The more things Changeling

By Steven Zeitchik

We know Angelina Jolie doesn't do so well opening arthouse movies. But Clint Eastwood's "Changeling," which went wide this weekend, proves a rather interesting case because it markets two names -- Jolie, who has huge appeal to the under-40 set, and Eastwood, a baby-boomer icon who resonates with an older crowd (and who was marketed somewhat heavily here even though he's not in the film).

So how does the movie's $9.4 million take stack up to previous Jolie and Eastwood vehicles?

Well, outside of the flop "A Mighty Heart," "Changeling" is Jolie's lowest weekend total for a wide opening since the "Original Sin"/"Life or Something Like It" days of the early 00's. True, it is a more much prestige-y film than, say, "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow." And Halloween did take a toll. But not blowout numbers.

Eastwood followed a similar trajectory -- "Changeling" trumped the late 90'/early 00's openings of tepidness like "Blood Work" and "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." But the tally came in lower than the first wide weekends of his last three English-language directorial efforts -- "Flags of Our Fathers," "Million Dollar Baby" and "Mystic River."

So why would the combined power of two huge names result in totals lower than that tallied for each individually? Here's one theory. Reviewers. They tend to matter in a surprisingly big way on Eastwood-directed movies. Three of his biggest earners ("Unforgiven," Mystic River" and "Million Dollar Baby") also earned his three highest scores on Rotten Tomatoes.

And that's exactly where "Changeling" is lacking -- unlike the 85% or higher on those movies, "Changeling" managed just a measly 53%.

Eastwood has shown potential to be the rare auteur who can earn money, pulling in $90 and $100 million with regularity. But when the critics don't like a movie such as "Changeling" -- and there were plenty that didn't -- he may just be pulling for, well, "Gran Torino."

Comments

[Ligaya]

Gold Derby’s Tom O’Neill is right. You stack the deck by cherry picking your numbers and comparing apples and oranges. We know Halloween weekends depress attendance. None of the films you chose for comparison bowed on a Halloween weekend.

Try these numbers:

Variety, Hollywood Reporter: “Universal got spectacular results from 15 runs of “Changeling” in nine markets. The Clint Eastwood-helmed pic bowed with $502,000, or $33,441 per house (the highest of all the LIMITED RUN movies).”

Variety: Clint Eastwood's "Changeling," from Universal, grossed a NOTEWORTHY $9.4 million from 1,850 as it went nationwide to place No. 4. Drama posted a per location average of $5,085, THE BEST OF ANY FILM IN THE TOP 10 CHART. The Hollywood Reporter: "Changeling jumped 16 places to No. 4 with $9.4 million in its first weekend of wide release. Including its haul from a limited opening last weekend in nine markets, the total stands at $10.1 million – more than A Mighty Heart’s domestic total.

http://www.boxofficeprophets.com//column/index.cfm?columnID=11083&cmin=10&columnpage=3

Finishing fourth is Changeling, a film that proved to be excellent counter-programming against such a strange weekend. Changeling earned $9.4 million from a very small venue count of 1,850. It had the best venue average in the top ten, coming in at $5,085. From director Clint Eastwood and current it-girl Angelina Jolie, Changeling had the goods to draw audiences. Changeling had an internal multiplier of 4.1, which tells us it was not ignored on Friday night.

This opening is a huge success for Universal, Eastwood and Jolie. Clint Eastwood's last English language film was Flags of our Fathers, and it opened to $10.2 million in October of 2006. However, it was surrounded by a lot more fanfare, and the opening weekend was considered somewhat of a disappointment. Changeling, on the other hand, has not been embraced by critics. Reviews are currently split down the middle on this one, with a 54% fresh rating at RottenTomatoes. Unlike Flags, Changeling isn't a director's follow-up to an Oscar winner (Million Dollar Baby).

For Angelina Jolie, this is a respectable start, considering she's carrying the film and no one is being blown up. She has already bested the gross of her previous Oscar bait, A Mighty Heart, as the story of Daniel Pearl's widow finished with a domestic total of only $9.6 million.

Let’s not forget the critics who like Changeling and Ms. Jolie’s performance. My favorite: James Christopher, Times – “I shall eat the next person who tells me that Angelina Jolie cannot act.” Other thumbs up, just to mention a few: Roger Ebert, Kim Voynar, Independent, International Herald Tribune, Mike Goodridge/Screen Daily, David Ansen/NEWSWEEK, Mick LaSalle/San Francisco Chronicle,Kenneth Turan/Los Angeles Times, Todd McCarthy/Daily Variety, Kurt Honeycutt/Hollywood Reporter, The Onion - A.V. Club, Peter Travers/Rolling Stone, Lou Lumenick/NY Post, William Arnold/Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Gareth Owen, Somecamerunning, Roger Friedman/Fox News.

[Ligaya]

As for A Mighty Heart, 3 factors contributed to its poor box office showing which can’t be blamed on Angelina Jolie:

1. It should have been released on a platform basis, not opened wide;
2. It shouldn’t have been released in the summer, the fall or winter would have been better; and
3. every film having to do with Iraq/iterrorism – no matter star or director – has tanked.

Angelina’s box office draw? Her 24 films (minus Kung Fu Panda and Wanted) total $1,191,365,852. That’s $1.2 BILLION. (All figures from boxofficemojo.) Jack Black and James McAvoy were the real leads of Kung Fu Panda and Wanted, but the studios smartly put Angelina Jolie front and center of the publicity and promotion.

Result?

KUNG FU PANDA: Worldwide = $629,897,523 (Foreign $414,462,392 65.8%, Domestic $215,434,591 34%)

WANTED: Worldwide = $334,416,512 (Foreign $200,089,387 59%, Domestic $134,327,125 40.2%)

KFP + W: Worldwide = $964,304,035!!!

Top international grosses (without U.S. domestic):
1. Paramount's "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" ($466 million),
2. Warner Bros.' "The Dark Knight" ($464 million) and
3. DreamWorks/Paramount's "Kung Fu Panda" ($418 million). It also is Universal's second-highest international grosser ever after 1993's "Jurassic Park."

[UGLY PUNK GURL!]

whoa, Jolie's films have earned $1.2 billion in total? That's impressive.

[Ligaya]

Add Kung Fu Panda and Wanted, and Jolie's lifetime grosses = $2.1 BILLION.

[Candice Smith]

I personally think that people listen to reviews, and what there friends and family have to say about it. This was a true story, and a very disturbing one at that. People don't want to go watch a movie about a women’s little boy getting hacked to death. It leaves you with a heavy heart, and I felt just sick after seeing it. Now I actually liked this movie, because of her performance. To actually have to act in the state that your son was kidnapped and by a psycho maniac is just pure talent. The fact too is she has kids, I just couldn't imagine it.

People talk and I was one of them, even though I liked it I would not recommend it, especially to someone that was a parent. It felt like watching the graphic specials on the twin towers coming done, disturbing.

[nemesis]

a

[nemesis]

Mrs Jolie has a hit movie every 5 or 6 she makes That is the fact You are giving numbers that we are unable to check plus for her last movie for example we don't know the real cost of the production and the promotion To this comment if it is true - James Christopher, Times – “I shall eat the next person who tells me that Angelina Jolie cannot act.” - i have to say eat me Her acting was over the top