Joel Siegel's Morning After: 'Grindhouse' Grinds to a Halt
April 9, 2007 — -- "Grindhouse," lots of hype and positive hype, the reviews were excellent, including mine: Rottentomatoes.com rates the critics 83 percent positive.
It was also an awful lot of fun.
And it ended up just awful.
Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" movies opened at more than $20 million ($22 million and $25 million), so did Robert Rodriguez's "Sin City" ($29 million). Not only did they do well at the box office, the lingering word of mouth on all three films and both directors was hugely positive.They did TV, they did print, they got magazine covers, the studio expected at least a $20 million opening.
"Grindhouse" opened to $11.6 million. A disaster and, according to boxofficemojo.com the ninth straight TWC (The Weinstein Co.) film to underperform its first weekend out.
Yes there was a three-hour running time, which limits showings, but "Grindhouse" did have the highest screen count, 3,700. That's $3,000 per screen. That's terrible. "Snakes on a Plane" was the last film whose hype I was sure would carry it home that got carried to the Dumpster instead. A hoot, I liked that film, too. Maybe my camp consciousness is higherthan the average guy's.
What happened to "Grindhouse"? I'd point my finger at the marketing.
Much of the advertising, the hype and the publicity focused on what a grindhouse was.
A student of American pop culture, I never heard of these movie theaters being called grindhouses. Burlesque houses, strip joints, yes.
I think I went to one of these theaters exactly once. In San Francisco. On Market Street.A 24-hour newsreel house to bone up on what America was being fed about Vietnam before a peace march.
Robert Rodriguez never went to these theaters. His experience with these films was at drive-ins, he grew up in San Antonio, Texas. So was mine in West L.A. (I was usually the guy in the trunk. Got in free that way.) Tarantino says he went to grindhouses and he may have but he's an L.A. kid as well, I believe, South L.A., and he would have had to trek by bus to downtown L.A. Maybe he did, I'd bet against it.
