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OT: Rocketman Fails to Match Bohemian Rhapsody Box Office -- "Wo' Hoppen?"

posted 5 years ago by ecarle (14979)
20 replies | jump to latest

I have now seen Rocketman, in its first week of release.

I have not yet seen Bohemian Rhapsody, but I will rent a view soon.

Its funny what happened. Outta nowhere, Bohemian Rhapsody became a big American hit, and then a bigger worldwide hit, and came close to a Marvel-level billion dollar gross.

Then it got some Oscar nominations, and the semi-unknown who played Freddie Mercury won Best Actor.

The Hollywood press knows a big story when it sees one: here comes Rocketman. Can it make or beat the gross of Bohemian Rhapsody? Will Taron Edgerton(sp?) win Best Actor for playing Elton like that other guy did for playing Freddie?

Well, the box office answer seems to be : not even close. And I expect Taron will certainly be nominated for playing Elton, but likely won't win.

Ouch for Rocketman.

I had thought this, "going in," but I guess I'm wrong. I'd thought that Elton John was a much bigger deal, a much bigger star, than Freddie Mercury and Queen. At least , as I lived through the 70's and 80's, that seemed the case. I also thought that EJ had more hits than Queen.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized: Elton John didn't last all THAT long as a superstar. By about 1976 and the album with "Island Girl" on it, EJ seemed to have burned out; even that song("Island Girl") seemed to be a parody of EJ. Thereafter , hits would issue from Elton, but intermittently, and not always that catchy. A lot of 70's artists were rejected in the 80's, but Elton hung on so well that his anthem "I'm Still Standing" seemed to sum up his whole career. Still, he wasn't nearly as big in the 80's as the 70's. (PS. I recommend an Elton John-woman duet that went nowhere around 1987 -- "Flames of Paradise" -- as a MUCH better duet than he big hit "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" of the 70's.)

Anyway, I think that Elton John may have been "a really big deal" only from the years 1970 through 1975, and maybe that's why this movie doesn't quite have the following that the Queen film got. Plus one Queen song(er, Bohemian Rhapsody) got that rebirth via Mike Myers, Wayne and Garth, in the 90's.

And of course, Freddie Mercury died. I can't remember when. I'll look it up after I post. But a story that ends in death too young is always a bigger deal than one about a living artist.

I have to see "Bohemian Rhapsody" to get the comparison done to "Rocketman," but I can say of "Rocketman" that I liked it, and I liked the way it blew the usual "biopic problems" out of the water by playing as a fantasy most of the time, and blindly dispensing with the facts the rest.

Example: the movie has EJ wowing a 1970 Troubadour nightclub crowd in LA...at the very beginning of his career...with Crocodile Rock, which came out in 1972 once EJ was well launched as a superstar. Oh, well, Crocodile Rock is more of a rocker than Your Song.

Which reminds me: even with a fairly short 6-year timespan(the same timespan the Beatles had in America), Elton John had about three manifestations: (1) The folksy low-budget piano man(Levon, Tiny Dancer, Your Song); (2) The mid-tempo catchy rocker(Rocket Man, Honky Cat, Crocodile Rock), and then, with the two-disc epic album "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", the surging superstar rocker with the grand suite of music(Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding; Bennie and the Jets, Saturday Night's All Right for Fighting.)

And then...Island Girl?

Well, Rocketman the movie doesn't ever do Island Girl. They do a great version of Rocketman(crooned first by Little Boy Elton with a falsetto, at the bottom of a swimming pool), and I liked how they staged Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting to accompany a real Saturday night fight(in the fifties, with Little Elton becoming Young Elton in the middle of the song; fantasy) and how I'm Still Standing was used.

Recommended...even if it just ain't gonna match Bohemian Rhapsody, nowhere, no how.

PS. A bizarre internet article by Peter Bart, a rather fading journalist who, in his glory days, ran Paramount with Robert Evans. Bart compares the musical biopics of today with Paint Your Wagon, the 1969 disaster Bart presided over. Things don't really match up.

However...Bart notes that this is the 50-year anniversary OF Paint Your Wagon and all I can say is: speaking from my seeing it in 1969, I liked it. I had the album of it. FRIENDS liked it. FAMILY liked it. It was great to see Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood together, and they had a hearty Men's Choir to drown out their crooning abilities(or one just ignored Clint's solos.)

I have fond memories of Paint Your Wagon -- connected to when it came out and how young I was, and how much that young fellow I was then, liked the story and the music..

Peter Bart's memories of Paint Your Wagon, while technically "correct" --are wrong to me.

And "Paint Your Wagon" has NOTHING to do with Rocketman.

[–] MizhuB (165) 5 years ago

Hi ecarle.

I saw Bohemian Rhapsody. On the internet. I found that it followed the same formulaic pattern as just about every other film about a singer. La Bamba. Selena. Ray. Many others.

There's a website I like to read that has articles about all kinds of stuff. I read one about how inaccurate Bohemian Rhapsody was, how it was toned down to get a PG-13 rating, things were shown out of order, misrepresentations, etc.

Now, even though Elton John has said that he actually WANTED it to get an R rating to show exactly what his life was like, with the sex and drugs, that same site has already pointed out inconsistencies in his 'life story'.

So I feel no real rush to see ROCKETMAN. If at all, I'll wait till I can see it for free.

Elton John definitely had some good songs. But his duet with Kiki Dee of 'Don't Go Breakin' My Heart' was (and is) one of the worst songs I've ever heard.

Someone on this site pointed out that he also wrote one of the worst lyrics ever. In ROCKETMAN. Which is a song I never liked to begin with. I guess for a supposed biopic of Elton John, it makes for a good title.

'Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids.
In fact, it's cold as hell.
And there's no one there to raise them...
If you did.'

WTH does that mean?

[–] swanstep (2715) 5 years ago

The Hollywood press knows a big story when it sees one: here comes Rocketman. Can it make or beat the gross of Bohemian Rhapsody? Will Taron Edgerton(sp?) win Best Actor for playing Elton like that other guy did for playing Freddie?
Well, the box office answer seems to be : not even close.

Rocketman also seems to be well down from things like Mamma Mia and The Greatest Showman... My guesses as to what's going on:

1. Rocketman is an R. There's a whole generation of kids (including one of my nieces who's still only 12), call them the Frozen-Mamma Mia generation who are *obsessed* with these big public, see-with-friends, sing-a-long, social event types of films. None of them can see Rocketman - indeed the producers of Rocketman and Elton himself *leaned into* the R-rated-ness, talked about it a lot, and the message was received - "Not a 'family film'".
2. As ecarle mentioned, Elton is alive and gigging: e.g., he just added three *more* 40,000 people per night shows in Auckland, NZ for next February (summer season down under) - the longest string of big shows ever here I believe (only Adele might have done more now I think about it). My sense is that here at least, EJ's core older fans have treated Rocketman & its promotion as *advertising* for those big-bucks live shows that they're signed up for. Something like this might be going on worldwide.
3. Ultimately, it's the full-on party and live explosion that Queen represents that made Bo Rhap an easy sell. Historical distortions notwithstanding, it had that one legendary Live Aid concert as its focus and it delivered on the promise to audiences to "put them there", particularly if you spent the $$ to see it in Imax or some other large screens & speakers immersive format. Critics seem to think Rocketman is a better film than BR but it's missing BR's near-Unique selling point.

[–] ecarle (14979) 5 years ago

The Hollywood press knows a big story when it sees one: here comes Rocketman. Can it make or beat the gross of Bohemian Rhapsody? Will Taron Edgerton(sp?) win Best Actor for playing Elton like that other guy did for playing Freddie?
Well, the box office answer seems to be : not even close.

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Rocketman also seems to be well down from things like Mamma Mia and The Greatest Showman...

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My, that is a fizzle. I suppose someone somewhere maybe wishes Rocketman had been released BEFORE BH. Just to avoid the comparison...but if it is failing against NON biopics, hmm. This also may put a premature chill on the in-development musical biopics out there(Elvis may make it...but that's been made. Kurt Russell at a minimum.)

I suppose a Beatles biopic could be a big hit. (And one's in the works, and yes, I know that others have been done.) There's that gimmicky "Yesterday" coming soon to either grease the skids or kill the project.

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[–] ecarle (14979) 5 years ago

My guesses as to what's going on:

1. Rocketman is an R. There's a whole generation of kids (including one of my nieces who's still only 12), call them the Frozen-Mamma Mia generation who are *obsessed* with these big public, see-with-friends, sing-a-long, social event types of films. None of them can see Rocketman - indeed the producers of Rocketman and Elton himself *leaned into* the R-rated-ness, talked about it a lot, and the message was received - "Not a 'family film'".

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No, not a family film. Sex scenes, yes.

But also: In fact, I have not yet seen BH, but Rocketman has a rather unending feeling of misery to it for poor Elton. His parents never loved him, and then he became a huge success and they STILL didn't love him (whilst one of them still wanted him to buy her a villa.) A first big gay lover(an agent and/or manager) is awful to him and becomes his sworn enemy("I'll still be making 20% off you ten years after you've committed suicide." Hey, that's in the TRAILER. ) He can only be platonic friends with Bernie Taupin. And then the drugs and alcohol take over. Honestly, you can only find a happy ending in the end credit real-life wrap-ups ("And now Elton is married and happy.")

[–] ecarle (14979) 5 years ago

I don't know if all "sing-a-long movies" allow for full song singalong, but I felt that many of the EJ songs in Rocketman were shortened, or cut-off before the end, etc. It reminded me of something I used to hate on the old variety shows: the medley. You know, where the singer starts one song, cuts it off when you start liking it, then starts another and does it all over again:

"Do you know the way to San Jose, I've --- Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my head, but that doesn't me--I Say a Little Prayer for...this guy's in love with you..."

I still recommend the special showings of "Sing a Long Sound of Music" where people YELL along to tell the camera in the opening shot "KEEP GOING! LEFT, LEFT, LEFT,...DOWN DOWN DOWN...THERE SHE IS!" And Julie spins around on the mountaintop and the crowd goes nuts. (Hey how about that for the opening of Psycho? There, on topic.)

[–] ecarle (14979) 5 years ago

2. As ecarle mentioned, Elton is alive and gigging: e.g., he just added three *more* 40,000 people per night shows in Auckland, NZ for next February (summer season down under)

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Wow...well, he's going out like he came in at Dodgers Stadium(well, a few years in)

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- the longest string of big shows ever here I believe (only Adele might have done more now I think about it).

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Adele? ??????

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My sense is that here at least, EJ's core older fans have treated Rocketman & its promotion as *advertising* for those big-bucks live shows that they're signed up for. Something like this might be going on worldwide.

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Probably so. And Elton never sings himself in this. Taron isn't dubbed. Other people sing the songs in some cases..

Which reminds me: there was an album back in the 90's I think, where other famous artists did Elton songs:
The Who did Saturday Night; The Beach Boys did Philadelphia Freedom -- and some critic noted, "Its proof that Elton's own voice made those songs."

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3. Ultimately, it's the full-on party and live explosion that Queen represents that made Bo Rhap an easy sell.

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I guess so. Elton was only that way some of the time. (I find Don't Let the Sun Go Down rather boring, myself.)

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Historical distortions notwithstanding, it had that one legendary Live Aid concert as its focus and it delivered on the promise to audiences to "put them there", particularly if you spent the $$ to see it in Imax or some other large screens & speakers immersive format.

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I missed my IMAX chance, but I'll try for the home speaker experience.

Appropos of nothing, my favorite Queen songs aren't the big hits at all. Mine are "Fat Bottomed Girls"(there's a great acapella version of this by a Men's Choir on YouTube) and one with a video from an 80's movie called Iron Eagle. Both the video and the song are good: "One Vision."

I've always found the song Bohemian Rhapsody epic but silly. "Scaramouche, Scaramouche..."

[–] swanstep (2715) 5 years ago

Adele? ??????

Adele isn't quite my cup of tea but she's the only person in the last decade or so to sell literally 100s of millions of records worldwide. Her breakthrough album, 21, was the biggest-selling album in the world in 2011 & again in 2012; the first time one album's dominated consecutive years since Michael Jackson with Thriller. She was/is so huge that her 'Skyfall' became the most sales-successful Bond-theme ever - it was #1 everywhere. I never really warmed to it myself, but it was good enough to sell millions & win an Oscar so what do I know?

[–] ecarle (14979) 5 years ago

Oh, I'm with you on Skyfall. It was like the biggest grossing song , Oscar and the biggest hit Bond...all undeserved in my opinion.

Here, my favorite Bond songs in order, even if it looks chronological:

Goldfinger
Thunderball (Tom Jone busts a vocal chord..literally.)
You Only Live Twice
Nobody Does It Better
A View to a Kill
Live and Let Die
The Living Daylights
Die Another Day(go, Madonna)

Not what one might think....

I kind of liked the songs to "Casino Royale"(Craig version a little bit, and DEFINITELY Sellers version) and Spectre.

And while I didn't like the song to "The Man With The Golden Gun," Alice Cooper put his rejected version of that title on one of his albums. It was better than the one in the movie!

[–] swanstep (2715) 5 years ago

I've always found the song Bohemian Rhapsody epic but silly. "Scaramouche, Scaramouche..."

It's the most bonkers, distinctive, varied track to ever get to get to #1, and become a genuine cultural landmark.

Watch this vid of a crowd of 65,000 singing along to Bo Rhap before a Green Day concert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZnBNuqqz5g

[–] ecarle (14979) 5 years ago

Hah!

[–] swanstep (2715) 5 years ago

There's that gimmicky "Yesterday" coming soon

After 5 weeks in release we can draw some conclusions: Yesterday has grossed about $70 mill in the US & about $120 mill worldwide. With a budget of $26 mill it's definitely made a tidy profit much as Rocketman did ($180 mill w.w. on a $40 mill budget). The days of musical and musical-adjacent films routinely making truly killer profits appear to be over... probably now there are going to be a few true bombs (Cats?) as the pipeline of films approved in the wake of epic profits for Greatest Showman, Bo Rhap, etc. gets worked through.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

[–] ecarle (14979) 5 years ago

After 5 weeks in release we can draw some conclusions: Yesterday has grossed about $70 mill in the US & about $120 mill worldwide. With a budget of $26 mill it's definitely made a tidy profit much as Rocketman did ($180 mill w.w. on a $40 mill budget).

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I saw Yesterday and I must admit that I found it charming. It was written by, but not directed by, Richard Curtis who did my "guilty pleasure of the first decade of the 21st Century," "Love Actually," and his verbal footprints are all over the script. Here's the catch , though: while the dialogue of QT and Aaron Sorkin almost always delights me, the dialogue of Richard Curtis is sometimes too obvious and precious for me (as when , in Love Actually, somebody says "this is the worst DJ in London" or "this is the worst finger food I've ever eaten"; I don't know why I offer those lines up, they just aren't witty, I guess.)

"Love Actually" astonished me because -- for all of the cheesy, over-obvious dialogue and some of the plotting -- something about it was UNIQUE. It touched me in a way few movies do. I think the "bookends" of footage of people greeting each other at Heathrow airport was the draw; with Hugh Grant's narration of how on 9/11, the cell phone messages from the doomed passengers were of love, not hate. The movie began with a huge burst of deep emotion, and ended with a huge burst of deep emotion, and that did it for me, (In between -- all the scenes about Bill Nighy's aging rock star were a hoot, and I loved the one guy's "fantasy trip to Wisconsin.")

[–] ecarle (14979) 5 years ago

Anyway, Curtis handed the directorial work on "Yesterday" over to the well-known Danny Boyle, and the resultant film is a charmer, with a couple of twists at the end -- one of which found the audience letting out a collective gasp, all at once, to a wonderful moment on the screen. I'll always remember that moment, I think -- so "Yesterday" ends up being a memorable film.

We can figure that Rocket Man and Yesterday will do brisk business in home aftermarkets, and I'd say that both films are good and deserve the afterlife.

I watched about the last 30 minutes of Bohemian Rhapsody on HBO and though yes, the Live Aid concert at the end was "gigantic," the film as I saw some of it, didn't seem all that much better than Rocket Man. Yet it made a billion. "Nobody knows anything" about how movies will hit, I guess.

[–] ecarle (14979) 5 years ago

The days of musical and musical-adjacent films routinely making truly killer profits appear to be over...

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With Bohemian Rhapsody? I suppose folks should study that tale as to why it worked so well when others did not.

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probably now there are going to be a few true bombs (Cats?)

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That "Cats" trailer has turned into one of those objects of derision that could indeed scuttle the project. Hell, the property has been out there for what, 30 years? You'd think somebody knows there's a reason there hasn't been a movie til now.

Whenever I think of Cats I recall David Letterman's first CBS show, from the Ed Sullivan theater on Broadway. Paul Newman stood up from the audience and said "Where are the singing cats? I paid to see the singing cats!" ...and was escorted out of the theater. Funny.

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as the pipeline of films approved in the wake of epic profits for Greatest Showman, Bo Rhap, etc. gets worked through.

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I liked Greatest Showman and its showstopper central number. I must watch Bo Rhap all the way through. I liked both Rocket Man and especially Yesterday. Back in 2001, I liked "Moulin Rouge" with its assortment of rock tunes reorchestrated (Smells Like Teen Spirit, Like a Virgin, Roxanne...Your Song.)

So....keep 'em coming, "British Hollywood." There might be another billion dollar baby hidden in there somewhere(perhaps a good full study of the Beatles AS the Beatles?)

[–] ecarle (14979) 5 years ago

I was talking to a cab driver in Omaha once who drove many celebrities from the music hall and arena venues to their prospective motels for years. He said the rudest one was Elton John who yelled at him for looking in the rear view mirror.

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It seems that many celebrities don't like to be looked at, especially in the eyes. I've read of actors demanding that no one look at them while they work on movie soundstages, and I believe that Julia Roberts' people sent a memo to her fellow NYC condo dwellers that they were not to look her in the eye. Ai, ai, ai!

Meanwhile, I will say that "Rocket Man" presents Elton John in his latter superstar stages as raging and deeply unhappy. Maybe your driver friend ran into him during this period.

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(I believe the nicest one he mentioned was Bette Midler.)

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That's nice. Its always nice to hear about a celebrity being NICE. So few are.

[–] MizhuB (165) 5 years ago

I just watched Rocket Man, and I have to say I didn't like it at all.

I will say it was more than I expected it to be. And that's not a good thing.

It was so full of overblown, melodramatic production numbers for most of the songs that it went WAY into the realm of not being believable at all. I didn't believe this was a biopic of Elton John's life. It felt like it was a fantasy of his that he dreamed up. And threw a few facts in.

I have to admit I don't like Broadway musicals. You'd never catch me at 'Les Mis' In fact, I've only seen two and it was because they were 'rock musicals'.

Rent. Excellent show, though depressing. Lousy movie; too watered down.

Jersey Boys. Again, excellent show, lousy movie.

I saw Bohemian Rhapsody, and although it was formulaic (not to mention the published inconsistencies), I thought it was a better film.

Maybe I should just stay away from biopics of 'performers' ;)

[–] ecarle (14979) 5 years ago

I just watched Rocket Man, and I have to say I didn't like it at all.

I will say it was more than I expected it to be. And that's not a good thing.

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It certainly follows all sorts of "flights of fantasy."

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I have to admit I don't like Broadway musicals. You'd never catch me at 'Les Mis' In fact, I've only seen two and it was because they were 'rock musicals'.

Rent. Excellent show, though depressing. Lousy movie; too watered down.

Jersey Boys. Again, excellent show, lousy movie.

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There doesn't seem to be a terribly good track record in transporting "modern" Broadway musicals to the screen anymore. I'll stretch this back as far as "A Chorus Line" -- the Michael Douglas movie, which, as I recall , was greeted with little to no fanfare at all.

Madonna couldn't make Evita a big deal.

Rent came and went.

Come to think of it, the 1979 movie of "Hair" seemed like a quaint period piece from the 60's and didn't do too good.

We now have a movie of "Cats" approaching almost forty years after the play debuted! And folks are laughing at the trailer.

The big Broadway sensation of recent years is "Hamilton." It has kinda/sorta launched its star.Lin-Manuel Garcia, as a movie star(Mary Poppins Returns) but I fear if and when it reaches the screen....people won't much care.

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I saw Bohemian Rhapsody, and although it was formulaic (not to mention the published inconsistencies), I thought it was a better film.

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Certainly bigger at the box office. And its "straightforwardness" is in contrast to Rocket Man.

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Maybe I should just stay away from biopics of 'performers' ;)

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They always seem to fall short. Personally -- using Elton John as an example -- the real man created an "epic autobiography" over about three decades -- of his life, of MY life, of YOUR life, of everyone's life -- that no mere two hour movie can match.

And don't get me started about "Hitchcock."

[–] swanstep (2715) 5 years ago

Maybe I should just stay away from biopics of 'performers' ;)
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They always seem to fall short.

The trick perhaps is to have a really good dramatic story to tell on *top* of all the good music & performance stuff. So e.g., things like Amadeus & Topsy Turvy work like gangbusters because the drama is brilliantly worked out. For another example, consider Backbeat (1994), a small drama about the early Beatles in Hamburg & the 'Fifth Beatle', hipster-cool art school guy, Stuart Sutcliffe, who died. It really works I think because the drama was fascinating (& almost unknown before the film came out) & very photogenic what with Sutcliffe's cool looks, cool German photog. girlfriend, etc..

For examples of a different sort, musical biopics about how a whole scene evolved have delivered the goods at least twice: Straight Outta Compton about NWA & gangster rap was solid & a hit; 24 Hour Party People about impresario Tony Wilson & the Manchester scene was *great*. For a flop of this sort: recently BPM was a very dull biopic/drama about the rise of Daft Punk & the rave scene in Paris. It's very easy to make a bad film regardless of (sub-)genre!

[–] Costumer (1822) 5 years ago

Why in the world are you discussing this here? Take it to the Rocketman or Bohemian Rhapsody board!