Jai Ho! The Slumdog Millionaire Club (OVER Juno Club)

geezer9687 wrote:I would have joined this club, but it would have been nice to know exactly how much money would make it the second highest Fox Searchlight release, as I have no idea.

From Box Office Mojo:

1. Juno, $143 million
2. Sideways, $71 million
3. Little Miss Sunshine, $59 million
...
9. The Ringer, $35 million
10. (as of now) Slumdog Millionaire, $34.1 million

Then no, I will not join the club, I do not think it will gross that high.

Does anyone get the idea that The Weinstein Company's success this year was based upon sympathy over the company's lack of success since they left Miramax? I mean, in five years we will probably have forgotten Vicky Cristina Barcelona and The Reader completely while Milk and Frost/Nixon will still be remembered as really good films.

I think it's the case any year that some films that DON'T win are remembered over the ones that do.

Sorry Jacko, I didnt know that i never said that i was in, i guess my defending it wasnt exactly as saying that im in. Whatever though, I'll take silver membership.

and as for being second highest grossing, I think it'll pass the $100 million mark. Sweeping at the Golden Globes will really help it

Buscemi wrote:Does anyone get the idea that The Weinstein Company's success this year was based upon sympathy over the company's lack of success since they left Miramax? I mean, in five years we will probably have forgotten Vicky Cristina Barcelona and The Reader completely while Milk and Frost/Nixon will still be remembered as really good films.

What are you talking about? Did you see the Reader (I'm pretty sure you said you already saw VCB...)? I thought both were REALLY great films. In fact, I would say VCB is better than Slumdog (and I know I'm in the minority here), and I rather it takes the Oscar, though I know it's not probable. And The Reader was a great take on a complex subject with a great performance by Kate Winslet, and really good performances for Ralph Fiennes and the kid who played his character in the earlier years (forget his name).

And what's up with the hate for the Weinstein's? I'm quite glad they're doing well again, as they're the reason for the independent boom in the nineties that spawned several great filmmakers. As for their bad press...that just tells me they're probably less pretentious and a bit less full of shit than the other studio heads...

People hate the Weinsteins because they ARE assholes. Harvey may have done more to embarass himself than any other studio head (example: the Monkey Peaches incident), they delay things so many times that by that they are released even they don't care and they dump them (examples: Rogue, the entire Kill Bill, Cassandra's Dream), they edit things heavily to where they either don't resemble the original version or they don't even work in the new form (examples: Arthur and the Minimoys/Arthur and the Invisibles, The Magic Roundabout/Doogal, Fanboys) and they take good projects and dump them into theatres without good advertising or bad release dates (examples: Grindhouse, Soul Men, Diary Of The Dead). Also since they formed The Weinstein Company in 2005, they got into money-losing ventures (such as Genius Products and that MySpace for rich people), tarnished the reputations of two film companies (MGM and IFC), released flop after flop and now they are near-broke due to their poor business dealings and their even worse reputations. Serves them well.

Yeah, not all the movies the Weinstein's do work, but that's because the TAKE CHANCES with films. Grindhouse, for example, would not be made by another studio, definitely not how it was done (and don't get it wrong, I hated the parts of Grindhouse I saw, but it was still ballsy...). I doubt the Reader would be made by anyone else, with the way it handles subject matter (in an adult, and realistic way). That's what I care about, is new things being made. As far as them being assholes, who gives a shit? I don't care what they do personally as long as they're trying to make good films, with real guts to them. I feel the same about Tom Cruise and Scientology. What the hell do I care what he believes? It has nothing to do with me, or his performances. It's like US Weekly's taking over world opinion...

I think anyone could have made The Reader. Everybody does World War II movies. The Reader was done by Paramount guys (such as Scott Rudin) and Ralph Fiennes is a guy that any indie distributor would want. Kate Winslet is a familar actress and can draw. The Reader seems to scream a big studio film that had the misfortune to fall into Harvey's hands. It could have easily been distributed by Paramount or Universal.

Meanwhile with Grindhouse, that could have also been a big studio film. They greenlight B-movies all the time. Making a homage to B-movies isn't much of a stretch.

mfrendo wrote:Yeah, not all the movies the Weinstein's do work, but that's because the TAKE CHANCES with films. Grindhouse, for example, would not be made by another studio, definitely not how it was done (and don't get it wrong, I hated the parts of Grindhouse I saw, but it was still ballsy...). I doubt the Reader would be made by anyone else, with the way it handles subject matter (in an adult, and realistic way). That's what I care about, is new things being made. As far as them being assholes, who gives a shit? I don't care what they do personally as long as they're trying to make good films, with real guts to them. I feel the same about Tom Cruise and Scientology. What the hell do I care what he believes? It has nothing to do with me, or his performances. It's like US Weekly's taking over world opinion...

That's true. Weinstein might not always be a box office success but they do add a certain spice to the movie lasagna. He handled VCB really well.

Buscemi wrote:I think I found a first: Best Picture in a Musical or Comedy going to a film that wasn't even funny or musical to begin with (Vicky Cristina Barcelona, the most overrated film of 2008).

I read an interview with Woody Allen yesterday and he said the exact same thing.

So I bet Benjamin Button won't be getting helped by the Oscar season. Slumdog Millionaire, however, once it gets nominated for Best Picture and Best Director at the Oscars, will be big, but they need to go ahead and start the marketing and get a wide-release date.

Slumdog has some very wide expansion plans . . . .

Wow, Slumdog jumped up to 5th place on Monday.

Was an almost certainty after the Globes

New estimates for next weekend (23rd) are out and while Slumdog declines this week, it jumps up to 1,000 theaters (it's widest release so far) for the 2nd to last weekend of it's FM eligibility.

Woot! With the nomination of Boyle and Slumdog, this club is halfway to the club goal.

Slumdog Millionaire was in 2nd place on Tuesday.

And if it wins the Oscar, it will have won more best picture awards than any other movie of all time (Oscar, Globes, BAFTA, PGA, etc.)

I'm calling it. All it needs is 1.5M over THE ENTIRE WEEKEND in order to be the 2nd highest grossing Fox Searchlight film. Congrats and thank you to the brave few who signed up! Also you can pre-order Slumdog on Amazon now, however a release date has not been posted.

I will definitely be ordering it

I finally get the chance to see it on Tuesday, but I have been fully behind it from the outset and I'm so glad to see Danny Boyle succeed. And from what I've heard it is amazing, so I'm expecting a lot of Tuesday.

As promised keeping up with current events, Slumdog Millionaire after Monday is at around 99M. I think it can outgross Juno with it's after Oscar bump. Expecially with the news it will be playing in more theaters this weekend then Juno ever had, thus breaking a record for widest Fox Searchlight release ever.

"On Friday, "Slumdog" will become the widest domestic release in Fox Searchlight's history. The specialty label is upping the film's screen count to more than 2,800. At its widest, Searchlight's "Juno" played in 2,434."




http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=awardcentral&jump=contenders&id=picture&articleid=VR1118000490&cs=1

What does the Fantaverse say?

Club President
JackO

Would love to see it pass Juno as I liked it a heck of a lot more than Juno, but do you really think it has another $50 million it?

It will probably get another $15m or so by the end of next the weekend, taking it $115m. It'll be tight, but I guess entirely plausible. It'll be interesting to see if it beats Juno's worldwide total of $230m too, its currently sitting at $160m.

Just in case your getting a bit nervous here are other Oscar winners that received a very large bump from winning.

Chicago	$64,568,153	$69,446,381	$36,672,984	$170,687,518
Million Dollar Baby	$8,499,006	$56,352,732	$35,640,465	$100,492,203
Schindler's List	$29,649,653	$30,654,610	$35,761,505	$96,065,768
Titanic	$338,710,764	$156,862,280	$105,215,144	$600,788,188
American Beauty	$74,681,000	$33,787,063	$21,628,538	$130,096,601
Driving Miss Daisy	$33,601,409	$41,557,199	$31,434,688	$106,593,296
Dances with Wolves	$104,349,829	$32,712,720	$47,146,299	$184,208,848
Platoon	$39,297,361	$64,750,347	$34,482,857	$138,530,565

So getting another 49M isn't entirely out of the question.