THE MARKET: “Flash of Genius” goes into wide release on Friday, October 3, 2008. How much will it gross in its opening weekend as first reported by Variety on October 6? Each dollar of the share price represents millions of dollars in sales. Shares bought at $45, for example, would be worth $78 if the movie grosses $78 million. Trading closes on October 3 at 9 a.m. ET.
THE DATA: Greg Kinnear plays Robert Kearns, the inventor of the windshield wiper. “Flash” has shades of 1999’s “The Insider” ($29.1 million), but it doesn’t have Russell Crowe.
OUR TAKE: It’s not often a critic makes the news. But Todd McCarthy of Variety has so assailed “Flash of Genius” that the L.A. Times did a story about the hit-job itself. McCarthy called it “very small potatoes in the cinematic annals of inspiring little-guy-fights-the-system melodramas” and said “an old-style TV movie would have been more like it.” For its part, the L.A. Times speculates that “Flash,” a studio film, invited the attack by showing itself at the exclusively indie Telluride and Toronto festivals. Our guess: “Flash of Genius” looks like bland quality-genre fare, and won’t live up to its title. LEARN MORE: See the “Flash of Genius” home page.
“FLASH OF GENIUS” CONTENT ON YOUTUBE: