The 5 lessons to be learned from 'Jurassic World''s $500 million weekend. An experimental comedy show puts comedians in purgatory. Filmmaker Zoe Cassavetes takes on ageism in Hollywood. What the heck are Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig doing in a Lifetime movie?
5 lessons from 'Jurassic World's' $524 million opening
“Jurassic World” just had the biggest opening weekend in Hollywood history, grossing $208.8 million domestically and more than $524 million globally.
The North American numbers put the rampaging dinosaurs update ahead of 2012’s “The Avengers” for the best weekend debut ever.
Iron Man might say he’s not threatened by the success of "Jurassic World," but why was this film such a massive box office success? Some experts predicted that the dinosaur sequel would take in a little more than $100 million in the U.S. over this past weekend. Turns out the so-called experts were a little bit wrong — by about $100 million.
Here’s our take on the lessons of “Jurassic World":
Lesson 1: Dinosaurs are eternally fascinating for both kids and parents
Especially since many of the “kids” who were hooked on the first Jurassic Park movie, which came out way back in 1993, now have children of their own.
Lesson 2: 3-D glasses, like dinosaurs, aren’t really extinct
In the United States, 3-D admissions accounted for less than half of all tickets sold, but because of higher prices, they made up nearly 50 percent of the film’s revenue. Those 3-D ticket sales also accounted for more than $205 million of Jurassic World’s $315.7 in international sales — as well as 95 percent of the returns in China.
Lesson 3: The China Syndrome
“Jurassic World” grossed nearly $100 million in China. Chinese moviegoers are rolling out the red carpet for American action movies, Los Angeles Times Beijing bureau chief Julie Makinen explained to us from China.
Lesson 4: Chris Pratt has reached Harrison Ford-level leading man status
Between the success of “Guardians of the Galaxy” and now “Jurassic World,” Pratt has proven that he can lead a huge budget film to box office success. Expect the “Parks and Recreation” veteran to return in about 37 more “Jurassic” sequels.
Lesson 5: This record won’t last — Thanks, Star Wars!
By the time "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" arrives this December, no one will be talking about the box office returns of “Jurassic World.” Episode VII of Star Wars is going to be so huge that even "Jurassic World's" crazy hybrid indominus rex will be cowering in its shadow.
Of course, "Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace" failed to beat a box office record when it came out... that had been set by the second Jurassic Park film, "The Lost World."
Zoe Cassavetes tackles harsh reality for 40-plus actresses in 'Day Out of Days'
“Day Out of Days” is an indie film about a 40-year-old actress, played by Alexia Landeau, who struggles to keep her career alive in Hollywood because of her “old age.”
The film is directed and co-written by Zoe Cassavetes, the daughter of the indie-filmmaking great John Cassavetes and legendary actress Gena Rowlands. Landeau, who herself is a 40-year-old actress, co-wrote the movie her own experiences to tell the story.
Zoe Cassavetes and Alexia Landeau talked with the Frame's John Horn about the inspiration for the film, the realities of the film business for a 40-year-old actress and why they went to crowd-funding to make this movie.
Interview Highlights
Alexia, you play Mia, an actress who is hitting 40 in the film. You're about 40 yourself. So what happens when an actor turns 40 — especially an actor who is a woman?
Alexia Landeau: I would like to say that it's even before 40 — like around 35. There definitely seems to be a shift in the kind of roles that you're suddenly seen for. The age width gets really big, it's like 35 to 45 in break downs. You're like, "There is a whole life between those 10 years!" Of course then you go into the mother roles or the roles that are not as sexual.
Did that happen to you? Did it change when you turned 35 in the evolution of the kinds of parts you were offered?
AL: It's funny that you ask, because you know in my career, so to speak, when I started I went to college. And then I was only in my mid-20s, because I went to acting school and then college. I wasn't one of those people who started auditioning at 15 or 16, and I looked very young. I was playing teenagers. I was going in, and I was so frustrated.
I was going in for 17-year-olds and I was 25. I remember going for Penny Marshall, and she was like, "I don't really believe you're 17." Damn right I'm not. I'm 24 years old. I remember being really frustrated, and my manager at the time kept being like, "Count your blessings." I kept saying, "Let me play moms! Let me play women!" So at that time it was frustrating, and then you have this incredible jump.
Then suddenly the worms turn, and then you're like, the wife or the mom. So that has definitely happened to me and now — I have to be honest with you, I will often speak to my representatives and I'll be like, "Why am I going in for the mom of a 19-year-old? That's not even possible really." They'll say, "Well, it is possible. If you had children at..." And I'm like, "I know."
Zoe, it looks like you guys jointly made a decision not to shoot Alexia in a very glamorous way. There is not a lot of make up. She's wearing plain waredrobe. Is that something you discussed very early on that you thought that was critical to this film?
Zoe Cassavetes: Yes, it was critical, because this movie isn't about the glamour of Hollywood. It's about the reality of Hollywood for a certain kind of person. We often, when we were writing — and the joy of writing with your actress is, we would talk about things. And then even though things are true, we didn't want to cliche everything out.
Because you could've written the script and it would be super funny, but we really tried to stay as honest as we could with all of our performances. Even when we were writing we'd look at something and we'd think it was funny, and then the next day we'd be like, "Wait, this is almost too on the nose," and then we'd kind of flip it. That ended up working really well for us as a sort of method.
I want to talk about what this film has to say about the way an actor's life is on set. There is a scene where Mia wants to know, where her motivation is to scream at a scene in a horror movie. There is a lot going on in this scene. Not all of it nice. How did this scene come to be?
ZC: What I think really about Mia is interesting — as far as what I didn't notice when we were writing and what I notice now that the film has done — is that the world has changed. Hollywood has changed, and Mia has not changed. Mia still lives in a world where she thinks art actually matters. She stands up for it and she fights for it in a world where people are literally throwing cabbages with wigs on her.
It's not the reality anymore. So I think that even when she goes into a horror film or something, it feels degrading to her. As opposed to what the rest of the world feels like, "This is an incredible opportunity for you!" She has a fight inside her. But how much can she give when still maintaining her dignity?
AL: What I also thought is that, you know Mia — she's a complicated person. She's a little entitled. She's not particularly very likable. I mean, in a sense there are times when we felt like, "You should be lucky." From an outsider or bird's-eye point of view, you're getting this job, you're on a movie, you're the lead — be happy. She kind of thinks she's too good for this, and she's her own worst enemy in certain moments.
I remember really wanting that to show, because I think — as an actor, I have been told that a lot, and you pointed out that she's not glamorous. You know, for me, the conversation I've had with the people that represent me about the way you look, "Come on, go out and get a blow-out." You know, like, "They don't like the way you dress." Those are conversations that happen all the time. Mia struggles with that, and she doesn't give in to it.
This movie was partially funded through crowd-sourcing. Was that a result of people not being willing to finance it?
ZC: It was a really interesting process actually, because I wasn't looking for a studio. Actually, I might really be my father's daughter. I just wanted to make a movie where I wanted to make the decisions, and then I wanted to see how it came out, instead of somebody lording over me telling me what I should do, who wasn't actually making the movie. Crowd-funding was definitely part of it when we looked at it, because this movie I'm obviously not going to make with anyone but Alexia, which a lot of investors weren't really excited about.
But that's the whole point of the movie.
ZC: Exactly.
AL: I think Zoe felt — may I say? I think she wanted someone unburdened by any sort of public persona and any kind of history. Any other actor would come with that, and for the story to work, she needed a blank slate.
Did the people who said no because you wanted to cast Alexia realize the irony of what they were saying in the movie that you wanted to make?
ZC: No, no they didn't.
Did you recognize the irony?
ZC: Of course I did. Life is only irony in this town. But no, of course I did. But I think them saying no made me more resolved to get it done. I mean, don't tell me no. That's all I have to say.
AL: We had this thing happen too where we were crowd-funding and then — can I say what happened? I got pregnant.
ZC: Oh yeah, sure, yeah.
AL: And then we had this very short window — I was pregnant through the whole movie — to do the movie. I was pregnant through the whole movie. There was a moment where Zoe could have walked. I mean, her actress is just like, "We have four months to do this, and then I'm going to be showing." And Zoe just sort of stuck by me and said, "This movie can only happen with you in this part." It was just, very few people get to do that anymore, because it's just too hard to get money.
Meaning, Zoe, that people would say, basically, "I'm interested in making this movie if somebody like Jennifer Lawrence can play the over-the-hill actress."
ZC: No. It wasn't even so much as that I think that everyone has ideas about how casting should go. Everybody wants to be helpful, you know? I'm not looking at anyone like they were trying to hurt me. They were trying to help me. But I had already made up my mind about what I wanted to do, and I wasn't going to change my mind.
People were literally talking to me sweating. So we cut down our budget and we did what we had to do to make the movie in the way that we wanted to make it, and we did. It was a pretty special experience all the way around. I mean, the fact that Alexia called and was like, "I'm pregnant, and like not just one month."
I thank Dominic, her son, for lighting a fire under our ass, because now the movie is done, it's out, and it's a pretty special thing to even be able to make any movie these days, I think. So everybody jumped on the fast-moving crazy train and we got it done.
"Day Out of Days" is currently screening at the Los Angeles Film Festival.
Comedians perform to no crowd in '7 Minutes in Purgatory'
Ian Abramson is into absurdist, experimental comedy. He performs with a drawn-on pencil mustache, and he’s organized comedy shows that he insists are real funerals. His biggest experiment yet is Seven Minutes in Purgatory, a show that has stand-up comedians perform to a camera in a soundproof room while the audience watches a live feed.
Abramson says the idea is to take away all audience feedback and then see just how important laughter — or awkward silence — is to the performers. Other comedians have described the concept as a little sadistic, but to be fair, Abramson was the first one to try it.
“Going into the room for the first time, it was so much more strange than I expected it to be. I had been thinking about it for a couple of months at that point, of what it'll be like to perform isolated like that, but it suddenly hits you when you’re wearing noise-cancelling headphones and you can kind of hear yourself, and you’re speaking into a microphone knowing that they’re hearing exactly what you’re saying,” says Abramson. “The video of me doing it for the first time is up and I keep laughing through my own set just thinking, this is the most absurd feeling."
There’s a kind of giddy, nervous energy in the audience too. They’re laughing at the jokes, but they’re also laughing at the strange experiment they’ve become a part of. Abramson says this is part of the show’s purpose: to make audiences realize how integral a part of this experience they are.
“By isolating the comic, it just brings an awareness, like, ‘Oh, I’m part of this.’ Feeling audiences be that much more engaged and laughing harder at points, that was a lot fun to watch,” says Abramson.
Since the first show last spring in Chicago, Seven Minutes in Purgatory has visited a handful of cities, and comedians take a lot of different approaches. Some, like Mary Holland, prepare entirely new material to work with the concept of the show. She performed her whole set as Angelina Swill — a middle-aged divorcee making a video for her eHarmony profile.
“It was really interesting,” says Holland. “It felt so bizarre, but also so creative because it’s almost like there is nothing to go off of, so you have to just commit to whatever it is that you’re doing, and you can’t second guess it.”
Others opt to perform their regular stand-up material and riff on the unusual set-up.
Now, Abramson has organized and performed in Seven Minutes in Purgatory 13 times, but he says it’s still nerve-wracking. He watches recordings of his set after every show, because otherwise, he’d have no idea how it went.
“People immediately were like, ‘Oh man, that’s so malicious.’ And it didn’t even occur to me that it would be seen as some kind of like evil experiment. I was just genuinely curious about what would happen,” says Abramson. “But, I’m sure, so was Dr. Frankenstein.”