It should have been the summer of porn. There was certainly A LOT of publicity for Paul Schrader’s “The Canyons” and “Lovelace,” directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. “The Canyons” had Lindsay Lohan and an actual porn actor, James Deen. “Lovelace” had an all star cast with Amanda Seyfried getting very good reviews as the erstwhile porn star who claimed she was forced to make the most famous adult movie of all time, “Deep Throat.”
But summer is over. “The Canyons” made a total of $50,000. “Lovelace” has taken in $354,764. Their 30 day runs in theaters are pretty much over. The rest of the money has to be made through either VOD or DVD. No one wanted to see them.
The makers of “50 Shades of Grey” should keep this in mind. Porn has never gone mainstream, really. It’s a home viewing event. Even under a raincoat, no normal person wants to watch very tawdry stuff with a room full of friends.
And apparently it doesn’t matter how much press the movie gets. Because these two films got hours and hours of time on TV and plenty more web and print press. But even very high recognition didn’t help.
It should be noted that “Shame,” Steve McQueen’s film about Michael Fassbender full frontal and getting it on every which way, made just $3.9 million in the US. It did rake in another $14 mil abroad. But the whole thing turned out to be a terrible shame, and a great Oscar punchline for George Clooney.
