The Oscar Quest: Best Director – 1997
1997. Titanic. I think that about covers it.
Sure it’s not a perfect film, but, this isn’t Best Picture. This is Best Director. I don’t think many people would argue that Cameron didn’t direct the hell out of the movie. The only real issue with Cameron is his weak and/or contrived scripts. But he wasn’t nominated for that, was he?
Also in 1997, Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt won Best Actor and Best Actress for As Good As It Gets, Robin Williams won Best Supporting Actor for Good Will Hunting, and Kim Basinger won Best Supporting Actress for L.A. Confidential. All around good films there. And yet, Titanic. It sucks when such good films are up against a film that can’t lose. (Gee, how many times has that happened?)
BEST DIRECTOR – 1997
And the nominees were…
James Cameron, Titanic
Peter Cattaneo, The Full Monty
Atom Egoyan, The Sweet Hereafter
Curtis Hanson, L.A. Confidential
Gus Van Sant, Good Will Hunting (more…)
The Box Office Report – April 29-May 1
Last week, in Box Office…
Rio wins the box office once again, doing exactly what it was supposed to do. $26.3 million. I said $25-27 million. I believe that’s pretty exact. The reason it didn’t do $27 million will be explained shortly. It was pretty harmless and not that bad (though the songs were terrible and it lacked that Disney/Pixar humanity that makes these films really work), so I’m cool with it. But really what this is is another reminder that kids films make bank all the time. I think this is the one that really got them to notice. I’m really curious to see what happens in two years.
Finishing second, doing exactly what it was supposed to do, was Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Family Reunion, with $25.1 million. This is the standard Tyler Perry opening. I just figured that since the previous Madea entry was so crazy with the $34 million opening that audiences just went to see Madea more. I’m much happier with this opening. $25 million is fine. More than that is insanity. This film, as we’ve established with the Tyler Perry Box Office Chart last week, will do around $50-55 million when all is said and done. (They typically do a bit more than double their opening weekend.) Whatever. Dude’s earned it. On the other hand, I won’t go near these movies with a 39 1/2 foot pole. Definitely not for me. But, kudos to the dude. He works for this. Good for him.
Finishing third, with, about what it was expected to do, albeit slightly overperforming, was Water for Elephants, with $16.8 million. Most people expected around $14-15 million. Though most people — including me, figured the window was $12-17 million. And most would have guessed the upper 50% quadrant of that estimate, so, this was right in the wheelhouse. I’m really not that interested in seeing the leads here, but I hear Christoph Waltz is the only reason to watch. So I probably will see it soon. In fact, I’ll probably watch it when I’m done with this article (which, doesn’t really mean anything to you, since, you don’t know when I’m writing this article). So, by next week I’ll let you know how it was. Still, this movie had only a $38 million budget, so, I guess it’ll be a decent hit. I still have mixed feelings on it. Even if it’s worthwhile, I’m still not gonna want the leads to be that successful. I really just don’t like their movies. (more…)
