No ‘Boycott Backfire’ for ‘Angels and Demons’

On the heels of a public-relations juggernaut with the inspiring (and arguably false) message that it’s “not as anti-Catholic as The Da Vinci Code!”,the cinematic conspiracy thriller Angels and Demons finished first at the U.S. box office during the past weekend, providing some useful evidence about the effects of church boycotts.

Based on a novel by Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, and featuring the same director-star team as the lucrative 2006 film adaptation of that novel (Ron Howard and Tom Hanks), Angels and Demons brought in approximately $48 million during its first weekend. While enough to edge out Star Trek’s second-weekend take of $43 million, it’s a good deal less than Da Vinci, which snagged a gaudy $77 million during its first three days.

Simple Hollywood film economics explains the matter quite well without reference to any hypothetical backfire effect from church boycotts. (more…)

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Tags: Angels and Demons, Atheism, boycotts, Da Vinci Code, Religion
Posted May 20th 2009 at 11:03 am in Entertainment, Reviews | 138578No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/stkarnick/2009/05/20/no-boycott-backfire-for-angels-and-demons/No+%27Boycott+Backfire%27+for+%27Angels+and+Demons%272009-05-20+18%3A03%3A49S.T.+Karnick

They Don’t Make ‘Em Like Fonda Anymore

While I was growing up in the liberal New York, my father, a rock-ribbed Republican and immigrant from communist Eastern Europe, was prone to hold grudges against entertainers. Thus, The Boycott was instituted to include a wide array of comedians, singers and movie stars. Their crime: political sedition.

There was, of course, the obvious. Jane Fonda, whose anti-Americanism is legendary, was a complete non-starter. Nor was there to be any mention of the frosty anti-Zionist Lynn Redgrave* at the dinner table. (Though, it’s difficult to imagine any normal kid actually wanting to mention, or even knowing who the hell, Lynn Redgrave was to begin with.) Even lesser-known lights such as Costas-Gravas and Martin Sheen were also banned outright.

So, come to think of it, I should probably thank dad for insulating my young mind from a needlessly torturous encounter with “The China Syndrome” or “Missing.”

The problem is, this boycott began to expand at such a precipitous pace that by its height I was exclusively watching movies featuring Jim Nabors and Burt Reynolds. I’m relatively certain, there was no pre-teen Jewish kid in the entire country — perhaps the world — who knew more about Hal Needham flicks.

Today, I can’t find a single star worth boycotting. I’ve come to accept there will be some perfunctory plotline that will cast capitalism as the sapling of all evil; I accept that every month another pretty face will grace us with an angry political homily.

(more…)

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Tags: alec baldwin, boycotts, coen brothers, jane fonda, michael moore
Posted Jan 15th 2009 at 6:01 am in Celebrity News, Politics | 1878989 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/dharsanyi/2009/01/15/they-dont-make-em-like-fonda-anymore/They+Don%27t+Make+%27Em+Like+Fonda+Anymore+2009-01-15+14%3A01%3A38David+Harsanyi