Box office results are a funny thing. Sometimes, that Sunday story in Google News is a triumph of good over evil. When a great movie sweeps the global box offices, movie fanatics cheer and, in turn, laugh smugly when convoluted pictures such as “Jennifer’s Body” get beaten five fold by “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.” But in this new era where movies need to make tens of millions of dollars in their first weekend to be a success, what about the movies that just don’t rake in the big bucks? Can the box office be used as a litmus test for a “good” movie?
Not in the case of “Whip It.” Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut, this film starring Ellen Page is, if nothing else, a solid movie. “Whip It” chronicles Bliss Cavendar’s quest to get out of beauty pageants and Bodeen, Texas and into something she loves. While shopping in Austin, Bliss sees roller derby girls distributing posters for their match and is immediately intrigued. She joins the Hurl Scouts, the worst team in the Austin league, and what ensues is a humorous and genuine journey with hipster musicians, family dramatics and contact sports.
Ellen Page is remarkable as Bliss. Where her character in “Juno” seemed constrained by some of Diablo Cody’s dialogue, “Whip It” allows her to become more than a goofy cartoon sketch. The story itself is a skillful blend of self discovery and coming of age offset by quirky characters. True, it is not without its problems, including the unnecessary secondary characters like Barrymore’s “Smashley Simpson,” but the things that work for this film far outweigh its clunky aspects.
Internet Movie Database users gave “Whip It” a 7.7 out of 10 rating. Rotten Tomatoes rated it at 82 percent with 111 out of 136 reviews being positive. And yet, the movie is only expected to make $11 million in the box office. So what happened?
Perhaps it was the competition that “Whip It” faced. On its opening week, it went up against surprise hit “Zombieland,” a horror comedy that strongly resembles 2004’s “Shaun of the Dead.” “Zombieland” opened on more than 3000 screens compared to “Whip It” with 1700, and the films have an overlap in directed audiences. When it came time to pick a movie for date night, maybe the boyfriends of America convinced the girls that zombies were preferable to girl power and roller derby. As a result, “Zombieland” took in over $24 million while “Whip It” came in sixth for the weekend with only a sixth of its competitor’s revenue.
Whatever the reason behind the meager numbers of “Whip It,” the fact remains that a movie that was generally agreed upon as “good” was passed by when moviegoers ventured to their local Cineplex. Even the movie industry has felt the economic crunch, and it’s disheartening when a fun, fresh film such as this one doesn’t pull its weight for a studio. This could mean that studios will favor another wave of superhero movies like the profitable “Transformers,” series or that new directors, even those of acting pedigrees such as Barrymore’s, will have a harder time financing their films. No matter what the fallout of “Whip It,” here’s to hoping that box office profits and truly good moviemaking can still align.
