The Bombs Of 2013

[Films]

THE BOMBS OF 2013- PART 1Note 1: This refers more to the lower-grossing films which were bombs. Article 2 will refer to big budget bombs such as TLRNote 2: This is the first of I hope weekly articlesNote 3: This refers only to North American box officeWhen you look at Iron Man 3, Gravity, The Heat, Now You See Me, Despicable Me 2 and Fast Six, you would think 2013 is fantastic. And even though it is, there are some movies that have made this year sour. This happened because of a lot of reasons which will be explained below.Star Power has been absolutely useless this year and does literally not exist [though films like Gravity, The Heat and Identity Thief counteract this point]. Arnold Schwarzenager and Sylvester Stallone's star power drove The Last Stand [which also had Johnny Knoxville] and Bullet To The Head to respective grosses of 12M and 9.4M. Both films also got terrible reviews with Bullet To The Head just getting past a 2x multipliler with The Last Stand failing to get past a 2x multiplier. You’d think a film starring Hugh Jackman, Naomi Watts, Emma Stone, Halle Berry, Kate Winslet and Richard Gere would make a lot of money and you wouldn’t be mistaken either. But Movie 43 took a paltry 8.8M at the US box office with over 50% of its gross coming from opening weekend. This unique idea failed like hell.

 

Another film that opened in January along with The Last Stand and Movie 43 was Broken City. A Crime thriller staring Russell Crowe and Mark Walhberg- sure hit, but the general audience had something else in mind. The film grossed a paltry 19.7M after an 8M 3 day opening. Though it’s not always that the star power is the person in front of the camera. In Peeples case, it was producer Tyler Perry who’s name was even in the title. But in a tough May weekend with 2+ 50M weekends [Great Gatsby and Iron Man], there was no room for this in the crowded marketplace. The film opened with 4.6M and like all Tyler Perry movies, the film made 50.3% of its total on OW as the total was 9.1M. This also proves that star power behind the scenes cannot always secure and audience. Going back to ensembles, The Big Wedding featured Robert De Niro, Susan Sarandon, Diane Keaton, Robin Williams and Amanda Seyfried. It was released on the 26th of April which in my view looked like a good weekend choice [Think Like A Man earned over 90M the year before] but the films pretty terrible marketing [apart from that You’re Next viral poster] and dreadful reviews [7% on Rotten Tomatoes] meant the film opened to 7.5M before finishing with just over 21M. Other Wedding movies such as 27 Dresses and Bridesmaids earned more in their opening weekends and Bride Wars [which wasn’t a massive success itself] opened to only a tiny bit less than TBW final total. Star ensembles also don’t give you guaranteed box office success.

 

Another early year bomb was Magician comedy The Incredible Burt Wonderstone starring Steve Carell And Jim Carrey. Most people’s expectations for OW had this pegged around the 18M mark but it opened horribly to 10M before finishing a quick run with 22M. This film also continued Olivia Wilde’s streak of bombs. Moving away from early year to a recent bomb, Runner Runner. Again, tracking had this Ben Affleck [his first since Oscar-winning Argo] and Justin Timberlake film [major music return this year] at a disappointing 11M. Though after Gravity’s major over performance, this film died with a 7M opening weekend and is on track to finish with just 20M.

 

Another reason for the film’s failure was the marketing. The anemic trailer made you feel like you’ve seen this film 100 times before and there was no reason to go again. This film shows that even a recent Oscar- winner can’t guaranty good box office numbers. Star Power is just not strong any more as these and many other films have proven over the past few years [unless it’s Gravity].Now it’s time to move onto the next category which is………. UNNECESSARY SEQUELS.

 

First up is The Last Exorcism Part 2. WHY THE HELL WAS THIS MADE. The first one took an average horror total of 41M and was very front-loaded [50% total in OW] despite quite good critical reviews [72% on Rotten Tomatoes]. This one was being in March which looked like a bad release date [in my view should have been January, maybe October but definitely not March]. When the reviews started coming in absolutely terrible at 16% on RT, this looked like it was in a lot of trouble. And it was with a 7.7M opening and closing quickly with a 15M total, this project should not have happened.

 

Next up was Scary Movie 5, coming 7 YEARS after the last one was a box office hit but unsurprisingly a critical failure [37% which actually represents the second highest in the all rotten series]. Though added publicity with the casting of Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen did not help this series at all. Originally looking well positioned with the same spot as SM4, there was a chance this might do well but no one cared about another one. Critical reviews were the worst for this entry in the franchise with a disastrous 4% and it opened to a paltry 14M before dropping off quickly to 32M. This might have been successful if it was released about 4 or 5 years earlier.

 

Next we have Kick Ass 2, a sequel to a film that sold ‘many copies on DVD’, amazing twitter buzz and the casting of Jim Carrey and his decision not to promote the movie adding more publicity. But online publicity doesn’t always translate into successful box office grosses as Dredd, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, Snakes on a Plane and the first Kick Ass demonstrated. This was another film with bad reviews [less than half of Kick Ass review total on RT]. Though, in a shock twist, the box office followed the same way as the reviews. The film struggled with a lacklustre 13M OW and fell quickly to a 28M total- a feat that Kick Ass achieved after 9 days. The small budget and ok overseas performance saved a bit of hope for Kick Ass 3 though [it’s not dead like a bunch of other films with already planned sequels which will be explained later]

 

The last film to fall into this category is…. very recent bomb MACHETE KILLS. The film was tracking for an 8M OW after the first Machete and Grindhouse both only grossed about 25M each. That total for Machete should have shown that a sequel shouldn’t have been made but it was another one that was green lit because of DVD sales. Like SM5, this added Charlie Sheen, Mel Gibson and Lady Gaga among its cast and there was literally no competition apart from Gravity, Captain Philips and Cloudy 2. But bad reviews [30% on RT] and Gravity’s major over performance meant one film had to suffer [well actually two because of Runner Runner and probably 4 in my view because of Escape Plan and The Fifth Estate]. MK opened to an awful 3.7M which was less than a 3rd of Machete’s opening and MK is likely to close with under 10M in its run. Only Paranoia and Closed Circuit had a worse OW in 2013 with CC playing at a 3rd of the theatres of MK. We will get to Paranoia and Closed Circuit later. Sequel’s shouldn’t be made for the sake of it as these 4 films have shown.The next part of the article will focus on the failure of YA adaptions in 2013, dumped films and films that just bombed for a number of reasons. Thank you for reading part 1 of the Bombs of 2013 and please read part 2.I have re-started this thread as its getting no publicity in the other thread. Plz dont close it. PLEASE

Edited October 14, 2013 by Halloweenbaumer

[CaptainJackSparrow]

Oh, I will talk about this with you in the other thread.

[rukaio101]

Dude. Nobody likes to read a huge wall of text. Split up your ramblings into paragraphs.

[CaptainJackSparrow]

And remember, when people don't comment on your article, it usually means they find nothing wrong with it.

[Films]

Dude. Nobody likes to read a huge wall of text. Split up your ramblings into paragraphs.

Well they're about 1 subject if you read it properly so SHUT UP.

[rukaio101]

Is it ok if I can have some feedback on the article if that's ok

 

Well they're about 1 subject if you read it properly so SHUT UP.

What's the point of asking for feedback if you're going to ignore it and shout at people who give it?

 

Besides, it doesn't matter if they're each about 1 subject, it's still looks awful and makes it difficult to read. Split it up into paragraphs.

[Films]

What's the point of asking for feedback if you're going to ignore it and shout at people who give it? Besides, it doesn't matter if they're each about 1 subject, it's still looks awful and makes it difficult to read. Split it up into paragraphs.

How should I split it then

[riczhang]

Oh god. I just had a flashback to iJack.

[rukaio101]

THE BOMBS OF 2013- PART 1Note 1: This refers more to the lower-grossing films which were bombs. Article 2 will refer to big budget bombs such as TLRNote 2: This is the first of I hope weekly articlesNote 3: This refers only to North American box officeWhen you look at Iron Man 3, Gravity, The Heat, Now You See Me, Despicable Me 2 and Fast Six, you would think 2013 is fantastic. And even though it is, there are some movies that have made this year sour. This happened because of a lot of reasons which will be explained below.Star Power has been absolutely useless this year and does literally not exist [though films like Gravity, The Heat and Identity Thief counteract this point]. Arnold Schwarzenager and Sylvester Stallone's star power drove The Last Stand [which also had Johnny Knoxville] and Bullet To The Head to respective grosses of 12M and 9.4M. Both films also got terrible reviews with Bullet To The Head just getting past a 2x multipliler with The Last Stand failing to get past a 2x multiplier. 

 

You’d think a film starring Hugh Jackman, Naomi Watts, Emma Stone, Halle Berry, Kate Winslet and Richard Gere would make a lot of money and you wouldn’t be mistaken either. But Movie 43 took a paltry 8.8M at the US box office with over 50% of its gross coming from opening weekend. This unique idea failed like hell.

 

Another film that opened in January along with The Last Stand and Movie 43 was Broken City. A Crime thriller staring Russell Crowe and Mark Walhberg- sure hit, but the general audience had something else in mind. The film grossed a paltry 19.7M after an 8M 3 day opening. Though it’s not always that the star power is the person in front of the camera.

 

In Peeples case, it was producer Tyler Perry who’s name was even in the title. But in a tough May weekend with 2+ 50M weekends [Great Gatsby and Iron Man], there was no room for this in the crowded marketplace. The film opened with 4.6M and like all Tyler Perry movies, the film made 50.3% of its total on OW as the total was 9.1M. This also proves that star power behind the scenes cannot always secure and audience.

 

Going back to ensembles, The Big Wedding featured Robert De Niro, Susan Sarandon, Diane Keaton, Robin Williams and Amanda Seyfried. It was released on the 26th of April which in my view looked like a good weekend choice [Think Like A Man earned over 90M the year before] but the films pretty terrible marketing [apart from that You’re Next viral poster] and dreadful reviews [7% on Rotten Tomatoes] meant the film opened to 7.5M before finishing with just over 21M. Other Wedding movies such as 27 Dresses and Bridesmaids earned more in their opening weekends and Bride Wars [which wasn’t a massive success itself] opened to only a tiny bit less than TBW final total. Star ensembles also don’t give you guaranteed box office success.

 

Another early year bomb was Magician comedy The Incredible Burt Wonderstone starring Steve Carell And Jim Carrey. Most people’s expectations for OW had this pegged around the 18M mark but it opened horribly to 10M before finishing a quick run with 22M. This film also continued Olivia Wilde’s streak of bombs.

 

Moving away from early year to a recent bomb, Runner Runner. Again, tracking had this Ben Affleck [his first since Oscar-winning Argo] and Justin Timberlake film [major music return this year] at a disappointing 11M. Though after Gravity’s major over performance, this film died with a 7M opening weekend and is on track to finish with just 20M. Another reason for the film’s failure was the marketing. The anaemic trailer made you feel like you’ve seen this film 100 times before and there was no reason to go again. This film shows that even a recent Oscar- winner can’t guaranty good box office numbers. Star Power is just not strong any more as these and many other films have proven over the past few years [unless it’s Gravity].Now it’s time to move onto the next category which is………. UNNECESSARY SEQUELS. First up is The Last Exorcism Part 2. WHY THE HELL WAS THIS MADE. The first one took an average horror total of 41M and was very front-loaded [50% total in OW] despite quite good critical reviews [72% on Rotten Tomatoes]. This one was being in March which looked like a bad release date [in my view should have been January, maybe October but definitely not March]. When the reviews started coming in absolutely terrible at 16% on RT, this looked like it was in a lot of trouble. And it was with a 7.7M opening and closing quickly with a 15M total, this project should not have happened.

 

Next up was Scary Movie 5, coming 7 YEARS after the last one was a box office hit but unsurprisingly a critical failure [37% which actually represents the second highest in the all rotten series]. Though added publicity with the casting of Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen did not help this series at all. Originally looking well positioned with the same spot as SM4, there was a chance this might do well but no one cared about another one. Critical reviews were the worst for this entry in the franchise with a disastrous 4% and it opened to a paltry 14M before dropping off quickly to 32M. This might have been successful if it was released about 4 or 5 years earlier.

 

Next we have Kick Ass 2, a sequel to a film that sold ‘many copies on DVD’, amazing twitter buzz and the casting of Jim Carrey and his decision not to promote the movie adding more publicity. But online publicity doesn’t always translate into successful box office grosses as Dredd, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, Snakes on a Plane and the first Kick Ass demonstrated. This was another film with bad reviews [less than half of Kick Ass review total on RT]. Though, in a shock twist, the box office followed the same way as the reviews. The film struggled with a lacklustre 13M OW and fell quickly to a 28M total- a feat that Kick Ass achieved after 9 days. The small budget and ok overseas performance saved a bit of hope for Kick Ass 3 though [it’s not dead like a bunch of other films with already planned sequels which will be explained later]

 

The last film to fall into this category is…. very recent bomb MACHETE KILLS. The film was tracking for an 8M OW after the first Machete and Grindhouse both only grossed about 25M each. That total for Machete should have shown that a sequel shouldn’t have been made but it was another one that was green lit because of DVD sales. Like SM5, this added Charlie Sheen, Mel Gibson and Lady Gaga among its cast and there was literally no competition apart from Gravity, Captain Philips and Cloudy 2. But bad reviews [30% on RT] and Gravity’s major over performance meant one film had to suffer [well actually two because of Runner Runner and probably 4 in my view because of Escape Plan and The Fifth Estate]. MK opened to an awful 3.7M which was less than a 3rd of Machete’s opening and MK is likely to close with under 10M in its run. Only Paranoia and Closed Circuit had a worse OW in 2013 with CC playing at a 3rd of the theatres of MK. We will get to Paranoia and Closed Circuit later. Sequel’s shouldn’t be made for the sake of it as these 4 films have shown.The next part of the article will focus on the failure of YA adaptions in 2013, dumped films and films that just bombed for a number of reasons. Thank you for reading part 1 of the Bombs of 2013 and please read part 2.I have re-started this thread as its getting no publicity in the other thread. Plz dont close it. PLEASE

There. Much easier to read. Now I can criticise the content instead. Because there really isn't much.This is pretty much just a list of films which bombed along with who starred in it and what its box office total was (and sometimes critical reviews).

[CaptainJackSparrow]

There. Much easier to read. Now I can criticise the content instead. Because there really isn't much.This is pretty much just a list of films which bombed along with who starred in it and what its box office total was (and sometimes critical reviews).

At least he is doing something constructive with his time.

[rukaio101]

At least he is doing something constructive with his time.

Doesn't make it any less crap.

[CaptainJackSparrow]

Let's see you come up with something better. Oh wait, that's right, you can't.

[rukaio101]

Let's see you come up with something better. Oh wait, that's right, you can't.

Ignoring the fact that, since I'm aiming to be a professional writer, I could do something better than that in my sleep, that logic makes no sense. You don't need to have made your own critically acclaimed film to criticise bad films.

[CaptainJackSparrow]

Ignoring the fact that, since I'm aiming to be a professional writer, I could do something better than that in my sleep, that logic makes no sense. You don't need to have made your own critically acclaimed film to criticise bad films.

That's great for you, but calling somebodys else work crap is a little cruel.

[ecstasy]

Mods close this thread or at the very least move it to Speakeasy.

[Films]

There. Much easier to read. Now I can criticise the content instead. Because there really isn't much.This is pretty much just a list of films which bombed along with who starred in it and what its box office total was (and sometimes critical reviews).

This is part 1 of 4

[Films]

Mods close this thread or at the very least move it to Speakeasy.

Im fine with it being moved to the speakeasy but plz don't close it

[rukaio101]

That's great for you, but calling somebodys else work crap is a little cruel.

If he's not prepared to get negative feedback, quite frankly, he shouldn't have posted it.

 

Besides, he asked for feedback. I gave it to him and told him precisely why I didn't like it. Simple as.

[CaptainJackSparrow]

One last thing, it isn't very professional to call somebodys work crap.

[CaptainJackSparrow]

Yeah speakeasy in my opinion.

Edited October 14, 2013 by Gingy