It was smart move on
Paramount Home Media’s part this past week … one that some of its competitors
should take note of and try to emulate on occasion.
They took one look at the
July release calendar and noticed that there was nothing in the form of a hit
theatrical film in place on July 10. Blockers
on July 3, Rampage, I Feel Pretty and Truth
or Dare on July 17 and Ready Player One was in place on
July 24, so Paramount deftly dropped in actor/director John Krasinski’s
blockbuster sci-fi/horror hit, A Quiet Place, into the empty spot!
Of course, it really
doesn’t matter where they put this gem, but it is always nice to see some
strategic thinking … as opposed to, “Oh, it’s 88 days out from the film’s
theatrical debut, time to release it.”
For the record, the ARR
comes in at 95 days and domestic box office receipts currently stand at a whopping
$180.8 million.
As for the release
configuration, Paramount has a stand-alone DVD SKU, a Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack
and a 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray/Combo Pack planned for delivery.
Indie filmmakers Scott
Beck and Bryan Woods, who have been around for over a decade making films, came
up with the story and pitched it. John
Krasinski, who is best known to audiences as Jim from The Office television
series (plus such films as 13 Hours, Aloha, etc.), got involved
as both director, writer and actor, as did his wife, Emily Blunt, who
co-stars.
There’s nothing on paper
that says that an actor with limited directing experience and two indie
filmmakers would come up with a blockbuster.
Indeed, no one really thought it would be this big of a hit … it opened
at the South by Southwest film festival in March and one month later
theatrically on something like 3,500 screens.
Box office estimates were nowhere near what finally took shape … and the
only way you get to a number at least three-times larger than what was expected
is through word-of-mouth. A
Quiet Place is that kind of a film.
Sure, it is a terrific
horror film, blended with the sci-fi elements of an alien invasion, but the
Beck/Woods story is something that Hollywood is desperately short of these
days, originality. It surprised
everyone when it crossed-over to a much, much wider audience. The lesson to be learned … tell a good story
and they will come.
Creatures, who are super
sensitive to sound and seemingly unstoppable, have wiped out what we know of
civilization, leaving the humans that remain to fend for themselves, and not
make any noise doing it. This is what
the Abbott family, Lee (Krasinski) and Evelyn (Blunt) and their three children
are faced with. Scavenge, survive and do
it in silence.
They have one advantage,
their daughter, Regan (Millicent Simmonds), is deaf and the family is adept at
ASL to communicate. Of note, Millicent
Simmonds is actually deaf … Krasinski and Blunt, along with the child actor
playing Regan’s younger brother, Marcus (Noah Jupe), learned ASL for the film,
which is largely silent (almost no dialog).
A heart-wrenching episode
early in the film sets the terror of A Quiet Place … make a single sound
and the result is horrific. The
Abbott’s overcome the incident and continue, but it foreshadows the sacrifice
that parents must be willing to make to protect their children.
At the end of the day, A
Quiet Place, works so well because it transcends the horror elements to
weave a tale of family; of parenthood and survival. You can expect a sequel as the ending leaves
open a path to human salvation and the vanquishing of the invader.
As to bonus nuggets,
which are exclusive to the Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD SKUs, there are a trio of
production featurettes — “Creating the Quiet,” “The Sound of Darkness” and “A
Reason for Silence.”
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