Doing Well Enough?
A few days ago someone inserted an idea that The Fighter‘s Best Picture headwind has somehow diminished because it hasn’t done True Grit-level business. Okay, it hasn’t astonished. But since opening wide on 12.17 on roughly 2500 theatres, David O. Russell‘s film had made about $34 million as of 12.29, and boxoffice.com‘s Phil Contrino is projecting $44 million by Sunday evening.
“So I’d say it’s performing on track,” Contrino said this morning. “If anything, it might be getting hurt by how well True Grit is doing.”
Do you think it’s doing well in terms of per-screen average? Where do you see it ending up? Are others wrong in saying that it’s under-performing?
“The Fighter‘s per-screen average is fine,” he repeated, “considering that it has to compete with True Grit, which is getting the steak-eaters, Black Swan and its under-35 females, and The King’s Speech apparent hold over the older, traditional-minded conservative types. It looks like it could hit $55 to $60 million all in.
“People panic when a film doesn’t break records during its opening weekend, but we still live in a world where great flicks can hang around in theaters for a while based on positive word-of-mouth. The Fighter will earn its money in slow-burn fashion.
But The Fighter isn’t a pretty good movie — it’s real, it’s exceptional, it has great performances, it’s about families and drug addiction, etc. Why are people more eager to see bearded Jeff Bridges draw his big ole six-shooter and stumble around and go “arrhhrrg-gaahhrrg” that watch Wahlberg, Bale, Adams and Leo mix it up in real-deal Lowell? I mean, a movie like The Fighter should be looking at a higher overall take, no? More like $70 or $80 million?
“The problem is competition, not the quality of the film,” he replied. “Take True Grit and Black Swan out of the equation and it would easily hit $70 to $80 million.”
What demographic is The Fighter not reaching out to or doing as well as it should with? Older women? I’ve read that some over-35 females feel that The Fighter portrays working-class women (i.e., Melissa Leo and the seven sisters) with too crude and coarse a brush. Is that the issue?
It’s because The Fighter looks like every boxing movie ever made, while great Westerns don’t come around like they used.
Also it’s a Coen’s film, it’s funny, violent, heartwarming, and had a great trailer. It’s a recipe for success.
Except TRUE GRIT blows and THE FIGHTER is man sauce. (Been drinking champagne since 1130 but seriously, if Grit wins Best Picture it’ll be so sad for all parties involved, the Coens especially.)
The Fighter’s biggest problem was its trailers and marketing. Early trailers did make this look like a Rocky retread when it is anything but, and the overly dramatic all music trailer was just too heavy handed in the other direction.
I’ll agree that The Fighter is a slightly better movie than True Grit, but movies that represent “reality” aren’t necessarily better movies than fantasy based movies. Movies are a transportive medium so a movie being as “real-it-gets” doesn’t make it better.
I’d say most audiences don’t pay $10 and sit for 2 hours to deal with reality.
What Rashad said. Plus the fact (or my opinion at least) that THE FIGHTER sucked donkey dick semen through a straw.
In my little town, True Grit is showing. The Fighter is not showing. True Grit is doing good business here. I would see The Fighter if it were showing in my town, but it’s not. You can’t go see it if it’s not there.
The Fighter is just too real. I saw it yesterday and loved every minute of it, but I could see why most women wouldn’t go for it because it deals very honestly with the poor working class. There is nothing glamorous about it in any way shape or form. Doesn’t transport you to ANOTHER WORLD as so much your own backyard. These are people you actually see walking down the street. There’s no key lighting. No fashion runway show. No gay best friend consoling the obnoxious protagonist after suffering a breakup scene. Its life.
I’m a little conflicted over The Fighter. It seems so elevated by the acting (other than Marky Mark, who is passable but ordinary) that I can’t judge it as a whole. there were times in the middle of the movie where I was completely absorbed and moved, and then other points in the beginning and the end where it felt pretty standard. I just can’t imagine this being a serious best picture contender – especially compared with Black Swan and The Social Network, which are both flawless from top to bottom. Sorry, I haven’t seen True Grit yet, but from all accounts it’s Oscar consideration is based more on pedigree than substance (I’m totally in the bag for the Coens, so I would not doubt the watchability).
TRUE GRIT is as heartwarming as Darfur footage. The Coens don’t do heartwarming. Mutilation and gallows humor, yes, but not heartwarming–and the remake is the poorer for that.
adorian–surely a film in well over 2,000 theatres can be found without too long a drive.
Such an argument reminds me of people on the cluttered IMDb boards. The, say, random Aaron Eckhart fan who’ll write, “No wonder Rabbit Hole isn’t doing well! It’s barely playing anywhere! It would do great if it played everywhere, like in my town–Peoria!”
Discussing The Fighter’s box office in dark tones seems so foolish. It’s an R-rated boxing movie in December. Of course it wouldn’t be doing blockbuster numbers, but it’s plugging along nicely and will continue to do so throughout January and February. Any “The Fighter is dead because it didn’t gross $75 mil. in its first three days, and because True Grit is doing better!” angle is pretty useless, right?
The point isn’t whether it is doing “fine” or not. In order to truly threaten The Social Network heading into the race, it needed to do better than fine.
By the way, question for people who saw True Grit with a paying audience: did your crowd laugh at the moment where they don’t let the Native American say anything before hooding and hanging him? Mine (in Annapolis) did, but I didn’t. Maybe it is classic Coens gallows humor (literally), and I’m just too square, but I thought it was kind of a sad moment. The people laughing reminded me of the sold-out white crowd heartily clapping and giggling at every racist remark in Gran Torino a few years ago.
Oh and no way is The Fighter a better film than True Grit. The Fighter is a sloppy mess that doesn’t know what kind of movie it wants to be or who its characters really are. It looked like David O. Russell wanted to tell the truth but the “true story” got in the way. It’s a great example of truth vs. true. Social Network gets to the truth while isn’t exactly true. The Fighter starts to get to the truth but backs way off. It is still more true but there is no truth in it.
True that.
I liked both movies, but True Grit was the better movie for me.
TRUE GRIT is the answer to the prayers of anyone who has ever said “I’d love Coen Brothers movies if they just weren’t Coen Brothers movies.” It’s fine, enjoy it.
TRUE SHIT could be ten years long and never have a character as good as Dicky Ecklund.
Also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVzvRsl4rEM
The movie with less man boobs always wins.
@ModernLifeIsRubbish
I laughed heartily sir, and don’t feel badly at all about it. It was gallows humor that reflected the times. Related is the ‘I’m not supposed to use your name’ moment, but that was not as funny. Still a good moment.
people go to see the movie they want to see. with 12-24 screens per multiplex, there is no supply problem for someone who wants to see The Fighter playing alongside True Grit, Black Swan, or King’s Speech. they’re choosing not to see Fighter, for whatever reason.
but keep making fun of Bridges’s voice, by all means. that’s high comedy the kind we’ve not seen since all those old Ed Sullivan viewers who mocked those “girls” with the long hair playing their crazy rock and roll music. funny funny stuff.
That’s a lame and specious defense of the kind of “pick a weird voice and work around it” style of acting gone seriously overboard.
I think the answer to the question is yes, it’s doing well enough to get nominated but not popular enough to actually win.
I have no interest in seeing either movie, but my son saw True Grit this past weekend and loved it. He said it was his favorite movie of the year. I realize we live in a fly-over state and opinions here mean nothing, but some people just don’t want to see depressing “reality” movies. If we want reality, we can look out the window.
Dude, “fly-over state” is so 2003. You have no interest in seeing either movie? What kind of film fan are you?
Did you happen upon this site after seeing a 3 year-old YouTube of Wells on Bill O’Reilly?
And “The FIghter” is a “reality movie”? Professional Boxing has never been part of my reality or any of my friends or family or co-workers. My parents live in the South (not Florida) and they loved, loved, LOVED THE FIGHTER. They were just okay with TRUE GRIT.
Modernlife, yes, the moment with the indigenous prisoner not getting to speak is clear satire that the audience gets instantly, thus they laugh.
Not that I’ve seen it yet, but I’m surprised Black Swan is doing as well as it is. I’ve rarely seen a non-horror film with a trailer that makes the audience wince at it’s last moment.
Didn’t “The Hurt Locker” destroy the myth that the Best Picture winner HAS to make money? It took in a paltry $12 million in the US when it won Best Picture.
The Hurt Locker won because it gave the Academy the excuse they needed to not have to bow down and suck James Cameron’s cock again.
I understand the family movie-goer calculus, but some of you guys are bumming me out. Fuck that truer-to-life northeastern squalor shit, let’s see the precocious coming of age girl power movie.
I know The Hurt Locker. I have seen The Hurt Locker. In no way, shape or form is The Fighter The Hurt Locker. Totally different movies, totally different directors, totally different position in the Oscar race.
“What demographic is The Fighter not reaching out to or doing as well as it should with? Older women?”
Jesus Christ, Jeff, could you hate women any more? How many movies this year have under-performed and you just say, “Why won’t stupid women watch this movie that’s so good?!?!?!?!” Or, alternately, “Why do stupid women watch such stupid movies?”
It’s getting really tired. ‘The Fighter’ is under-performing because the fight scenes are terrible. I wish people were rejecting it because of stupid scenes like “Giving the cake to the junkies”, which was much more ridiculous than “nuking the fridge”. Or the horrible cliche of “Hey, I’m a big man in jail because I’m going to be on TV — oh, no! This isn’t good, I’m going to turn it off and get everybody mad at me because it makes me feel bad scene.”
‘True Grit’ may be a hair overrated, but ‘The Fighter’ is the most overrated movie of the year.
“Didn’t “The Hurt Locker” destroy the myth that the Best Picture winner HAS to make money?”
Yes, but making money is still a general sign of where a movie is in the zeitgeist, and that zeitgeist is what leads to a Best Picture win. ‘The Social Network’ has the zeitgeist overall for the year (though it’s coasting now), ‘Black Swan’ peaked early, and ‘True Grit’ has incredible forward momentum right now. Amazingly, ‘The Fighter’ peaked before it even came out. As far as winning Best Picture, it’s dead in the water.
However, that’s nothing compared to ‘The Kids Are Alright’, now quite likely to walk away as empty-handed as a George Clooney movie.
I’d be curious to know how Black Swan “peaked early” when it’s just barely been released in most major, non-LA/NYC markets.
“The Coens don’t do heartwarming.”
If you didn’t find Mattie charming, and her growing relationship with Rooster, which culminates in him going to the point of exhaustion to save her, heartwarming then I don’t know what to tell you.
True Grit was perfect entertainment. It’s why people go to the movies.
BobbyLupo ftw.
So before Robert DeNiro or Brad Pitt cast their vote for Best Picture, they have their assistant look up the movie’s box office performance? They don’t just vote what they think is best?
You can tell me it’s not on DVD. But it will be.
I didnt like the Fighter. 2 hrs with crack addicts. Why do we need to see this story?
Bale doing the Rainman thing gets him an Oscar.
Im not impressed.
As for True Griit- Well made with good acting but whats the point. Its not like its emotionally gripping.
Black Swan- now that was a compelling watch.
Really good movie.
Why hasnt Let Me In getting Oscar buzz- Years best movie.
People who think The Fighter was “too real” must have seen a different version than I did.
The one I saw gave Wahlberg a bunch of broadly-drawn joke sisters who were only slightly more subtle than hillbilly family in Million Dollar Baby.
Took me right out of the “truth” the film was otherwise aiming for.
You can’t say what the Coens can’t do, because they will do it, they just fucking will. I firmly believe the Coens could do any damn genre they wanted to, and make a good movie out of it.
You can’t say what the Coens can’t do, because they will do it, they just fucking will. I firmly believe the Coens could do any damn genre they wanted to, and make a good movie out of it.
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