Is Morgan Freeman Clint Eastwood's Lucky Charm?

I remember reading somewhere that Morgan Freeman told Clint Eastwood that if he ever made a western that he would like to go along for the ride. That movie turned out to be 1992's "Unforgiven." It went on to win 4 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director for Clint Eastwood and grossed $101 million domestically.

In 2004, Eastwood made "Million Dollar Baby." It co-starred Morgan Freeman and went on to win 4 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor for Morgan Freeman, and Best Director again for Eastwood, as well as grossing just above $100 million dollars.

Now it's 2009, and we have "Invictus" starring Morgan Freeman and directed by Eastwood. It's too bad Eastwood's not starring with Freeman because it looks like those two have the magic touch. I'll be curious to see how "Invictus" does at the box office without Eastwood in a starring role with Morgan Freeman. Maybe their collaboration alone can warrant another critical and box office hit. We'll just have to wait and see in the next few weeks.

Fox can't get lightning in a bottle twice

James Cameron's "Avatar" is coming our way Dec. 18th twelve years and one day before his "Titanic" was released in hopes that this magical time frame will help their movie do well at the box office. Studios always think that if they re-create another movie's marketing mode that they will catch lightning in a bottle. This rarely seems to happen. Take for example, Zack Snyder had a huge hit with "300" being release on March 9, 2007. The studios released "Watchmen" on March 6, 2009 hoping to catch that same buzz and magical dollars at the box office. While "Watchmen" was a modest success, it did not match what "300" did.

I have a feeling that "Avatar" is going to be the same as that model. There will be a curiosity to see it, but Fox seems like they are trying too hard to create buzz around it. Buzz just happens. It has a life of its own, and when people feel it's pushed upon them they start to back off. I will reserve judgement until I see the film. Cameron has always made entertaining films and this one looks at least to be that.

I'm just curious as to why they aren't playing up the 3-D aspect of it in the marketing because it seems to be a great selling point these days pushing movies like "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" and "Monsters vs. Aliens" well past the $100 million mark. You would think that with the new technology Cameron is promoting and working on that the notion of this movie being 3-D would be the main focus behind the marketing even ahead of Cameron's name.

*UPDATE January 3, 2010*

Ok, I was way wrong on this one. James Cameron is truly the god of box office cinema since now he is the only director to have two films pass the $1 Billion mark. That is truly amazing considering I was not that impressed by "Avatar." I thought it started out really great, and I was really impressed by the effects but the recycled story really killed the movie for me. Cameron has always been an entertaining filmmaker, and I hope that "Avatar's" success leads to "Battle Angel Alita" being made because I would love to see that film.

Ninja Assassin is going to have a hard time at the box office

Predator 2 released on November 21, 1990. Domestic gross $30 mil.

Alien Resurrection released on November 26, 1997. Domestic gross $47 mil.

Blade: Trinity released on December 8, 2004. Domestic gross $52 mil.

Alien Vs. Predator: Requium released on December 25, 2007. Domestic gross $41 mi.

Punisher: War Zone released on December 5, 2008. Domestic gross $8 mil.

The Spirit released on December 25, 2008. Domestic gross $20 mil.

What all these films have in common are they are genre films aimed squarely at the young male market, and all were released during the holiday season. This does not bode well for "Ninja Assassin" which is being released today on November 25, 2009. I've always felt that releasing these types of movies during the holiday season proves to be a bad idea. Why? It's because it's the holidays, and guys get stuck seeing family movies with their families. This is why the "Santa Clause" series do so well. Men have to forgo their real desires to see the action movie and sit through drivel. These films are better off being released during the spring or even summer where they belong because they don't fit into the cross appeal genre movies that do well during the holidays like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Twilight.

"Ninja Assassin" will have a tough time of it this holiday season. It hasn't been marketed that well, and it's going up against "New Moon" as well as other holiday fare such as "The Blind Side" and "A Christmas Carol." I predict that in the end of it's run it will make around 30-40 mil. It will have a decent opening during the holiday weekend and then drop off drastically. It's too bad because the ninja movie was ripe for re-invigorating, and it's a pretty decent yarn only dragged down by the studios fear of focusing the story on an Asian lead. Naomi Harris is a good actress, but she doesn't need to be in this movie at all.

Maybe that's the studios problem.

Maybe if these movies were better they could draw a bigger audience, but most of these have been poorly reviewed, and thus the numbers dropped the second weekend after the initial fanboy has seen it. We'll see what happens.

*UPDATE*

"Ninja Assassin" has been out for about 3 weeks and has made a little over $30 million which has pretty much fell in my expectations. The core fans went to see it and then it dropped like a brick.