Peter Bart: An Autopsy Of Dead-On-Arrival ‘Amsterdam’ Reveals Worries For Other Grownup Fall Releases
deadline.com“Every movie needs a rabbi,” the great and grumpy Robert Altman once warned fellow filmmakers. “You need at least one important critic to champion your cause.” Altman found Pauline Kael as his advocate for Nashville, but his warning seems relevant this week given the disastrous opening of Amsterdam, an $80 million-plus project that failed to find either a champion or an audience ($6.5 million opening weekend).
Having worked with Altman from time to time, I personally witnessed his quarrels with studio management over budgets, schedules and inept marketing strategies.
With a gifted cast and an accomplished director, Amsterdam is a darkly entertaining movie — its opening scene is a disturbingly meticulous autopsy.
Its dead-on-arrival box office total, however, has prompted deep concerns for other films aimed at post-Marvel ticket buyers — even The Fabelmans from Steven Spielberg.
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