Ed deformer (though mostly Waiting for Superman critic) Rick Hess lets some of the air out of the Superman bubble:
Earlier this fall, there was lots of excitement about Waiting For Superman. It was the talk of the town for a bit, prompted NBC to discover education for a week, and made a school reform icon out of director Davis Guggenheim. In the aftermath, though, Guggenheim has taken shots for some questionable factual assertions and a scene in which he apparently inserted a manufactured shot for emotional impact (very Broadcast News).
The movie is now finishing its theatrical run, dribbling out of the last few theaters. How big a splash did it make? As of December 13, the flick had done $6.4 million in the box office. That translates to something like 800,000 tickets, and makes it the 143rd ranked movie in the past 365 days. It finished third in domestic receipts among 2010 documentaries, trailing Babies and Oceans. All-time--in what had to be dispiriting for Guggenheim, director of the very successful An Inconvenient Truth--Waiting For Superman ranks 19th in domestic box office sales among documentaries (and, unlike with Babies or Oceans, the international appeal of WFS is almost nonexistent). Its $6.4 million haul lagged the domestic performance of top-performing documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 ($119.2 million), Tupac: Resurrection (#16 at $7.7 million), and Babies (#17 at $7.3 million).
The weak numbers are especially surprising given the substantial push WFS got from major media, the school reform community, and ardent efforts to encourage potential viewers to sign a pledge that they'd see the movie. In fact, the Gates Foundation gave Participant Media $2 million for "a social action campaign" intended to complement Paramount Pictures' marketing campaign, a sum that amounted to nearly a third of the film's total box office.
Bill Gates gave the film a $2 million marketing campaign and it STILL only made $6.4 million?
Wow - maybe overwrought educrap dressed up as a hard-hitting Sinclairesque expose of the evils of teachers unions doesn't have as much appeal as the ed deformers thought.
If director Davis Guggenheim didn't make stuff up, pull "facts" out of his ass, leave out anything negative about charter schools and fake a scene in the movie for "emotional impact," I don't think the film would have done any better at the box office.
But at least the director could have claimed some integrity.
Instead Guggenheim created a clumsy piece of propaganda that makes reform-friendly AFT Prez Randi Weingarten look like Darth Vader, demonizes the million+ teachers in this country as lazy scum, and reduces the education reform debate to "charters good, teachers and teachers unions bad."
And it bombed at the box office despite all the hype and ed deform money put behind it.
Well, I am sure Gates and Company will try and salvage this mess by garnering an Oscar for "Best Documentary."
We'll see if that works.
But if Oprah couldn't sell this docutrash in between the sex addiction segments she does on her show, its doubtful Oscar will.
Bill Gates and the other wealthy "philanthropists" should be paying their fair share of taxes, so that they would have less money to throw around to promote their vision of social change (which has been, of course, outside the democratic process).
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, Gates has said rich people don't pay enough in taxes. But then he puts much of his money overseas and makes sure Microsoft works out of countries like Ireland that have the lowest tax rates in the world, so in the end, Gates is full of shit.
ReplyDeleteAs usual, of course.
Once again , on Bill Gates :
ReplyDeletehttp://lbo-news.com/2010/12/02/bill-gates-business-genius/
Can't find the link now but read that Duperman will make it to the Oscars based on the box office status. I was not positive but seems "Inside Job" will make it too.Duperman seeks to solidify the plutocracy by stealth whereas Inside Job flushes out the plutocrats into broad daylight - like those roaches you know.Glad it is doing well as Superman on pure merit and no big name backing .
ReplyDeleteIn my neck of the woods Duperman was showing until last Friday since the mass release (in September?). Inside Job has been running for 2 months though the theater was switched.
Love the word docutrash. Hope you won't charge me for stealing it :-).
ReplyDelete