A Da Vinci Flameout?

If I were Ron Howard and the folks at SONY, I’d be nervous right now.

Why?

Because we just witnessed the underperformance of Mission Impossible III, which is a summer-release movie that is build on a popular, pre-existing franchise. If that’s a signal for what the rest of the summer holds (and it goes along with the trend of underperforming blockbusters that we’ve been having the last few years) then it may speak ill for The Da Vinci Code movie.

Also, there as been a chorus of cardinals at the Vatican dissing the film. Sure, controversy sells, but there is such a thing as too much controversy.

Also, the studio has been WAY cagey with advance screenings–which is a sign of lack of confidence in a film since holding more screenings and having them earlier would let more negative word about a film get out there. (It’s not like this is Episode III, where Lucas was trying to keep spoilers from getting out. Everyone already knows what the spoilers for The Da Vinci Code are.)

And then there’s this Barbara Nicolosi comment over at Amy’s, which one reader helpfully pointed out down yonder:

The buzz on the streets here in Hollywood is that the film is embarrassingly bad. The studio has stirctly limied the MPAA screening – usually about 500-800 people – to only 100 people. No one is getting in to advance screenings which has everybody saying things like, "The only time studios act this way is when they have a Class A Dud on their hands."

The script is a dud. The ultra-weird transitions from people running from long-winded seminars on ecclesiastical history to murderous Opus Dei assassins to Biblical period flashbacks of Jesus and Mary Magdalen looking tenderly at each other made me laugh at loud.

Sony knows they will only have devastating word of mouth on this one. So they have to get everybody in the first weekend.

On her own blog, Barbara says that

RON HOWARD SURE LOOKS NERVOUS.

Sounds like it’s with good reason.

There are few things I’d like more going into Memorial Day Weekend (a traditional blockbuster time) than a flameout at the box office for The Da Vinci Code.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

65 thoughts on “A Da Vinci Flameout?”

  4. I was at a Longs Drug Store yesterday, and they had a display of DVDs for sale (Spiderman 2, etc.) all featuring a “Free Ticket to the Da Vinci Code!” I kid you not. If they are giving them away free already someone at Sony must be really nervous…

  5. I told you all a month or so ago that this was all an Opus Dei plot. They long ago took out the REAL Ron Howard, Tom Hanks, and Dan Brown, and replaced them with perfect doubles who deliberately sabotaged the movie. Opus Dei will stop at nothing to preserve THE SECRET!
    (Now excuse me; I have to hide my duplicate key to the ward room ice box).

  6. and i’ve said for some time that the time is coming, sooner than later, when the biggest market for this film will be home-schooled college kids “misting” DVC like our generation “misted” 1950s horror flicks. it’s just gonna be such a boner flim, one sitting duck scene after another. finally, the world will see what a bad actor tom hanks really is.

  7. Bill, you’re going to be really sorry you spilled the beans on this one!!! We have your address, you know. Watch your back! 🙂

  8. I don’t know Jimmy, I can’t ride the subway without seeing someone reading that book. It may stink, but it’ll break records.

  9. I would think that the reason for MI3 not doing well is because Tom Cruise has gone off the deep end publicly.
    But I certainly hope that you are right.

  10. I downloaded the Leno clip with Ron Howard on Sunday night. Crikey! Is the li’l guy always that nervous? He’s practically right up on Leno’s desk & his left foot’s twitchin’ a mile a minute. And he said his wife asked him to keep the beard he grew but it sure looks to me as if he’s lost weight, his face is all skeletal & it’s not that way in the clip they show where Hanks does a (horrible) impersonation of RH. Could have been the lighting in Leno’s studio, I guess. He just didn’t look well. And what was all that bragging about being a director who has “final cut” all about? (Frankly, I’d never have guessed he had that much clout in a million years.)
    It’s really strange. Here Howard is, a supposed “A-list director” (though not in my book) who’s seen 3 of his last 6 movies totally tank at the box office (Cinderella Man, The Missing, & EDtv), who’s sitting on what should be a sure-fire hit & the buzz is that it’s total garbage (I mean artistically, as a film – we know the story is garbage). Yeah, he’s got a reason to be nervous.

  11. I noticed the same thing as Margaret: Sony DVDs in the sales bins have the free ticket offer. I’ve seen this before. The first Lord of the Rings and the re-release of Ice Age both had tickets for their second films. However, those offers seemed to be designed to boost sales of a full-priced DVD, not a sales item. (Speaking of which, is the audience for “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” really the same audience for DVC?)

  14. Opie knows how to direct: Cinderella Man, Quiz Show, Beautiful Mind are really fine films, all bio pics. But, he is not a good judge of fiction.

  15. Although I’ve officially sworn off TV (thanks to my Lenten television fast, wherein I learned that TV, for the most part, IS a vast wasteland…), I occasionally turn it on. Last night or the night before I caught a bit of Inside the Actors Studio which guested Tom Hanks. They showed several DVC clips (the first I’ve seen), and I must say, the clips STINK — they’re so BLOVIATING, and Tom Hanks looks a little too greasy and creepy.
    I agree — it’ll be Ron Howard’s “Heaven’s Gate.”
    ‘thann

  16. Hello all,
    It is undeniable the New Testament is framed by symbolism and allegory. The same is evidenced in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Gnostic texts, biblical apocrypha, and other related texts. All ancient religious, mystical, and wisdom texts have been shrouded in mystery for millennia for one primary reason: The ability to understand their widely evidenced symbology was lost in antiquity. How do we finally solve these ages-old mysteries? To recast an often-used political adage: It’s [the] symbology, stupid!
    It’s amazing the Vatican still tries to insist the Gospels are literal truth. It is beyond obvious they are replete with ancient Hebrew symbology. Every miracle purported for Jesus has multiple direct symbolic parallels in the Old Testament, Apocalypse, Dead Sea Scrolls, and other symbolic narratives and traditions.
    Likewise, the following Washington Post article ( The Book of Bart) demonstrates how many changes and embellishments were made to these texts over the centuries, unequivocally demonstrating they are not original, infallible, or truthful.
    What then is the purpose of “faith” but to keep good people from seeking to understand truth and wisdom? It’s no wonder the Vatican fears the truth more than anything else. Now comes justice, hot on its heels… (symbolism…)
    Revelations from the Apocalypse
    Here is Wisdom!!

  19. That’s it folks, the Washington Post has PROVEN that the Gospels “are not original, infallible, or truthful.”.
    Well, I guess that wraps it up for the Church!
    (Okay, toungue out of cheek, now)
    Hee-hee. Seven-Star, your tinfoil hat is on too tight.
    So, logically, how does the fact that a text is full of meaningful symbolism lead to the conclusion that the events never happened?
    Help me out, here. I can see a text having different layers of meaning, but why would these senses necessarily be mutually exclusive?

  20. Tim, if WaPo says, it’s gotta be true…
    And of course, the increase of red, white and blue on the fourth day of July is just a coincidence….

  21. Ah, yes, “Misquoting Jesus” (“The Book of Bart”) — perhaps the reductio ad absurdum of the literalist strain of Christianity.

  23. Ed, wasn’t Quiz Show directed by Robert Redford?
    RH just doesn’t do it for me as a director. I loved Apollo 13 & didn’t think Backdraft was as terrible as the critics said (though I knew who did it 20 minutes in). I just don’t know why Ron’s thought of by H’wood as an A-list director deserving of final cut, especially considering his inconsistent track record. For me, he’s of the Chris Columbus mold of directors who are capable of making entertaining, technically solid films but not truly great ones. I’ve heard Cinderella Man is excellent & I really like movies like that so I do want to see it. IMO, DVC & Howard were a very apt match.
    Seven Star Hand – Name for me all the symbologists who currently teach at major universities. Quick!

  24. All ancient religious, mystical, and wisdom texts have been shrouded in mystery for millennia for one primary reason: The ability to understand their widely evidenced symbology was lost in antiquity.
    MaryC was right about it being so hard to parody Gnostics because they do a such a fine job all by themselves.

  25. No matter what, it’ll have to run for at least a week–otherwise, it won’t be eligible for the Speaking-Truth-to-Power Academy Award this year.

  26. My favorite thing about whack jobs like Seven Star is that they believe EVERYTHING was totally opaque to the people who actually lived at the time, but suddenly it all becomes marvelously transparent to the uneducated tin-foil-hat-heads who are wandering around right now……

  29. Quoting from “It’s Symbology, Stupid!”:
    “The original purpose for using ancient symbology to construct wisdom texts and prophecies was to transmit philosophical and scientific wisdom into our time by using a methodology that would survive millennia of ignorance, language changes, greedy leaders, and their religions.”
    Well, Seven Star, I guess that idea didn’t work out so hot, did it?
    I never suspected Jews and Muslims were working together to endorse the message of Christianity. It’s all so clear now. Too bad the apostles didn’t know that the resurrected Jesus who appeared to them (and for whom they were also willing to suffer very real deaths) was only a legend.
    We should all be very grateful for people like you and John Shelby Spong who can now tell us what ancient author’s really meant to write. Oh, wait a minute. Oddly you and Mr. Spong don’t agree with each other. How weird is that?

  31. Bart Ehrman (of “The Book of Bart”, above) apparently went from one immature, hyper-literal understanding of the Bible, to another.
    He interprets everything in the most literal way possible, apparently without taking into account how the texts are culturally conditioned (with respect to timelines, details of place, etc…). If this is what is coming out of the Moody Bible Institute, then Evangelical Protestant bible scholarship is in trouble.
    He put his faith in a flawed understanding of scripture, and eventually lost that faith. Cut off from the magisterial authority of the Church, he went from one extreme to another.
    I had a similar hyper-literal view of scripture at one time, but the shortcomings of fundamentalist exegesis helped propel me to the Catholic Church, where I found that the seeming contradictions and so-called textual errors that Ehrman cites were dealt with, disproved and dismissed centuries ago.

  32. I don’t think it’s going to bomb at all, sadly. I think it’s going to be a hit. And I kind of wish we’d all stop predicting it’s going to be a colossal flop so as to not give the Codeheads more ammo to say, “SEE?! TOLD YOU!”

  33. It doesn’t matter if it’s a flop or not. Enough people will see it that bits and pieces will be embedded in our pop culture for a long time.

  34. I think, financial flop or not, the movie may actually end up taking the wind out of the whole preposterous DVC phenom.
    All I have seen so far indicates that the movie will collapse under the weight of its pretentiousness. I mean, it is either The Most Important Film Ever Made, or it is a silly Hollywood wet dream (pardon me, but there is no other term for it) disguised as “art”.
    I think it will become apparent to everyone which description fits the movie best.

  35. Ok, a good time for a call for help. Perhaps you can all read ‘tween the lines to appreciate my pain.
    I teach high-school English, Religion, and Latin at a Catholic school up here in Canada. Like everywhere else, it seems, DVC is causing a buzz up here. I’ve taught a real history of witches, the Church, all things Medieval, and with some success. The students seem fine; they’re not emotionally invested in the notion that the Church burned women.
    Some of my colleagues, on the other hand, are resistant enough that I could use a hand. Can anyone point me to a scholarly source for the 50,000 people statistic (rather than 5-9 million Wicca and feminists like to throw around?) I took enough medieval history in University to be comfortable with the numbers (academia seems sane here at least) but I need sources.
    If anyone has something at hand, something a hard-hearted teacher in a “Catholic” school might respect, I would be quite happy.
    My thanks,
    Stefan

  37. Apparently the pre-Premiere screening for the press at Cannes resulted in some very, very unimpressed journalists.
    Call it, “The Da Vinci Egg.”

  38. “Well, first off, there couldn’t *possibly* be 5 million women made of wood. There’s just not enough shrubberies”
    Got it – love it.

  39. ATP is right. We don’t know it’s going to flop, nor does the failure or success of the film have anything to do with the veracity of its historical and theological claims. We shouldn’t give those who believe it ammunition.

  40. I feel vaguely heretical for saying this, but from the article’s description the movie sounds like one of those hilariously bad creations which have long lives on DVD thanks to all the people who buy it just to have an enjoyable evening making smart remarks to the screen and playing “The Da Vinci Code Drinking Game” (one drink every time someone asks “What is the true Grail”?’ etc)
    I might do it myself, as long as I can find a way to get hold of the movie without actually paying for it :).

  41. re: sonetka’s comments. Where’s Mystery Science Theatre 3000 when you really need it? Could Mike and Crow the robot be dragged out of retirement and sent back to the satellite one more time….(I know there’s a second robot, but I can’t recall its’ name)….

  43. (I know there’s a second robot, but I can’t recall its’ name)….
    Tom Servo, I think. He was the talking gumball machine.

  44. It seems like they’re trying to make the Opus Dei character, Silas, look like Mel Gibson’s depiction of Satan in The Passion.

  46. I thought Seven Star Hand was joking? Like a parody. I am sooo confused.. Help? This DaVinci Code thing can’t end, it’s waaay too funny. Y’all are just killing me..

  48. “[Opie] is not a good judge of Fiction”.
    Ed, I agree with you. I fail to see how a lousy novel can be transformed into a great film.

  49. Thanks, Publius – one less nagging unanswered question rattling around my mind….

  50. A word to y’all about Seven Star Hand. He is a legend in his own lunchtime on the Da Vinci Hoax blog where he has, I kid you not, revealed himself as the True Messiah.

  52. My spouse, who’s a public librarian, is braced for the next wave of DVC readers. If the movie tanks, he might be spared the endless litany of:
    “I didn’t know (insert lame factoid)”
    “It’s fiction”
    “Wow, did *you* know that the Vatican blah-blah-blah..”
    “It’s fiction.”
    “Opus Dei – now there’s a scary organization, huh?”
    “It’s fiction.”
    “*I* always thought Jesus was married.”
    “It’s fiction.”
    He used to do a little reader ed., but gave it up as fruitless. He’s not much of a fan of the Church, but he doesn’t like shoddy research.

  53. “and i’ve said for some time that the time is coming, sooner than later, when the biggest market for this film will be home-schooled college kids “misting” DVC like our generation “misted” 1950s horror flicks. it’s just gonna be such a boner flim, one sitting duck scene after another. finally, the world will see what a bad actor tom hanks really is.”
    Am I the only ignoramus who doesn’t know what “misting” means in this context?

  56. I encourgage all readers on the blog to go see “Over the Hedge” this weekend. Not because it is a good or bad movie, but just because it would be great to have DVC to be the #2 movie in the box office on its first weekend. With bad critical reviews this could doom the movie as the other summer movies roll out.

  57. Stefan: Go to ewtn.com ‘s Q and A forum. Punch in “inquisition.” They have a ton of suggestions as to sources for the true numbers. Also, I highly recommend Triumph by H.W. Crocker III. His bibliography should has a lot of sources as well.

  65. Jared, thanks for the link,I’m with you now. A much more appropriate place to produce the Texan Messiah.

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