I decided to split the post into three because my discussion of the next two films is a bit...how shall we say it...epic in terms of length.
2. Argo (Global box-office to date: $181,118,256)
In 1998, 26-year-old actor Ben Affleck's career took off in a serious way when he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay together with his pal Matt Damon for their work on Gus Van Sant's film Good Will Hunting. He was catapulted straight to the Hollywood A-list, and in the half-decade or so that followed he starred in a string of box-office hits like Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, Changing Lanes, The Sum of All Fears and Daredevil.
Then, he starred in the universally-panned 2003 film Gigli together with Jennifer Lopez, with whom he had also started an off-screen relationship, and everything went pretty much to hell.
Gigli was not just a box-office flop; it was the kind of certified disaster that killed careers. The film's director, Martin Brest, whose resume also includes the box-office smash Beverly Hills Cop and the acclaimed Scent of a Woman, for which Al Pacino won an Oscar, has not made a movie since then. It certainly didn't do Affleck's career any favors either. For years he drifted from one acting job to another, and for years his name was more of a punchline which conjured up more jokes about his relationship with Jennifer Lopez or the true state of his hairline than it did any discussion of his work. In fact up until late 2010, his most high-profile role was a tiny part in the abysmal comedy He's Just Not That Into You.
In 2007, however, Affleck started the process of his own reinvention, directing his brother Casey in a small, unheralded but nonetheless well-reviewed thriller titled Gone Baby Gone. Affleck garnered praise for the film (and even an interview with either Time or Newsweek, I forget which), but still remained on the road back to respectability.
Then, in 2010, Affleck directed and starred in the crime thriller The Town alongside The Hurt Locker star and newly-minted "it-boy" Jeremy Renner, Mad Men's Jon Hamm, and Gossip Girl's Blake Lively. The movie was adored by critics, embraced by audiences, and recognized by awards bodies; Renner garnered his second straight Academy Award nomination (after having been nominated for his work in The Hurt Locker). It was official then; after nearly having had his career buried in 2003, Ben Affleck was back.
The thought that Affleck's next movie was going to be set during the Iran hostage crisis of 1979, therefore, must have made a lot of people scratch their heads.
Inclusion of topics like terrorism or political turbulence in the Middle East in movies has, at least in the last few years, generally been a potent recipe for box-office disaster. Not even high profile directors ranging from Steven Spielberg (Munich) to Ridley Scott (Body of Lies) to Paul Greengrass (The Green Zone) have been able to beat this particular box-office curse, so the thought that a relatively fledgling director, one looking to rebuild his career years after a couple of bad decisions very nearly destroyed it, was somewhat perplexing at least, and mind-boggling at the very most. Not only that, but relations between the United States and the Middle East were (and still are) extremely strained, a factor which could easily have made people way too uncomfortable to watch a movie where that tension was an integral part of the story.
The fact, therefore, that Affleck basically put his newly-rejuvenated career on the line for this movie, which was definitely going to be a hard sell, and came out on top testifies to what a box-office miracle this movie was, even if the grosses don't necessarily say so. This was made using a paltry $44.5 million budget, so the studio has definitely recovered its investment by now.
Much more than the receipts, however, considering the risk involved for everyone, especially the director, this movie's achievement at the box-office is no less than phenomenal. This was a movie that could so easily have gone wrong for Ben Affleck, but which arguably ended up being the best thing to ever happen to his career so far. What better way to celebrate one's definitive return to the big leagues with a $100 million North American gross and a passel of Academy Award Nominations?
It may not be a billion-dollar juggernaut, but Argo is, for me, a monumental gamble that paid off handsomely.
Next: My Ultimate 2012 Box-Office Champ
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