Apocalypto Will Take in Over $13.5 mil Opening Weekend Say Oddsmakers
Carrie Stroup here. Online gambling website
Sportsbook.com (see website here) has announced opening weekend box office gross odds on the new Mel Gibson film Apocalypto.
Oddsmakers at Sportsbook.com have made the film a -140 favorite to take in more than $13.5 million.
The jury is out on whether people will respond favorably to Mel Gibson’s latest controversial project, Apocalypto, which will release on December 8. After Gibson’s recent run-in with the law and distasteful anti-Semitic remarks, disgruntled moviegoers may opt to boycott the film and threaten its box office success.
Apocalypto takes place during the fading times of the once prosperous Mayan civilization before the Spanish colonization of the Americas. While his tranquil village is being ravaged by Mayan warlords the films hero, Jaguar Paw, has just enough time to hide his family before he is captured and led to the Mayan metropolis where he and the rest of his captures await a horrific sacrificial fate. In a desperate attempt to escape, Jaguar Paw must flee for his life from the bloodthirsty Mayans to rescue what matters most, his family and way of life.
Apocalypto is directed, written, and produced by Gibson as well as Bruce Davey and Farhad Safinia. The film features a virtually unknown cast of actors hailing from Mexico, Southern California, New Mexico, Canada, and other parts of Central America.
Reviews and Controversies
Mel Gibson's latest bloody epic, much like his last, is angering some members of the culture it depicts.
Activists in Guatemala, once a part of the American Mayan empire that provides the setting for Gibson's Apocalypto — due for release this Friday in the U.S. and Canada — say the film presents an unflattering portrait of the culture.
Mel Gibson appears on the set of his epic drama Apocalypto.
(Icon Distribution, Andrew Cooper/SMPS/Associated Press) "The director is saying the Mayans are savages," Lucio Yaxon, a human rights activist, told the BBC.
The criticism calls to mind reactions to Gibson's 2004 epic The Passion of the Christ, an often violent depiction of the final days of Jesus Christ that was accused by some of being anti-Semitic, even before Gibson's much-publicized outburst against a Jewish police officer in California earlier this year.
The film itself has garnered rave reviews.
"A true masterpiece with savage beauty that is rare in films today," writes review site DannyMinton.com.
From the Niagra Gazette:
"Mel Gibson’s “Apocalypto” is a fascinating, violent and visceral adventure, set amid the jungles and giant stone pyramids of the ancient Mayan culture. And, as he did in “The Passion of the Christ,” Gibson has his characters speaking an approximation of what they originally spoke, with subtitles for those of us who don’t speak Mayan.
"Unlike “The Passion,” “Apocalypto” carries no political and religious baggage (save for the director’s recent despicable drunken highway rant, which has nothing to do with the quality or nature of the film).
"In truth, it’s an engrossing, endlessly moving, action film, made more enthralling by its exotic time and locales, and by the realistic portrayals of a cast entirely made up of Mexican and North American Indians."
Mel from Hell
Many felt Mel Gibson's career would be over following his arrest in late July for a DWI, that eventually took second stage to his drunken rant about Jews causing all the wars in the world.
Gibson is alleged to have told the arresting deputy, “You mother f****r. I’m going to f*** you.”
Following various threats, Gibson is alleged to have launched a series of anti-Semitic statements: “F*****g Jews… The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.” Gibson then asked the deputy, “Are you a Jew?”
The deputy became alarmed as Gibson’s tirade escalated, and called ahead for a sergeant to meet them when they arrived at the station. When they arrived, a sergeant began videotaping Gibson, who noticed the camera and then said, “What the f*** do you think you’re doing?”
A law enforcement source says Gibson then noticed another female sergeant and yelled, “What do you think you’re looking at, sugar tits?”
But the folks at Sportsbook.com do not believe Gibson's problems will have much of an effect on the success of his latest film. At the same token, the $13.5 million over/under odds are less than the forecast set for last weekend's anticipated big money maker, the Nativity Story. Odds for the Nativity Story's opening weekend box office gross were set at $14.5 mil but the film took in only a bit more than half of that amount, ultimately grossing $8 mil.
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Apocalypto - US Opening Weekend Gross December 8-10: US$ in Millions
Over 13.5 (-140)
Under 13.5 (even)
Place Your OVER/UNDER Bets Here
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Carrie Stroup, www.gambling911.com
Originally published December 7, 2006 8:15 pm ET
