There you go! That's what I'm talking about, and your response is what Tarentino/Rodriguez were hoping for!
-------------- Original message -------------- From: "ravenadal" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> I no longer care what movies gross. The only important thing is that they get made. I don't own stock in the Weinstein Company, so, poor grosses aside, I could not have been happier than to receive my copy of Entertainment Weekly with Rose McGowan and Rosario Dawson arranged seductively on the hood of Kurt Russell's Death Proof Chevy Nova. Take that up two notches when I received my copy of Rolling Stone with butt naked Dawson and McGowan on the cover - covered only with strategic strings of shotgun shells. (In addition, the shot of all the Grindhouse women dressed alike in white blouses, black mico-mini skirts and black high heeled shoes caught in mid-leap, in the Green Issue of Vanity Fair, is not to be missed!) I am going to violate my rule of seeing no movie before it reaches the Budget theater (the popcorn is better there). Hopefully it is playing at the Oriental (one of the last remaining movie palaces in Milwaukee, which coincidentally has pretty darn good popcorn and real cherry coke). I will purchase the Grindhouse DVDs - together and/or separately, when they are released. ~rave! --- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], "Tracey de Morsella (formerly Tracey L. Minor)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > http://deadlinehollywooddaily.com/ > Harvey Weinstein told me this morning that he's "incredibly > disappointed" with the half-than-expected $12 mil box office for > Grindhouse released on Easter Weekend (a controversial move itself). So > much so, that he's considering abandoning the double feature as a single > feature concept and re-releasing the Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez > movie around the U.S. "in a couple of weeks" as two separate > feature-length movies with additional footage put in. > grindhouse_bigfinalposter.jpgThat's what Harvey says The Weinstein Co. > is already intending to do with the film's release in Europe: split it > into two separate pics, Tarantino's Death Proof and Rodriguez's Planet > Terror. "Quentin's movie goes out first in competition at Cannes. He'll > do an extensive 4 to 5 month tour. And the trailer will be all > Quentin's," Weinstein told me about his European plans. "Then we'll > release Robert's a couple of months later. By splitting it up, we're > going to do a hell of a lot better internationally than we did here." > Weinstein noted that, even in Grindhouse's video deal as well as its TV > deal with Starz Entertainment Group, it's been sold as two separate > movies. "Our deal with Encore is that they can play it any way they > want." So this is why The Weinstein Co. is now deciding to suck it up > and do in this country what it probably should have done all along. > "First of all, I'm incredibly disappointed. We tried to do something new > and obviously we didn't do it that well," Harvey told me today. "It's > just a question of how is it going to hang in there. But we could split > the movies in a couple of weeks. Make Tarantino's a full-length film, > and Rodriguez's too. We'll be adding those 'two missing reels' that's > talked about in the movie." (At one point in Grindhouse, a sex scene is > interrupted because of "two missing reels" -- one of the many conceits > and indulgences.) > > Weinstein pointed to several reasons why Grindhouse did so poorly in > theaters over Easter weekend. "Our research showed the length kept > people away. It was the single biggest deterrent. It was 3 hours and 12 > minutes long. grondhouse1.jpgWe originally intended to get it all in in > 2 hours, 30 minutes. That would have been a better time. But the movies > ran longer, the [fake] trailers ran longer, everything ran longer," > Harvey told me. Weinstein also criticized his own marketing plan. "We > didn't educate the South or Midwest. In the West and the East, the movie > played well. It played well in strong urban settings. But we missed the > boat on the Midwest and the South." But he denies others' thinking that > the Grindhouse subject matter was too foreign for mainstream audiences > in mainstream theaters. He's wrong, of course. (In many theaters, before > the pic began, either a leaflet was handed out or an usher came out to > tell audiences that Grindhouse was designed to look old and scratched > and to have "missing reels", and that the intermission, including the > fake trailers, was also part of the movie. Obviously the managements had > received some complaints at earlier shows.) Yet The Weinstein Co. > wouldn't give the film to actual Grindhouses, or even the Grindhouse > Film Festival, to screen and create buzz. That may be one reason the > advance tracking on the film prior to Friday was only so-so. The hype > seems to have been all Internet-generated, which is why New Line's > Snakes On A Plane flopped. > > grindhouse2.jpgWeinstein admitted to spending at least $30 million on > U.S. promotion and advertising for Grindhouse, which, added to what I'd > already heard was a $67+ mil budget and not the low-50s cost he has > claimed, makes this at least a $100 mil movie. So the first weekend's > take of just $12 mil is all the more disastrous. On the other hand, > Harvey (and independent observers) says the film is heavily pre- sold > overseas and expects it to do well there. That's not surprising, since > many movies recently (Babel, Apocalypto) have run out of gas here only > to pump up the total with international box office. But a re- release in > the U.S. could prove almost prohibitively costly for The Weinstein Co.: > new prints, new marketing, new everything. It may not be worth it, > especially with Spider-Man 3 and the rest of this summer's tentpole > onslaught just around the corner. > > Weinstein admits that he thought the film would do much better than it > did and sees the failure of Grindhouse's U.S. release as a rap on his > reputation for movie savvy. He's in a bind here because, let's face it, > he doesn't dare blame the directors. After all, he is closely tied to > Tarantino and Rodriquez personally and professionally and, what's more, > he and brother Bob made that relationship and Grindhouse a cornerstone > of their fledgling company's financing. (No doubt that's why Harv, who > has a long history of imposing his iron will on filmmakers, gave the two > directors a pass when it came to Grindhouse's extreme length.) > > But Harvey is adamant that the flop will not be a body blow to The > Weinstein Co. "We're smart businessmen. Thank God, we protected > ourselves economically. I've spent the last year diversifying the > company. We're making profits everywhere but the movie business. But on > DVD sales, we're doing well," he claims. The Weinstein Company's > diversified investments include the home video company Genius Products, > the private online community aSmallWorld, the cable TV hit show Project > Runway, the independent cable channel Ovation, and, most recently, the > Halston fashion brand. Harvey admitted to me that his attention may have > been too diverted from the movie biz as a result. "This Cannes, I'm > going to change all that. I'm back to being me. We wanted to diversify > immediately. Now I have to go back to being Harvey." > =========== > Grindhouse Couldn't Get 'Grindhouse'; Grindhouse Festival Couldn't Get > It Either > > clintonstreettheater1.jpgMaybe Grindhouse strayed too far from its base. > (See below for UPDATE.) I received some very interesting info this > weekend from the owner & programmer of the Clinton Street Theater, > detailing how he tried in vain to convince The Weinstein Co. to allow > his venue to play the pic. The Clinton is a unique single-screen indie > art house considered a true Grindhouse in Portland, Oregon. (It just ran > a film series that included original 35MM prints of Switchblade Sisters, > Crazies, and Spook Who Sat By The Door.) Looking at the email exchange, > I can see that TWC's branch sales manager Keir Gotcher kept giving The > Clinton the run-around. "I wanted to give you some insight into > Grindhouse being a flop," Seth Sonstein (photo right) emails me. "We > begged The Weinstein Company for a print of this film. In the end they > would not give us a print. screen75.jpgAlso, Dan Halsted runs the > Grindhouse Film Festival out of The Hollywood Theater in Portland, and > Weinstein would also not release a print to him. (Dan knows more about > Grindhouse films then anyone in the country.) So I attest that the > distribution was botched on this film. When your local Grindhouse isn't > allowed to screen the Grindhouse, then you KNOW that there is trouble." > Sonstein said his theater and its audience were psyched when they first > heard about Grindhouse and followed its progress from Day One. > "Tarantino has been quoted many times as saying that everything he knows > about film he learned in the Grindhouses of his youth. When the release > dates were announced, we started calling The Weinstein Company every > week trying to secure the film. At first they seemed interested, but > soon after they stopped returning emails and calls and eventually [gave > it to] Regal Cinemas, the largest corporate movie theater chain in the > country, and the CineMagic, which is known for Sub Run and Bollywood > films. The Grindhouses across America are the exact opposite. While > people may need Regal so they can go see films like Wild Hogs and > Norbit, they will never catch a double feature of Foxy Brown and Black > Samurai at the local Regal Cineplex. Grindhouse, a film that is a > throwback to the great Grindhouse films of yesterday, will not be > playing in a Grindhouse." > > grindhouse.jpgI agree with Sonstein. To not just ignore a movie's base, > but actually rebuff it, makes no sense. Nor can this be blamed on MGM. > Distribution for Grindhouse was taken over by TWC and the pic itself > went out under the labels of both Dimension and TWC, the first time > since the company's inception in 2005. (In fact, Bob Weinstein lamented > to the trades that "It's too bad it's not Miramax.") Not only is > Portland home to some of this country's great independent movie houses, > but The Clinton has great street cred. Built in 1914, it's said to be > the oldest continually operating movie house west of the Mississippi. > For crissakes, Gus Van Sant is a regular. "There is a passion at The > Clinton to make sure the right films get their due," says Sonstein, who > once threw a pie in the face of a local film critic. "Maybe we will have > a Pam Grier double feature to make us feel better." > > Later, Dan Halsted, organizer of the Grindhouse Film Festival, emailed > me about his fruitless attempts to book an advance screening of > Grindhouse. "I had a two day event lined up of 35mm prints and trailers > of some of the greatest Grindhouse movies. The plan was to screen > Grindhouse as the highlight and focus of the weekend. I was paying for > the entire event, so it would have been free promotion for the movie. I > bugged the TWC about it for months, but they passed on it. I ended up > just running a double feature on March 24th of some Grindhouse classics, > and TWC said they still wanted to promote at the event. They ended up > just sending a couple of small posters, some passes to give away for an > advance screening at a multiplex, and a trailer for the movie on DVD > (not even on 35mm). I went to the Grindhouse premiere at the multiplex a > week later. The auditorium was quiet, and people seemed bored and > uninterested. After the screening, I listened to the film critics talk > of how boring it was, and I sat there knowing they would have had a > completely opposite reaction if they had seen the movie at the screening > I had originally planned. This is a movie that is meant to be seen with > an excited audience at a Grindhouse theater!" > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
