The Box (2009 film)

2009 film by Richard Kelly

Most of the filming took place in the Boston, Massachusetts area, with scenes shot in downtown Boston, South Boston, Waltham, Ipswich, Winthrop, Milton, Medfield, Quincy, Kingston, and North Andover, as well as other localities. Some filming took place on the Milton Academy campus and at Boston Public Library. A large indoor set was built inside a former Lucent Technologies building in North Andover to recreate a NASA laboratory. The production crew also journeyed to NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, to shoot a number of scenes for the film. Richard Kelly's father had worked at NASA Langley in the 1970s and 80s. Filming also took place in Richmond, Virginia, including overhead shots of the city, including 95 South passing the train station. Many background extras were reused in different scenes, and people with period correct 60s and 70s cars were encouraged to participate. Arlington Steward's car, in particular, is a Buick Electra, although characters in the movie refer to it as Lincoln Town Car (an entirely different car model, which was not yet in production at the time the movie is set). Actor Frank Langella was cast in October 2007, and production began on the film the following month. Prior to production, actor James Marsden was cast a lead role opposite Diaz. Production concluded by February 2008. It was the second time Marsden and Langella worked together, the first being Superman Returns and re teaming again in Robot & Frank.

In December 2008, it was announced that Win Butler and Regine Chassagne of Canadian band Arcade Fire, and Owen Pallett provided an original score for the film. Butler, Chassagne, and Pallett helped Kelly during the editing process by advising his decisions. Butler, Chassagne, and Pallett had planned on releasing the soundtrack after Arcade Fire's third album release in August 2010, but as of 2023, the soundtrack is still unavailable.

The film was first released in Australia on October 29, 2009. While it was originally scheduled to be released in the U. S. on October 30, 2009, on July 31, 2009, it was announced the release date would be delayed to November 6, 2009. The film opened with $7,571,417 in 2,635 theaters at an average of $2,873 per theater. It ranked number 6 at the box office coming in behind the newly released Disney's A Christmas Carol, The Men Who Stare at Goats, and The Fourth Kind.

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 43% of 156 critics have given the film a positive review, and the average rating is 5.2/10. The site's consensus is that "Imaginative but often preposterous, The Box features some thrills but largely feels too piecemeal." Metacritic, which assigns a rating out of 100 to reviews from film critics, has a score of 47 based on 24 reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore on opening day gave the film an F, for which CinemaScore President Ed Mintz blamed the film's ending and was quoted as saying "People really thought this was a stinker." as of April 2020, it is one of only 22 films to receive such a rating. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times gave the film three out of four stars and wrote: "This movie kept me involved and intrigued, and for that I'm grateful." Jordan Mintzer of Variety wrote: "Kelly's trademark mix of sci fi, surrealism and suburbia occasionally entertains." Keith Uhlich of Time Out New York named The Box the ninth best film of 2009, calling it "a defiantly personal project that solidifies writer director Richard Kelly's talent, even as it surely pushes him further toward the filmmaking fringe."

The film was nominated at the 8th Visual Effects Society Awards in the category of Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Feature Motion Picture but lost to Sherlock Holmes.