The Blind Side

A couple of Christmases ago, HPC associate pastor Geoff Henderson gave me Michael Lewis’ book The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game which I read with interest, knowing nothing of the book’s human subject, Michael Oher, and nothing about its technical subject, the importance of an offensive left tackle to a right handed quarterback. I watch both with greater interest now.

But I never imagined the book would be turned into a movie, much less a movie starring Sandra Bullock, and even less of a movie starring Sandra Bullock in which she is receiving kudos for her acting. (Trailer here.)

I’ve not yet seen the movie, but I will.

Here is the fascinating thing for me. Ordinarily, a movie is released to much fanfare and to blockbuster receipts, and then plummets to more average takes. Occasionally, a movie opens to average receipts and then increases its take in subsequent weeks.

New Moon, for example, dropped 70% in the second week, and an additional 63% in the third. In contrast a movie like The Sixth Sense opened strong, and then for three weeks decreased only minimally, and then began to increase its take.

What explains the difference is word of mouth. A movie which generates the kind of ‘you have to go see this movie’ kind of conversation will begin to attract new people weeks after its initial release. And that is the kind of film that I think must be worth seeing. A couple of other movies which followed this pattern that come to mind are O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Little Miss Sunshine.

Add to that list The Blind Side. Released the same weekend as New Moon, it increased its second week take by 18%, and though it fell by 49% the third week, a traditionally poor week for movies, it still maintained enough oomph to surpass other movies for the top spot in the weekend draw.

All that to say that people are talking and saying that this is not only one good story, but a well done movie as well. I’m not expecting it to be in the category of great, but it sounds like one to see.

[Stats are from Box Office Mojo.]