Why didn't Audiences Show Up?: Rush (2013)

I was looking at this years slate of Oscar contenders, and saw many people predicting Rush from director Ron Howard getting nominations in Editing, Cinematography, Sound Editing and Mixing.  Howard's films have done well in the past, three of his films have been nominated for Best Picture: Apollo 13 (1995), A Beautiful Mind (2001), and Frost/Nixon (2008).  Howard won two Oscars (Directing/Producing) A Beautiful Mind.

Howard films have also always fared well at the box office: Splash (1984)-68 million, Cocoon (1985)-76 million, Parenthood (1989)-100 million, Backdraft (1991)-77 million, Apollo 13 (1995)-173 million, Ransom (1996)-136 million, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)-260 million, A Beautiful Mind (2001)-173 million, Cinderella Man (2005)-61 million, The Da Vinci Code (2006)-217 million, and Angels & Demons (2009)-133 million.  These are all domestic, and  not adjusted for inflation.

Howard has of course had some smaller box office numbers including: EdTV (1999)-22 million, The Missing (2003)-27 million, Frost/Nixon (2008)-18 million, and The Dilemma (2011)-48 million dollars.

At the moment Rush is number ranks number 18 out of his directorial achievements.  The problem is that if you compare Rush to his other lower box office films, it does not fit the mold.  Two of those films are comedic bombs, and the other two are period driven drama, which never tends to have a high box office.  Rush was marketed as an adrenaline fueled racing film, with hot box office star Chris Hemsworth, and should have matched at least Cinderella Man with his sporting films.

What went wrong with Rush?

Bad Reviews/Poor Audience Feedback? No the critics enjoyed this film, and the reviews were pretty fantastic.  It has an 88 percent on rottentomatoes.com, and only three rotten reviews from top critics.  The metacritic score is 75, but average movie goers use rottentomatoes as opposed to this.  Flixter says that 93 percent of audiences enjoyed the film, so audiences gave this the thumbs up.

Marketing: The film's commercials were all over the place with Regal Theatres, there were a lot of previews, commercials on television.  I would argue that this could have been the weakest element, where the studio could have used edgier techniques to reach out to younger, and older demos.

Boring premise? The LA Times is quoted as saying the following:"there would be nothing remotely risky about making a film about rivals who enjoy taunting each other." "Rush's crack production team "make the lure and excitement of fast machines palpable on screen,"  This is one of the greatest racing rivalries of all times, sure it's not about NASCAR, but racing enthusiasts should still get behind this film.

No Hero:  Both of the main characters are hard to root for, but does that matter anymore?  The antihero has become the mainstream, and has not prevented numerous films with no clear hero as still box office successes.

At the end of the day netting only 25 million, Rush is one of the biggest box office bombs of Ron Howard's career, but there appears to be no real reason this movie failed.  The film cost 38 million, and even with foreign markets this film will not be viewed as a success.  As I analyze this myself there appears to be no solid rationale as to why this film failed.

September Movies to See and Skip!

For movies, August is like you unbuttoning your pants after  a big overstuffed Thanksgiving dinner.  The studios have crammed so much into May, June, and July, that August becomes the grave yard where massive films can't succeed.  With no block buster capitalizing on this month, two films have taken over the month, We're the Millers, and Lee Daniels' The Butler.  The funny thing about both of these movies succeeding is because they are being carried by a woman (Jennifer Anniston) and black actors in The Butler.

Anniston is probably one of the less interesting leading ladies working, but she is one of the more bankable in films like this because she has talent, sex appeal, and women love her.  Women can carry film do not be afraid Hollywood.

Hollywood also is letting more people than Tyler Perry frame stories about black/African Americans in film, and thank goodness.  Ryan Coogler, Steve McQueen, and of course Lee Daniels all have films this year, which tell such interesting stories.  This is a great market, and Hollywood has always avoided reaching out, they would rather white wash their films, but The Butlers' success is proof that films like this can succeed. On to September, and the build up to the more exciting October.

September 6th 

If you were thinking September would start strong, you were wrong, Riddick is one of those films that just couldnt make it into "summer block buster time."  Pitch Black was good they should have stopped there.  Diesel is not a star its the Fast and Furious movies that are the star.

I would have preferred Hollywood avoid a documentary about a man who wanted to remain private, J.D. Sallinger who wrote Catch in the Rye.  Sallinger feels too much like I am infringing on someone with whom I respect, No thank you!

September 13th 

The first Insidous was well done, and chilling, did there need a to be an Insidious Chapter 2?  Stop while your ahead.

Poor Michelle Pfeiffer stuck with dreck like this, run Diana Agron just because you get to work with two greats does not mean the film will will be good.  The Family is Robert DeNiro playing the cliche version of all his characters, once again no thank you.

September 20th 

 Prisoners has received mostly positive reviews from Telluride, and while there was some negative comments in the mix the film sounds fantastic. 

Ah another film about dancing, where have you been all my life? Battle of the Year is proof people are less and less creative, shouldn't this have gone straight to DVD or Itunes?

September 27th 

I did not realize that the first film made 125 million dollars, no wonder there is sequel to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.  Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 is the only family friendly film and will make a good amount of money, will it be good, probably not.

I have shown disdain for most of Ron Howard's work post Apollo 13, Rush looks different from most of his other films, and I am kind of excited to see what he can do with this film.  I also think Hemsworth is so charismatic.

I love Paula Patton, and while Baggage Claim looks cliche, I may just have to go see it, because well this could be a guilty pleasure for me, at least I am able to admit that, but it doesn't look great.

I had the chance to see a screener of Don Jon with Jospeh Gordon Levitt as a a guest speaker, but damn work got in the way.  I am excited to see what he can do with this film!