Guess what? That MTV epic drama, "Stop-Loss", didn't open so well. In fact, it got beaten out at the box office by 21, Horton Hears a Who, Drillbit Taylor, Shutter, Meet the Browns. From deadline Hollywood Daily:I'm told #7 Stop-Loss opened to only $1.6 million Friday from just 1,291 plays and should eke out $4+M. Although the drama from MTV Films was the best-reviewed movie opening this weekend, Paramount wasn't expecting much because no Iraq war-themed movie has yet to perform at the box office. "It's not looking good," a studio source told me before the weekend. "No one wants to see Iraq war movies. No matter what we put out there in terms of great cast or trailers, people were completely turned off. It's a function of the marketplace not being ready to address this conflict in a dramatic way because the war itself is something that's unresolved yet. It's a shame because it's a good movie that's just ahead of its time."
No, it is not about being unresolved, it is about truthfulness, and about people wanting to see something other than anti-military and anti-american movies.
No one tells you in the military you are being stop-lossed. You know when you sign up you can be sent back. That is more b.s. from the same idiots who bring you "the real world", "road rules," and "rock the vote."
Americans want to believe in their military, they want to see heroism. That is why movies like "Jarhead", "Stop-Loss", and "Rendition" don't do well, aside from the fact that people who actually go through the scenarios refute and debunk these movies. The only War on Terror movie to do even marginally well was "the Kingdom," and it tried to be 'neutral.' Give the American people the truth, that the military is doing the best they can, that they are real heroes, and you will see a blockbuster. However, this would be contrary to Hollyweird's own template since Vietnam, that the military are the good guys. They don't know how to write the stuff.
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