I fear the box office blues for PTA... what can we do to help?

[ElPandaRoyal]

Oh, I usually go to Box Office Mojo and they don't have information on that. 40 is more than I thought. It needs a little bust to break even, but there's a lot of time from now until awards season for it to make its money back.

[Jeremy Blackman]

If The Master loses $10 million, that's 0.02% of Larry Ellison's net worth.

[ElPandaRoyal]

 

EDIT: I'm sorry, I should have said "Eli Roth"!

[ElPandaRoyal]

The Master is now making more money in less screens than Resident Evil 3D, which came out the same week.

[pete]

The Master will do fine. It's got buzz, and will continue to build that pre-Oscar buzz and will get a nice push before and after the awards season; it's a narrow margin, but it looks like it's in line with a well-traveled business model. And, like a lot of the European directors, PTA's already got his next projects lined up, so he's doing fine. Always having the next project ready to go is every director's dream. I pulled that last statement out of my ass but I'm sure it's true. The monetary value of producing/releasing The Master is not just limited to the box office bottomline either; studios like these kinds of movies because they attract other talented filmmakers and actors and build relationships, which are super important. Having a PTA onboard advertises the studio's commitment to the filmmakers, which is a smartplay and is good for the business. Obviously money is tight these days so they can't be as flagrant as they used to be with their darling filmmakers, but PTA is arguably the most respected filmmaker in the industry right now, so, as long as there's money, it's smart to give him that coveted Woody Allen career.

Also, Meg Ellison owns the Terminator franchise. She's running a long game. Money can still be lost, but at least all the moves are sound.

Kal, am I' completely full of shit?

[Sleepless]

PTA's already got his next projects lined up, so he's doing fine. Always having the next project ready to go is every director's dream.

You book the next movie before the last one opens.

^ What I learned from Entourage.

[ElPandaRoyal]

I just realized that The Master was postponed to January 6th 2013 here in Portugal, after being initially announced for October, and maybe it has something to do with the modest box-office in the U.S. It will now come out at the beginning of the awards season to try and cash in on some of the possible accolades. I will now light myself on fire...

[Reel]

Damn, that's rough. My heart goes out to you. Looks like this week marks the end of The Master's wide release here in the U.S.  I got my fill, but am still praying on that Oscar run, and also that the theater owner I talked to will figure out how to work a 70mm projector...

[Lex]

I just realized that The Master was postponed to January 6th 2013 here in Portugal, after being initially announced for October, and maybe it has something to do with the modest box-office in the U.S. It will now come out at the beginning of the awards season to try and cash in on some of the possible accolades. I will now light myself on fire...

Yeah and no 70mm theaters. Sucks

[ElPandaRoyal]

Yup. That too.

[The Ultimate Badass]

So The Master will likely be PTA's worst performing film at the box office to date. What do you think the reasons for this are? And what effect do you think this will have on PTA's ability to finance future projects?

This topic has been touched upon in various other threads, but I thought it deserved it own.

[Pubrick]

he's finished that's all.

he made a flop no one wanted to see, he gave it a shit title, he didn't push the scientology angle hard enough, he didn't make the scientology movie idiotic scandal-mongers DID want to see, he made an ambiguous film that appeals to introspective losers who generally don't flock en masse to the cinema/out of their basement ever, he's a filmmaker's filmmaker and filmmakers don't number in the millions and are rarely 13 to 17 years old, he didn't push the titties angle hard enough, and finally, this:

it's time to start preparing for PTA's backlash/downfall. by this i mean the point in his career where he becomes too good for critics or the general public to understand what he's doing. he's actually been this way since he began but ppl somehow kept up with him. i think we're coming to the Barry Lyndon part of his career where everything he does onwards will be completely misunderstood, underrated, and looked over. Barry Lyndon was characterised as "kubrick's period piece" and that was all -- but it was THE MOST REALISTIC thing he has ever done, he illuminated a world lost to darkness, he reanimated corpses, he made statues come to life. everything afterwards was misunderstood and spoken of in the same "missing the point" kinda way.. the shining "that's just his horror film.. ooh scary" -- it was, as we all know, SO - MUCH - MORE than that.

of course this has always happened to many great movies since forever but the difference is that most directors never try any harder than what everyone expects of them. it started with Magnolia that he made a decision to expect a LOT from his audience. the film is generally thought of as the epitome of his "altman-esque" period.. he musta become SICK of this under-reading of his work so he did the opposite with PDL. irony of course is the Altman-esque elements in the story with the pivotal use of "he needs me". with that song and its usage PTA was acknowledging quite consciously the debt he owes to his influences, he needs his past as much as he needs to find something new. and so PDL became known as just a "sandler movie", undersold, misunderstood.. everyone generally missed the point.

CMBB is the biggest case of everyone missing the point so far. the film quickly became known as "an american classic about GREED and OIL" ok the book was called OIL but the film is as much concerned with that macguffin as it is with being a faithful adaptation of its supposed source material -- NOT VERY MUCH AT ALL. PTA's idea of adaptation is sophisticated, it isn't about the book but the information he got from it. he is just paying respect to the book as much as he was paying respect to altman in PDL. he can't escape his past or the origin of his ideas. but OIL and GREED wasn't the point. neither was Capitalism. these are all buzzwords that ppl use to try to contain what seems like a sprawling and unwieldy work. the problem is that no one tries to go much further than that.

he made barry lyndon, he thought everyone would care.

this is pta right now:

[md]

Really after he broke up with Fiona Apple his movies have gone to shit.