MovieChat Forums > Ride with the Devil (1999) Discussion > $35 million budget and it made $631,000?...

$35 million budget and it made $631,000?!?!?!?!

posted 17 years ago by Sweet_and_Lowdown77
9 replies | jump to latest

How exactly does that happen? I saw the film because I had seen and loved SENSE & SENSABILITY and EAT, DRINK MAN WOMAN. And I thought it was okay. Nothing special and definitely not Ang Lee's best work.

This is not an indictment of Ang Lee or an angry rant about box office meaning a good or bad film, but... How does a company spend $35 million on a movie and not try to make their money back? This film, if I recall, was only released in a few cities on a few screens. This has to be one of the biggest bombs in history if those numbers are right. Especially if you factor in that there was more money spent on TV ads, and prints, etc. The real budget must have been around $40-45 million or so. And if the box office keeps 50% of the take, we are talking about the studio making $315,000 on their original investment?

That's nuts.

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Sweet_and_Lowdown77 17 years ago

I guess I just meant bombs in terms of what it cost to what it made. Percentage of the budget thing. But I didn't realize all that stuff about the film. Funny how Jeffrey's Wright's portrayal of a black man in civil war times made people uneasy. Where in COLD MOUNTAIN, Renee Zellwegger's character in the book was a black woman that they changed to be white and she won an academy award!!!!! COLD MOUNTAIN was a film about the AMerican Civil war, directed by a Brit, starring a Brit and an Aussie, shot in romania, had NO black people whatsoever AND changed a key role in book from black to white. Got 5 academy award nominations and made $100 million

strange.

[–] cfoiles 17 years ago

Not nuts, Big Scary Frog; Ang Lee was just ignorant that any film presenting the South in a favorable light during the War Between the States is a Hollywood taboo and has been a standard since the 1980's. In fact, Southerners seemed only to be acceptable when presented as simpleminded Forrest Gumps or sweetnatured, excentric females as in "Steel Magnolias", to be parodied, but not taken seriously. This is very like what they use to do to African-Americans. Take "Pharoah's Army", for an example. A fine script with an exceptional cast, featuring Chris Cooper, Patricia Clarkson, and Kris Kristofferson in a minor role. However, the film made the Union army look less than pristine, thus violating Hollywood's "Yankee Saint, Southern Sinner" rule.

Southron

P.S. New Orlean's native Patricia Clarkson's role in "Pharoah's Army" is one of the best female roles in the last ten years.

[–] Sweet_and_Lowdown77 17 years ago

Interesting. I'm guessing you're from the South. LOL

[–] cfoiles 17 years ago

Why, Big Scary Frog, I believe you're on to something. It's just that it is kind of irritating that movie terrorist are almost always white supremist, that likeable Southerners are mostly morons like Forrest Gump and/or lovable old poops like the women in "Steel Magnolias." I also direct you to the recent remake of "3:10 to Yuma" where the really, really bad guy wore a gray, double-breasted Confederate shell jacket.

Southron

P.S. Exceptions: The presentation of white southerners in "The Green Mile", "Sweet Home Alabama" and "The Longriders" were pretty good. We
could use more of that.

[–] Blueghost 16 years ago

by cfoiles (Tue Feb 5 2008 14:23:06) Ignore this User | Report Abuse

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Not nuts, Big Scary Frog; Ang Lee was just ignorant that any film presenting the South in a favorable light during the War Between the States is a Hollywood taboo and has been a standard since the 1980's. In fact, Southerners seemed only to be acceptable when presented as simpleminded Forrest Gumps or sweetnatured, excentric females as in "Steel Magnolias", to be parodied, but not taken seriously. This is very like what they use to do to African-Americans. Take "Pharoah's Army", for an example. A fine script with an exceptional cast, featuring Chris Cooper, Patricia Clarkson, and Kris Kristofferson in a minor role. However, the film made the Union army look less than pristine, thus violating Hollywood's "Yankee Saint, Southern Sinner" rule.

Southron

P.S. New Orlean's native Patricia Clarkson's role in "Pharoah's Army" is one of the best female roles in the last ten years

PhlimPhan's post responds quite well to this.

The larger reason the film didn't do so well is that audience demographics have changed in the U.S. American films, large releases specifically, are dumbed down a shade to gain young audience dollars.

"Ride with the Devil" was aimed at a more mature audience, which is why it didn't test well, ergo the reason the promotional plug was pulled. American teenagers simply aren't that smart when it comes to good films. That, more than anything else, is the reason this film tanked.

I think in time it'll earn back its cost in DVD sales and DL rentals.

Personally, I've never heard of the "southern sinner" theory, and, to be exceptionally honest, dismiss it outhand. Counterexample; "The Outlaw Josse Wales".

[–] PhilmPhan 17 years ago

In spite of what wikipedia may say, the film lost money because it did not do well with test audiences, and had gotten the green light from a person at the studio who was fired midway through production. So the new team came in and saw a movie with low scores and didn't want to put in more money to market it and widely distribute it. They cut their losses and put financial disaster on the group that had just been fired.

[–] dac287 16 years ago

Well I wouldn't say Hollywood has always ignored southerners. Crap, it is the centerpiece of the mythology that still exists about "the loss of the great southern civilization," with Gone with the Wind. BTW I think GWTW is a great movie, but oh so historically inaccurate.

Anyway, I did not realize that Wright's character was why the movie got blackballed. I assumed it happened because it was picked up by a BS distributor (USA Films, anyone?) that buried it like they do to good movies. If Holt, the best part of the movie, is the reason it got buried, then that is too bad. It deserved a better chance than Cold Mountain or especially Gods and Generals got. Two movies that romanticize the south during the Civil War with the former getting Oscar treatment and the latter...well the latter got a decent release for a 4 hour snooze-fest.

But there is always the need to remain PC in Hollywood. AS you said southerners are always eccentric, quaint, noble and ignorant in mainstream movies (including the cheesy Sweet Home Alabama, which you mentioned), Arabs are always terrorists and the French are always evil or so arrogant that they're stupid.

What a silly world we live in, eh?

[–] deprofundis551 16 years ago

That's probably the most ridiculous reason for a box office flop I've heard... *shakeshead*