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Mouse Hunt

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For the game, see MouseHunt.
Mouse Hunt
Theatrical release poster
Directed byGore Verbinski
Written byAdam Rifkin
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyPhedon Papamichael
Edited byCraig Wood
Music byAlan Silvestri
Distributed byDreamWorks Pictures
Release date
  • December 19, 1997 (1997-12-19)
Running time
98 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$38 million
Box office$122.4 million

Mouse Hunt is a 1997 American dark comedy slapstick film directed by Gore Verbinski in his directorial debut, written by Adam Rifkin and starring Nathan Lane and Lee Evans, and featured William Hickey,[1] who died shortly after the film was shot. It was the first family film to be released by DreamWorks Pictures, who released it in the United States on December 19, 1997.

The film follows two Laurel and Hardy-like brothers in their struggle against one small but crafty house mouse for possession of a mansion willed to them by their father. The film is set in a humorously indeterminate 20th-century time period, with styles ranging from the 1940s to the 1990s.

Plot summary

Once-wealthy string magnate Rudolf Smuntz (William Hickey) dies, leaving his factory and run-down mansion to his sons, Lars (Lee Evans) and Ernie (Nathan Lane). When Lars refuses a buyout from Zeppco, his money-hungry wife April (Vicki Lewis) throws him out. Meanwhile, Ernie's dream of becoming a famous chef is dashed when the city mayor (Cliff Emmich) has a heart attack brought on by a culinary disaster in which the mayor eats a cockroach, and Ernie's restaurant is closed by the Board of Health. The despondent brothers find solace in their father's mansion.

Ernie and Lars discover that the property is a lost masterpiece by famed architect Charles Lyle LaRue, worth a fortune if properly restored. Multi-millionaire LaRue collector Alexander Falko (Maury Chaykin) makes an offer, but Ernie refuses, believing he and Lars can make a larger profit at auction. However, the house has one stubborn occupant: a resourceful and treacherous mouse. Lars is dismissive but Ernie, haunted by the cockroach incident, is determined to eliminate any vermin that could ruin their plan.

Ernie and Lars try an escalating series of tactics to kill the rodent, each failing spectacularly and damaging the house even more. They are served with a repossession warning by the bank from an overdue mortgage payment. The brothers try to raise the money by withholding pay from the factory workers, triggering a strike. A hapless Lars tries to run the machinery by himself but ends up losing his clothes after getting entangled in the machinery. He is unexpectedly reunited with April, who has learned of the auction and the brothers' prospective fortune.

The brothers purchase a psychotic cat named "Catzilla," whom the mouse leads on a destructive rampage and into the dumbwaiter to the cat's demise. An eccentric exterminator named Caesar (Christopher Walken) is hired, but the mouse attaches him to the winch of his own truck and violently drags him out of the house. Ernie tries to revive the deal with Zeppco behind Lars' back, but his meeting is thwarted when he is hit by a bus while trying to impress two Belgian hair models, Ingrid (Debra Christofferson) and Hilde (Camilla Søeberg). As Ernie is taken to the hospital, Lars informs him that April has given them the money to pay off the mortgage.

Returning to the further damaged house, the brothers resume their crusade with explosive but unsuccessful results. An answerphone message from Zeppco reveals Lars' rejection of their initial offer without telling Ernie, and Ernie's attempt to sell the factory in secret, which has resulted in Zeppco withdrawing their proposal. The ensuing argument culminates in Lars throwing an orange at Ernie which misses, instead hitting the mouse and knocking it unconscious. Unable to finish him off themselves, they seal the mouse in a box and mail him to Fidel Castro in Cuba. The brothers reconcile and renovate the house.

The night of the auction, Falko offers $10 million, but Ernie again refuses, and the auction begins. Lars discovers the mouse's box, returned due to insufficient postage and with a hole gnawed out of it. The mouse devours their father's "lucky string," making their vendetta even more personal. The brothers attempt to flush out the mouse by feeding a garden hose into the wall. As the auction reaches a record $25 million bid, the house suddenly floods, washing everyone outside as the mansion collapses. The attendees leave, as does April with a wealthy buyer. The brothers' sole consolation is knowing the mouse must finally be dead, as their father's "lucky string" is found in the wreckage, which they accidentally pull in half.

With nowhere else to go, the brothers return to the factory and fall asleep with a single chunk of cheese to eat. Having survived and followed them on the underside of the car, the mouse starts the machinery and inserts the cheese, inventing the world's first string cheese. Inspired, Ernie and Lars surrender to the mouse and rebuild the factory as a novelty string cheese company. Lars begins a relationship with Hilde, and Ernie puts his culinary skill to work developing new cheese flavors, with the mouse as his personal taste-tester.

The film ends with the "lucky string" on display beside Rudolf's portrait, with an inscription of his motto: "A world without string is chaos."

Cast

Reception

Mouse Hunt received mixed reviews from film critics. Rotten Tomatoes reports that 42% of 31 critics had given the film a positive review. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale. Roger Ebert gave the film two stars, calling it "not very funny, and maybe couldn't have been very funny no matter what, because the pieces for comedy are not in place... A comedy that hasn't assigned sympathy to some characters and made others hateful cannot expect to get many laughs, because the audience doesn't know who to laugh at, or with."

Regarding the digital special effects, Ebert deemed the film "an excellent example of the way modern advances in special effects can sabotage a picture (Titanic is an example of effects being used wisely). Because it is possible to make a movie in which the mouse can do all sorts of clever things, the filmmakers have assumed incorrectly that it would be funny to see the mouse doing them."[2]

Box office

Including revenue from the 2012 and 2017 reissues, Titanic earned $659.4 million in North America and $1.528 billion in other countries, for a worldwide total of $2.187 billion.[3] It became the highest-grossing film of all time worldwide in 1998, and remained so for twelve years, until Avatar (2009), also written and directed by Cameron, surpassed it in 2010.[4] On March 1, 1998,[5] it became the first film to earn more than $1 billion worldwide[6] and on the weekend April 13–15, 2012—a century after the original vessel's foundering, Titanic became the second film to cross the $2 billion threshold during its 3D re-release.[7] Box Office Mojo estimates that Titanic is the fifth highest-grossing film of all time in North America when adjusting for ticket price inflation.[8] The site also estimates that the film sold over 128 million tickets in the US in its initial theatrical run.[9]

Titanic was the first foreign-language film to succeed in India, which has the largest movie-going audience in the world.[10] A 2017 Hindustan Times report attributes this to the film's similarities and shared themes with most Bollywood films.[11]

Initial theatrical run

The film received steady attendance after opening in North America on Friday, December 19, 1997. By the end of that same weekend, theaters were beginning to sell out. The film earned $8,658,814 on its opening day and $28,638,131 over the opening weekend from 2,674 theaters, averaging to about $10,710 per venue, and ranking number one at the box office, ahead of the eighteenth James Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies. By New Year's Day, Titanic had made over $120 million, had increased in popularity and theaters continued to sell out. Its highest grossing single day was Saturday, February 14, 1998, on which it earned $13,048,711, more than eight weeks after its North American debut.[12][13] It stayed at number one for 15 consecutive weeks in North America, a record for any film.[14] The film stayed in theaters in North America for almost 10 months before finally closing on Thursday, October 1, 1998 with a final domestic gross of $600,788,188.[15] (equivalent to $1140.3  million in 2023[16]) Outside North America, the film made double its North American gross, generating $1,242,413,080[17] and accumulating a grand total of $1,843,201,268 worldwide from its initial theatrical run.[18]

Commercial analysis

Before Titanic's release, various film critics predicted the film would be a significant disappointment at the box office, especially due to it being the most expensive film ever made at the time.[19][20][21][22] When it was shown to the press in autumn of 1997, "it was with massive forebodings" since the "people in charge of the screenings believed they were on the verge of losing their jobs – because of this great albatross of a picture on which, finally, two studios had to combine to share the great load of its making".[21] Cameron also thought he was "headed for disaster" at one point during filming. "We labored the last six months on Titanic in the absolute knowledge that the studio would lose $100 million. It was a certainty," he stated.[19] As the film neared release, "particular venom was spat at Cameron for what was seen as his hubris and monumental extravagance". A film critic for the Los Angeles Times wrote that "Cameron's overweening pride has come close to capsizing this project" and that the film was "a hackneyed, completely derivative copy of old Hollywood romances".[19]

"It's hard to forget the director on the stage of the Shrine Auditorium in LA, exultant, pumping a golden Oscar statuette into the air and shouting: 'I'm the king of the world!' As everyone knew, that was the most famous line in Titanic, exclaimed by Leonardo DiCaprio's character as he leaned into the wind on the prow of the doomed vessel. Cameron's incantation of the line was a giant 'eff off', in front of a television audience approaching a billion, to all the naysayers, especially those sitting right in front of him."
— Christopher Goodwin of The Times on Cameron's response to Titanic's criticism[19]

When the film became a success, with an unprecedented box office performance, it was credited for being a love story that captured its viewers' emotions.[20] The film was playing on 3,200 screens ten weeks after it opened,[21] and out of its fifteen straight weeks on top of the charts, jumped 43% in total sales in its ninth week of release. It earned over $20 million a week for ten weeks,[23] and after 14 weeks was still bringing in more than $1 million a week.[21] 20th Century Fox estimated that seven percent of American teenage girls had seen Titanic twice by its fifth week.[24] Although young women who saw the film several times, and subsequently caused "Leo-Mania", were often credited with having primarily propelled the film to its all-time box office record,[25] other reports have attributed the film's success to positive word of mouth and repeat viewership due to the love story combined with the ground-breaking special effects.[23][26]

The film's impact on men has also been especially credited.[27][28][29] Considered one of the films that make men cry,[27][28] MSNBC's Ian Hodder stated that men admire Jack's sense of adventure and his ambitious behavior to win over Rose, which contributes to their emotional attachment to Jack.[27] The film's ability to make men cry was briefly parodied in the 2009 film Zombieland, where character Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), when recalling the death of his young son, states: "I haven't cried like that since Titanic."[30]

In 2010, the BBC analyzed the stigma over men crying during Titanic and films in general. "Middle-aged men are not 'supposed' to cry during movies," stated Finlo Rohrer of the website, citing the ending of Titanic as having generated such tears, adding that "men, if they have felt weepy during [this film], have often tried to be surreptitious about it." Professor Mary Beth Oliver, of Penn State University, stated, "For many men, there is a great deal of pressure to avoid expression of 'female' emotions like sadness and fear. From a very young age, males are taught that it is inappropriate to cry, and these lessons are often accompanied by a great deal of ridicule when the lessons aren't followed." Rohrer said, "Indeed, some men who might sneer at the idea of crying during Titanic will readily admit to becoming choked up during Saving Private Ryan or Platoon." For men in general, "the idea of sacrifice for a 'brother' is a more suitable source of emotion".[28]

Scott Meslow of The Atlantic stated while Titanic initially seems to need no defense, given its success, it is considered a film "for 15-year-old girls" by its main detractors. He argued that dismissing Titanic as fodder for 15-year-old girls fails to consider the film's accomplishment: "that [this] grandiose, 3+ hour historical romantic drama is a film for everyone—including teenage boys." Meslow stated that despite the film being ranked high by males under the age of 18, matching the ratings for teenage boy-targeted films like Iron Man, it is common for boys and men to deny liking Titanic. He acknowledged his own rejection of the film as a child while secretly loving it. "It's this collection of elements—the history, the romance, the action—that made (and continues to make) Titanic an irresistible proposition for audiences of all ages across the globe," he stated. "Titanic has flaws, but for all its legacy, it's better than its middlebrow reputation would have you believe. It's a great movie for 15-year-old girls, but that doesn't mean it's not a great movie for everyone else too."[29]

Quotes in the film aided its popularity. Titanic's catchphrase "I'm the king of the world!" became one of the film industry's more popular quotations.[31][32] According to Richard Harris, a psychology professor at Kansas State University, who studied why people like to cite films in social situations, using film quotations in everyday conversation is similar to telling a joke and a way to form solidarity with others. "People are doing it to feel good about themselves, to make others laugh, to make themselves laugh", he said.[32]

Cameron explained the film's success as having significantly benefited from the experience of sharing. "When people have an experience that's very powerful in the movie theatre, they want to go share it. They want to grab their friend and bring them, so that they can enjoy it," he said. "They want to be the person to bring them the news that this is something worth having in their life. That's how Titanic worked."[33] Media Awareness Network stated, "The normal repeat viewing rate for a blockbuster theatrical film is about 5%. The repeat rate for Titanic was over 20%."[34] The box office receipts "were even more impressive" when factoring in "the film's 3-hour-and-14-minute length meant that it could only be shown three times a day compared to a normal movie's four showings". In response to this, "[m]any theatres started midnight showings and were rewarded with full houses until almost 3:30 am".[34]

Titanic held the record for box office gross for twelve years.[35] Cameron's follow-up film, Avatar, was considered the first film with a genuine chance at surpassing its worldwide gross,[36][37] and did so in 2010.[4] Various explanations for why the film was able to successfully challenge Titanic were given. For one, "Two-thirds of Titanic's haul was earned overseas, and Avatar [tracked] similarly... Avatar opened in 106 markets globally and was no. 1 in all of them" and the markets "such as Russia, where Titanic saw modest receipts in 1997 and 1998, are white-hot today" with "more screens and moviegoers" than ever before.[38] Brandon Gray, president of Box Office Mojo, said that while Avatar may beat Titanic's revenue record, the film is unlikely to surpass Titanic in attendance. "Ticket prices were about $3 cheaper in the late 1990s."[36] In December 2009, Cameron had stated, "I don't think it's realistic to try to topple Titanic off its perch. Some pretty good movies have come out in the last few years. Titanic just struck some kind of chord."[23] In a January 2010 interview, he gave a different take on the matter once Avatar's performance was easier to predict. "It's gonna happen. It's just a matter of time," he said.[37]

Author Alexandra Keller, when analyzing Titanic's success, stated that scholars could agree that the film's popularity "appears dependent on contemporary culture, on perceptions of history, on patterns of consumerism and globalization, as well as on those elements experienced filmgoers conventionally expect of juggernaut film events in the 1990s – awesome screen spectacle, expansive action, and, more rarely seen, engaging characters and epic drama."[39]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Mouse Hunt". Turner Classic Movies. Atlanta: Turner Broadcasting System (Time Warner). Retrieved July 4, 2016.
  2. ^ Ebert, Roger. "Mouse Hunt Movie Review & Film Summary (1997) - Roger Ebert". www.rogerebert.com.
  3. ^ "Titanic (1997)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved June 8, 2012.
  4. ^ a b "Cameron does it again as 'Avatar' surpasses 'Titanic'". Newsday. February 3, 2010. Retrieved October 26, 2010.
  5. ^ Titanic and the Making of James Cameron: The Inside Story of the Three-Year ... – Paula Parisi – Google Books
  6. ^ "Titanic sinks competitors without a trace". BBC News. February 25, 1998. Retrieved February 19, 2007.
  7. ^ "Titanic becomes second ever film to take $2 billion". The Daily Telegraph. London. April 16, 2012. Retrieved April 16, 2012.
  8. ^ "All Time Box Office Adjusted for Ticket Price Inflation". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
  9. ^ "Titanic (1997)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
  10. ^ Burns, John F. (April 28, 1998). "Why 'Titanic' Conquered the World; New Delhi". New York Times. Retrieved May 20, 2018.
  11. ^ Sharma, Sanjukta (December 24, 2017). "To Titanic, the most Bollywood Hollywood movie ever made". Hindustan Times. Retrieved May 20, 2018.
  12. ^ "Titanic (1997) – Daily Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 17, 2012.
  13. ^ "Titanic (1997) – Weekend Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 17, 2012.
  14. ^ "BEST RANKING MOVIES by Weekend Rank, 1982–Present". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved January 19, 2010.
  15. ^ "Titanic (1997) – Release Summary". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 17, 2012.
  16. ^ 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.
  17. ^ "Titanic (1997) – Overseas Total". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 17, 2012.
  18. ^ "The Billion Dollar film club". The Daily Telegraph. London. August 1, 2012. Retrieved April 16, 2012.
  19. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference entertainment.timesonline.co.uk was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ a b Davis, Jason (March 24, 1998). "Love story that won the heart of the Academy: The love story that stole the world's hearts". BBC News. Retrieved September 11, 2007.
  21. ^ a b c d Thomson, David (December 10, 2007). "Titanic achievement at the box office". The Guardian. London. Retrieved January 8, 2010.
  22. ^ Willcock, Benjamin. "Benjamin Willcock takes a look at the long-awaited special edition of Titanic". dvdactive.com. Retrieved January 19, 2010.
  23. ^ a b c Ditzian, Eric (January 4, 2010). "Will 'Avatar' Top James Cameron's 'Titanic' Box-Office Record?". MTV. Retrieved January 8, 2010.
  24. ^ Busch, Anita M. (1998-03-06). "Was Leonardo Robbed?". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 23 November 2013.
  25. ^ O'Neill, Anne-Marie (January 26, 1998). "Riding the Wave". People. Retrieved January 8, 2010.
  26. ^ "Titanic (1997)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved December 7, 2006.
  27. ^ a b c Hodder, Ian (March 6, 2007). "Sniff, sniff ... 7 movies that make guys cry". MSNBC. Retrieved January 8, 2010.
  28. ^ a b c Rohrer, Finlo (July 16, 2010). "A new type of tear-jerker". BBC News. Retrieved August 5, 2010. Over the years misty eyes have been generated by the death of Bambi's mother, the killing of the kestrel in Kes, the ending of Titanic, or Jenny's death in Love Story.
  29. ^ a b Meslow, Scott (April 6, 2012). "Boys Can Love 'Titanic,' Too". The Atlantic. Retrieved October 22, 2015.
  30. ^ Loder, Kurt (October 2, 2009). "Woody Harrelson brings the laughs in a high-spirited monster mow-down". MTV. Retrieved December 6, 2010.
  31. ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes" (PDF). American Film Institute. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-16. Retrieved January 19, 2010.
  32. ^ a b Pawlowski, A (March 9, 2009). "You talkin' to me? Film quotes stir passion". CNN. Retrieved January 21, 2010.
  33. ^ Carroll, Jason (November 23, 2009). "CNN's Jason Carroll interviews director James Cameron about his new film "Avatar." (Video.)". CNN. Archived from the original on November 28, 2009. Retrieved December 20, 2009.
  34. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference www.media-awareness.ca was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  35. ^ Levin, Josh (December 10, 2009). "Here Come the Cats With Human Boobs. Is Avatar destined to flop?". Slate. Retrieved December 20, 2009.
  36. ^ a b Britt, Russ (January 4, 2010). "Can Cameron break his own box-office record? 'Avatar' unprecedented in staying power, international sales". MarketWatch. Retrieved January 4, 2010.
  37. ^ a b Jacks, Brian (January 16, 2010). "EXCLUSIVE: James Cameron Says 'Avatar' Will Beat 'Titanic' To Become Biggest Of All Time". MTV. Retrieved January 17, 2010.
  38. ^ Ball, Sarah (January 6, 2010). "How 'Avatar' Can Beat 'Titanic'". Newsweek. Retrieved January 9, 2010.
  39. ^ Alexandra Keller (2014). James Cameron. Routledge. pp. 73–76. ISBN 978-1134700219. Retrieved October 25, 2014.
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