What is PTA best known film?

Started by Punch Drunk Hate, May 20, 2018, 10:17:06 PM

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Punch Drunk Hate

This may seem trivial of a discussion but since Paul's been going out to the public more to promote his work I'm curious to know what film of his is best known to the layperson on the street. Not someone who scrolls through this board, just a regular person who doesn't have the insider knowledge of film history.


There Will Be Blood would seem like the slam-dunk answer as it the type of film that will be looked down as classic, if not already, with a memorable finale and line that spread through much of culture in the last decade. Going through the mainstream interviews such as Kimmel I have a notch feeling that Boogie Nights still retains a greater pop-cultural hold of all his work, even 20 years after it's release. It difficult to compare a film with ten years ahead of the next. Looking over the IMDB connections, TWBB has been referenced/spoofed half the times that BN has over the years.  For the layperson I'm guessing they know BN as that Marky Mark porn movie, with TWBB they might have vague knowledge, most knowing the infamous milkshake line.

wilberfan

Those are the first two films I thought of.


TWBB performed the best at the box office--which would suggest the largest number of people actually paid to see it.  It also had the advantage ot starring DDL--and winning the Best Actor award that year.


On the other hand, Boogie Nights was probably really found an audience following it's release on home video in '98.  I'm sure characters like Dirk Diggler and Rollergirl (and Jack Horner) are probably more familiar to the culture at large than Daniel Plainview, for example (at least by name). 


Using the indicator of box office performance, we can probably assume that Inherent Vice is the least known of his films?

Heaven forfend, but don't you think a PTA obituary would most likely mention TWBB and Boogie in it's first paragraph? 

Punch Drunk Hate

Quote from: wilberfan on May 20, 2018, 11:04:28 PM
Those are the first two films I thought of.


TWBB performed the best at the box office--which would suggest the largest number of people actually paid to see it.  It also had the advantage ot starring DDL--and winning the Best Actor award that year.


On the other hand, Boogie Nights was probably really found an audience following it's release on home video in '98.  I'm sure characters like Dirk Diggler and Rollergirl (and Jack Horner) are probably more familiar to the culture at large than Daniel Plainview, for example (at least by name). 


Using the indicator of box office performance, we can probably assume that Inherent Vice is the least known of his films?

Heaven forfend, but don't you think a PTA obituary would most likely mention TWBB and Boogie in it's first paragraph?

TWBB BO was very good for a studio-speciality film, which was backed through the esteemed performance of Daniel Day-Lewis. One takeaway is adjusted for inflation more people slightly saw Boogie Nights in theatrical release, making that his most-seen film combined with home video being stronger in the nineties and more rotation on cable/premium television. Those figures keep making me think the latter film has a higher self-awareness among the public then former. On movie sites such as Letterboxd and IMDB, TWBB has the more votes, Magnolia even draw more votes then BN, which would dispute the former notion in the previous sentence. Yet I wouldn't use it as benchmark for the question which excludes many people who don't go online and vote on a movie they just saw. The most accurate thing would be asking people about those films and see if they can gain any recognition without having seeing the work themselves.

Unless IV gains a Lewbowski-following I'm guessing it will be left in the shadow of his other more prestige work post-HE.

WorldForgot

Quote from: Punch Drunk Hate on May 21, 2018, 12:22:53 AM

Unless IV gains a Lewbowski-following I'm guessing it will be left in the shadow of his other more prestige work post-HE.

Cults aint our bag, really, but each year does seem to bring a handful of fresh, pot-smacked tagalongs into the psychedelic sojourn ~

Freddie Dodd

Based on the metric of viewership through online voting from sites such as Letterbox and IMDB. This is combing the watch button from Letterboxd with IMDB members that have given a rating on the film.


1. There Will Be Blood-172,588  LB/468,296 IMDB
2. Magnolia-100,956 Letterboxd/271,615 IMDB
3. Boogie Nights-113,111 Letterboxd/221,345 IMDB
4. Punch Drunk Love-104,649/134,100 IMDB
5. The Master-102,603/133,024 IMDB
6.  Phantom Thread-115,408 Letterboxd/ 88,000 IMDB
7. Inherent Vice-79,429 Letterboxd/82,495 IMDB
8. Hard Eight-24,695 Letterboxd/36,148 IMDB

wilberfan

I enjoy a good number-crunching, so thanks for that.

Freddie Dodd

No problem. I felt some statistics could help give a good load down on the popularity of Anderson's oeuvre through the internet.


I would like to add on if Magnolia viewership total means it's a more well-known film than Boogie Nights. The IMDB voters for Magnolia trounce over BN, yet I'm not quite confident if that film has the recognition from the mainstream movie crowd that the latter does. Boogie Nights gets name dropped more often and has the luxury of a very entertaining topic that lures people in unlike a three-hour drama on broken people.

Freddie Dodd

Quote from: Freddie Dodd on August 14, 2019, 11:00:06 PM
No problem. I felt some statistics could help give a good load down on the popularity of Anderson's oeuvre through the internet.


I would like to add on if Magnolia viewership total means it's a more well-known film than Boogie Nights. The IMDB voters for Magnolia trounce over BN, yet I'm not quite confident if that film has the recognition from the mainstream movie crowd that the latter does. Boogie Nights gets name dropped more often and has the luxury of a very entertaining topic that lures people in unlike a three-hour drama on broken people.


Waiting for an answer...

Drenk

Boogie Night is, well, sexier and more beloved by most of the people who see it than Magnolia, thus the more frequent name dropping.
Ascension.

Freddie Dodd

Quote from: Drenk on August 30, 2019, 03:16:14 PM
Boogie Night is, well, sexier and more beloved by most of the people who see it than Magnolia, thus the more frequent name dropping.


Less people have seen it on IMDB.  Though a better metric would be asking the average person about these films and ask if they've seen/heard of the two. Would the average Middle American know anything about Magnolia, despite the critical acclaim and star-studded cast? I'm curious if There Will Be Blood is that well known, as my parents never heard of it when I was recommending to them a decade ago.

Drenk

The Oscar hype for Day-Lewis when There Will Be Blood was released helped the movie. My father has seen There Will Be Blood and he probably watches ten movies every decade.
Ascension.

Freddie Dodd

I'm not doubting the ubiquitous mass knowledge of There Will Be Blood. Just trying to see the divide between film geeks and mainstream audiences knowing about these films. I would acknowledge that quote came year after the film was released, around  early 2009 when I watched it on premium cable.

jenkins

Quote from: Freddie Dodd on August 30, 2019, 04:49:42 PM

Less people have seen it on IMDB.

Fewer. Rated it. The conversation is about specifics, after all.

PTA isn't a populist filmmaker no matter how you look at it.