Friedkin’s Masterpiece ‘Sorcerer’ Joins The Criterion Collection
The post Friedkin’s Masterpiece ‘Sorcerer’ Joins The Criterion Collection appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. A truck laden with unstable dynamite crosses a dilapidated bridge in William Friedkin’s 1977 … More thriller ‘Sorcerer’ Courtesy of Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures Sorcerer seemed like a sure thing, a guaranteed box office hit. Two of director William Friedkin’s previous films (The French Connection and The Exorcist) received eighteen Oscar nominations, winning seven including Best Picture for The French Connection. The Exorcist shattered box office records for a horror film, grossing $ 193 million on a $ 12 million budget. It has since grossed over $ 440 million after numerous theatrical re-releases. Throw in Roy Scheider (Chief Brody from Jaws), the leading man in the highest grossing film of all-time (as of 1975), and you have a recipe for a blockbuster hit. Yet upon its release on June 24, 1977, Sorcerer grossed less that $ 13,000 on a $ 22 million budget. That’s not a typo. Thirteen THOUSAND dollars. What went wrong? It was a troubled production that ran overbudget, but how did so much talent fall flat in theaters? Ultimately, it was just bad luck. A small science fiction film called Star Wars was released four weeks before Sorcerer. These were the days before home video. The only way to see a film was in theaters, and Star Wars mania dominated the country when Sorcerer hit theaters. Audiences wanted to see Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader square off for the third, fourth or fifth time rather than check out a thriller about four men transporting volatile cargo through a South American jungle. For decades Sorcerer simply disappeared. In the formative years of the home video market, no one wanted to put out a flop on VHS (nor later on DVD). If it didn’t do well in theaters, no one was paying $ 80.00 for a VHS copy…
The post Friedkin’s Masterpiece ‘Sorcerer’ Joins The Criterion Collection appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.
A truck laden with unstable dynamite crosses a dilapidated bridge in William Friedkin’s 1977 … More thriller ‘Sorcerer’ Courtesy of Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures Sorcerer seemed like a sure thing, a guaranteed box office hit. Two of director William Friedkin’s previous films (The French Connection and The Exorcist) received eighteen Oscar nominations, winning seven including Best Picture for The French Connection. The Exorcist shattered box office records for a horror film, grossing $ 193 million on a $ 12 million budget. It has since grossed over $ 440 million after numerous theatrical re-releases. Throw in Roy Scheider (Chief Brody from Jaws), the leading man in the highest grossing film of all-time (as of 1975), and you have a recipe for a blockbuster hit. Yet upon its release on June 24, 1977, Sorcerer grossed less that $ 13,000 on a $ 22 million budget. That’s not a typo. Thirteen THOUSAND dollars. What went wrong? It was a troubled production that ran overbudget, but how did so much talent fall flat in theaters? Ultimately, it was just bad luck. A small science fiction film called Star Wars was released four weeks before Sorcerer. These were the days before home video. The only way to see a film was in theaters, and Star Wars mania dominated the country when Sorcerer hit theaters. Audiences wanted to see Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader square off for the third, fourth or fifth time rather than check out a thriller about four men transporting volatile cargo through a South American jungle. For decades Sorcerer simply disappeared. In the formative years of the home video market, no one wanted to put out a flop on VHS (nor later on DVD). If it didn’t do well in theaters, no one was paying $ 80.00 for a VHS copy…
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