There's an article in today's Times that summarized what hit and what missed in the movie theaters in 2006. Their basic summary was that movies that emphasized "heavier" themes were ignored by the general moviegoing peoples who instead chose films that allowed them to ignore how truly fucked up this world is.
A year after Hollywood rediscovered weighty political and social issues in movies like “Syriana,” “Crash” and “Brokeback Mountain,” the box office story of 2006 was that moviegoers finally said, “Enough.”
They showed no appetite for a critique of their eating habits in “Fast Food Nation.” They weren’t ready to fly along on “United 93,” no matter how skilled its exposé of homeland insecurity. They didn’t care to see combat or suffer its after-effects in “Flags of Our Fathers.” And even Leonardo DiCaprio couldn’t interest them in touring the ravaged Africa of “Blood Diamond.”
And the numbers prove this true to a certain degree, but I've always been curious about the "cultural-ness" of New Yorkers compared to that of inhabitants of other cities in the U.S. of A. This is all based on pure anecdotal evidence, so you've been warned. I stand by everything I write here without any evidence beyond that which I've seen with my own prejudiced discerning eyes.
Without a doubt, certain mega Hollywood movies are a hit and play to a packed theater whether it is being shown in New York, Portland or Punxsutawney. Perfect examples of such a film are "Spider Man" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" (which I'm proud to admit I've never seen for absolutely no good reason). New Yorkers, Portlanders and Punxsutawneans will all line up to see these films on opening day, opening weekend, the random Tuesday matinee, the following weekend and so on and so on.
However, once you delve deeper into the plethora of cinematic offerings each weekend beyond those with marketing budgets allowing for gigantic billboards and full page ads in the newspapers, many of these non-mainstream or to completely generalize "art house/foreign/independent" films escape the attention of most, except in New York. In New York, it seems that both the 200 million dollar big budget action movie du jour and the random Indie film about the transvestite donut shop owner in New Jersey sell out to huge crowds. My first experience with this phenomenon which I had never seen really any where else was in 2003 after I had first moved to New York. I had read in some random cinemaphile magazine about a small British film that was getting rave reviews and was eventually going to make its way to the U.S. at some point. That 'small' film was called Bend It Like Beckham, which today is some what well known. Sure, fine. But back then, I did not see a mention of that film anywhere else other than in this magazine. And then I saw a small highlight that mentioned that it was opening at the theater on Houston and 1st Ave.
My friend and I planned arrived thirty minutes prior to the 7 o'clock showing. When I arrived, I saw a massive crowd milling around outside the ticket counter and I was informed that the 7 o'clock showing was sold out. As was the 7:30, and the 8 and the 8:45 and the 9:30 and so on. I think we ended up catching the 11 o'clock showing which played to a packed theater. The point here is that I'm not disputing that someone in San Antonio wouldn't go to this movie or know about it, but I somehow highly doubt it would be completely sold out as it was in New York. And this has happened repeatedly since.
So to go back to the New York Times article, specifically the part I highlight in the excerpt above, the Times's inclusion of "Blood Diamonds" as bolstering its argument that "weightier" movies bombed in 2006 was interesting to me. It caught my attention because I just saw Blood Diamonds this past Saturday.
I'm not quite sure when it opened and I'm too lazy at the moment to open another window and Google this information, but I'm assuming it opened a week or two weeks ago. Either way, its been out for a while now (two weeks is a long time nowadays for mainstream movies). From the Times article, one would surmise that if you went to see Blood Diamond, you might possibly have an entire row all to yourself.
When I went on Saturday, again my friend and I met at the theater about half an hour before the 8 o'clock showing. It was sold out and the next one was at least an hour later. We then walked a few blocks to another movie theater and at this one, the next showing of Blood Diamond, too was sold out. We decided to purchase tickets to the next showing, which was also about an hour plus some away. We walked into the theater approximately 20 minutes prior to its start only to find the upper section of the theater entirely packed. We had to sit in the "orchestra" seats, which we all know is where the losers sit. And this loser section was completely full as well by the start of the previews.
Basically, unlike the Times's contention, in New York I would argue that this movie featuring Leo Dicaprio, Blood Diamond is a mothafuckin hot movie.
The movie is good ya'll. Go check it out.