Movies
Paramount Stands by ‘mother!’ With Beautiful Statement After Rough Weekend
While Andy Muschietti’s IT continued its dominance at the box office over the weekend, Darren Aronofsky’s mother! didn’t quite fare as well. Backed by a marketing campaign that mostly shrouded *everything* about the movie in secrecy, Aronofsky’s latest made just $7.5 million in its opening weekend.
Furthermore, mother! received a dreaded “F” as its CinemaScore, suggesting that most people who actually did pay to see the film just didn’t like it very much.
What does Paramount think about all this? In a commendable statement made to THR over the weekend, the studio stood by Aronofsky and his bold vision.
“This movie is very audacious and brave. You are talking about a director at the top of his game, and an actress at the top her game. They made a movie that was intended to be bold,” said Paramount worldwide president of marketing and distribution, Megan Colligan. “Everyone wants original filmmaking, and everyone celebrates Netflix when they tell a story no one else wants to tell. This is our version. We don’t want all movies to be safe. And it’s okay if some people don’t like it.”
Boom. Whether you loved mother! or you hated it, you have to respect a studio (and a filmmaker) that’s unafraid to be bold and sacrifice mass appeal for the sake of making a film they can be proud of. We never really expected mother! to do well with general audiences or make much at the box office (especially with IT drowning out everything else right now), and it seems like Paramount didn’t either. But they had faith in Aronofsky’s vision nonetheless, and we damn sure respect them for that.
Read our review of mother!, where we called it a “bold and fascinating experience.”
Sunrise Films has announced the official North American release of William Bagley‘s horror comedy Hold the Fort, and it’s accompanied by an energetic new trailer.
Hold the Fort debuts on digital platforms on June 23.
In the film, “Lucas and Jenny think their life is finally coming together when the couple become homeowners. Little do they know that their new house comes with a big catch. Lucas and Jenny soon find themselves in a fight for their lives when they become trapped in a battle between their Homeowners Association and an onslaught of monsters from hell. The horror-comedy takes the timely concern of home-ownership and wraps this up in an entertaining action-packed thrill ride.“
Watch the new trailer below, which introduces one wild HOA gathering during an equinox. Things get bloody fast.
Chris Mayers (Adult Swim Yule Log), Haley Leary (“The Walking Dead”), Levi Burdick, and Julian Smith star.
William Bagley writes and directs, in addition to producing with Smith, Matt Dodd, Luke Williams, and Tim Reis (Adult Swim Yule Log).
Ahead of the release, Bagley said, “My goal with this film was to make a hilarious, fast-paced thrill ride while also telling a great story with heart. Hopefully, through all the blood, laughs, fights, and gags, you leave the film feeling inspired to tackle whatever life throws at you.“
Hold the Fort premiered at Fantasia last summer before going on to play FrightFest London, Toronto After Dark, and Beyond Fest.
I wrote in my review, “It’s an infectiously charming assemblage of jokes and monster vignettes bound together by a barebones plot with not much on its mind beyond delivering an entertaining time.”
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