Crimson Peak and Hollywood's inability to market a movie

By now, it's obvious that my wish for Crimson Peak to cause waves at the box office isn't coming true. It had an abysmal opening weekend, did not bounce back with word-of-mouth, and didn't shake the international box office. According to BoxOfficeMojo, it made back its budget, but you don't need to be a finances maverick to know that a studio doesn't sink fifty-five million into a movie (plus the promo budget) to make back under twenty million in profit.

There are probably many reasons why this movie failed, or close to it, at the box office. Some of them are obvious. The economy is poor and consumers have less money to spend on entertainment. When they do go to the movies, they're much more likely to throw down some cold cash for a franchise that has proven itself to be competent, if not groundbreaking. Del Toro, much as I love him, just isn't a wow-type director that will put asses in seats with his name alone (is there such a director anymore?). Maybe the movie just wasn't as good as I thought it was (I recognize when I enjoy something because of nostalgia and personal taste rather than inherent quality).

But mostly, I think the promo for the movie was just inadequate. I mean, just look at this trailer:

I liked it, but then I liked almost everything about the movie. And as I said in my first post about the subject, I would go see just about anything by del Toro.

Judith Ivory's "The Proposition": One of my favorite Romance novels

This is one of those books I go back to once or twice a year to reread my favorite chapters/scenes. Its plot is nothing earth shattering: an upper class, "ugly duckling" spinster living in genteel "poverty" teaches a chimney sweep/rat catcher how to act like an upper class gentleman. This all happens because a pair of d-bags make a bet that some street rat can't learn to be upper class or whatever, and of course there's some intrigue where the street rat is secretly a noble all along, but whatever. That's not what stuck out to me about this story.

Both leads are really likable and well developed. They both have their moments of vulnerability and strength. The female lead might be well-educated and upper class, but she's still a woman. Her business teaching other ugly ducklings of high society how to behave at dinner parties will be destroyed if she's caught "living" with a street rat. Mick might be a man, and big and strong, but he will pretty much be killed if he's caught fooling the upper classes at one of their parties, especially if he's caught "seducing an innocent". 

And I do like the opening quite a bit:

The most highborn lady Mick had ever been with - the wife of a sitting member of the House of Lords, as it turned out - told him that the French had a name for what she felt for him, a name that put words to her wanting his "lionhearted virility" - he liked the phrase and remembered it.

"A yearning for the mud," she told him. "That's what the French called it."  

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