Whither Mel Gibson?

Cafe Society
1

I always thought that the key to Mel Gibson’s future after his very public fall from grace would be the box office of his current magnum opus*, Apocalypto.

The film’s been out two months now, and is already playing the discount theaters here in LA, where EVERYTHING plays the mainstream theaters for months and months. It opened recently in Mexico to charges of racism. IMDB estimates it’s barely cleared it’s production budget**, which means it hasn’t even come CLOSE to making up for what must surely have been a massive marketing expenditure to spin favor toward the film. It’s garnered only the consolation cosmetic Oscar nominations for makeup and sound.

His current listed projects include a film about the ATF infiltrating a motorcycle gang, and another turn as actor-producer for a Richard Donner film about an erroneously-convicted man’s release from prison.

I don’t think this bodes well for his professional future, but perhaps there is still enough love for him somewhere in the world to prove otherwise.

Your thoughts?

*latin for “big penguin condom”

**The $40million film has made $50million as of this past weekend, compared to $366million in the first 8 weeks of the $30million Passion of the Christ.

2

I believe the correct translation is “big penguin nose condom.”

3

Conversion to Scientology, I hope.

In his case, it would be a step in the direction of sanity.

4

Not that this has anything to do with this thread but since it is about Mel Gibson, on my girl scout’s honor we are related to him! :smiley:

No kidding, no lying about it.

5

Why would anybody lie about something that embarassing?

6

“Barely cleared” is another way of saying “surpassed.” The film hasn’t been a hit by any means, but there was never the slightest chance it would be. Comparing its box office receipts with those of “Passion of the Christ” makes no sense. For Gibson, this was a labor of love. If it made back what it cost (which it already has), he’s probably quite happy.

Whither his career now? Well, he’ll probably never be able to go back to being a leading man in mainstream romantic comedies or buddy/cop movies. He’ll never be perceived as a likable guy (a la Tom Hanks) again, and can never make light chit chat with Leno and Letterman again.

But he’s still a highly talented filmmaker, and he has the money to make whatever kinds of films interest him for the rest of his life. He’ll probably never make another mainstream smash, but there’s no reason he can’t keep making his own kind of independent films for a small, appreciative audience.

7

That was answered in a recent thread.

As astorian pointed out, Apocalypto was never meant to be or was going to be a wildly successful, popular movie. That would be true if Gibson had never gone batshit and were at the height of his popularity. For all its action and romance, it’s a big-budget art film, again, as astorian said (astorian says everything better than I can), it was a labor of love for him. Hate Gibson for what you think he is, but bringing up Apocalyto’s box office as a nyah nyah is wrong. It’s an excellent film, no matter who made it, and it’s a interesting, highly unusual film that would never garner a mainstream audience.

8

I wish.

9

Apocalypto has been a staggering, phenomenal success, far exceeding anything comparable that I can possibly think of. Gibson may be the only director in the world who could have made such an astounding feat possible.

Hyperbole? Only a touch. As others have said, the success of Passion of the Christ was a one-time, never-to-be-equaled event. Nobody can use that as the basis for further predictions.

Instead, Apocalypto needs to be measured against similar pictures, insofar as any exist.

The box office mojo chart for 2006 puts this long, subtitled, violent movie at a healthy #62 for the year. It ranks ahead of The Queen, acclaimed as one of the best movies of the year, with a highly recognizable subject content, and with a sure Oscar winning performance. And it’s done more business in the foreign market as well.

It ranks higher than any other non-English-language movie released in 2006. It made more money than critical art house favs like Stranger Than Fiction, Children of Men, Babel, and The Illusionist. It ranks higher than teen-scream first-night must-sees like When a Stranger Calls, Hostel, The Hills Have Eyes, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, and Grudge 2.

What more could any human being hope to accomplish with a film so wildly individualistic that if David Lynch had been the director, critics would be wearing diapers to drive cross-country for screenings?

Apocalypto, which I haven’t seen, is clearly a magnificent achievement. Whither Mel Gibson? Absolutely anywhere he wants. He’s pure gold as a filmmaker, his reputation as a human being notwithstanding.

10

I think, eventually, people will forget about Mel’s tirade and he will slowly acheive a certain level of respectability and box-office draw again. The public has a pretty short memory.

Look at other entertainers who have overcome significant scandals to regain their credibility. Rob Lowe and Roman Polanski come immediately to mind, but there are many others.

11

had he not had an unfortunate incident on a Malibu highway, how much higher might the box office have been, simply on the afterburners of Passion?

12

I like Mel Gibson as a filmmaker and admire the fact that he’s willing to be so individualistic and take non-commercial risks to pursue unique artistic visions. I liked Apocalypto. I thought TPOTC took huge balls and was a very creative idea. I thought his apology for his drunken tirade was sincere. I thought his contrition was genuine. He might be a little insane but that never hurts for an artist.

Ultimately, i think his career will rise or sink on the strength of his work. If he makes good movies, he’ll do ok. If he starts to suck, he won’t. I really don’t think his anti-semitic lapse is going to destroy his career unless he ever does something like it again.

13

Probably not a whole lot. Have you seen the trailer? the audience who made Passion a success were people who generally only like mainstream movies, and people who hardly ever go out to the theater. Most of those people base their moviegoing choices on trailers. They don’t listen to critics or read Rotten Tomatoes. They see the trailer and think either “I might want to see that” or “That looks terrible” or “What’s for dinner?”

Apocalypto had one of the weirdest-assed trailers I’ve ever seen. It pushed some of the action, but none of the romance and instead showed you scenes that you’ve never seen before and would be likely to give a lot of people nightmares. If Gibson had never been a fuckwit, I’d bet that the reaction would likely be “What in the blue blazes was THAT? Mel Gibson you say? Let me know when Lethal Weapon whatever comes out.” I’ll bet the reaction was like that anyway for a lot of people, because a lot, not all, but a lot, of those people would only think “Oh Mel, why’d you have to say that outloud?” when they heard his anti-Semitic words.

14

Yeah… but he’s still a crazy, drunken prick.

And “Apocalypto” may be the genre-shattering blockbuster you portray it to be, but I don’t know anyone personally who’s actually seen it.

(You aren’t Mel Gibson or his agent, by any chance, are you? That’s some inspired PR-hagiography you churned out there.)

15

You may be correct. But I don’t think that’s what Disney and Fox were counting on when they agreed to distribute it. The film has made 55 million worldwide, according to this Hollywood Reporter article from two days ago.

Mel himself paid the money to make it (this Variety article suggests the budget was more like $70million), but Disney and Fox put forth the resources to get it out to the theaters.

If people don’t pay to see it, theaters don’t pay to rent it. Mel could try to distribute his own films entirely, but at this point the theaters see that his films will either do Passion business, or Apocalypto business. Too uneven to risk. He needs a studio to get the films out to the people who make the decisions you describe, and if they can’t make money on the deal, they won’t play.

It’s Mel’s business if he wants to make art house movies with his own money. He could go with an art house distributor, or make a cable movie or series, hell, if he really cared about his message more than profit, he could just release the whole thing on YouTube for free.

But he got major distribution deals because the distributor was convinced they’d rake the money back in. And it didn’t happen. Which means they’ll all be twice shy the next time, looking much more closely at the commercial potential of the film, and silently deciding whether to gamble on Mel keeping is idiot yap shut prior to opening weekend.

16

I particularly liked this line:

Brilliantly done, sir!

17

Anybody else besides me who can’t refrain from pronouncing it Pockyclipto?

18

Estimates of production costs and grosses are notoriously triple filtered through hype, spin, and bullshit for Hollywood films, but FWIW Box Office Mojo gives a production estimate of $40 million and a worldwide gross of $107,425,116.

So Disney and Fox agreed to do distribution. First, distribution returns are virtually pure profit. Second, they aren’t looking at this movie, they’re looking at Gibson’s future movies and want to keep a good relationship with him.

I hold no brief for Gibson the man. But I gave up on asking purity of personality from creators years ago. Otherwise the libraries, art galleries, movie houses, and museums would be empty echoing chambers.

So says Myron Van Horsepucky! :smiley: