Fantasy Island | February 14, 2020 | Sony/Blumhouse | Michael Pena, Lucy Hale

[Blaze Heatnix]

I've just read another critic review and he says the movie is This year's Serenity.

 

He also said the movie has a very horrible twist. This is not the first user or critic review mentioning how the twist is very confusing.

 

 

[dudalb]

That line one critic had about "Wadrow's ambition to make a good film remains unfulfilled" is pretty cruel...though not inaccurate. I have seen a few of his films on cable, and the only one that was halfway entertaiing was Truth Or Dare, and even that was a "So bad it's good" sort of film, which is not what Wadrow was shooting for.

[Boxofficerules]

Jeff Wadrow is the Friedberg / Seltzer of the horror genre.

[dudalb]

9 minutes ago, Boxofficerules said:

Jeff Wadrow is the Friedberg / Seltzer of the horror genre.

Good Comparision. He makes lousy movies that generally manage to turn a profit.

You sure as hell don't see his name mentioned as one of the promising young directors in the horror genre......

It says something about the genre loyalty of Horror fans that they go see his movies even though they know the chances of them actually being good are very,very,low.

Edited February 13, 2020 by dudalb

[dudalb]

I have to give it to Blumhouse and Jason Blum from a business point of view: They know how to turn a profit on low budget films,many of them of dubious quality.

He tumbled that horror fans will go to just about ANY horror themed movie no matter how bad it looks. Keep the budget low enough ,which they do, you are going to, most of the time, generate a profit. Maybe not much of one, but release enough movies in a year and it adds up.

And once or twice a year you will have a movie that manages to breakthrough beyond the usual Horror crowd, and that is where you make your major profits.

The key is keep the budgets down. They spent 15 Million on "The Hunt" and for them that is a huge huge big blockbuster level budget.

[Barnack]

31 minutes ago, dudalb said:

He tumbled that horror fans will go to just about ANY horror themed movie no matter how bad it looks.

 

Not sure how much it is either true or the strength of is model, he test the movies and many of them are not released, because he know that it is not the case (and make it's track record look way better than it is), the low budget make it easier (arguably possible even) to act like that.

 

A good percentage of Blumhouse production (including horror one) made $0 at the box office:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Blumhouse_Productions_projects#Released_films

 

We just do not remember Blum Creep 2 even with the Duplass names involved:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creep_2

 

Ended up a VOD release.

 

Blumhouse produced 79 feature film since 2007, of those:

 

22 made less than 1 million at the box office (27.8%, that would not be the case if people could easily be convinced to see anything horror)

19 made between 1M to 20 million (24%)

 

With about 48% working well and making above 20M at the world BO, not that different that other non-Disney studio track record. (53to 56% of Sony Classic release turned a profit if a remember correctly), is hit.

 

The fact is failure are so small that we never heard of them for almost all of them make the model look way more robust/good than it is in reality.

 

 

[aladdino]

2 hours ago, dudalb said:

 

He tumbled that horror fans will go to just about ANY horror themed movie no matter how bad it looks

horror movies are straight up bombing in 2020 tho.

 

@Barnack wasnt creep 2 sold directly to netflix???

Edited February 14, 2020 by aladdino

[dudalb]

1 hour ago, aladdino said:

horror movies are straight up bombing in 2020 tho.

 

@Barnack wasnt creep 2 sold directly to netflix???

Not if you look at the figures; there have been no hit horror films, but I think they almost all have made back their costs.

Gretal and Hansel lfor instance  cost five million dollar, it has grossed 15 Million dollars. It has paid for itself and will probably turn a small profit for the company.

That is the point I am making: if you keep the budget low enough, a Horror film will at least break even because there is a reliable core audience that will show up no matter what.

If there is such a thing as a safe film investment, it's a low budget horror movie. You are almost guaranteed to at least get your money back.

The Grudge for instance only made 44 Million, but since it only cost Ten Million it actually turned a decent return on investment for the company.

The Turning does seem to have lost money, but that is unusual for a low budget horror film. It cost 15 Million, which is actually a lot more then your typical horror offering. If Blumhouse had done it, it would probably have cost between 8 and Ten Milllion and at least broke even.

 

Edited February 14, 2020 by dudalb

[aladdino]

wow, truth or dare cost 3,5m and made 95m.... no wonder blumhouse gave the director another shot

[tonytr87]

I was planning on catching this late tonight and it turns out the studio isn't allowing previews? How strange...

[aladdino]

honestly if i was a critica and they did this embargo id' give it a worse review, they're basically trying to rip off the public

[Blaze Heatnix]

7% on RT

[aladdino]

4 minutes ago, Blaze Heatnix said:

7% on RT

13% no?

[Blaze Heatnix]

18 minutes ago, aladdino said:

13% no?

 

It keeps changing. It's not at 12% with 17 reviews.

[Jonwo]

I do think perhaps Blumhouse needs to cut the number of films they do per year or maybe go into different genres. I know they've dabbled with Whiplash and BlackKklansman but that's pretty much it, a Blumhouse comedy would be interesting as the model does lend itself to the genre

[Barnack]

17 hours ago, aladdino said:

horror movies are straight up bombing in 2020 tho.

 

@Barnack wasnt creep 2 sold directly to netflix???

Not sure what is the distinction, it is available on multiple VOD like Amazon as well, not like the usual Netflix title:

https://www.amazon.com/Creep-2-Mark-Duplass/dp/B076MMQDYV?tag=decider08-20?tag=decider08-20

 

But you get the large point, the % of Blum production that actually work at the box office isn't necessarily higher, they just cost less when they fail (and can get very high when they work)

 

16 hours ago, dudalb said:

but I think they almost all have made back their costs.

Did:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Keeping_Hours

 

Made is cost back ? Those ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_Let_Go_(2019_film)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curve_(film)

 

Maybe.

Edited February 14, 2020 by Barnack

[dudalb]

1 hour ago, Jonwo said:

I do think perhaps Blumhouse needs to cut the number of films they do per year or maybe go into different genres. I know they've dabbled with Whiplash and BlackKklansman but that's pretty much it, a Blumhouse comedy would be interesting as the model does lend itself to the genre

Why? 

Blumhouse has been very successful with it's business model. Fantasy Island, as crappy a movie as it is, is probably going to make a profit for Blumhouse.Not a big one, but a few million bucks.That would be a good return on a 7 million dollar investemtn.

BLum does really low budget films as it's bread and butter because it knows that however crappy they are, they will probably find enough of a core audience to  make a small profit or at least break even. 

 

[Barnack]

1 hour ago, Jonwo said:

needs to cut the number of films

Going for a large number and pushing those that work seem part of their DNA and success story, specially in the context that you give the filmmaker a lot of responsibility/freedom, I imagine you can pump a lot of them a year.

[dudalb]

4 minutes ago, Barnack said:

Going for a large number and pushing those that work seem part of their DNA and success story, specially in the context that you give the filmmaker a lot of responsibility/freedom, I imagine you can pump a lot of them a year.

The secret is keeping the budgets really, really, low and..with a couple of exceptions..sticking to the horror genre.

Fantasy Island is projected to do 15 Million opening weekend...which will cover it production costs. when you figure in streaming and video, Blumhouse will make a  good profit for a small investment.

[Boxofficerules]

6 minutes ago, dudalb said:

The secret is keeping the budgets really, really, low and..with a couple of exceptions..sticking to the horror genre.

Fantasy Island is projected to do 15 Million opening weekend...which will cover it production costs. when you figure in streaming and video, Blumhouse will make a  good profit for a small investment.

If they keep making dire movies like Fantasy Island and Black Christmas, it’s going to damage their brand and future releases may suffer.