30 million salary? Where the hell did you get that figure? The entire movie cost a flat 50 million, and it's still never really gone beyond 1,000 theaters. I'd expect it to finish with about 35 million, maybe more. Throw in international sales and DVD and the film wasn't a hit, but it still made a small profit, and it really wasn't made for financial sucess.

since i'm a wes anderson fan an d an owen wilson fan i'm seeing this movie. I loved his others.

First of his movies never make a ton of money in the theaters but then again its never in many theaters. I am planning on seeing it this Saturday. I love his humor and writing. I like Wes alot and look forward to it and actaully i've waited some time for this film to come out.

Well, I say 30 Million cause basically, it's bad enough this guy got fucked up the chocolate highway at the Oscars last year being snubbed and all and Lost in Translation earned him that nomination, not to mention the fact that this guy is truly the Quintessential Comedy Actor that has made countless of comedy hits, I think he is deserving of that salary and shocks me that he didn't command that.. I don't know, it just seems like the studio releasing this wasn't confident enough to expand it on more screens if it were really that good, but this seems like a fizzled out failure and a very forgetable film that Murray will have no problem leaving off his Resume when hunting for his next film or being interviewed on "Inside the Actors Studio" when there kissing his ass at all his film accomplishments..

By my estimates this movie should end up turning about a 20-30 million dollar profit after it hits DVD shelves.

It is an indie, was never planned to go into wide release.

It isn't an indie, it's a $50 million major studio movie.

Yeah, and stupidly it was given a platform release. They should have marketed it more (and tone down the weirdness of the commercials) and release it in 2,500+ theaters. It would still probably not hit it's budget, but it would have made more than it is now.

Doesn't matter, though. Wes Anderson and Bill Murray will continue to make films and nobody will be hurt by the movie's gross.

i'm starting to think bkb and gastu are the same person...

haha agreed. i feel this movie didnt live up to the royal tenenbaums in terms of gross... but it was just too weird for the general public... it will make profit after DVD sales etc. for a quirky weird comedy it did do better than i heart huckabees (not sure what the theater count on that topped off at) but needless to say i dont think this movie failed. at all

i loved it by the way.

They screwed up the release of this movie by expanding it too soon. The Royal Tenenbaums had an amazing run and expanded gradually. Awareness was much higher, and though the reviews and WOM weren't MUCH better, Buena Vista was able to get people to anticipate it. The lack of an effective marketing campaign has really killed The Life Aquatic's chances at sticking in theatres and amassing a reasonable total.

Okay, it might have disappointed somewhat, but c'mon, what did you expect it to make? $100 million? I think it had a decent run and will definitely break even.

A $50 million major studio movie grosses not more than $25 million in US.

It's a BOMB.

I know I started an anticipation thread on this movie basically asking = why bill why?

Every time I read a post by BKB, I get the feeling that thousands of my brain cells have perished.

Haha

Fun movie but yea ... as far as theatrical gross goes, its a bomb.

Jesus Christ.. Out of all the replies on this thread and all of them total DENIAL, your the only 1 who recognizes that this movie just flat out SUCKED and YES, BOMBED BIG TIME.. =D> =D> Thank You.. =D>

Really??? That's funny.. Are you sure that 1000 of braincells didn't perish at the thought of being wrong about this movies success(which is wasn't) and that I'm right??? :-s

Either that or maybe a movie's quality doesn't have to do with how much it makes.

That's another issue I'll argue with nowadays, because if it really were more about the Quality of a movie as opposed to how much the movie makes, we wouldn't use Box office as a means of determining a films success so much around here and on other sites.. Times have changed and I once thought as you did, but come on.. It seems like we focus more on how much a film makes than anything now.. In this case, Life Aquatic was a throwaway and waste of Celluloid for a Cast that deserved better, especially Bill Murray since his snubbing at the Oscars last year..

I could say the same thing of The Hulk, but alas, we're going to eventually witness a sequel. But, don't say someone like me is in denial that it was a bad movie and that it was a bomb. No denying it, the movie did rather poorly. A bomb? No. Alexander was a bomb. It is a disappointment. I'm not masking the truth, you are. You're trying to tell me it's a bomb when it's not. If you hated the movie, then the movie sucked in your opinion. Don't categorize it as a bomb immediately. I liked the movie a lot, but I wouldn't say anything that isn't true. I loved Shaun of the Dead, but the movie did pretty poorly for what it could have done.

I never said a single thing about this movie being 'a success.' Its box-office was mild, possibly disappointing, but I could not care less. All that matters to me is that it was an artistic success.

Every single post you make, BKB........laughable.

You know that the movie will finish with around the same as The Shawshank Redeption finished with. I guess The Shawshan Redemption is a horrible film as well. As are all films that make less than $30 million in the USA, right?

However, The Shawshan Redemption budget is about $25 million. It also got amazing reviews and Best Pictures nomination at 1995 Oscar, which ensure this movie to do huge business in home-business market.

Life Aquatic got mixed reviews and zero Oscar nomination......

I don't mean that Life Aquatic is a horrible film, but I think that this movie will have a hard time to make profit

All I talk about is this movie's box office, not this movie's quality.