Top Gun: Maverick isn't showing on Paramount+ anytime soon (that's where it will land) and it came out a while before Elvis. Hoping Elvis lasts in the theaters at least a few more weeks.
Tom Hanks saying "You move like black man which means you are breaking Jim Crow laws" is the best summation of the ignorance of racism
Saw it for the xth time tonight. One of the reasons it works so well on the big screen is that you really do focus on the eyes of these actors. Some amazing directing throughout the film. I've forgotten how to watch movies in the theater. I realize now that you really need to be immersed in it. Modern audiences are too claustrophobic for theaters now. They'll sit mainly in the back to get the whole frame perfectly in view. Television did this to us. There's a strong argument to be made about watching a movie in the first few rows--we've just forgotten how to do it. When you're up there that close, it's true you won't be able to see every inch. I argue maybe you're not supposed to. Sitting up front makes you focus smack dab in the middle of the screen and the camera draws you into each actor's face who are usually framed very close to center. You are fully sucked inside the movie which is precisely what a movie is supposed to do. I feel like this movie is not only a superhero movie to be watched on the big screen but it also is a movie of such a large scale much like Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey was an experience to watch on both the regular and Cinerama big screens. Truly an embarrassment of riches. And finally: just how did Butler do it? That son of a gun. How did he and Baz get the guy so accurately? Absolute bullseye. PS: Walked into another Elvis screening room that was just ending, peeked inside and found the room 85-90% filled. Shocking. Finally made it to my screening room, it was just me when I bought the tickets at 9:15pm. I walked in to find it 80% full. A 10pm screening! Mix of 30's and 40's and even younger for those who brought their young teenage kids with them for a family movie night. I couldn't believe it.
"Elvis" coming to streaming services in three days Watch Elvis | Prime Video Soon, You Can Watch Baz Luhrmann's <i>Elvis</i> From the Comfort of Your Home
I loved the film, thought it was brilliant and covered Elvis’ career very well, portrayed Elvis well with Austin Butler and Tom Hanks doing a great job. It was very sad in parts, especially at the end.
At the moment I'm reading Pamela De Barres's Let's Spend The Night Together, her book of interviews with other famous groupies. And Chapter 1 is with Tura Santana, Varla in Russ Mayer's Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill. She claims she taught Elvis to kiss, and that he adopted several of her Burlesque moves in his dancing.
I wonder how much truth there is in that claim - I don’t recall any pictures of the two of them together nor any first-hand accounts of seeing them together. Not saying it didn’t happen but you’d think there’s]d be something. Happy to be corrected if I’ve missed some facts.
Sounds great but I ain't payin $25 for anything that doesn't come with a disc. I enjoyed my theater showing and might see if I can sneak one more in with my sweetheart, but other than that I can wait.
From the book: It was after a wild night of tassel twirling for agog sailors in Biloxi, Mississippi, that Tura made the acquaintance of a certain blossoming rock and roll singer. "I was a big draw that night," she recalls with delight. Oftentimes it took the teenage girl hours to unwind after dishing out damp dreams to horny strangers. On this early morning, she was cooling down by walking along the sand outside the club. "I was unwinding on the beach and this good-looking guy came walking up to me, and I said, 'Nice night, isn't it?' 'Yes it is, ma'am.' 'Ma'am?' I was only sixteen years old and I'd never been called 'ma'am' before. I'd been fibbing about my age, everybody thought I was nineteen. He said, 'What are you doing out here so late at night?' I told him I was trying to unwind, and he said 'You too?'" The young couple walked slowly along the beach, then sat on the sand, talking 'til the sun came up. "He said he did a show up the road apiece, but I didn't know who he was. Once I took a look at those eyes of his, aahhh...." Tura has always had a weakness for blue eyes. "I looked at his eyes and thought, 'Oh God, this one's a keeper.'" Later she realized she'd never even asked his name. They didn't meet again until nine months later when the twenty-one-year-old arrived backstage at Chicago's Follies Theatre with the owner. "Do you remember me?" Elvis asked. "Biloxi," Tura said, smiling. "I didn't know your name then, but yes, I remember Biloxi." Turned out Elvis did see Tura's show in Biloxi, and he enjoyed her Follies routine as well. When he wondered how she moved the way she did, Tura told him her routine was based on martial arts. "He asked if I could teach him," she recalls with a throaty chuckle. "I told him, 'Martial arts is not only a disciplinary art form, it also teaches you control,' and he said, 'Well, you sure got control!'" He wanted to know how she did the slide and the splits at the same time. How she did the shimmy, how she shook all over. He was quite intrigued. The enamored singer then jokingly asked Miss Japan Beautiful if she could teach him how to twirl the tassels. "I said, 'No, honey. I can't teach you how to spin two tassels, but I can teach you how to spin one!'" Elvis grinned, "Well, that might be a novelty." Elvis may have been shaking up the planet, but even back in '56 he had the Colonel's minders watching his every move. Obviously smitten, he wanted to be alone with Tura. He somehow managed to sidestep his two furtive sidekicks and take her to breakfast at an all-night diner. "He had the aura-you knew he was going to go places. I was drawn to him mostly by his smile," Tura says wistfully. "And that Southern drawl could make your knees melt. Back then he was so down to earth, so natural. He had the magnetism; he drew women right and left. He was a natural attraction." Elvis was able to slip away from his protectors two more nights in a row, but the third evening they parked outside Tura's family home, waiting while Elvis enjoyed his first Japanese meal, cooked by Tura's daddy. "The Colonel and those two guys thought that was the last of it, but anytime he could get away and sneak out of his room, I would meet him at a hotel or at my friend's house." Later on, she makes the somewhat more credible claim that Priscilla got re-styled in emulation of Tura's look, that Elvis wanted her to look like the woman he couldn't have.
It still showing in every AMC theater in Kansas City, and I'm sure it will be in several of them the next week as well.
Elvis is now showing in 2,411 theatres (Domestic) down from 2,901 in the previous week. Domestic Weekly $$/ % drop Jun 24-30: $48,320,011 Jul 1-7: $31,802,691-34.2% Jul 8-14: $18,477,709-41.9% Jul 15-21: $13,475,862-27.1% Jul 22-28: $11,094,434-17.7% Jul 29-Aug 4: $9,346,034-15.8% DOMESTIC (55.7%) $133,667,000 INTERNATIONAL (44.3%) $106,100,000 WORLDWIDE $239,767,000
I wouldn't compare the two movies at all, TGM is a box office smash, it still has a few weeks left to run. All Releases DOMESTIC (49.5%) $657,380,244 INTERNATIONAL (50.5%) $671,600,000 WORLDWIDE $1,328,980,244
Side note - it’s interesting TGM will be on Paramount+ - people can sign up for a free 1 week trial, watch it and cancel.
Amazon Prime will have Elvis available on its digital platform on August 9th for $24.99, but it will actually be available August 8th at. 9:00 pm pacific time on Monday.
You have to pay for it, even if you are a Prime member as I am. I already have it on preorder as well.
HBO Max is suppose to eventually get it too, probably sometime in September as a part of their regular subscription service.
I have HBO Max, Paramont +, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. It is getting ridiculous. Every time I think about cutting one of these options, they end up having some show I cannot seem to get elsewhere. I am officially, caught in a trap and can't walk out, Lol.
