Episode 203 - Perfect Stranger: LIVE!

[taylor anne photo 11311]

At the mention of Belladonna, my ears really perked up. Since I am a 90s kid who was obsessed with being a witch I of course immediately recognized this as the (first) cause of Jimmy Angelov's death in the 1997 classic Practical Magic. Nicole Kidman puts a drop of this into his drink every night so that she "can get some sleep" because he refuses to ever let them rest. Once he becomes fully abusive and threatens to kill her, Sandra Bullock drops a whole bunch into a bottle of tequila that he is drinking and it kills him. They certainly didn't show the symptoms that KumiteCourtney mentioned earlier either, but I would've said he had the mad as a hatter classification lol.

I thought that this was where Paul was going when he mentioned this fact but it appears I am strangely alone in my remembrance of this perfect movie.

[ChokeBot 1]

On 12/12/2018 at 10:52 AM, RyanSz said:

So if Ribisi did this during Perfect Stranger,

That it would have been a better movie?

Yes, I'll take an actual movie villain stalking a (somewhat) sympathetic protagonist over whatever Ribisi's character played in Perfect Stranger any day of the week. Also, I think we're alone now.

[RyanSz 3140]

On 12/12/2018 at 9:28 AM, Francesco said:

This is my first forum post and I'm sorry that it's mostly smartassing around but I reached my breaking point today. So before I go into my correction let me start with the fact that I love the show, period. But after listening to Paul repeatedly calling movies box office hits when they clearly are not for years I just had to chip in my two cents and break down why Perfect Stranger was not a hit.

WARNING: there is math involved but I'll try to keep it as simple as possible.

According to my info (which comes mostly from Screen Junkies' Charting w/ Dan) about 52 % of the domestic gross go back to the studio. Internationally it depends on the specific deals within the different markets but on average about 38 % of the gross go back to the studio. The rest is swallowd by local distributors and theaters.

So, looking at Perfect Stranger we have the following numbers:

Budget: $60,000,000

Domestic gross: $23,984,949

International gross: $49,105,662

Total gross: $73,090,611

 

Now, if you look at the part of the gross the studio actually gets to keep, it looks like this:

Budget: $60,000,000

Net domestic gross: $12,472,173

Net international gross: $18,660,151

Net total gross: $31,132,324

If you compare the budget and the net gross you get a deficit of $28,867,676. So this movie lost a whole chunk of cash.

In short: the movie cost $60 mill to produce, it grossed about $73 mill worldwide of which the studio got to keep around $31 mill and lost about $29 mill. And that's without factoring in marketing and distribution costs. But since this was distributed by Columbia (so, basically Sony) I guess they can write it off somehow.

This is to the best of my knowledge. I'm sure this stuff is way more complex than I explained. But what I'm trying to say is, a movie that barely makes back its budget is not a hit. It should, like, double its budget to get out of the red. Of course this totally ignores home video, rentals, VOD, pre-sales into other markets etc. - I believe at the end of the day Perfect Stranger made a buck or two.

*Please excuse any grammatical mistakes, English is my second language. Thanks and, again: love the show.

Most movies, with exceptions, will at least break even with all of the home viewing options there are now for movies, what's more shocking is a movie with two big names like Willis and Berry made that little amount. The rule of thumb with box office is basically to break even a movie needs to make double its budget at the box office, unless it's a major tentpole movie, in which case it needs to be 2.5-3 times the budget to break even, because the marketing is on a more massive scale. So while Batman Vs. Superman made almost $900 million at the box office against a $250 million dollar budget, it only barely broke even as the promotion for that movie was everywhere on a constant run, leading to a bigger need from the box office to get out of the red.

[WatchOutForSnakes 807]

On 12/13/2018 at 10:42 AM, taylorannephoto said:

At the mention of Belladonna, my ears really perked up. Since I am a 90s kid who was obsessed with being a witch I of course immediately recognized this as the (first) cause of Jimmy Angelov's death in the 1997 classic Practical Magic. Nicole Kidman puts a drop of this into his drink every night so that she "can get some sleep" because he refuses to ever let them rest. Once he becomes fully abusive and threatens to kill her, Sandra Bullock drops a whole bunch into a bottle of tequila that he is drinking and it kills him. They certainly didn't show the symptoms that KumiteCourtney mentioned earlier either, but I would've said he had the mad as a hatter classification lol.

I thought that this was where Paul was going when he mentioned this fact but it appears I am strangely alone in my remembrance of this perfect movie.

I thought the exact same thing!! I've seen Practical Magic more times than I can count, and that's where my mind went every time they mentioned it. 

[gigi-tastic 2322]

On 12/13/2018 at 10:42 AM, taylorannephoto said:

At the mention of Belladonna, my ears really perked up. Since I am a 90s kid who was obsessed with being a witch I of course immediately recognized this as the (first) cause of Jimmy Angelov's death in the 1997 classic Practical Magic. Nicole Kidman puts a drop of this into his drink every night so that she "can get some sleep" because he refuses to ever let them rest. Once he becomes fully abusive and threatens to kill her, Sandra Bullock drops a whole bunch into a bottle of tequila that he is drinking and it kills him. They certainly didn't show the symptoms that KumiteCourtney mentioned earlier either, but I would've said he had the mad as a hatter classification lol.

I thought that this was where Paul was going when he mentioned this fact but it appears I am strangely alone in my remembrance of this perfect movie.

I just want to say how shocked I was that the Owens's house was a full on set they built because I've always thought it looked like the perfect house. Also this is the rare occasion where I love the movie more/better than the book. Both because I saw it first and because it's genuinely better. Though I did enjoy the prequel book  about the aunts lives. 

[SaraK 1980]

On 12/13/2018 at 9:42 AM, taylorannephoto said:

At the mention of Belladonna, my ears really perked up. Since I am a 90s kid who was obsessed with being a witch I of course immediately recognized this as the (first) cause of Jimmy Angelov's death in the 1997 classic Practical Magic. Nicole Kidman puts a drop of this into his drink every night so that she "can get some sleep" because he refuses to ever let them rest. Once he becomes fully abusive and threatens to kill her, Sandra Bullock drops a whole bunch into a bottle of tequila that he is drinking and it kills him. They certainly didn't show the symptoms that KumiteCourtney mentioned earlier either, but I would've said he had the mad as a hatter classification lol.

I thought that this was where Paul was going when he mentioned this fact but it appears I am strangely alone in my remembrance of this perfect movie.

100% thought if the same thing -  I love Practical Magic!

[Don Cardenas 2]

On 12/7/2018 at 2:43 AM, DanEngler said:

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Does this mean the podcast ends now? How much higher can it climb??