Entertainment Biz Can Suck

Did you see the news about the lowest grossing film of 2012? Playback, a horror film starring Christian Slater, had that dubious honor. In real life, Mr. Slater sounds like a man who has come to grips with his past and moved on down the road so he can probably shake off the negative results of this disconcerting news.

When my husband told me about this, I couldn't believe it because Christian Slater is a wonderful actor. He had a great series in 2008, but My Own Worst Enemy was on network television where it didn't stand a ghost of a chance of surviving. He needs a series on USA Network or TNT -- one of the cable channels that offers out of the box entertainment. Give him a role like in Burn Notice or Leverage or Royal Pains.

Playback

Now, I haven't seen Playback and know nothing about the script, the production values, or anything. I just know that Mr. Slater brings his talent to the role -- no matter how poorly written. I've seen him in some pretty awful movies -- meaning badly written with no transition, characters and story lines that make no sense, etc. -- and he is the best thing in those movies.

Playback, which cost $7.5 million to make, was in only 1 theater for 1 week. It grossed only $264.00 in that week. To me, it sounds as if the film had no distribution deals in place and received no promotion which means the company that made it simply "threw him under the bus."

Capricious Powers That Be

Why? Who the heck knows? That seems to happen a lot in the movie business and in the book publishing business too.

It seems that Mr. Slater just can't get a good role in a well-written movie nor can he get the support of the studio in terms of distribution and promotion. It reminds me of authors who write their hearts out and have books published that get panned by reviewers, ignored by readers, and remaindered at the end of the year while the author gets orphaned by the publisher.

Takeaway Truth

It just goes to show that the entertainment business is capricious and can suck for those who are established as much as for those who are unknown and trying to get established.