DIE MY LOVE and the History of Ambitious Films Receiving Dreaded CinemaScore Grades
Die My Love Gets “D+” CinemaScore Grade
The new Jennifer Lawrence/Robert Pattinson Oscar bait project, Die My Love, was slapped last night with a dreaded “D+” CinemaScore grade, but all may not be lost.
With Die My Love, director Lynne Ramsay can join Spike Lee, Cameron Crowe, William Friedkin, Paul Thomas Anderson. David Fincher, Darren Aronofsky and Stanley Kubrick (among others) as filmmakers whose most ambitious projects received poor CinemaScore marks. CinemaScore polls opening night viewers of movies and gathers a “majority” opinion by revealing an average score from movie-goers.
Ever since 1992 when David Fincher’s Alien 3 premiered with a “C” CinemaScore grade, it became clear audiences want their happy ending or, as film critic Roger Ebert once put it, their ‘lollipop.” Sigourney Weaver’s character died at the end of that 1992 movie (even though she back came to life in a future entry through cloning). Audiences were mad and, in the heat of the moment, gave the film a “C” overall grade. That’s just it. These CinemaScore grade marks come in “the heat of the moment” and shouldn’t be taken to heart. Fincher went on to receive Oscar nominations for later films of his.
In 1999, the ugly “D-” grade bared its presence for two high profile films, Eyes Wide Shut from Stanley Kubrick and Summer of Sam from Spike Lee. These were two dark films and audiences weren’t “getting” them on opening night the way the filmmakers most likely intended them to. Tom Cruise took a beating on his following film, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia, later in the year as well when that picture earned a mere “C-” despite stellar critical reviews. In 2001, Cruise found his Cameron Crowe effort, Vanilla Sky, fared even worse with another “D-.”
Bug from 2007 may have been directed by William Friedkin (The Exorcist) and starred Ashley Judd, but it received an awful “F” CinemaScore. That film was ambitious beyond a reasonable doubt, yet it was too morbid for almost every single opening night moviegoer. In 2017, another Jennifer Lawrence film, this one called mother! from director Darren Aronofsky, received an “F” CinemaScore as well.
What does this mean for Die My Love in the long term? It basically suggests nothing major except that people who went on the opening night didn’t seem to like it. That doesn’t mean tomorrow’s audience won’t like it and an audience ten years from now won’t love it. So, Ramsay shouldn’t feel too bad about the grade. If anything, it means people had a response to the film. It was negative, but maybe that’s just what Ramsay intended. Will Jennifer Lawrence still nab an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for the film? It’s anyone’s guess at this particular point in time, but we’ll keep you posted as the nominations get closer over the next few months.
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