A Few Best Men takes $1.8m on opening weekend
Australian film A Few Best Men has had a strong opening weekend, according to the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia.
The film, directed by Stephan Elliott (The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert) took over $1.83m across 242 screens, with a screen average of $7,580.
The film placed third overall behind Underworld: Awakening, which took $2.68m across 214 screens for an average of $12,554, also in its first week, and The Descendants, which took $2.37m across 224 screens for a screen average of $10,614.
The film’s first week box office takings beat that of Red Dog, which took $1.78m.
I feel so, so guilty. I contributed to that big opening weekend (not my fault that there aren’t many good films out at the moment). And wow, this wasn’t good. I’m not sure there was a plot. It was Hangover-lite, without good characters or jokes.
I possibly would have enjoyed it more if I could have sat back in my comfy chair knowing that private investors paid for this atrocity. But, sadly, I’m stuck with the knowledge that taxpayer funds were sunk into this mess of a screenplay. How much?
Budget: $14 million
This movie has no chance of becoming profitable. Not now that every review has crucified the film with 1 or 0 stars. But that should have been obvious when the producers read the script. There wasn’t one joke in the film that was above the level of “you farted dude!” or “oh my goodness, you said something awkward in front of an adult!”
F***** disgusted. Can Encore use Freedom of Information laws to find out which Screen executives shat the bed so bad on this one?
Wow, some people have their noses up too high to just relax and have fun. I thought it was very funny! Maybe you need to not go in expecting to see some other movie (ie: “The Hangover”)
Tommy, I went in expecting to see a good film called ‘A Few Best Men.’ I didn’t expect to see The Hangover, and yet that is what I got, an incredibly bad rip-off of the Hangover and it’s offspring (that film revitalized the bromance genre).
I absolutely HATE it when movie reviewers or audiences rip on an Aussie film for no other reason than cultural cringe. I love our industry and want it to grow, so I too can one day help make a film. So I watched and reviewed this film with an objective eye.
It was absolutely terrible. As in, worst film I’ve seen in recent memory.
My nose is not too high, Tommy, nor am I too uptight to enjoy a comedy. I write comedy. I want one of my comedy scripts to be released Australia-wide, with a big marketing campaign. I want to be in the exact same position the writers of this film were in. The opportunity to entertain millions. But they blew it. This movie had a lot of failings, but it all boils down to a bad script with absolutely cliche characters and storylines.
Why, and I ask this question to everyone and anyone, why did this script get $14 million thrown at it? Why can’t myself and hundreds of other emerging writers get anyone to read our scripts, let alone throw one dollar at it.
In summary: Bad movie. No question about it, anyone asking the audience to “go easy because it’s an Australian film” obviously does not know the rules of business. This movie was bad, it will lose money. And what makes it worse is that some people, such as myself, are forced to watch on as Australian Comedy dies, powerless to do anything about it.
Wow, relax Brian! Did you release a competing movie the same weekend, or something? It thought it was hilarious!
And only a sliver of the funding is from the government; it’s an incentive for filmmakers to spend millions in the country.
I was disappointed. Reading the shooting script was a good laugh, but what transpired to the screen failed to deliver the goods. There were a lot of quality scenes that were cut in the editing room.