American Original WAITRESS deserved a bigger B.O. tip |
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In a Perfect World, all conditions would be harmonious, peaceful. In this perfect world, Match Flickers would patronize flicks that are beautiful, creative, enlightening, and original.
We don't need newspapers, Brian Williams, or CNN to tell us that the world in which we live is imperfect, discordant, lacking in peace, and short on intelligence. Similarly, at the box office, our movie world's imperfections don't require a magnifying glass.
We fancy flicks to be a combination of the arts and sciences. Certainly the sciences are at at full digitally-enhanced throttle in just about every feature the multiplex offers. Whether it's SPIDERMAN flying through the city, or HARRY POTTER making magic in 3D, it's difficult to argue that the Academy of Motion Arts & Sciences isn't top-heavy with state-of-the-moment sciences.
On the other hand, the arts divisions often seem anemic, in need of life support. Creativity, originality, edginess, and innovation are among the qualities that the arts should reflect. Art should not be familiar, safe, or enervated. Art must always push the envelope, along with our emotional, intellectual, and moral buttons.
These vital qualities of the arts are sorely lacking in the motion pictures that we support with our box office dollars.
The current box office 
Multi-generational GEORGIA should have RULED the box office |
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year is an excellent case in point. Look at this year's Top 20 Box Office hits. Of the Top 20, only a scant 8 do not fall into the categories of sequel, remake, or television-inspired. So much for originality. Apparently Match Flickers prefer the tried, true, and fatigued to the fresh, new, and unprecedented. This reflects badly on both the motion picture industry and the public to which it caters.
Yes, leftovers and rehases have fared spectacularly well in 2007. Now let's take a look at the box office fate of a few of this year's American Originals.
Fox Searchlight's sensitive, stirring WAITRESS garnered excellent reviews and picked up awards at multiple film festivals. The poignant story of one young woman trapped in a life from which she yearns to escape starred, and was written and directed by, the late Adrienne Shelly. This fresh gem featured Keri Russell, Andy Griffith, and Jeremy Sisto. Lamentably, awards, reviews, and quality notwithstanding, WAITRESS ranks in 67th place amid this year's releases, with a paltry $19 million gross. This WAITRESS definitely deserved a much bigger slice of 2007's box office pie
With hits such as THE PRINCESS DIARIES, BEACHES, and PRETTY WOMAN, director GARRY MARSHALL once ruled the box office. Earlier this year, he offered Match Flickers a 
ZODIAC should have killed them at the box office |
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prickly, provocative multi-generational drama, GEORGIA RULE, starring three generations of Pretty Women: Lindsay Lohan, Felicity Huffman, and Jane Fonda. An American Original, GEORGIA RULE beached at the box office like a whale on shore. Marshall's fine flick could do no better than 66th Place on 2007's Box Office List, grossing a less-than-PRINCESSLY $19 million.
WAITRESS and GEORGIA RULE were simply two opportunities this year when Match Flickers could have voted for American Originals with their box office dollars. Instead, they decided to "stay the course" with retreads such as THE BOURN ULTIMATUM, LIV FREE OR DIE HARD, and THE SIMPSONS' MOVIE, just to name three.
ZODIAC, EVENING, and SICKO are three more examples of American Originals that deserved more box office support than Match Flickers gave them. But we snubbed them in favor of THE SIMPSONS MOVIE, THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM, LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD, and other rehashes that evoked the tried and true, rather than the fresh and original.
It's difficult, if not impossible, for the motion picture industry to aspire to art , or even to remain reasonably fresh, when its audience asks for nothing more than "last year's multiplex favorite played sideways," with little new beyond a numeral or a catch phrase tacked onto the original's title.
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| The Business of Show |
Every other Friday
Does advertising, public taste, or overindulged stars determine a movie's box office fate? Christoper Stone explores what's going on behind the box office.
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| Christopher Stone |
Christopher Stone is the author of the international best seller Re-Creating Your Self. With Mary Sheldon, he co-authored three highly successful hardcover books of guided meditations.
He is a member of the Writers Guild of America, West.
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