CAPTIVITY - Hurtful Mysogynist Torture Porn Or Harmless Throwaway Horror Flick?

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 7/14/07 at 3:18am

Discuss. I have not seen it nor do I plan to and hence cannot add in my own two cents.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 7/14/07 at 3:40am

http://whedonesque.com/comments/13271

An interesting editorial on the controversy by BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER creator Joss Whedon.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 7/14/07 at 6:16am

How about Stupid Idiotic Flick That'll Drop Like a Stone After Two Weeks? I mean, that's one thing we can be glad for, that "art" like this (or Saw 3 or Hostel 2 or all the other, very similar attempts at movie-making... I mean, money-making) seem to disappear without a trace after a very short time at the box office. This one will no doubt share the same fate.

[tazber]

Posted: 7/14/07 at 9:30am

Saw 3:

Budget
$10,000,000 (estimated)

Gross
$80,150,343 (USA) (10 December 2006) (sub-total)

http://imdb.com/title/tt0489270/business

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 7/14/07 at 11:57am

So what? 80 mil, even for a movie with a budget that small, is one weekend in mid-range.

[tazber]

Posted: 7/14/07 at 12:16pm

It's a huge profit for the studio. Comparing it to a mid-range doesn't diminish it's success.

Hostel 2 on the other hand was indeed a serious money loser.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 7/14/07 at 1:30pm

Whether or not it constitutes a "huge profit" really is immaterial, because the studio has to see it in context with *all* of its releases and how well *all* of them perform. IOW, just because this film had a return rate of 800% might mean nothing at all if it's not generating the 1200% return they expected, because the studio needs that 1200% to finance the larger-scale films that bring in the *serious* bucks. Looked upon that way, Saw 3 very well could have been just as much a loser as Hostel 2.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 7/14/07 at 1:49pm

The faux-grindhouse "torture porn" genre is dead. The horror film of the year will be something totally new, spawning a slew of like-minded films, just like the genteel PG-13 horror flicks that came in the wake of THE SIXTH SENSE and so on.
I predict THE HOST will be a huge hit the moment it is released on DVD...as well it should.

Interesting: CAPTIVITY was written by B-movie legend Larry Cohen (IT'S ALIVE, Q, GOD MADE ME DO IT, PHONE BOOTH, CELLULAR) and directed by the once veddy seddious Roland Joffe of THE KILLING FIELDS fame.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/14/07 at 2:28pm

I respect ACTUAL S+M porn with consenting adults who are ACTUALLY getting off on what they are doing.

It's so much more honest.

"Born to Raise Hell," anyone?

ETA: That was a great piece Whedon wrote. Thanks for the link, C_S.

How did more than half the people in the world come out incorrectly? I have spent a good part of my life trying to do that math, and I’m no closer to a viable equation. And I have yet to find a culture that doesn’t buy into it. Women’s inferiority – in fact, their malevolence -- is as ingrained in American popular culture as it is anywhere they’re sporting burkhas. I find it in movies, I hear it in the jokes of colleagues, I see it plastered on billboards, and not just the ones for horror movies. Women are weak. Women are manipulative. Women are somehow morally unfinished. (Objectification: another tangential rant avoided.) And the logical extension of this line of thinking is that women are, at the very least, expendable.

Updated On: 7/14/07 at 02:28 PM

[tazber]

Posted: 7/14/07 at 4:22pm

"Saw III ripped into theaters and cut up $33.6M in ticket sales in its debut frame, according to final studio figures, scoring the biggest opening for an R-rated film in 15 months. The brutal Jigsaw pic crushed the competition averaging a brutal $10,613 from 3,167 theaters and grossed more than the next four films combined. Lionsgate continued to grow its low budget October franchise. The first Saw opened this weekend in 2004 to $18.3M and reached $55.2M while its sequel bowed a year later to $31.7M on its way to $87M. Saw III, which was reportedly produced for only $12M, is already off to a stronger start with an opening that was 6% bloodier than its predecessor's. The distrib also set new company records for both widest release and biggest opening weekend gross.

The latest installment of the Saw series got off to a potent start on Friday grossing $14.4M before tumbling 21% on Saturday to $11.4M. A Friday-to-Saturday drop is not uncommon for heavily-hyped horror sequels. Sunday sales dropped 31% to $7.8M. No R pic has opened this well since the raunchy comedy Wedding Crashers with $33.9M in July 2005. Based on the history of the franchise with Halloween providing a boost, but subsequent weekends dropping hard, the torture trilogy could boost its combined domestic tally to a stunning $230M. Combined production budgets amount to less than one-tenth of that figure. Lionsgate has no plans to shut down its cash machine and is developing Saw IV for a Halloween 2007 release."

http://www.boxofficeguru.com/103006.htm

Updated On: 7/14/07 at 04:22 PM