Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets | July 21, 2017 | FLOP OF THE YEAR

[JohnnyGossamer]

Oh, please. He'll  be fine. He's directed bombs before.

[dudalb]

Besson's career is not dead,but he will not get another 180 Million budget for a while. It's back to modestly budgeted thrillers for Besson,which is fine with me because I like those a lot better then his over the top space operas.

[filmlover]

I kinda dig the song Cara did for this movie's soundtrack (in collaboration with Pharrell).

 

 

[MrGlass2]

Quote

Val 6.5

Between this and King Arthur, this summer sucks for the genres I love.

At least Valerian is a beautiful, wonderful bomb.

 

[WeneedtotalkaboutKevin]

Damn the RT score keeps dropping ! Pray for Valerian fans !

[straggler]

I like Besson to a point. I liked Fifth Element. Hated Lucy. But this movie reminded me of Speed Racer.  

[AJG]

RT Audience Score down to 65%, will be rotten by the time the film gets its UK release.

[dashrendar44]

What surprised me today was that it doesn't open here in Besson's native country until next wednesday, I thought it was already showing since last wednesday to precede US release on friday...So we don't even get the prime exclusivity before the US despite the big fuss being made around "RAH RAH VIVE LA FRANCE!". Flop roll-out, now headlines will let the word out that it is already a flop in the US before opening here.

[GrimFandango]

I'm super tempted to see this again this weekend, but my god the acting and dialogue are so bad I don't know if I can handle it enough for the good stuff.

[straggler]

The thing that makes this film so questionable in hindsight is the budget. Even if the budget gets fudged down to $150 million that is an awful lot of money to spend on a project like this. What made them think this would work? Was the comic book series that popular? This was actually set up by Lucy. For some reason, timing as much as anything, Lucy became a hit, but it was just a bad film. Yet from that deceptive hit (audiences saw it but did not like it) it spawned this and GITS. Still Lucy had a budget of only $40 million. Even if the studio thought they were on to something with Besson, giving him that type of budget does not make much sense for an essentially original project.  

 

Also can anyone explain Cara Delevingne's career? She is a successfuil model and all the sudden she is in one high profile project after another. She is not horrible, but she has a weird career arc. 

Edited July 22, 2017 by straggler

[Plain Old Tele]

I mean, it's not they willingly spend money just to spend it. That's basically what it takes to make a movie of this general scope. And frankly, EuropaCorp did this relatively smartly: they worked out what they would need financially and went out and raised it. The risk was spread around and if it didn't work out, EC wouldn't go bankrupt (and neither would anyone else). And if it hit big, they could do sequels.

[That One Girl]

1 minute ago, Emperor Tele-Limai said:

And if it hit big, they could do sequels.

 

 

A Valerian trilogy...

[straggler]

3 minutes ago, Emperor Tele-Limai said:

I mean, it's not they willingly spend money just to spend it. That's basically what it takes to make a movie of this general scope. And frankly, EuropaCorp did this relatively smartly: they worked out what they would need financially and went out and raised it. The risk was spread around and if it didn't work out, EC wouldn't go bankrupt (and neither would anyone else). And if it hit big, they could do sequels.

I get it but I'm not sure I find a businses model where there are no apparently consequences for what is shaping up to be a major flop reassuring.  

[Plain Old Tele]

5 minutes ago, straggler said:

I get it but I'm not sure I find a businses model where there are no apparently consequences for what is shaping up to be a major flop reassuring.  

 

Well, it's been talked about plenty in this thread, but basically you presell distribution to foreign territories. So Besson and Co approached many distribution companies, armed with the script, the attached talent, promo reels, concept art, etc and companies bought the rights to distribute in various territories. That money was used as collateral to secure bank loans to cover almost all the production cost. If the movie does well, everyone wins. If it does poorly, many companies lose money but not to an overwhelming degree. And most importantly, the movie gets made. 

[Kvikk Lunsj]

1 hour ago, dashrendar44 said:

What surprised me today was that it doesn't open here in Besson's native country until next wednesday, I thought it was already showing since last wednesday to precede US release on friday...So we don't even get the prime exclusivity before the US despite the big fuss being made around "RAH RAH VIVE LA FRANCE!". Flop roll-out, now headlines will let the word out that it is already a flop in the US before opening here.

All the more reason for the French to go droves next week to see it. Ban all other movies from being released in France.  Only Valerian until it becomes Frances highest grossing movie all time before another movie gets released.

[Twelve]

I don't understand why they didn't release this next weekend. The last weekend of July is empty so there was no reason to go head to head with Dunkirk.

[GrimFandango]

53 minutes ago, straggler said:

The thing that makes this film so questionable in hindsight is the budget. Even if the budget gets fudged down to $150 million that is an awful lot of money to spend on a project like this. What made them think this would work? Was the comic book series that popular? This was actually set up by Lucy. For some reason, timing as much as anything, Lucy became a hit, but it was just a bad film. Yet from that deceptive hit (audiences saw it but did not like it) it spawned this and GITS. Still Lucy had a budget of only $40 million. Even if the studio thought they were on to something with Besson, giving him that type of budget does not make much sense for an essentially original project.  

 

Also can anyone explain Cara Delevingne's career? She is a successfuil model and all the sudden she is in one high profile project after another. She is not horrible, but she has a weird career arc. 

 

I don't think it's that questionable--Besson's had some very popular, well-regarded movies and he is a well-respected director. I imagine between his enthusiasm for the project, and if he showed off a 5-minute concept reel that looked like the trailer (or the first five minutes of the alien planet from the trailer) it would certainly convince investors he has a good project on his hands. Everyone has admitted to being blown away by that, even if they disliked the movie.

 

And this movie came really close to being a breakout hit. I like to contrast this against the last few Transformers movies: Valerian is a project of love for Besson, while Transformers kept coming off like a cash-grab by Bay. Both sport amazing SFX, although I would argue that Valerian's is better. Plus Valerian is much, much more inventive and intriguing. I personally feel Besson thought he had a really good script on his hands. Bay seemed to say "that last film made money, I'm just gonna copy and paste the main pieces, throw a script together in 30 days and good enough."  Bay really didn't seem to give a shit if his script was actually any good.  And the box office results seem to support it until that bottom finally fell out.

 

But imagine as an investor having something that blows Transformers away in sfx, concept and story with a script that a so-far pretty successful directory really believes in? It would almost seem dumb to turn it down. And as Tele mentions, the risk was really spread out among a lot of investors.

 

If Besson can put together a sequel and fix the dialoge and casting issues, I'll be there buying my ticket on opening night.

 

[JohnnyGossamer]

3 hours ago, straggler said:

I like Besson to a point. I liked Fifth Element. Hated Lucy. But this movie reminded me of Speed Racer.  

Edited July 22, 2017 by JohnnyGossamer

[JohnnyGossamer]

While not as mind-meltingly awesome as Speed Racer, it was probably the closest thing I've had to watching Speed in '08. That said - I know I won't shut up about it - Hirsch and Ricci kill it in Speed Racer. They're charming as hell. Quite the contrary here in Valerian. I do love how the Wachowski and, to a lesser extent, how awesomely artificial and gorgeous computer images can provide the ideal sensory overload.

[Hatebox]

Saw a TV spot for this last night in which the voiceover said 'from the legendary director of the Fifth Element...'

 

I loved Leon, but steady on.