Quick, name the last Coen Brothers movie to break $100 million at the box office in the U.S. Too tough? Name the last one to break $75 million domestically. Still can’t come up with anything? That’s because they just had their highest domestic grossing movie with No Country for Old Men and that’s likely to surpass just $70 million in the next few days. Joel and Ethan, who have made some of the most interesting and artistic movies in the last two decades, never seem to reap the financial rewards of their critical and cult success.
Focus Features is trying to reverse that trend by releasing the Coen’s next film, Burn After Reading, nationwide on September 12th. This will be only the fourth time a Coen film has been initially released nationwide, rather than a limited initial release, and Focus is obviously hoping their recent Oscar success will help boost the box office. A cast that includes powerhouse Oscar winners and nominees like George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, and Frances McDormand may also put butts in the seats in bigger numbers than the Coens have previously seen. Of course, the track record of their previous wide releases, The Big Lebowski, Intolerable Cruelty, and The Ladykillers, is not great. None of those films caught fire with a wide audience despite star power in the last two.
Burn After Reading is a dark comedy, not always the best box office fare, about an ex-CIA agent (Malkovich) who loses a copy of his expose memoir. It is found by two bumbling gym employees (Pitt and McDormand) who try to use it to their advantage. Swinton will play Malkovich’s ex-wife and Clooney portrays another CIA agent. The Coen Brothers, as usual, wrote, directed and produced the movie. Now those of you in smaller towns and backwaters won’t have to drive miles or wait months to see a Coen Brothers movie. It will be playing in a theater near you in September.
