Detroit [the movie] opens to mediocre box office results

**Lowell** · August-08-17, 10:25 AM

The Kathryn Bigelow movie Detroit, set in the 1967 Detroit Riot, grossed only $7 mil in its first full week giving it $10 mil total, according to Box Office Mojo, ranking it 8th in movies premiering last week. It's budget was $34 mil. So unless it catches some buzz it is looking like a bottom line bust.

Variety gives it some hope by noting:
"Rotten Tomatoes, which has fallen under scrutiny from some studio executives for having the capability to keep viewers away who might otherwise enjoy a movie, can’t be blamed for this one. “Detroit’s” aggregate score gleams 88 percent fresh. It wasn’t really for lack of audience enthusiasm either. Exit polls show over 80 percent of the audience gave the movie positive marks, and over 60 percent indicated that they would definitely recommend it. Those numbers typically give the distributor hope that word of mouth will help boost the movie’s long-term financials. But what got “Detroit” in this situation in the first place that it now has to work from behind?"

Has anybody seen it? What is your take? I'm hoping to do, maybe today as it is free popcorn Tuesday.

**Meddle** · August-08-17, 10:49 AM

But what got “Detroit” in this situation in the first place that it now has to work from behind?"

Not a slasher flick, or one with T&A or fictional/comic superheroes or videogame based.

**BMoo** · August-08-17, 12:04 PM

Originally Posted by Lowell

grossed only $7 mil in its first full week; It's budget was $34 mil. So unless it catches some buzz it is looking like a bottom line bust.

Not at all. That's a really low budget for a movie of this scale. Opening week sales typically only account for 25% of a movie's domestic sales. On top of that, it is incredibly uncommon that a movie's international box office makes up less than 50% of the total gross sales [[Usually closer to 60%-70%). So the movie should go well above and beyond to turn a profit easily.

Not to mention that this film has potential for critical claim around award season and another round of theatrical releases. Consider another similar movie by Bigelow, The Hurt Locker. That movie premiered to an opening week of less than $200,000 - which was less than 1% of its overall sales.

**Lowell** · August-08-17, 12:49 PM

Originally Posted by BMoo

Not to mention that this film has potential for critical claim around award season and another round of theatrical releases. Consider another similar movie by Bigelow, The Hurt Locker. That movie premiered to an opening week of less than $200,000 - which was less than 1% of its overall sales.

Good points about the critical acclaim factor and foreign sales. I would think it will have good prospects for the latter. Haven't seen it to be able to judge the first. However compared to Hurt Locker's first week of 4 theaters and $36K per theater' Detroit opened to 3,007 theaters with only $2.3K per theater average. If tickets are $10, that's only 230 people divided by x number of showings.

**401don** · August-08-17, 01:03 PM

The fact that no forumers have responded that they've seen it speaks volumes. I just think it's a movie about a tragic incident, with no protagonist or hero involved, that most people would like to move on from.
Heck even Dunkirk, a film about a large scale retreat, was heroic.

**Bigdd** · August-08-17, 02:50 PM

I was having lunch with some old-timers at the Michigan's oldest coney island [[Red Hots in Highland Park) a year or so ago and they were telling me about the riot. They WERE THERE,.. as in REALLY THERE. One guy was the first guy to get tossed into a paddy wagon [[along with a bunch of others).

After the first couple of hours,. the police and others were herding people over towards 12th street. They didn't stop anyone there from destroying and burning anything they wanted.

Later the Lodge Freeway could finally go through there. The land was finally cheap and "available".

I agree with the previous poster.

I see the movie as kind of a bummer. I want to see it,.. but it's no rush. Not something I'm going to take the family to,.. more like something I'll watch by myself on Amazon Fire Stick or cable TV on a slow weeknight.

**Wheels** · August-08-17, 03:14 PM

Originally Posted by Bigdd

I was having lunch with some old-timers at the Michigan's oldest coney island [[Red Hots in Highland Park) a year or so ago and they were telling me about the riot. They WERE THERE,.. as in REALLY THERE. One guy was the first guy to get tossed into a paddy wagon [[along with a bunch of others).

After the first couple of hours,. the police and others were herding people over towards 12th street. They didn't stop anyone there from destroying and burning anything they wanted.

Later the Lodge Freeway could finally go through there. The land was finally cheap and "available".

I agree with the previous poster.

I see the movie as kind of a bummer. I want to see it,.. but it's no rush. Not something I'm going to take the family to,.. more like something I'll watch by myself on Amazon Fire Stick or cable TV on a slow weeknight.

The lodge was there way before the riots!

**MizMotown** · August-08-17, 03:34 PM

One of the Fox 2 News critics said it should have been called, "Algeirs Motel" instead of "Detroit." Maybe it'll do better on DVD and Netflix.

**softailrider** · August-08-17, 03:43 PM

Originally Posted by MizMotown

One of the Fox 2 News critics said it should have been called, "Algeirs Motel" instead of "Detroit." Maybe it'll do better on DVD and Netflix.

I sort of agree, it was too much motel, movie was good but it wasn't gripping like I thought it was going to be. Absolutely worth seeing, I just didn't love it.

**douglasm** · August-08-17, 04:24 PM

I wonder if location has something to do with it. It's playing here in Wenatchee, Washington, but I doubt if a half dozen people out of the 50,000 plus population have any idea what the film is about. I seriously doubt if it generates much interest outside of urban areas that have some knowledge of the subject.

For my part, I lived through the original, and have no desire to watch the sequel.

**Ray1936** · August-08-17, 07:09 PM

Originally Posted by douglasm

For my part, I lived through the original, and have no desire to watch the sequel.

Amen Doug.

**EastsideAl** · August-09-17, 01:01 AM

I saw it this past weekend. It's a pretty good movie, making mostly good use of Kathryn Bigelow's usual style that ratchets up tension through hand-held camera work, extreme close ups, etc. By far the most effective part of the movie is the extended sequence in the middle of the actual Algiers Motel incident itself, after the police enter the building.

That portion, which is of course the centerpiece of the movie, is highly tense exciting, and disturbing. The rest of the movie suffers from rushed storytelling/scene-setting [[trying to tell a little too much back story), and a rather hackneyed and overly-expository script. Some of the riot sequences seem to make clear the movie's budget limitations. The performances are mostly good, but no single actor gets a lot of screen time, except Will Poulter who plays the main police protagonist [[presumably supposed to be Officer David Senak, although the cops are never named, perhaps for legal reasons) creating a highly effective characterization of out of control power-tripping vileness.

I am just old enough to have a clear remembrance of the riot, and of the incident in question, which as I remember went public a few days later. I do remember the seemingly endless trials that followed for several years thereafter. The movie is not a documentary and plays fast and loose with history in quite a few spots. While I fully expect movies to fictionalize and dramatize stories, and not to hold hard and fast to actual events, there are some places where this film goes a bit too far [[The Dramatics as a Motown Records group?) and makes a hash of its own story. None more so than the trial sequence at the end. Is it a federal trial? [[we see one character open a federal subpoena). A state trial? [[we see the Ingham County Courthouse in Mason). Why is it being held in Mason [[and where is that in relation to Detroit?) in front of an all white jury? What were the charges? Is the security guard a defendant too? Of course the real truth was quite complicated, but no matter, the entire confusing sequence is played in a gauzy atmosphere of heart-string-tugging outrage. The outrage was, of course, absolutely real, but the movie somehow fails to make it truly convincing.

Still, overall it is a good, and very tense and truly frightening, movie. Well worth seeing, if only for the very intense middle scenes of the incident in the motel annex. But I can see why it isn't doing all that well. It sure isn't light and fluffy summer entertainment, it's about a time and an event that most outside the Detroit area have long forgotten, and unlike this summer's other non-character driven "serious" movie Dunkirk there are no heroes here and no prospect of a happy ending.

**Meddle** · August-09-17, 03:31 AM

hand-held camera work, extreme close ups, etc

That alone would turn me away.

**Chicago48** · August-09-17, 05:04 AM

Originally Posted by Meddle

Not a slasher flick, or one with T&A or fictional/comic superheroes or videogame based.

The title makes it seem like it's a travelog and I betcha they change the title when it goes to VOD. Like Tom Cruise movie did, "edge of tomorrow" title was changed.
Maybe the title should have been Detroit '67 or something like that.

**softailrider** · August-09-17, 06:39 AM

Originally Posted by douglasm

I wonder if location has something to do with it. It's playing here in Wenatchee, Washington, but I doubt if a half dozen people out of the 50,000 plus population have any idea what the film is about. I seriously doubt if it generates much interest outside of urban areas that have some knowledge of the subject.

For my part, I lived through the original, and have no desire to watch the sequel.

I lived through the original too, but I wasn't inside the Algiers motel during the riot, I don't think you were either. That was the main point of this movie.

**Zacha341** · August-09-17, 07:10 AM

Handheld IMO has an aesthetic and place in film and actual documentary work of course. But then sometimes it's just bad camera work.

Originally Posted by Meddle

That alone would turn me away.

**Zacha341** · August-09-17, 07:22 AM

Originally Posted by EastsideAl

....The Dramatics as a Motown Records group?

The Dramatics did have a Detroit connection - though not Motown.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dramatics

**Honky Tonk** · August-09-17, 07:42 AM

Originally Posted by Chicago48

Maybe the title should have been Detroit '67 or something like that.

Sorry, That one's been taken....

https://www.dia.org/events/detroit-67

**canuck** · August-09-17, 08:24 AM

Originally Posted by Meddle

That alone would turn me away.

Yep. Me toose.

There is a nice anachronism in Dunkirk, a precious shot of soldiers on a beach with massive unmistakable doggone shipping container cranes. Prom is, containers came about in 1955, and cranes happened much later. It figures they couldn't find a stretch of beach in all of Normandy or Brittany nix the cranes as background.

Apart from that, I think Detroit the movie should do well.
Box office is only a part of the total recipe. And then, the merchandising starts kicking in. You will have a ton of tiny cops, looters in injection molded forms and video games, etc...

**Lowell** · August-09-17, 08:59 AM

Originally Posted by canuck

And then, the merchandising starts kicking in. You will have a ton of tiny cops, looters in injection molded forms and video games, etc...

ha ha too funny. I can just seen some kid bawling because his parents won't buy another Happy Meal so he can complete his collection.

**BMoo** · August-09-17, 09:26 AM

Originally Posted by 401don

The fact that no forumers have responded that they've seen it speaks volumes.

I'll admit I haven't seen it yet either - simply because there are too many movies out right now that I want to see. If you go to Rotten Tomatoes right now, there are over 10 movies out that are certified fresh.

**canuck** · August-09-17, 06:19 PM

Originally Posted by Lowell

ha ha too funny. I can just seen some kid bawling because his parents won't buy another Happy Meal so he can complete his collection.

Yes, the kiddies May get Lucky if Kelloggs of Battle Creek stick some in their Special "K"

**Lowell** · August-09-17, 11:14 PM

So I saw The Algiers Motel Incident, I mean Detroit, today -- me, the better half, and about five others in an Emagine theater that could seat about 400.

Other that some early mentions and some ancient archival riot footage woven in, it wasn't that much about the Detroit Riot. It became a boilerplate bad-cops-get-away-with-it story.

Once set in motion, everything seemed predictable, just didn't seem to go anywhere and came off more like a chronologically-told documentary than a feature film. As such it lacked impact.

The continual jerky camera cuts quickly became annoying, to such excess that they came off as a cheap trick for making weak scenes more tense. They became a distraction that had to be endured for the whole film.

The actors were a bright spot and did well, but were limited by the dialogue.

As a whole it was okay. It gets a 6 of 10 on my scale.

**night-timer** · August-10-17, 03:53 AM

Can I access this movie online? Or only in cinemas?

**Zacha341** · August-10-17, 06:10 AM

Yeah, that's where the hand-held starts to kick rocks for me... when it over rides the visual narrative of the film. I will go check out the film for myself this weekend.

Originally Posted by Lowell

...The continual jerky camera cuts quickly became annoying, to such excess that they came off as a cheap trick for making weak scenes more tense. They became a distraction that had to be endured for the whole film.

The actors were a bright spot and did well, but were limited by the dialogue.

As a whole it was okay. It gets a 6 of 10 on my scale.