On the Success of Wes Anderson with The Grand Budapest Hotel

In October 2013 Abrams published a beautiful hardback book, The Wes Anderson Collection.  By Christmas 2013, the book couldn’t be found anywhere. It was a surprise hit to publishers and bookshops, but to anyone who has followed the feature film career of Wes Anderson, the shock of the book is symbolic of Anderson’s career.

From Bottle Rocket (1996) to his most recent feature, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Anderson has created characters and told stories that any business of film student will tell you shouldn’t sell. But, like the book Anderson’s inventive, anti-mainstream cinema is a success. The Grand Budapest Hotel was a number one film in the UK and worldwide has taken $12 million shy of $100 million, which is a remarkable achievement for a film with a budget of 23 million Euros. And this isn’t a rarity: The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), $71 million, Moonrise Kingdom (2012), $68 million, the animated Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) $45 million. Most filmmakers would kill for this kind of consistency!

Combine this with critical success (Anderson hasn’t made a film that disappoints) and his pick of actors (George Clooney, Harvey Keitel, Bill Murray. Edward Norton, Bruce Willis) and Anderson could be considered the most successful working director in America.

The Grand Budapest Hotel is beautifully crafted and has a collection of wonderful performances. The number of characters to which Anderson must give screen time is both a pro and a con. The former means the film is a constant delight to watch, and the latter means it lacks some of the emotional punch of Anderson’s earlier films, as we never connect on an entirely emotional level. This is a small criticism and The Grand Budapest Hotel is an incredibly accomplished addition to the Wes Anderson’s collection.