Here are some photos of the Detroit premiere in London a few days ago. I’m including photos of director Kathryn Bigelow and stars John Boyega and Will Poulter. Detroit is an Important Movie. I haven’t seen it yet, but I know it’s an Important Movie. It’s about race, police brutality, how American history is framed. It’s about white supremacy and racism. The film got a soft, limited opening several weeks ago, and then the release got expanded to more theaters in the past two weeks. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an all-critics fresh rating of 84% and a top-critics rating of 86%. But in three weeks… it’s only made about $15 million at the box office. Granted, I don’t think anyone believed it would be some huge box office hit. But it does seem like the response to the film – financially, culturally, conversationally – has been pretty muted. From the LA Times:
What if Hollywood threw a provocation and nobody came? There will almost certainly be larger financial failures than “Detroit” this moviegoing year. And there will doubtless be bigger celebrity crash-outs. But there are unlikely to be many greater cultural surprises than the reaction — or non-reaction — to “Detroit.”
Kathryn Bigelow’s fact-based movie about a shattering, race-charged event of police brutality in the Motor City circa 1967 that led to the deaths of three young black men was supposed to be the cinematic event of the summer — the antidote (along with “Dunkirk”) to superhero fatigue, a dose of studio seriousness amid the sizzle. With questions of racism roiling the White House, it also couldn’t have come along at a better (or worse) time.
Yet three weekends into its release — the last two in more than 3,000 theaters — those hopes are looking like pure fantasy. After a limited opening in late July, “Detroit” widened weakly two weekends ago, taking in barely $7 million. Then the movie — budgeted at about $35 million — petered out even further, falling some 60% last weekend. Attracting mainstream audiences to a movie about the fraught relationship between African Americans and the police is a tall order anytime. That goes double in July and August, when onscreen law-and-order characters are almost always the heroes. That the victims in this instance, needless to say, fail to turn the tables in crowd-pleasing revolt makes it an even tougher summer sell.
The LAT goes on to say that of course, this difficult subject matter was always going to be a tough sell. But what’s startling is that no one is really talking about Detroit, and that the film really hasn’t stirred up the controversy or the discussion. Critics agree that Bigelow handled the story as well as she could, and critics agree that it is an Important Movie – and possibly an Oscar-bait movie – but no one is really talking about Detroit in pop culture. My take is that America doesn’t want to see a movie about violent racism and white supremacist terrorism under the color of authority because WE ARE LIVING THAT SH-T RIGHT NOW.
(Also: people just don’t want to watch really intense dramas about violent racism and oppression in the middle of the summer. They just don’t.)
Photos courtesy of WENN.
They don’t want to watch in the summer?? I guess people are living it in real life this summer. I plan on seeing this when it opens in the UK next week.
I don’t want to watch it at all, and it doesn’t mean I don’t care. I care very deeply, as an American.
I get out and protest regularly, I donate to the ACLU, I call my representatives, I vote for those who speak/act against police brutality etc. But I do not do well with movies like this. It’s hard enough watching it play out on the news. That doesn’t mean I don’t care about those living with it.
I think there are many people like me, who care very much and find such movies too difficult.
Same here, @Patricia. It is hard for me to find these types of topics and plots as entertaining. Real life is difficult enough without going to a movie that is going to be traumatizing. If I am going to spend my hard-earned $ at a movie theater I prefer comedies…
Yes. I feel worn out. Will stream it when it is available so I can take breaks.
it is such a sad statement but I agree with you fully. as a WOC, as a human, and as a Canadian, we are living this. BLM is big here too, in my own backyard we are having police officers let off after beating a young black man into a paraplegic, this is our everyday. And given what I do for work as well, I choose to be entertained not depressed. I don’t go out to movies to leave with a heavy heart, that’s every day of life, I need joy, laughs, superheroes to make me feel like all of life isn’t a complete crap heap. I loved fruitvale station, I wept, I screamed, I bawled like a baby. I also took breaks. I think for a movie so deep and disturbing you need to be able to take care of yourself, whatever that looks like, not stare at a screen for 2 hrs, with your hands partially covering your eyes waiting for it to end. if I’m going to do that, I’d rather be curled under my fav blanket, with a drink in my hand, a box of tissues close by and my daughter in the next room. Because no way I can find the whole world complete shit when I am reminded of what perfection she brings to the world and my life.
sorry kind of rambling, but just wanted to say I share your sentiments.
These movies are hard for me too. I am already outraged in my day to day life with everything that has happened. There is an overwhelming amount of injustice in our society and I can’t absorb it all. I grew up in a home with activists and social and civic responsibility has been drilled into us since childhood. More than the average family, so I need breaks from thinking about the state of things.
Films like this heighten my fears for the black people in my life when I already feel that more and more in this current climate.
I will watch it. It deserves to be seen but with people I love, so we can process it afterward.
Because people go to the movies to escape and all Detroit does is remind people that literally nothing has changed. They can just turn on the news and see similar things going on in the country. They don’t need to watch Detroit.
“literally nothing has changed”
Agree “because people go to the movies to escape.”
I always go to the movies to escape. I find that real life is stressful enough and so I look to movies to give me something else. So I likely won’t see it although I agree the topic is an important one. I don’t need a movie to show me this – sadly I can just read the news.
Didn’t know about it. Husband thinks it’s too expensive to go to the movies. He might be interested in this one though.
An august release date doesn’t make any sense for a movie like Detroit. Also I don’t think that Bigelow’s way of filming violence mixed well with the subject.
I agree that a summer release is a terrible idea for a serious movie like this. No one wants a serious movie in the summer.
Agreed
It was released in the wrong season, should have been fall. No one I know has seen this, but everyone I know has seen Girls Trip, for example. Also not much of an ad push behind from, far as I can tell. Too bad, both the subject and Bigelow deserve better.
It’s just not a great film. It’s good, with a couple of very good performances, but nothing special really (and a film like this needs to be to capture attention). I’ve never particularly enjoyed Bigelow as a director, and a lot of her shortcomings are really on show here.
It also has a whole bunch of problematic aspects to it. None worth completely writing it off over, but enough to make it kind of frustrating to talk about.
Basically the whole thing’s kind of meh, and I can’t say I’d recommend the film when reading about the events depicted is actually more engaging.
I have friends, who are from Detroit and a lived through this era, who saw this movie and disliked it. A couple walked out after an hour. They mentioned it being more torture porn, like parts of Zero Dark Thirty were.
I think that Bigelow should have involved a local Detroiter in the creation of the film. I don’t think she understood what the riots meant in that city and how things had to change after that. It’s too bad because I like John Boyega and think he is a great actor.
Yeah, a lot of black commentators have mentioned that it focuses too much on the brutality and erases black women’s role in the events.
As a WOC I’m tired of seeing black pain and trauma onscreen and THEN having to live it in real time…….. It’s a lot.
This!
If I want to see black men tortured, I’ll watch the news.
I’m not paying to see a white woman’s take on this.
But white people need to go. Why aren’t they seeing it?
I can only speak for myself and the other white people I know who have mentioned this.
It is enraging to watch what black people have experienced and keep experiencing. When I see it I feel helpless. I don’t understand the cruelty that lives in some people and as hard as I try I don’t understand why it is so hard to change. I don’t know how to help. Some people feel guilty but resent feeling guilty because they haven’t done anything and aren’t racist. It is hard to talk about for fear of saying something wrong or asking the wrong question so it is better to avoid the subject altogether. Those are some of the things I have felt or have been told others feel.
Having grown up in Detroit and as a very young girl recalling the Michigan National Guard patrolling the quiet street where I lived, I can tell you this movie only reminds me that so many things haven’t changed.
And if we continue to have our elected leaders remain quiet regarding the race-baiting behavior of those in the White House, I can’t help but feel this nation is lost.
My 18-year-old son went to see it with some friends right before they left for college. He said it is a deeply affecting film and is going to recommend it to his high school AP US History teacher as an addition to their curriculum when theybstudy the ’60s.
It might not be a moneymaker, but maybe if schools did that it would have a significant cultural impact.
Should have been released in September.
And all I heard about it was people arguing about it and the director. Not much about whether it was a really good film or not.
Also: There was a lot of criticism (well-deserved) at the erasure of Black women in this movie. Which happens over and over again.
If Ava Duvernay or Spike Lee had directed this movie, I probably would’ve gone and seen it. As it stands, maybe I’ll catch it on HBO. 🤷🏿♀️
Right. A movie about uprising in a black city with no black women? But also considering the film’s brutal content, I shouldn’t want black women to be unnecessarily injected into that.
I’m also over these torture on black people movie.
@Caly – it’s broader than that: “torture porn” is so prevalent in entertainment that I think people are becoming dulled by it. The last episode of GOT I watched was the one where they burned the little girl at the stake as an offering. It’s true it’s right out of Greek mythology, but in THAT story, Iphigenia was whisked away by the goddess Diana and a hart put in her place under the sacrificial knife at the last minute. But when I saw that kid tied to the stake I said to myself, “That’s it, I’m out of here.”
It’s worse when it’s real history, but the prevalence is staggering. I dunno – have we been just living in the bubble of the prosperous 20th century West for 50 years and don’t realize that this is who we’ve always been and such progress as we’ve made is just a thin veneer? Sometimes I really wonder . . .
Black would probably be more inclined to go out and support this movie if a black person directed it. We’re tired of white people telling our stories.
As a black person I disagree with you.
It’s not about who tells the story, it’s about how they tell it.
And seeing black directors and what horrible stereotypes they like to churn out its not an automatic win just because a black person tells our stories. Not that naive anymore.
I would love to see more black female story tellers who focus on non stereotypical tropes but it seems rare in the movie making industry sadly.
And as a Black person I disagree with you.
mmm I didn’t realize that Ava Duvernay, Victoria Mahoney, Ryan Coogler, and Issa Rae and a bunch of other people were out here churning out stereotypical stories.
Look at us all black people, all disagreeing its almost as if we are a diverse group of people with different voice who are all worthy of representation.
Thoughts to consider.
As a black woman I agree.
It’s just too heavy for summer. Probably would have done better in the fall. Studios like to do counterprogramming but usually it doesn’t work. Although Dunkirk is a serious film, it’s a big budget war movie.
And until last week fighting nazis seemed like something from the past. Dealing with violent racism is still happening now and has increased because of mango mussolini
Dunkirk isn’t even *that* serious. It’s not like people are debating their cause or anything. It’s a survival story, told very well. The actual war is almost incidental to the survival aspect, which is a smart decision to make it more of a summery movie, when people really don’t want heavy themes.
I’ve been wanting to see it but you’re right. Whenever I login to my movie account and I check out the times, I’m going to see Girls Trip or Step or decide to stay home and watch something on Netflix. I have wanted to see Detroit but I can also watch the news and live it. I’m just exhausted wondering if I’m going to be shot, be the subject of racism in middle America or witness something where I can’t stand by. These times are insane and I feel I need to be constantly aware and can’t just enjoy moments anymore.
I’ve also taken to calling any racist act, trumpism. We have to make that man’s name dirt. I’m reminded of a scene in Gladiator where he was told they have to kill his name before they can harm him. I think that’s true here. All of his supporters need to know when everyone else thinks of him, that they equate him to a nazi. Then maybe this country will move forward and impeach him or make him resign. But we have to make that 25% base be embarrassed to support him first. And that’s exhausting.
For one, because like the most recent seasons of OITNB it depicts gratuitous violence on black bodies for a non-black audience.
1. As many above have said, it’s not a summer movie. And this summer especially.
2. The timing is both perfect and terrible. Movies dealing with political and social problems of the past really only work if a) we’ve overcome or at least made progress on the issue or they are b) inspiring. This, right now, only reminds everyone that almost nothing has changed. It’s depressing as f*ck.
3. I personally don’t watch these films in the theater because I need to be able to lose my sh*t in private. But that’s just me.
4. I blame 45. Why? Well, why the hell not. And because he’s verbally bombed everyone back to the stone age and people are tired. Reality is wearing everyone down so in their free time, people probably want to be entertained with mindless crap.
Terrible release date. An apparently deeply unpleasant movie to sit through that can offer no resolution or hope, and then offers no ideas. Then it’s off to the beach? Yikes.
No big stars to help draw to the very difficult subject matter (John Boyega and Anthony Mackie are both lovely actors but outside of Star Wars/Marvel the general public does not care at all about either. Will Poulter is very talented too but his name means nothing PR wise). That might be alright if you kept your budget very low; then you’d have a financial underperformer instead of the bomb this is turning into.
Many reasons it failed but I also think it’s important to point out that just because the subject matter is “IMPORTANT!” that doesn’t automatically make something a good or appealing movie.
‘Many reasons it failed but I also think it’s important to point out that just because the subject matter is “IMPORTANT!” that doesn’t automatically make something a good or appealing movie.’
This. Every year there’s at least half a dozen films like this that tackle an important event or issue, but do so in such a mediocre way that they just sort of disappear with no fanfare.
There was a lot of hype for this film, but it died down quickly and considerably as soon as people saw rough cuts. Never a promising sign.
I posit that real life is what’s Doung this film in. There’s overt racism and danger aplenty right now. I want a film to help me to escape from real life. Also John Boyega is not a box office draw , imo. They are trying to make him happen, and I just don’t see why. Another actor, for example, Trevante Rhodes might have drawn a bigger audience.
Initially, I wanted to see Detroit because as a black woman, my innate desire is to support black movies. The trailer made it seem like a great movie. But then I saw Girls Trip, which, has made 100 million dollars during a bad run for comedies in general, and feeling so euphoric after watching it, I decided that I’m not interested in seeing black bodies dehumanized anymore. Been there, done that. I get why Detroit is a story that should be told, but when the only stories of black people being told is about beating us down, denigrating and the stripping away of our personhood, I’m not with it. Sorry.
I like Katherine Bogelow because she’s a female director and she’s getting serious movies done in Hollywood. I personally liked Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, but they were definitely one-time viewings because of the subject matter.
Honestly all I’ve heard about Detroit was it wasn’t very well done and a lot of the black community had issues with it. That alone made me less likely to want to see it. I still haven’t seen Fruitville Station, and I’m more inclined to watch that, since the subject matter is similar.
I think some of the problem is that this refers to 50 year old history, which in the speedy times we live in, and the low value placed on teaching history, might as well make it 150 years old. I saw a PBS report a few months ago about a random survey in which nearly half of Americans queried couldn’t place the dates of the civil war. Discussing “Dunkirk” with a friend who is my age, she mentioned casually that she’d had to explain the whole backdrop of WWII, the invasion of Poland, etc., to her son – who is 17 years old and an honors student in an upscale high school, already looking at Ivy League schools. He hadn’t a clue – only Pearl Harbor rang a bell.
The other problem is that the unvarnished truth is, people go to the movies for the most part to be entertained, especially in the summer; they see movies like this as two-hour “lectures”. I think “Dunkirk” has succeeded because it managed to avoid the lecture-ish atmosphere – just the same, I was totally stunned by its success as a “serious” movie in the summer, where the target is teenage boys.
And lastly, we live in an overwhelmingly “self-referential” era: how does this relate to MY life? If it doesn’t, or it doesn’t make them laugh, and they are taking kids on summer vacation . . . it’s Despicable Me that wins out (not that I have anything against Minions).
Given all that, I’m way more surprised by “Dunkirk” succeeding than I am by “Detroit” not succeeding. What we think and what people actually feel when the pull out their wallets for a Saturday afternoon at the movie outside of NY, Chicago, L.A., Chicago, etc., are unfortunately two different things.
So many of you have hit the nail on the head in regards to why no one’s really seeing this movie. No one wants to see this because it hits a raw nerve for us. We are reliving this crap and nothing has changed! Plus I had heard there is very long torture scenes. I don’t watch torture scenes even when actors are white. Lastly for reasons listed above I don’t think it would of been successful in the fall either!
Everyone here on this thread should see it. Anyone who complains here on Celebitchy about lack of diversity or lack of stories that are not told from Michael Bay’s POV or gaze! We have to support films-even if we don’t feel like watching heavy dramas in the summer because we’ll get on another thread on why #Oscarssowhite or lack of women directors. Are we hypocrites? Here’s a film that checks the boxes, and the people who asked for it, don’t support it.
Be the change you want to see, right? Or am I wrong about this?
Yeah I don’t think it works that way.
If we support detroit, we will get more detroit type movies. That’s sort of what happens with ‘black themed’ movies. There was a time when black men in dresses comedies were very popular and we thought if we support more of these stereotypical negative images we will surely get something else, something more, because they’ll see how well this stereotypical movie did.
Nope, more of the same.
With the current climate, this movie hits too close to home. And we know that Americans, particularly white Americans are not good at dealing with their part in white supremacy. Better to avoid things that are uncomfortable.
I go to movies to be entertained, uplifted, diverted or amused. I remember Detroit, Rodney King, Kent State, assassinations of JFK, MLK, RFK, and many other terrible events. Why would I spend time & money to relive these traumas? I won’t. If I’m reading, I can at least take a break & not be fully immersed again in violence, despair, and recreated hatreds.
I agree Taxi. Some of the more intense movies I can take, maybe there’s some distance or resolution? But some are like getting slapped on a sunburn. Not for me.
I think part of it has to be the relationship the movie production has had with the city. While I commend the writers and director for talking to Detroiters who were there, most of the film was shot in Massachusetts, not Detroit and having listened to some of the people connected to the film give interviews they don’t seem to be well versed on the nuances of the rebellion that happened in the city in 67. For those of us in Detroit, the 67 Rebellion is pervasive in our day to day and this feels like outsiders coming in to tell our story. That’s why I’m not seeing this.
Maybe because it had a limited release (whose idea was that!?) and virtually no media coverage or promotion??
I’ve never even heard of it until now!!
It opened wide, 3000+ theaters, two weeks ago. So it’s not lack of opportunity to see the film that is affecting the box office. It is that people don’t want to see it in a theater.
I saw the movie and it was pretty intense and hard to take, at times. But it’s very relevant and I thought it was well done overall. The movie’s flaws are that its message is one we know: nothing has changed and America is an awful place for many Americans of color. It could have used a bit more thematic development than that, but overall I liked it. I didn’t know that much about the Algiers hotel tragedy and after watching this, I felt like I lived it. The movie was very realistic in that sense and that’s the point, I think.
I also take issue with the torture porn criticism. I don’t think that’s the point at all. The movie is realistic because that’s what happened to the victims. I read she had one of the victims on set every day describing everything that had happened to her at the motel. It’s a reflection of our society and not torture for torture’s sake, like a Saw movie or something.
And, the movie mainly focuses on the Algiers hotel. So, I’m surprised about people criticizing it for the lack of black female characters. There weren’t black female characters in that incident and that was mentioned in the movie. Should the director invent characters that weren’t there? What a strange thing to criticize and it completely misses the point of the movie. There were many black female characters in the rest of the movie but the main story was about the Algiers hotel.
In any case, it’s a good movie but hard to watch, that’s for sure. My 2 cents. ..