Jersey Boys movie looking at a weak 12 million opening — Page 3

And then you add the R rating, to my thinking (others disagree) a bizarre component. A musical about a halcyon era that you can't really take your family too.

It's worked like this for 9 years. People who see the tour still write quaint complaint letters to the editor of their local paper after seeing the show and being appalled at the language. But because it has worked like this for 9 years, they probably didn't think they needed to clean it up on screen.

In fact, there were some instances where they changed "****ing" to "freaking" or just took it out all together. But they also added a few in, so the exchange might've actually balanced out.

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What a slog of a movie. Eastwood has sapped the life and energy out of what could have been a much more enchanting "musical" in the right hands. He's borrowed from the great Martin Scorsese's director playbook, but to ill effect. He's chosen the sluggish melodrama route, and most of the movie just sits there in dead space. Aside from chopping up the songs, theres surprisingly little underscoring, and the use of a monochromatic film stock only emphasizes the dreariness of it all.

Christopher Walken, Vincent Piazza,and Mike Doyle fare best, while John Lloyd Young only comes to life when he sings. He's surprisingly wooden with very little screen charisma which is unfortunate due to the size of the role. The stage version obviously covered his weak acting chops with it's terrific staging, design, energy , and last but not least, the MUSIC!

Even the final "music video" over the credit role looked like it was hastily made. Finally, here was Sergio Trujillo's big shot at some choreography, but he chose to use most of the moves from the stage version, which did not translate well to the screen and gave the whole thing an amateur quality.

bwayto, it sounds like your 18A is equivalent to our R, and your R is equivalent to our NC-17 (which rarely get widely distributed).

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I liked it. *shrug*

Possible spoiler?: Though I enjoyed the movie, I thought it was unnecessary to have the entire cast sing and dance to "Oh What a Night" at the end. And then stand still awkwardly for a minute. It should have just ended after they were inducted into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame.

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I think releasing it in summer was a bad idea, had it been released in October, I think it would had a slightly better opening and perhaps better legs.

Haterobics, movie box office estimates always get revised as the weekend goes on. The idea is to try to refine the estimate as more data comes in. The original estimate ($12 mil) was before anyone actually paid money to see the film and came from pundits and not from the studio. The second estimate ($14 - $15 mil) was after Friday's numbers came in higher than the original estimate would have warranted. The most recent estimate ($13.5 million) was from the studio itself, and was lower than the last estimate because Saturday's numbers were less than hoped. The actual weekend number will be released on Monday. That number is almost always lower than the final studio estimate (it's in the studio's best interest to overestimate rather than underestimate, so the final estimate is almost always a bit generous). So the actual number is probably somewhere around $13.2 - $13.4 million.

There is a game aspect to the estimates. If a studio gives a pre-opening estimate, it's usually a lowball estimate. So when the Friday numbers come in, they can say they exceeded expectations. That estimate is often higher than the final estimate, so the early word is that the movie is overperforming. Then the final estimate is usually an overestimate of the actual numbers, so the numbers published in Monday's papers look good. That's a pretty common trajectory.

J Edgar opened in 1000 fewer theaters in mid-November. The expectations were different (although I think J Edgar was also an underperformer). J Edgar probably also had more foreign box office interest than Jersey Boys does. Leonardo DiCaprio is a movie star with a high international appeal. Foreign box office is not going to move Jersey Boys into profitability. Jersey Boys is not going to be profitable for the studio.

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Updated On: 6/22/14 at 12:40 PM

My big problem with Jersey Boys is that the story isn't all that unique or compelling. It's mildly interesting at best, with some good, well-known songs.

On Broadway, it was the musical numbers creating the excitement and energy, not so much the story or the characters. They were both fine, just not great. It all seemed like I'd seen it before in other "pop group gets famous" stories. A familiar arc with nothing special.

A film version would only bring out the downside even more.

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Updated On: 6/22/14 at 01:10 PM

John Lloyd Young was hoping to parlay this into a film career. Don't see him being cast in a lucrative Marvel franchise anytime soon. He is Lea Michele with (bigger) balls. And of course they dated in the past.

It was also perfectly positioned for a spot during the summer season for movies. The movie actually came in second during the week when The Dark Knight opened and turned out to be a very good counterprogramming move on the part of the studio... But what was even more unexpected was its worldwide box office appeal.

Interesting that the two highest scoring movie musicals at the worldwide box office were Mamma Mia! and Les Miserables, both from Universal Studio. And Amanda Seyfried must be their good luck charm

Updated On: 6/22/14 at 03:36 PM

Joey, first off, theres very little of it throughout the film. And when we do see it, its the toe-heel in place stuff from the stage version, but again very little of it. Almost like the film had no choreographer. During the credit role theres a music video type sequence where he references most of the stuff from his Broadway gig ( when the entire cast is on stage), but even then, it loses it's luster on the transfer to film. Looks like Trujillo did well for stage, but is not an expert with camera choreography. Not many are.

Does his work have any impact on film? Or does Clint Eastwood's ponderousness defeat it?


Most of the choreography used for Walk Like a Man, some of Who Loves You, some of Sherry, and most of the finale is in the film. I think some of the choreography used on stage in Beggin' is used in Working My Way Back. Anytime the guys were dancing, it was choreography directly from the show.

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Well, Trujillo can only do so much. It's more of the cinematographer's fault as well as the director's if the choreography that works so well on stage doesn't pop on camera. I imagine Eastwood has very little idea of how to stage a musical number in a way that it sizzles the way people like Jerome Robbins, Rob Marshall, and Gene Kelly (all choreographers of the films they directed) have done it/did it in the past.

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"I've never seen the show on Broadway or anywhere. Overall though I actually enjoyed it and it was nice to see this adaptation without paying for the actual live show (Jersey Boys has never been one of my favorites). "

How do you know it's not one of your favorites if you've never seen it. If you have seen the film, it doesn't come close to representing the musical. I did not want to see Jersey Boys live and I did. I loved it-it was electric.

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