Word: cinema
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...looming cultural phenomenon, came last year with the midnight screening of Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Or rather the nonscreening; the movie broke down and had to be rescheduled. Outside the theater, star Sacha Baron Cohen, in character, was dragged to the cinema in a cart by a gaggle of actresses playing Kazakh wenches. Two months later, the film was released, and real people got to see what all the insanity was about. Borat grossed more than $100 million Stateside, and Baron Cohen got an Oscar nomination...
...Harvey Weinstein describes the Asia gambit as having sprung up not from money troubles, but from a penchant for Asian cinema spurred by a close relationship with chopsocky fan Quentin Tarantino. Name an Asian hit in the West and the Weinsteins are probably in some way responsible. Iron Monkey, Farewell My Concubine, Princess Mononoke, and half of the eight highest grossing American showings of Asian pics, including Hero and the original Shall We Dance?, were all released under Harvey's guidance...
...finally over between us and amour? After decades as one of cinema's favorite subjects and centuries as the engine of novels and songs, romance faces a cold shoulder as a subject worthy of our attention. The recent movie calendar is pockmarked with the craters of little romantic bombs (Catch and Release, In the Land of Women...
...should that matter? It's all legal currency, no? Well, no. Not to Hollywood. Studios make most of their box-office money in the first 10 days of a movie's release, when they take in 90% of the movie's profits and the cinema owners, or exhibitors, get the rest. After two weeks, they generally split the proceeds 70/30 and then down from there. Spider-Man 3, the most successful movie in America so far this year, made 45% of its profits to date on the first weekend. Titanic, by contrast, made 5%. The studios don't just want...
...briefest display of pubic hair. Instead of trimming the scene to the board's specifications, MGM honored Antonioni's version of the film, invented a subsidiary, Premier Productions, and sent Blowup out under that logo. The film was a surprise hit and ushered in the era of permissive American cinema. For about a decade, thanks to Antonioni, Hollywood movies had permission to be enigmatic, unflinching and adult. Permission was denied when Jaws and Star Wars proved that kids, not adults, were the engine that drove profits...