JUSTIN BIEBER: NEVER SAY NEVER, the year's first docbuster, is wrapping up its 4th weekend in theaters, now positioned as the #6 highest grossing nonfiction feature of all time. NEVER took in another (estimated) $4.3M since Friday and is set to close in on the $70M range by next weekend.
That would put the film in the company of the three films that currently reside at #3-5 on the all-time chart: MARCH OF THE PENGUINS ($77M), JACKASS: NUMBER TWO ($73M) and MICHAEL JACKSON THIS IS IT ($72M).
The success of NEVER and the surprising positive reaction it spawned from some in the documentary world (Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim was even set to direct the film for a while), has led to some fairly fun back and forth on Twitter and elsewhere - but apparently some are starting to wonder if NEVER has what it takes to go all the way to the Oscars next year.
In a bizarre and fact-free article in the Hollywood Reporter, Shirley Halperin hears "from a source" that buzz from the various Oscar parties suggest that NEVER could be a serious contender for next year's Doc Feature Oscar:
“You’d be surprised at the caliber of people who came up to Justin at the Vanity Fair party at the Sunset Tower, most of whom had seen the movie and loved it,” says an insider. “There was even talk of putting it up for an Oscar next year in the documentary category. People appreciate that it’s not just a kids’ movie.” (THR’s Bill Higgins also noted Bieber was the star who awed the other stars at the Vanity Fair bash. The young singer would chat with someone and the buzz would immediately be: “What is Mick Jagger talking to Justin Bieber about?”)
Well, no. The dealine is the end of August for submission in the Documentary category, but that's not really the point.
I actually like the new Hollywood Reporter. I like the design. I like that there's no firewall. I've liked a lot of the stuff they've written.
But this? I mean, I haven't seen the Bieber doc and maybe it's terrific. Maybe it's as good as TUPAC: RESURRECTION, the last music biodoc to get a Oscar nod (before that you'd have to go back a decade or more). But buzz at the Vanity Fair party does not exactly translate to a slam dunk with two rounds of documentary branch screening committees (unless the guest list has changed at the VF party and it was packed with doc luminaries).
But I'm sure it's good for web traffic - as of this writing there are 548 comments to date on the article, the 2nd most on THR's site.
Well, kids, I guess we should NEVER SAY NEVER, right?
He's just a kid, and has already made so much money making music, movies, documentaries, just sick...
Posted by: Frank Zweegers | March 11, 2011 at 09:52 AM