The Million Dollar Hotel

The Million Dollar Hotel is a 2000 drama film based on a concept story by Bono and Nicholas Klein, directed by Wim Wenders, and starring Jeremy Davies, Milla Jovovich, and Mel Gibson. The film features music by U2 and various musicians that was released on the soundtrack, The Million Dollar Hotel: Music from the Motion Picture.

The Million Dollar Hotel
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Wim Wenders
Screenplay by	Nicholas Klein
Story by	Bono Nicholas Klein
Produced by	Deepak Nayar Bono Nicholas Klein Bruce Davey Wim Wenders
Starring	Jeremy Davies Milla Jovovich Mel Gibson
Cinematography	Phedon Papamichael
Edited by	Tatiana S. Riegel
Music by	Jon Hassell Daniel Lanois Brian Eno
Production companies	Icon Productions Road Movies Filmproduktion Kintop Pictures
Distributed by	Lions Gate Films (United States) Concorde Filmverleih (Germany)[1] Icon Film Distribution (United Kingdom)[2]
Release dates	February 9, 2000 (2000-02-09) (Berlin International Film Festival) February 25, 2000 (2000-02-25) (American Film Market) February 2, 2001 (2001-02-02) (United States)
Running time	122 minutes
Countries	United States Germany United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	$8 million
Box office	$6 million[citation needed]

Plot

A group of very different people live in a hotel in Los Angeles, California including the romantically involved Tom Tom (Davies) and Eloise (Milla Jovovich). The events that unfold are the result of the death of an important resident, the son (Tim Roth) of a billionaire media mogul. His father commissions an F.B.I. agent (Gibson) to look into his death.

Cast

• Jeremy Davies as Tom Tom
• Milla Jovovich as Eloise
• Mel Gibson as Det. Skinner
• Jimmy Smits as Geronimo
• Peter Stormare as Dixie
• Amanda Plummer as Vivien
• Gloria Stuart as Jessica
• Tom Bower as Hector
• Donal Logue as Det. Charley Best
• Bud Cort as Shorty
• Julian Sands as Terence Scopey
• Conrad Roberts as Stix
• Harris Yulin as Stanley Goldkiss
• Charlayne Woodard as Jean Swift
• Ellen Cleghorne as Marlene
• Richard Edson as Joe
• Tito Larriva as Jesu
• Jon Hassell as Hollow
• Tim Roth (uncredited) as Izzy Goldkiss
• Bono (uncredited) as Man in Hotel Lobby

Production

The story was originally developed by Bono in 1987 when filming the music video for "Where the Streets Have No Name".

Release

Critical reception

The Million Dollar Hotel received generally negative reviews from critics. It holds a 25% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 45 reviews, with an average rating of 4.4/10. It also holds a rating of 25 out of 100 on Metacritic,^[3][4] despite winning the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2000.

In an October 2000 press conference in Sydney, before the Australian release of the film, Mel Gibson said, "I thought it was as boring as a dog's ass." He later explained:

It was at the end of a day where I had done 6,000 interviews, some guy was ragging on the film and it just slipped out. Later, I thought 'God, why did I say that? I'm an idiot! I produced this film. I'm distributing it!' It was pretty thoughtless of me, because a lot of people worked very hard on that film, and the fact is there are moments of genius in it. The soundtrack is by U2, and it's phenomenal. So I really regret saying that. I have written a lot of apology letters about it.^[5]

Box office

The day after screening at the Berlin Film Festival on February 9, 2000, the film opened on 111 screens in Germany, grossing Deutschemark 620,5444 ($312,617) in its first four days finishing in tenth place at the box office.^[6] The film opened in Italy on 225 screens at the end of March 2000 and went on to gross over $6 million there.^[7]

It opened in the United States on February 2, 2001 and grossed $29,483 from 10 theatres in its opening weekend and grossed $59,989 in total. It grossed $45,994 in Australia.^[8]

Soundtrack

Main article: The Million Dollar Hotel: Music from the Motion Picture