"4 47 Ronin
5 Wolf of Wall Street, The
6 Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The'

It beat Wolf and Hunger Games. Nicely done.

Yeah. Universal screwed the pooch on promotion and tossed the movie under the bus. Something fishy alright. HW politics.

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It beat Wolf and Hunger Games. Nicely done.

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yeah, but it was (notice the statistics are for the week Mar 30-Apr 5 ) Ronin's first week in release.... so that might explain it. I'm not necessarily looking at it in terms of rivalry, but in terms of ... bigger picture.
Some people might have chosen to watch other movies in theater that Christmas, due to sold out shows, limited no. of screens, too many choices, let's go see the movie with best reviews, etc. Others prefer to watch movies in their own living room- and from those, some prefer to stream it, some are collectors ;)
In my case, VOD is NOT an option due to geographic location = not available in my country. That's another factor. (I've left my 'bloody fingerprints' on the international box office, though ;) )

The point is... it's not necessarily the first weekend's box office that gives the 'value' of a movie. Sometimes, its true 'value' can be seen after one year ;)

[quote]The point is... it's not necessarily the first weekend's box office that gives the 'value' of a movie. Sometimes, its true 'value' can be seen after one year/quote]

Are we getting into conventional truth versus ultimate truth here? :)
I suggest that 47 Ronin will be wonderful throughout time. And to get that done when its all about the money is a feat extraordinaire.

Besides, with movies, there is no 'ultimate' truth. It's always in the eye/s of the beholder.

Redbox Canada ‏@redboxca 2m
Keanu Reeves as a samurai warrior. Say what? 47 Ronin leads this week’s new-release lineup

Thank God for you guys, who steered me away from critical opinion and toward a film bound to become another sentimental Reeves favorite of mine. SWATters are good; SWATters are wise. :)

(because I'm not letting this go. EVER )

http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/26hclh/til_47_ronin_starring_keanu_reeves_was_the/?limit=500

QUOTE FROM THE REDDIT THREAD BELOW, IN ITALICS
[–]rmgx 115 points 1 month ago

Someone who has now deleted their account posted this in an older thread. I thought it was a really interesting insight into the production.

This is the thing.

I had the pleasure of working on this flick.

The thing was, Keanu was NOT the star of the first cut of the movie. And it was AWESOME. Which is what that article leaves out or doesn't know. He didn't set out to make the pos movie that it is now.

The first cut of the movie, barely had Reeves in it and focused entirely on Oishi, Hiroyuki Sanada's character. Keeanu kind of just showed up. The studio was not only mad but confused on how they were going to sell tickets if their star wasn't the star.

So they fired Carl, brought in a huge editor (who doesn't even want his name on the movie and is a major fucking douchebag) and did a bunch of reshoots, to "fix" the movie. And now, it is what it is. RIPD 47 Ronin.

Oh yeah. That guy covered in tats, in the movie for about 2 seconds. At least in the last cut I saw. And he's on the posters? What?

Edit: Holy shit. I expected my comment to get buried. Trust me. I have better things to do then to lie about working on this craptastic movie. The productions original intent with Keanus character was to bring in an audience and have a strong support for Hiroyuki's character. But the higher ups at Universal didn't like the fact they paid all this money for Reeves, who probably had about fifteen minutes of screen time, and couldn't let it all ride on "Oishi". Which was too bad. Because, at least I thought, they had a really cool movie. I doubt that first cut will ever see the light of day. Unless somehow, Carl is able to buy all the footage and let his own cut out. (which won't happen. Ever.) It's a real "BRAZIL" situation here. But we'll just never get to see the directors true version/vision.

Edit2: Whatever. Grammar. I got excited finally being able to let it all out there.

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Keep in mind Keanu forces his studios to make films he's interested in even if they dont want to, as part of his contract deals.

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What the hell?

First, if it's a contractual agreement, no one has forced anyone to do anything. That's kind of the point of the contract - you enter into it willingly and freely and you fulfill the obligations you voluntarily took on.

Second, I'm pretty sure Keanu doesn't "force" people to do anything. But I guess I could be wrong about that.

This made me laugh out loud:

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I'm curious to see how he fakes his death this time. I expect it'll be some low key affair that results in no body, like he vanishes while white water rafting or something. I'll save a picture of him for my grandkids, so when he next pops up in the public eye they'll know him for the unnatural demon he is.
...and maybe offering him souls for money or some shit.

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And yes, it is interesting how many people are saying they liked the film.