Monday Morning Quarterback Part III
By BOP Staff
September 18, 2013
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Brett Ballard-Beach: A slight yes and a more emphatic no. James Wan has accomplished something that few other directors ever have: having multiple box office smashes within one 12 month span (Spielberg with Minority Report and Catch Me If You Can in 2001-2002 and Soderbergh in 2000-2001 with Erin Brockovich and Traffic come to mind). Wan has done it two months apart and had $40 million plus openings in both case, a feat achieved prior only by the Wachowskis in 2003 with the Matrix sequels..
I would be hesitant to put him in the ranks of the names mentioned just yet, if only because all four of them strike me as very individualistic writer-directors with an easily identifiable point of view (and yes, 30-40 years of an oeuvre as opposed to Wan's 10). All of them have worked outside of the horror genre, of course (and in Wan's case, I was a big fan, probably one of the few, of 2007's Death Sentence, with several action set pieces that give me great reason to think he was a perfect choice for Fast & Furious 7), but he strikes me as more of a craftsman than an auteur at this point, and one whose films can rise and fall on the strengths of the screenplays he chooses or those of his collaborators. I have also read that he is looking to steer clear of horror films in the short term and wants to branch out to a variety of material. I am more than a little curious to see where his career takes him in the next decade.
Matthew Huntley: At this stage in James Wan's career, I'd be more apt to label him one of the "goods," as opposed to one of the "greats." Like Brett mentioned, he has yet to create something that stands out as truly original and groundbreaking. He's a faithful upholder of the horror genre, but he doesn't exactly transcend it or take it in a new direction. That's not to say I don't think he has it in him, and I await from him a film that can be categorized along the same lines as, say, Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street or Scream.
Jason Barney: In order to be one of the "greats" a much larger body of work is required.
Edwin Davies: I'd say that he meets at least one of the criteria for being considered a "great" in that he has already proved to be incredibly influential. He didn't invent the sort of extreme horror of Saw, that whole genre has existed for decades, but he brought so-called torture porn to a mass audience in a big way, and fundamentally altered mainstream horror for the better part of a decade as a result. That's no small feat, and it's comparable to the sort of impact that John Carpenter had with Halloween, Wes Craven had with A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream and that George Romero had with Night of the Living Dead. However, he has until recently struggled to follow up that success, and it's impossible to say at this point whether The Conjuring will have quite the same impact that Saw did. (Though I'd guess that it will be pretty influential, if only because it probably prompted studios to start fast tracking any haunted house scripts they've got lying around.) His body of work is still too small to determine if he'll go down as a true great, but he's demonstrated that he's a great craftsman and his handful of films have had a significant impact, so that suggests that he definitely has greatness within him that will hopefully continue to flourish over the rest of his career.
Bruce Hall: I think the available body of evidence suggests that James Wan is a "rising star" whose long term impact will depend in large part on his next few projects. All the evidence you need of Wan's success and influence is the fact that he's been given the keys to one of Universal's shiniest rides, F7st and F7rio7s S7v7n (promotional spelling).
People don't usually just give you such nice things unless they think you can make money for them. He's done enough to get noticed, and in the event Fast Seven is a success, Wan will be able to do almost anything he wants - for a while. And it's in those next few projects where all that creative leeway will either bring out his Sucker Punch or Pulp Fiction, assuming he's got one in him. Then we'll know for sure.
Kim Hollis: The Family, a movie starring Robert DeNiro and Michelle Pfeiffer and directed by Luc Besson, earned $14 million this weekend. What do you think of this result?
Brett Ballard-Beach: A lot better than it could have/should have been. I don't think it's a case of starpower or an intriguing storyline or its promise of darkly comic violent thrills, so much as being in the right place at the right time (if you've seen everything else out there, and weren't interested in Insidious Chapter 2) to serve as counter-programming of some sort. Still, it's a win for all involved.
Matthew Huntley: Considering the relatively modest ad campaign and generic title, this is a promising start for a movie that cost roughly $30 million to make. It'll need strong legs to recoup all of its costs, but its dark humor and violence combination could work in its favor over the coming weeks so that it at least ends up with $40 million overall. Plus, it'll likely have strong international appeal, not only because of Besson's name, but because of its setting. I envision The Family living up to being a mid-level hit.
Jason Barney: This will probably be a push for Relativity. An opening like this is lukewarm at best, especially when things are pretty soft out there. The $30 million dollar budget is within reach, but this will have to rely on international appeal to see profitability.
On one level, people are beating up on Robert DeNiro because he took two bad roles in 2013 and they keep saying how sad his career has become. Maybe The Big Wedding and The Family don’t equal the body of his total work, but we have short memories. It was only a year ago DeNiro was a major part of Silver Linings Playbook. His work in that film earned him a nod at Best Supporting Actor…so let’s not forget the past.
If there is a performer who needs to be concerned about the quality of work she has been involved in over recent years it is Michelle Pfeiffer. She got some attention for Stardust and Hairspray, but those were back in 2007. Now in her mid 50s, she is still beautiful and really isn’t looking for work, but her most recent projects have been obscure or not very successful. Dark Shadows, People Like Us, the films she did in 2009 and 2011 I have not even heard of, and now this. If there is a relevancy question, I think Pfeiffer should be more concerned than DeNiro.
Edwin Davies: This is about what we should expect from a project featuring those three people in 2013. DeNiro and Pfeiffer both did their best work quite some time ago and are not draws, but tend to work best in supporting roles, while Besson is still basically riding on the success of Taken and its sequel to push the various Euro-thrillers that he's produced in the last few years but he was never much of a marquee name even when he was at the height of his powers in the '90s. As with all Besson joints, The Family was made for relatively little money and will do well overseas, and the inclusion of two actors who could probably do better didn't really push the needle that much when it came to the overall success of the film.