Tag Archive for 'The Devil Wears Prada'

Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Manohla Dargis

manohla_dargis_x200I didn’t think I could love Manohla Dargis anymore after her awesome piece in the NY Times this weekend, but this honest and angry interview with Jezebel made me swoon with excitement.

We never, ever see a person of Dargis’ stature standing up for women in the film business in this public manner.  I really hope that she is the first to speak out, not the last.  But more importantly, we need to figure out how to get things to change so we have more good women’s films and opportunities for women directors.

But this is an awesome start.

Kudos to the women from Jezebel, in particular Irin Camron for getting this interview.  It totally rocks!

Some choice quotes:

On why women in Hollywood aren’t faring any better: This business is really about clubby relationships. If you buy Variety or go online and look at the deals, you see one guy after another smiling in a baseball cap. It’s all guys making deals with other guys. I had a female studio chief a couple of years ago tell me point blank that she wasn’t hiring a woman to do an action movie because women are good at certain things and not others. If you have women buying that bullshit how can we expect men to be better?

Working within the system has not worked. It has not helped women filmmakers or, even more important, you and me, women audiences, to have women in the studio system. … I think the studio system as it exists now is a no-win situation for women filmmakers.

You can be a male filmmaker and if you’re perceived as a genius – a boy genius or a fully-formed adult genius – that you are allowed to fail in a way that a woman is not allowed to fail.

On women being taken seriously as moviegoers: It’s a vicious cycle. We’re not going to movies because there aren’t movies for us. Therefore we’re not seen as a loyal moviegoing audience. My point is that if there are stories about women, women will come out for that…

That’s why [women] go to a movie like The Devil Wears Prada and make huge hits. They want to see women in movies. People in the trade press constantly frame that as a surprise. This, gee whiz, Sex and the City’s a hit, Twilight, hmm, wonder what’s going on here. Maybe they should not be so surprised. In the trade press, women audiences are considered a niche. How is that even possible? We’re 51 percent of the audience.

I don’t want to be the woman critic. I don’t want to be the feminist critic. I don’t want to be the shrew. What I want to do is talk about the art that I love and point out, every so often, inequities….It’s a weird balancing act and I’m not saying there aren’t contradictions.

Re-reading the piece again this morning is actually making me cry with relief.  Finally.  It’s like the rose color glasses are off and the boxing gloves are on.

Game on Hollywood!

You must read the whole piece: “Fuck Them”: Times Critic On Hollywood, Women, & Why Romantic Comedies Suck (Jezebel)

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Tags: Irin Camron, Jezebel, Manohla Dargis, The Devil Wears Prada

Julie & Julia By the Numbers

Just a quick update on how Julie & Julia did this weekend.

It came in second grossing a little over $20 million on 2300 screens.  (The amount of screens kept changing and I apologize for the confusion.)  Word of mouth is great and according to Variety the film “skewed dramatically older and female, with 64% of the aud over the age of 35 and 67% female.”  The film cost $38 million to make so it is on its way to being very profitable.  It will probably have legs through the rest of this month through Labor Day.

A few other numbers for perspective.   Nora Ephron’s Sleepless in Seattle opened in 1993 on over 1700 screens to a approx $17 million gross.  It earned $126 million domestically.  You’ve Got Mail opened in 1998 on over 2600 screens and earned a little over $18 million.  Film went on to earn $115 million domestically.

And from Meryl Streep.  The Devil Wears Prada opened in 2006 on 2,847 screens and grossed $27 million.  The total domestic gross was $124 million.   This film made more overseas with a total box office cum of $326 million.  Mamma Mia opened on over 2900 screens and grossed approx $27 million on opening weekend.  The domestic gross topped out at $144 million and the worldwide total is an astounding $600 million.

These women makes hits (and also a couple of misses.)

Did you go out and see it?  What did you think?

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Tags: Mamma Mia, Meryl Streep, Nora Ephron, Sleepless in Seattle, The Devil Wears Prada

Countdown: One Week to Julie & Julia

While The Proposal with Sandra Bullock has exceeded expectations, we all know the one movie that women have been waiting for all summer is now only one week away — Julie and Julia.  I have a sense that women are going to come out and see this in droves and in groups with many leaving the hubby or partner at home.  The competition at the national level is pretty slim on opening weekend (GI Joe) so it will pretty much get every woman and hopefully men interested in an alternative.

Tracking shows the film opening at $20 million and I think that is a low estimate, but it is opening on 2,300 screens and not 3,000, so that will have an effect on the gross.  Looking back at Mamma Mia, last summer it opened on 2,976 screens and grossed almost $28 million on opening weekend and it was against the Dark KnightThe Devil Wears Prada from the summer of 2006 opened on 2,847 screens and grossed $27 million on its opening weekend.  I guess I am surprised that the film is not opening on more screens to take advantage of past history.

UPDATE 8/6: Just checked the theatre counts for opening night and the film will be opening in almost 3,000 theatres.  I bet it clears $30 million for the weekend.

With all due respect to Amy Adams who is carving out a nice career for herself, the reason why people will see this film is because of Meryl Streep.  She is a movie star and if this film does well she’ll be one of the only stars to have had a good summer.   The guy stars (Russell Crowe, Denzel Washington, John Travolta) their films did not do well.

According to the Hollywood Reporter she got paid $5 million for Julie & Julia and her asking price has now gone up to $7 or $8 million and she gets first dollars off the back end gross. I know that $5 million and $8 million are awesomely huge figures but she should make $20 million just like the big boys.  She can open a movie.  If she wants to be in a movie the movie gets greenlighted.  Brad Pitt just had his latest movie collapse (from the same studio releasing Julie & Julia) so his presence did not guarantee the film will get made.

I know I’m a big Streep cheerleader but I also want to put it out there that she works with women A LOT.  Mamma Mia, directed by Phyllida Lloyd; Julie & Julia, directed by Nora Ephron; It’s Complicated (the newly released title of her next film coming out on Christmas day) is directed by Nancy Meyers.

I don’t want to heap the pressure on her but she gives women of all ages, especially Hollywood actresses, hope.

Streep is a walking rebuttal to the persistent ageism that sidelines so many actresses. As such female stars as Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts, Naomi Watts and Sandra Bullock wade into their 40s — which conventional wisdom holds is a wasteland for “aging” actresses — surely there is promise in Streep’s longevity.

From Nora Ephron:

This thing of hers, where she is as hot as Will Smith, it’s hilarious, and it is such amazing news for those of us who write movies that she’s perfect for.”

Are you going to go see Julie & Julia on opening weekend?  Show some love for Meryl and make those plans now.  Anyone want to go with me here in NY?

Meryl Streep: Bankable Franchise (HR)
Streep, Adams, Ephron: Recipe for success in ‘Julie & Julia‘ (USA Today)

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Tags: Amy Adams, Mamma Mia, Meryl Streep, Nora Ephron, The Devil Wears Prada