RUMOURS OF SCIENTOLOGY'S EXPANSION ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED .... OR AS WE ALL KNOW THEY'RE A BUNCH OF FUCKING LIARS!
Jack Reacher opened with a $15.6 million weekend, on 3,352 screens. Using my math skills, that works out to about $4,653 per screen. Though the market appears to be glutted with holiday releases at the moment, which is affecting all releases, various publications report that this is the weakest Cruise opening for a widely released film since A Few Good Men in 1992. The opening was weaker even than Rock of Ages earlier this year, where Cruise was again mis-cast.
Speaking of mis-casting, the Los Angeles Times shreds the film, in an article headlined "Jack Reacher: The fans are furious." The tone gets more strident from there. One fan quoted says: "Cruise is NOT Reacher. Channing Tatum so IS. I can not believe they actually used an arrogant overexposed short IMBECILE to create such an awesome character. I will not see it and it literally RUINED the whole character for me." In other words, this person is dug in deeply against the franchise, and probably won't see any later films if they make sequels, because of the mis-casting of Cruise. Many other Lee Child fans quoted in the article say more or less the same thing.
In an Arctically cold coda to the story, the reporter says, "The filmmakers did get something right. The film is roughly based on the Reacher novel 'One Shot,' which is set in a heartland city -- and the movie was in fact shot in Pittsburgh." Ouch!
By comparison, the opening weekend for the wide release debut for Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master was $4.4 million in 788 theaters -- a $5,583 per screen number, far more solid than Cruise's performance, which should have benefited from an immense marketing budget. I can't figure out what the final marketing spend was, but I'm guessing that the studio was glad they scaled back from the original plan in the wake of the Newtown tragedy.
It wouldn't surprise me to see Jack Reacher drop to fewer than 2,000 screens by next weekend, given that there are so many films in the pipeline that might be able to do higher per-screen grosses. My bet: Jack Reacher is gone by January 15, US box office is less than $35 million, and DVD sales tank because the mis-casting has crushed the value of the character to drive a franchise.
TheHoleDoesNotExist John P. • 2 days ago good to know. When I read up on the character, I wondered whose idea it was to cast Cruise in this role as it seemed to be a trainwreck concept on So many levels. Anyone know who was behind this casting?(I have time. Waiting for my carpets to dry, so stuck in the home office for now)media_lush John P. • 2 days ago a couple of days ago the BBC TV Film review show said at the end of their review [they gave it a meh] that the next film in the franchise was already in production and made a point that Tom Cruise was doing it.... that was an unusual thing to say... I feel it was a prompt from one of his PR lackeys and the beeb obliged.Re-think methinks.John P. media_lush • 2 days ago Talk is cheap. As I understand it, studios typically don't commit to doing a sequel until they have a clear sense of how strong the movie will open. I would assess that particular comment as "whistling past the graveyard," attempting to show bravado about the strength of the movie where there is none. The comment may well have been intended to suggest that the studio is confident in the casting of Cruise - that they're not worried about the enormous amount of negative press that particular casting discussion has gotten. It's pretty amateurish to try to sell the idea that the sequel has gotten the green light if it hasn't; if the movie bombs you look like an idiot betting too much too soon, particularly in the current studio environment. There's plenty of time to announce a sequel if the movie's a hit.I would expect that the studio had a couple sequels in development (a very different thing from being in production) in case this film opened strongly; they could then pick one and green light it. But something like 80% of books optioned and put into development never actually get made; they stay "in development" until the rights expire. Not like the Beeb to confuse "in development" with "in production," but you never know.media_lush John P. • 2 days ago ... I double checked on BBC iPlayer [it's about 9'20" in] and the exact words the male host said to the female host were:"anything we say is pointless as they're making the sequel to this already... Tom Cruise jumping up and down trying to get the pesto off the shelf... it's already happening, there's nothing we can do about it".... the same host previously mentioned Cruise getting valeted socks delivered on setIt's not often you get 'respectful' movie hosts making height jokes about Tom Cruise... his star is definitely turning.
Observer John P. • 2 days ago This post made my day, John P. When I read about the character of Jack Reacher--especially that he's 6'5"--all I could think about Cruise's casting was "WTF?". On the other hand, shouldn't a Big Being MEST master be able to add 10 inches to his height?His career has begun a slow decline, and he's getting a bit long in the tooth for Hollywood. I wonder how long it will be before Davey breaks up with him?
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