Timing isn't everything when it comes to the Academy Awards but it helps. 'Departed' Stays Put while `Flags' is flagging.
November 30, 2006 (Press Release) --
Two big fall films Martin Scorsese's box-office success "The Departed" and Clint Eastwood's faltering "Flags of Our Fathers" are bookends for the benefits and hazards of releasing acclaimed films early in awards season, when they could either get a jump on front-runner status or be forgotten come Oscar time.
Driven by glowing reviews and word-of-mouth that it's a return to Scorsese's old mobster form, the cops-and-gangsters epic "The Departed" opened the first week in October and has shot past $100 million at the box office, becoming the director's biggest hit ever.
The World War II Iwo Jima saga "Flags of Our Fathers" followed two weeks later with similarly positive reviews. But it opened with modest audiences and has limped to a $33 million return, about a third of the eventual haul of Eastwood's last two movies, best-picture nominee "Mystic River" and best-picture winner "Million Dollar Baby."
Two months into its run, "The Departed" still is drawing fair-sized crowds, coming in at No. 15 on last weekend's box-office chart. Meantime, "Flags of Our Fathers" already has dropped out of the top 20.
Not that box-office receipts are or should be a gauge for a film's Oscar merits. But everybody likes to back a winner, Oscar voters included, and commercial underachievers often end up fallen soldiers come nominations morning.
As good and ambitious a film as it is, "Flags of Our Fathers" now has the stench of a noble failure. Why audiences largely have passed on the film is a puzzle, though perhaps its grim, realistic combat footage is too painful a reminder of the military quagmire in Iraq.
"Mystic River" and "Million Dollar Baby" debuted in limited release in December and rode a wave of accolades into wider release as Oscar season heated up, the awards attention feeding their box-office performance, their commercial success in turn polishing their Oscar glow.
Would "Flags of Our Fathers" have fared better following the same release pattern? We'll never know.
On the other hand, "The Departed" cruises toward the Oscar nominations Jan. 23 looking like a movie that's in for the long haul, like such best-picture winners as "American Beauty" or Eastwood's "Unforgiven," which both came out in late summer or early fall.
Source: http://www.yahoo.com
Driven by glowing reviews and word-of-mouth that it's a return to Scorsese's old mobster form, the cops-and-gangsters epic "The Departed" opened the first week in October and has shot past $100 million at the box office, becoming the director's biggest hit ever.
The World War II Iwo Jima saga "Flags of Our Fathers" followed two weeks later with similarly positive reviews. But it opened with modest audiences and has limped to a $33 million return, about a third of the eventual haul of Eastwood's last two movies, best-picture nominee "Mystic River" and best-picture winner "Million Dollar Baby."
Two months into its run, "The Departed" still is drawing fair-sized crowds, coming in at No. 15 on last weekend's box-office chart. Meantime, "Flags of Our Fathers" already has dropped out of the top 20.
Not that box-office receipts are or should be a gauge for a film's Oscar merits. But everybody likes to back a winner, Oscar voters included, and commercial underachievers often end up fallen soldiers come nominations morning.
As good and ambitious a film as it is, "Flags of Our Fathers" now has the stench of a noble failure. Why audiences largely have passed on the film is a puzzle, though perhaps its grim, realistic combat footage is too painful a reminder of the military quagmire in Iraq.
"Mystic River" and "Million Dollar Baby" debuted in limited release in December and rode a wave of accolades into wider release as Oscar season heated up, the awards attention feeding their box-office performance, their commercial success in turn polishing their Oscar glow.
Would "Flags of Our Fathers" have fared better following the same release pattern? We'll never know.
On the other hand, "The Departed" cruises toward the Oscar nominations Jan. 23 looking like a movie that's in for the long haul, like such best-picture winners as "American Beauty" or Eastwood's "Unforgiven," which both came out in late summer or early fall.
Source: http://www.yahoo.com
Email
Print
SPAM
LEAVE A COMMENT
