Julie and Julia opened in movie theaters across America last Friday—the latest amazing outcome of Julie Powell‘s decision seven years ago to (a) work through every recipe in Julia Child‘s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and (b) blog about it. “I had no notion of what a blog could do and what the medium was really capable of at the time,” she tells mediabistro.com. “I kind of chanced into it. I just was in the right place and time.”
In the interview, Powell also warns people who want to follow in her footsteps not to get too caught up in the blog part of the story:
“I think you always have to keep your eyes on the prize in terms of writing about the things you are passionate about, writing about the subject matter that you really love. If you get too concerned with branding and getting the links and making sure that enough people know me—getting away from writing about what you want to write about as well and clearly and evocatively as you can—you might publish a book that way, but you won’t turn into a writer. The writing always has to be at the center.”
(You can also see Powell in an on-demand video of a mediabistro.com-sponsored panel discussion about book deals for bloggers, which also features the creators of Apartment Therapy and Overheard in New York, literary agent Kate Lee, and others.)
So how did Julie and Julia fare at the box office? With $20.1 million in U.S. ticket sales, it came in second behind G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra ($56.2 million)—although there’s two things to keep in mind, as noted in the Variety weekend recap. First, Julie and Julia opened on a little more than half as many screens (2,354 to 4,007). Second, the film’s audience “skewed dramatically older and female, with 64% of the aud over the age of 35 and 67% female.” And, Variety continues, the word-of-mouth is strong.
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