Friday, June 8, 2018

Todd Farmer: Box Office DUD!

After taking time away from writing on my personal blog and focusing on my business; I think it's time for me to write a few things. Some more Box Office Reviews; my thoughts on Disney's Star Wars which I started writing back when Last Jedi came out. Because dear God, these new Star Wars are a mess. Back to the point of this post; in the past I have done break downs on Meryl Streep, Emma Watson, and Olivia Wilde. This one is going to be different as we are going to go behind the camera with writer Todd Farmer.

Todd Farmer is primarily known for the horror genre as being the writer of Jason XMy Bloody Valentine 3D, and Drive Angry 3D. He usually has a small role in most of these movies; like in Jason X, he was one of the pilots who got killed by Jason. In My Bloody Valentine 3D, Todd was a trucker who was nailing one of the lead's friend who was killed by the "Miner". And in Drive Angry 3D, he was Amber Heard's character boyfriend who was cheating on her.

Todd Farmer's last theatrical written film was in 2011 with Drive Angry 3D. Todd also came up for the story for the 2007 horror film, the Messengers (Rated: 5.4/10), with a script written by Mark Wheaton. He has two other writing credits for straight-to-video features; the Messengers 2: the Scarecrow (Rated: 4.8/10) and the animated feature Heavenly Sword (Rated: 5.3/10). And a few fluff pieces on IMDB such as DR1 Invitational (Rated: 2/10); AirHogs XStream TV Commercial (Rated: 1.7/10); and Colony: Microseries (Rated: 1.6/10). And a few acting credits on some movies that weren't even on the radar for Box Office Mojo.

In 2015, at the time of the release of Terminator: Genisys, Todd wrote an article for Birth. Movies. Death. Why at the time of Terminator: Genisys, a film he wasn't involved with? It was because his co-writing and directing partner on his last two theatrical outings, Patrick Lussier; ended up being an executive producer and the co-writer on that film (other writer was Laeta Kalogridis who wrote Nochnoi Dozor and Shutter Island). And that it seemed that their working relationship kinda dried up as Mr. Farmer was living out of his car as he had no money while living out in L.A.

You would think that you would feel for the man. I know I did. To see someone get to live their dream and then have it crushed with the Drive Angry 3D flopping. With this age of social media and it being three years later since that article, times must have changed for Mr. Farmer, don't you think?


Holy Hell! And this Twitter shitstorm hit hard. And I don't blame the people for lashing out at him. This is probably the most action he's seen on Twitter since the theatrical release of Drive Angry 3D in 2011. How can you say this type of thing on social media and not expect blowback from it? In the post I made breaking down Olivia Wilde's box office results, I said; "These celebrities don't fear the repercussions that might come with calling Trump supporters all the horrible things under the sun".

And that rings true regardless of what your political beliefs are. We've seen it recently with Roseanne and Samantha Bee. Time and time again, someone runs their mouth on social media and does not stop and check themselves. Think before you tweet! I myself have to think real hard before posting my thoughts outside of posting photos of my sweet cats and my movie posters that I have framed up on my wall.

Since I am working to be more flexible in the industry and I am producing feature length films on top of what I am making; I have to think long and hard if the potential deal is not going to cause me any problems down the road. If someone came to me and wanted to pitch or sell a screenplay and I see a post like this on their social media; I can't take this person seriously. And in the case of Todd Farmer, who hasn't had a theatrical feature across the silver screen in almost a decade, he should have kept his mouth shut.

Let us take a look at short breakdown at the films that Todd Farmer has written. Key word is "written", a film like the Messengers is omitted because Mark Wheaton is sole credit on the screenplay. And all of the acting credits outside of the films he written are omitted as well since there's nothing on Box Office Mojo for those either. As usual, the theater chains get about 50% of the ticket sales. A film needs to make double or more in order to break even in the theatrical market. I have seen some claim that outside the U.S, the theatrical markets can take up to 60% or more of the ticket sales. However, we will keep these break downs at 50% for everyone's sake.

Jason X (2002)
IMDB Rating: 4.4/10
Budget: $11 Million
U.S: $13,121,555
Worldwide Total: $16,951,798
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $6,560,778
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $8,475,899
RESULT: FLOP!

Budget: $15 Million
U.S: $51,545,952
Worldwide Total: $100,734,718
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $25,772,976
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $50,367,359
RESULT: SUCCESS!

Budget: $45 - $50 Million [LA Times]
U.S: $13,121,555
Worldwide Total: $28,931,401
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $6,560,778
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $14,465,701
RESULT: FLOP!


What is up next for Mr. Farmer? Is it perhaps a new collaboration with Patrick Lussier? According to IMDB Pro, he has a film called Surveillance which is being co-written and directed by Lussier which was added to IMDB at the beginning of the year. A film called the Monkey's Paw which has seemed to be dead in the water as there have been no updates since the release of Drive Angry 3D in 2011. Two Killers in a Van which is a TV show that is still in the "treatment" process and has four other people listed as writers on it. And Mr. Farmer is receiving a "based on characters created by" credit for a direct-to-television / Netflix movie Failsafe which is being produced by and starring Michael B. Jordan from Black Panther and Creed.

Will we be seeing Mr. Farmer's name lighting up the silver screens in the near future? Doubtful. Maybe spend more time on your craft and trying to elevate yourself to where you were almost a decade ago with Mr. Lussier instead of venting like a lunatic on social media about how everyone is racist.

Friday, September 15, 2017

Olivia Wilde: Box Office DUD!

Is that time again for another one of these polls? A Yahoo! article came out the other day about celebrities going on Twitter and bashing fans and people who discuss politics for the hell of it because they have a voice. These celebrities don't fear the repercussions that might come with calling Trump supporters all the horrible things under the sun. People mentioned in this article was Don Cheadle, Ellen Pompeo, Cher, and Olivia Wilde. And on the Midnight's Edge FB group whom I follow, I decided to do some investigating and we have now reached this point where a new blog post has been constructed for your viewing pleasure.

Like in the past with Meryl Streep (at least from 2000 to present) and Emma Watson; I am going through the box office results for one Olivia Wilde. And with the discussion on Midnight's Edge, I have stated that Olivia was pushed to the sidelines quite fast after gaining popularity with films such as Tron: Legacy and the Change-Up. Like in previous break downs; theaters usually get 50% of ticket revenue and we will be treating every film as such.

Budget: $25 million [IMDB]
U.S: $14,589,444
Worldwide Total: $30,411,183
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $7,294,722
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $15,205,592
RESULT: FLOP!

Budget: $450k
U.S: $379,418
Worldwide Total: $973,525
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $189,709
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $486,762
RESULT: FLOP!

I am ruling this as a flop because it's close to the breaking even. We don't know how much was spent on advertising in the end.

Turistas (2006)
Budget: $10 million
U.S: $7,027,762
Worldwide Total: $14,690,987
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $3,513,881
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $7,345,493
RESULT: FLOP!

Alpha Dog (2006)
Budget: Unknown
U.S: $15,309,602
Worldwide Total: $32,145,115
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $7,654,801
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $16,072,557
RESULT: FLOP!

Hard concrete evidence on the budget is unknown. Two articles I found suggested that this was originally supposed to be $9 million, but, Nick Cassavetes blew threw it fast. And another site coving the releases of January 2007 states that this could be around the $30 to $40 million dollar range. So, I am ruling this out as a flop.

Year One (2009)
Budget: $60 million
U.S: $43,337,279
Worldwide Total: $62,357,900
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $21,668,639
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $31,178,950
RESULT: FLOP!

Fix (2009)
Budget: $500k [IMDB]
U.S: $9,890
Worldwide Total: $9,890
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $4,945
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $4,945
RESULT: FLOP!

I can't find anything on this movie getting a release outside of the United States. DVD copies on Amazon go next to nothing. I am guessing that even though half a million was spent, this made nowhere even close to even after almost a decade.

Budget: $30 million
U.S: $21,148,651
Worldwide Total: $67,448,651
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $10,574,325
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $33,724,325
RESULT: Debatable!

I am listing this as a debatable. We don't know how much extra was spent on the advertising on this film.

Tron: Legacy (2010)
Budget: $170 million
U.S: $172,062,763
Worldwide Total: $400,062,763
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $86,031,381
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $200,031,381
RESULT: Debatable!

Considering this was a big Christmas movie for the 2010 season, I am thinking Disney spent a lot on the marketing. I am not saying this is a flop, but, I am saying it was debatable for Mickey Mouse. And probably why we never got a third film.

Budget: $163 million
U.S: $100,240,551
Worldwide Total: $174,822,325
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $50,120,275
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $87,411,162
RESULT: FLOP!

Budget: $52 million
U.S: $37,081,475
Worldwide Total: $75,450,437
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $18,540,737
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $37,725,218
RESULT: FLOP!

In Time (2011)
Budget: $40 million
U.S: $37,520,095
Worldwide Total: $173,930,596
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $18,760,047
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $86,965,298
RESULT: Success!

This is a surprise. The movie where she plays Justin Timberlake's mother is the only movie so far that was not a box office belly flop. Holy shit. I bet she was thanking her lucky stars that she had some luck finally on her side...

Budget: $16 million
U.S: $12,434,778
Worldwide Total: $12,558,931
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $6,217,389
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $6,279,465
RESULT: FLOP!

What did I say about luck? Shit...

The Words (2012)
Budget: $6 million
U.S: $11,494,838
Worldwide Total: $13,231,461
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $5,747,419
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $6,615,730
RESULT: FLOP!

Butter (2012)
Budget: N/A
U.S: $105,018
Worldwide Total: $175,706
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $52,509
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $87,853
RESULT: FLOP!

I can't find nothing on this. There's no way this film made anyone money.

Deadfall (2012)
Budget: $12 million [IMDB]
U.S: $66,351
Worldwide Total: $1,946,254
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $33,175
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $973,127
RESULT: FLOP!

Looking at the international results on BOM, this film was successful in Austria; Brazil; Colombia; Germany; Mexico; Spain; U.A.E; and the U.K. compared to the U.S. In Brazil alone the film made over half a million. Holy cow.

Budget: $30 million
U.S: $22,537,881
Worldwide Total: $27,437,881
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $11,268,940
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $13,718,940
RESULT: FLOP!

Budget: $1 million [WIKI]
U.S: $343,341
Worldwide Total: $401,914
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $171,670
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $200,957
RESULT: FLOP!

Can't even make back the supposed the $1 million budget. What in the hell...

Rush (2013)
Budget: $38 million
U.S: $26,947,624
Worldwide Total: $90,247,624
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $13,473,812
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $45,123,812
RESULT: Debatable!

Taking in that advertising is not accounted for, I am saying it's not a flop nor success.

Her (2013)
Budget: $23 million
U.S: $25,568,251
Worldwide Total: $47,351,251
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $12,784,125
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $23,675,625
RESULT: FLOP!

Budget: $5 million [IMDB]
U.S: $75,143
Worldwide Total: $120,823
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $37,571
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $60,411
RESULT: FLOP!

Five million dollars... It didn't even make 2% of it's budget back theatrically. You'd be better off throwing your cash out the window.

Third Person (2014)
Budget: $28 million [IMDB]
U.S: $1,021,398
Worldwide Total: $2,624,761
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $510,699
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $1,312,380
RESULT: FLOP!

Well, at least this film made about close to 5% of it's budget back theatrically. Probably made a hit on home video ... I doubt it.

Budget: $3.3 million
U.S: $25,801,047
Worldwide Total: $38,358,787
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $12,900,523
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $19,179,393
RESULT: Success!

Her first success in about four years since In Time. Can this streak of luck continue? Read below...

Meadowland (2015)
Budget: N/A
U.S: N/A
Worldwide Total: N/A
Actual U.S. minus 50%: N/A
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: N/A
RESULT: Flop!

Well, according to Wikipedia this did come out and critics liked it. However, there's no information that can be found regarding it's budget and nothing regarding how much this film made. And according to IMDB, this film hasn't really been released anywhere either. Holy hell, man.

Budget: $17 million
U.S: $26,302,731
Worldwide Total: $42,426,912
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $13,151,365
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $21,213,456
RESULT: Debatable!

This debatable because of the advertising. I am sure it's probably considered a flop, but, we'll give her a freebie.



What did we learn today, kids? Olivia Wilde is box office poison. While she hasn't had a theatrical film in two years come this November, she has two films in post-production right now; A Vengeance and Life Itself. And from the sounds of these, I don't think we'll have high hopes for these being the homerun she needs for possibly getting more roles in the industry. Maybe Olivia should stay off Twitter for a while and try harder at getting somewhere.

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

"Pride Only Hurts. It Never Helps." or "Why Politics and Business Don't Mix."

This blog post took several days to write as I had to bounce back and forth from writing; studio work; and my day job. Before we start, I want to say that I myself denounce all forms of violence on the political spectrum. As violence is never the answer and will solve nothing. I also want to denounce and condemn anyone who has committed any type of sexual abuse on children. Anyone like that is a monster and should be treated as such.

As it stands Saturday night, I am working away on some studio stuff and decided to sit down and write this while I have a Public Domain film encoding over. Let's just say this past year (from like October of 2016 to now) has been one of many interesting twists and turns that were quite bizarre. And I use a quote in the above title from Pulp Fiction because it's very true. People have a lot of pride and ignorance and especially with social media; they have attitude that I perceive and I am sure some would agree is something that makes them feel almost "God like".

The night of the fight, you may feel a slight sting. That's pride fucking with you.
Fuck pride. Pride only hurts, it never helps. - Marsellus Wallace

I am going to jump around to several points in time, first and foremost is the obvious of what has happened over the past week. Someone who exposed themselves as trash had to vent on their personal business page even though said persons can't have a Facebook page as a violation as one of Facebook's terms and conditions. And someone who is a family member who decided to pick a side and we'll get to that later.

Said family member who has cut ties with me introduced me to this person back in 2012 after I had my accident. And I will say that at first I thought it was cool and fun and then we had the premiere for Traumatic Possession 3D: The Tape in January 2013. And I could tell off the bat that he wasn't too thrilled with it and I can understand as the film was made for $200 and I'll be pumping a lot more cash into it for next year to celebrate the fifth anniversary and the forthcoming "Director's Cut". And several other factors played in such as said family member invited friends who got extremely drunk and acted really rowdy which I am sure did not help anyone on all sides of the venue. Because I was really infuriated about it.

That Q&A video is now deleted and anything regarding Traumatic Possession 3D: The Tape at this event is going to be scrubbed from the net unless someone on Youtube backed it up, which I doubt. And if you go to my studio's Youtube page, you will notice that there's a real lack of anything regarding older content. In particular, trailers for American Nightmare and Traumatic Possession and also clips regarding Into the Madness: A Documentary. There is a reason for this and it will be addressed later.

Back on topic; this person who was introduced to me had talked throughout the past five years about trying to get a few project ventures off the ground which never thankfully happened. One of the earliest was trying to produce a DVD set of a few live shows, mainly sourced from Public Domain features and a possible re-screening of Traumatic Possession 3D: The Tape. I was still interested in helping and producing this whenever my studio started picking up income but after what happened the past few days, that door has closed.

And finally in 2016 back in February after I sealed the deal for Toaster, I approached him if he wanted to screen it and he told me he was booked for the rest of the year. This was the same time that he was pandering through is wife's social media and begging for money to put a booklet together for this 24 hr film festival and wanting people to pay for advertising because they needed the money. To which I gladly paid money to promote the planned "Director's Cut" for my first film.

A year ago this time in August; I had gotten the remastered version of Toaster and was shot down again when I asked him for 2017. And I think it was right around there that I knew that a working relationship was probably eroded because he was partnering up with studios like the Asylum and Wild Eye Releasing. I also paid to advertise Toaster around this time last year. And when we were closer to screening the film; I asked again but he had told me the months advertisement space was filled. I guess he did not need money that badly for his "program" since he is begging for money on Patreon.


Cut to this week; a post was made on Facebook. Even though this is all public for the public to view, I'm censoring it. And one of the things that bothers me the most is virtue signaling and if you do go to this person's page; you will not find anything political until this post. Right off the bat with the above post, I am sure this sounds highly logical. There has been a lot of tension these past few years with identity politics and violence. And with the exception of the absurd ending of the statement regarding that "these groups have made Nazis not fun to have in movies anymore". And listing films such as Iron Sky and Raiders of the Lost Ark is something I find absurdly ridiculous because I am sure if you asked someone their views on this; they'd find this laughable.

Do you notice something missing from the above Facebook post? What I found particularly odd is that he didn't condemn violence from the left and all sides. Because we all know violence solves nothing. And almost immediately, I was banned and either he or his wife (since he can't have a Facebook) blocked me like a bunch of cowards. All because I asked a simple one worded question; "Antifa"? Because it's easier to ban someone as opposed to having an actual conversation with someone but, we'll see why here in a minute.

I email him and like a coward bans me from communicating with him after two or three messages. And while I will not share these emails because they are private, he makes some libel statements about me and grouping me into these groups on the right that we saw in Charlottesville. After I am blocked on Gmail; I go to Twitter where he never "followed" me even though I was "following" him. And I go in with the simple response of, since it's been deleted before I could copy it; something around the lines of "delete anything regarding my studio's film and any images or videos regarding my studio content and my likeness". What this cowardly sack of shit does next made my blood boil.


This low life coward posts private and confidential emails without my consent to his various social media platforms and even though the above image is censored by myself to show my audience, my name is there on the emails (Stephen). However, like a coward he wouldn't show the full messages and only show the ones where's he's trying to justify Antifa and making claims that United States of America is an "Anti(-)fa(scit) Nation" which is total shit because America is the land of the free and the home of the brave and will always be.

I did a little research the night before because I felt mud was going to get slung at me and I should be prepared. Now, I was told probably back when his FB vanished and I cannot remember from whom (maybe from him on his wife's account or from the family member who blocked me) that he had his FB removed on a technicality. That's all I was told. Needless to say, I found out why and it's all public knowledge that you can find by searching his name. And you can see that I posted a link in my tweet. Because even though the images I am posting are still censored to shit, I'm leaving my public tweets public and you can freely find them on Twitter.

And going back to what I said about the FB being removed on a "technicality"; that was back in 2013 and I had been living on my own for about a good four to six months when all this happened. It was about a month or so after the screening of Traumatic Possession 3D: The Tape. At the time, I lived off the grid from the internet with the exception of my phone having some limited internet access. And this was right after my previous fiancee of four and a half years broke up with me for good and I kind of wanted to be alone to do some soul searching and get some stuff done.


Cut back to what I had found on the net from my research and it was sickening. It was nice document of about twenty pages from the Supreme Court and found the mugshots from 2004. I got really mad and had that feeling of betrayal about this because I wish I could have been told about this up front back whenever the possibility arose to screen Traumatic Possession 3D: The Tape with his "program" in 2012. I would have probably passed on it and probably threw the film Straight-to-DVD and let it rot with the "theatrical cut" of the film. Having my family; parents and younger siblings, attend the screening of Traumatic Possession 3D: The Tape. And finally taking my fiancee out there to see one his shows (coincidentally Nazis at the Center of the Earth from the Asylum). It was our first anniversary in 2015 when she was seven months pregnant with our son, which is something that will be addressed again in this long ass post. And if I would have known this from the start, I would have never given him money to promote any of my studio's films or to help out with his 24 hour film festival that happened in 2016.

What now? What is next? Well, the possibility stands for a libel / defamation of character suit over the posting of private emails in a public forum. He did not have my permission to post those messages and was trying to give the assumption that I am supposedly "alt-right" or a "Nazi" or sort of racist which is not true in the slightest. He is making these absurd assumptions on the fact that I have openly supported the president of the United States and that is Donald Trump. If you have met me in person, you will know that I am one of the nicest people you will ever meet. And I will always try to listen to any problems and concerns and try to help out in any way possible if I can.

I have lived and made friends with people all over the world. I've spent years in foreign countries learning languages other than English to get around on a day-to-day basis in those societies. In the business field I am in; there is no room for this type of behavior or mindset which I am wrongly accused of being. This person should be deeply ashamed of themselves for trying to defame my character. And I have told the people whom follow me that are from his circle, if they leave me over this, I hold no ill will as it's your choice. I feel that I have wrongfully earned your friendship through this person; none the less, I appreciate all of them who have supported me and raised awareness for what my business is doing.

Now, to move on to the other person who is a family member. These two are close friends, so, I guess it's easy to pick a side with a registered sex offender, especially after reading the Supreme Court documentation. But, this person and I had a hard falling out in 2014 and that was really the start of the deconstruction of our relationship and family bond. When my fiancee and I found out we were expecting, we were joyed to tell everyone the great news. Everyone was happy for us with the exception of this one family member.

They had missed the initial phone call and called me back within about an hour or two. When I told her the news, instead of hearing something like; "I am happy for you!" or "Congrats!" I heard a constant babbling of the word "NO!" And heard things like; "Why would you do something so stupid?" And it even got to the point where they pleaded me to have my son terminated. And left some stupid I AM HOLIER THAN THOU and FIRE COOLS STEEL or some Game of Thrones type shit message on Facebook. I was livid, but, at the end of the day, 99.99% of everyone else who was told that we were expecting were supportive of my fiancee and myself.

A decent amount of time had passed and we started to film my next feature, American Nightmare 3D. I decided to approach said person about filming and coming back. This was a disaster and most of the footage turned out rough because said person was drinking and even brought their own alcohol to drink. My fiancee who was working as director of photography on the film was not happy on top of being in a mood since she was days away from giving birth to our son. We ended up putting American Nightmare 3D on an indefinite hiatus since I wanted to spend time with my newly formed family.

Time had passed again and it was right after Donald Trump was sworn in as President of the United States in January. And I saw countless posts from this person regarding protesting. And I personally feel that it's too tacky to protest. There's other ways to express your disdain for any choices than just standing in a group mass and holding a cry in while you're drinking your latte. Countless posts filling in my news feed from this person made me feel honestly concerned about their well being since it seemed like all this person lived for back in early months of 2017 was to protest Trump and have him removed from office (guess it didn't work, did it?). It felt like they were brainwashed to the point that they were foaming at the mouth like they had rabies.

I made the mistake of trying to interject on one of the posts and said something around the lines of try to give the man a chance as he was just sworn in. Right off the bat, just rude comments and threats of blocking. Which, honestly, they should have just done it right then and there. The comment that did it for me where I tapped out was something around the lines that I was called a "Nazi Sympathizer". Again, just because of my support for Trump and my love for America and what America has given me in return for being a child of the Army.

Where does that leave Traumatic Possession 3D: the Tape; Into the Madness: A Documentary; and American Nightmare 3D since this person was involved? It's simple, this person failed to sign contracts on TP3D and AN3D. We are sanitizing Traumatic Possession 3D: The Tape with the "Director's Cut" and I am going back to the original 55 minutes of film that I had initially shot in 2010. And I have all ready talked to someone about replacing the part and adding several new plot points and characters to drastically overhaul the film. We had also filmed an opening and Q&A segment for Into the Madness: A Documentary and that will all be removed.

With American Nightmare 3D, we had close to fifteen minutes shot and edited together before we stopped when my son was born. We still had another one hour and fifteen minutes left of film we needed shot and edited together. I am scrapping all of it and starting completely over from scratch. I will be upgrading to 4K equipment once 2018 rolls around and I get my income tax return back. And the new 4K equipment will be used to shoot the new footage of both Traumatic Possession 3D: The Tape and American Nightmare 3D.

I am sure said family member knows that this man is a registered sex offender. Probably knew before the fact whenever I was taken out there to see Cave Women on Mars in 2012 after my accident. I should have been told because I would have completely passed on going out there. Since my private emails were posted without consent, I am wanting every single bit of my image scrubbed from this pedophile's website and programs.

And the question you have to ask is whether or not any of the employees at that movie theater would feel comfortable around him knowing the truth? Or if any people in the audience going to his shows would feel comfortable around him knowing the truth? Or if any of the people that have invited him out to conventions and other people in the "Horror Host" community would feel comfortable around him knowing the truth? Because he is in that same league as other monsters like Roman Polanski and Victor Silva. And if he was busted for one offense, how do we not know that if there was any others prior to this?

What did we learn from all this in the end? Do not make false accusations of someone. And do not post private and confidential emails when you do not have consent. Because the public information on yourself might be more damning in the end.

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Emma Watson: Box Office DRAW!

With the Circle coming out this weekend, I've decided to do another Box Office review. This time with social justice darling, Emma Watson. This review will be divided up into two factors which why the title at the top says "Draw" with Emma and not "Dud" with Meryl Streep. The division will be on the Harry Potter films as we will do a factor with them and a factor without them. Because it certainly wouldn't be fair to just ignore them as Harry Potter does have a fan base and I honestly feel that just because you're in something that has a fan base does not mean that they support you and I think that certainly reflects in the data.

Like the previous Box Office review, data will be pulled from Box Office Mojo with links and links to other sources (IMDB, Wikipedia, etc) when BOM doesn't have full data. Again, 50% will be deducted because theaters get their cuts of money from the screenings. I usually do annotations at the end of each data input; this will be skipped for the eight HP films because we all know that they made money. Pie charts is at the end if you want to scroll past the data. Let us begin.


Budget: $125 million
U.S: $317,575,550
Worldwide Total: $974,755,371
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $158,787,775
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $487,377,686
RESULT: Success

Budget: $100 million
U.S: $261,988,482
Worldwide Total: $878,979,634
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $130,994,241
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $439,489,817
RESULT: Success

Budget: $130 million
U.S: $249,541,069
Worldwide Total: $796,688,549
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $124,770,535
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $398,344,275
RESULT: Success

Budget: $150 million
U.S: $290,013,036
Worldwide Total: $896,911,078
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $145,006,518
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $448,455,539
RESULT: Success

Budget: $150 million
U.S: $292,004,738
Worldwide Total: $939,885,929
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $146,002,369
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $469,942,965
RESULT: Success

Budget: $60 million
U.S: $50,877,145
Worldwide Total: $86,947,965
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $25,438,573
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $43,473,787
RESULT: FLOP!

Budget: $250 million
U.S: $301,959,197
Worldwide Total: $934,416,487
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $150,979,599
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $467,208,244
RESULT: Success

Budget: $250 million
U.S: $295,983,305
Worldwide Total: $960,283,305
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $147,991,653
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $480,141,653
RESULT: Success

Budget: $250 million
[Wikipedia - see above for Part I]
U.S: $381,011,219
Worldwide Total: $1,341,511,219
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $190,505,610
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $670,755,610
RESULT: Success

Budget: $8+ million [Wiki - Budget in GBP]
U.S: $14,600,347
Worldwide Total: $35,057,696
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $7,300,174
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $17,528,848
RESULT: DEBATABLE!
This film was an awards season push. Even though it made it's speculated budget back, who knows how much was spent on the advertising for the film.

Budget: $13 million [Wiki]
U.S: $17,742,948
Worldwide Total: $33,384,127
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $8,871,474
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $16,692,064
RESULT: FLOP!
Factoring in advertisements for the film, I'm leaning towards flop. If it made a few million more in the States, I'd consider it debatable.
Budget: $32 million
U.S: $101,470,202
Worldwide Total: $126,041,322
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $50,735,101
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $63,020,661
RESULT: Success
Even though Ms. Watson was only in the film for a good five minutes, I'll throw her a bone and factor it in.

Budget: $8 million [Wiki]
U.S: $5,845,732
Worldwide Total: $19,145,732
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $2,922,866
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $9,572,866
RESULT: FLOP!
With advertising factored in, no way did this movie make any money for anyone.

Noah (2014)
Budget: $125 million
U.S: $101,200,044
Worldwide Total: $362,637,473
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $50,600,022
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $181,318,737
RESULT: Success
I should note that the American box office take was not well and only made half of it's money back.

Regression (2016)
Budget: $20 million [Wiki]
U.S: $55,039
Worldwide Total: $17,616,062
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $27,516
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $8,808,031
RESULT: FLOP!
Movie only made it to 100 screens in the U.S. and U.S. gross makes only .03% of the films total gross.

Colonia (2016)
Budget: $14 million [IMDB]
U.S: $15,709
Worldwide Total: $3,621,046
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $7,855
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $1,810,523
RESULT: FLOP!
BOM says it was at 27 theaters and lasted only a week. Breaking that down, that's $581.82 on average from each 27 theaters and that means it made on average approx. $83.12 a day.

Budget: $160 million
U.S: $471,421,288
Worldwide Total: $1,101,396,411
Actual U.S. minus 50%: $235,710,644
Actual Worldwide minus 50%: $550,698,206
RESULT: Success
Even if it's still playing, we know this isn't a flop.


Calculating the eight Harry Potter films, the success rate Ms. Watson has on the chart is 64.7% of her filmography. With flops accounting for 29.4% and with one debatable film making it 5.9%. Sans Harry Potter is a different tale as old as time. See what I did there? With only three successful films accounting to only 33.3% of her bank ability. The sole "debatable" film upping the rank to 11.1%. And flops accounting for 55.6%. And with the Circle coming out this weekend, I don't see another success story like Beauty and the Beast.

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Minds.com: "'Ghost in the Shell' and Why I Don't Care What You Think".

Upon knowing that Ghost in the Shell has been a film in development hell for almost a decade since it was initially announced. And this has been a film that has moved from studio to studio; with Mickey Mouse seemingly being the one to make until the Mouse dropped it off at Paramount with DreamWorks co-producing the film. Universal has picked up distribution rights for numerous countries outside of the United States, not sure how much of their involvement factors into the final product of the film.

Before I get to the real source of the "problem"; I want to address the biggest complaint that I have seen to date. Scarlett Johansson was announced as the role of the "Major" who in the anime and manga is named Motoko Kusanagi. As you can tell, Scarlett Johansson is an American of Danish descent. The biggest and most annoying remark I see regarding this casting choice is; "Why Isn't Rinko Kikuchi the Major"?

Hollywood is a money making machine. Whenever movies are being pitched and financiers are mulling things over, if it's not going to make money; it needs to win awards. And to make money, you need names that will put asses in seats. Case in point, Rinko Kikuchi is persona-non-grata or "box office poison". 2013 was a big year for Rinko and it was a bust for her as both Pacific Rim and 47 Ronin bombed. Pacific Rim was budgeted around $200 million and made half of that in the United States. And even though it made $100 million in the States, half of the money goes to the theatrical establishments meaning that WB only got $50 million. That means that in the United States, only a quarter a film's budget was recouped.

And almost everyone jumps to the fact that Pacific Rim made a killing in China and grossed almost $112 million. While China has been the number two market that studios are looking at, it is not the United States. It all varies from studio to studio, Legendary decided to go for a sequel for both Pacific Rim and Warcraft because of the Chinese box office results while both films bombed here in the States. Since Ghost in the Shell is a Paramount film; they had all ready tried to rely on the Chinese market for Terminator: Genisys to get a sixth film made and it failed to make enough to justify getting that film off the ground. Paramount and the financiers are probably not going to take that risk for this film, even though I doubt there will be a sequel despite how vast this universe is.

47 Ronin was crowned the title of the "biggest box office bomb of 2013". The film made under $40 million in the United States and cost a grand total of $225 million dollars. The film failed to get a Chinese release and it's biggest grossing outside the United States was Russia with about $27 million. Worldwide, the film made $150 million and half of that goes to the theater establishments. So, a $225 million that only made a third of it's budget back.

And her follow up to those films was Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter which only managed to score a limited theatrical release. Most likely due to the failures of her other previous English language films. I cannot find any budget for this film, which was probably a $20+ million film and it didn't even hit a million worldwide in theatrical grosses.

Rinko has gone back to Japan and is now married and starting a family. While she has a part in Pacific Rim 2: Uprising, it is not a lead role. And besides, there are other Asian actresses who are more qualified but most people who jump to the default "Why isn't it Rinko" probably don't watch a lot of foreign films to see what other talent is out there compared to what junk the Hollywood system churns out. Actresses like Ai Hashimoto, Satomi Ishihara, Kiko Mizuhara, Aya Ueto, Chiaki Kuriyama; and other Asian ethnic actresses like Liu Yufei, Li Bingbing, or Kelly Hu. There are plenty of other Asian actresses out there who could get the job done compared to Rinko Kikuchi.

I am biased towards both Scarlett Johansson and Rinko Kikuchi. While Scarlett is an attractive woman, her movie roles have been less than stellar in my opinion. And her political views have been a bit of a turn off for me as well. Seeing the trailers and seeing how she has done for the role of the "Major", it's been so-so. I am more or less excited for seeing Beat Takeshi as the man who runs the corporation that created the Major. If you know who Beat Takeshi is, it's kinda surprising seeing him take on an American role. This is the first English film that he has done since Johnny Mnemonic in 1994.

I see a lot of hate from fans and I see a lot of this hate aimed in the wrong direction. It is not Paramount and DreamWorks for making the film. It's not Scarlett Johansson for taking the role; she's an actress who has a child and having a kid means you got to provide. The hate should be, but it won't, is the owners/publisher of the manga. Again, I myself have no problem with this film adaption; but, the owners are the ones who ultimately want to make money off their product. Be it from publishing and selling copies in shops or by cutting adaption deals for either television, film, or video game. The owners are the ones who allow this whenever the ink hits the papers and the money exchanges hands.

I, myself, have had some far out and radical thoughts about doing adaptions because you want to be able to make a product that stands out. Given the case for Ghost in the Shell, you got Scarlett Johannson. If my favorite theatrical establishment ends up getting the film, I will be buying a ticket to see this film because I don't care what you think.

Monday, March 6, 2017

X-Men Timeline? Major Spoilers...

Let me refrain that there is major spoilers ahead for the X-Men films, including Logan. As Wade Wilson said in his film, Deadpool; "McAvoy or Stewart; these timelines are so confusing". Wade does make a point that all of us viewers and fans have bemoaned since X-Men: Days of Future Past which effectively rebooted the series while keeping the cast mostly intact.

Let's break the events down:

1845: James Howlett (Logan) kills the man who turns out to be his biological father and escapes with his brother, Victor aka "Sabertooth". This is the intro to X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

1944: Young Magneto is a child in a German concentration camp. His parents are murdered by Sebastian Shaw. This is the intro to both the first X-Men film and is explored in depth in the intro to X-Men: First Class.

1945: Logan is in P.O.W. camp in Nagasaki, Japan. Logan saves Yoshida. Yoshida thanks Logan and goes on about his business rebuilding Japan and his empire. This is the intro to the Wolverine. It is also worth noting that Victor and Logan must have been off fighting in different parts of WWII at the time as Victor is nowhere to be seen. However we do know that both of them fight together side-by-side in various other conflicts.

1962: Professor Xavier and Mystique meet Moira McTaggert and form a bond with Magneto who is out to kill Sebastian Shaw. We encounter Logan at a bar drinking. Then we have the rest of the events of X-Men: First Class which plays out.

1973: Logan, down and out from various wars is a bodyguard whom has a vision to seek out Professor Charles Xavier. Logan finds him and reveals to Charles that through another dimension in time and space, the older Xavier relays a message that Bolivar Trask must stop his sinister plans to unleash Sentinels on mutants. This is the "Past" portion of X-Men: Days of Future Past.

After this point in time, the continuity is completely altered and events are out of order. We do know that when Logan was sent back through time in the non-existent universe, he knew of all of the events from the X-Men trilogy which was altered and mentions the names of several mutants to Charles Xavier; Cyclops, Jean, Colossus, etc. This was most likely to prevent them from going astray and to possibly stop them from joining the "Brotherhood" which is Magneto's evil group of mutants.

New time line starts with Logan being taken by Mystique (in the disguise of General Stryker) to Alkali Lake to have the Adamantium bonded to his skeleton. All of the events past the opening war sequence of X-Men Origins: Wolverine has been erased and have never happened in the way we saw. We do not know if Team X existed, but, we do know from that film that Stryker was in Africa mining for the Adamantium. And we all know that he needed that for the "Weapon X" program.

Discrepancy is Wade Wilson. If the Vietnam sequence is indeed around 1975 at the end of the war, that means he'd probably be around 20, meaning that he would be 61 in Deadpool. We will just assume that Wade Wilson had a son who would also be called Wade and would go on to become Deadpool at a later point in time. There would be no "Weapon XI" in this timeline.

1983: The "first" mutant, Apocalypse; is awoken after sensing the time and space paradox being distorted from the events in Days of Future Past. The events unfold in the film, X-Men: Apocalypse. Logan appears and has just gone through the Adamantium bonding process and escapes the facility as he is freed by young Scott and Jean as they search for the Professor and the rest of the kidnapped students.

2000: From the film Logan, we know that from what Charles Xavier says, Logan still came the school and the events at the Statue of Liberty still occurred. In what way, we don't know.

2004: According to the film, Logan, last known mutant was born in 2004.

2013: From the film, Logan; we see a Samurai sword on the wall when he is in Mexico. Since the events have been altered, Yoshida would have been unaffected as he was on the other side of the world in Japan building his empire. We don't know if or how these events were altered, but, we do know that in some way, the events of the Wolverine had happened. Granted, Logan would not have been haunted by the memory of Jean Grey since she is still alive and the events of X-Men: the Last Stand did not happen.

2015?: Logan wakes up in the present at Xavier's school. As he wakes up and tries to understand what is happening, he sees all the familiar faces of those who died or left the school. He sees Rogue, who left the mutant life behind in the Last Stand. Logan is shocked to see both Jean and Scott still alive and well. Logan goes to the Xavier and they both seem to have a mutual understanding that they both know that time and space has been altered. This is the end of Days of Future Past.

2016: The events of the film Deadpool play out.

2018: From the film Logan, Laura aka X-23 is born in Mexico sometime in 2018.

2029: Logan.

Speculations from Logan; it is possible that Charles Xavier killed a large majority of mutants in the United States from his Alzheimer/degeneration of his brain. This most likely was strong enough to kill Magneto. Whatever this event was, it cause Logan to take Charles on the run and take care of him until he dies. However, as strong as this event was, it did not have the ability to reach out to Mexico to kill the mutants there. Therefor, it did not kill Laura and the others. Obviously, from the fourteen years after the end of Days of Future Past, Logan has moved on from Jean.

Since Scott and Jean lived and the events of the Last Stand did not happen; the potential for them to conceive Nathan Summers aka Cable is most likely. Especially since Deadpool has been breaking the fourth wall and makes mention of Cable being present in Deadpool 2.

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Minds.com: How Twitter is Killing Itself!

I jumped on camera after this initially happened. However, I decided not to post the video because I was extremely annoyed and it was me just screaming "fuck" for like five minutes because of my frustrations. I will probably hop back on some time this weekend and talk about this while I am copying tapes.

In my previous blog post, I discussed how social media platforms have become biased towards the left. Platforms like Facebook and most of all Twitter. And here I am again, dealing with more frustrations from Twitter. 

Lately, I realized that if I wanted to get my audience; much like how I handle filmmaking living out in Ohio, I have to come get you because you won't come to me. Not necessarily, "you won't come to me", because it's "you don't know me". After much thought these past few months, I realized that I needed to hit social media hard.

However, it's hard to go after social media, especially Twitter, when they're not allowing you to fully connect with a potential audience. How Twitter does their operations makes no sense what-so-ever.  To quote one of their guidelines; "You may have hit a follow limit. Twitter has imposed reasonable limits to help prevent system strain and to limit abuse. Read more about follow limits below."

How is it abuse in the right context? If we all have the choice to follow who we want and have the option to block people, how is this abuse if you're trying to find people who are interested in your work? You can take a look at celebrities and other people who have been "verified" and see that they follow close to the same amount of people following them. That's a form of "abuse" right there because they can follow as many people as they want and not face and type of restrictions.

And this is ultimately why Twitter is dying and right now at this point, flat-lining. Twitter is ultimately suppressing people to reach their audiences. It's not just me, it's everyone who is trying to get their names out there. The real abuse is the bots that Twitter allows to pass through trying to get you to sign up to adult websites and not doing anything about that. The real abuse is from @jack who trolls for censorship on his site.

This is why Twitter is dying, if not, dead.