Economy may make crowds shun gloomy films

“It’s always harder for more challenging movies. Any movie that doesn’t have a happy ending is going to be a harder sell,” said Ben Stiller, who reprised his lead voice role as the dancing lion in the “Madagascar” sequel, which just delivered an opening-weekend haul of $63.5 million, more money than most best-picture Oscar nominees take in during their entire run.

Even Clint Eastwood, a perpetual awards favorite whose Oscars films still can do big business, has a tougher sell than usual with “Gran Torino,” in which he stars with an otherwise no-name cast as a racist Korean War vet.

“Clint Eastwood is an automatic hitmaker and usually a guaranteed top Oscar contender. But Clint Eastwood as a despicable bigot?” said Tom O’Neil, a columnist with the awards Web site TheEnvelope.com. “We could see the proven players like Sam Mendes (“Revolutionary Road”) and Eastwood produce movies that get shunned by moviegoers and the academy alike because of these economic times.”

The prolific Eastwood already has managed to land one contender solidly enough in the Oscar picture with “Changeling,” a missing-child drama that has earned best-actress buzz for Angelina Jolie.

The movie pulled in $9.4 million in its first weekend of wide release, a decent return for a sober story, though small change for the slaphappy blockbusters that dominate Hollywood.

Some fans consider every trip to the movies a break from life’s hard knocks, whether it’s a light or dark story.

“I don’t care if it’s action, a comedy or a musical. I escape,” said Sheri Thillman, 45, of St. Paul, at a theater where she was catching “Changeling.” “You kind of go with the story and escape your reality for a while.”

Jolie’s star power surely helped, but “Changeling” was a bit of an underachiever next to other recent Eastwood pictures. “Changeling” had an average gross of $5,055 a theater, compared with $6,102 for best-picture champ “Million Dollar Baby” and $7,120 for best-picture nominee “Mystic River” in their first weekends of wide release.

Even Eastwood’s commercial dud “Flags of Our Fathers” did better, averaging $5,461 a theater.

Yet studio executives expect this Oscar season to play out like any other, with the cream of the awards contenders finding a respectable box-office niche among the just-for-fun flicks.

“I think people are going to go to both,” said Mark Zoradi, president of Walt Disney’s motion-picture group, the studio behind “Beverly Hills Chihuahua,” “High School Musical,” “Bolt” and “Bedtime Stories.” “As long as we don’t have an Iraq War movie, we’re going to have a fantastic Thanksgiving and Christmas season.”

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