'Shark Tale' Chews Up 'Team America' at Box Office (Team America Flops)

[Democat]

In a surprise at the North American weekend box office, the fishy gangsters of reigning champion "Shark Tale" easily dispatched the frisky marionettes of the much-hyped satire "Team America: World Police."

"Team America," which many observers had predicted could take the crown, opened at No. 3 with a disappointing $12.3 million. The Paramount Pictures film pits the gung-ho puppets of the title against villains like North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and Hollywood liberals led by Alec Baldwin and Sean Penn.

http://movies.yahoo.com/movies/feature/weekendboxofficer.html

All of the media's hype couldn't save Parker and Stone's anti-liberal propaganda piece. :)

Fahrenheit 9/11 did about double Team America's ticket sales on its opening weekend and Fahrenheit 9/11 only showed on one third the number of screens as Team America.

[aquart]

1. I'm so pleased.

I really didn't appreciate the comments about Sean Penn.

[proud patriot]

2. Well I for one would much rather see a Sharks Tale

I can take my son .

[MADem]

3. Good. Let the market rule.

I guess all of those idiotic puff pieces disguised as "news entertainment" stories couldn't put a dress on that pig and make it dance.

[makhno]

4. Good

Hope the flop ends the two talentless right-wing shills' careers.

[Zorra]

5. Now South Park is doomed. n/t

[ixion]

6. yeah, I was unimpressed

and I really didn't like the way they portrayed hollywood 'liberals'. :grr:

[acmavm]

7. I've read a lot of the hype about the movie and from that alone, even the

good hype, I could tell that it's not something I would want to see. It just struck me as a movie by a couple of guys who let their egos, and their stunted emotional growth, get in the way of common sense and good taste.

[sofa king]

8. I thought the flick kicked ass.

And I suspect that most of the people on these boards who were offended by it failed to notice that THE ENTIRE FILM is a scathing commentary on the bumbling, small-minded, hyperconservative management and support of the War on Terror. Ridiculing liberal actors is an important part of that much larger castigation of American ignorance and incompetence.

[bushwakker]

13. why no lampooning of rw icons

it would seem to me tht folks like limbaugh, hannity and ashcroft with their phony patriotism could have easily been given the same treatment in this film but are not. dude these guys are bush supporters which is their right - but don't try to spin it any other way. i just read an interview with the boston phoenix in which they call michael moore "a sad bitter fuck" a "shithead" and a "distorter of truth". i'm no mm groupy but i think he is a patriot.

[sofa king]

27. I disagree.

The film starts off with a giant "we destroyed the City of Lights in order to save it" joke. It was hilariously obvious to me, but even if you're correct and the SP boys really are juvenile-minded Bush supporters, then they've done an excellent job of ridiculing themselves.

And that alone is worth watching.

I think some of you folks are being far too serious about this. If you like sophomoric humor with a large dash of the surreal and the grotesque, you'll enjoy it, regardless of your political stripe.

[natrat]

39. wow it sounds so incredibly stupid

[jdj]

44. yeah, your right, we're all SOO simple and unsophisticated.

we wouldn't know satire if it bit us in the ass.

Thank god we have people like you around to explain the deep philosophical meanings layered within scenes of puppets fucking.

[sofa king]

53. You know....

The scene of the puppets fucking had to be cut down to half its length in order to meet an R-rating.

Not that there's any layered meaning to that or anything, but... you're right. You need a band-aid for your ass.

[Julien Sorel]

14. I saw it, and while I wasn't exactly offended,

neither did I see it as some kind of scathing indictment of "the bumbling, small-minded, hyperconservative management and support of the War on Terror."

The film certainly tries to poke fun at the excesses of the "War on Terra," with the destruction of the Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Pyramids, and so on, and the over-the-top theme song, "America! Fuck Yeah!". But these things (with the exception of the song, which was funny) came across kind of flat, I thought, whereas the satires of the actors was biting.

What wrapped it up for me was naming the actor's organization "F.A.G.", and the whole metaphor of "Dicks, pussies, and assholes." The "dicks" were portrayed as necessary evils, while the "pussies" were portrayed as deluded and out of touch, soft of mind and spirit. Had the filmmakers truly been aiming at balance, they would have at least humanized the actors' group somehow, as they did the "Team America" side.

Overall, I though the film was more or less right-leaning. You have to think about it to see the anti-right message, and too few people actually do think. I do think it's very funny in parts, and am a little surprised to see it tanking at the box office. Perhaps the fact that it's a film you can and should think about is killing it.

[FlemingsGhost]

23. I'm surprised the significance of puppets escapes many.

You might be correct. The finer points of the satirical message might be a little too abstract for the average ADD American.

Take a look at this thread, for instance ...

[sendero]

60. They used puppets...

... for the same reason they used construction paper to make Southpark, it is cheap.

Please, I'm sick of the deification of these guys. Yes, they are often funny, sometimes they even make a good point.

But they are not the philosophers of our age, they are fucking cartoonists.

[jayctravis]

58. humanizing the liberal puppets?

In this movie they were there to become the henchmen of Kim Jong-Il, representing the faceless "baddies" that action movie stars have to dispatch in the denouement. They were already human enough or else we wouldn't feel bad when they get eviscerated!

This was the silly logical conclusion of Bush's "if you're not with us, you're with the terrorists". It's a parody of what rightwing Saturday morning TV would look like if they were out of control.

And that annoying country song montage was a direct skewer of the Republican's favorite type of music to set montages to.

[FlemingsGhost]

19. Yup ... Stone and Parker are working both ends of the seam.

And making a lot of money doing it.


And that, my friends, is getting the last laugh.

[belle]

22. I think they just don't really get it; they really are stuck in the fourth

grade. When they take on stuff they know about--celebrities, weird shit that happens to you when you're nine or so--then they're scathingly funny. I think they're simply out of their league. In an interview they even admitted that they didn't really know what Team America was all about, actually. Oh, and they described both Bush and Kerry as "shit sandwiches." Walter Cronkite eat your heart out, eh?

[natrat]

40. yea but its tanking

[jdj]

48. I think they will still draft moderates, so working both ends won't

keep their asses out of Iraq.

And thanks for bringing up the money.

Your icons got rich and drifted into the rightwing.

It's happened to alot of people, money talks. But they aren't hardcore yet, or the scenes with Michael Moore blowing up would have been in the trailer...instead the trailers were ridiculous scenes of puppets blinking and waving their hair. So the only courageous thing they COULD have done, to put their agenda in the trailers to attract freepers, their new base, they didn't do because, I guess, they are just dickless cowards. THEY made themselves puppets too, so I guess you are going to claim that move was an ingenius admission to their audience that it is now officially all about the benjamins. Stunning intellects, those kids.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

9. "Shark's Tale" is a better film anyway!

You know what, maybe Parker and Stone (Masters of Goebellesuqe Propaganda) will find their hind ends in GITMO next January!

:D

:kick:

[trueblew]

10. It is an R Rated Movie...

you cannot compare the gross of an R movie to family fare like Shark Tales. Both are going to make a ton of money and Team America cost a lot less to make. Team America is a home run.

[Democat]

16. Moore's film was R and it did double the money on a third the screens

No excuses, Team America was hyped about as much as any movie of this type could be hyped and people didn't go see it in close to the numbers expected.

Some people were predicting $30+ million before the weekend and it did about one third of that.

[MADem]

41. I have probably seen a fourth of the movie

...already, in the ads, the news-tainment stories on all the networks and the huge clips they show on talk shows. I find it interesting that people have two different view of the film. These two wonderkids who made it should have read the test audience reactions before they went and shot their mouths off that they didn't have a clue what it meant.

If they had said it was a scathing commentary on both the left and right, then everyone would have gone in figuring their side was represented, and they would have cleaned up. But because the film has been reviewed already as being meaner to the left, and because the two filmmakers support Bush, people are voting with their pocketbook, just as they voted with their pocketbooks re: F/911.

That, in and of itself, is really encouraging. We may be unsure in these times of the value of our vote (sadly), but we do know the value of a dollar. Sounds to me like the people of America have had enough of the TEAM AMERICA approach to leadership. We can't destroy Paris and still have people love us now, can we?

[Zen Democrat]

21. Home run?? Not if it grossed under F9/11 on hundreds more screens.

[Politicub]

62. Can't compare it to a PG movie

But we can compare it to another R-rated movie -- Fahrenheit 9/11. F911 knocked the socks off of Team America's numbers. I was hoping that would be the case.

Has anyone seen average per screen for F911 and Team America? Those would be even more dramatic figures.

[bushwakker]

11. those two south park dudes are right wingers

i don't watch the show but people i know and respect love it so i guess it must be ok (animation ain't my thing). however after reading a boston phoenix review of the film and interview with the creators it's obvious these guys support bush. they refer to MM as a bitter fuck and apparently the movie is full of anti-war types being lampooned and killed while no rwers get this treatment. folks try to defend them by calling them "libertarians" but libertarians are just republicans who are ashamed to admit it.

[joeybee12]

12. Trey & Matt need to realize satire works IF there's grain of believability

I have no problem with skewerin liberals--skewer us all, if you ask me.

But it's the liberals who have gotten on the mis-administration's case about ignoring Jong! It makes no sense to have liberals side with him. Trey and Matt can be really funny, but their ideologies are so set they can be very, very ignorant.

[deek]

15. Satrical comment on BushWorld???

I haven't seen it yet, but that was my assumption. South Park is definately not right wing--it pokes fun of extremist RW ideology.

I am an animation freak.

Could someone more knowledgeable about this enlighten me then?

Thanks.

[tinanator]

29. you call that animation?

theyre idiotic fuckheads and like all idiotic fuckheads they make themselves look as stupid as they are, but not necessarily intentionally. People really like to read into moronic garbage higher meanings. Fuck those two asshole dickhead pussies and their pathetic attempts at creativity. They never gave a thing to this country and this country should never give a thing to them.

[madrchsod]

17. that`s great

all the screwheads at freeperland must be pissed cause their boys have failed....

[belle]

18. The funny thing is that the South Park movie is actually more timely

What with the completely stupid war on another country for no good reason (okay, Canada, and Saddam's a villain, albeit a dead one, but still). With all the weird hyper-patriotism all of a sudden and the surreal leap toward WWII imagery, the 1999 movie was oddly prescient, wasn't it? And it's still very very funny.

But on the whole, yeah: Parker and Stone are these odd manchildren. Their sensibility is very GenX and very 90's: cynical, amusing, so ironic it's disappearing up its own asshole, occasionally right-on but oddly regressed overall. It is interesting to see how people evolve--in the 90's, I think you could've said Jon Stewart and South Park were more or less in the same place, culturally. Boy has that changed. They're both still capable of being very very funny; but Stewart (and his show) grew up. These guys didn't. Who knows why?

That said, I will always have at least somewhat of a soft spot in my heart for Parker and Stone for the "Passion" spoof.

[leftchick]

20. just got back from shark's tale with my boys....

We all loved it! This is great news... :)

[Sven77]

24. it was ok

i saw it last night, it had some funny parts, the end was weak. I thought the lambasting of the liberal actors was too far. not as far as christopher reeve eating babies on south park. i wonder if these guys got mysterious extra funding like black hawk down did. i sure hope Kim Jong Il doesnt nuke south park colorado after seeing the movie. also before i forget, matt and trey are libertarians and hate micheal moore for having a interview in bowling for columbine, then showing a cartoon. they said it made them look like they made the gun cartoon, which they didnt. anyhoo to wrap it up, only see this movie if your a juvenile who like south park humor.

[theblasmo]

25. In Defense of the Film... (shorter this time)

Team America is an attack on rampant egotism on both sides of the aisle. The first half -- and for those of you wondering where Bush and his chumblies are in this, they're represented by Team America -- slashes the American idea of shoot now and ask questions later, and the second half takes on those people who act patronistically towards other countries and consider themselves above any politician. Sure, I should be offended by the way the liberal actors are portrayed in this film, especially Michael Moore and Janeane Garofalo, but I'm not. It's satire, and on a Bunuelian scale. Anyone who honestly thinks the film is right-wing propaganda is completely out of it. Parker and Stone blast more holes in conservative ideology than almost anyone in the business, and if they want to make Michael Moore a terrorist, I say fine. It's not gonna change my mind about what he stands for, and I thought it was funny. The film tackles Hollywood Essentialism, people with "black-or-white" mentalities, and never loses sight of the fact that people on both sides can make mistakes. Even the members of Monty Python recognized that, as do the writers on the Daily Show. The difference is that Parker and Stone don't want to waste time with intellectual arguments; they want to raise a middle finger to stupidity. This is a film that rewards being smart and being able to kid one's self. It's beautifully offensive. Face it, you can't watch Robert Greenwald documentaries all the time.

[gulfcoastliberal]

42. South Park portrayed Reeve eating babies?

dThat is so fucking disgusting. I've always despised south park and fuck their movie, too. I hope the studio loses big money. Screw those two ignorant fascist loving fucks.

[daleo]

26. There is not much market for conservative propaganda

The South Park fellows are like P.J. O'Rourke, very funny at one time and still capable of some laughs. But, as their politics has taken a turn for the right, they have become less amusing. There is something about shilling for power that is inherently less funny, especially in satire. Imagine how unfunny "A Modest Proposal" would be if Johnathan Swift had been on the side of the absentee landlords.

[DerBeppo]

31. oops

meant to respond below.

[ReadTomPaine]

28. Didn't Parker & Stone do "That's My Bush"?

They attack both sides of the aisle, though I also agree they lean toward the right overall. Not sure what to make of this film as I haven't seen it.

I understand Parker & Stone originally wanted to film "The Day After Tomorrow" using this technique but that film's producers weren't interested. It would probably have been better for both sides if they agreed.

RTP

[DerBeppo]

32. yep

people who throw out the knee-jerk "they're right wing operatives" charge conveniently forget that they did that show and wanted to make a that's my bush movie at one point.

i swear i haven't seen more "i haven't seen it, but it's sucks" replies since we were all laughing at freepers when f9/11 came out.

[robbedvoter]

45. "That's my Bush" was approved by Rove - meant to show W as the

regular Joe who loves his wife, is honorable and means well. Rove appeared large as a character - not an unsympathetic one.
Even W's idiocy was quite moderated (they gave him an idiotic secretary that he was saving on curent basis). It was subtle propaganda.

[jayctravis]

59. That's My Bush! came out right after he was elected

and they've been interviewed saying they were going to make a political sitcom about either candidate, whichever won.

[JoFerret]

30. From WaPo: Rove as puppet master

<<"What's Up With That," Trey Parker and Matt Stone: Some perceive a right-wing slant in their marionette-only film, "Team America." However, the pair insist they hired Karl Rove as a consultant strictly for his expertise in manipulating puppets.>>

[disneyboy]

33. Disturbing

I am really distured that SHARKTALE has been #1 for 3weeks. This will just prove to H'Wood that CGI is the alpha and omega of animation, thereby making ANY revival of 2-D IMPOSSIBLE. Disney or Dreamworks needs to have its first CGI BOMB to make a point. Remeber the 2-D deluge after LION KING?? Its gonna happen w/ CG.

[lucky777]

34. Just Saw it -- I'd give it 2 and 1/2 stars Just ok, not great

Not as good as the South Park movie.

The political message was muddled. It poked fun at the right wing for their slogans ("America, Fuck Yeah!") but also at Hollywood Liberals ("FAG"). There is a scene where Michael Moore straps explosives to his body and blows up Mt Rushmore.

I found it weak for trying to be critical of everyone. Overall, it felt more right-leaning to me.

[marlakay]

35. just saw the movie

my husband likes south park, I don't but I went with him. He warned me it wasn't on the dem side. I did get some good laughs but didn't like how it was slanted on the right side. Mike said I took it too seriously as it was meant to laugh at all of us on both sides. But in the movie the right side wins and it made me wonder if they were trying to say something.

I guess we are all so political with the election so close, I can't think about anything else now.

[Comicstripper]

36. I'm a liberal

and I loved the film. First of all, the vast majority of the jokes were at the expense of the careless, bull-headed, xenophobic Team America. Second of all, they weren't taking jabs at all liberals (Trey Parker was in "Bowling for Columbine," remember?), just the Hollywood liberals who feel that, since they're famous, their views on foreign and domestic policy carry extra weight. I thought the movie was hilarious in the way it parodied action films, and the songs made me laugh out loud, which is rare for me. "Everyone Has AIDS" and the whole concept of the play, "LEASE", "America ( FUCK YEAH)!" was a CLEAR jab at our foreign policy (The lyrics are "America....FUCK YEAH! Here we come to save the motherfuckin' day, yeah!"), and "Montage." I really liked the movie. And most of the jokes at liberals were joke jokes, in that it was the stupid characters making them, not the creators. Some of you folks need to chill just a little. Just breathe. Everything's okay, Kerry will still win, just caaaaaalm down.

[jdj]

46. HERE'S WHAT YOU AND THOSE IDIOTS DONT SEEM TO GET:

Military Fatalities: By Time Period
Period US UK Other* Total Avg Days
3 247 8 12 267 2.38 112
2 715 27 58 800 1.89 424
1 139 33 0 172 4 43
Total 1101 68 70 1239 2.14 579

http://icasualties.org/oif/

SO DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN, OKAY???

[Djinn]

50. hyperbole much

first of all calling other posters idiots isn't very condtructive but secondly the fact the US soldiers are dying does not mean no-one can laugh about anything until that stops.

Some people BTW might add that YOU'VE totally missed the point in that I don't see you mentioning a single dead Iraqi.

It's a MOVIE - and just like we would have said to any freepyheads whinning about F9/11 - don't go see, don't spend your hard earned on it if it's not your cup of tea. Even if Team America was unequivocal in it's right-wingyness (Parker & Stone couldn't give a shit about politics and think everyone's fair game for satire IMO) then so what?? F9/11 wasn't exactly subtle either.

And while I'm glad the celeb's are on "our" side because they get a tonne of publicity it is a bit irritating, their opinions aren't worth anymore than a hotel cleaners and they can sometimes (some of them atleast) be just a tad precious about it.

[FlemingsGhost]

54. Bwahahahahahhhaaaaaa... this one's the best yet.

It's like the audiences who went to see Andy Kaufman. The joke was on them, but they were too wrapped up in the spectacle to notice.

Brilliant. Fucking brilliant.

[ScotTissue]

37. The puppet sex was hilarious

Maybe I didn't look at the attacks on Hollywood puffery as an attack on Progressive attitudes.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

38. Good...I hope they end up losing money.

[Hegemony Cricket]

43. I don't care what you think of Team America...

...but for the love of God people can we please all agree that Shark's Tale is a terrible piece of auto-marketing that is about as bad as poking your eyes out with a stick.

I love Jack Black but he's just getting a nice paycheck here, people.

Please don't play the "Shark's Tale is better anyway!" sour-grapery.

Because, no, it's not, and you're not helping anyone (especially the causes you believe in) by believing it to be so. It could have been entitled "GENERIC SEMI-FAMILY FILM 23-abx/d FROM AMUSMACORP" and had exactly the same amount of meaning and taken as many risks.

Once again, I'll state...I don't care what you think, or hell, what I think about Team America and its creators...because it's a meaningless entertainment. A trifle with a duet Carny barkers luring you into their attraction with inflammatory and outrageous atatements and imagery.

If you're dumb enough to think Parker and Stone give a fuck about their own political beliefs, much less yours...and if you're so especially special in your level of shrill, reactionary pablum as to believe a movie about puppets fighting and fucking is SUPPOSED to have an officially sanctioned higher message (subtext or otherwise), then you need a break from all of this hooplah (in the world of movie promotion it is all, every bit, hooplah).

In other words: You know you're taking things too seriously when you allow the creators of a puppet movie to generate any response other than an absurd one.

This is almost as bad as right wingers calling the Daily Show a liberal mouthpiece.

Sorry about the rant...but Shark's Tale is poisonous offal in comparison to most things in Cinema.

[jdj]

47. Someone need to do an animation of sharks eating

Team America after they crash their plane into South Park.

I hope they get the part where the shark chomps off Stone and Parker's middle finger.

And regarding your screed:
If you're dumb enough to think Parker and Stone give a fuck about their own political beliefs, much less yours...and if you're so especially special in your level of shrill, reactionary pablum as to believe a movie about puppets fighting and fucking is SUPPOSED to have an officially sanctioned higher message (subtext or otherwise), then you need a break from all of this hooplah (in the world of movie promotion it is all, every bit, hooplah).


why don't you, and Parker, and Stone, and all of you apologists ship yourselves on over to Iraq (since nothing is really that "serious" and give some people a break who actually need one.

[Djinn]

51. woohoo

"but for the love of God people can we please all agree that Shark's Tale is a terrible piece of auto-marketing that is about as bad as poking your eyes out with a stick.""



"If you're dumb enough to think Parker and Stone give a fuck about their own political beliefs, much less yours...and if you're so especially special in your level of shrill, reactionary pablum as to believe a movie about puppets fighting and fucking is SUPPOSED to have an officially sanctioned higher message (subtext or otherwise), then you need a break from all of this hooplah (in the world of movie promotion it is all, every bit, hooplah)."



It's a fucking puppet movie it's existence wont stop or advance the Iraq war or the WOT at all. Being able to laugh and not loosing a sense of PERSPECTIVE does not equate to being an apologist - to suggest it does is to be more offensive than Stone and PArker ever have been

[illumn8d]

52. Yep....

That about sums up my opinion.

Let's just say it is a totally right wing comedy, if we can't laugh at ourselves, or at least understand how/where/why we can be made fun of...we have lost already.

[Comicstripper]

61. Yeah

Ugh. Shark Tale looks God-awful. It's Disney capitalizing off of the success of Finding Nemo, which itself was a completely average film.
Ugh ugh ugh.

[NVMojo]

49. BRAVO!!!

I had someone attack me verbally today about going to see Michael Moore and telling me I need to see this stupid marionette movie so I can see what Moore is all about. Man, I hope we get rid of the koolaid that is making so many people so damn stupid!!!!

Go Michael Moore and go Shark Tales!!!

[cleofus1]

55. it is a stupid gross offensive puppet show....

I LAUGHED MY ASS OFF! OK, I know I'm an insensitive asshole...
But it was funny as all hell.

I bought f/911 and watched it at home. I was stunned and moved to tears.

different films different reactions...

it's all good baby, lighten up.

[lulu]

56. Roger Ebert gave it a thumbs down

Said the movie was nihilism and not satire because it eviscerates anybody who believes in something.

[nibbana]

57. Rome is burning.....How many died in iraq this week-end?

Is it any wonder why the media hardly reports the deathes in Iraq...