Originally posted 16 March 2010.
Hollywood goes out of business, episode MCMXLIII
Via Bob at The Drawn Cutlass, we find that Hollywood thinks that there's no market for war films.
Oh, wait - we call that "money". OK, so can we have an example of an entertainment franchise based on a war situation? How about Call Of Duty?
So what has the franchise grossed?
![](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_v7Nd6pidYeQ/S573_IqGvtI/AAAAAAAACpY/5WbCQGaLsTU/s320/starwars.jpg)
Here's the lifetime gross of the six Star Wars films:
"Alice" was in theaters? "You've got the same great director and actor, in same style of film they did in the Bourne movies, just in a different place."
Yeah, but you have a blame America, blame the troops downer of a film that has all the nuance of a shovel hitting you in the back of the head. Those other films are also just like this. You think your audience are a bunch of idiots, who need you to lead them to Enlightenment (but can't make it too hard, or they won't Get It).
And you wonder why nobody goes to see your lousy film?
If Matt Damon can't sell an Iraq war film, perhaps this is a lost cause for Hollywood.People just don't want war stuff, at least enough to invest their time and their entertainment dollar? Is there a way that we could empirically test this? If only someone could come up with a measure of how valuable the market thinks something is.
..."We're disappointed," says Nikki Rocco, Universal's head of distribution. "And to tell you the truth, I'm puzzled. You've got the same great director and actor, in same style of film they did in the Bourne movies, just in a different place."But that place has been merciless on Hollywood, which continues to try to make a hit out of the Mideast conflict. Other Iraq war films, including The Kingdom ($48 million), Body of Lies ($39 million) and Brothers ($29 million) featured big stars and little box-office returns."It didn't help that the big kahuna (Alice) was zapping business from everyone," Rocco says. "But maybe (war) is something that's in our face so much every day, people aren't wanting more of it in their movies."
Oh, wait - we call that "money". OK, so can we have an example of an entertainment franchise based on a war situation? How about Call Of Duty?
![](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_v7Nd6pidYeQ/S572w4k9w3I/AAAAAAAACpQ/f1afV11StM4/s320/call-of-duty-4.jpg)
The Call Of Duty series has surpassed 55 million unit sales to date worldwide, taking a whopping $3 billion in retail sales in the process.Is there a Hollywood movie franchise that we can compare, to see how much more (or less) the game has made? There is indeed:
![](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_v7Nd6pidYeQ/S573_IqGvtI/AAAAAAAACpY/5WbCQGaLsTU/s320/starwars.jpg)
Here's the lifetime gross of the six Star Wars films:
- Star Wars, $460,998,007
- The Empire Strikes Back, $290,475,067
- Return of the Jedi, $309,306,177
- Episode I - The Phantom Menace, $431,088,301
- Episode II - Attack of the Clones, $310,676,740
- Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, $380,270,577
"Alice" was in theaters? "You've got the same great director and actor, in same style of film they did in the Bourne movies, just in a different place."
Yeah, but you have a blame America, blame the troops downer of a film that has all the nuance of a shovel hitting you in the back of the head. Those other films are also just like this. You think your audience are a bunch of idiots, who need you to lead them to Enlightenment (but can't make it too hard, or they won't Get It).
And you wonder why nobody goes to see your lousy film?
2 comments:
depends on the story and the Point of View.
1917 fared well.
Wonder Woman was a war film.
I don't know why "The Kingdom" was on that list, it isn't an Iraq war film.
It's a fictionalized account of a FBI team investigating anti American bombings in Saudi Arabia.
It has some pretty good shootouts, while not on the level of "Heat" I'd put it in the same category as "Sicario".
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