Suburbia Loves Brokeback

Two positive stories in a row. I believe it's a first...check out this column by The San Francisco Chronicle's C.W. Nevius:

My wife and I recently saw "Brokeback Mountain,'' the critically acclaimed story of romance between two cowboys. Being moviegoing veterans, we decided to see a noontime matinee in a Pleasant Hill movie theater on an NFL playoff Sunday. Given those factors, and the film's subject matter, we joked that we might have the entire theater to ourselves.

Not at all. There was a line at the box office, and the film started 15 minutes late so everyone could be seated. Even more striking was the crowd -- largely seniors and middle-aged women. So not only was a movie about gay romance selling out in the heart of suburbia, the audience appeared to be older, straighter and more conservative than anyone would have expected.

And that is what Jack Foley, president of distribution for Focus Features, which is distributing "Brokeback,'' calls the "unspoken truth" about a movie that has succeeded in markets where few would have expected it to.

"This movie is playing to heartland America," he said.

The film opened in Plano, Texas -- an upscale suburb of Dallas -- and did great business there, too. Falk says for the first week in Jacksonville, Fla., "we did double anything else we did that week.'' Even in Utah, where there was a brief flap when one Salt Lake City exhibitor pulled the movie, "Brokeback'' is doing very well.