Box(ing) Office

(Memories IV from Saturday, June 18, 2005)

Michael Medved, conservative film critic, has been known to play fast and
loose with numbers. One of his big claims--that Hollywood lost most of
its audience in the 60s when it stopped making audience-friendly
films--is simply wrong.

So perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised by a brazenly incorrrect
claim he made today. He was discussing the puzzling failure of his
favorite film this year, /Cinderella Man/. He suggested it was because a
previous boxing film, /Million Dollar Baby/, flopped, and people were
tired of such movies.

Medved didn't just hate /Million Dollar Baby/, he led a virtual crusade
against it. Here are the facts:

/Cinderella Man/. Budget -- $88 million. Domestic gross -- $34.8 million
(and running out of steam).

/Million Dollar Baby/. Budget -- $30 million. Domestic gross -- $100
million (and another $107 million internationally).

by LAGuy