Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

The only way through is to slog through the muck one step at at time.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

I would gladly pay you tuesday for a hamburger today.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

75% of people clapping liked the show!

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

The revolution will be supervised.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

You cannot shame the shameless.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

You are here: Home / Politics / Glibertarianism / The Free Market is a Cruel Mistress

The Free Market is a Cruel Mistress

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It appears that the director of Atlas Shrugged: The Debacle is mooning the invisible hand and will go Galt:

Twelve days after opening “Atlas Shrugged: Part 1,” the producer of the Ayn Rand adaptation said Tuesday that he is reconsidering his plans to make Parts 2 and 3 because of scathing reviews and flagging box office returns for the film.

“Critics, you won,” said John Aglialoro, the businessman who spent 18 years and more than $20 million of his own money to make, distribute and market “Atlas Shrugged: Part 1,” which covers the first third of Rand’s dystopian novel. “I’m having deep second thoughts on why I should do Part 2.”

“Atlas Shrugged” was the top-grossing limited release in its opening weekend, generating $1.7 million on 299 screens and earning a respectable $5,640 per screen. But the the box office dropped off 47% in the film’s second week in release even as “Atlas Shrugged” expanded to 425 screens, and the movie seemed to hold little appeal for audiences beyond the core group of Rand fans to whom it was marketed.

***

“Why should I put up all of that money if the critics are coming in like lemmings?” Aglialoro said. “I’ll make my money back and I’ll make a profit, but do I wanna go and do two? Maybe I just wanna see my grandkids and go on strike.”

There can only be one response to his threats to Go Galt and refuse to bring us parts 2 and 3:

Atlas Shrugged, and I Got Soaked

Reader Interactions

106Comments

  1. 1.

    Emma

    This on top of Obama’s little lesson in kicking the press this morning? My day is topfilled with joy.

  2. 2.

    Shoemaker-Levy 9

    the movie seemed to hold little appeal for audiences beyond the core group of Rand fans to whom it was marketed.

    And liberal bloggers. Don’t forget the liberal bloggers.

  4. 4.

    Jay in Oregon

    I was reading an AS review on Rotten Tomatoes last night, and the reviewer referred to it as Atlas Shrugged: The Phantom Menace.

    I giggled for like 5 minutes.

  5. 5.

    Alex Gurney Halleck-S.

    But the audience will be there! Look at how many comments Ron Paul got on a website!

  6. 6.

    PurpleGirl

    So he didn’t start filming pieces of parts 2 and 3 while filming part 1? That was stupid.

    If he goes Galt now and doesn’t film parts 2 and 3 he won’t be able to sell Atlas Shrugged: The Director’s Cut (A 3-DVD boxed set with a special printing of the novel).

  8. 8.

    Jon H

    And apparently the core group of Rand fans is much smaller than the number of people who buy her books every year. Probably because most of the people who buy her books each year quickly realize the book is crap and whoever told them to read it is a moron.

  9. 9.

    Bob Loblaw

    Ok Cole, I think you’ve embarrassed yourself enough now. It’s time to put down the Atlas Shrugged-Andrew Sullivan crackpipe and admit you have a problem.

    We can’t in good conscience mock Hermione_chan for her fixation with E.D. Kain if she isn’t even the most obsessive person here.

  10. 10.

    Dave

    “Why should I put up all of that money if the critics are coming in like lemmings?” Aglialoro said. “I’ll make my money back and I’ll make a profit…

    Not so fast there, Chuckles. As of Sunday, your film had grossed just over $3M and dropped to 18th on the weekly gross list. Half that $3M in ticket money goes to the theaters. So you only have to make up $18.5M to break even.

    But wait! You forgot about residuals. So when you print those Blu-Rays for Regnerey to pimp out to the teahadists and make your profit, remember that some of that money is going to your main actors. Never mind paying to make the DVDs in the first place.

    That invisible hand is a real bitch…

  11. 11.

    Jon H

    @PurpleGirl: “So he didn’t start filming pieces of parts 2 and 3 while filming part 1? That was stupid.”

    To be fair, it’s not like he had to worry the cast would move on to other things and become unavailable for the sequels.

  13. 13.

    Andrew Beck

    @Dave

    I’m pretty sure they’ll make the money back on DVD and Blu-Ray. Conservative organizations will buy them up and give them out as free gifts for attending conservative conferences, subscribing to magazines, etc. It’s the conservative welfare they use.

  14. 14.

    quaint irene

    said Tuesday that he is reconsidering his plans to make Parts 2 and 3 because of scathing reviews and flagging box office returns for the film.said Tuesday that he is reconsidering his plans to make Parts 2 and 3

    No worries, John. If it’s good enough for Mel Brooks (History of the World, Part l) it’s good enough for you.

    Yeah, all those meanie liberal critics ganging up on you. Kinda like how the architectural community ganged up on Roark in ‘The Fountainhead.” How often nature imitates art!

  15. 15.

    quaint irene

    said Tuesday that he is reconsidering his plans to make Parts 2 and 3 because of scathing reviews and flagging box office returns for the film.said Tuesday that he is reconsidering his plans to make Parts 2 and 3

    No worries, John. If it’s good enough for Mel Brooks (History of the World, Part l) it’s good enough for you.

    Yeah, all those meanie liberal critics ganging up on you. Kinda like how the architectural community ganged up on Roark in ‘The Fountainhead.” because he was too controversial. How often life imitates art!

  16. 16.

    Trinity

    @Jon H: My first husband strongly suggested that I read AS and gave me his “prized copy”. I can’t recall if I made it through the first chapter.

    We were divorced within a year.

  17. 17.

    Roger Moore

    @Bob Loblaw:

    We can’t in good conscience mock Hermione_chan for her fixation with E.D. Kain if she isn’t even the most obsessive person here.

    Sure we can. We just have to mock Cole even harder for his fixations. This is Balloon-Juice; we can do it!

  19. 19.

    Canadian Shoggoth

    Wait for studio to go bankrupt, buy rights at firesale prices. make campy spoof musical of part 3 (Galt’s speech of doom) ala Rocky Horror/Repo the Genetic Opera, Profit!

  20. 20.

    fasteddie9318

    By his own excuse for a philosophy, shouldn’t Aglialoro recognize that the market has deemed his effort insufficient and redouble his efforts toward making a better product?

  21. 21.

    MikeBoyScout

    Springtime for the Invisible Hand.

    As sheety as the real world is, the Atlas Shrugged (Part 1) the MOVIE has been a real comic relief.

  23. 23.

    Lurking Canadian

    The true Randian response would be to gather all extant copies of the movie and blow them up in a fit of pique.

  25. 25.

    Jon H

    @fasteddie9318: “By his own excuse for a philosophy, shouldn’t Aglialoro recognize that the market has deemed his effort insufficient and redouble his efforts toward making a better product?”

    See, he’s analyzed the issue with his faculty for reason, and concluded that the film is a superior and flawless creative production, as it must be, being a product of his faculty for reason, he being a successful captain of the fitness industry and thus a Producer. Therefore, if the movie is failing in the market, it must be because of the friggin looters.

  26. 26.

    Nemesis

    @Canadian Shoggoth: The Rand people own the rights. The director was “rushed” into production by the impending rights expiration, hence, his excuse for creating a floater.

  32. 32.

    dj spellchecka

    red state pay per view might save this…

    won’t be the first time a cheaply made, poorly acted, badly reviewed fantasy film ends up finding a cult audience.

    wolverines!

  33. 33.

    bcw

    Someone mentioned “the Producers” indirectly. We need to think about this – this may be the big money winner of the century: Atlas Shrugged, the musical. Hit up a few hundred blue haired teapartiers for $100K front money, offering 30% of profits each; throw in the US Chamber of Commerce and Americans for Prosperity and other front groups for $10M-$20M a pop; write “Springtime for Dagny and Readon Steel;” close in one night and retire rich.

    A whole lot safer than writing a sure hit like “Springtime for Hitler.”

  34. 34.

    Jon H

    The amusing thing is that this guy’s rushing of a crap movie is not unlike the scene in the book where a bureaucrat forces the train to roll with an unsuitable engine (or whatever) on a track through a tunnel, and everybody dies.

  35. 35.

    MikeBoyScout

    Maybe I just wanna see my grandkids

    For christ’s sake, get out there and see this movie!
    Think of the children! Those poor children!

  37. 37.

    cthulhu

    I have to say that I was hoping that they would go forward with making Part III into a musical. But life never works out quite that well…

  40. 40.

    Nellcote

    Maybe I just wanna see my grandkids and go on strike

    His grandkids should strike him with large sticks for blowing their inheritance on such crap.

  41. 41.

    Jon H

    @bcw: “We need to think about this – this may be the big money winner of the century: Atlas Shrugged, the musical.”

    Wasn’t “Urinetown” something like this?

    “According to Lockstock and Little Sally, a twenty-year drought has caused a terrible water shortage, making private toilets unthinkable. All restroom activities are done in public toilets controlled by a megacorporation[7] called “Urine Good Company” (or UGC). To control water consumption, people have to pay to use the amenities. There are harsh laws ensuring that people pay to pee, and if they are broken, the offender is sent to a penal colony called “Urinetown”, never to return.”

  44. 44.

    gex

    @Nutella: Just what I was going to key on. Clearly market forces work in every other realm, but when his shit fails it is because of mean people and not the marketplace.

  46. 46.

    bjacques

    @Jon H 40:

    I was wondering what that was! It was playing here in Amsterdam a week or two ago. Don’t watch Waterworld before seeing this…

  48. 48.

    Brachiator

    Ah, well. Too bad they couldn’t get David Manning to review Atlas Shrugged. “He” would have praised it to high heaven.

    “David Manning” was a fictitious film critic, created by a marketing executive working for Sony Corporation around July 2000 to give consistently good reviews for releases from Sony subsidiary Columbia Pictures.

  50. 50.

    gex

    His grandkids will probably be able to fully appreciate the ultimate Randian move: striking throwing a temper tantrum

  51. 51.

    Woodrowfan

    yes, because no film that the critics all hated ever made money (cough) American Pie I, II and III (cough)

  52. 52.

    ...now I try to be amused

    Future trivia question: What do John Aglialoro and Ralph Bakshi have in common?

  53. 53.

    lacp

    What kind of Randian super-hero is this asshole? If he were true to his principles he’d realize that when life hands you lemmings you make lemmingade. Jeez.

  55. 55.

    Bob L

    But think of the titles for Atlas Shrugs II & III; The Looters Strike Back & Return of the Producers or The Two Speeches and Return of the Galt and so forth. All that beautiful snarkyness lost because these stupid libertarians won’t throw more money away.

  56. 56.

    Tonal Crow

    So it’s “Going Galt ™” — and a great thing — when GOPers do it, but it’s “going on strike” — and a horror that must be prevented by all means necessary — when the common man does it?

    Amirite?

  57. 57.

    Weldon Berger

    I think it’s important to note that Aglialoro never said the film was good; only that critics trashed it. He did say that “[t]he New York Times gave us the most hateful review of all. They didn’t cover it,” thereby indicating that he thinks newspapers were obligated to review the film rather than exercising their own discretion. How anti-Galtian can one get?

  59. 59.

    Dennis

    Aglialoro seems to be oblivious to one very obvious possibility: people stayed away from the theaters because the movie simply didn’t look very good.

    Speaking as one who enjoyed the book, flaws and all, that’s why I stayed away.

  61. 61.

    ChrisFS

    You can’t go on strike unless you are actually employed by someone, and it’s not a strike if you just do it by yourself, you need a group, or …union, to organize a strike altogether.

  63. 63.

    wenchacha

    Oh noes!!! Whatever will all true lovers of film art do if Grampy takes his pouts to the grandkids’ place and deprives us all of real honest cinema?

  64. 64.

    fish

    Perhaps they should have called it “A Randian Carol”

    An American Carol which opened on 1,639 screens nationwide, finished ninth at the box office that week, with a gross of $3.8 million, or a per-screen average of $2,325.
    For its second weekend, An American Carol had a 58.8 percent drop in box office receipts and dropped to #15, grossing $1,505,000 at 1,621 theaters or $928 per screen.[20]
    The film faded in the box office in its third weekend dropping 73.8 percent and finishing #21 at 599 theaters grossing $365,000 or $609 per screen.[21] In its fourth weekend, it dropped to #41 at 109 theaters grossing $60,000 or $550 per screen.[22]
    As of October 2009, An American Carol has grossed $7 million after having a production budget of $20 million.[23]

  65. 65.

    Jon H

    @Tom65: “Maybe they should have released it as Medea Builds A Railroad”

    Or even better, “Madea Gets Railroaded”

  66. 66.

    Jon H

    Note that he’s not threatening to shutter his company Cybex and thus deny us his productive essence.

    Clue: Going Galt doesn’t work if you’re going Galt only in your half-assed dilettante hobby that nobody was buying anyway.

  69. 69.

    Ken

    the top-grossing limited release in its opening weekend

    I love statistics like this, where they throw in lots of extra qualifiers. I think of them as “baseball stats” – the sort of things the sportscasters (or the computers in the booths) come up with to fill the time between pitches. “He’s 3 for 13 against left-handed batters on days over 80 degrees” and so forth.

  71. 71.

    jim filyaw

    if i had my way, every m.s.m. hack who swooned at the ‘seriousness’ of paul ryan would (ala the movie ‘red dragon) be super glued to a theater seat with his eyelids stapled to his forehead and forced to watch the director’s cut of this trash until he starts babbling about the wisdom of ayn rand.

  72. 72.

    NonyNony

    @Tonal Crow:

    How’s he going to “make a profit” when the movie cost $20M to produce, and it’s rapidly dying after having grossed only about $3M in theatres?

    I’m sure he’s counting on DVD sales and the international market. I’m sure that if he is, he will be disappointed. I can’t imagine that there are many folks in the international market who would want to watch this tripe either.

    The man was delusional enough to think there was a sizeable market for a theatrical version of “Ayn Rand’s Mary Sue and Sockpuppet Theater”. If you’ve drunk the Kool-Aid on THAT there’s almost nothing you won’t believe.

    And on top of that I’d argue that once you subscribe to the Religion of Objectivism, you’ve proven yourself a Giant All-Day Sucker and there’s probably very little that strokes your ego that you won’t believe.

  74. 74.

    Rick Taylor

    “Why should I put up all of that money if the critics are coming in like lemmings?”

    Uhh, what exactly is that metaphor supposed to mean?

  75. 75.

    Midnight Marauder

    @Andrew Beck:

    I’m pretty sure they’ll make the money back on DVD and Blu-Ray. Conservative organizations will buy them up and give them out as free gifts for attending conservative conferences, subscribing to magazines, etc. It’s the conservative welfare they use.

    I don’t think even conservative welfare can put this failure back in the black.

    Ever.

  76. 76.

    IrishGirl

    Stupid millionaire…the critics didn’t win….the Market won because the audience didn’t like your film. Funny how they love the mysterious hand of the market when its in their favor but not so much when it isn’t.

  77. 77.

    Horatio

    Honestly–since when does anyone care what critics write? In the past ten years in particular, film critics have absolutely trashed many films that have gone on to do huge box office. While the studios still like for their films to be positively reviewed, the days of kowtowing to critics with press junkets and guaranteed press screenings are long gone. Film critics are a dying breed and blaming the lack of success for his film on its critical reception is simply lame. What he really needed was to spend another $20 million on marketing, because that’s what gets people in the seats…

  78. 78.

    NonyNony

    @Rick Taylor:

    Uhh, what exactly is that metaphor supposed to mean?

    My parsing of it is “the critics are all following along with one another and bashing it”.

    I admit – I needed a LOT of context to get that read, but it’s the only one that makes sense. When I originally read it I thought he was complaining that the critics ignored it at first but now they were all coming in one after another to see it. But since that isn’t a complaint I have to go with the read above…

  79. 79.

    Paul Hobbs

    It was a shitty book with an absurd premise. The dialog was laughable to me at the age of sixteen.
    How in the hell could anyone have made a decent film out that piece of crap?

  80. 80.

    Cerberus

    Oh, libertarians, you are always the same.

    “It’s not that I’m a failure in creating anything worth a damn to humanity, it’s all the damn moochers and leeches of society seeking to destroy my brilliance that has cost me.”

    At least, it’s consistent to the book’s poutrage that mean old government is trying to shut down magic working things because increased accidents and destroyed infrastructure is exactly what centralized governments (rather than decentralized rich bastards exploiting centralized governments) want.

    I still don’t know how anyone can even pretend to respect a philosophy that regardless of everything else about it that is wrong as fuck it is at its base most repeated level utterly indistinguishable from a 6-year-old throwing a temper tantrum because mommy has to go to work today.

  82. 82.

    Death Panel Truck

    “Why should I put up all of that money if the critics are coming in like lemmings?”

    Blaming the critics is always so much easier than just admitting you made a shitty movie no one gives a fuck about.

  83. 83.

    soonergrunt

    @lacp:

    when life hands you lemmings you make lemmingade.

    Where would you like your internets delivered?

  84. 84.

    soonergrunt

    @Midnight Marauder:

    I don’t think even conservative welfare can put this failure back in the black…Ever.

    And the upside to that is that it will be extremely unlikely that this movie will be remade, or that any other Ayn Rand movie will ever be made again, after the level of fail seen here.

  85. 85.

    Matt

    In related news, I’d like to announce that I will no longer be having casual sex with supermodels – I’M ON STRIKE! ;)

  86. 86.

    JoJo

    I have an idea for the sequels. After John Galt makes the sign of the dollar, I’d cut to some ‘Simpson’s Comic Book Guy” type loser wakes up in his basement lair before heading out to his fast food job.

  90. 90.

    Phoebe

    That picture makes my heart sing. Like Madeline Khan at the end of Young Frankenstein.

  91. 91.

    pseudonymous in nc

    All the reporting suggested that the POS only went into production so that they could retain the option, so it’s hardly a surprise that he’ll either sit on his hands for another decade or look to shop the rights somewhere else.

  93. 93.

    bcw

    Corpsicle said

    Can’t wait for the porn parody.

    — Can’t wait to find out what “going Galt” would be…

    something to do with santorum, I expect.

  94. 94.

    jim filyaw

    don’t be too sure nobody can make money off this bomb. just consider what the ownership of ‘plan nine from outer space’ or ‘reefer madness’ would be worth now. o.k., i admit those movies had better source material.

  95. 95.

    Badtux

    So the market’s answer to the question “Who is John Galt” apparently is, “Who cares?”. Alrighty, then!

    – Badtux the Snarky Penguin

  97. 97.

    scarshapedstar

    This had to be the plan all along. It just had to be.

    I mean, for the producer to go Galt… it’s the only way it could have ended. This is the most epic performance art piece of all time.

  99. 99.

    Red Jenny

    If he won’t tell you the ending, I will. Atlas turns out to be Fontaine, you kill Andrew Ryan and save the Little Sisters.

  100. 100.

    Hart Williams

    Answering the age old question, “If The Invisible Hand of the Market Bitch-Slapped You and You Didn’t Want to Hear It, Would It Make a Sound?”

    Evidently not.

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