“A Mighty Heart” Bombs at Box OfficeJune 25th, 2007 in Box Office |
This weekend, Evan Almighty came out on top as the weekend’s top movie, bringing in $31 million dollars. But considering that the film’s budget was significantly over $150 million, such an opening is not considered a resounding success.
Coming in at number two was 1408, an interesting horror flick based off the Steven King novel of the same name. 1408 brought in about $20 million. From there we had Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer ($20 mil), Ocean’s Thirteen ($11.4 mil), Knocked up ($10.97 mil), Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End ($7.2 mil), Surf’s Up ($6.6 mil), Shrek the Third ($5.7 mil), Nancy Drew ($4.4 mil), and A Mighty Heart ($3.9 mil).
The biggest surprise of all was that A Mighty Heart completely bombed out at the box office, bringing the studios in just $3.9 million and placing 10th overall. Considering they probably spend several times that in all the promotions and advertising alone, I can’t imagine they’d be too happy with its performance.
So why did it do so badly? It’s likely due to several reasons, such as (take your pick):
- Angelina wasn’t the right person to play Marianne Pearl. A white woman playing an minority just didn’t settle well with anyone.
- Angelina is box office poison. And banning reporters from the premiere couldn’t have been good for her rep.
- Angelina overload. Jolie and Pitt had a box office mega-hit with Mr. & Mrs. Smith, but that was at the same time they were receiving insane amounts of tabloid coverage for Pitt’s alleged affair with Jolie while still married to Jennifer Aniston. We’re all sick of it now. Old news!
Popularity: 1% [?]
Stumble it! / Bookmark:
June 25th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
Reason #4: It’s based on a recent tragedy tied to Middle East political dramas, and Americans generally are weary of everything bad going on in that part of the world. Bottom line is that Americans go to the movies to escape, especially from the bad news they already see on TV and in the rest of the news media.
Also, isn’t the woman whom Angelina portrayed not 100% African-American? (I don’t know.) Isn’t she of mixed race heritage?
June 25th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
Frank, Mariane Pearl is NOT African-American. She is primarily of Dutch and Cuban descent with some African and Chinese heritage. Culturally she considers herself French. As I have noted previously, Mme. Pearl specifically asked for Jolie to portray her. I suspect that releasing the film in the middle of Summer was not a good idea, and that the film will probably have more life when it is released on DVD.
June 26th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
#5. Producing a film about, at its core, the attempted censorship of the press, and then banning certain members of the press from publicity interviews, didn’t help.
Also, I would argue that Americans don’t have a problem with seeing a drama about middle eastern politics (though you may be right about the timing). They do, however, have a problem with a storyline that they strongly predict (based on the politics of the people involved with the production) will water down and even attempt to excuse the sheer animal nastiness of what was done to Pearl.
Chris
July 9th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
I think a lot of people just have no desire to see her movies. Most of the people I talk with don’t appreciate her ” I can do whatever I please” attitude, and if the execs think people are over it - they’re wrong. Just being honest.
July 12th, 2007 at 8:41 am
I think it a shame that this movie was not given the attention by the public that it truly deserves. The acting was superb by all and definitely worth academy award recognition. As sad as this story is the fact of it being true and the triumph of showing that the love and spirit of the Pearls couldn’t be broken says it all. I’m sure their son Adam will have as mighty a heart as his parents.
October 15th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Jolie cheated and lied repeatedly about her affair with Brad. People are much smarter than she thinks they are….how can you back stab some one and put up one dont care holy molie picture saving the world..Wrong pick when it came to the actress selection..
October 24th, 2007 at 11:51 am
Why is Marianne’s Dutch descendent more important than her Afro-Cuban? Bad casting. Maybe she has lost touch with her afro-cuban roots, she looks black!