Tag Archive for 'The Blind Side'

You know that whole conversation about how women don’t go to the movies and are not a film market?  You know that conversation that we hear over and over as the big reason why we are inundated with crappy boy films week in and week out.

Well thanks to the statistics that we released by the MPAA with barely a blip yesterday, (thanks David Poland for the heads up) the news is that not only do women go to movies, we go more than men.  Yes, folks — women go to the movies more than men do.

This news should rock each and every executive in Hollywood more than the Bigelow Oscar win.  Cause this is something they understand.  This is money and women are delivering the money.  Big time.

So I am officially holding a funeral for the term “women are not a film market.”  I never want to hear it uttered again.  I am going to keep these statistics next to my computer (or maybe make them my screensaver but that would mean removing my picture of Kathryn Bigelow holding two Oscars) because every time someone says that women don’t go to the movies I’m just going to throw the stats in their faces.

I know exactly why the 2009 numbers increased.  If you follow the business it’s not too hard to figure it out.  The reasons are New Moon and The Blind Side with a side of The Proposal (now Sandra Bullock’s Oscar makes even more sense.)  Maybe folks are going to try and say that it is a fluke because there were two female centric successes and we don’t have those frequently.  Friends, that is the whole fucking point.  It’s like that line from Field of Dreams – “if you build it they will come.”  It is only looked at as a fluke because of the shortsightedness of people who won’t believe that women will continue to go to the movies.  There is nothing in any of the data that I have looked at the gives me any indication that women won’t go to the movies in the future.  In fact, I would venture to say that if they continue to make movies that attract women we will continue to be there.

Another line that I want to bury for good is that young men go to the movies more than anyone else.  That’s just bullshit.  Younger men don’t go to the movies more than younger women.  Younger people in general go to the movies more, but based on the MPAA numbers of frequent moviegoers (ones who go more than once a month) in the coveted demographic of 18-24, women make up 3.4 million filmgoers while men make up 3.1 million.  Suck on that Hollywood!

Don’t believe me, check out the numbers from the MPAA:

See the yellow?  That’s the women.

Here are the other stats:

• In 2009 there were 217 million moviegoers.  The total admissions was 1.4 billion dollars.
• Women are 113 million of the moviegoers and bought 55% of the tickets.
• Men are 104 million of the moviegoers and 45% of the tickets.

Here’s the money quote from the MPAA:

“A higher percentage of women than men are moviegoers in all categories of frequency.”

In. All. Categories. of. Frequency.

Women make up 9 million more filmgoers than men.

Bottom line: The future is female.  The upside is great.  The market is there ready to be tapped.  The only issue is who will take advantage of it.

At the end of 2009 the big story was the fact that women are the new “men” at the box office, so to speak.  The news was that women are now making films successful at the box office.  I have always believed — and written a lot about — women as a viable market for films.  But Hollywood has a short memory, and if you lose momentum you are a fluke.  The Wrap has a piece this week about “The Rise of the Female Driven Blockbuster” talking again about the box office numbers of The Blind Side, The Proposal and It’s Complicated (which has made $176 million worldwide.)   Hollywood is also taking notice of the success of Dear John a $25 million budgeted movie that opened at $30 million and was driven by women.

So based on what happened, even just last week, 2010 should be a great year for women at the box office.  Right? The problem is based on an early overview of the of the big films coming out this year, very few are targeted at women and even fewer have female leads.

Based on a list from CNN, of 25 big blockbusters coming out this year only 3 have women as the leads.  Moviefone looked at the top 50 of the year and only 5 are women led (and one is animated.)

Here they are:

Sex and the City 2 – May 28

Eclipse- the third film in the Twilight saga- June 30

Salt- Angelina Jolie kicks ass- August

Eat Pray Love- Julia Roberts as Elizabeth Gilbert- August 13

Rapunzel- animated- Novemever 24

(I also might list Alice in Wonderland that opens in March, but we all know the star of the film is Johnny Depp)

That’s not a lot of love for women.

On the one hand, I love that women are being taken seriously at the box office, but if you want to build on the successes of 2009 you need to give us films we want to go and see.  I worry that women will get blamed again for “not going to the movies” based on all the male centric and male targeted films coming out this year.

Blockbuster bonanza: Big movies to look out for in 2010 (CNN)

BIG in 2010: The Best Movie Bets This Year (Moviefone)

Sex Change: The Rise of the Female-Driven Blockbuster (The Wrap)

Numbers matter. So we here at Women & Hollywood are going to try and put out as many numbers as we can.  (Just keep in mind that none of these are scientific studies)

Women & Hollywood intern Eva Krainitzki (all the way from England- how cool is that?) took a look at the 2009 box office numbers and also put forward a definition of what is a womencentric film.

Overview

2 of the top 10 grossing films are women centric;

9 of the top 50 grossing films (two of them are animated – The Princess and the Frog, Coraline);

18 of the top 100 grossing films;

26 of the top 150 grossing films

The Films, Their Rank and Total Gross

4 The Twilight Saga: New Moon ($293,897,327)

8 The Blind Side ($238,430,210)

—————————————————————————————————————-

16 The Proposal ($163,958,031)

31 It’s Complicated ($104,782,080)

32 The Princess and the Frog* ($100,352,358)

34 Julie & Julia ($94,125,426)

37 The Ugly Truth ($88,915,214)

39 Hannah Montana The Movie ($79,576,189)

42 Coraline* ($75,286,229)

—————————————————————————————————————-

56 Bride Wars ($58,715,510)

63 My Sister’s Keeper ($49,200,230)

66 Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire ($45,506,888)

67 Confessions of a Shopaholic ($44,277,350)

69 The Unborn (2009)** ($42,670,410)

70 Drag Me to Hell** ($42,100,625)

71 Orphan** ($41,596,251)

74 The Lovely Bones($38,647,080)

94 The Uninvited** ($28,596,818)

—————————————————————————————————————-

115 New in Town ($16,734,283)

116 Jennifer’s Body** ($16,204,793)

126 Amelia ($14,245,415)

129 Whip It ($13,043,363)

132 Sunshine Cleaning ($12,062,558)

144 An Education ($8,795,228)

146 My Life in Ruins ($8,665,206)

150 The Young Victoria ($7,673,21)

[1] Based on Box Office Mojo, domestic grosses for 2009.  As of February the 4th 2010.

* Animated Film

** Horror Film

This morning I have such a feeling of relief over Kathryn Bigelow’s nomination.  Since the Academy has such a shitty track record of honoring women, I thought in back of my mind that they just might give her (and us) the big finger.

But those thoughts have now been displaced, and the good news is that she got nominated.  The better news is that her film, The Hurt Locker — a film directed by a woman — got the same amount of nominations as Avatar — 9. I’m gonna go out on a limb (not very far out though) and say that no other female directed film has ever garnered that many nomination.

But in my joy and relief, I am still reminded of how far we have to go when I got these headlines in my in box describing the nominations:

From CNN: “Avatar,” “Up in the Air” among leading nominees at this year’s Academy Award nominations.”

From the Hollywood Reporter: “James Cameron, ‘Avatar’ among Oscar nominees”

The Hurt Locker got more noms than Up in the Air and was equal to Avatar.  So why doesn’t it rate a headline?

I know I’m nit picking but come on, when is this going to happen again?  When is a movie that is directed by a woman going to match nomination for nomination to the man who calls himself the king of the world?

So beyond her nod for directing which is momentous, lets look at the bigger picture in that her leadership, and yes it is leadership (which is always one of the reasons why women have a hard time with directing — men can’t see them as leading the troops aka the crew) has been rewarded with NINE nominations.

Continue reading ‘Early Thoughts on the Oscar Nominations’

While most Americans (and the world) are struggling financially, Hollywood had a great year.  Box office revenue topped  $10.6 billion, up 10 percent from 2008 (according to Hollywood.com) and many of the year end stories have talked about women both at the box office and as directors.

Here what IndieWIRE had to say:

This was truly a landmark year for women and film.  Female-centered options dominated the indie landscape, with “Precious,” the year’s top grossing specialty release, leading the way.  The film may have been directed by a man, but it featured an almost entirely female cast and most certainly raked in its box office due in large part to female audiences hungry for options.  And beyond “Precious,” there were surprisingly many. Christine Jeffs’ “Sunshine Cleaning,” Lone Scherfig’s “An Education,” Jane Campion’s “Bright Star,” Anne Fontaine’s “Coco Before Chanel,” Claire Denis’s “35 Shots of Rum,” Pedro Almodovar’s “Broken Embraces,” Cédric Klapisch’s “Paris,” Sebastian Silva’s “The Maid,” Cherien Dabis’s “Amreeka”…  It’s an incredibly long list of often fantastic cinema.

And on top of all of it, these movies are making money. Of the top ten grossing limited released narrative films of 2009, four were directed by women (“Hurt Locker,” “Sunshine Cleaning,” “Coco Before Chanel,” and “An Education”), and three more (”(500) Days of Summer,” “Precious” and “Away We Go”) were most certainly aimed at female audiences, and feature either a female co-lead (“Summer” and “Away”) or a nearly all female cast (“Precious”).

And don’t forget the earlier pieces from the Wrap: Look Who’s Winning the B.O Battle of the Sexes and CNN.com: Yes, Hollywood, Women Do Go to the Movies

So 2009 had a confluence of good movies that were directed by women that made money and movies about women that people wanted to see.

So 2010 should be a year to build on these successes.  Here’s the problem.  All the women who make movies at the studios released movies last year.  It’s not a big list to begin with.  It includes Anne Fletcher, Nora Ephron, Betty Thomas and Nancy Meyers (am I missing anyone?)  All those women were in action last year and none of them (except maybe Fletcher) releases a movie each year.  On the indie from we also had films from other high profile women like Jane Campion, Mira Nair, Karyn Kusama, Sally Potter, and of course Kathryn Bigelow.

The question is how to we keep building on the success of 2009 when they won’t be any big movies directed by women?  There will be some strong women centric films like Sex and the City 2, the third Twilight installment as well as films from Julia Roberts, Reese Witherspoon, Katherine Heigl and an action pic from Angelina Jolie.

But those are movies directed by guys about women.  We need those and several of them will be great, but we also need to see movies by women about women (and also about guys and other things.)

From what I can tell there are only a couple of women with films already scheduled for release in 2010 and they are all indies.  We will have films like Please Give from Nicole Holofcener, Toe to Toe from Emily Abt, Fish Tank from Andrea Arnold (January 15), Last Night from Massy Tadjedin (March 19), The Runaways, from Floria Sigismondi (March 19).  Other women with completed films but without a release date include Julie Taymor ’s The Tempest, Niki Caro’s The Vinter’s Luck, Jodie Foster’s The Beaver and Sophia Copolla’s Somewhere.

There are a bunch more films that will roll out starting at Sundance including Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right and Gurinider Chadha’s It’s a Wonderful Afterlife.

So the thing we all need to wrap around our heads early this year is that most all the women directed flicks will have smaller releases so we will all need to be vigilant and get our asses out to the theatres.

I don’t want to give the powers that be (whoever the fuck they are) any ammunition to say that 2009 was a fluke either from a box office or a behind the scenes perspective.

Is anyone else concerned about this?  Are there other movies coming out that I don’t know about?  Please share.

Box Office 2.0: The Biggest Stories of the 2009 Indie Box Office (IndieWire)

Look Who’s Winning the B.O. Battle of the Sexes (The Wrap)

Yes, Hollywood, women do go to movies (CNN.com)

The awards are starting to dominate the conversations but not lose sight of the fact that women are still ruling the box office.

The Princess and the Frog, the first Disney film with an African American princess lead (I’m going to let the whole princess thing go here) won the weekend box office with a little of $24 million. 

The Blind Side was number 2 and is still strong having earned almost $150 million in 4 weeks.  Astounding.

New Moon is still going having now earned $267 million in 4 weeks and by the way was still the top film overseas making its total worldwide gross over $627 million.

Here’s what she had to say about her great year:

“Sexism is everywhere. Ageism is everywhere. But you know know what? It’s about making money. Look at what Sarah Jessica Parker did with Sex and the City. Look at what Meryl Streep is doing” — she pauses to laugh — “every other week! The proof is in the pudding. I didn’t have the ‘Oh my God, I’m not working because I’m 40.’ I was working when I was 40. I’ve never had this many opportunities in my lifetime.”

Magazine hits the newsstands today.

Sandra Bullock Soars (EW)

So here’s a crazy thing that happened this weekend, The Blind Side beat New Moon to become the number one movie in its third weekend of release.  A movie that did not open in the number one slot rarely then climbs to number one.  Just doesn’t happen.

But it happened with The Blind Side, an undermarketed and underappreciated movie before its release.  It became a success in spite of minimal studio support because people are really liking it and lots of them are women and those women tell their friends and that my friends is how word of mouth works.  This is a perfect example of the power of women at the box office.  It might take us a little longer, but if it is good and people recommend it to us, we will make see it.

The Blind Side has now grossed $129 million domestically and looks to continue to play through the holidays.  Just a little perspective, 2012 the Roland Emmerich world is ending calamity movie cost $200 million to make and is in its 4th week of release.  It has grossed almost $149 million.  The Blind Side cost somewhere between $29 and $35 million to make and it will probably beat the domestic gross of 2012.  So tell me, what’s the better investment?

Slowly, quietly, Sandra Bullock has turned out to be the most successful box office star this year.  She has two films in the top 20 and both will wind up grossing over $150 million each.

Also, New Moon is on its way to being one of the top five grossing films for the year, and worldwide it has now grossed over $570 million.

New Moon and The Blind Side helped make this past holiday weekend a record breaking one for Hollywood.  It seems that this weekend, grosses were upwards of $275 million breaking the mark set in 2000 by 12%.  The interesting thing is that none of the films that actually opened for the holiday made any dent in the box office.

What does that mean?  It means that the women ruled the box office for the second weekend in a row.

New Moon suffered a massive 70% decline in ticket sales, but since it started off so well there was no place to go but down.  The precipitous drop does really show that the film does not appeal to guys and all the people who want to see the film will have seen it pretty soon.  But even though it had a huge drop is still made over $42 million over the weekend and in two weeks has grossed over $200 million domestically (and an additional $243 million overseas) and will end up with over a half a billion worldwide gross.  All on a budget of $50 million.

New Moon is already number 6 on the list of the top grossing films of 2009, and it will probably beat Star Trek to enter into the top 5 for 2009.

BUT the bigger story of the weekend is the INCREASE in box office of The Blind Side.  That movie went up 18%.  That’s virtually unheard of.  Most films decline in their second weekend when there is additional competition, but The Blind Side has great word of mouth and will play for weeks.  It will be one of the those films that when other things are sold out through the holiday season people will go to because they heard from someone that it was good.  The Blind Side almost beat New Moon for the top spot grossing approx $40 million.  The movie has already past the $100 million mark.  All on a budget of $35 million.  That’s two hundred million dollar movies this year for Sandra Bullock.  I really hope she got some serious backend dollars for this flick.

How did this happen?  How did this movie that everyone was dismissing a couple of weeks ago as a “lite Sandy Bullock film” become a hit?  First, it’s a good movie.  It does exactly what it is supposed to do.  It makes you feel good.  You smile at the end of it.  Yes, it’s sappy, but it’s supposed to be.  Second, it’s a family movie.  Kids and parents (and men and women) can see this together and all enjoy it.   Third, underestimate Sandra Bullock at your own peril.  She is really helping to redefine what roles women can play in their 40s.  This year she played the evil boss, and crazy stalker and a fierce mom.

Also, Precious which is playing in over 600 theatres declined 34%, and personally I think that the success of The Blind Side will make a dent in Precious’ numbers for now.  Once the year end nominations start coming in people will want to see Precious because they will want to be in the know.  While I am not saying that the films are alike, one could look at the ads for the two movies and want to see a more upbeat film that deals with hard issues in a more upbeat way like The Blind Side does instead of Precious which everyone knows is brutal and intense.

New Moon Tops Box Office Again (Hollywood Reporter)

Thanksgiving box office record blown away despite absence of new hits (LA Times)

Women are going to seriously dominate the box office this weekend with the opening of the juggernaut New Moon as well as the Sandra Bullock starrer, The Blind Side.

New Moon is the 2nd chapter of the Twilight saga the love story between the mortal Bella Swan and the vampire Edward Cullen.  The good thing about this film is that no matter what any critics say this film will be a hit, especially among younger women.

What can I say about the film?  It’s totally cheesy and at times pretty bad that you kind of have to cringe.  But it’s critic proof just like Transformers 2 was. (BTW – Transformers 2 had only 19% on rotten tomatoes compared to New Moon’s still low 28% as of 7am today.)

Even though the movie has so many problems (I know that Summit wanted to rush out the sequel and didn’t want to give Catherine Hardwicke the time she wanted to make this film better but honestly they should have waited and listened to her) the boring script being the big one, I am excited to watch this movie roll out because I can’t remember the last time a movie with a woman at the center was essentially critic proof.  It would be better for all of us if the movie was stronger, but this is a movie that women want to see and they will not be kept away.

If you want to experience a cultural phenomenon go and see it this weekend (if you can get in.)  Just be prepared, there will be lots of screaming fans with you in the theatre.

The Blind Side

Here’s my confession.  I’m a big Sandra Bullock fan.  Don’t know exactly why, but I’m just always rooting for her.  Maybe it’s because she knows exactly the type of movies she will be good in (All About Steve notwithstanding) and lays it all out there.

In The Blind Side, Bullock takes on the role of Leigh Anne Tuohy based on the true story of a wealthy white Memphis family who takes in and virtually adopts a young black man.   They work hard to help this boy, including hiring tutors to help put him on the road to success.  And by success I mean finishing high school, getting a college scholarship, and now having a successful NFL career.

I’m a sucker for a feel good sports movie, but this is not about football the same way that the TV show Friday Night Lights is also not about football.  This film is about family and Bullock is great.  She kicks butt as the gun toting NRA member who astounds herself and her family by taking in and loving a 350 pound black young man.

It’s hard not to think about Precious when writing about this film.  This boy has potential and options that Precious never had.  Sports.  Sports are still a way out for boys that girls just don’t have.  I’m not trying to gloss anything over and say this boy had it easy, he didn’t.  He lived on the streets and was lucky to be alive.  But when you look at a big boy you can see the potential for his life and his future, and when you look at a girl of the same size you see all the limitations she has.  That’s just the reality.

But nonetheless, this is a heartwarming and moving story that’s fun and is a film that both men and women can enjoy.

I love when I get my Entertainment Weekly preview issues.  Just love them.  This year’s holiday movie preview just arrived and lo and behold it looks like it could be a pretty decent season for us women.

The season has already begun with Oscar frontrunner Precious, but when the cover gives me a picture of Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin in a Nancy Meyers flick, I am happy.  It’s Complicated opens on December 25 and I for one cannot wait to see it.  It’s looks to be Something’s Gotta Give but even better.

I am also psyched for Sandra Bullock’s new film (she has been busy this year) The Blind Side based on the Michael Lewis book.  It’s about a white couple from Memphis who take in a homeless very large African-American teenager and makes him a part of their family.  Here’s the description: “A cross-pollination of heart warming family film and rousing sports movie, with a little Erin Brockovich social consciousness thrown in…”  My kind of movie.  Sounds like this film can get the guys and the girls.

The whispers are starting about Bullock’s performance (haven’t seen it yet) as Oscar material but she shuns that kind of conversation.

“People who do what I do don’t do award winning films…which is kind of a relief…I’d rather roll home, put on the jeans, go outside, pick up dog poop, or go for a run or something.”

Another reason why I love her.  She’d rather pick up dog poop than wear a fancy dress.

Then of course there is juggernaut of Twilight- New Moon which opens opposite The Blind Side and this movie will be HUGE.  (working on a separate post about this.)  I think it will beat Twilight’s 68 million opening weekend numbers.

I’m about to see The Private Lives of Pippa Lee written and directed by Rebecca Miller based on her own novel starring Robin Wright.  Wright who has shed soon to be ex Sean’s last name feels like she has finally gotten a juicy role and she is psyched:

Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, and the Kates have all gotten great roles, and were so good in them, and now I got one…I finally got one.

Here’s a little shout out to the adorable Anna Kendrick who at 24 really holds her own opposite George Clooney in Up in the Air.  Here’s what she said that got me loving her:

My character is so rare.  She doesn’t have sex with anybody.  She doesn’t revolve around the boy.  She’s smart and complicated and really messed up.

She knows the it may be a while because she gets another character like this, which incidentally writer/director Jason Reitman wrote with her in mind.

I’m going to have to deal with a lot of characters that revolve around a guy or just aren’t that well-rounded.

Isn’t it sad that a 24 year old knows that she may have already have gotten the best part of her career already?  Hopefully, that’s not true since based on her performance and the Oscar buzz, she’s going to be around a long, long time.

Other movies (including some that star guys) I am looking forward to over these next couple of months include: Avatar; A Single Man; The Lovely Bones; Nine; Invictus; Brothers; The Last Station; Serious Moonlight; Did You Hear About the Morgans?; The Young Victoria and The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond.

What movies are you looking forward to?