'Green Zone' marks a disappointing end to Hollywood's time in Iraq

For better or worse, Hollywood is now done with Iraq.

"Green Zone" is the last drama set to be released by a major studio related to the Iraq war, and Hollywood is undoubtedly grateful for it after the picture, directed by Paul Greengrass and starring Matt Damon, opened to just $14.5 million domestically and $9.7 million overseas.

It's the latest in a string of flops that include "Body of Lies," "The Kingdom" and "Stop-Loss." Even "The Hurt Locker," while not a major disappointment given its low budget, is the lowest- grossing best picture Oscar winner in recent history.

Recognizing that worrisome history, Universal Pictures focused its marketing on Damon and Greengrass' popular collaboration on "The Bourne Supremacy" and "The Bourne Ultimatum," but was apparently unable to sell the movie based on its action elements.

"This picture has done better than most of today's modern war stories," said Nikki Rocco, Universal's domestic distribution president. "But we were hoping for better."

Universal and its financing partner, Relativity Media, spent about $100 million to produce "Green Zone" and tens of millions more to market the picture, meaning it will be a major money loser.

"Alice in Wonderland," meanwhile, is turning out to be not just a hit domestically, but a phenomenon overseas. Like "Avatar," the 3-D blockbuster is racking up foreign grosses significantly faster than in the U.S. and Canada.

While its domestic ticket sales fell 47%, international ticket sales dropped just 27% in the same territories where it started playing last weekend. Along with six new markets including India and Vietnam, "Alice in Wonderland" grossed $76 million internationally and $62 million domestically. It has yet to hit several major foreign countries such as France, China, Japan and Brazil.

In total, "Alice" has taken in $429 million worldwide and seems sure to end up grossing at least $750 million, making it a massive profit generator despite its sizable $200-million production cost.

However, it's very unlikely that "Alice" will play for as long as "Avatar," which just took in $23.6 million on its 13th weekend. DreamWorks Animation's "How to Train Your Dragon" will take a significant number of 3-D screens worldwide beginning March 26, followed a week later with the April 2 release of Warner Bros.' 3-D "Clash of the Titans."

For more on the weekend box office, including the openings of "She's Out of My League," "Remember Me," and "Our Family Wedding," see our initial box-office post.

Here are the top 10 movies at the domestic box office, according to studio estimates and Hollywood.com:

1. "Alice in Wonderland" (Disney): $62 million on its second weekend, down 47%. $76 million overseas in 48 foreign territories. Domestic total: $208.6 million. International total: $221 million.

2. "Green Zone" (Universal/Relativity): Opened to $14.5 million, $9.7 million overseas in 14 foreign territories.

3. "She's Out of My League" (Paramount/DreamWorks): Opened to $9.6 million.

4. "Remember Me" (Summit): Opened to $8.3 million.

5. "Shutter Island" (Paramount): $8.1 million on its fourth weekend, down 38%. Domestic total: $108 million.

6. "Our Family Wedding" (Fox Searchlight): Opened to $7.6 million.

7. "Avatar" (Fox/Dune/Ingenious): $6.6 million on its 13th weekend, down 19%. $17 million overseas in 69 foreign markets. Domestic total: $730.3 million. International total: $1.91 billion.

8. "Brooklyn's Finest" (Overture/Millennium): $4.3 million, down 68% on its second weekend. Domestic total: $21.4 million.

9. "Cop Out" (Warner Bros.): $4.2 million on its third weekend, down 54%. Domestic total: $39.4 million.

10. "The Crazies" (Overture/Participant/Imagenation): $3.7 million on its third weekend, down 48%. Domestic total: $33.4 million.

-- Ben Fritz 

Photo: Amy Ryan and Matt Damon in "Green Zone." Credit: Jasin Boland / Universal Pictures

Comments

[lauren daley]

ouch. the crazy part is avatar still pulled in 6.6m. poor matt damon at least he can tell robert pattinson he's in the handsome mens club.

[MickNY]

To call Green Zone the last movie about Iraq is wrong. It has nothing to do with the war and is in fact a total fabrication which seeks to portray the United States as the bed guys. Any film to potentially leaves the fewer rooting for US soldiers to die is simply in bad taste and a sad testament to Damon's ultra-liberal views.

[JayCeezy]

No surprise, the premise of 'Green Zone' is a liberal fantasy, where U.S. government conspiracy is the source of world problems. I wonder if Greengrass and Damon would take the movie over to Iraq to show to the troops, and do a meet-and-greet?

[gregory fitch]

I wouldn't go see Green Room for the same reason I wouldn't watch any more Bourne movies; It's too annoying to watch an "action sequence" where the camera is always bouncing around to give the feeling of being in the midst, like you are a pedestrian having a car chase come at you.

From fight scenes and car chases in movies, to music videos, and to halftime shows at sporting events, can we please just see the whole big picture, and not the perspective of some maniac waving a handheld camera in the performers face?

[kb]

i am a big matt damon fan, and a big bourne series fan. i was attracted to this film for both reason. i understand the bourne marketing ploy, but this definitely was not a bourne type film, which leaves you with the feeling of being misled. damon does a good job with what he has to work with, but the story simply sucks. poor character development, no real intrigue, not much mystery, intermittant action, confusing changes in minor character behavior, unsatisfactory ending. since the story was already fictionalized, they could have done a lot more to pull the audience in. and where did the 100 million go? it doesnt have a 100 million dollar feel to it, more like a budget film. it seems to me the director is at fault here, but who knows the whole story behind the scenes. maybe too much meddling in the creative process from the finance people. if you like matt damon, you might want to see it for that, other than that its not worth watching on cable.

[John Bevelheimer]

Who was rooting for US soldiers to die? Did you even see the film? What the film portrayed was a soldier looking for a justification for a war or at least his presence there. It's a bit of a stretch to call it a fabrication when it hits pretty close to home facts-wise..... unless your a Faux Snooz slappy. That would explain calling it a "librul fantasy" the FACT that we were lied to about WMDs in Iraq.
The film wasn't all that great but I can at least appreciate the effort to cast light on those culpable, including the so-called "librul media", for putting our armed forces in a no-win situation.

[maxinpains]

actually, it was hell of a movie with the real thruth in it.
why anyone doesn't want to know the real truth? i don't know! I wanna know why?

[Gaby C]

If Hollyweird wants a modern war movie to make money, they should make one where we are the good guys. As much as they think and say we are the bad guys, most of America thinks opposite of that.

[Floridamoviegoer]

Matt Damon has been honest in his left wing views, which is a reason I wouldn't go see him in an Iraq War movie. In addition, the trailer gave it pretty much away. Without seeing the movie, lemme guess, the guy he takes in at the end is a George W. Bush operative? After reading how Anti American the movie is, I am gratified to see that it bombed and that those behind it will lose money. Perhaps they can make some money back by showing it in countries like Syria, Iran and Venezuela where the anti American themes might be more welcome.

Don't know if he is calling for journalists to be jailed, like Sean Penn did, but Damon will become box office poison if he keeps up this anti-American agenda.

A lot of people I know like George Bush and give him credit for keeping the world safe from Al Qaeda. Hollywood might want to consider making a pro democracy, pro American movie that can help unite this nation.

[Richard G.]

Did Hugo Chavez and Castro make that movie?

[JAM]

I seen The Kingdom. It's not about the Iraq war at all. Who wrote this article. Obviously, their is no bias.

[Dutch Allen]

Maybe Hollywood should try making a current movie showing the courage and heroism of the United States Marines. One of the first fictions coming out of the Iraq war, Senator's Son by Luke Larson would be a good start:
http://www.amazon.com/Senators-Son-Iraq-War-Novel/dp/0615353797/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267060265&sr=1-1

[Matt]

"It's the latest in a string of flops that include "Body of Lies," "The Kingdom" and "Stop-Loss." "

–– actually, "Body of Lies" and "The Kingdom" are about terrorism and the Middle East, the former taking place mostly in Jordan, and the latter in Saudi Arabia. Neither qualifies as an "Iraq war" film.

[masterpuff theater]

Note to Universal: Okay, so dramas about Iraq aren't working. Hollywood's tried like, eight or nine times, right? How about making them into comedies instead? Picture Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin as two lovable oddball CIA agents, trying to find some uranium yellowcake in Iraq before time runs out. The part of Rumsfeld could be played by Satan, and Joaquin Phoenix would be great as Saddam. Hey, he already has a beard. Plus you could do it in 3-D, and then put out a viral music video of "Shock and Awe" as performed by Alvin and the Chipmunks. Throw in Ben Stiller as Wolfowitz, and my sides already hurt from laughter.

[masterpuff theater]

We could call it, "The Hurt Shlocker".

[Andrew]

I thought this was a great film. I don't know why so many people didn't like it, it had a very interesting story line and the guy who directed it was the guy from the Bourne Series and you an kind of feel that a lot with the filming an a little with the story. It showed it perfectly how it looked and was post invasion of Iraq. I think it was an amazingly good film and don't know why people are so drawn away drawn it.

[Matt Damon's Mom]

Who is silly enough to pay 12 bucks to go see an anti-American movie? Matt Damon is just a puppet for Universal, who's owned by puppetmaster G.E.

I will not only avoid any future Matt Damon movies, I won't buy G.E. either. I bought my new Whirlpool waterheater this weekend at Lowes, just to avoid the G.E. waterheater at Home Depot. Don't just boycott the puppet, boycott the puppetmaster too!

[Facts]

Matt Demon and the rest of the "Bush lied about WMDs" crowd should try telling it to the Kurds in Northern Iraq. Saddam Hussein killed tens-of-thousands of his own people with chemical weapons there.

[JAKE]

Wow, some folks really don't want to meet reality face to face.
Look, this is a movie that uses the VERY DUBIOUS reasoning the White House (and Cheney & Rumsfeld) gave for the Iraq escapade as a backdrop to the action.
Anyone who does not understand that America was 100% hoodwinked by Bush, Cheney, Rove and Rumsfeld loves their side of the aisle more than they do the truth or their country. Most of these modern day "patriots" have no idea what they're talking about (Liz Cheney calling for the "outting" of terrorist public defenders, etc.)
This country was founded on questioning authority and having the right to air your grievances publicly, the right to defend yourself, etc. Now the same crooks who drove this country into a ditch want to take that away. Wake up people, it's not all "Red & Blue" fun and games.

[Jim]

Maybe if fewer of you who commented here actually went to see the movie or better still, spent a little more time educating yourself on how the US managed post-war Iraq, we'd have less of this nonsense to begin with.

Dismissing something as liberal or cheesy serves no purpose. I actually read the book this movie is loosely based on and believe me, if you read it, you'd think twice about carrying water for those who not only created the mess that is Iraq but actively made it worse because they were ill prepared for what happened after the shooting stopped. (For reference it's "Imperial Life in the Emerald City, Life Inside Iraq's Green Zone")

The bigger issue here is about "Iraq/War fatigue". The American public is tired of hearing about it and we simply tune out now. Which in a "1984/Big Brother" kind of way is just what they'd like from us. They can just keep pouring billions of dollars and hundreds of young lives into these ongoing disasters because none of us care anymore. We just wanna know who's gonna win on Idol.

[Michael]

I think matt damon is destined for one role and one role only. He is the perfect Peter Griffin.

[LLPR]

Matt Damon is classic American Hero intelligent tough gripping he delivers along with Gregg Kinnear & Amy Ryan. Turnsout there's another deliberate voice for the Greenzone Grace Baine who is newcomer heroine in the Greenzone voice for the EPA.gov google mother nature in peril and Gracebainetv
www.imdb.com/name/nm1140761/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeZadj2zuSA
gracebainetv.com/
twitter.com/gracebaine

[steve]

It is a false expectation the every new movie will take in a bunch of money every weekend. Some movies need to be targeted to specific audiences. Yes people want a $30,000,000 weekend but to make 2000 copies cost a lot too. Less, better marketing is what I would like. Also, I really do not need to know the whole story in the ads!!

[Logan]

You've got it wrong. america is not finished with Iraq stories, they are finished with spineless liberals like Damon and the Bourne Conspiracy (talk about conspiracy) making their anti-American dribble to suit themselves for their own pleasure. Enjoy.

[Rogelio Gloria]

There seems a division on the green zone, the iraq veterans as well as aWWII guys like it while the guys who lost their war hate (Vietnam ERA and the HIPPIs). I would like to see a sequel where CWO after going against the establishment get sent to Afghanstain and discover the truth that the terrorist are actualy mecenaries hired by Vietnam ERa people (US citizen) jealous of the success of the new generation and etc...OIL has the underlining theme and etc...