'Atlas Shrugged' Derails?

[brooklynite]

from Box Office Mojo:

'Atlas Shrugged' Derails?

Atlas Shrugged: Part I was the top-grossing limited release of the weekend, generating an estimated $1.7 million at 300 single-screen locations.

For a pure independent release, Atlas Shrugged: Part I's opening was fine. But for the first-ever adaptation of Ayn Rand's influential mega-selling 1957 novel that had far more media hype than any other independent movie could dream of, it was disappointing.

There aren't many direct comparisons, because it's rare that an adaptation of such a famous book gets such a modest release. Atlas Shrugged: Part I opened higher than recent limited Christian movies The Grace Card and To Save a Life, and it was distributor Rocky Mountain Pictures' third highest-grossing launch, behind End of the Spear and Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. But none of those movies are significant in the grand scheme of things. They're all still blips, even if Atlas was a slightly bigger blip than many.

What's more, Atlas Shrugged: Part I's box office dropped six percent from Friday to Saturday, further indicating niche appeal. The movie would require exceptional holds moving forward to right its course.

[lob1]

1. I wouldn't buy advance tickets for parts 2 and 3.

[provis99]

2. I guess people don't appreciate Great Art.

[3waygeek]

10. I think you left out an 'F'... n/t

[Taverner]

3. (sigh) The World will never understand a TRUE GENIUS!!! (sob)

Ayn Rand was a VISIONARY! A FREAKIN VISIONARY!!!

(sob sob, whine whine)

Why can't I be an exalted sociopath!!!! I DESERVE THAT!!!! IT'S MY FUCKING BIRTHRIGHT!!!!

[localroger]

11. To be an exalted socopath, first...

...you must be a sociopath.

It's actually not a thing you can fake. These people are broken. They can fake being normal far more easily than normal people can fake being like them because when a normal person scrunches their face up to make an angry grimace, we cannot help but also feel anger; the face packing is a two-way process. That hinders our ability as actors. But the sociopath has no such distractions; he can feign love and terror with great accuracy, because he's not distracted by actual feelings no matter what he does with his facial muscles.

[jmowreader]

15. Her vision was a bit fuzzy and dim, I think...

One thing that hasn't been pointed out in all the negative reviews: the parts of the movie that are not stock footage (the shots of Hank Rearden's steel mill, the big derailment at the beginning and the trip on Dagny's bullet train are all stock footage) are out of focus. The stock stuff is crisp as a new dollar bill.

[Scuba]

4. Atlas Shrugged. Scuba Yawned.

[rpannier]

5. Atlas Barfed would be a better title nt

[Brickbat]

6. Sometimes the invisible hand gives you a visible middle finger.

[mistertrickster]

8. Now THAT is funny! Gotta remember that one hee heeee! nt.

[OhioDoink]

7. Never read her books.

But is part 3 about her running out of money after the cancer and living off Social Security and Medicare?

[quaker bill]

9. A wise choice, n/t

[HughBeaumont]

12. Dagny Butthurt.

Who is John Dolt?

Looks like Atlas Laid an Egg.

[Magron]

13. As a lifetime SciFi fan I read every one of the 1200 pages

and I guarantee you, that woman had issues. I have to wonder if a look into her chest freezer might not have ended her career.

[jimlup]

16. I made a decision not to actually read the final page

as a protest against the pointlessly unrealistic, simplistic and blatantly flawed viewpoint expressed in the hopelessly biased author.

[FVZA_Colonel]

17. When the best thing a fictional work supposedly has going for it is a retro-futuristic

visual style that is, more or less, divorced from the actual content, you know you've got a stinker on your hands.

[wndycty]

14. I worked in the film industry for years that is a horrible gross . . .

$5,666 per screen, and assuming an average ticket price of $8.50 that is 666 (LOL) viewers per theater. You figure the average theater has 200 seats and if there were 12 showings per screen that is 55.5 persons per showing. . .THAT SUCKS

[OmahaBlueDog]

18. It could not fairly be called a "de-rail"

It's a low budget release of a film based on a work by a well known author. There are other worse performing, comparable examples.

The film adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's "Mother Night" in 1996 did a total gross of $403,701. On its first weekend, it did $48,661 in 8 theaters (so it outperformed "Shrugged" on a per screen basis). It starred Nick Nolte and was never shown in more than 30 theaters.

Similarly, Vonnegut's "Breakfast of Champions" (with a pretty good cast, including Bruce Willis, Albert Finney, Nick Nolte, Barbara Hershey, Lukas Haas, Omar Epps, and a small appearance by Owen Wilson)appeared in 11 theaters and made $178,000.

The fact remains that "Shrugged pt1" has probably picked the low hanging fruit. It may get some decent overseas box, but I'd bet against it having any more $1M+ weekends in the US. My guess is that they recoup the $10M budget.

[Erose999]

20. Mother Night with Nolte was awesome. The B-of-C with Willis kinda sucked. There was really

no way anyone could make a cohesive screenplay out of Breakfast of Champions though, with all of its rambling segues, and such. Maybe Guy Ritchie could do it.

[MattSh]

19. What does freaking Atlas Shrugged...

have to do with Christian? Seems quite the opposite to me.

:shrug:

[JHB]

22. I think it's about the most comparable niche-market films...

Films that have a lot of buzz, but only within a small sliver of the movie-going public.

[Johonny]

23. In an odd mating many modern megachurches

have sort of merged objectivism and Christianity.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

21. Instead of "Atlas Shrugged"

I'd have to recommend "The Talented Mr. Ripley."