| Show The e Summer That a Refused e u to ea p William Villiam Booth The Washington Post Its It's time for the Labor Day reckoning when Hollywood licks its wounds and counts its cash for the season that accounts for 40 percent of its yearly gross The big winners Easy That would be the retreads The sequel million in box office receipts the Spider Man sequel million and the Harry Potter sequel million Good for them They not only were critically acclaimed but found huge audiences But how about the bombs Cough up a for Made for a reported million it took in 39 million at the multi multi- We wouldn't dwell on this kitty litter except that a cultural cultural cultural cul cul- cul- cul tural pundit or two were pressed into service by the entertainment press to declare that the Halle Berry film was some kind of civil rights litmus litmus litmus lit lit- mus test to see if an African- African American actress and Oscar winner could carry a block block- buster It didn't matter who starred in this movie you movie you could have put Tom Cruise in leather chaps and handed him a whip- whip the buzz was bad from the 1 beginning I 1 would say that was expected to bomb and it lived up to its potential says Brandon Gray founder and editor of the box office tracking firm Why was panned by the critics But often summer movies do not rise and fall by their critical year olds dont don't read the New Yorker What killed was that it did not inspire the comic book nerds the kids who went to see despite mixed reviews It had none of the fan-boy fan base of support that many genre movies have It alienated ed that crowd It was too stupid stupid stu stu- stupid stu- stu pid and didn't distinguish itself from a bad MTV video Gray says They worked the female empowerment thing But that fell flat The summer season was remarkable for the surprise success of Michael Moores Moore's Fahrenheit 9 11 at million the biggest score for a documentary ever Most everything else elsemore elsemore elsemore more or less performed as expected ted Gray says Some a little bit better Some worse Brad Pitt in Troy at at million OK and huge overseas overseas overseas over over- seas King Arthur a weird remake of the Knights of the Round Table fable at 51 million lame was a nice surprise with million The dumb trick of The The Village also made a passing grade with mil mil- lion Tom Hanks in Steven Spielberg's The Terminal was a 77 million disappointment disappoint disappoint- ment for Dream Works which spent about 60 million making making mak- mak ing ig it But what does one See Movie Recap Continued on page Movie I Recap Continued from page expect in a post 9 world for a movie about a foreigner stuck at Kennedy Airport for months a months a setting which is the most dreaded place on the planet with the exception of being in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles Gray says Also lagging The Manchurian Candidate starring starring starring star star- ring Meryl and Denzel Washington and The Wives both at 59 w. a-w. a million Both were hailed as politically sly Alas both were better in their original forms Gross domestic receipts were up a tick from last summer summer summer sum sum- mer at around 39 billion but overall ticket sales were down One reason Prices are up at the multiplexes Nationally it cost to see seea a movie this summer vs five ye years s ago averaging averaging ing in matinees senior and youth discounts There were a couple of indie standouts Napoleon Dynamite the made-by- made Mormons Sundance fave Pave about a do can-do nerd in Idaho has hit 22 million The shark Open Water Vater has made 23 million In many ways it was a pretty forgettable season A Avery Avery Avery very hum ho-hum summer Gray says There were a ton of sequels remakes redos rectos and it felt as unoriginal as ever which feeds into the whole malaise that that and these are trying times with all the politics politics politics poli poli- tics and war So people were looking for escape but Im I'm not sure they found it |
