Flick Tanks In Box Office Battles


by empire |
Published on

It seems that despite all it has going for it - an all-star cast and Terrence Malick's return after a two-decade absence from film-making) - The Thin Red Line is bombing at the box office. The $52 million World War II epic opened on Christmas Day and expanded to wide release on January 15. However, it actually lost business the weekend after the Oscar nominations were announced and then dropped another 50 percent last weekend. In North America the film has pulled in just $34.4 million. Explaining away the poor performance, Tom Sherak, chairman of 20th Century Fox Domestic Film Group said, "I don't think there's any question that it was a disappointment that it didn't do better with a (nomination) bump.'' He added, "I have a feeling that because of the kind of movie it was - more of an art movie that went really wide - the people who had wanted to see it went to see it." No doubt rubbing salt in the film's deep financial wounds, all the other best picture nominees, Saving Private Ryan (in re-release), Elizabeth, Shakespeare in Love and Life Is Beautiful, received a post-nomination bounce. Featuring a cast of stars including Nick Nolte and Sean Penn in supporting roles, and cameos by John Travolta, George Clooney and Woody Harrelson, The Thin Red Line gained nothing but praise for its visually stunning portrayal of the battle of Guadalcanal, the majority of screen time of which was mainly devoted to new boys Ben Chaplin and Jim Caviezel. One potential downfall is the movie's huge three hour-plus running time; critics have also expressed confusion over the voice-overs and convoluted plot. But as Malick doesn't do media interviews, little is to be gleaned from the base camp itself, though one of the film's producers, Mike Medavoy, stated that there was still time for The Thin Red Line to at least break even, believing it has strong prospects overseas.

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