14/05/2011
“ I was so convinced that this rare R-rated event comedy featuring women burping and farting for our female amusement wouldn’t make over $13M, even $15M tops, that I promised Universal Pictures chairman Adam Fogelson that I would leave Hollywood reporting forever if Bridesmaids did the $20 million he thought it would. Well, I’ve called the moving vans because I clearly have no idea what works at the domestic box office anymore. (So you won’t have Nikki to kick around in the comments section. Say goodbye now…) I couldn’t believe that this is why generations of women fought the feminist revolution: to ensure we had the same opportunities to watch our sex make the same raunchy movie stuff as men. I wasn’t alone. Tipsters told me that the studios weren’t touching any new film comedies that featured women until they saw how Bridesmaids did. “And they’re hoping it tanks or at least does business they can put a negative spin on,” one source emailed. “Talk to Natalie Portman about the double-talk she’s enduring over Best Buds, a female stoner comedy she’s trying to set up. When Will Ferrell or Adam Sandler or Seth Rogen tank, there are no ramifications. It’s ugly out there.” But Universal had faith in this net $32.5M-budget pic from the start, mostly pinned to the pedigree of mogul Judd Apatow’s banner behind it. Weeks of decent tracking popped dramatically going into this weekend, especially in the ‘unaided awareness’ category. It went into this weekend with great reviews from the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times and 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. Yet I found the first trailer laugh-challenged along with the TV ads in heavy rotation, and the movie lacked big name stars (Saturday Night Live regular Kristen Wiig leads an ensemble cast of mostly TV actresses), and its release was middling but by no means giant. Whch is why I had such low expectations and now I’m packing up. „
The Mighty ‘Thor’ Holds Onto #1 Friday; ‘Bridesmaids’ Yucks Up $21.5M Weekend; Vampirical ‘Priest’ Bites For $14M – Deadline.com
Don’t you love people who report on entertainment that clearly don’t get entertainment? There are a variety of things wrong with Nikki Finke’s take on Bridesmaids. But the main one is that there are only about two or three “gross-out” scenes in Bridesmaids and it obviously isn’t the focus of the actual movie. They’re big comedic set-pieces, but that’s it.
However, the very first trailer for Bridesmaids only featured these gags, selling it as the “female Hangover.” And I wasn’t sold on that first trailer. I thought, “Well, I like all these people involved and I’m glad to see a women-centered comedy but are women supposed to be better/smarter than us? Why is this movie that is supposed to be a comedy by women using the same stupid comedy by men tricks?” But the rest of the marketing was true to the actual tone of the movie, which is sweet and funny and a little filthy, but so are the best women.
This further convinces me that Nikki Finke (and most of the people working for her) never actually see these movies and shows they are reporting on/are part of the awful Hollywood machine that wasn’t buying or listening to any pitches of female-centered projects until they saw if people actually went to go see Bridesmaids.
Ugh.
(But seriously, Bridesmaids is really good and funny)
Quote posted at 18:34
Awkward Commas
