Adam Torkildson
Title: The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
Directed By: Tom Gormican
Written By: Tom Gormican, Kevin Etten
Release Date: April 22, 2022
Domestic Distributor: Lionsgate Movies
Cast: Nicholas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Sharon Horgan
Rated: R for language, sexual references, drug use, violence
Genre: Action
Box Office Information
- Budget: ?
- Financed by: Lionsgate
- Domestic Box Office Gross: $20,300,157
- Overseas Box Office Gross: $5,144,397
Synopsis
Nicolas Cage plays Nicolas Cage playing Nicolas Cage.
Official Trailer
Introducing Nicolas Kim Coppola
Cage comes from a tribe of Hollywood insiders. That neither explains nor excuses his career. But it does clarify why he was able to go from actor to star to cult figure to meme during the past forty years. (Yes, kiddies, Cage has been in the movies since 1982, when he had a small role in ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High.’)
Let’s examine these stages, as an instructive commentary on the fabled Hollywood System.
Actor
If you’re an actor in Hollywood you are taken seriously by nobody. Not even your agent. Instead, you mope around the edges of movie sets and Beverly Hills parties, sneering at the quislings who have sold out their art for mere baubles and cash. You, of course, are better than that. You are willing to suffer for your art, using the Stanislavsky method to play miniscule roles in made-for-TV films being produced in Romania. In between these microscopic bit parts you subsist on community theater gigs, where the REAL acting takes place. If need be you will continue to beat the bushes out in the sticks until you’re a doddering old coot, rather than prostitute your artistic integrity for a mess of cinema pottage.
Then, alas, comes the Big Break. This calamity happened to Cage in 1987 when he co-starred with Cher in ‘Moonstruck.’ He won a Golden Globe award and was automatically bumped up into the classification of Star.
Star
A Hollywood star begins collecting an entourage like a numismatist collects Lincoln pennies. He or she needs them as a foundation for an ego that is swelling but not yet solid enough to weather professional input. A star looks for a wonky diet to endorse, or, at the very least, some kind of perfume or soap brand to front for. Actors become weary of the scads of cash they are making and the public acclaim they must put up with. If their movies bomb at the box office, they are prepared to retreat to Broadway in a revival of Death of a Salesman until the public’s memory becomes more forgiving. Cage’s flops didn’t lead him to Broadway, but directly to the next step in the Hollywood pantheon . . .
Cult figure
A cult figure no longer makes decent films and has forgotten his or her acting chops. Instead, they develop a cult following in the tens of thousands – a zombie-like army of uber-fans that ceaselessly roams the cyberscape seeking for new converts, using any means at their disposal. Cage achieved this status effortlessly with movies like ‘Firebirds,’ ‘Zandalee,’ and “Trapped in Paradise.’
If you doubt the above allegation, then just post something derogatory about Nicolas Cage on your social media. You’ll be trolled so hard Sigmund Freud couldn’t cure your despair.
Meme
Memehood comes when a cult figure like Cage stops making mainstream movies for other more esoteric ventures. Although Cage still comes out during the full of the moon to make films like ‘The Unbearable Weight yada yada yada’ just to prove to the public, as Mark Twain once said, that the report of his death is highly exaggerated. And yes, there is an actual Nicolas Cage emoji. Those Japanese are diabolical . . .
Box Office Numbers
With a production budget unannounced, a worldwide box office percent is unavailable for the production budget, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent took $20,300,157 domestically and grossed $5,144,397 overseas at the box office.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent played to 3036 theaters and took $7,131,703 (35.1% of total gross) in its opening weekend.
The film played to a total of 3036 theaters domestically and took a domestic share of some 79.8%.
Having ranked 5th in its opening weekend, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and held close to it at 6th in its second weekend – running for a total of 7weeks, with an average weekend domestic gross of $2,900,022 based on a 7 weeks average run per theater.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent was released to a total of 43 countries internationally, with the main markets being the United Kingdom with a lifetime gross of $1,673,112, Australia, with a lifetime gross of $1,174,791, and Netherlands, lifetime gross of $ 403,177. There was a $0 market in 7 countries opening in 0 theaters at each. 11 more countries opened in under 20 theaters averaging under $800 to $16,000 gross sales.
