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wonder boys - why did it bomb at the box office?

posted 17 years ago by janusq
47 replies | jump to latest

Why did it bomb at the box office?

Have just caught up with this movie, at a writers' do. As a writer myself, I wonder if the pov was wrong. If the script writer had ignored the book, and written the film script from the pov of James Leer, rather than from the angle of a middle aged man, it might have got a bigger audience - bearing in mind that the average cinema audience is young. For myself, told of a film about the 'journey' of a middle aged man suffering from all the stock problems, or one about the 'journey' of a creative writing student who is wondering about his sexuality, and is obsessed with death - I would opt for the student's story every time. To me personally, all the great parts in this film were the black comedy parts played out around Toby McGuire - who I thought gave a stunning and under-rated performance. As did Downey, too.

Does anyone else agree? (I'm quite a bit older than James, by the way).

[–] nybred4 15 years ago

Box office is useful if you need to see an action film with yer kids and you have a choice of two.

Why only 3 stars? It's obviously 3 1/2 or 4, (4 in my book). Why did it bomb is a question 'bout where this country is going, not the movie. Simple as that.

[–] jshdorst 15 years ago

1. They released it in February. That is during the Oscar season, so most fans of serious movies are trying to catch up with the nominees.

2. It was not marketed well. The trailer does not give you a good idea about the movie and the poster isn't very good. I thought at first that it might involve a subplot where Michael Douglas is sleeping with Katie Holmes and really, who wants to see that? The first time I saw anything about the movie, it was a picture of Douglas and, I swear, I thought he was Dudley Moore.

3. It is from a book few people have read.

4. Strange title. It's kind of like Shawshank Redemption. What's a Wonder Boy? It's obviously not a superhero movie.

5. It is a tough sell. It is an intelligent movie about intelligent people and the jokes are not spelled out for you. Our culture goes to movies to be entertained. When they go to a comedy, they don't want to think.

I wast going to see it at first. I had to be talked into seeing it by a friend. Now I own the DVD and watch it every couple of months for inspiration.

[–] film_buff12 15 years ago

I worked at a video store when this film was in theatres and got yelled at numerous times because the studio kept re-releasing it in theatres trying to get people to see it. The people yelling were actually blaming me, saying that I was responsible for all of that. Ridiculous.

"Ah, ya's fancy pants, alla ya's"
"Leave the gun. Take the cannoli."

[–] hnewstadt 15 years ago

This is one of the greatest films ever made. Who cares about the box office now?

[–] Prismark10 15 years ago

I think many people regard the way the film was marketed as a mis-step, especially the movie poster.

Its that man again!!

[–] fanaticita 15 years ago

I saw it for the first time last night and absolutely loved it!

[–] movie80 15 years ago

Same here, I saw it last night and liked it very much

[–] mebaybuyer-2 15 years ago

THE TITLE. This is one of my favorite movies, ever. The cast is perfect, best performances of everyone. The Director of Photography, Dante Spinoti, really personalized the scenes so you felt like you were part of the group, and I felt lonely when it was over. Brilliant. Locations were great, writing is superior, and the twist about Marilyn's Jacket is the best bit ever! Be sure and watch this, totally overlooked at the Theaters, but I always felt it was very badly titled.

[–] artisandy 15 years ago

One of my favs too. don't know why it wasn't a money maker nor do i care. it's still an excellent film regardless. Agree with everything you stated so well, m. (i also buy on ebay!)

Anyway, in the book, which is just as great as the film, "Wonder Boys" is the title of the book that Grady is trying to finish. The book represents Grady's life, which is, to put it simply, a mess. Not finishing the book after 7 yrs of work shows his inability to sift thru all his mental crap.

The process of writing & finishing his second best-seller has become an exercise in futility. Busy work. His friend & publisher putting this expectation upon him makes it a chore, not a creative endeavor. He needs to toss it out & start over. He can't do it, or even recongnize the need to do it, & waits for someone else(or something else) to effect his fate. Luckily, the events & the characters actually do give him the kick in the pants he desperately needs.

Older threads that I've read thru try to interpret the title as to WHO were the "wonder boys" ~ James? Grady? Crabtree? but it's much simpler that that, evidently. : >) : >

[–] FizzyGillespie 13 years ago

Let's not forget that "The Shawshank Redemption" was a bomb, too.

[–] dmariat55 13 years ago

Your real question is not about the box office but if a variation would be better. What is unusual is that a variation was made called Californication. It stars David Duchovny who was recently nominated for best actor by the Golden Globes for this part. He's good but he's no Michael Douglas.

The location was changed from Pittsburg to California. It is posited that southern California is a character in the show because of the way people think there. That makes no sense because the movie was in Pittsburg.

In Wonder Boys we never see the wife, in Cali she is made a central character plus Grady known as Hank gets a teenage daughter. The agent, Downey, Jr., is gay in WB. In Cali he is called Charlie and has a wife and then girlfriends although it is strongly hinted that he is bisexual.

In Season 3 of Cali, Grady(Hank) fools around with the dean's wife but in WB he marries her.

In Cali Hank is all over the Katie Holmes character while in WB she throws herself at him but he declines which is a shame because she looks good enough to well you get the idea.

As an aside my vote for the two most alluring ladies in moviedom are Katie Holmes in WB and Claire Danes in that John Grisham movie where her husband keeps clobbering her with a bat until she returns the favor resulting in his demise.

But that leaves us with jan's point that WB should be from the pov of James Leer. I agree that Toby McGuire was great in that movie. But in Californication he is relegated to a very brief minor role which tells us that the creators of Cali are much more interested in Grady's story.

My opinion is that WB is a better story than Cali although I like both a lot. And that the POV should be Grady's.

[–] TheMarwood 13 years ago

Simply put, it bombed because word of mouth was awful. Marketing blips aside, the exit polls had Wonder Boys at a toxic C+ cinemascore. This is one of my favorites, if not my favorite from the 2000s -- I never understood that level of hate for such an easy going film. Maybe if they handed out free double Dickel on the rocks with every ticket, audience polls would be better.

[–] jajceboy 12 years ago

I think one reasaon could be that it is a hard movie to categorize. Exactly what kind of genre is it? Is it a comedy? A drama? A relationship drama? It is actually a mix of all those
Because of that it is also hard to appeal to the massses. Most people like to know what genre they are watcing. Everything else confuses them.

Abd if you don't appeal to the masses you can't expect a big hit. That's the truth!