Warner Bros. is re-releasing the well reviewed George Clooney legal thriller Michael Clayton on January 25th, one month before the Academy Awards. What’s somewhat surprising about the announcement is that the film will return to 1,000 theaters around North America rather than a limited run in the usual cities. Is there really such demand?
When it was released wide last October, the film opened to $11 million, which was considered a mild disappointment and sparked a fair share of knee-jerk “George Clooney isn’t a big draw outside of the Ocean films” editorials. It chugged along, and as of January 6th, it’s grossed $39 million. Made for a tidy $25 million, it wasn’t a flop, but it performed like a mini sleeper instead of like a ’90s John Grisham adaptation, which is probably what Warner Bros. imagined for it success-wise.
Did you see it? I thought it was a cool choice for a matinee, but definitely not a Best Picture hopeful as many are suggesting. Tony Gilroy’s direction was stylish and deft, and one would never guess it was his debut as a director, but the script, also by Gilroy, rang too many of the same bells as Sidney Lumet’s classic The Verdict to be included beside a great film like There Will Be Blood. I also found the ending to be a little full of itself in a year full of similarly quiet, melancholic ones. Will any of you who didn’t catch it be first on line this go around? And more curiously, why did so many choose not to see it last year in spite of stellar reviews?
January 20th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
I think that for October and November there were a lot of other appealing R rated “serious” movies out this fall to compete with it… 3:10 to Yuma, Eastern Promises, The Kingdom, We Own The Night, Gone Baby Gone (I know the last few didn’t do so well, but I think they took away some of the audience), also American Gangster, etc. and on a smaller scale No Country For Old Men, Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead.
And then in December all of the “big” movies started to come out. Whether it be I Am Legend or Oscar fare like Atonement or There Will be Blood or even Sweeney Todd. And people who had meant to see it, people that it appealed to, just forgot about the movie that came out in October that looked good. They just never got around to seeing it.
I think another thing that held the movie back was (and this is cynical and maybe depressing to say, but I really think that it is the case) the fact that the movie doesn’t necessarily have a distinctive one or two sentence blurb for a plot that sounds compelling. What would you say? “George Clooney is a corporate lawyer who fixes problems but has a crisis of conscience going up against the big bad guys, but it’s supposed to be much better than a bland Grisham movie and the cast is great.” I don’t think that grabs people or sounds distinctive and they thought, oh, I bet it’s well done, but opted for something else. I think that the basic premise doesn’t have that catchy of a hook and people who hear it will just think “oh, well I bet he sides with his conscience.”
All of which is probably unfair. I’ve wanted to see it since it came out and just didn’t get around to it. My friends would always want to see other things (but things that I was also interested in seeing as well), so I never did. And then in December it was only playing a few times a day at a few places in the city, which made it harder, plus I was clearly going to see more “exciting” movies that had more buzz like Sweeney Todd and There Will Be Blood. The short of it is. I’d definitely like to see it, but I can understand why it was sort of passed over.
January 21st, 2008 at 12:17 am
Michael Clayton was a great thriller in my opinion. I saw it one Saturday afternoon early November along with Gone Baby Gone that same day. Clayton had crisp storytelling. I agree with the person above about ticket sales. I don’t think it was the right time to release Clayton on top of some of the “serious” pictures being showing at the same time.
I haven’t seen the Verdict and I love Sidney Limet’s work so I cannot compare notes with you, Hunter. When I saw “Clayton” I was very suprised with it’s ending. It was an attention grabber. I was shocked at how I lost my guard half way into the film and thought this was going in a predicitable route. It turned me upside down! I think that’s what excited me.
Someone also tipped me about Clayton being released again at a local AMC theater. Clayton might be one of the nominees. You know as well as I do there’s at least one oddball nom in the mix for the best picture category every year.
January 21st, 2008 at 12:27 am
I hadn’t even heard of it until some bloggers started mentioning it. I don’t think it ever played here. A lack of marketing was definitely the problem, and maybe, as Anon. said, that’s just because it’s really hard to market effectively.
January 21st, 2008 at 12:32 am
The marketing is my guess. The only thing I knew about this film was a picture of GC holding a cell phone in the news paper.
January 21st, 2008 at 7:55 am
I saw it because my mother dragged me to it and I was surprised. I thought it would be…boring to me, the lawyers’ daughter to have to sit through all the legal jargon and that one scene they get slightly wrong. But I was pleasantly surprised. It was a really good film. I’d definitely see it again, if not just to see the last few scenes.
January 21st, 2008 at 8:54 am
I will probably end up seeing it, because I was on vacation almost the entire time it was showing, and I am a big fan of George Clooney
January 21st, 2008 at 9:40 am
I saw it…and it was a lot better than I thought it would be….but theres way to many better movies to see right now. If it wants to compete with “there will be blood” it will fail miserably…. again.