Augusta Chronicle Editorial Staff
If you had a choice between making $349 million or $349,000, you would think the choice would be easy.
And yet, Hollywood often chooses the lesser amount.
Why? It appears movieland often opts for pushing an agenda and pushing the envelope rather than pulling in the bucks.
If making money was the main aim, after all, Hollywood would surely make more family-oriented films.
Consider: The top-grossing movies of the past year -- a Transformers sequel, a Harry Potter sequel and the smash hit Up -- grossed $400 million, $294 million and $290 million, respectively. The top films in 2008 were the Batman story Dark Knight; another comic book creation, Iron Man; and the last installment of Indiana Jones -- which made $533 million, $318 million and $317 million.
Same in 2007, with Spider-Man 3, Shrek 3 and Transformers leading the pack at $336 million, $322 million and $319 million.
We understand not all movies can be family movies, nor do we suggest it. We also see the need for worthwhile tales that may not be for the masses.
But none of this can explain Hollywood's thirst for such movies as Bruno, Humpday and Milk .
What does explain those movies -- two of which were ultra-publicized -- is an agenda.
Bruno is about a fictitious flamboyantly gay character; Humpday is about two heterosexual friends "forced" by circumstances into making a gay art film together; and Milk is about a hero of the gay-rights movement.
Despite being hyper-hyped -- including winning favor with Oscar voters -- Milk garnered only $31.8 million. Bruno did better domestically, with $60 million -- but, notably, half of that came on its opening weekend. Humpday was a legitimate, Grade-A disaster, coming in at $349,000. And $1.
Again, there's a market for great literature that may not have the mass appeal of Spider-Man or Indiana Jones . But we hardly think Humpday fits in the category of Jane Austen.
The question is, when audiences are eating up the more wholesome fare, why would anyone continue bankrolling, and then endlessly promoting, flicks that the vast majority of Americans may not only be disinterested in but disgusted with?
The word "agenda" is the only word that explains it.
