How ironic... the very same free market that the movie embraces killed the movie! Twelve days after opening “Atlas Shrugged: Part 1,” the producer of the Ayn Rand adaptation said Tuesday that he is reconsidering his plans to make Parts 2 and 3 because of scathing reviews and flagging box office returns for the film. “Critics, you won,” said John Aglialoro, the businessman who spent 18 years and... [more]
How ironic... the very same free market that the movie embraces killed the movie!
Twelve days after opening “Atlas Shrugged: Part 1,” the producer of the Ayn Rand adaptation said Tuesday that he is reconsidering his plans to make Parts 2 and 3 because of scathing reviews and flagging box office returns for the film.
“Critics, you won,” said John Aglialoro, the businessman who spent 18 years and more than $20 million of his own money to make, distribute and market “Atlas Shrugged: Part 1,” which covers the first third of Rand’s dystopian novel. “I’m having deep second thoughts on why I should do Part 2.”
“Atlas Shrugged” was the top-grossing limited release in its opening weekend, generating $1.7 million on 299 screens and earning a respectable $5,640 per screen. But the the box office dropped off 47% in the film’s second week in release even as “Atlas Shrugged” expanded to 425 screens, and the movie seemed to hold little appeal for audiences beyond the core group of Rand fans to whom it was marketed.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/04/27/the-free-market-is-a-cruel-mistress/
Do you hear that noise in the background? That is Michael Moore laughing!
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Response by somewhereelse
over 14 years ago
Posts: 7435
Member since: Oct 2009
In alpo's moronic world, they should keep playing the bad movies forever....
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Response by Truth
over 14 years ago
Posts: 5641
Member since: Dec 2009
That noise in the background is Michael Moore counting his money.
When he bought his nice property up in Michigan, he was greeted by neighbors who poured a dump-truck full of horse-sh*t on his driveway.
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Response by Bill7284
over 14 years ago
Posts: 631
Member since: Feb 2009
"But the the box office dropped off 47% in the film’s second week in release".
That's called word of mouth. You can't buy that kind of publicity.
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Response by somewhereelse
over 14 years ago
Posts: 7435
Member since: Oct 2009
The best part is, Michael Moore refused to use union workers when he made his last film... and happily collected.
Even the pretend socialists are capitalists (and hypocrites).
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Response by Socialist
over 14 years ago
Posts: 2261
Member since: Feb 2010
I've never supported Moore 100%. I think we should have lax gun laws.
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Response by jason10006
over 14 years ago
Posts: 5257
Member since: Jan 2009
"I think we should have lax gun laws. "
When did Moore say otherwise? Bowling for Columbine was a totally ambiguous political statement.
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Response by Riversider
over 14 years ago
Posts: 13572
Member since: Apr 2009
Movie fails yet a whole new generation gets introduced to Ayn Rand's ideas..
***************
The recent film adaptation of Ayn Rand's 1957 novel, Atlas Shrugged, is exposing a whole new generation of conservatives to Rand's laissez-faire philosophy. And if they find themselves wanting more, they can always read the book — or they can visit New York City and see the Atlas Shrugged setting for themselves.
Rand wrote much of the book in New York and based many of the novel's fictional sites on real places in the city. Now, New York City tour guide Frederick Cookinham has gathered those places into a series of Ayn Rand walking tours of Manhattan.
The Ayn Rand Walking Tour
A middle-aged Cookinham stands outside Grand Central Terminal in the pouring rain. He holds a sign that reads, "Ayn Rand Walking Tour" — one of his five Rand tours.
Cookinham is a trove of information: He points out where Rand lived, her publisher's office, her favorite buildings, even her favorite architect.
He notes that in Atlas Shrugged, Grand Central Terminal becomes the Taggart Terminal. Then he points down Park Avenue to a green-roofed building that was built in 1927 by the New York Central Railroad Co.
"That becomes the Taggart Transcontinental Railroad Building," he says.
Frederick Cookinham runs five different Ayn Rand tours in New York, two of which touch on Grand Central Terminal.
In The City, A Novel Plot Unfolds
Atlas Shrugged is really a mystery. It follows Dagny Taggart, an executive at the fictional Taggart Transcontinental Railroad Company, as she witnesses a bureaucratic crackdown on industry. Industrialists and inventors led by the powerful John Galt strike back on the government by disappearing and effectively draining society of its great thinkers.
Back at the Helmsley Building, Cookinham touches the old wooden counter of a security desk that used to be a newsstand. At one point in the book, Taggart discovers a strange cigarette with a golden dollar sign on it. That old Helmsley newsstand is where she goes to figure out where the cigarette came from.
Outside, Cookinham points to the bleak little alley where Taggart moved her office when she left her railroad company to build the John Galt Line — a clear downgrade.
From the alley, which sits at the foot of the fictional Taggart Transcontinental building and across from the fictional Taggart Terminal, Cookinham reads from the novel:
The windows of the offices of the John Galt Line faced a dark alley. Looking up from her desk, Dagny could not see the sky, only the wall of a building rising past her range of vision. It was the side wall of the great skyscraper of Taggart Transcontinental ... She sat, looking across at the open cavern of the Express and Baggage Entrance of the Taggart Terminal.
The New York Central Building, now the Helmsley Building, was home to Ayn Rand's fictional Taggart Transcontinental Railroad Company.
Enlarge Spencer Platt/Getty Images
The New York Central Building, now the Helmsley Building, was home to Ayn Rand's fictional Taggart Transcontinental Railroad Company.
The History And The Literature Of Ayn Rand
The next day brings beautiful weather — and more tourgoers.
"I just finished reading Atlas Shrugged six months ago," says Judi Chambers, who is visiting from Ontario. "I couldn't put it down."
Kathy Bliss, from California, loves history but describes Atlas Shrugged as "dated and dreadful."
Bliss disagrees with Rand's philosophy, but Zach Fivenson from Chicago says, "I am a huge Ayn Rand fan, and actually I do really believe in a lot of the objectivist philosophy: individualism versus collectivism."
But Cookinham isn't interested in talking politics on his tours. While he is a follower of Rand's philosophy, he's more interested in emphasizing the history and the literature of her work.
"They don't know that she lived in New York. They don't know that she came from Russia. They don't know that she was Jewish and her real name was Alyssa Rosenbaum," he says.
He takes the group to the tracks at Grand Central Terminal. As part of her research for the novel, Rand took a private tour of the station and even drove a train.
In Atlas Shrugged, some of the station's tracks sit abandoned, and somewhere on those abandoned tracks, Cookinham points out, Dagny Taggard and John Galt have their sex scene.
If you've ever taken a commuter train out of Grand Central, you may never think of those tracks in quite the same way.
So the movie failed because the NY Times did not run a review? Nice try. I doubt teabaggers read the NY Times.
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Response by NWT
over 14 years ago
Posts: 6643
Member since: Sep 2008
Did the NYT review, say, Porky's Part II? There're only so many low-production-value movies they can send someone to see.
Going by the clips on the AS site, better not to be reviewed. The New Yorker did just a capsule review, tearing it up, which seemed like a good compromise. I.e., acknowledging it but not insulting the readership by giving suggesting it was something they'd think of paying to see.
Not that it wouldn't make a good movie, maybe like one of those Airport or Towering Inferno kind. All-star cameos as the train heads for the tunnel.
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Response by patient09
over 14 years ago
Posts: 1571
Member since: Nov 2008
Maybe it is simply that conservatives are too busy working and paying taxes and being givers and don't have time to go to silly movies. Could be the liberal complainers that are told what to think and generally takers from society weren't told to go see this movie.
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Response by Wbottom
over 14 years ago
Posts: 2142
Member since: May 2010
i love it...the movie's a POS a that embraces a dogmatic POV most find unappealling
and teabaggers blame a NYT/lesbiral media conspiracy for its failure
and now it's that consrvatives are too busy at work to go to credible, well-made maovies about subjects they enjoy
the shlt you baggers conjure up and then believe is such fun!!
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Response by NWT
over 14 years ago
Posts: 6643
Member since: Sep 2008
It needed Patricia Neal and Gary Cooper, like the other one. What's-their-names don't have the bone structure to play Dagny and Hank.
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Response by aboutready
over 14 years ago
Posts: 16354
Member since: Oct 2007
patient, so sorry, i forgot to thank you for paying your taxes. but then again, nobody thanked this household for paying.
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Response by Wbottom
over 14 years ago
Posts: 2142
Member since: May 2010
i work plenty hard--well into top bracket, i pay plenty of taxes
and I WANT TO PAY MORE, and I want those who make what i do and more to pay more.
and i want to cease the incenting of our corporations to locate, operate and accumulate assets overseas, to the demise of our working class, and at great fiscal expense to our country
and if you cut my taxes i wont spend one red cent more than i do right now, and currently, i wont invest given my disbelief in qe2 and our current policy of reflation...any cut in my taxes is just a trickle up
and I often go to movies in my spare time
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Response by Riversider
over 14 years ago
Posts: 13572
Member since: Apr 2009
Time to start taxing people who don't work. Clearly there's not enough incentive.
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Response by lucillebluth
over 14 years ago
Posts: 2631
Member since: May 2010
wbottom, that is so incredibly backwards. you the person should not have to pay more to make up for giant corporations who are not paying. i don't even know what to make of your DESIRE to give away more of your hard earned money to the shady entity known as our government. i bet you wouldn't give a dollar to a homeless guy because he's spend it on booze or drugs, though. nuts!
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Response by jordyn
over 14 years ago
Posts: 820
Member since: Dec 2007
"wbottom, that is so incredibly backwards. you the person should not have to pay more to make up for giant corporations who are not paying"
You realize that in his post the word "and" indicated that he wanted both options?
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Response by Wbottom
over 14 years ago
Posts: 2142
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i am a sucker for destitute ragged ill beggars of all types
yes, pls note the very important "and"
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Response by lucillebluth
over 14 years ago
Posts: 2631
Member since: May 2010
yes, my ever vigilant friend, he wants to pay more AND crack down on corporations. some people just spoil their government. let it eat pancakes for dinner, walk around is a tutu and swimming goggles all day and make everyone call it Ninja Princess Woggleboggle.
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Response by Wbottom
over 14 years ago
Posts: 2142
Member since: May 2010
im kind of a fan of shit like civilization infrastructure public works--no spoiling, just believe in good government
and believe the trickle up, unemployment of our middle/working class, and hideous deficits won't be fixed by cutting my taxes and those of other rich and richer people
and i am dogmatic in my support of an effectively regulated capitalist economy
and, oh, and make lobbying as it exists today criminallt proecutable under same3 terms as bribery
see all the ands--gotta go clip some coupons--see ya
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Response by Riversider
over 14 years ago
Posts: 13572
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So the Egyptians who built the Pyramids were really Keynsians?
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Response by jordyn
over 14 years ago
Posts: 820
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You do realize the deficit is nearly 50% of the federal budget at the moment? Unless you've got a plan to cut government spending by 33%, there needs to be more revenue.
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Response by jordyn
over 14 years ago
Posts: 820
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Grr, the deficit is nearly 50% of revenues, not 50% of the budget.
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Response by jason10006
over 14 years ago
Posts: 5257
Member since: Jan 2009
You are all making too much of this. If the Brad Pitt version had been made, tand they had a better script etc it might have worked. This is not some stinging political indictment.
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Response by Riversider
over 14 years ago
Posts: 13572
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I guess we sell the Parks and privatize the roads.
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Response by Riversider
over 14 years ago
Posts: 13572
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John Allison, former chairman of bank holding company BB&T Corp. (BBT), admires author Ayn Rand so much that he devised a strategy to spread her laissez-faire principles on U.S. campuses. Allison, working through the BB&T Charitable Foundation, gives schools grants of as much as $2 million if they agree to create a course on capitalism and make Rand’s masterwork, “Atlas Shrugged,” required reading.
“We have sought out professors who wanted to teach these ideas,” says Allison, now a professor at Wake Forest University’s business school in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. “It’s really a battle of ideas. If the ideas that made America great aren’t heard, then their influence will be destroyed.”
Allison, 62, is one of a number of wealthy philanthropists who are making bold demands on schools as a condition of giving, says Jack Siegel, a lawyer whose Chicago-based Charity Governance Consulting LLC works with colleges and nonprofit groups.
"...The producers of the film version of “Atlas Shrugged: Part One” apologized for an “embarrassing” error on the DVD cover that described the theme of their adaptation of Ayn Rand’s novel as one of “self-sacrifice.” As disciples of Rand, one of libertarianism’s heroes, are supposed to know, Atlas Shrugged is actually all about “rational self-interest.”..."
In alpo's moronic world, they should keep playing the bad movies forever....
That noise in the background is Michael Moore counting his money.
When he bought his nice property up in Michigan, he was greeted by neighbors who poured a dump-truck full of horse-sh*t on his driveway.
"But the the box office dropped off 47% in the film’s second week in release".
That's called word of mouth. You can't buy that kind of publicity.
The best part is, Michael Moore refused to use union workers when he made his last film... and happily collected.
Even the pretend socialists are capitalists (and hypocrites).
I've never supported Moore 100%. I think we should have lax gun laws.
"I think we should have lax gun laws. "
When did Moore say otherwise? Bowling for Columbine was a totally ambiguous political statement.
Movie fails yet a whole new generation gets introduced to Ayn Rand's ideas..
***************
The recent film adaptation of Ayn Rand's 1957 novel, Atlas Shrugged, is exposing a whole new generation of conservatives to Rand's laissez-faire philosophy. And if they find themselves wanting more, they can always read the book — or they can visit New York City and see the Atlas Shrugged setting for themselves.
Rand wrote much of the book in New York and based many of the novel's fictional sites on real places in the city. Now, New York City tour guide Frederick Cookinham has gathered those places into a series of Ayn Rand walking tours of Manhattan.
The Ayn Rand Walking Tour
A middle-aged Cookinham stands outside Grand Central Terminal in the pouring rain. He holds a sign that reads, "Ayn Rand Walking Tour" — one of his five Rand tours.
Cookinham is a trove of information: He points out where Rand lived, her publisher's office, her favorite buildings, even her favorite architect.
He notes that in Atlas Shrugged, Grand Central Terminal becomes the Taggart Terminal. Then he points down Park Avenue to a green-roofed building that was built in 1927 by the New York Central Railroad Co.
"That becomes the Taggart Transcontinental Railroad Building," he says.
Frederick Cookinham runs five different Ayn Rand tours in New York, two of which touch on Grand Central Terminal.
In The City, A Novel Plot Unfolds
Atlas Shrugged is really a mystery. It follows Dagny Taggart, an executive at the fictional Taggart Transcontinental Railroad Company, as she witnesses a bureaucratic crackdown on industry. Industrialists and inventors led by the powerful John Galt strike back on the government by disappearing and effectively draining society of its great thinkers.
Back at the Helmsley Building, Cookinham touches the old wooden counter of a security desk that used to be a newsstand. At one point in the book, Taggart discovers a strange cigarette with a golden dollar sign on it. That old Helmsley newsstand is where she goes to figure out where the cigarette came from.
Outside, Cookinham points to the bleak little alley where Taggart moved her office when she left her railroad company to build the John Galt Line — a clear downgrade.
From the alley, which sits at the foot of the fictional Taggart Transcontinental building and across from the fictional Taggart Terminal, Cookinham reads from the novel:
The windows of the offices of the John Galt Line faced a dark alley. Looking up from her desk, Dagny could not see the sky, only the wall of a building rising past her range of vision. It was the side wall of the great skyscraper of Taggart Transcontinental ... She sat, looking across at the open cavern of the Express and Baggage Entrance of the Taggart Terminal.
The New York Central Building, now the Helmsley Building, was home to Ayn Rand's fictional Taggart Transcontinental Railroad Company.
Enlarge Spencer Platt/Getty Images
The New York Central Building, now the Helmsley Building, was home to Ayn Rand's fictional Taggart Transcontinental Railroad Company.
The History And The Literature Of Ayn Rand
The next day brings beautiful weather — and more tourgoers.
"I just finished reading Atlas Shrugged six months ago," says Judi Chambers, who is visiting from Ontario. "I couldn't put it down."
Kathy Bliss, from California, loves history but describes Atlas Shrugged as "dated and dreadful."
Bliss disagrees with Rand's philosophy, but Zach Fivenson from Chicago says, "I am a huge Ayn Rand fan, and actually I do really believe in a lot of the objectivist philosophy: individualism versus collectivism."
But Cookinham isn't interested in talking politics on his tours. While he is a follower of Rand's philosophy, he's more interested in emphasizing the history and the literature of her work.
"They don't know that she lived in New York. They don't know that she came from Russia. They don't know that she was Jewish and her real name was Alyssa Rosenbaum," he says.
He takes the group to the tracks at Grand Central Terminal. As part of her research for the novel, Rand took a private tour of the station and even drove a train.
In Atlas Shrugged, some of the station's tracks sit abandoned, and somewhere on those abandoned tracks, Cookinham points out, Dagny Taggard and John Galt have their sex scene.
If you've ever taken a commuter train out of Grand Central, you may never think of those tracks in quite the same way.
http://www.npr.org/2011/04/26/135735227/ayn-rands-new-york-toured-via-atlas-shrugged
Was Tom Cruise in this movie?
The whole purpose of Bowling for COlumbine was to argue for gun control. Read between the lines.
So you do or do not like Michael Moore? Make it simple please. Yes or no.
Yes, I like him.
http://egoist.blogspot.com/AndTheLoserIs-X.gif
> I've never supported Moore 100%. I think we should have lax gun laws
Uh, so does Moore. Try again.
hmmm... the reason? boycotts?
http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/movies/new_york_times_late_run_atlas_shrugged_ZG9ubp36XwdbQetesfpDMO
So the movie failed because the NY Times did not run a review? Nice try. I doubt teabaggers read the NY Times.
Did the NYT review, say, Porky's Part II? There're only so many low-production-value movies they can send someone to see.
Going by the clips on the AS site, better not to be reviewed. The New Yorker did just a capsule review, tearing it up, which seemed like a good compromise. I.e., acknowledging it but not insulting the readership by giving suggesting it was something they'd think of paying to see.
Not that it wouldn't make a good movie, maybe like one of those Airport or Towering Inferno kind. All-star cameos as the train heads for the tunnel.
Maybe it is simply that conservatives are too busy working and paying taxes and being givers and don't have time to go to silly movies. Could be the liberal complainers that are told what to think and generally takers from society weren't told to go see this movie.
i love it...the movie's a POS a that embraces a dogmatic POV most find unappealling
and teabaggers blame a NYT/lesbiral media conspiracy for its failure
and now it's that consrvatives are too busy at work to go to credible, well-made maovies about subjects they enjoy
the shlt you baggers conjure up and then believe is such fun!!
It needed Patricia Neal and Gary Cooper, like the other one. What's-their-names don't have the bone structure to play Dagny and Hank.
patient, so sorry, i forgot to thank you for paying your taxes. but then again, nobody thanked this household for paying.
i work plenty hard--well into top bracket, i pay plenty of taxes
and I WANT TO PAY MORE, and I want those who make what i do and more to pay more.
and i want to cease the incenting of our corporations to locate, operate and accumulate assets overseas, to the demise of our working class, and at great fiscal expense to our country
and if you cut my taxes i wont spend one red cent more than i do right now, and currently, i wont invest given my disbelief in qe2 and our current policy of reflation...any cut in my taxes is just a trickle up
and I often go to movies in my spare time
Time to start taxing people who don't work. Clearly there's not enough incentive.
wbottom, that is so incredibly backwards. you the person should not have to pay more to make up for giant corporations who are not paying. i don't even know what to make of your DESIRE to give away more of your hard earned money to the shady entity known as our government. i bet you wouldn't give a dollar to a homeless guy because he's spend it on booze or drugs, though. nuts!
"wbottom, that is so incredibly backwards. you the person should not have to pay more to make up for giant corporations who are not paying"
You realize that in his post the word "and" indicated that he wanted both options?
i am a sucker for destitute ragged ill beggars of all types
yes, pls note the very important "and"
yes, my ever vigilant friend, he wants to pay more AND crack down on corporations. some people just spoil their government. let it eat pancakes for dinner, walk around is a tutu and swimming goggles all day and make everyone call it Ninja Princess Woggleboggle.
im kind of a fan of shit like civilization infrastructure public works--no spoiling, just believe in good government
and believe the trickle up, unemployment of our middle/working class, and hideous deficits won't be fixed by cutting my taxes and those of other rich and richer people
and i am dogmatic in my support of an effectively regulated capitalist economy
and, oh, and make lobbying as it exists today criminallt proecutable under same3 terms as bribery
see all the ands--gotta go clip some coupons--see ya
So the Egyptians who built the Pyramids were really Keynsians?
You do realize the deficit is nearly 50% of the federal budget at the moment? Unless you've got a plan to cut government spending by 33%, there needs to be more revenue.
Grr, the deficit is nearly 50% of revenues, not 50% of the budget.
You are all making too much of this. If the Brad Pitt version had been made, tand they had a better script etc it might have worked. This is not some stinging political indictment.
I guess we sell the Parks and privatize the roads.
John Allison, former chairman of bank holding company BB&T Corp. (BBT), admires author Ayn Rand so much that he devised a strategy to spread her laissez-faire principles on U.S. campuses. Allison, working through the BB&T Charitable Foundation, gives schools grants of as much as $2 million if they agree to create a course on capitalism and make Rand’s masterwork, “Atlas Shrugged,” required reading.
“We have sought out professors who wanted to teach these ideas,” says Allison, now a professor at Wake Forest University’s business school in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. “It’s really a battle of ideas. If the ideas that made America great aren’t heard, then their influence will be destroyed.”
Allison, 62, is one of a number of wealthy philanthropists who are making bold demands on schools as a condition of giving, says Jack Siegel, a lawyer whose Chicago-based Charity Governance Consulting LLC works with colleges and nonprofit groups.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-05/schools-find-ayn-rand-can-t-be-shrugged-as-donors-build-courses.html
"...The producers of the film version of “Atlas Shrugged: Part One” apologized for an “embarrassing” error on the DVD cover that described the theme of their adaptation of Ayn Rand’s novel as one of “self-sacrifice.” As disciples of Rand, one of libertarianism’s heroes, are supposed to know, Atlas Shrugged is actually all about “rational self-interest.”..."
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/11/atlas-shrugged-producers-replace-embarrassing-dvd-covers-that-say-movie-is-about-self-sacrifice.php
http://xkcd.com/1049/