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David Poland

By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

Posted Sunday, September 18th, 2011 - 25 Comments »

Weekend Estimates by Klady, 91811

25 Comments »

25 Responses to “Weekend Estimates by Klady, 91811”

  1. chris says:
    September 18, 2011 at 10:36 am

    The cynical “I Don’t Know How She Does It” richly deserved to tank but, wow, whodathought it would tank that bad? Kinda seems like SJP will have no movie options other than hauling together the “Sex and the City” gang at a modest budget.

  2. waterbucket says:
    September 18, 2011 at 10:47 am

    The title of “I Don’t Know how she does it” is incredibly annoying and condescending and I bet that turned away some audience instead of a nicer, shorter title. Their target audience is female and yet they made it sound like SJP’s character has it so hard with her high paying job and the perfect looking husband and the perfect looking kids. Big f-ing deal.

  3. Joe Leydon says:
    September 18, 2011 at 10:59 am

    I am going to suggest something that I know some folks on this blog will immediately and vehemently disagree with: Straw Dogs may have fared poorly at the box-office because the title meant absolutely nothing to many (most?) moviegoers. Yes, I know it’s a remake of a Sam Peckinpah classic — but how many people in the remake’s target demographic have ever heard of it, much less seen it? And there’s something even more important to consider: What does the title mean, period? I can remember that, as early as the original film’s second week of release, the distributor felt compelled to buy newspaper ads and print lobby posters that actually featured a ceremonial straw dog set ablaze, to kinda-sorta teach people what the title meant.

    Please understand: I have not seen the remake, and even though I plan to do so after I complete my post-Toronto catch-up, I cannot say anything about its quality. But as David often says, the opening weekend has nothing to do with the movie itself. In this case, maybe it wasn’t the marketing — it was the title? Maybe the title of the original book, The Siege of Trencher’s Farm, might have been more commercial?

  4. jennab says:
    September 18, 2011 at 11:03 am

    @Waterbucket, agreed! It looked horrible/cynical, how DOES a high-priced Manhattanhite whose husband can afford to stay home do it? I heard the book was much funnier/more acerbic. VERY over SJP.

    I did get dragged to The Help…liked it better than I would have thought. Anchored by a very powerful, affecting Viola Davis. Jessica Chastain also lovely and luminous.

    Emma Stone was so…limited. I think she is super adorable, but she was over-matched in every scene. Still, I’m betting Oscar noms all around, esp for Davis.

    Re: the political controversy, well, it did show the everyday ugliness of American apartheid. Agreed that more complex roles for women of color would be nice, but still…as an actor, Davis’ role was 1K x more interesting than white girl SJP’s in I Don’t Know Why They Made It.

    Glad The Help kicked that turd pie to the curb at the b.o. this weekend.

  5. EthanG says:
    September 18, 2011 at 11:32 am

    Hard to believe, but “Rise of the Apes” actually looks like it’s going to surpass the Tim Burton version’s final gross…trails by only 3.3 million.

    “Lion King” leapfrogs “Finding Nemo” to reclaim its title as top-grossing non-sequal of all-time among animated films…

  6. chris says:
    September 18, 2011 at 12:24 pm

    The “I Don’t Know” book IS funnier than the movie (and not quite as out-of-date). Also, an addition to the list of things that answer the title query: She has a full-time nanny. Only Hollywood would think is relatable to real people.

  7. JKill says:
    September 18, 2011 at 1:43 pm

    So CONTAGION was terrific. It’s both an uncommonly intelligent thriller and an emotionally provoking drama. It also made me promptly wash my hands the minute I got home.

    There are a lot of really good and great movies out right now.

  8. Martin s says:
    September 18, 2011 at 4:05 pm

    Joe – re: Straw Dogs. You’re right. Meta titles are risky in a world of Bad Teachers and Horrible Bosses.

  9. cadavra says:
    September 18, 2011 at 4:15 pm

    Funny, but the trailer for IDKHSDI made it look like SEX AND THE CITY 3 but with just Carrie. You’d have figured at least more than 8% of the folks who turned out for those would show up. I mean, it’s not like the other openers were distinctly female-oriented.

  10. Gus says:
    September 18, 2011 at 4:30 pm

    I also agree about the straw dogs title. Would have been wise to retitle it, and that’s what I was thinking even before I went to see it.

    FYI there is a scene in the remake in which they explain the title (which isn’t in the original). It’s predictably clunky and doesn’t do much else than what it sounds like.

    The people who compared this to a platinum dunes remake are spot on. It looks and feels like one, which is probably the reason they embraced the property’s title, though I’m sure the target audience has a less than 5% awareness of the original and far fewer have seen it.

    I agree the title was a problem, and I also thought the novel’s title would have worked well, though this is clearly a remake of the film and not a new adaptation. All the additions to the original film that aren’t in the book are still there, and there is constant mimicking of Peckinpah without real authorship or command of the style.

  11. Joe Leydon says:
    September 18, 2011 at 4:34 pm

    Maybe Kill the Motherfuckers would have worked better?

  12. Proman says:
    September 18, 2011 at 5:37 pm

    “The cynical “I Don’t Know How She Does It” richly deserved to tank but, wow, whodathought it would tank that bad? Kinda seems like SJP will have no movie options other than hauling together the “Sex and the City” gang at a modest budget.”

    The movie wasn’t anything but cynical. And I’m sure SJP has plenty of other options, none the least of which involve playing a superhero.

  13. djk813 says:
    September 18, 2011 at 6:45 pm

    Joe, the Sarah Jessica Parker movie looked bad, but that’s a little extreme.

  14. Joe Leydon says:
    September 18, 2011 at 8:03 pm

    But don’t you think it would have made more money with that title? I mean, hey, a chick flick with a guy name.

  15. Joe says:
    September 18, 2011 at 11:11 pm

    This isn’t the place for this but what are people’s thoughts on Netflix re-branding the DVD-by-mail service Qwikster? (http://blog.netflix.com/)

  16. Joshua says:
    September 18, 2011 at 11:24 pm

    Joe: This is the first I heard of it, and it sounded like a joke to me at first, but apparently it’s true. What “Qwikster” reminded me of is the Amway subsidiary “Quixtar” (although Amway has been phasing out the Quixtar name), but spelled even more oddly.

    I’m not going to give up my DVD-by-mail subscription over this, but I’m not impressed by the name change.

  17. Foamy Squirrel says:
    September 19, 2011 at 2:19 am

    *shrug* it’s obviously a move to sell that part of the company. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t get to “rebrand” a service or product by keeping it the same and just changing the name. The only thing it facilitates is separating the subsidiary from the parent… which in this case seems to be for a sale.

    I do think it’s hilarious that his statement seems to be “We fucked up (despite bringing in $500mil more revenues annually and lowering our costs at the same time). We’re going to make it up to you by renaming the service. Doesn’t that make you feel better?”

  18. krazyeyes says:
    September 19, 2011 at 6:27 am

    I hope DP hurries up and posts his thoughts on the whole Quikster thing because I can guess it’s going to be good.

    That “apology” letter from Hastings was one of the biggest WTF? things I’ve read in a while. The whole letter basically boils down to “we screwed up with the price change but to make it up to our loyal customers we’re going to make things a whole bunch more difficult for you by ghettoizing our DVD-by-mail customers to a new service with a shitty name … oh, and we’re adding games. Fuck you.”

    One bad move by Netflix after another regardless if it makes sense financially.

  19. anghus says:
    September 19, 2011 at 7:46 am

    I do understand why so much attention is paid to Netflix.

    However, since they’re really the only real player in this game, it feels like they’re fucked no matter what they do.

    yeah, that email was pretty cheesy. Someone needs to hire a new PR firm.

    But, in an emerging market that has no peers, i ask:

    What is the right move for Netflix?

  20. Krillian says:
    September 19, 2011 at 8:14 am

    The first I heard of it was the apology email from Reed Hastings to me (insert name). But his apology includes changing the name, not integrating the two services, and not lowering the price. So he’s not sorry.

  21. hcat says:
    September 19, 2011 at 8:18 am

    Parker is a sure sign of a weak film since if the project looked to have any promise someone else would have attached themselves to it before it passed her desk.

    As for Qwikster, I agree that it is an obvious sign that this portion of the business is up for sale. They have got to be frantically looking for a buyer to unload this thing on before the US Post Office completely implodes.

  22. anghus says:
    September 19, 2011 at 8:46 am

    Every time i see a story about the post office, i think of Hollywood Shuffle.

    “There’s always work at the Post Office.”

    Not for long.

  23. JS Partisan says:
    September 19, 2011 at 9:35 am

    If the Post Office ceases to be sustainable, the US has some serious problems. That aside, this does scream of wanting to sell of the disc part of the business, but does that even make any sense? What company in their right mind would want to deal with that much inventory? Redbox? It’s not like they have the infrastructure for that sort of thing.

    This all leads to the simple fact that this has to have been the plan all along. Netflix just didn’t see or plan for the adverse reaction from their customer base, and that’s ridiculous. Seriously, who plans to split up services this way? Who thought the name QWIKSTER made any sense?

  24. Mike says:
    September 19, 2011 at 9:42 am

    To back up what JS said, the Postal Service is a multi-trillion dollar industry, employs something like 9 million people in the United States, and just the USPS (not industry-wide) is the second or third largest employer. So, yeah, if it goes under, forget coming out of the recession any time soon.

    Congress can save it, but Congress will either have to give the Postal Service access to its own funds (which Congress uses to make the deficit look smaller) or give it the ability to close offices and fire workers in many congressional districts–neither of which Congress wants to do.

  25. Paul MD (Stella's Boy) says:
    September 19, 2011 at 2:37 pm

    Pardon my language but what the fuck happened with I Don’t Know How She Does It? $4.4 million from 2500 theaters? That’s barely more than half of Love Happens opening weekend. It’s a third of The Back-Up Plans opening weekend. How does that happen? Did the Weinsteins even try? It’s based on a best-selling book and features a recognizable star extremely familiar to female audiences along with fairly recognizable co-stars like Greg Kinnear and Pierce Brosnan. So what if the reviews are mostly negative. For chick flicks they usually are. That hardly matters. Was it the wrong date? I just can’t believe Failure to Launch opened to well over $20 million and IDKHSDI can’t even hit $5 million. Crazy.

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