Bride and Prejudice has done just $3M in the U.S. so far, $17M worldwide. With a production budget of $7M and likely a similar marketing budget, it’s probably just crossed break-even.
A couple of months ago, the film increased its U.S. presence by 400% to 156 theaters, but its revenues jumped only 100%. To some degree, that’s to be expected as it expands out of culture vulture cities. But the dropoff has been quite severe.
Bride has the same marketing problem as Bombay Dreams: an old-school plot with the trappings of exoticism. The foreign element brings in film critics who are disappointed with the unironic plot. At the same time, it scares off mainstream viewers.
You have to have some affection for a movie that melds mariachi, gospel and filmi music and throws Nitin Ganatra around in an American flag thong. There’s some serious novelty value there. But the final cut felt messy and unfinished. And not all fusion works: Hindi tunes sung in English can be jarring, especially with a desi accent, and the novelty of hearing them for the first time in Fourteen Songs, Two Weddings and a Funeral has long since worn off.
A much better attempt is the Bollywood/Hollywood version of ‘Mera Naam Chin Chin Choo.’ The singer seems to switch effortlessly between ’20s swing and Hindi, it’s a marvelous mix.
Harvey Weinstein, head of Miramax, showed up in person at the Bride and Prejudice New York premiere and said he was looking for the next Moulin Rouge ($70M invested, $178M gross). Bride and Prejudice did well in the UK, but in America he’ll still be looking.
considering that it was such a horrid adaptation of pride and prejudice, are you surprised?
Considering Trashwarya made it in Bollywood not by acting talent but by spreading her legs to the right men (shakti kapoor even admitted it), she will never do well in a country where actresses actually have to ACT.
This randi has had over 10 years to get her act together and still can’t churn out a movie that doesn’t tank. I’m glad Shakti exposed her.