Despite Dan Akroyd praising Jason Reitman’s “Saturday Night” as a “masterpiece,” and some strong audience scores, the SNL origin film fell flat this weekend at the box-office, failing to find an audience. “Saturday Night” grossed $3.4M, playing in 2300 screens. The budget on Reitman’s film was $25M.
Reviews, although overall positive, just haven’t been strong enough to drive “Saturday Night” into must-see territory. There are plenty of Reitman haters out there, and almost all of them have been rolling their eyes at “Saturday Night.” This could also spell doom for its Oscar chances — the film is down to #15 on the Gold Derby charts.
Taking place in “real time,” 90 minutes before the first Saturday Night Live episode aired on October 11, 1975, Reitman’s film tackles the young comedians and writers who attempted to launch the skit-based show. It stars Cooper Hoffman, Gabriel LaBelle, Nicholas Braun, Willem Dafoe, JK Simmons and many more.
This is basically Reitman’s riff on Inarritu’s “Birdman” — lots of long takes that exude constant comic tension. “Saturday Night” is a also a very humorous film, and the one-liners keep coming at a feverish pace. There’s not much depth to the whole thing, but it’s an entertaining and well-directed film.