WiHM, Box Office Retrospective: 2014
Feb. 29th, 2016 10:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
glitter_n_goreHappy Leap Day! *phew* Still February. So, I had to get a new computer and lost all my stats so I had to look up these numbers again. I also saw more in theaters this month than I was anticipating, and that helped fill the space nicely I think, but also filled in a lot of blogging time I was expecting to use for other things. So yeah, the wrap-up post for 2015 is gonna get squished into next month. Sorry about that!
Annabelle - $84.3 million
(The Purge: Anarchy - $72 million)
Ouija - $50.9 million
(Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones - $32.5 million)
Oculus - $27.7 million
(Honorable Mention: As Above/So Below - $21.3 million)
The horror universe is Jason Blum's oyster right now. 4 of the 6 movies on this list are Blumhouse productions. If that doesn't convince you he's dominating the genre, I don't know what will. However, even discounting the massive turnout of Blumhouse pictures on this list, there is one that is conspicuous by it's very absence: Jennifer Kent's The Babadook.
Annabelle
Ugh, ugh, UGH, this MOVIE. Wow. It's been a long time since I felt downright angry at a film's utter incompetent laziness and reliance on reductive stereotypes, but yeah, this was not good. I'm also not sure why, since the haunted "Annabelle" doll is an actual relic in the Warren's occult museum (read more here), they decided to so drastically alter its appearance. The super-creepy thing you see in the movie is pure invention--the real Annabelle was a Raggedy Anne doll. But never mind. The important thing to remember here is that this movie is a huge step backward from its predecessor, The Conjuring. I know a lot of horror fans didn't like that film either, and I understand why--it is pretty safe and same-y in the tropes and overall design, as was this. But this feels a lot less like anyone involved gave a single shit about the final result. It's the same blueprint, without the necessary heart behind it. Just boring. (Speaking of boring, by the way, I won't be covering Ouija in this retrospective for the simple reason that despite watching it for that exact purpose, I can't remember a single thing about it.) Next!
The Purge: Anarchy
Now, technically this is one of the ones I haven't seen yet, but I do want to talk a bit about The Purge as a series. I saw the trailer for the third movie, Election Year, when we went to see The Witch last week, and I feel comfortable inferring this is the most deliberate, biting political satire on the market right now. And by "satire" I don't mean the funny kind. I mean the dark, subversive kind that holds a dark mirror up to the current cultural atmosphere and says, "Look! Look at yourselves! What are you DOING? And how are you going to fix this?" I listed the first movie in 2013 after watching it (twice), and realizing that despite what the marketing leads you to believe, the main protagonist isn't Ethan Hawke, but Lena Headey. He does that sometimes--gets involved in projects that use him as the main attraction, then steps back for someone else to be the real star. (See also: Predestination.) Moving on: I think these movies, and the messages they're sending, are important, even though they're agonizingly difficult to watch. One of the best things about horror is that it forces you to think about uncomfortable things. That's the goal--to rattle you. To yank you out of your comfort zone. To peel back the veneer of civilization and remind you where the monsters are hiding. I don't want to get too political here, but I am still gonna catch up with this. And I would totally vote for Elizabeth Mitchell as President.
Oculus
Hey, kids, it's Amy Pond! And a haunted mirror! And possibly time travel! I love this movie. Again, it's a Blumhouse Special: we have a fixed central location that just happens to be extremely stripped down as our main setting, and a focus on the characters' relationships to each other rather than focusing on the haunted thing, although the haunted thing is the impetus for getting them to talk about their feelings. What's great about this is because the setting is so stripped down, and the effects are so simply rendered, you can see just how important things like editing, writing, and pace are to visual storytelling, and how nicely they all fit together when they're handled correctly. The whole thing hangs on the two central characters figuring out What Really Happened when they were kids, and whether this mirror is in fact haunted or their Dad was just garden-variety evil, and we get through that premise mostly through dialogue. It's surprisingly dialogue-heavy, almost like a radio drama, with both siblings telling their own version of events that they remember slightly differently. And all the while, the timeline and sense of reality start to slip further and further out of place. It's a pretty basic set-up--and I should warn you this doesn't have a happy ending--but it is done SO well. Highly recommended.
Now, about The Babadook: I remember this being THE movie to see in 2014. It seemed like everyone was talking about it, and critics and fans alike raved once they got a peek, but it did not even crack a million at the box office. At least not domestically. It seemed to go to streaming and then video very quickly, relying mostly on word of mouth and solid reviews. I don't even recall seeing it advertised in theaters, which is unfortunate for this retrospective because it's the only one for this year that was written, directed by, and starring a woman. Also--it's terrifying. Horrific and beautifully moving at the same time. It's a story about an evil pop-up book that appears in a child's bedroom one day, much to the consternation of his overworked, overtired single mother. It's also a story about grief and guilt building into a monstrous force that threatens to tear everything you love to pieces, and how that feeling can be managed if it's not ignored, but never really goes away. It's almost fable-like, and the book itself is gorgeous. The visuals are magnificent--Mister Babadook looks like he walked straight from the pages of a classic children's story. It's scary because it's coming after the kid inside us that's still a little afraid to open the closet door or look under the bed at night. It's also scary because it digs at something primal and raw, that self-censoring we all do to get through the day when we're in the middle of something hard and not really coping as well as we'd like. It was one of the best, if not THE best, horror movie of the year.
So why did it get shunted at the box office? Is this what they call a "sleeper hit," a movie that generates a lot of positive buzz and goes through lots of streaming clicks, rentals, DVD sales, and library rentals, but just couldn't summon the marketing power to put bodies in seats? Is it just because it's Australian, and we have issues with foreign releases over here? How did this movie do where YOU live?
Cheers, and I'll see you in the wrap-up post!
Annabelle - $84.3 million
(The Purge: Anarchy - $72 million)
Ouija - $50.9 million
(Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones - $32.5 million)
Oculus - $27.7 million
(Honorable Mention: As Above/So Below - $21.3 million)
The horror universe is Jason Blum's oyster right now. 4 of the 6 movies on this list are Blumhouse productions. If that doesn't convince you he's dominating the genre, I don't know what will. However, even discounting the massive turnout of Blumhouse pictures on this list, there is one that is conspicuous by it's very absence: Jennifer Kent's The Babadook.
Annabelle
Ugh, ugh, UGH, this MOVIE. Wow. It's been a long time since I felt downright angry at a film's utter incompetent laziness and reliance on reductive stereotypes, but yeah, this was not good. I'm also not sure why, since the haunted "Annabelle" doll is an actual relic in the Warren's occult museum (read more here), they decided to so drastically alter its appearance. The super-creepy thing you see in the movie is pure invention--the real Annabelle was a Raggedy Anne doll. But never mind. The important thing to remember here is that this movie is a huge step backward from its predecessor, The Conjuring. I know a lot of horror fans didn't like that film either, and I understand why--it is pretty safe and same-y in the tropes and overall design, as was this. But this feels a lot less like anyone involved gave a single shit about the final result. It's the same blueprint, without the necessary heart behind it. Just boring. (Speaking of boring, by the way, I won't be covering Ouija in this retrospective for the simple reason that despite watching it for that exact purpose, I can't remember a single thing about it.) Next!
The Purge: Anarchy
Now, technically this is one of the ones I haven't seen yet, but I do want to talk a bit about The Purge as a series. I saw the trailer for the third movie, Election Year, when we went to see The Witch last week, and I feel comfortable inferring this is the most deliberate, biting political satire on the market right now. And by "satire" I don't mean the funny kind. I mean the dark, subversive kind that holds a dark mirror up to the current cultural atmosphere and says, "Look! Look at yourselves! What are you DOING? And how are you going to fix this?" I listed the first movie in 2013 after watching it (twice), and realizing that despite what the marketing leads you to believe, the main protagonist isn't Ethan Hawke, but Lena Headey. He does that sometimes--gets involved in projects that use him as the main attraction, then steps back for someone else to be the real star. (See also: Predestination.) Moving on: I think these movies, and the messages they're sending, are important, even though they're agonizingly difficult to watch. One of the best things about horror is that it forces you to think about uncomfortable things. That's the goal--to rattle you. To yank you out of your comfort zone. To peel back the veneer of civilization and remind you where the monsters are hiding. I don't want to get too political here, but I am still gonna catch up with this. And I would totally vote for Elizabeth Mitchell as President.
Oculus
Hey, kids, it's Amy Pond! And a haunted mirror! And possibly time travel! I love this movie. Again, it's a Blumhouse Special: we have a fixed central location that just happens to be extremely stripped down as our main setting, and a focus on the characters' relationships to each other rather than focusing on the haunted thing, although the haunted thing is the impetus for getting them to talk about their feelings. What's great about this is because the setting is so stripped down, and the effects are so simply rendered, you can see just how important things like editing, writing, and pace are to visual storytelling, and how nicely they all fit together when they're handled correctly. The whole thing hangs on the two central characters figuring out What Really Happened when they were kids, and whether this mirror is in fact haunted or their Dad was just garden-variety evil, and we get through that premise mostly through dialogue. It's surprisingly dialogue-heavy, almost like a radio drama, with both siblings telling their own version of events that they remember slightly differently. And all the while, the timeline and sense of reality start to slip further and further out of place. It's a pretty basic set-up--and I should warn you this doesn't have a happy ending--but it is done SO well. Highly recommended.
Now, about The Babadook: I remember this being THE movie to see in 2014. It seemed like everyone was talking about it, and critics and fans alike raved once they got a peek, but it did not even crack a million at the box office. At least not domestically. It seemed to go to streaming and then video very quickly, relying mostly on word of mouth and solid reviews. I don't even recall seeing it advertised in theaters, which is unfortunate for this retrospective because it's the only one for this year that was written, directed by, and starring a woman. Also--it's terrifying. Horrific and beautifully moving at the same time. It's a story about an evil pop-up book that appears in a child's bedroom one day, much to the consternation of his overworked, overtired single mother. It's also a story about grief and guilt building into a monstrous force that threatens to tear everything you love to pieces, and how that feeling can be managed if it's not ignored, but never really goes away. It's almost fable-like, and the book itself is gorgeous. The visuals are magnificent--Mister Babadook looks like he walked straight from the pages of a classic children's story. It's scary because it's coming after the kid inside us that's still a little afraid to open the closet door or look under the bed at night. It's also scary because it digs at something primal and raw, that self-censoring we all do to get through the day when we're in the middle of something hard and not really coping as well as we'd like. It was one of the best, if not THE best, horror movie of the year.
So why did it get shunted at the box office? Is this what they call a "sleeper hit," a movie that generates a lot of positive buzz and goes through lots of streaming clicks, rentals, DVD sales, and library rentals, but just couldn't summon the marketing power to put bodies in seats? Is it just because it's Australian, and we have issues with foreign releases over here? How did this movie do where YOU live?
Cheers, and I'll see you in the wrap-up post!