Welcome again to Cairns on Cinema. I hope you have all managed to get through the holiday season in one piece and got a few good movie DVDs or Blu-Rays under the Christmas tree.
Normally, it would be around this time of the year that I would start writing my Cairns on Cinema box office year in review column. But I’ve decided to hold off on that depressing topic for another week, and simply focus on the latest news.
I don’t know about you, but I’m sort of glad to see the “blockbusters” back in circulation again, albeit in an unusual sort of way. It makes life seem sort of more normal.
Christmas Day 2020 was the debut of Wonder Woman 1984. This is the second Wonder Woman movie directed by Patty Jenkins and starring Gal Gadot, with the movie set in the glitzy 1980s.
Yes, the decade of Reagan, Thatcher and Gorbachev! Michael Jackson! Yuppies! Robin Leach! Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous!
Come to think of it, it was also the decade of Donald Trump — but it seems like every decade is the “decade of Trump” in one way or another, including our current one. Trump, you’re fired!
It’s a sure sign we’re all getting old when we have the eighties-nostalgia getting rolled out in movies. I remember seeing the spy movie Atomic Blondestarring Charlize Theron a few years back, which was set in ‘89 Berlin as the Wall was coming down. That movie was even better for the nostalgia with its Eighties-era rock tunes in it — all these tunes that had been played over and over on music video shows on MTV. So the eighties are seeing a big pop culture comeback. About time.
To be honest, it would have been even funnier if this latest Wonder Woman movie was set in the seventies, because that’s when the TV show aired. It might have made for a better movie — I notice there is a ton of complaints about how long it is.
Obviously, the Dec. 25 release date had been delayed numerous times and in the end was not even the full rollout in cinemas they had hoped for. They are doing a combined theatrical-digital release.
All things considered, they did decent business. In its first weekend in cinemas, Wonder Woman 1984earned a domestic haul of $16.7 million, which is the best domestic box office weekend for any movie since the pandemic was declared. By contrast, when the first Wonder Woman movie came out in 2017, it had an opening weekend of $103 million. That gives you a good idea about how far the domestic box office has fallen for the movies in general.
When you add in the $68 million gross from international markets, Wonder Woman 1984has made $84 million so far, which sounds good until you realize that under normal circumstances it should be making hundreds of millions of dollars by now.
Warner Bros. must be kicking itself for all the money it isn’t making on this release, but I guess they decided simply to get it over with. Also, I find it bizarre reading all these headlines claiming Wonder Woman 1984“dominated” this weekend’s box office. I’m sorry, but this is “fake news.” $16.7 million is not “domination” in any way, but it’s better than nothing.
I notice the CGI-animated Soulfrom Disney-PIXAR, featuring the voices of stars such as Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey, is also released this week digitally on the Disney Plus platform. Usually, PIXAR movies will absolutely clean up at the box office, often topping the box office for the week. Soulis another movie that could have been expected to open in 3,000 or so theatre venues to blockbuster weekend numbers of upwards of $60 or $70 million or so. But these aren’t normal times, and so this movie is getting a digital release which would have been unheard of just a year ago.
Okay, I’ve had enough of attempting to report on the box office. Now, on to the lighter side of the news.
I want to talk about the incident not long ago that went viral — the infamous “rant” by Tom Cruise, who infamously blew his top at his staff during the filming of the latest Mission Impossible movie in the United Kingdom.
Reports are that Cruise caught a couple of workers breaking COVID-19 protocols by being too close together near a computer, and that prompted him to go ballistic at his entire crew. He launched a tirade that ended up getting recorded and leaked to the press. It ended up in the British tabloid the Sun.
“We are the gold standard!” Cruise yelled. “They’re back there in Hollywood making movies right now because of us! Because they believe in us and what we’re doing! I’m on the phone with every f***ing studio at night, insurance companies, producers, and they’re looking at us and using us to make their movies.
“We are creating thousands of jobs, you motherf*****s! I don’t ever want to see it again, ever! And if you don’t do it, you’re fired! If I see you do it again, you’re f***ing gone. And anyone on this crew does it, that’s it — and you, too, and you, too! And you — don’t you ever f***ing do it again!! That’s it, no apologies! You can tell it to the people that are losing their f***ing homes because our industry is shut down...”
How viral did this rant get? I noticed even John Gormley had a field day with this on his radio show, replaying the audio over and over again.
Gormley was comparing it to Cruise’s scene in Jerry Maguire. “Help me... help you!! Baaaahahahahaha!!
Of course, this is not the only weird incident to involve Cruise, who was ridiculed years ago over his “jumping on a couch” incident on the Oprah Winfrey show. Pretty much the whole moviegoing public is turned off by his antics by now, yet the reason he’s still a big star is because his movies are too good, and he’s too good in them. Top Gun! Jerry Maguire! Mission Impossible!
Personally, I think this whole incident is a good example of how toxic things are in Hollywood in general. More broadly, it also shows you how much pressure everyone is under, with COVID-19 regulations crushing businesses. Hollywood is under more pressure than most, with revenues decimated and with movie shoots getting called off all over the world. It’s freaking difficult to get any movie shoots going at all in this environment, and more difficult to get a decent release for the finished product of any movie. Keep in mind that it’s a challenge just to get movie shoots off the ground even during normal times. Now, even you are able to get a movie financed and get a production going, you have all these new health restrictions and protocols you have to follow, on top of all the other occupational health-and-safety and other regulations you have to do on a movie shoot.
For the Mission Impossible franchise, there is a lot on the line including Cruise’s own money and reputation (what’s left of it, anyway). On top of that, there’s also the pressure of getting roasted in the media for COVID-19 violations on the set, and that could get the whole production shut down by the government and kicked out of the country. Heck, even following the rules isn’t enough to prevent many businesses from being shut down in this environment — especially in Britain, which is under a big lockdown.
If word were ever to leak out about COVID-19 violations on Mission Impossible 7in the U.K., and then a big scandal erupts, who are the press and the government going to go after? Who else: Tom Cruise!
So while this profane rant surely isn’t a good look for Cruise at all — and I understand a few of his crew members quit in disgust after this unprofessional display — his meltdown is actually kind of understandable. These times we are living in are driving us all up the wall, and the pressure to keep businesses afloat is unimaginable. Some are having more trouble dealing with it than others — like Cruise, clearly.
Anyway, if you think you’re having problems dealing with COVID-19, know you are not alone. I just found this whole Tom Cruise story to be funny.
That’s all for now.
