Posted by Terry Hull on May 31, 2006 to As I speculated, The Da Vinci Code’s second weekend at the box office didn’t hold a candle to Weekend 1. Even with a Monday holiday boost, The Code brought in $43 million on its second weekend out, which is a lot of money, but certainly not the kind of results producers were hoping for from the year’s most anticipated film. The Code held the No.
1 spot at the box office for a single week, knocked down to 2nd place last weekend by X-Men: The Last Stand, which took in a whopping $120 million in the U.S.
The Da Vinci Code is certainly not a flop.
In its first 12 days in theaters, the movie made more than $140 million U.S. and more than $300 million worldwide.
A total of have made more than $500 million at the box office, led by Titanic ($1.8 billion), Lord of the Rings III ($1.1 billion), and Harry Potter ($1 billion).
Although Da Vinci Code: The Book is the best-selling hard-cover fiction of all time, Code: The Movie is not headed for those heights. The movie cost $125 million to make, plus millions more to market.
When The Code was screened at the Cannes Film Festival two weeks ago, movie critics in the opening night audience reported that the movie, at 2-1/2 hours, is long, sometimes tedious, and its complicated plot is hard to follow.
Those reviews didn’t stop the first wave of movie-goers, but when those people passed the word that the critics were right, attendance dropped off sharply.
Yes, I saw the movie last weekend, and the critics are right. Nothing about this movie merits all the advance buzz it generated (and was so generously provided by market-conscious churches).
The story boils down to nothing more than a treasure hunt, and at some point you find yourself thinking, “Oh, no! Not another clue! Please just get to the end of the trail and be done with it!
”
Surely many of the non-church-goers who saw the film must be wondering, “So that’s what the churches were making such a fuss about? What’s the big deal?” I predict The Da Vinci Code will continue to fade fast.
And it certainly will not be back on center stage at next year’s Oscars. This film will not be nominated for any major awards, certainly not for best picture, best director, or best actors although Sir Ian McKellan’s performance as Sir Lee Teabing has received some notice.
The next time most of us will hear about The Da Vinci Code is when its prequel, Angels and Demons, makes its way to theaters two or three years from now.
Sony Pictures announced last week that it has given the green light to Akiva Goldsman, who wrote the Da Vinci script, to adopt Dan Brown’s earlier book for the screen. Obviously, Sony is hoping for a series of Robert Langdon blockbusters, ala Indiana Jones. That may be wishful thinking.
And I’m willing to bet Sony will not be able to persuade Ron Howard or Tom Hanks to get involved in the next project.
Liberty Elementary School in Keller, Texas, used a graphic of the new Liberty nickel on the cover of its yearbook this year. But to make sure they didn’t offend atheists, they deleted the words “In God We Trust” from the graphic.
Then, to make sure they didn’t offend believers, they included an “In God We Trust” sticker with each book for those who wanted to add our nation’s motto back onto the coin.
Ironically, the motto was deleted from the yearbook cover because its use “might create an issue,” the superintendent said. Keller is a suburb of Fort Worth.
Here s the .
Here’s some interesting info from the on the “In God We Trust” motto, which has been used on U.S.
coins and currency since the Civil War days. A century later, the U.S.
Congress voted in 1956 to make “In God We Trust” the official national motto of the United States.
Even in “Liberty,” Texas.
Interesting article in the Christian Science Monitor on short-term mission trips.
Here are excerpts:
• Short-term trips, lasting two weeks or less, drew about 1.6 million Americans to foreign mission fields last year.
• Nearly 1 in 3 American youth now take part in a cross-cultural service projects before finishing high school.
• Americans are jumping at the chance to become missionaries - with one key stipulation of the 21st century: They expect to get their comfortable lives back a few days later.
• Critics say impoverished people, especially overseas, often end up pandering to cash-wielding, untrained missionaries who leave a bad impression and don’t make meaningful lifestyle changes upon return.
I haven’t seen The Da Vinci Code yet.
I had planned to be there opening weekend, but then I came down with a bad case of Da Vinci Code burnout. I read the book a few years ago. More recently, like most Christians, I’ve been forced to define my faith in terms of my response to Dan Brown’s fictional musings.
(I offered my two cents on that silly controversy in )
I also got wrapped up in a Da Vinci Code contest sponsored by Google and Sony Pictures which involved answering trivia, doing Google searches and working puzzles each day for 24 days. I was among the 10,000 finalists who qualified to compete in the Final Challenge, but no such luck I didn’t win the $125,000 grand prize. I did win a nifty cryptex valued at $40 (if you don’t know what a cryptex is, you’re definitely out of the Da Vinci Code loop).
By the time The Code opened last weekend, I had had Da Vinci Code up to here. So when I saw that the critics were giving the film , I just lost interest in being among the first wave of Code-watchers. Despite my truancy, The Da Vinci Code did well.
$77 million U.S. box office and $224 million worldwide.
That’s huge.
Now what I’m interested in seeing is how The Code does on Weekend 2. Everybody knew that nothing was going to keep The Code from ringing up a great opening weekend.
It had a built-in fan base created by the sale of more than 40 million copies of Da Vinci Code: The Book, making it the biggest selling hardcover fiction in history. Add to that a hot controversy generating so much free publicity. Sony and Dan Brown must be thanking churches all the way to the bank for doing such good P.
R. for them. Some churches were simultaneously denouncing the movie and giving away free movie tickets.
That’s so smart it’s just plain dumb. Unbelievable!
With all the build up, even when the critics reported that the movie was long, dull and convoluted, there was no way The Code wasn’t going to have a phenomenal opening weekend.
But how many of the millions who saw the flick last weekend came away agreeing with the critics? How many have spread the word to friends and family that The Code is not as good as the book, is not up to Ron Howard’s usual standard, and is Tom Hanks’ worst performance since The Burbs (oops, I forgot about The Lady-Killers)?
Actually, The Code will probably do quite well again this weekend.
Many who heard what great box office the movie had last week will be eager to follow the crowd. And it’s a holiday weekend, which is always good news for the movies. The only major new release this weekend is X-Men: The Last Stand, which will do well, but not enough to dampen the Da Vinci Code’s prospects.
Too bad Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston’s The Break-up doesn’t open this weekend instead of next; I think the movie-going mood is just about right this weekend for a romance-related comedy to do well against the same old chase scenes, bombs and blood-letting offered by The Da Vinci Code, Mission Impossible 3, Poseidon and X-Men.
Anyway, I look forward to seeing if The Code’s Weekend 2 box office results hold any “surprises.” And yes, there’s a good chance I’ll be among the second weekend crowd.
Even though I already know every twist and turn of Hanks’ Search for the Holy McGuffin. Posted by Terry Hull on May 25, 2006 to Microsoft Office 2007 will be a “big, bold” leap forward from Office 2003. A significantly different look and feel will make the upgrade essential for most offices, but users may need some training to get comfortable with it.
Office 2007 remains on track for release at the end of the year, Microsoft said this week. It will be the first update to Office in more than four years. Microsoft also is racing to finish Windows Vista, the newest version of the PC operating platform since Windows XP in 2001.
Although Microsoft would like to release Vista at the same time as Office 2007, all it is promising is that Vista will be released during 2007.
Office, of course, is Microsoft’s suite of productivity products, including, depending on which suite you buy, Word (word processing), Outlook (email and other tools), Excel (spreadsheet), Access (database), Publisher (page design) and PowerPoint (presentation). Although each of those programs can be purchased separately, many customers, especially business users, go for the package.
Microsoft intended to update Office in 2005, but the project has been pushed twice. Microsoft execs said this week the January 2007 release date remains firm.
estimates that about 40% of business desktops use Office 2003, and another 30% use Office 2000.
That leaves 30% who don’t use Office at all, and another 30% who never made the last upgrade. But Office 2007 will include major changes to the package, and I speculate that at least half of business users and many home users will make the leap during 2007, 2008 and 2009.
What changes?
The change getting the biggest attention is the replacement of toolbars and drop-down menus with the new “ribbon.” Rather than try to explain it, take a look. Here’s .
Here’s a PC Magazine put together.
Purpose of the new look and feel is to make it easier for users to find and use the ever-growing arsenal of bells and whistles that Office offers. As :
As we’ve added more and more features and functionality to the applications, it has become more challenging for people to find the software capabilities.
For example, Word 1.0 had about 100 commands, and by using the menus you could see everything you could do. In comparison, Office Word 2007 has more than 1,500 commands.
One of the things the new menus and toolbars do is help make those commands easier to find.
To make the myriad of tools and commands more functional, Office 2007 will use “contextual tabs.” Da Vinci Code: The Movie had its international debut today, opening the Cannes Film Festival.
The book is the biggest-selling adult hardcover fiction in history, but the movie is not getting a pass from reviewers.
I enjoyed the book, so I’ve been looking forward to the film. There are lots of good reasons to expect this film to be great.
It’s directed by Ron Howard (Parenthood, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind) and stars Tom Hanks (2 Best Actor Oscars for Forrest Gump and Philadelphia, and 3 more nominations). Good book, great director, great actor – how can this film miss? But the first round of reviews are running lukewarm to worse.
that “critics largely panned” the film, and that “response was highly critical.”
One scene during the film, meant to be serious, elicited prolonged laughter from the audience. There was no applause when the credits rolled; instead, a few catcalls and hisses broke the silence.
describes the movie as “confusing,” “convoluted,” “long and dull,” “clunky,” and “cringeworthy.” Ouch! Hanks’ performance is “dry and uninspiring.
”
calls The Da Vinci Code an “unwieldy, bloated puzzle,” and says Hanks turns in a “remote, even wooden performance.”
The movie really only catches fire at the midway point The movie is so drenched in dialogue musing over arcane mythological and historical lore and scenes grow so static that even camera movement can t disguise the dramatic inertia.
No review filed so far from Roger Ebert, the critic whose taste I have learned to trust over the years.
Posted by Terry Hull on May 17, 2006 to I read The Da Vinci Code about three years ago. Long before it was a soon-to-be-released motion picture blockbuster. Long before it was the latest controversy keeping church members up in arms.
Long before it was the hottest sermon topic to come along since Jabez. Back then, The Da Vinci Code was just a bestselling suspense yarn.
The Code is definitely a page-turner.
I couldn t put it down. The book has it all: a globe-trotting chase, fast-paced action, strange conspiracy theories, some interesting historical threads, and lots of cryptic codes and puzzles to chew on. It s what you would get if you combined Mission Impossible with Oliver Stone with the Travel Channel with the History Channel with a Sudoku book.
I really enjoyed reading it.
I am an evangelical Christian. I believe Jesus Christ is the living Son of God.
I believe the Bible is God s inspired word. I have dedicated my life to serving Him. Nothing I read in The Da Vinci Code rattled my faith.
But I don t form my religious beliefs from the content of popular fiction. Is there anybody who does that?
I often hear people claim that The Da Vinci Code says this or that about Jesus.
That s overstating the case. The Da Vinci Code serves up a fictional tale in which members of two cloak-and-dagger organizations, the Priory of Sion and the Knights Templar, believe Jesus took a wife and had a child and perhaps even promoted goddess worship. In the fictional story, at least some higher-ups in the Catholic church know the Priory s secret, and will do almost anything to keep the secret from being revealed.
The Da Vinci Code isn t about Jesus Christ, it is about the Priory of Sion, the Knights Templar, and a few members of the Catholic Church.
Does Cecil B. DeMille s Ten Commandments say that God s people ought to be kept in slavery, just because Pharoah attempts to do so in that film?
Does The Godfather say that people ought to devote their lives to crime, since most of the characters in that story are criminals? Does Shrek say that all green monsters are cute, especially if they speak with a Scottish brogue?
Unlike the fictional Priory of Sion in Brown s book, the real Priory of Sion is apparently .
Of course, the notion that an ancient line of French kings traced its lineage back to Christ is balderdash. So The Da Vinci Code is not a good source of historical information about Christ or about secret societies. Did somebody say that it is?
A story that has some Catholic bureaucrats involved in murder and intrigue is perhaps offensive to some Catholics. But I m not a Catholic, I m not a member of Opus Dei, I m not a member of the Priory of Sion, and I m not a member of any fraternal organization, secret or otherwise. Unless you are, what s all the fuss?
But I m not surprised that The Da Vinci Code has caused such a buzz among even non-Catholic churches and Christians. The modern evangelical church is quickly becoming the most market-driven organization in history. Even authors and movie makers have some artistic motivations behind their craft.
But what is driving the churches excitement to jump on the Da Vinci Code bandwagon? Nothing but sheer marketing appeal. Modern church leaders seize upon any and every marketing ploy to draw attention, keep the auditoriums full, and sell their latest books.
Churches are inundating us with books, tapes, magazine articles, and TV and radio broadcasts debunking The Da Vinci Code. Many churches are featuring special Da Vinci Code sermons from the pulpit. I m sure some are throwing in popcorn and Twizzlers for good measure.
The evangelical church (at least in the U.S.) is quickly losing its identity in its mindless haste to be whatever it needs to be each day to keep the attention of an easily distracted public.
To churches, The Da Vinci Code is just this season s hot church marketing gimmick.
I remember when the church existed to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, not to be on the cutting edge of movie and book reviews. And I remember when a piece of popular fiction was considered a good way to while away a few hours, but not something to make the center of our focus and energy in the church.
Better brace yourselves. Superman Returns is scheduled for theatrical release on June 30. Long before anybody ever heard of Dan Brown, the parallels between the Superman tale and the story of Christ have been noted.
Coming to earth from another place in the heavens. Able to do amazing feats mere mortals cannot do. Standing for truth and justice.
Determined to save the human race.
Churches can t coast on The Da Vinci Code ride forever. And we sure know that nobody s going to show up for church just to hear a 2,000-year-old message drawn from an ancient Scriptural text.
So it s definitely not too soon to start gearing up for the next big church event. It s time to start cranking out the Superman Uncaped books and planning those sermon series on The Real Superman. As the great theologian P.
T. Barnum once said, Every crowd has a silver lining.
News RSS