MovieChat Forums > Cinderella Man (2005) Discussion > Perfect description of this movie

Perfect description of this movie

posted 13 years ago by jswans01-1
3 replies | jump to latest

I think it was Stephen King who said "This movie had everything except an audience."
I don't really agree with that, I liked this movie and I know a lot of other people did as well, maybe he should have said 'This movie had everything except an audience as big as it deserved.'
I think the problem was that RC offended a lot of people when he threw a phone at a hotel worker a few days before the release. A big portion of his audience is women and they wanted to punish him for being such a tool. Punish him, sure, but it was a really great movie that they ended up hurting. Mr. Crowe is still a millionaire movie star.

[–] paudarco4cancer 13 years ago

I agree with you. I worked on Cinderella Man but I was very angry with Russell Crowe because of the phone throwing incident. The first two times that I saw Cinderella Man I was not moved by it very much. The third time I saw it I cried.

[–] lylesanford 13 years ago

There were three main factors that contributed to the film's underperformance:

(in order of significance, IMO)

1) The title. Cinderella Man was too vague a title and didn't at all indicate what kind of a movie it was. Not everyone follows IMDB, watches the newest trailers, or reads Entertainment Weekly about upcoming films. I do, but a lot of people don't. So while I knew exactly what the movie was about, who starred in it, who directed it... too many didn't. And a title as ambiguous as Cinderella Man didn't help people figure it out.

2) The marketing. Universal did a very poor job marketing this film. A lot of money was spent on posters and trailers, but too few people knew this film was coming in the summer of 2005. Those who saw the trailer knew... those who read entertainment magazines knew... but most everyone else didn't. After it's release and critical success, people were left to wonder "where did this movie come from?" The title, I think, played a factor here as well.

3) Competition. There were too many 'more hyped' films that took attention away from Cinderella Man (Batman Begins... Star Wars III... War of the Worlds... Mr. and Mrs. Smith... Charlie & Chocolate Factory... Fantastic Four). With those movies making so much noise, it was hard for us to "hear" Cinderella Man.

Crowe's behavior may have caused some trouble for the film, but I believe it was secondary to the above influences.

[–] smoko 13 years ago

I agree with all those, and I'd add:

4. The setting. When people hear the word "blockbuster" they don't think of a movie set during the Great Depression.