October
13
Tyler Perry Tops Boxoffice; Clooney's Clayton Disappoints
Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married? handily trounced the competition this weekend. Here's Variety's Saturday boxoffice report. Fantasy Moguls. A NYT feature on Perry. And Variety's review. UPDATE: Here's Variety's Sunday boxoffice report.
Boxoffice prognosticators expected George Clooney's Michael Clayton to do better. But I worried that Warners was broadening the picture too early. The art of platforming is a delicate one. Sony and Paramount Vantage bet correctly that Across the Universe and Into the Wild would slowly build audiences. But for WB to leap from 15 to 2511 locations after just one week was too far, too fast. The risk for Clayton, which has long-term Oscar prospects, is that a critical winner could be tainted by failure. Clayton is not a thrill-packed action ride. It's an old-fashioned character-driven talk fest. It needs careful handling, not a sledgehammer.
The LAT examines Clooney's hits and misses.
As for Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Universal seemed blissfully sanguine that because they could sell action and spectacle in their TV spots, that they could magically switch this big-budget epic sequel from the smart-house specialty track to the mainstream. Big mistake.
[Perry photo by NYT]
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i think the clayton handlers got cocky because they had clooney's star power. a talk fest about a guy who loses it and strips in court (and the moral dilemma that drove him to such behavior) can't compete with the pure entertainment value of 'why did i get married'.
low-brow or mainstream always trumps think/talk fests. agree -- they should have rolled out clayton much more deliberately. (of course, if clooney was the one stripping they would have had more reason to be cocky)
elizabeth will do great dvd biz (clayton will not)
Posted by: Alan | October 14, 2007 at 12:44 PM
I know people are wondering what accounts for the massive appeal and success of Perry's films especiallly since they're not good...actually to be more honest they're pretty horrible. Granted, Married is Perry's best film to date, but all things being relative, Perry's best film would be another talented director's mediocre, instantly forgettable movie.
But just standing around a cineplex lobby like I did Saturday afternoon watching the huge crowds of black people lining up to see his film explains his appeal. And by black people, I mean almost exclusively black women. And by black women, I mean middle age to older black women and in particular black women who have had bad relationships with men. You'll notice that you'll hardly ever see younger (and hotter) black women attending Perry's movies (mainly because they don't have trouble with men, men have trouble with them.) Black men are pratically nonexistent in Perry's audiences except for the unfortunate few who are obvivously there reluctantly with a wife or girlfriend. All this explains why Perry's films always do extremely well at the box offcie for the first two weeks or so then drop off sharply. His audience is limited but it's big enough to make him a big hit.
Posted by: Sergio | October 15, 2007 at 07:07 AM
Way to generalize Sergio. And all from one screening's worth of observation. Nice.
Posted by: Mike | October 15, 2007 at 09:14 AM
Mike
You obviously has never seen a Tyler Perry movie or play, though he's been around for several years now first with his plays and now movies and TV sit-com. Or if you have seen them it must have been on DVD and not in the theater.
I've seen all his films to date including his latest, Married, at the theater. In every case without exception, I've been one of only a handful of black men in the audience packed wall to wall with middle aged and older black women. My male friends who have seen a Perry film have had the exact same experience. No doubt because his films don't appeal to us and black men in his films are almost always shown in a negative light (though fortunately not so much in Married) There's no need for us to suffer through that, since the regular media does a fine job of that every day.
(My male friends this weekend either went to see We Own The Night or Michael Clayton which explains why they split they the male audience and made almost the exact amount of money this weekend)
Furthermore, though thankfully Perry doesn't do his annoying Medea character in Married, guess what...I DON'T LIKE TO SEE BLACK MEN IN DRAG. Something which A LOT of black men don't care for either which is why his appeal to black men is very limited. (I could go on about all the sexual and racial implications behind that, but I don't have the time) All the younger black women (under 30 and younger) I know haven't not seen a Perry movie. He's considered old fashioned and something more for their parents generation
Posted by: Sergio | October 15, 2007 at 10:39 AM