When your multi-million dollar World War II epic gets beaten at the box office by a Kirk Cameron drama financed by a church, perhaps it’s time to ditch your Oscar-campaign plans. After receiving largely negative reviews, Spike Lee’s Miracle at St. Anna flopped this weekend, earning just $3.5 million, according to studio estimates. By comparison, Cameron’s Fireproof debuted with $6.5 million despite playing in over 300 fewer theaters. While promoting Miracle at Cannes this spring, Lee criticized Clint Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima for having no African-American characters, prompting a brief war of words between the two Academy-recognized filmmakers. But given that Iwo Jima ended up scoring a Best Picture nomination and Miracle appears to be DOA, it looks like Eastwood has won this war.
Sep 29
2008
04:48 PM ET
Is Spike Lee's battle for Oscar already over?
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Fireproof has something St. Anna didn’t-a Christian fanbase already pledged to see the film. It was church funded and starred Kirk Cameron-the new poster boy for Christians…this film already had tickets sold when pastors spread the word.
man…St. Anna is a REAL flop. But I still wanna see it. What was the miracle that happened? Praise God for Fireproof’s debut!
The film could’ve been a lot better in the hands of a better director. The trouble with Spike is he likes to talk a lot but his films seldom live up to all the hype he intentionally creates.
It should have been telling that the television commercials’ only reviewer quotes were from Ben Lyons of E! News
I couldn’t find where the budget to Spike Lees film went. The costumes looked to modern and the film was poorly acted. Clints films are complete, they have the music/costume/acting… he likes a complete package.
The storyline of St.Anna doesn’t interest me in the least, but then again, neither does anything starring Kirk Cameron.
Fireproof is AWESOME!! I hope the Academy recognizes this film with a number of nominations. The movie has everything: Drama, comedy, etc., and a very important message about marriage. The movie was very well done, and very realistic. I encourage anyone contemplating divorce, or in the midst of a divorce to see this movie.