Atlas Is A Tank

Variety‘s Michael Sullivan is reporting that the $3.5 million earned yesterday by Cloud Atlas “must be something of a disappointment for the bow of a film that cost more than $100 million to produce.” Yeah, that’s one way to put it, especially when you add on marketing and p & a.

If things go well Atlas will probably end up tripling its $10 million first weekend gross for a total of $30 million. Then again many bright and passionate people are in love with this extremely difficult-to-get-through film so it all balances out in the end.

Ben Affleck‘s Argo was in first place yesterday with $4 million, and is expected to bring in about $13 million by Sunday night. That’s a mere 22% drop from last weekend, and that weekend had dropped only 15.5% from the opener. The word-of-mouth is obviously quite strong.

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65 thoughts on “Atlas Is A Tank”

  2. That’s a shame, since it’s a really interesting film. Not perfect, but it definitely is something that should be seen on a big screen. I think it’s an incredibly hard sell, no matter who is behind it. I can see it having a very strong cult following though.
    For my part, I liked it.

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  3. That’s disappointing but not surprising. Overall I really liked Cloud Atlas, and wish risky movies like it were better supported, but parts of it are just annoying as hell. Halle Berry’s doing the stupid “I SPEEK-AH DAH TRUE TRUE” pidgin English thing with dead eyes and lame makeup, Jim Broadbent’s really off-putting bug-eyed performance in that really tone deaf story with the old people, Tom Hanks going full-gross out as the ships doctor, in fact all the really distracting stunt make-ups Even the best story, the sexy Anime sci-fi stuff, was all needlessly complicated and impenetrable. I didnt care and got lost in the sweeping emotional grandeur of the whole thing, but then I was really high. The audience I was with seemed to loathe it.

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  5. I glanced at my watch quite a few times but in the end, I didn’t think it was all that bad. I admired the film’s intentions and ambition. But there was no doubt in my mind that it was going to struggle to find an audience.

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  6. Just saw “The Impossible”. A little too much hugging and triumphant orchestration but DAMN if that wasn’t one of the best, most realistic disaster depictions I’ve ever seen!

    Never once felt CG-ish.

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  7. Yep. After the confusing prologue I waited for Atlas to collapse under its own gargantuan weight and was really surprised that it didn’t.

    Not a great film. Or even a challenging one. But I couldn’t help but admire its moral courage.

    Also, unlike say Looper, the subject matter didn’t really warrant an R rating.

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  8. Just came back from Cloud Atlas.

    Overall it felt like some of the stories worked better than others, and some weren’t even really stories… they were set up and then partially payed off. The Luisa Rey story being the primary offender for me – it felt like halfway through they decided they were making a bad 70s cop show(I get that might be the point, given the mystery novel bit, but it still felt weird) . The story about the old publisher Cavendish felt like it was missing a lot of material(the ending made sense but didn’t feel earned – that entire storyline was odd).

    Overall I think I’d have rather watched an entire movie each about Sonmi-451, Robert Frobisher(the composer), and Zachry(truetrue) and skipped the others. Those three storylines were the most interesting and felt shortchanged going in favor of the fairly one note Adam Ewing(1800s guy), Luisa Rey, and Cavendish storylines.

    Ultimately I think the point of the “souls recurring” theme was lost behind all the bad makeup and action sequences.

    Anyway I far preferred Speed Racer.

    *runs off*

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  9. I’d kind of feel bad for it, but then it *does* have racist throwbacks… Someone got pissed off at me for pointing out how important it is for Lana to be true to herself, but apparently, can’t let certain actors of color do the same. Why is anyone surprised, though? It was R-rated, three hours, and had a mess of a marketing campaign. It’s like they didn’t learn a damned thing from Watchmen, and doubled down, instead. Also, the Wachowskis didn’t exactly do much to improve their rep since Speed Racer and Ninja Assassin.

    Anonymouse: “Even the best story, the sexy Anime sci-fi stuff, was all needlessly complicated and impenetrable.”

    Ironically, they’ve been citing everything but anime as influences lately. Not really a good idea when you “borrow” off Osamu Tezuka’s Phoenix so blatantly.

    Travis: ” A little too much hugging and triumphant orchestration but DAMN if that wasn’t one of the best, most realistic disaster depictions I’ve ever seen!”

    Except for the lack of Asian people in Thailand. :)

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  10. Argo is such garbage, as evidenced by the eloi loving it.

    It’s not a movie, it’s ridiculous. There’s no tension, and the tension they do try to create falls flat. And Affleck’s wig! Just too much to get past…

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  11. So, anyone care to take any bets on how Wreck-it Ralph will do? Looks like another Scott Pilgrim-esque disappointment to me. But at the same time, it’s the only family film that weekend, so it could suprise.

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  12. The other thing is the Wachowskis are kinda stuck in their own world, where they still think they’re hot shit, when they haven’t had a hit in ten years. They didn’t seem to get the message they’re not, when they had to finance their latest project on their own.

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  16. Is it just me, or is makeup work in general seemingly having a bad time at the moment? J. Edgar, Looper, Cloud Atlas, etc. Seems like there’s been a few recent major films with really shitty makeup work on principal actors.

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  21. JOE TONTO SAYS…

    Tonto already shed tears in first reel of CLOUD ATLAS. Yenta hens in next row point and laugh, but Tonto cannot move because Tonto bound by Arclight’s assigned seating.

    TrueTrue EMBARRASSING, but white man known as Hanks rocking the Color Me Badd look give Tonto much pleasure.

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  22. WELLS’ LOTHARIO NEIGHBOR (FINALLY, AFTER A LONG BUILDUP) SAYS…

    Awwwwwwrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggoooooooooooffffffffffffffffffffffff Yeah, ATLAS does disappoint in terms of the stacked storylines not exactly finding cohesion, but it looks to the heart of human endeavor and oooohhgggggggooooofffffffff.

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  24. Another thing I didn’t get is why they thought having Tom Tykwer onboard would make a difference. The only thing he’s known by in America is Run Lola Run, and that was like, what, 13 years ago?

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  25. They didn’t bring Tykwer onboard to make it more marketablel–they were trying to lighten the load and were admirers of his work. You know how long it would have taken for the Wachowskis to film all six segments?

    As for the racial stuff, not going to get too far into it, but bottom line was that the two Asian actresses got to play white and hispanic, respectively. Halle Berry got to play white and hispanic. Sturges got to play Asian. It all evens out, everyone got to join in the game. Don’t see why any fingers should be pointed.

    I was disappointed by omissions of some key moments in the novel (which wouldn’t have taken up much screen time), but there was more good than bad.

    The critics should be REAL proud of themselves for turning off potential audiences who maybe should have seen this and made up their own minds. So many cynical, snarky assholes.

    At least A.O. Scott, Ebert, Rocchi, Gleiberman, and Ed Gonzalez(!) were willing to go in open-minded without their pistols cocked and loaded.

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  26. “The critics should be REAL proud of themselves for turning off potential audiences who maybe should have seen this and made up their own minds. So many cynical, snarky assholes.”

    Speaking of snarky assholes: I get mocked around these parts for pissing on Anthony Lane… but I think everyone can agree his CLOUD ATLAS review is a load of crap. “Trying to describe CLOUD ATLAS is like trying to read an atlas in the middle of a cloud.” BRILLIANT, ANTHONY!

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  27. I guess I’m in the camp of viewers who thought CLOUD ATLAS was interesting but not great. To me, it started off slow but got better as it went along. I also checked my watch throughout the film–not a good sign. My main problem with it was that I just didn’t care for any of the characters–probably because they weren’t developed enough. The makers of CLOUD ATLAS should’ve taken a course by Robert Altman and studied SHORT CUTS.

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  28. lazarus: “As for the racial stuff, not going to get too far into it, but bottom line was that the two Asian actresses got to play white and hispanic, respectively. Halle Berry got to play white and hispanic. Sturges got to play Asian. ”

    Doesn’t make up for Sturges looking like a racist stereotype.

    “The critics should be REAL proud of themselves for turning off potential audiences who maybe should have seen this and made up their own minds. ”

    Again, it’s got a 61% fresh. Their best ranked movie in years. Don’t blame the critics on that one.

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  31. lazarus: “As for the racial stuff, not going to get too far into it, but bottom line was that the two Asian actresses got to play white and hispanic, respectively. Halle Berry got to play white and hispanic. Sturges got to play Asian. ” free online advertising

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