Movie Musicals following Dreamgirls success? — Page 2

Sweeney Todd is going to have to do some serious movie magic to make Laura Michelle Kelly viable as Lucy. Sure she'll be great in any flashbacks - but they'll have to age her up (she's 25) if they keep the story that Sweeney was away for as long as he was - and given that Johanna will be at least 16-19 (I'm guesing) in the film

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B12B,
Sorry, you are absolutely correct. For some reason I get those 2 confused. I was thinking of Bonham Carter when i was posting though, so my concerns remain the same.
I would love nothing more than for it to be a hit. It would open the doors for so many more musicals to be considered for screen adaptation.

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I didn't realize they already cut so much of the score out.
I do think Burton can capture the atmosphere visually. I also have a feeling he's going to up the gore quotient, which isn't a bad thing necessarily.

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"What songs have already been cut???"

I read somewhere that the rumored songs cut are Green Finch and Linnet Bird, Ah Miss, Kiss Me, Epiphany, God That's Good, and By The Sea.

I think that Hairspray will do very well cause it's going to be one of those fun, summertime movies and the big names in the cast will help drawn in audiences.

I have the feeling that Sweeney Todd will be a success, seeing that it's Burton/Depp and a good amount of their past films like Edward Scissorhands and Charlie and The Chocolate Factory have done very well.

There is nothing in the official interviews to even suggest that the score has been cut, so I'm chalking that up to rumour, just like (1) Cohen will *not* be rapping his lyrics as Perelli and (2) Johnny Depp did *not* have to take a vocal test to assuage Sondheim's fears that he couldnt sing the role.

Besides, please, people -- "Epiphany"? "By the Sea"? "God thats Good"? These are all plot point songs, and I doubt Sondheim would allow this kind of wholesale slashing without it being well known across the internet.

If we're going to be posting rumours and possibilities, let's at least have *something* to back it up, okay? Right now, there are so many rumours about this movie swirling around that I'm amazed Burton hasnt thrown up his hands and said to everyone at BWW.com, "Fine! *You* direct it!"

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No, Dreamgirls is not a financial success. The film COST 75 mil. You can add another 40-50 mil on top of that for the prints and advertising (Dreamworks/Paramount spent more money trying to shove this film down the public's and the Academy voters' throats than almost any film in history). A film has to make two-and-a-half times its production costs to be in profit - that has been the standard Hollywood rule of thumb forever.

Also, I'm always amused at anyone quoting box office mojo - it's like quoting from the imdb - frequently they are incorrect and are guestimating. I'll give you an example: When Phantom came out, box office mojo was touting all these incredible figures during its initial release - when the film went wide, those figures had magically changed and the film wasn't much further along than it had been two months prior. They kept touting figures which I knew to be untrue (they get them from the studios - what else is new). I said so then and many people on another board were very angry I was questioning those grosses. Well, at the end of the year, when Variety published their year-end tallies, Phantom had ultimately grossed a whopping twenty-five million LESS than box office mojo had originally reported. Of course, since we all live in Orwell-land, box office mojo just quiety readujusted their previous figures.

The only people who are going to see profit from Dreamgirls are the composer/lyricists and whomever shares in the publishing - the CD has done well and that's where the profit is - not from the film, which, at this point, is a loser of considerable proportions. The DVD will help, but I suspect not to the tune they're anticipating. And calling it the fourth most successful musical of all time is, of course, complete rubbish. When adjusted for inflation and given the cost of film ratio to gross ratio, several others would leave it in the dust, most notably The Sound Of Music and West Side Story.

I believe several people on the board have seen or read the Sweeney screenplay, which is why they may know which cuts have already been made.

Personally, I couldn't imagine that the Dreamgirls moivie would have cut 50% of the music from the score, but there you go.

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Sean-
I know that a lot of films do a limited release first, but this was the strangest one I can remember. The fact that it took months for it to reach the Fox Valley/Green Bay area here in WI is insane. Sure, the population isn't quite that of Milwaukee but the market is very lucrative here. Like I said, I can't remember it taking such a high profile film like Dreamgirls so long to reach us and then disappear so quickly. It wasn't because of poor sales either, it was just plain bizarre.

Scroll up and read my post. We live here on a little planet we like to call Earth. Where do you live? The CD has done very well, the film hasn't. I'm sorry you don't want to hear it, but you either do not know how the film industry works, or you just, well, don't want to hear it.

While there are indeed other revenue streams yet to come (TV, DVD) I don't think it will put this film into profit, it's got too far to go. We've already explained why it's listed as the fourth highest grossing film musical - it's because the people who listed it are stupid.

But I gave similar information, so I just assumed it was directed at anyone who was disagreeing with you.

I've been trying to get over myself but I'm finding it very difficult. I'm not a contortionist and my legs are not going over my head very well - I'm trying, but, you know, at my age it's difficult. If I do get over myself I'll let you and the rest of the world know, and maybe I can go on Jay Leno and demonstrate.

" I'll give you an example: When Phantom came out, box office mojo was touting all these incredible figures during its initial release - when the film went wide, those figures had magically changed and the film wasn't much further along than it had been two months prior. They kept touting figures which I knew to be untrue (they get them from the studios - what else is new). I said so then and many people on another board were very angry I was questioning those grosses. Well, at the end of the year, when Variety published their year-end tallies, Phantom had ultimately grossed a whopping twenty-five million LESS than box office mojo had originally reported."

That is completely false. I followed the grosses from Phantom every single day and watched it build, to the number it closed at, which was 51 million. It was never revised down from a higher number. I certainly would have noticed that. The only times there are revisions is when estimates are released after a weekend, and then the actuals are posted a day later... you might see a movie drop or increase $500,000. But $25 million? Absurd.

Updated On: 2/27/07 at 03:12 PM

I reccomend boxofficeguru.com over mojo. His figures are very reliable.
Just an FYI

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