Local historian says box office flop can still make money

"Box office is one of numerous revenue generators they've had in mind for 'Gods and Generals' from the start. Not everything depends on the box office outcome," Frye said.

A DVD of the three-and-a-half hour movie is scheduled to come out this summer and the longer director's cut of the movie will be released next year, he said.

"Gods and Generals," which follows the life of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson through the early years of the war, was the prequel to Ronald Maxwell's 1993 "Gettysburg."

Turner has already purchased the rights to make the last movie in the trilogy, "Last Full Measure."

Frye said he is no expert in the movie industry but the low turnout at the box office might have been due to the fact that it did not appeal to the 18-to-22 age group that most Hollywood movies are directed toward.

"Gods and Generals is a Hollywood anomaly in that it has no sex, no gratuitous violence and virtually no cursing," Frye said. "It doesn't cater to an audience conditioned to the four-letter word."

Much of the filming was done in Washington County, although producers also used sites in Virginia and West Virginia.

Washington County was selected for the movie in part because it is in the heart of Civil War country and home to the Battle of Antietam.

Production crews used office space in Williamsport and mapped out an intensive film schedule that ran from late August to mid-December 2001.

Three Civil War battles are included in the film: First Manassas (or First Bull Run, as it is also known), Chancellorsville and Fredericksburg.