Yet another anti-American film has bombed at the box office. Around the editorial offices here at Amalgamated Monkeydarts (Pat.Pending) we've lost count of the number of trash-America-first, anti-Operation Iraqi Freedom movies clobbered at the box office. Seems like dozens since they all get big flush-it-down-a-rathole advertising budgets too so they're hard to ignore. Studios keep green-lighting this junk, Americans keep jamming it back in their smug, Daily Koz-readin' faces and they still don't get it.
Make a great movie that is uplifting about American heroes fighting and winning in Operation Iraqi Freedom/ Operation Enduring Freedom and you will have a huge hit. Or, you can keep kidding yourselves like the gang at Paramount responsible for this latest assault on the nation, "Stop-Loss."
From Nikke Finke's Deadline Hollywood Daily:
I'm told #7 Stop-Loss opened to only $1.6 million Friday from just 1,291 plays and should eke out $4+M. Although the drama from MTV Films was the best-reviewed movie opening this weekend, Paramount wasn't expecting much because no Iraq war-themed movie has yet to perform at the box office. "It's not looking good," a studio source told me before the weekend. "No one wants to see Iraq war movies. No matter what we put out there in terms of great cast or trailers, people were completely turned off. It's a function of the marketplace not being ready to address this conflict in a dramatic way because the war itself is something that's unresolved yet. It's a shame because it's a good movie that's just ahead of its time."
Right.
That thinking reminds me of when the Paul Greengrass directed "United 93" was released two years ago next month. Once the press found out that it didn't take the side of the terrorists all we heard was, "Oh no! It's too soon!" "Americans won't want to watch that--- they aren't ready." And on and on and on. I went. I've watched it again on DVD. It is very moving and you can't help wondering if you have the stones to fight back like those people did on UA093. I think about it every time I get on an airplane now.
And guess what? "United 93" cost about $15M to make and got a small marketing budget. It did over $76M at the box office worldwide not counting cable/ DVD sales. I'll bet if you add up all of the big-name cast, anti-American military craptaculars put out since 2003 they haven't come close to making the net profits of "United 93".
People always say that Hollywood only cares about money. I worked for a Hollywood-based entertainment company in the 1970's, 80's and 90's. They care about things other than money. Trust me.
