Oldboy has the weakest Thanksgiving opening ever

Spike Lee's remake of Oldboy has opened to some (not surprising) bad press and the weakest holiday opening ever. The film grossed only $850,000 over five days.

Now... this isn't very surprising. Even though it starred relatively high name actors such as Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen, Samuel L. Jackson, and Sharlto Copley it was a highly unnecessary remake. Not to mention Spike Lee has been on a lot of people's shit list lately. Add into the fact that Oldboy suffered a schedule change and should have been released on October 25th, I think people just lost interest. It's actually a bit funny that the reason for the delay was the lack of genre competition over the Thanksgiving holiday. Whoever thought a remake of Oldboy would beat Catching Fire and a new Disney movie probably just lost their job.

Oldboy pushed back to November

Spike Lee's adaptation of Oldboy has been pushed from October 25th to November 27th. The film had already been pushed from October 11th to the 25th. There is no reasoning other than the lack of genre competition over the Thanksgiving week. Oldboy will be competing with Disney's newest animated feature Frozen and the Jason Statham flick Homefront.
Another reason they might not want to mention just yet is Spike Lee recently coming under fire for moving to Kickstarter to try and fund his next project. The studio probably figures an extra month to let people forget about it might not hurt.

Personally I don't see a reason for the move. The only competition Oldboy had was Paranormal Activity 5 and that got pushed back to January. Oh well. I don't really want to see it anyway.

#Oldboy #SpikeLee

Spike Lee moves to Kickstarter to raise $1.25 million

Director Spike Lee has turned to Kickstarter in an attempt to raise $1.25 million to fund an upcoming film project. His time limit? 30 days.

The current Kickstarter trend was started after musician Amanda Palmer, formerly of The Dresden Dolls, unexpectedly raised over $1 million (after setting a $100,000 goal) in May 2012 to fund her album Theatre Is Evil. Following suit were Kickstarter pushes for a long awaited Veronica Mars movie which raised $5 million and a push by Zach Braff who raised $3.1 million for his film I Wish I Was Here.
Depending on the project starter, you are able to win certain prizes for donating a certain amount of money. For the Amanda Palmer project you were able to win things such as having a personal dinner party with Palmer at your home or simply getting a signed art book. Spike Lee is offering a dinner and courtside seat to a New York Knicks game for a $10,000 donation to the project. For a $5,000 donation the backer will receive a producer credit and for $1,000 you can be an extra in the film. Lee stated, and I quote,

"Do you wish to see Human Beings dealing with each other on a Human Level? GET DOWN FOR THE CAUSE. How many more explosions with Ear splitting Sound Effects can you take? Nothing in Life is Free and if you want something you got to pay for it."

So in other words, if you want a project from Spike Lee you need to dig deep and donate money to him and pay up. As of right now, Lee's Kickstarter project has raised $29, 105.
Lee recently directed the upcoming American adaptation of Oldboy. A film in which he had a $30 million budget to work with and most likely will receive, or did receive, more than enough to back the film he is trying to fund via Kickstarter.  He also holds a current net worth of about $40 million as he and his production company, 40 Acres & A Mule, has produced 35 films since 1983.

As you might be able to tell, I think this is ridiculous. Spike Lee has studios bringing him in to direct and produce films on a steady basis, he has directed music videos for stars such as Michael Jackson and Public Enemy, and has courtside tickets for just about every Knicks home game which run about $800 a pop... but he wants our money to fund a movie? Fuck that. He has more than enough to fund it himself or get a studio to back him.