![\"Mark](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2024\/10\/462766411_534948359141230_4042680410466791599_n-1.jpg\")
<\/a>My wife and I took our core film production and film distribution and film bookkeeping group out to dinner last night, both for Christmas and to celebrate the near-conclusion of the dramatic-film portion<\/a> of our overall Six Days in August<\/em> project. \u00a0(One more contract is awaiting completion. \u00a0The others have been signed. \u00a0And then it\u2019s onward and upward.)<\/p>\n Curiously, by the way, the film continues to be shown in a theater in Kaysville, Utah. \u00a0So, if you\u2019re anywhere near Kaysville and you haven\u2019t yet seen it, there is still time for your repentance in sackcloth and ashes \u2014 although, given the weather, you should probably dress more warmly for the actual theater itself. \u00a0And, if you want to see the movie again on (what I assume is) a big screen, you still have perhaps a final opportunity to do so, evidently into the next week or so.<\/p>\n And I\u2019m told that DVDs (and possibly Blu-rays) of Six Days in August<\/em> will be available next week. \u00a0(Unless something goes awry, streaming should follow. \u00a0But I don\u2019t yet know exactly when.) \u00a0I\u2019ll try to let you know, if I can \u2014 I\u2019ll be on the road next week \u2014 when those DVDs and Blu-rays are actually on the shelves at Deseret Book. \u00a0They would make excellent Christmas gifts \u2014 even stocking stuffers \u2014 for family members, friends, neighbors, and the people to whom you minister, as well as for your fifty thousand employees at Acme Megahuge Company, for those buying combo meals at your fast-food stand, and for random passing strangers on the street. \u00a0When Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses knock at your door, have a copy of Six Days in August<\/em> waiting for them. \u00a0(And don\u2019t forget Witnesses<\/em><\/a>. \u00a0They\u2019ll love it.)<\/p>\n Six Days in August<\/em> did not, I readily admit, do anywhere near as well at the box office as we had hoped and expected it to do. \u00a0We\u2019re still trying to understand why that was so. \u00a0And we\u2019re not the only people who are wondering about where theatrical movie-going stands right now. \u00a0Here\u2019s a quintet of relevant links:<\/p>\n Over at the Peterson Obsession Board, where the large majority of the inhabitants have almost certainly not seen the film \u2014 it saves time, right? one can begin immediately to mock and express contempt \u00a0\u2014 they are confident that Six Days in August<\/em> didn\u2019t do very well at the box office because it was an amateurish piece of boring cinematic garbage, mere simple-minded propaganda. \u00a0They know that those who failed to see it were sending \u00a0an explicit message of disdain for me and Interpreter and all my works, and even, one or two say, that \u201cmormon god\u201d omnipotently willed the movie\u2019s failure.<\/p>\n In my judgment, though, Six Days in August<\/em> simply isn\u2019t<\/em> an amateurish piece of boring cinematic garbage. \u00a0It isn\u2019t simplistic propaganda. \u00a0Objectively, it just isn\u2019t. \u00a0While I admit that it may not be Akira Kurosawa\u2019s Rashomon<\/em> or Seven Samurai<\/em> or Kagemusha<\/em> \u2014 or, to choose a pair of cinematic achievements that might be more familiar over at the Obsession Board, Dumb and Dumber<\/em> or Pee-wee\u2019s Big Adventure<\/em> \u2014 it\u2019s a good film relating an interesting and significant story that is accompanied by beautiful music and cinematography, and it will last for years. \u00a0It will still be finding audiences long after we\u2019ve moved on to other projects and even Beyond.<\/p>\n So far as I\u2019m aware, there were few if any of those who saw Six Days in August<\/em> who hated it \u2014 apart, of course, from two or three at the Obsession Board who were already vocally expressing their dislike of the movie and their disdain for me before it was even finished. \u00a0The problem was that very few people saw the film at all<\/em>. \u00a0They didn\u2019t go and hate it. \u00a0They just didn\u2019t go.<\/p>\n An illustration: \u00a0I went to have my teeth cleaned two or three weeks ago, to the same place that I\u2019ve gone for years. \u00a0(The dentist is our next-door neighbor and, now, his son, whom we\u2019ve known since he was a little boy, is taking over the practice.) \u00a0I was just settling into the dentist chair when the long-time receptionist burst into the room to tell me that she and her husband had gone to see Six Days<\/em> and that they had absolutely loved<\/em> it. \u00a0At which, the dental hygienist, who\u2019s been causing me discomfort for many years, said something to the effect of \u201cOh yeah. \u00a0I\u2019ve heard about that movie. \u00a0I wanted to see it. \u00a0But I just don\u2019t go to movie theaters any more. \u00a0Maybe once every year or two, if my kids make me.\u201d<\/p>\n Anyway, disappointed though I definitely am with the theatrical receipts, I\u2019m proud of Six Days in August<\/em>. \u00a0\u201cWe are troubled on every side, yet not distressed,\u201d wrote the Apostle Paul. \u00a0\u201cWe are perplexed, but not in despair\u201d (2 Corinthians 4:8). \u00a0Our film people did a very good job with the movie, and their accomplishment will endure.<\/p>\n In partial support of that confidence, I share a passage from an article in Variety<\/em> (\u201c38 Great Movies That Flopped at the Box Office\u201d<\/a>):<\/p>\n Martin\u00a0Scorsese\u00a0went viral<\/a>\u00a0several years ago for railing against the industry\u2019s obsession with box office numbers, particularly Hollywood\u2019s tendency to judge films based on the strength of their opening weekend grosses.<\/p>\n \u201cSince the \u201980s, there\u2019s been a focus on numbers. It\u2019s kind of repulsive,\u201d Scorsese once said. \u201cThe cost of a movie is one thing. Understand that a film costs a certain amount, they expect to at least get the amount back. . . . \u00a0The emphasis is now on numbers, cost, the opening weekend, how much it made in the U.S.A., how much it made in England, how much it made in Asia, how much it made in the entire world, how many viewers it got. As a filmmaker, and as a person who can\u2019t imagine life without cinema, I always find it really insulting.\u201d<\/p>\n Edgar Wright is another major who has taken a stance against box office valuation in recent years, once telling fans,<\/a> \u201cThe three-day weekend is not the end of the story for any movie. People shouldn\u2019t buy into that idea. Rating films by their box office is like the football fan equivalent to films. Most of my favorite films that are considered classics today were not considered hits in their time.\u201d<\/p>\n Even Christopher Nolan recently told the AP<\/a> that you can\u2019t judge a film in weekends. \u201cI know for myself the life of the movie is a much longer proposition in that, you look at other people\u2019s films and indeed your own films in decades, not in weekends,\u201d he said. \u201cI think the science fiction genre is the one where the long view is everything. People revisit. They value science fiction in a very long-term way. The original \u2018Blade Runner,\u2019 nobody paid any attention to it on release, it was famously a flop. Then over time, people like myself (found it). I think I was 13 when I first saw a VHS tape.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n I\u2019ll give a pair of examples from Martin Scorsese\u2019s own career. \u00a0He is one of the greatest directors in the history of Hollywood. \u00a0He\u2019s won an Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, three Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, and three Golden Globe Awards. He was honored with the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award in 1997, the Film Society of Lincoln Center tribute in 1998, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2007, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2010, and the BAFTA Fellowship in 2012. \u00a0Four of his movies have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as \u201cculturally, historically or aesthetically significant.\u201d \u00a0And yet\u00a0his Killers of the Flower Moon <\/em>(2023), while critically well reviewed, didn\u2019t do very well in theaters. And his 2016 film Silence<\/em>, a passion project for Scorsese that he had developed over more than a quarter of a century on the basis of the harrowing novel of the same name by the great Japanese Catholic writer Sh\u016bsaku End\u014d (1923-1996), was a box office bomb. Although Silence<\/em> received critical acclaim, although both the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute ranked it among their top ten films of the year, and although it was nominated for an Academy Award for \u201cBest Cinematography,\u201d it grossed just $22 million against its $50 million budget.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s another article of relevant interest that I found: \u00a0\u201c50 Great Movies That Bombed at the Box Office: \u2018Blow Out,\u2019 \u2018Mulholland Drive,\u2019 \u2018The Fabelmans,\u2019 and More:\u00a0Martin Scorsese, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Quentin Tarantino have all flopped at the box office at least once in their careers.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 I cite some passages below regarding a few of the fifty films that it lists:<\/p>\n \u201cFortunately, a disappointing theatrical performance doesn\u2019t have to be a death sentence, and many flops go on to be reevaluated as classics, cult or otherwise, in their own right. Keep reading to see some of our favorite movies that bombed at the box office.\u201d<\/p>\n Obviously, I don\u2019t expect Six Days in August<\/em> to attain to the general recognition that Citizen Kane<\/em> and It\u2019s a Wonderful Life<\/em> have achieved in the decades since their less-than-stellar premieres. \u00a0It\u2019s a niche-market independent film, after all, that was created on a very modest budget. \u00a0But I do expect that it will continue for years to come to entertain and instruct Latter-day Saint audiences and to stimulate conversations. \u00a0Those who made it and those who supported it can be very proud of what they accomplished. \u00a0It\u2019s also a real contribution to the growing body of Latter-day Saint cinema, which is still, relatively speaking, in its infancy. \u00a0And it will be appreciated as such.<\/p>\n Over at the Peterson Obsession Board, at least one of the stalwarts is now mocking my sharing, here, of Christmas music that I find especially meaningful. \u00a0And thus my hypothesis seems to be gaining support in the data: \u00a0Sneering, when indulged in over a lengthy period of time, can eventually become a fixed, permanent rictus. \u00a0But I\u2019ll let them be them. \u00a0And, via these musical selections, I\u2019ll continue to try to say Merry Christmas to all.<\/p>\n\n
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