Apocalypto Plunge

Previously I promised more on the shocking box office collapse of Mel Gibson 's Apocalypto movie. I still am perplexed by it. After all, the common belief is that Mel Gibson has a huge and quite fanatical fan base, he is a charismatic leader, he is a proven box office superstar and Apocalypto had almost uniformly fawning reviews from critics focusing on the "action" aspects of the film.

Apocalypto started out like a mega-blockbuster. Number one at the box-office beating out Blood Diamond.

So what happened? Just two weeks out- total collapse. According to boxofficemojo.com, it is not in the top ten anymore, eclipsed by the likes of Happy Feet, The Holiday and Rocky Balboa.

Here is an analysis of the situation, and it goes way beyond general disgust with Mel Gibson the man.

Most importantly, it seems all the assumptions were wrong. It was generally assumed Mel Gibson has a large following of like-minded bigots. It turns out not true. The "Passion" crowd actually was made up of a lot of decent religious people duped by Mel Gibson to make a fortune. They did not turn out in droves for Apocalypto as everyone, especially Mel Gibson, expected. What happened it seems is that there is only a small number of Mel Gibson "true believers" left out there. Even they went out the first weekend and came home pretty disappointed with Apocalypto. Their friends therefore did not turn out.

So Mel Gibson Lesson #1 is, Mel Gibson's like-minded following is not as huge as commonly believed.

Secondly, the movie just was not all that good. It had a lot of action and fake blood spurts. However, nobody wants that for a holiday movie. What was Mel Gibson thinking? There is a theory that he thought it was a Jesus allegory, hence Christmas release. Nobody else saw his vision though. Most people saw it as a mere slasher flick.

So Mel Gibson Lesson #2 is, people want to be entertained at the theater, not shamelessly exploited.

Thirdly, Mel Gibson has immense success in the past by stirring up ethnic tensions as a PR technique. This is what makes decent people uncomfortable with Mel Gibson the man. It is not just a small inner demon, it is just who this man is. He tried workin' it again with his famous August 2006 "I own Malibu" tirade. He also was counting on the Native American community resisting the film as demeaning. As for his ethnic exploitation tactic, didn't work this time ... fool me once, not twice. Native American leaders, having learned from how resisting Mel's PR machine backfired last time with Passion, simply didn't fall into the trap.

So Mel Gibson lesson #3 is: Mel Gibson "We Won't be Fooled Again"... and again ... and again. Outa here with you.

The bottom line actually is a tragedy: Mel Gibson got so rich off his nastiness before that even though he and his distributor are losing money on Apocalypto, this villain will not die. Two years from now when his next film is in the same old PR spin zone, we'll be back too :).

Apocalypto - Mel Gibson

I wrote previously on Mel Gibson's history when his rant was making news. Now Mel Gibson's Apocalypto has been going down. Why? He's been hyping away, but why has it not stuck at the top?

I'm thinking about it and am sure I'll have some ideas to discuss. Just not right now... Stay tuned till later for my full post ... :)

Mel Gibson

This is my new political and social commentary blog. This post on Mel Gibson is on old news, but which keeps popping up over and over. So to keep things straight, I have dated this post from August.

I have felt Mel Gibson has not had a filter like most normal people. Perhaps it is the power he feels from the millions he has made in Hollywood. Or perhaps he never cared about anyone's perceptions of his character. For years he has worn his prejudices in full view. So why is his rant making news now?

Who knows?

Probably it is just that it is on tape this time and he can't avoid it.

Mel has brought all the late-night jokes on himself, by just being himself. His excuse of being drunk hardly works except perhaps for the miniscule like-minded minority.

I have heard alcohol only inhibits the stupid filter. Mel's filter was down and now most people have heard what always has been on his mind. Evidently these are the types of things that are on Mel's mind, besides all the minority baiting getting play in the press:

Mel Gibson thinks he owns Malibu ...

He can bring ruin on anyone even a police officer who gets in his way hmmmm maybe he can, he's rich enough.

How about this one, the open tequila bottle in a brown bag in his own car, with no passengers wasn't his! Good joke Mel!

It is just the way Mel seems to like to hype his upcoming movi3s. For example, when he was doing the circuit on his passion movie re-make, he went hatred against a New York Times columnist: "I want to kill him," Gibson said of the columnist. "I want his intestines on a stick. I want to kill his dog." Gibson said: "[Alleged Jew hater] never denied the Holocaust. He just said there were fewer than six million." LOL Mel! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/09/09/wmel09.xml

So this doesn't seem like new news. Mel Gibson now is forever destined to live in popular culture purgatory where he deserves before he meets his maker - the purgatory of late-night bad jokes.