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy the other night but could not get into it one bit.

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purpleronnie

purpleronnie

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Inbetweeners the movie.

I'm not a big fan although I watched the series, most films based on tv shows are terrible, this was no exception, I laughed once, perhaps I'm bored of them its pretty much the same jokes over and over again which is ok for 25 mins but not a feature length movie.

Even the bloopers weren't funny.

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Leicfox

Leicfox

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Out some time this year....

http://www.movieweb....collar-hooligan

Casual football hooligan Mike Jacobs is going nowhere in life when he meets old friend Eddie Hill at a football match that turns nasty off the pitch. Under Eddie's tutelage he soon finds himself inducted into the world of credit card fraud, where organised gangs withdraw hundreds of thousands of pounds from cash machines every night. As Mike becomes seduced by the money and women that come with his new lifestyle, the dangers increase and he soon finds events spiralling beyond his control.

Based on a true story, The Rise and Fall of a White Collar Hooliganfollows the journey of a man tempted by the trappings of power and is the first feature film to address the huge criminal industry of credit card fraud.

Edited by Leicfox
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AjcW

AjcW

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Watched "The Artist" yesterday... I think i'm on side with all the hype, was nice to watch something different and see what cinema was like in the early 1900's. Have to say I enjoyed it, was amazing how much the music has to play in the story telling side of things. It was also very funny in parts, stand out performance from a dog as well :P

Would highly recommend, go with an open mind and dont get pissed off at the fact theres no speech!!.

9/10.

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Leicfox

Leicfox

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power.JPG

A dark comedy about an emerging band's experiences in the UK music scene.

Filmed on location in Ibiza, Liverpool, London and live at the V Festival, Powder charts the rise of an exciting new band, based on the best-selling satire of the music industry by Kevin Sampson. Keva McLuskey (Liam Boyle) feels deep down that he is destined for greatness as a songwriter and he forms the Liverpool band The Grams with fame- and girl-hungry Jamie Love (Oliver Lee), who is only interested in the groupies and excess. Long-suffering manager Wheezer (Alfie , Allen) struggles night and day to keep the band together so when The Grams are signed to the record label of Guy deBurret (Jefferson Hall), Wheezer hopes it is the answer to his prayers. He soon discovers that breaking through in the music business can seriously damage your mental health.

I enjoy it.

Edited by Leicfox
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Leicfox

Leicfox

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Anyone seen Warhorse?

I'm not a huge fan of horses, but this looks interesting.

Watched some of it the other day, but turned it off even before the horse went to war as it was boring. I'll give it another go though probably tomorrow as it's definitely a Sunday after dinner film.

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MikeyT

MikeyT

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Watched some of it the other day, but turned it off even before the horse went to war as it was boring. I'll give it another go though probably tomorrow as it's definitely a Sunday after dinner film.

It only came out on cinema on Friday. Someone been doing some naughty downloading me thinks. :P
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