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Money Monster

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Money Monster
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJodie Foster
Screenplay by
Story by
  • Alan Di Fiore
  • Jim Kouf
Starring
CinematographyMatthew Libatique
Edited byMatt Chesse
Music byDominic Lewis
Distributed byTriStar Pictures
Sony Pictures Classic
Release dates
  • May 12, 2016 (2016-05-12) (Cannes)
  • May 13, 2016 (2016-05-13) (United States)
Running time
98 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$27 million[2]
Box office$52.4 million[2]

Money Monster is a 2016 American thriller film directed by Jodie Foster and written by Alan Di Fiore, Jim Kouf and Jamie Linden. The film stars George Clooney (who also co-produced) as Lee Gates, a TV personality who advises his audience on commerce and Wall Street, and who is forcefully interrogated by Kyle Budwell (Jack O'Connell), a grief-stricken bankrupt viewer who lost his money after a previous tip; the film also stars Julia Roberts, Dominic West, Giancarlo Esposito and Caitriona Balfe.

Principal photography began on February 27, 2015 in New York City. The film was released by Sony Pictures Entertainment through TriStar Pictures on May 13, 2016, received mixed reviews from critics and has grossed over $52 million.[2][3]

Plot

Cable financial guru Lee Gates (George Clooney) is in the midst of airing the latest edition of his show, "Money Monster." Less than 24 hours earlier, IBIS Clear Capital's stock inexplicably cratered due to a glitch in a trading algorithm, costing investors $800 million. Lee planned to have IBIS CEO Walt Camby (Dominic West) appear for a softball interview about the crash, but Camby unexpectedly left for a business trip in Geneva.

Midway through the show, a deliveryman ambles onto the set, pulls a gun and takes Gates hostage, forcing him to put on a vest laden with explosives.[4] The "deliveryman" is laborer Kyle Budwell (Jack O'Connell), who invested $60,000—his entire life savings, inherited from his deceased mother—in IBIS after Lee endorsed the company a month earlier on the show. Kyle was wiped out along with the other investors, and now wants answers. Unless he gets them, he will blow up Lee before killing himself. Once police are notified, they discover that the receiver to the bomb's vest is located over Lee's kidney. The only way to destroy the receiver—and with it, Kyle's leverage—is to shoot Lee and hope he survives.

With the help of longtime director Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts), Lee tries to calm Kyle down and get him some answers. However, Camby is nowhere to be found, and Kyle is not satisfied when both Lee and IBIS chief communications officer Diane Lester (Caitriona Balfe) offer to compensate him for his financial loss. He also is not satisfied by Diane's insistence that the algorithm is to blame. Diane is not satisfied by her own explanation either, and decides to contact the programmer who created the algorithm for answers, reaching a man in Seoul. The programmer insists that an algorithm could not take such a large, lopsided position unless a human meddled with it.

In the meantime, the police find Kyle's pregnant girlfriend and allow her to talk to Kyle through a video feed. When she learns that he lost everything, she viciously berates him before the police cut the feed. Lee, seemingly taking pity on Kyle, agrees to help Kyle discover what went wrong.

Once Camby arrives back in New York, Diane flips through his passport, revealing that he didn't go to Geneva at all, but to Johannesburg. With this clue, along with messages from Camby's phone, Patty and the "Money Monster" team contact a group of Icelandic hackers to try and discover the truth. After a police sniper takes a shot at Lee and misses, he and Kyle resolve to corner Camby at Federal Hall, where Camby is headed according to Diane. They head out with one of the network's cameramen, the police, and a mob of fans and jeerers alike. They barely manage to corner Camby, and after ensuring that he will not run away, they finally confront him with the full story, with video evidence obtained by the hackers.

It turns out that Camby bribed a South African miners' union, planning to have IBIS make an $800 million investment in the mine while the union was on strike. If Camby's plan had succeeded, IBIS would have generated a multi-billion dollar profit when work resumed at the mine and the stock of the mine's owner rose again. However, the gambit backfired when the union stayed on the picket line, causing IBIS' stock to sink under the weight of its position in the flailing mining company. Confronted with the evidence, Camby admits his swindle. Satisfied, Kyle kills himself by allowing the police to shoot him after throwing the detonator away. In the aftermath, the SEC announces that IBIS will be put under scrutiny and Camby on trial for violations of the Foreign Investments Act.

Cast

Production

Development

The project Money Monster was first announced by Deadline on February 7, 2012, when Daniel Dubiecki launched his own film production company, The Allegiance Theater. It would be the company's first produced film.[4] IM Global financed while Dubiecki produced, along with Stuart Ford.[4] The film is about a TV personality, Lee Gates, who is held hostage by a viewer, Kyle, who lost all of his money on a bad tip from Lee during his show.

Alan Di Fiore and Jim Kouf wrote the script of the film.[4] On October 11, 2012, Jodie Foster was set to direct the film.[7] Lara Alameddine also produced the film.[8]

On July 25, 2014, TriStar Pictures won the rights to finance and release the film, whose latest draft was written by Jamie Linden.[9] Clooney and Grant Heslov also produced for their Smoke House Pictures.[9]

Casting

On May 8, 2014, it was announced that George Clooney was director Foster's choice to star in the film as a TV personality, Lee Gates, but the deal to star was not confirmed yet.[8] Clooney's involvement was confirmed in July 2014.[9] Jack O'Connell and Julia Roberts were added to the cast November 14, 2014 to star along with Clooney in the film, with O'Connell to play Kyle Budwell, a blue-collar worker who feels he has no choice but to take Lee hostage on the air after losing all of his money on a bad tip from Lee, and Roberts to play Patty Fenn, the director and executive producer of the program "Money Monster".[10] Caitriona Balfe joined the cast of the film on January 29, 2015, to play the head of PR of the company whose stock bottomed.[11] Dominic West signed-on on February 25, 2015 to play the CEO of the company.[12] Christopher Denham also joined the cast, on March 4, 2015, to play a producer of the show.[13]

Filming

In October 2012, filming was scheduled to begin early 2013.[7] In July 2014, it was announced that production would begin after Clooney completed the Coen brothers' Hail, Caesar!,[9] and principal photography on the film began in New York City on February 27, 2015.[14][15][16]

Clooney was spotted on March 1 arriving at the Kaufman Astoria Studios in Astoria, NYC to film scenes.[17] On April 8, filming began on Wall Street in the Financial District, Manhattan, where it would last for 15 days.[18] A scene was also shot in front of Federal Hall.[18] Some re-shooting for the film took place in mid-January 2016 at New York City on William Street and Broad Street.[19]

Release

In August 2015, Sony Pictures Entertainment set the film for an April 8, 2016 release.[20] The film was later pushed back to May 13, 2016.[21]

Reception

Julia Roberts and George Clooney promoting the film at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.

Box office

As of May 29, 2016, Money Monster has grossed $33.9 million in North America and $16.8 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $50.7 million, against a budget of $27 million.[2]

In North America, the film was projected to gross $10–12 million from 3,104 theaters in its opening weekend.[22] The film grossed $600,000 from its early Thursday night previews and $5 million on its first day.[23] It went on to gross $14.8 million in its opening weekend, beating expectations and finishing 3rd at the box office behind Captain America: Civil War ($72.6 million) and The Jungle Book ($17.1 million).[24]

Critical response

Money Monster has received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 55%, based on 185 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Money Monster's strong cast and solidly written story ride a timely wave of socioeconomic anger that's powerful enough to overcome an occasionally muddled approach to its worthy themes."[25] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 54 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[3] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[24]

See Also

References

  1. ^ "MONEY MONSTER (15)". British Board of Film Classification. May 3, 2016. Retrieved May 3, 2016.
  2. ^ a b c d "Money Monster (2016)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
  3. ^ a b "Money Monster reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved May 24, 2016.
  4. ^ a b c d Fleming Jr, Mike (February 7, 2012). "'Up In The Air' Producer Launches The Allegiance Shingle With IM Global-Funded 'Money Monster'". deadline.com. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  5. ^ WORTHINGTON, Clint, "Film Review: Money Monster" (http://consequenceofsound.net/2016/05/film-review-money-monster/) [[Consequences of Sound. Accessed 19 May 2016.
  6. ^ ]]Uyger, Cenk, "Yes, that's me in @MoneyMonster. I had two scenes. TYT crew went to see it last night.Go check it out! #MoneyMonster" (https://twitter.com/cenkuygur/status/731152759639019520) Accessed 19 May 2016.
  7. ^ a b Fleming Jr, Mike (October 11, 2012). "Jodie Foster To Direct 'Money Monster'". deadline.com. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  8. ^ a b Sneider, Jeff (May 8, 2014). "George Clooney Eyed to Star in Jodie Foster's Financial Drama 'Money Monster' (Exclusive)". thewrap.com. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  9. ^ a b c d Fleming Jr, Mike (July 25, 2014). "TriStar Wins Auction For $30 Million Jodie Foster-George Clooney Pic 'Money Monster'". deadline.com. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  10. ^ Sneider, Jeff (November 14, 2014). "'Unbroken's' Jack O'Connell, Julia Roberts in Talks to Join George Clooney in 'Money Monster'". thewrap.com. Retrieved November 17, 2014.
  11. ^ Kit, Borys (January 29, 2015). "'Outlander' Star Joining George Clooney, Julia Roberts in 'Money Monster' (Exclusive)". hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  12. ^ Fleming Jr, Mike (February 25, 2015). "'The Affair's Dominic West Joins 'Money Monster'". deadline.com. Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  13. ^ Kit, Borys (March 4, 2015). "'Manhattan' Star Joins George Clooney's 'Money Monster'". hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  14. ^ "Clooney Watch 2015 is underway in NYC as 'Money Monster' begins filming". onlocationvacations.com. February 27, 2015. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
  15. ^ Brown, Laurel (February 27, 2015). "Quiet on the set! Jodie Foster bundles up for the cold as she directs the first day of filming for Money Monster in New York City". dailymail.co.uk. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
  16. ^ "'Money Monster' Starring George Clooney Casting Call in NYC". projectcasting.com. February 25, 2015. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
  17. ^ Mizoguchi, Karen (March 2, 2015). "George Clooney arrives to set of Jodie Foster-directed movie Money Monster for his first day of filming". dailymail.co.uk. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  18. ^ a b Plagianos, Irene (March 5, 2015). "George Clooney's 'Money Monster' Set to Film on Wall Street". dnainfo.com. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  19. ^ "'Money Monster' reshoots happening in NYC this week". On Location Vacations. January 19, 2016. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
  20. ^ Kroll, Justin (August 5, 2015). "Sony Dates 16 Films Including Two More 'Bad Boys' Sequels, 'Jumanji' Remake". variety.com. Retrieved September 21, 2015.
  21. ^ "Money Monster (2016)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 15, 2016.
  22. ^ Anthony D'Alessandro (May 9, 2016). "Why 'Captain America: Civil War' Is Poised To Be This Summer's Top-Grossing Live-Action Film: B.O. Postmortem". Deadline.com. Retrieved May 10, 2016. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  23. ^ "'Money Monster' Pulls In $600K While 'The Darkness' Lights Up $206K – Thursday Night Previews". deadline.com.
  24. ^ a b "'Captain America' In Control As 'Money Monster' Makes Some Cash And 'The Darkness' Finds Niche — Sunday B.O." deadline.com.
  25. ^ "Money Monster (2016)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
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