More Bad News for Antiwar Hollywood

I recently had a post on the failure of Hollywood's antiwar movies at the box office, and there's a follow-up article today:

The wave of recent films set against the backdrop of war in Iraq and post-9/11 security has failed to win over film-goers keen to escape grim news headlines when they go to the movies, analysts say.

In a break with past convention, when films based on real conflicts were made only years after the last shots were fired, several politically-charged films have gone on release while America remains embroiled in Iraq.

Almost without exception, however, the crop of movies have struggled to turn a profit at the box-office and in many cases have received a mauling from unimpressed critics as well.

"Rendition," a drama starring Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal about the CIA's policy of outsourcing interrogation of terror suspects, has taken just under 10 million dollars at the box office, a disastrous return.

Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis's latest film "In the Valley of Elah," about a father investigating the death of his son in Iraq, earned favorable reviews but less than seven million dollars following its release in September.

Even the action-packed "The Kingdom," starring Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner, fell well below its 70 million budget with around 47 million dollars in ticket sales.

The poor returns do not augur well for more war films due for release in North America later this month, notably the Robert Redford-directed drama "Lions for Lambs" and Brian De Palma's hard-hitting "Redacted," based on the real-life rape and murder of an Iraqi schoolgirl by US soldiers.

Lew Harris, the editor of website Movies.com, said the films have struggled to be successful because the subject matters of Iraq and 9/11 remain too close to home. And in many cases, the films have not been entertaining enough.

"These movies have to be entertaining," Harris told AFP. "You can't just take a movie and make it anti-war or anti-torture and expect to draw people in.

"That's what happened with 'Rendition' and it has been a disaster," he said.

The news will continue to be bad for antiwar Hollywood this weekend. Fred Claus, the Christmas comedy starring Vince Vaughn, is expected to generate $34 million in its opening weekend despite poor reviews, while Lions for Lambs, the big budget/big starpower antiwar movie with Robert Redford and Tom Cruise is expected to gross only $11 million in its opening weekend. That won't even pay for Cruise's hair and makeup guy.

Lions for Lambs is also getting poor reviews with once describing it as "talky and clunky" - not unexpected in an antiwar movie.

Most people would rather see a bad Christmas movie than a preachy antiwar film, no matter who's starring in it. Watch for the numbers at the end of the weekend.