Sneak Previews a week ago?

I wouldn't classify Ralph Fiennes as a strong male lead/draw either...

Show me evidence that Cameron Diaz and Jude Law aren't poison. Cameron Diaz is probably the second most overpaid actress working today after Nicole Kidman, and Jude Law has just been in one bomb after another - especially the films he's tried to anchor.
Varied audiences? I'm sure that was the idea, but The Holiday attracted 65% women, 57% over the age of 25. The only guys who went were on dates, hoping they could get some action. When would have been a better time to release it, the date worked out perfectly for previous rom coms, and there hadn't been one in ages. Even if this doubles it's run from here (and I kinda doubt it, though it's not impossible I suppose) it still had a ridiculously high 85 million budget. It's a woops, plain and simple.

There wasn't a better time to release this film. It was the perfect spot.

Guys, We Are Marshall made $7.7m this weekend, not $6.6m.

Holiday's plot/storyline/subject matter whatever you want to call it was not appealing or even noticeable enough to make people want to go see it...Women switch houses...That's still all I know about the movie. Stars don't guarentee success.

For the record, The Holiday was awesome. Go see it.

Also: It will probably end with a bit more than Family Stone, about $65-70M perhaps. This isn't terrible, it's just a little less than people expected. It, like many other films, will turn a profit on DVD (I remember Rumor Has It doing well when it was released on DVD despite its middling $43M box office total).

Gotta love the "it'll turn a profit on DVD" excuse.

I don't see it as an excuse as much as...the truth?

I mean...it will. So what's the problem?

The Good Shepherd did very solid. I'm happy.

I gotta agree with Darkshape. I dont like Plan B arguments, first it was "nonsense of course its not going to track well in certain areas because they arent the demographic it caters to" and then its "it will have good legs" and when that doesnt go well they say "it will do great on dvd". Heck you dont see me arguing with BKB about Rocky and using the dvd/leg excuse about its opening week

It's not that you're wrong, but it seems like whenever a movie is significantly overpredicted, "the real money is in DVD sales" argument is one of the first things to be said. Yeah it'll make a bit more then The Family Stone, but it also costed almost five times as much. If it ends up in the black, it's still a pretty big dissapointment considering how it'll be coming in at much less then many similar rom coms that were far cheaper. Dec. 8th - 10th had a lot of financial blunders open. Not one of the four releases will make back their budget domestically.

'Tis true.

Yes, but you also don't particularly like me or anything I have to say, so I'm inclined not to listen to your thoughts.

Merry Christmas

Bwahahaha

You're welcome and I already had that vibe from your condescending reply even when Im not addressing you at all.But you do have a tendency to respond more to my posts than I do to you so pretty much its the other way around where you dont want me around.

Nicole Kidman is not as badly overpaid as Diaz is. Kidman has chosen some poor roles lately, but she opens the pictures regardless.

6/24/05 Bewitched Sony $63,313,159 3,188 $20,131,130 3,174
4/22/05 The Interpreter Uni. $72,708,161 2,814 $22,822,455 2,758
6/11/04 The Stepford Wives Par. $59,484,742 3,057 $21,406,781 3,057
12/25/03 Cold Mountain Mira. $95,636,509 2,802 $14,574,213 2,163
8/10/01 The Others Mira. $96,522,687 2,843 $14,089,952 1,678

Diaz:

10/7/05 In Her Shoes Fox $32,880,591 2,840 $10,017,575 2,808
4/12/02 The Sweetest Thing Sony $24,718,164 2,670 $9,430,667 2,670

Charles Angels was a ensemble, heavily nostalgic dependent franchise. I don't think they were the best indicators of her star power. But at least Kidman can open a film. She just needs to choose better roles, for films that might possibly have better legs.

Fur? Birth? The Human Stain? Dogville? I know they weren't meant to make much at the box office, but the highest paid actress out there should be able to push these films past the level they reached. That said, I'll agree that Cameron Diaz is even more overpaid.

Kind of surprised but not entirely that The Holiday didn't do better. I finally saw it yesterday and while decent (Winslet is a very good actor) some of the lines are so corny and false that one wonders how Myers didn't see that sometime during the process of making the movie. Plus, knowing all we know about Jude Law, it's awfully hard to accept him as a guy who reads parenting books, let alone is the one raising two kids. In real life, it seems he would be more likely to run out on his wife, leaving her to take care of the kids. Jack Black was actually fine in the movie, although he did get annoying at times. Eli Wallach and Winslet fared the best.

Plus, didn't anyone have a problem with Diaz/Law having sex the first time they meet? A little irresponsible, no?

The Holiday is indeed burdened with a grossly overpaid actor in Diaz. What has she done to deserve it?

Bankability doesn't play as big a role in some of those smaller films, where being able to open a picture with mainstream audiences isn't as important, as having an actual GOOD film for indie audiences. Thus, the bigger factor at play for those smaller films is quality, which is more influential for those types of films. And I'm sure she doesn't get the same paycheck for some of those films. But in terms of her mainstream films, which go wide, she does deliver openings, for a broad range of genres, that alot of other actresses can't. But she really needs to pull a monster box office success soon if she wants to remain a player.

I think that's pretty much it. I never thought the movie had a chance at 100m. I agree with MovieDude, the cast is overpaid and the budget shouldn't have been that high.

Tom Hanks couldn't make Ladykillers a bigger hit than it was. The end. Some films simply can't do any well at the box-office and those you listed are the ones that fall into that category. Kidman is currently the 2nd biggest female draw out there, behind Foster (considering Roberts doesn't make films currently).

Foster? I beg to differ...
And since when does Roberts not make movies anymore? She was in the last Oceans 12 just about two years ago, and also is currently the voice in Charlotte's Web.

Let's not even mention her early career, which ofcourse included Pretty Woman and look at the past decade of films she has starred in .... (and keep in mind, some of these totals are from 10 years ago, and would adjust much higher total)

My Best Friend's Wedding -- 127.1 million
Conspiracy Theory -- 75.9 million
Stepmom -- 91.1 million
Notting Hill -- 116 million
Runaway Bride -- 152 million
Erin Brockovich -- 125 million
The Mexican -- 66.8 million
America's Sweetheart -- 93.6 million
Ocean's Eleven -- 183 million
Mona Lisa Smile -- 63. 9 million
Closer -- 33.9 million
Ocean's Twelve -- 125 million

A pretty impressive list if you ask me, and certainly making her the most bankable actress of the past ten years...

Voice acting doesn't count and neither do small supporting roles. Her last real film was Closer, not quite huge and before that Mona Lisa Smile.

"At No. 7, "We Are Marshall" stars Matthew McConaughey in the fact-based story of a coach who rallies a small town after its college football team is killed in a 1970 plane crash. Including group sales, the total for the Warner Bros. release stands at $7.7 million. A spokesman for the Time Warner Inc.-owned studio said he had hoped for a stronger opening, but was heartened by enthusiastic exit polling."

Including groups sales? I've never heard that term used before, and what is it, because it accounted for 1.1 million of We Are Marshall's sales...

I think i remmeber someone sayuing that films on New Year's Weekend increase. Is that true? So are we expecting to see NATM make more than 30 mill next weekend?