Money Ball the movie

I was listening to the Slate spoiler podcast on this movie this week, and critic Dana Stevens raised a point that I thought was interesting. She said that one reason she can't get into sports movies - and, I think, sports in general - is that she doesn't feel like the stakes are sufficiently high. Because, after all, "It's just a game." I've gone back and forth since then thinking about whether that criticism is valid or not. Most sports movies I can think of overcome that by attaching stakes beyond just winning the big game:

* "The Natural" - The Wilford Brimsley character is out if the Knights lose the pennant, but gets to force the owner out if they do win it.

* "Major League" - Similar.

* "Hoosiers" - Redemption for several people, most of all Hackman and Hopper's characters.

* "Rudy" - Nothing to do with winning or losing a game. Perhaps Stevens would say that Rudy getting into the game is "just a game" and those stakes aren't that high? But the stakes were high because of how much time he put in to fulfill the dream.

* "Blind Side" - Sucks, but no big game.

* "Remember the Titans" - Big game.

* "A League of Their Own" - Big game, right?

Of all of these, "Moneyball" seems to be the movie with the least at stake, although I guess if you are watching without a background in the real story, you think that Billy Beane was in danger of being fired.

 

The stakes are not high enough? Sports should take a page out of Vince McMahon's book, make it loser of the elimination games in the postseason must retire.

 

Dana might be my favorite movie critic, but I find that argument absurd.

 

By the way, I saw Dolphin Tale tonight with the wife and kids. I bet they are all up in arms over at dolphintrainers.com.

Seriously, I liked the movie even though I could tell that some of the parts of the story were clearly embellished from the real thing.

(Do I have to turn in my Man Card now? If you see the movie, you'll understand.)

 

Yeah, it seems like quite a straw man. Like I posted, sports movie directors go to great pains to make sure that there is more at stake than winning and losing a game.

I like her a lot, too. She's my second stop after Ebert. But she can really misfire sometimes with some of her off-the-wall thinking (maybe that's why I like her so much - kindred spirits). She wrote a review of "Hall Pass" that was a feminist screed, including a paragraph or two wondering why the men chased women around but then were "scared of vaginas" when it came to oral sex. She couldn't square that.

 

Saw a story this week that, leading into the weekend, "Moneyball" has grossed $49 million. By the end of the weekend, it will surpass "Major League," "Angels in the Outfield," "Bull Durham," and "Rookie of the Year," for the No. 5 spot all-time for baseball movies. I suspect that by the time it's done, it will pass up "The Rookie" ($75 million) for No. 2, and challenge "A League of Their Own" ($107 million) for the top spot, particularly if it bags some Oscar nominations and can stay in the theater that long.

You'd have to say that it has been a hit by every definition of the word so far. I know business schools study the book as part of the curriculum. Marketing schools should study the movie.

 

Is that inflation-adjusted?

 

No, I don't think the box-office figures usually are. I wish they did butts-in-the-seats instead, like sports attendance figures do.

 

Inflation-adjusted, according to a calculator I used on the Internet, "A League of Their Own" would gross $164m today. The article itself says $204m:

http://www.indiewire.com/article/heres_the_top_grossing_baseball_movies_in_honor_of_moneyball/

 

Wait, what?

Like the Marlins' official attendance of "18,942" per game this year? There's not a single sports team in this country that uses butts in the seats.

 

Sorry. I meant tickets sold. Or, theoretically, butts in the seats. Meaning that I wish movies were judged on attendance rather than box office.

 

Adjusting for inflation* - because "box office" is pretty imprecise - 'Moneyball' is ninth on that list.



*(online calculator)