No Rest for the Weary
It's early Monday morning here, and I'm finishing up an exhausting, yet exhilarating weekend at work. For me, it was 4 days long, beginning on Thursday. I came in at about 8pm that night to help get everything ready for the midnight showing of The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Already the lines were wrapped around our building and down the next block. We showed the film in 4 separate screens, and to handle the capacity crowds, we recruited two local police officers and two more managers from our sister theater, the Meadowview. Out of our five screens at the Paramount, the biggest theater holds 800 people. Tickets for that show sold out a full week in advance. The other 3 screens playing New Moon have between 2-400 seats, all of which sold out on or before Thursday. Altogether we had around 2,000 people in our modest little movie house. The biggest weekend we've ever had there was last August, for the opening of Dark Knight. We also played that on 4 screens and it ended up being the highest grossing week in our theater's history. The way tickets for New Moon were disappearing just a few weeks ago, it looked on pace to beat the Batman, and it already did in some respect: it was the fastest we've ever sold out for a midnight show.
As you might've guessed, the weekend was utter madness. Women of all ages flooded the theater to the ceiling with estrogen and sexual pheromones. Yes, ALL ages. I was anticipating the droves of screaming preteens covered head to toe in Twilight garb, but I completely underestimated its lure to middle-aged women. I got a real wake up call this weekend when I found this left behind in the main theater on Friday:
Of course! Women love cheesy romance novels--why wouldn't they come see New Moon?? That's really all it is, a smut novel for kids. Hey, get 'em while they're young.
So while the vampire might find himself the dangerous and seductive object of a young woman's affection, the werewolf will learn that the hunter is now hunted . . . by cougars. Every woman over 30 (and there were plenty--without children!) was there for one reason and one reason only: Jacob, the roid-happy werewolf oozing machismo.
Every time he came on screen Friday night, the entire theater would shake from the shrieks of hysterical women. This is because he and every other guy in the film are shirtless indefinitely. It's as if the writer and director decided they would flip the sexist double standards of cinema on their head by finding every excuse possible to show off the male physique. If that was their intention, they overachieved. I happened to catch one scene in particular where Bella (played by the lovely Kristen Stewart) crashes Jake's motorcycle and bumps her head. The blood is barely noticeable, and its obviously not serious, as indicated by her character's mannerisms. But nevertheless, Jake has to rip off his shirt in the cold of autumn to dab what little blood there is onto his article of clothing that will most likely never recover from the stain. "Seriously? Who does that?!?"
When I mentioned this to my manager he shared the same sentiment. I asked him if he was on Team Edward or Team Jacob, to which he answered, "Team Cedric," as in Cedric Diggory from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I never cared enough to notice that this character was in fact played by Robert Pattinson, aka Edward Cullen, the vampire from Twilight.
In A Different Light
As an usher, I am required to do 'walk throughs' to make sure the film and projector are running properly and to make sure no one is on their phone or has a six pack of beer with them (which happens more than you might think). I do this no less than once or twice each set (time slot) for each separate film being shown. Altogether I worked about 12 sets of New Moon over the weekend, multiplied by 3 screens equals 36 screenings. What this means is that inadvertently, I have seen nearly all of New Moon. And I am a bit ashamed to admit it, but not all of the viewing was against my will. There is one scene in particular that made me question whether I was watching a sequel to Twilight or a sequel to The Matrix (only, a good one). I'm not sure where it fits into the plot or even at what point in the movie it occurs (which btw, is over 2hrs long), but it involves a pack of 'werewolves' (I use quotes because they are really just men who turn into over-grown wolves--I guess they didn't want to compromise the sex appeal) chasing a redhead vampiress through the forest. Part of it can be seen in this trailer:
What makes this scene so awesome is the perfect blend of gorgeous cinematography, atmosphere and special effects with a soundtrack that is refreshingly unexpected. Here, check out the song that plays during the sequence and read what moviegoers and music lovers had to say in the comments: "Hearing Damage" by Thom Yorke
Music of the Night
While I am reluctant to say I have enjoyed some of what I've seen in New Moon, I am anything but ashamed to say I love the soundtrack. Any haters out there just need to shut up and listen. I couldn't believe it when I first heard it. I was at a party with some old friends and new acquaintances when out of nowhere there came on a Death Cab for Cutie song I was unfamiliar with. I rushed over to the living room only to find someone had uploaded the New Moon soundtrack onto their Playstation 3, and it contained a host of reputable indie bands. It was as if the music supervisor of the project was playing a joke on the audience, saying, "Here ya little brats, turn off those damn Jonas Brothers and get educated in some good music."
1. Death Cab for Cutie, 'Meet Me on the Equinox'
2. Band of Skulls, 'Friends'
3. Thom Yorke, 'Hering Damage'
4. Lykke Li, 'Possibility'
5. The Killers, 'A White Demon Love Song'
6. Anya Marina, 'Satellite Heart'
7. Muse, 'I Belong to You (New Moon Remix)'
8. Bon Iver and St. Vincent, 'Rosyln'
9. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, 'Done All Wrong'
10. Hurricane Bells, 'Monsters'
11. Sea Wolf, 'The Violet Hour'
12. Ok Go, 'Shooting The Moon'
13. Grizzly Bear, 'Slow Life'
14. Editors, 'No Sound But The Wind'
15. Alexandre Desplat, 'New Moon (The Meadow)'
I immediately bought the soundtrack (which is saying something considering I never by CD's anymore) and I've since listened to it as much as or more than any other album this year. And what's more, I was very excited to find out at the midnight show that almost the entire soundtrack is played throughout the film! It really makes an otherwise mediocre movie seem much more interesting. Also, I've read something along those lines recently that makes a case for the actors involved, asking us to give them credit for acting so well that we forget how bad the dialogue actually is, which I have to agree with. Robert Pattinson does a good job as the sensitive, brooding vampire with an American accent (like Hugh Laurie, he's very Bristish), and Kristen Stewart does extremely well as the damaged emo teen vixen. Perhaps I am being sadistic, but I especially like the scenes where her heartache causes her to have nightmares, where rather than waking up in a cold sweat she screams bloody murder. The emotion is intense; palpable. If there were an Oscar ceremony for just teens, she would most definitely take best actress.
Eclipse
New Moon met everyone's expectations this weekend by breaking box office records. It set the record for midnight screenings with $26.3 million. It eclipsed The Dark Knight for opening day with $72.7 million. However, it only went to 3rd place for highest grossing weekend (140m), just behind Spider Man 3 (151m) and The Dark Knight (158m). Now everyone is waiting to see if it will outgross this year's biggest hit so far, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, a film that like New Moon, I felt only had one worthwhile scene. The only way I see New Moon making more than $400 million is if it has replay value and the fans come out to see it more than once. I would predict that after Thanksgiving weekend, it will have met its full potential and will begin a steep decline in sales. It simply does not reach as wide a demographic audience as Transformers or The Dark Knight. However, never underestimate the buying/staying power of obsessive teens and desperate housewives. I became rather familiar with one young lady as she came out to see the film 3 times in the same weekend!
