Jason Bourne | 7.29.2016 | One week IMAX release on August 26 thanks to Ben Hur flopping

[Gavin Feng]

Chinese Midnight ￥4.3M($648K)

 

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation earned ￥9.3M(Sep.8). Spectre did ￥5.25M(Nov.13).

[The Dark Alfred]

This is turning out to be a decent hit. Was never gonna match Ultimatum but bring upgrade on Legacy and was a fun ride to watch. Damon is an impressive draw with this character. Only one par below from Cruise as Hunt domestically.

[John Marston]

liked this more the second viewing

[John Marston]

I was shocked, shocked that there was no scene in China. Guess they are saving that for an extra boost later down the road. 

[baumer]

On 8/21/2016 at 5:32 PM, Chewy said:

 

There's a lesson in all this for the "BRING BACK THE ORIGINAL GUYS JUST PAY EM WHATEVER THEY WANT WHO CARES IF THEY'RE PASSIONATE" fans

 

I'm pretty sure Damon was passaionate about this.  He didn't do the film for more than a decade and said he was waiting for the right script and story.  He probably thought the story was a good one.   Damon has enough money, I have a hard time believing he did this just for the paycheck.

[Celedhring]

35 minutes ago, Baumer loves Dory said:

 

I'm pretty sure Damon was passaionate about this.  He didn't do the film for more than a decade and said he was waiting for the right script and story.  He probably thought the story was a good one.   Damon has enough money, I have a hard time believing he did this just for the paycheck.

 

I can see the state surveillance theme drawing him in, given his political views. I wish the movie did a better job dealing with the issue, though. The CIA villains are so cartoonish...

Edited August 25, 2016 by Celedhring

[Jay Beezy]

19 minutes ago, Celedhring said:

 

I can see the state surveillance theme drawing him in, given his political views. I wish the movie did a better job dealing with the issue, though. The CIA villains are so cartoonish...

 

The state surveillance had little connection with Bourne himself as well. And the CIA villains also feel like they come off an assembly line.

[Jandrew]

7 hours ago, John Marston said:

I was shocked, shocked that there was no scene in China. Guess they are saving that for an extra boost later down the road. 

 

I know China is taking over, but not every Hollywood movie is pandering to them.

[FallingSlowly]

2 hours ago, Baumer loves Dory said:

 

I'm pretty sure Damon was passaionate about this.  He didn't do the film for more than a decade and said he was waiting for the right script and story.  He probably thought the story was a good one.   Damon has enough money, I have a hard time believing he did this just for the paycheck.

 

Matt Damon puts in effort for all of his roles even when the movie is bad. He's not a dumb guy so I'd be really surprised if he actually looked at this script and thought it was good. I really think he made it because he hasn't had a "hit" movie at the box office for a while and because Greengrass asked him. Greengrass didn't have his heart in this movie either though - as I wrote previously, the story was that Greengrass approached Universal to fund a movie and Universal said they'd only do it if Greengrass made another Bourne film first. This makes sense to me because I don't know how else you could explain the huge drop in story and character quality of this movie compared to the original trilogy. No one was invested.

[Jay Beezy]

13 minutes ago, FallingSlowly said:

 

Matt Damon puts in effort for all of his roles even when the movie is bad. He's not a dumb guy so I'd be really surprised if he actually looked at this script and thought it was good. I really think he made it because he hasn't had a "hit" movie at the box office for a while and because Greengrass asked him. Greengrass didn't have his heart in this movie either though - as I wrote previously, the story was that Greengrass approached Universal to fund a movie and Universal said they'd only do it if Greengrass made another Bourne film first. This makes sense to me because I don't know how else you could explain the huge drop in story and character quality of this movie compared to the original trilogy. No one was invested.

 

Which ultimately proved ironic because they greenlit this before a certain big blockbuster sci-fi comedy opened.

Edited August 25, 2016 by Jay Beezy

[baumer]

11 minutes ago, FallingSlowly said:

 

Matt Damon puts in effort for all of his roles even when the movie is bad. He's not a dumb guy so I'd be really surprised if he actually looked at this script and thought it was good. I really think he made it because he hasn't had a "hit" movie at the box office for a while and because Greengrass asked him. Greengrass didn't have his heart in this movie either though - as I wrote previously, the story was that Greengrass approached Universal to fund a movie and Universal said they'd only do it if Greengrass made another Bourne film first. This makes sense to me because I don't know how else you could explain the huge drop in story and character quality of this movie compared to the original trilogy. No one was invested.

 

But again, you are not Damon.  And how exactly did he not have a hit in a while.  He was in Interstellar, he was nominated for an Oscar for Martian and he had two mid sized hits previous to that.  I think you are making way way too many assumptions.

[Jay Beezy]

2 minutes ago, Baumer loves Dory said:

 

But again, you are not Damon.  And how exactly did he not have a hit in a while.  He was in Interstellar, he was nominated for an Oscar for Martian and he had two mid sized hits previous to that.  I think you are making way way too many assumptions.

 

Interstellar wasn't a hit to his name. He wasn't featured anywhere in the marketing.

 

And Bourne started filming before The Martian opened, as in before anyone knew how much of a hit The Martian would be.

[baumer]

3 minutes ago, Jay Beezy said:

 

Interstellar wasn't a hit to his name. He wasn't featured anywhere in the marketing.

 

And Bourne started filming before The Martian opened, as in before anyone knew how much of a hit The Martian would be.

 

Thanks.  But I know all of this.  The point is Damon was far from hard up for a hit.

[FallingSlowly]

28 minutes ago, Baumer loves Dory said:

 

But again, you are not Damon.  And how exactly did he not have a hit in a while.  He was in Interstellar, he was nominated for an Oscar for Martian and he had two mid sized hits previous to that.  I think you are making way way too many assumptions.

 

20 minutes ago, Baumer loves Dory said:

 

Thanks.  But I know all of this.  The point is Damon was far from hard up for a hit.

 

Adjustment Bureau: 128 M
Contagion: 135.5 M
We Bought a Zoo: 120 M
Promised Land: 8.1 M
Elysium: 286.1 M
The Monuments Men: 155 M

 

Compared to Bourne Ultimatum: 443 M and The Martian's 600+ M. Box office numbers don't impact how much I like or dislike a movie but I'm just saying that his movies didn't do as well commercially after Ultimatum concluded. That was by choice though since his success from the Bourne series allowed him to take smaller projects.

 

I obviously am not Matt Damon and I don't know him but I do chat with people who work in the industry. Since this is a forum discussing movie business, I don't think it's that big of a stretch to conclude that many movies, including this one, were made for purely financial reasons. You don't have to look further than 2016's terrible summer season to see that. If Greengrass cared about the movie, he would've at least hired a writer.

 

I think Matt Damon's filmography also shows that he likes to star in movies that address social issues...but they usually come off a little preachy and put off audiences. See Green Zone, Elysium, The Promised Land, etc. Maybe he thought the social media/privacy aspect of Jason Bourne was interesting but who knows.

 

[FallingSlowly]

36 minutes ago, Jay Beezy said:

 

Which ultimately proved ironic because they greenlit this before a certain big blockbuster sci-fi comedy opened.

 

Funny how things work out! I still need to see The Martian. All I've heard is good buzz. Did you like it?

[Celedhring]

10 minutes ago, FallingSlowly said:

If Greengrass cared about the movie, he would've at least hired a writer.

 

 

What a strange thing to say. Surely if he didn't care he would have farmed off the work instead of co-writing the film himself?

 

I agree about your valuation of Damon thrillers though - he likes his preachy thrillers, which is why I think he may have found this Bourne film interesting, or at least asked to include the surveillance theme (which as Beezy points out is shoehorned into the Bourne story) in order to make it interesting for him.

 

I guess we'll never know, and the truth is probably halfway: he may have done it for the money and status, but at the same time the film has elements that were interesting to him.

Edited August 25, 2016 by Celedhring

[The Futurist]

Beloved Franchise on life support ?

 

Paging JJ Abrams ...

[FallingSlowly]

Just now, The Futurist said:

Beloved Franchise on life support ?

 

Paging JJ Abrams ...

 

Bourne movies now with 1000% more lens flare.

And aliens.

[FallingSlowly]

9 minutes ago, Celedhring said:

 

What a strange thing to say. Surely if he didn't care he would have farmed off the work instead of co-writing the film himself?

 

I agree about your valuation of Damon thrillers though - he likes his preachy thrillers, which is why I think he may have found this Bourne film interesting, or at least asked to include the surveillance theme (which as Beezy points out is shoehorned into the Bourne story) in order to make it interesting for him.

 

I guess we'll never know, and the truth is probably halfway: he may have done it for the money and status, but at the same time the film has elements that were interesting to him.

 

My bad, that's not what I meant. When I said Greengrass wrote the script, I meant he just wrote a mediocre one in a hurry to get the movie greenlit. He's a good director but the last film he wrote was in 2006 and he didn't write the script for the original Bourne trilogy. If he cared about the Jason Bourne movie, I imagine he would've called up Burns and Nolfi or another writer - ANYONE to call him out on his lazy writing.

 

The surveillance theme was definitely shoehorned and Bourne didn't even interact with that storyline throughout the movie - why bother including it then?? It also makes no sense that Jason Bourne, the character, would care about something like that. He just wants to be left alone.

 

Definitely agree with your last point.

[baumer]

Life support? Give me a f****** break.