Zoinks…
It’s the most hotly contested race of the season; no, it’s not a sporting event, it’s a box office tally. Americans have become obsessed with being number one, so much so, our children are now discussing box office grosses before they will consider going to see a picture. I miss the good old days when you went to a movie because you thought it looked interesting or your favorite movie star was finally on the big screen again. People don’t care about that anymore; it’s all about the numbers. The most disturbing example of this happened over the weekend when Fox distribution, so confident of Minority Report’s success, annonounced themselves champion of the weekend box office. Disney immediately fired back claiming it’s Lilo and Stitch was actually rightfully number one. The two ended up conceeding it was too close to call until the final tallies were in today. I will grant you no one will remember what the second best movie in America was three weeks from now, but honestly, who cares? Personally, you couldn’t pay me to see Lilo & Stitch (don’t write me, I am sure it is a fine film and lots of hard work went into it; it’s just not my cup of tea) being number one at the box office won’t change that. It could win an Academy Award, and I still probably wouldn’t see it. So why all this nonsense about numbers? I know, we are all greedy and obsessed with money, right. Then why isn’t it a bigger deal Scooby Doo made almost twice as much money last weekend than either one of these films? Does anyone remember The Waterboy? It had a phenomenal opening, but that had nothing to do with the film (I like Adam Sandler and the movie, but let’s face facts) and everything to do with the trailer before it (hint: Episode 1). I guess the same could be true for our friends at Scooby Doo, the ad in the paper now suggests you should see it again for your first glimpse at the new Harry Potter trailer. Is it just me or is this system starting to sound a lot more like our unreliable friends over at the Nielsons? Crunching the numbers is embarrassing, especially when you have a “sure fire hit” on your hand. If there is one thing that is for sure, it’s nothing is ever for sure in Hollywood. This should’ve proved that, but I am confident we will all walk away from this having learned nothing. The studio’s will continue to pay the media to tell us what we like and we will all watch faithfully until the numbers are posted. Then, we’ll all speak out in one accord, “I saw it, it’s the number one movie in the country, and by god, I liked it”.