October movies WWW megathread - Steve Jobs, The Walk, Crimson Peak, Jem, Burnt, PA5, Crisis, Kasbah, Pan, Witch Hunter. Discuss all the flops in here.

[BadAtGender]

Mightygodking wrote a pretty good analysis about why Steve Jobs failed: http://mightygodking.com/2015/10/29/steve-jobs-cant-melt-steel-beams

 

Short of it is that Steve Jobs as a person is much more important for rich white guys than he was for general audiences. There's a cap on how many people are truly interested in him as a person, which has been born out in the business of the various movies and the books about him sold. However, because rich white guys have power to get things made, they go back to that well often.

 

And from that, rich white guys tend to be concentrated in markets that cater to indie flicks. So it gets good traction in those cases, but audiences as a whole just sorta go "eh".

 

I'd guess that a lot of the theaters it lost this weekend were from those more general markets. The remaining ones are closer to the richer, whiter, indier crowd. Which is probably why its weekend drop wasn't as harsh as the theater loss.

[forg]

Generally, they are all unappealing, Burnt and Crisis needed strong reviews to do better. 

[Kalo]

The martian sucked the audience away from the slew of other adult geared films, too many adult dramas too choices from, lots of movies with bad reviews or niche audiences in Steve Jobs case. or the truth The Star Wars Trailer + tickets sucked enthusiasm for anyone wanting to see anything that didn't begin with Star and end with Wars. 

Edited November 9, 2015 by Kalo

[Kalo]

1 hour ago, damienroc said:

Mightygodking wrote a pretty good analysis about why Steve Jobs failed: http://mightygodking.com/2015/10/29/steve-jobs-cant-melt-steel-beams

 

Short of it is that Steve Jobs as a person is much more important for rich white guys than he was for general audiences. There's a cap on how many people are truly interested in him as a person, which has been born out in the business of the various movies and the books about him sold. However, because rich white guys have power to get things made, they go back to that well often.

 

And from that, rich white guys tend to be concentrated in markets that cater to indie flicks. So it gets good traction in those cases, but audiences as a whole just sorta go "eh".

 

I'd guess that a lot of the theaters it lost this weekend were from those more general markets. The remaining ones are closer to the richer, whiter, indier crowd. Which is probably why its weekend drop wasn't as harsh as the theater loss.

 

I went to see Steve Jobs with my dad and sister and we were literally the only people in the screening. that analysis seems more or less accurate. but be honest I don't really care that much about Steve Jobs either, I barely knew anything about him expecting that he co-founded Apple or something, I mostly was interested because one of my favorite actors stars in it, it was getting great reviews and it was about technology (sort of). it's a shame more people didn't see it though, because it was a very good movie with excellent performances and a rich script, with fantastic dialogue. regardless of what people thought of Jobs the person. 

Edited November 9, 2015 by Kalo

[BadAtGender]

1 minute ago, Kalo said:

 

I went to see Steve Jobs with my dad and sister and we were literally the only people in the screening. that analysis seems more or less accurate. but be honest I don't really care that much about Steve Jobs either, I barely knew anything about him expecting that he co-founded Apple or something, I mostly was interested because one of my favorite actors stars in it, it was getting great reviews and it was about technology (sort of). it's a shame more people didn't see it though, because it was a very good movie with excellent performances and a rich script, with fantastic dialogue. regardless of what people thought of Jobs the person. 

 

There's probably an added subset of people who are interested in Danny Boyle and/or Aaron Sorkin specifically (Or Fassbender), but again, that's going to line up more nicely with the indie film crowd than the general audience.

[Kalo]

12 minutes ago, damienroc said:

 

There's probably an added subset of people who are interested in Danny Boyle and/or Aaron Sorkin specifically (Or Fassbender), but again, that's going to line up more nicely with the indie film crowd than the general audience.

 

Ah yes, I'm also a huge Danny Boyle fan. I definitely fall into the indie crowd. although I love a good blockbuster too. but I think that demographic is very small and reserved for mostly film enthusiasts. 

[cookie]

Crimson Peak: A niche director in a niche genre. Part of me always wishes a Del Toro film made more but that's just not gonna happen.

PA5: Got screwed over by Paramount's VOD scheme which halved the theater count. Sure you can say franchise fatigue played a major part, but I think it could've doubled its number with a proper release.

Pan: Looked eh, movie was eh, better family options out at the time.

Steve Jobs: See the article Damienroc linked above.

Jem/Kasbah: Both looked horrible and audiences reacted appropriately.

Last Witch Hunter: Vin Diesel is not Dwayne Johnson. Also the $90m budget was nonsensical.

[grim22]

Jem got pulled after 2 weeks in theaters.  http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2015/11/09/should-jem-and-the-holograms-enter-video-on-demand-as-quickly-as-it-exited-theaters/

 

Quote

I didn’t notice this until someone on Twitter pointed it out to me on Saturday morning, but yes, Jem and the Holograms has already completed its theatrical run. It lost what few theaters it had left on Thursday and has ended its theatrical run with just $2.184 million in domestic grosses. It is not quite the fastest wide theatrical release to exit theaters. The Real Cancun came and went in fourteen days as well, as did the likes of Undiscovered, Slow Burn, and a number of movies new and old that you’ve probably never heard of unless you follow this stuff.  There are a few high-ish profile movies that were here and gone before the start of their would-be third weekends (Oogieloves: War Zone and Punisher In The Big Balloon Adventure come to mind), but two weeks is pretty fast.

 

The big winner on this score was Delgo. The infamous 2008 animated flop was literally gone in exactly a week, opening on Friday, December 12th on 2,21,60 screens and then going to zilch on Friday December 19th ending with a $694,782 domestic cume. I’m sure there are other movies out there that came and went in somewhat wide release in exactly seven days, but I can’t find any. Jem and the Holograms is a tragedy, but it’s not a record setter in any real way. It’s not the lowest-grossing movie ever to open on 2,000 screens, the shortest theatrical run for a 2,000+ screen release, losing opening for such, etc., etc. But what sets Jem apart is that it was from one of the major studios and that it arrived in an era of Video On Demand.

 

[dudalb]

Pan and Last Witch Hunter  were good examples of a studioi pending way too much on a questionable porject

10 hours ago, cookie said:

Crimson Peak: A niche director in a niche genre. Part of me always wishes a Del Toro film made more but that's just not gonna happen.

PA5: Got screwed over by Paramount's VOD scheme which halved the theater count. Sure you can say franchise fatigue played a major part, but I think it could've doubled its number with a proper release.

Pan: Looked eh, movie was eh, better family options out at the time.

Steve Jobs: See the article Damienroc linked above.

Jem/Kasbah: Both looked horrible and audiences reacted appropriately.

Last Witch Hunter: Vin Diesel is not Dwayne Johnson. Also the $90m budget was nonsensical.

Yeah, whoever at Lionsgate greenlighted a 90 Million budget for Last Witch Hunter needs to be fired.

Pan was a desperate attempt by Warners to get a franchise to fill the slot left empty by the end of the Potter franchise. Pan was greenlighted and into production before Warners knew that Rowling was interested in turning Fantastic Beasts into a franchise; if they had,guarneteed they would not have sunk as much into Pan or maybe not even greelight it in the first place.

[Boxofficerules]

4 hours ago, grim22 said:

Jem got pulled after 2 weeks in theaters.  http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2015/11/09/should-jem-and-the-holograms-enter-video-on-demand-as-quickly-as-it-exited-theaters/

 

 

Oh shit! Oogiloves: Warzone and Punishers Big Balloon Adventure sound AWESOME! Where can I see these masterpieces?

[Outrageous!]

Maybe this news will make CJohn happy: Variety says Jem and the Holograms is still playing at around 50 theaters.  Universal may not be tracking it officially anymore, but 2,417 to 50 or less theaters would set the percentage theater drop record, if Box Office Mojo were to count it.

[grim22]

5 minutes ago, Outrageous! said:

Maybe this news will make CJohn happy: Variety says Jem and the Holograms is still playing at around 50 theaters.  Universal may not be tracking it officially anymore, but 2,417 to 50 or less theaters would set the percentage theater drop record, if Box Office Mojo were to count it.

 

BOM can't count it unless Universal provides them the tracking, and Universal has closed all tracking on this, packed up and called it a day. Many movies are stopped like this, Furious 7 was stopped on tracking when it was still making around 300k a weekend. Studios will just add any additional gross from that point into final numbers a month or so down the line.