According to The Guardian, Uma Thurman’s latest film ‘Motherhood’ directed by Katherine Dieckmann and also starring Minnie Driver and Anthony Edwards was meant to be a sure fire win.
Just one British cinema, Apollo West End in Piccadilly Circus was given the exclusive rights to this film based on the stressed parent-director’s account of bringing up her children. But it appears that when they were expecting word of mouth to make people intrigued in why this film was only showing in one cinema, instead the opposite happened. No advertising, no word of mouth (and if there was, it was sending audiences in the other direction) and to top it off, poor reviews of a second rate film.
Over the opening weekend, the film made just £88 and at £9 a ticket, just over half a dozen people had gone to see the picture. Time Magazine said in October last year, “Motherhood would play like a flat-out parody of the entitled, self-involved mother, fretting more than she copes and blogging more than she mothers. Isn’t that a character ripe for mocking?” So the warning was already there, before the UK release, this film had not been enjoyed Stateside, so why bother releasing it here?
Jana Edelbaum, the producer of the film is blaming Metrodrome who were responsible for the marketing of the film in the UK. They have said that:
“Over the course of the week leading up to Mother’s Day we also released the film on DVD, video on demand, and pay per view so customers could choose how to watch the film… Inevitably some films will work better on some platforms than others. In this particular case the DVD was stronger than the theatrical result.
“It is important that experimentation is encouraged at a time when the entire film industry is in transition,” the statement continued. “We all need to adapt to new models of distribution in the future and discover new opportunities.”
But that doesn’t seem to be enough for Edelbaum because through Metrodrome, films such as ‘Monster’, ‘Donnie Darko’ and ‘The Counterfeiters’ achieved financial and critical success. Although it appears the production company lacked in confidence in the picture since before it was premiered as they gave 70 tickets away to members of Mumsnet for a special screening.
One of the 20 mums who ended up going to the screening said of the film, “It is proper pants. In fact it’s one of the rare movies I didn’t stay until the end for.”
The film is no longer being shown in any cinema throughout the UK and by the looks of it, will not be spoken off again (due to the fact that no one can really remember it being around in the first place).
However, ‘Motherhood’ does not even receive the accolade of biggest British Box Office Flop, that honour goes to Polish flick, ‘My Nikifor’ which earnt a whole £7… Cheaper ticket than Apollo by the looks of it?
So what do you think? Will this hurt the ‘Kill Bill’ stars career? (Does she need her pal Quentin to make another picture ASAP?) Or does this show the decreasing love for the cinema screen as DVD sales rocket as well as online (legal and not so much for that matter) viewings?
So ‘Motherhood’ anyone? Sorry… what was that?
