Sky-high expectations...bottom-barrel results. Here's why these massive tentpole releases wound up limping out of theaters in 2024.
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00:00Sky-high expectations, bottom-barrel results.
00:03Here's why these massive tempo releases wound up limping out of theaters in 2024.
00:08Question.
00:09How do you remake a cult classic for the 21st century?
00:12Answer?
00:13Not like this.
00:14Here's everything that went wrong with 2024's The Crow.
00:18In mid-March 2024, Lionsgate dropped the first trailer for The Crow.
00:22Instantly, the marketing campaign for this remake got off on the wrong foot.
00:26The moody trailer confirmed this remake would come with the same storytelling terrain of
00:30the original movie and emphasized lots of R-rated violence.
00:34Immediately, the press expressed disdain for the project, while the first trailer for The
00:38Crow remake secured over 91,000 dislikes a few days after its launch.
00:42It was a staggering turn of events that instantly cast a grim aura over the entire production.
00:47In the months that followed, Lionsgate struggled to stir anticipation for The Crow.
00:52Part of the problem came from the small scale of the studio's promotional campaign.
00:55The studio reportedly spent only $15 million on marketing the feature, just slightly over
01:0110 percent of the promotional budget for Deadpool and Wolverine.
01:04Let's give the people what they came for!
01:06The meager marketing spend meant that even seemingly no-brainer promotional tie-ins for
01:10The Crow went unexploited.
01:12Most notably, the 2024 edition of the San Diego International Comic-Con featured no
01:16Crow panels or photo opportunities.
01:19All in all, nothing about Lionsgate's The Crow marketing screamed confidence, meaning
01:23audiences found it much easier to give the movie the cold shoulder.
01:27When the idea for a Crow remake first emerged, Mark Wahlberg's name was attached as a contender
01:32for the lead part.
01:33Wahlberg didn't last long in the role, but several other actors would later be eyeballed
01:37as a replacement.
01:38In fact, the titular role of The Crow became something of a revolving door, through which
01:42various leading men walked in and out during the 2010s.
01:45Bradley Cooper, Tom Hiddleston, and Jason Momoa, among many others, were connected to
01:49the part at some point in time.
01:51The 1994 version of The Crow had been meant to launch Brandon Lee as a movie star.
01:56In sharp contrast, the initial plan for the remake was to merge the property with a red-hot
02:00leading man.
02:01In the end, the role went to Bill Skarsgård, who was previously best known for playing
02:05Pennywise the Clown in It Chapter 1 and Chapter 2.
02:08Time to float!
02:10While those movies were smash hits, Skarsgård himself would freely admit he's not a box
02:14office draw.
02:15Supporting Skarsgård was famous musician FKA Twigs and character actor Danny Houston.
02:20Few recognizable faces featured in the rest of the cast.
02:23Certainly, nobody in The Crow was famous enough to help overcome the movie's shoddy marketing
02:27campaign.
02:29The very first rumblings of a straightforward Crow remake began in 2008.
02:33Just three years after the last direct-to-video sequel to the original film, The Crow Wicked
02:37Prayer hit the marketplace.
02:39At this point in time, The Crow was still relatively fresh in people's minds.
02:42It was also an era in which the superhero movie marketplace was still far from peak
02:46capacity.
02:47There was a radically different pop culture landscape to the one that The Crow finally
02:51entered in August 2024, however.
02:53By the time the remake opened, it had been over three decades since the original Crow
02:57premiered, and nearly two decades since the last Crow movie.
03:00The iron hadn't just cooled on the Crow brand name, it had gone arctic cold.
03:04That fact appeared to evade Lionsgate's marketing team, however.
03:07The abysmal campaign for The Crow leaned too heavily on the pre-existing brand name, with
03:12many of the posters and TV spots merely establishing that a new Crow movie was on the horizon.
03:17Some franchises can get away with simply leaning on a familiar logo, and perhaps that
03:21promotional approach would have been enough back in 2011 or 2012.
03:25But the 2024 Crow remake needed to do more to get people's attention, given how much
03:29the franchise had fallen out of fashion.
03:32There was once a time when R-rated movies stood out in the PG-13-dominated blockbuster
03:37marketplace.
03:38Just look at summer 2013, when The Conjuring distinguished itself in a sea of PG-13 hits.
03:43Summer 2024, however, has been packed to the gills with R-rated tentpoles.
03:48Bad Boys, Ride or Die, Alien Romulus, and especially Deadpool and Wolverine have been
03:52among the biggest box office hits of the season.
03:55This meant that The Crow couldn't promote itself as the one big bloody action movie
03:58in a season of sanitized family-friend fare.
04:01Instead, to the unconverted, The Crow felt like more of the same.
04:04More pressingly, the movie's August 23 release date placed it in direct competition with
04:09summer 2024's biggest R-rated movies.
04:11Alien Romulus, for example, opened just one week earlier, partially satisfying the public's
04:16appetite for graphically violent chaos.
04:18I can't lie to you about your chances, but you have my sympathies."
04:25The real fatal blow, though, was Deadpool and Wolverine, which topped the domestic box
04:29office despite being in its fifth week of release.
04:32Honestly, The Crow was always going to struggle to bring in audiences.
04:35This became all the more challenging, however, when it debuted into a marketplace in which
04:39a more lighthearted and better-reviewed movie also promised a ton of R-rated superhero carnage.
04:45The original Crow has become an object of deep personal affection for many 90s kids,
04:50and this cult following spans demographics beyond just film and comic book geeks.
04:54I wish the rain would stop just once.
04:57It can't rain all the time.
04:59For instance, the original movie is revered for its influence on the metal and punk music
05:03scenes.
05:04Meanwhile, folks growing up in the goth sub-community were fond of the film for providing a rare
05:08gothic hero in an era of cinema that mostly used their subculture as a punchline.
05:13Then, of course, there's a reverence for the film's late star, Brandon Lee, who was accidentally
05:17shot and killed during filming.
05:19That tragedy has led many modern retrospectives of The Crow to highlight Lee's remarkable
05:24work in the title role.
05:25Remakes are a dime a dozen in Hollywood, but something felt extra macabre about this one,
05:30given the material's permanent intertwining with Lee's personal life.
05:33It didn't help that the marketing for the 2024 Crow made the film look sanitized and
05:38mainstream, a sharp contrast to the way the original feature resonated deeply with grimy
05:43subcultures.
05:44This new Crow was supposed to ride brand-name familiarity to box office glory.
05:48Instead, people's love for the original movie just made it harder to sell a new version
05:52of the story.
05:53In the days leading up to The Crow's release, a particularly bizarre element of its marketing
05:58campaign emerged.
05:59Lionsgate didn't allow official reviews to drop for the movie until 4 p.m. Pacific Time
06:03on August 22nd.
06:05That meant many Thursday preview screenings for The Crow were well underway by the time
06:09critics could publish their reviews of the film.
06:11It was a strange measure that not only signaled minimal studio confidence in the project but
06:16also meant that there was no opportunity for The Crow to drum up buzz before opening day.
06:20To Lionsgate executives, the prospect of The Crow becoming a critical punching bag before
06:25release may have sounded like a nightmare.
06:27However, it's worth remembering that there's no such thing as bad publicity.
06:30Even a deluge of bad reviews two days before release could have inspired some social media
06:35chatter about The Crow.
06:36Perhaps it would have even motivated a few moviegoers to plunk down money for tickets
06:40in the name of hate-watching.
06:41Instead, the conversation surrounding the movie was totally dead leading up to those
06:45first public screenings.
06:47The only Crow-related discourse that actually came about related to a weird promotional
06:51double standard in which influencers were allegedly allowed to talk about the feature
06:55before critics.
06:57In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, several intriguing theatrical moviegoing trends have
07:01emerged.
07:02One especially important trend is that Gen Z moviegoers have become the most important
07:06audience for studios to pursue.
07:08These avid movie theater attendees have fueled some of the biggest post-2021 box office hits
07:13domestically.
07:14Basically, if you want a lucrative feature film in 2024, you better appeal to folks under
07:18the age of 30.
07:19That demo's prominence in modern moviegoing was reflected in the fact that 58 percent
07:24of the opening weekend audience of The Crow landed in the 18 to 34 age range.
07:28However, the film's lack of appeal to a broader range of younger audiences clearly limited
07:33its box office potential.
07:34Bill Skarsgård isn't a beloved heartthrob on TikTok, and FKA Twigs is nowhere near famous
07:39enough with college-aged audiences to carry a whole movie.
07:42Plus, The Crow brand name is practically unknown to younger moviegoers, and nothing in the
07:46marketing campaign made the film appear relevant to young people, like, say, the trailers for
07:50Challengers did.
07:51Even the use of gothic aesthetics in the posters and trailers felt out of step with the modern
07:55punk and emo scenes.
07:57In courting the nostalgia of moviegoers, The Crow failed to utilize a demographic that's
08:01proven critical for any box office phenomenon since 2021.
08:06The biggest domestic movie of the 2020s so far was Spider-Man No Way Home, which scored
08:10a mighty $800 million, plus haul, in the United States.
08:14But while No Way Home flourished financially, superhero movies in general have had a rocky
08:20track record this decade compared to the last.
08:23A slew of high-profile, costly bombs have plagued the once-untouchable Marvel and DC
08:27brands.
08:28This included costly 2023 duds The Marvels and The Flash, both of which failed to match
08:33even the domestic opening weekends of prior Marvel and DC titles with their total box
08:38office grosses.
08:39This was the unpredictable box office landscape into which The Crow soared.
08:42When the concept of remaking The Crow was first bandied about, making a superhero movie
08:47mostly meant printing your own money, unless you were very unlucky.
08:50This reboot, however, entered a marketplace where even new Marvel Studios titles can struggle
08:55to match box office expectations.
08:57Even with Deadpool and Wolverine killing it financially, the erratic track record of 2020s
09:02superhero movies remains, which can't have made things much easier for The Crow.
09:06Sometimes word of mouth can save a movie after a poor opening weekend.
09:10If audiences really like what they see, positive buzz can spread like wildfire and ensure that
09:15a release gains ground after an underwhelming bow.
09:18It's a very rare phenomenon, but the likes of Elemental and The Greatest Showman have
09:21shown that it can happen.
09:23After a dismal opening day box office performance, the producers of The Crow were likely praying
09:28that this might happen to them, too.
09:30Unfortunately, the opening night cinema score for The Crow sealed the movie's fate.
09:34Audiences gave the movie a disappointing B- grade.
09:37If there's any sliver of an upside for The Crow, it'd be that it didn't receive the worst
09:41cinema score for a 2024 superhero movie.
09:44That honor belongs to the C-plus score slapped on Madame Webb back in February.
09:48However, a B-minus cinema score puts The Crow in disastrous company in terms of superhero
09:53movie word of mouth, with the infamous bomb dog Phoenix receiving the same grade in June
09:572019.
09:58April 2022's Morbius, meanwhile, got a similar C-plus grade from audiences.
10:02I'm starting to get hungry, and you don't want to see me when I'm hungry.
10:08All these earlier titles suffered catastrophic second-weekend plummets, with those cinema
10:12scores indicating immense audience displeasure that warned off other moviegoers.
10:17With such a disastrous response, the word of mouth for The Crow prevented the movie
10:21from making a last-minute escape from box office hell.
10:24The Crow confirmed a brutal Hollywood truth.
10:26If you want to launch a lucrative superhero movie, don't distribute it through Lionsgate.
10:30The studio has proven incredibly successful at launching the John Wick, Hunger Games,
10:35and Saw franchises, but its box office track record with superhero films is truly awful.
10:40The studio has distributed a litany of infamous superhero feature flops, ranging from The
10:44Spirit to the 2019 Hellboy boondoggle to 2017's costly Power Rangers bomb.
10:50Only April 2010's low-budget hit Kick-Ass proved to be an exception to this rule.
10:54Otherwise, Lionsgate's superhero fare seems doomed to fail.
10:58Lionsgate's main problem with launching superhero movies is that the studio typically acquires
11:02and releases titles based on superheroes who have already had big-screen adventures.
11:06Hellboy, Power Rangers, The Crow — these are all characters that had previously famous
11:10cinematic incarnations.
11:11It's no surprise that Lionsgate's closest thing to a hit superhero movie was Kick-Ass,
11:16which adapted a character who had never before been seen on the big screen.
11:20Otherwise, trying to wring hits out of familiar brands has never been a recipe for success
11:24by Lionsgate, dating back to the days of Punisher Warzone.
11:27The Crow would probably have never made bank, even with Disney-level distribution, but Lionsgate's
11:32cursed handling of the superhero genre certainly did it no favors.
11:37How did Furiosa, seemingly a surefire hit, end up as a roadkill?
11:40Were audiences really just uninterested in more of George Miller's desert madness, or
11:44are there larger forces at work?
11:47Let's face it, Mad Max movies have never really relied on hefty star power.
11:50They've been sold more on the strength of its breathtaking action and intricate worldbuilding,
11:55not to mention their gritty stories.
11:57Fury Road was a visual onslaught, a balls-to-the-wall, nonstop thrill ride that captivated even the
12:02most skeptical critics who have a hard time with action movies.
12:04So why did Furiosa, a Mad Max saga, barely scratch $32 million domestically in its opening
12:09weekend?
12:10We might blame the marketing.
12:12Trailers for the film didn't do enough in our eyes to set itself apart from Fury Road.
12:16With none of the same stars but several of the same characters, some fans watching the
12:19pre-release hype might not have been sold, especially as their early footage made it
12:23seem like the same rollercoaster ride as a previous film.
12:26But critics and audiences have remarked that it's not nearly as action-packed, being a
12:29somewhat slower, more dramatic story than the fast-paced Fury Road.
12:33That may have led to some early disappointments, or at least a sense for some fans that it
12:37wasn't a must-watch in theaters.
12:38You have it in you to make it epic.
12:41More broadly, though, the excitement surrounding Furiosa also seemed dim by comparison to the
12:45last movie.
12:46The buzz was through the roof in 2015, especially as a rare R-rated blockbuster.
12:51But in the years since, acclaimed adult-genre movies have upped their game, with the likes
12:55of Deadpool and Joker making it harder for Furiosa to stand out.
13:00It's certainly no secret that Hollywood is facing an existential crisis of sorts in 2024,
13:05four years after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the closure of cinemas across the world.
13:09True, ticket sales have rebounded from the first reopenings in 2021, with last year bringing
13:13in more than quadruple the amounts collected in 2020.
13:16Yet the roughly $9 billion earned across all markets in 2023 was still a steep step below
13:21what the industry amassed in 2019 before the pandemic, and 2024 isn't off to a good
13:26start.
13:27Prior to Furiosa on Mad Max Saga landing like a ton of bricks in late May, The Fall Guy,
13:31the Ryan Gosling-starring remake of the 80s classic TV series, was a huge dud.
13:36The reality is, the moviegoing experience may simply never be what it once was.
13:40The biggest barrier for Furiosa might be the poor performance of theaters in general.
13:44It also doesn't help that the masses saw Dune Part II go from its theatrical launch
13:48of March 1st to streaming on Max on May 21st, which is less than 12 weeks going from theaters
13:53to Warner Bros. streaming service.
13:55A number of would-be Furiosa viewers probably saw how quickly Dune Part II hit Max and decided
14:00to wait it out to watch the film in the comforts of their own home.
14:04Prequel movies have a long history in Hollywood, but the past 25 years have made them polarizing.
14:08With the release of the Star Wars prequels, they became an especially touchy subject,
14:12especially for fans of science fiction.
14:14Ah, boy.
14:16I'm just so tired of all these Star Wars.
14:18A prequel to Mad Max Fury Road may have faced bigger uphill challenges than most, too.
14:23For starters, the series is arguably devoid of any serious continuity — at least, not
14:27the kind that stands up to serious scrutiny.
14:30Furiosa even acknowledges this, suggesting that every story in the saga is merely a half-remembered
14:34folk tale of sorts.
14:35Nevertheless, audiences can't be blamed for being less interested in Furiosa's origins
14:39as they were eager to see where Furiosa went next after Fury Road.
14:44The film left a tantalizing door open, with Furiosa taking control of the massive Citadel
14:48once ruled by the tyrannical and mourning Joe.
14:51Director and series creator George Miller has promised a more direct follow-up that
14:54might very well show us Furiosa in charge of the Citadel, but the focus on her backstory
14:58probably wasn't exactly what audiences wanted to see next.
15:02Despite the outpouring of love for the character of Furiosa after Furiosa, a Mad Max saga,
15:07the fact that the film was a spinoff with no connection to the title character could
15:10be hurting the film's box office tallies.
15:12Spoiler alert, Max himself does make a brief appearance, but it's more the Easter egg variety
15:17than any kind of actual supporting role.
15:19This is the East Rim of the Wasteland, whispered to me by Furiosa herself.
15:27Gripes about a lack of Mad Max in a Mad Max film reached a fever pitch in 2015 when Fury
15:32Road hit theaters, as many complained that it was barely about Max at all.
15:36Some even complained that the previous movie was already a Furiosa movie in everything
15:40but name, upset that the series had put another character into the spotlight.
15:44Flash forward to 2024, and instead of a sequel, fans got a spinoff, with Max appearing only
15:48as a token cameo.
15:50And veering so far from the character of Max for an actual Furiosa spinoff may have been
15:54the final straw for many fans.
15:57It's certainly accepted by most moviegoers that when a blockbuster film rakes in hundreds
16:00of millions of dollars, it's probably going to get a sequel in short order.
16:04So when the R-rated Mad Max Fury Road ended its run just shy of $400 million, many probably
16:09expected a sequel to follow quickly.
16:11Unfortunately, numerous delays, not the least of which were COVID-19 in 2020 and Hollywood
16:15work stoppages in 2023, meant it was almost 10 years before a new Mad Max saga hit cinemas.
16:21Though some waits can be good for building anticipation, the lengthy time between Fury
16:25Road and Furiosa may actually have been too long to maintain such fervent fan enthusiasm.
16:30After all, Mad Max isn't exactly Marvel, Star Wars, or The Fast and the Furious, and it's
16:34possible that only the franchise's biggest fans were lured back to theaters.
16:38Better audiences who got hooked on Fury Road may simply have lost interest over time.
16:42As an origin story for Furiosa, the jump backwards in time forced what is arguably the movie's
16:47biggest flaw — the lack of Academy Award winner Charlize Theron.
16:51Because it's a prequel and Theron is now almost in her 50s, Furiosa a Mad Max saga had to
16:55ditch the very thing that made the character so memorable in Mad Max Fury Road.
16:59With a caveat that Theron's successor, Anya Taylor-Joy, does a solid job of replacing
17:05the Fury Road star.
17:06It was Theron who established the role, and it was she who audiences were clamoring to
17:09star in a Furiosa spinoff.
17:11Her scene-stealing turn as a character established her as a bona fide action hero, and even those
17:15who wanted more of Tom Hardy as Mad Max had to admit she was a dominant force to be reckoned
17:19with.
17:20Without her, mass audiences and diehard fans alike may not have been interested in a new
17:23take on the character Theron made famous.
17:26Any other movie that received such glowing reviews would probably be sending scores of
17:30fans to the theater.
17:32Nevertheless, Furiosa a Mad Max saga is leaving many sitting on the couch, and that could
17:36have a lot to do with its predecessor, Mad Max Fury Road, and the overwhelming positive
17:40reception it received and still holds to this day.
17:43Immediately on release, Fury Road was regarded as an instant classic that transcended both
17:47science fiction and action genres.
17:49It was a cinematic achievement that few had predicted, even with director George Miller's
17:53past track record.
17:54As a result, Furiosa was always going to be released in the face of lofty expectations
17:58that it was unlikely to ever meet, both critically and financially.
18:02After all, Fury Road was something of a surprise smash hit as a legacy sequel to a somewhat
18:06forgotten franchise that didn't even bring back its main star.
18:09Unfortunately, the movie landscape is very different nine years later, and the odds Miller
18:13could match or exceed Fury Road were slim.
18:15It might have been wiser to keep expectations a bit more modest.
18:19Without Theron and without Max star Tom Hardy, the film loses both of the previous movie's
18:24stars, and there's no surefire, bankable Hollywood star to carry the story in their place.
18:28Granted, Avengers star Chris Hemsworth plays the movie's villain, the wasteland warlord
18:32Doctor Dementus.
18:33But the reality is, Hemsworth has never really been a huge box office draw outside of the
18:37MCU.
18:38While Theron's replacement, Anya Taylor-Joy, has only ever had success in smaller, more
18:42intimate dramas, and mostly on TV and streaming, most of her major films had her in supporting
18:47roles, such as in Doom Part II, The North Man, and the much-maligned New Mutants.
18:51Her role as a young Furiosa, meanwhile, is the first time she's getting the chance to
18:55lead a major, big-budget live-action film.
18:58With all of the previous factors considered, the studio may have been wiser to keep the
19:01budget relatively modest to ensure a big hit.
19:04That, unfortunately, was not the case, and the film's cost ballooned to nearly $170 million.
19:09While that's not too far off from what was spent on the previous movie — and inflation
19:13actually makes that number a bit lower by comparison — it's still a heck of a lot
19:16of money.
19:17Had the budget been lower, even as high as $125 million, Furiosa may have been seen as
19:22more of a hit.
19:24When Mad Max Fury Road arrived in 2015, bringing in an impressive $380 million at the worldwide
19:29box office, it's easy to think it would have led to a string of sequels.
19:33Director George Miller was all too happy to discuss that possibility, too, and within
19:36a few years, he was tossing out tentative plans for spinoffs and sequels that seemed
19:40poised to keep the franchise in blockbuster territory for years to come.
19:44Thanks to a nine-year wait and a lackluster opening weekend for Furiosa Mad Max Saga,
19:49however, it's fair to wonder whether those plans will ever come to fruition.
19:52Miller has talked about wanting to do a direct sequel to Fury Road, tentatively titled Mad
19:56Max The Wasteland, which was said to already be in pre-production when Furiosa was being
20:00filmed.
20:01Meanwhile, a follow-up to Furiosa, a second prequel that continues the story of her early
20:05days, has also been teased by Miller.
20:07Even if a direct Fury Road follow-up were to happen with its original cast, though,
20:11the studio may be hesitant to return to the well at all if big numbers on Blu-ray and
20:15heavy watch totals on streaming could do a lot to boost the film.
20:18But at this point, the future of Mad Max may be staring over a precipice.
20:22With a great budget comes great box office responsibility.
20:26After months of ridicule, the Dakota Johnson-starring superhero flick finally graced multiplexes
20:32on Valentine's Day.
20:33It doesn't seem as if audiences were feeling the love.
20:36It's been a long road for the heavily clowned Madame Web, which is set in Sony's Spider-Man
20:46universe.
20:47When the first look at the picture debuted in November 2023, viewers criticized the film's
20:52production value and dialogue, dubbing the film another Morbius-level bomb for Sony Pictures.
20:58With a modest by superhero film standards $80 million budget, Madame Web grossed just
21:03$6 million on Valentine's Day.
21:05It's not necessarily a disastrous start, especially for a C-list Spider-Man character only known
21:10to die-hard fans.
21:11But as the weekend continued, it became clear.
21:20Madame Web was a big bomb at the box office.
21:23As you can see, the numbers were not good.
21:26You don't need to have the clairvoyant powers of Cassie Webb to have seen this coming.
21:29The writing has been on the wall for quite some time.
21:32Madame Web was likely never going to be a breakout, bona fide hit like Sony's very own
21:37Venom, largely due to the poor reception the film was webbed up in months prior to its
21:41release.
21:42I can see the future.
21:44Apparently, so can we, because this movie always seems like a bomb bigger than the one
21:48in Oppenheimer.
21:49Oh, she didn't see that coming?
21:53When Madame Web finally debuted, reviews eagerly chewed the film out, labeling it a forgettable
21:58mess, making it one of the worst-reviewed superhero films in recent memory, alongside
22:03Morbius.
22:04Safe to say that most think the movie sucks.
22:06Are you trying to be funny?
22:08Looper critic Alistair Ryder was more forgiving than most other members from the press, labeling
22:12it a campy good time.
22:14But even if there was humor to be found in the train wreck, Ryder was still unimpressed
22:18with the picture, writing,
22:19"...it's the frustrating case of a film neither living up to its potential as an uncomplicated
22:24so-bad-it's-good romp nor capitalizing on its unique moments to become something that
22:29transcends the franchise it's encased in."
22:31Audiences who showed up on opening night were equally displeased with Dakota Johnson's latest.
22:37I have proof!
22:38They gave it a C-plus cinema score, which might as well be a death sentence for a big-budget
22:43superhero blockbuster.
22:44Viewers eager to spend the weekend at the cinemas had far better options in the form
22:49of the fan-favorite biopic Bob Marley, One Love, or the enjoying romantic comedy Anyone
22:54But You.
22:56As soon as the first look at Madame Web hit the internet, trolls, jokesters, and even
23:01members of the press began to ridicule the picture.
23:04Within hours of its release, one line in particular went viral.
23:07"...he was in the Amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders right before she
23:11died."
23:12A combination of a line just a smidge too packed with exposition and Johnson's drab
23:16delivery turned it into comic gold, becoming the subject of several memes.
23:21And while the line didn't end up making it into the finished film, it's just one example
23:26of how social media turned Madame Web into a laughingstock months before release.
23:31As social media continues to make or break films, general audiences are eager to see
23:35what online buzzes before a film's release.
23:38With all they're seeing as negativity and trolling, chances are they'll take their dollars
23:42elsewhere, no matter how much brand recognition a film has.
23:46And for what it's worth, Madame Web does have brand recognition… sort of.
23:51The film's trailer doesn't shy away from emphasizing how it's a story deeply rooted in the Spider-Man
23:56mythos.
23:57Beyond that, the film boasts two leading talents in the form of Dakota Johnson and Sidney Sweeney.
24:02While the former isn't a major box office draw, the latter is a rising star who has
24:06proven that she can get butts into theaters.
24:09The success of the $170 million Anyone But You proves that.
24:13Of course, it doesn't seem she was able to pull it off here.
24:16Anyone But You succeeded, but for most audiences, Madame Web was anything but this.
24:22Get up.
24:23Get off.
24:24Get off.
24:25Get up.
24:26Me?
24:27Go.
24:28Get off.
24:29You're gonna die if you stay here.
24:30It's one thing for audiences to turn on a movie, but it's another for its lead star to not
24:33so subtly point out just how disappointing their latest effort is.
24:37As press junkets for Madame Web got underway, Dakota Johnson was pretty brutally honest
24:42about the current state of the film industry, strategically throwing jabs at the superhero
24:46pic.
24:47While chatting with Entertainment Weekly, she discussed how working with the film's
24:51use of blue screen was jarring.
24:53There's fake explosions going off and someone's going,
24:56"'Explosion!'
24:57And you act like there's an explosion.
24:59That to me was absolutely psychotic.
25:01I was like, I don't know if this is going to be good at all.
25:04I hope that I did an okay job."
25:06When it came time to perform her opening monologue on Saturday Night Live, Johnson described
25:11the film as,
25:12"...so it's kind of like if AI generated your boyfriend's perfect movie."
25:18While it's not uncommon for an actor to joke about or even poke fun at one of their films,
25:22"...after Batman & Robin came out and it was a big bomb, you know, you kind of learn.
25:27You learn from your failures, you know, you don't learn from successes."
25:31Johnson's deadpan demeanor sure made it seem like she actively didn't appreciate the experience.
25:35"...you don't have to know anything about anything at all to watch this movie."
25:43And there's reason to believe that we're not reading too much into that.
25:46Variety says that Johnson ditched her agency days after the film's first trailer debuted,
25:51a move that the outlet said raised industry eyebrows.
25:54And while speaking with Planet Radio, Johnson revealed that she hadn't watched the film,
25:59and didn't plan to any time soon.
26:00"...I don't want to talk about it.
26:01It's going to jinx it.
26:02I don't want to talk about it."
26:04Did Johnson's comments impact the film's box office?
26:07Probably not, but they definitely added to a general vibe that something was wrong in
26:12the state of Sony.
26:13"...Did I die?"
26:15From conception to opening weekend, few movies have had a harder time getting made than Megalopolis.
26:20Unfortunately, all that time and energy did little good at the box office, and there are
26:24many reasons why.
26:26Aside from Christopher Nolan, Jordan Peele, and James Cameron, how many directors can
26:31guarantee a hit on their name alone these days?
26:33Even Steven Spielberg isn't a sure thing after West Side Story and The Fableman's Bombed,
26:37despite excellent reviews.
26:39While even a legend like Martin Scorsese has to rely on streaming services to get his movies
26:44made, marketing for Megalopolis centered almost entirely around Francis Ford Coppola, a director
26:49once held in the same esteem as Spielberg and Scorsese, who hasn't had nearly the same
26:53success in his later career.
26:54Coppola made his best films in the 1970s.
26:57His run of The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather Part II, and Apocalypse Now
27:02remains the stuff of legend.
27:04His work in the 80s and 90s, however, was more inconsistent.
27:07For every solid hit like Bram Stoker's Dracula, there's a disastrous release to match.
27:12In fact, Megalopolis isn't the first time he's put up his own money to fund an ambitious
27:16utopian tale on the big screen and got burnt.
27:19The same thing happened with 1981's One From the Heart, which also flopped at the box office.
27:24His reputation took a hit and has never really recovered.
27:27As such, Coppola isn't frequently on the minds of younger, casual moviegoers, and older moviegoers
27:32have good reason to approach his grand return to directing after 13 years away with some
27:36degree of skepticism.
27:38If Megalopolis was to have any chance of success, it would need to succeed on its own merits,
27:42and that hasn't happened.
27:44When does an empire die?
27:47Coppola first conceived of Megalopolis in 1977 as a four-part operatic experience.
27:53He got serious about developing the idea into a movie in 1983 and tried to produce it on
27:57and off over the next four decades.
28:00One would hope such extensive work would allow Coppola to perfect his ideas into a masterpiece.
28:04Instead, the final result is a mess packed with too many weird concepts that can't possibly
28:09add up.
28:10Why does Caesar Catalina freeze time?
28:12And what purpose does this power serve him as an architect?
28:15Why does he quote all of Hamlet's to-be or not-to-be speech?
28:18What's the point of the Russian satellite crashing into New Rome if the aftermath is
28:22never addressed?
28:23Is Megalon made from Caesar's dead wife, or the power of love, or what?
28:27Some of these questions were answered in older versions of the script, with a leaked draft
28:31explaining Megalon and Megalopolis more satisfactorily.
28:34However, the finished Megalopolis feels like an incoherent grab bag of scenes written at
28:38different points in history.
28:40If the script itself wasn't messy enough, Coppola had his actors improvise many scenes,
28:45which might well have contributed to the jarring tonal differences.
28:48Unfortunately, the final product sometimes feels like the characters are in completely
28:52different movies.
28:54Even with its narrative and tonal problems, one would think a science fiction movie from
28:58a visionary director that cost between $120 and $136 million to make would at least be
29:04amazing to look at.
29:06And yes, Megalopolis does contain some stunning imagery, particularly in the montages where
29:10Caesar is tripping on acid and having his shot-up face rebuilt with Megalon.
29:14And yet, these moments of grandeur don't appear as often as one would hope.
29:18For large chunks of the runtime, Megalopolis alternates between blandly staged dialogue
29:22scenes and some of the most amateurish looking green screen and CG effects to ever appear
29:26in a major theatrical release.
29:28When an effects-heavy visual wonder like Poor Things can be made for just $35 million, what
29:33excuse does Coppola have for Megalopolis looking so cheap?
29:36Well, it turns out much of that money never actually made it to screen.
29:40Halfway through production, the director fired his entire visual effects team, and members
29:44of the art department resigned soon after that.
29:47According to multiple sources working on the production, Coppola could never make up his
29:50mind about how he wanted the film to look.
29:53For all his hatred of Marvel movies, Coppola was responsible for the same scandals that
29:57have plagued the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
30:00Coppola had over four decades to figure out what his vision should look like, so there's
30:09really no excuse for not being able to adequately describe this for his VFX team.
30:17Speaking to Rolling Stone, Coppola made a point that the Megalopolis cast was partially
30:21made up of cancelled actors, and that he didn't want the film to be, quote,
30:25some woke Hollywood production.
30:27His thinking is somewhat understandable regarding his choice to cast John Voight as Hamilton
30:31Crassus III, for including a Trump-supporting conservative actor in a film critical of Trump
30:36is at least consistent with Caesar's insistence on debating people we disagree with.
30:40However, people will surely be scratching their heads as to why Coppola hired Voight's
30:44Midnight Cowboy co-star, Dustin Hoffman, as the fixer Nush Berman, given Hoffman was cancelled
30:49for multiple allegations of sexual harassment.
30:52Even more controversial is Shia LaBeouf, who plays the main villain Claudio Pulcher, and
30:56is set to go on trial for alleged physical and sexual abuse just weeks after the film's
31:01opening.
31:02Even those who try to separate the art from the artist will have trouble keeping these
31:05issues out of their minds when the plot of Megalopolis confronts them by way of Claudio
31:08framing Caesar for the statutory rape of underage pop star Vesta Sweetwater.
31:14Coppola not only hired actors accused of sexual misconduct, he's also been accused of sexual
31:19misconduct on the set of the film himself.
31:21The Guardian first reported that Coppola tried to hug and kiss naked female extras
31:25while filming a nightclub scene.
31:27Then, Variety obtained a video appearing to confirm these reports.
31:31While one extra told Deadline that Coppola never made her feel uncomfortable and that
31:34the filmmaker was, quote, nothing but professional, another extra claimed that he didn't ask for
31:39consent and has sued Coppola for sexual harassment and assault.
31:42For his part, Coppola is suing Variety for libel.
31:45A statement from Coppola's lawyers published in Deadline calls his accusers,
31:49jealous and resentful of the fact that Coppola is a, quote,
31:52creative genius, proposing that that's why some people spoke out against him.
31:56Whether the allegations against the director are true or not, it's likely that these reports
32:00made some moviegoers stay away when Megalopolis was released in cineplexes.
32:05The only hope a movie is confusing, uncommercial, and controversial as Megalopolis had of making
32:11any money rested on critical acclaim.
32:13From the time Megalopolis made its world premiere at Cannes, however, it was clear the film
32:17was dividing critics.
32:19Yes, the film got a seven-minute standing ovation at the prestigious festival, but it
32:22seems that acclaim didn't last.
32:24Even critics who loved the movie had to lay down qualifiers.
32:27For example, IGN's Siddhant Adlika acknowledged the film as frustrating even while praising
32:32its, quote, profoundly personal vision and jaw-dropping transformations, and a mixed
32:37review by Looper's own Audrey Fox called it, objectively bad, but audacious as hell.
32:42Of course, other critics were even less reserved in their critiques of the film, with Maureen
32:46Lee Lenker of Entertainment Weekly concluding her F-grade review by writing,
32:49In addition to Coppola being the mastermind behind two of cinema's greatest achievements,
32:54he's also now the architect of one of its worst.
32:57In short, the underwhelming audience reaction to Megalopolis negated any chance of word-of-mouth
33:01success softening the awful opening weekend box office figures.
33:06Megalopolis was clearly hard to market, and Lionsgate's big attempt to promote it led
33:10to embarrassment.
33:11The trailer tried to get ahead of bad festival reviews by showcasing negative responses Coppola
33:16had received in the past for The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, and Bram Stoker's Dracula,
33:20implying Megalopolis is yet another misunderstood masterpiece.
33:24And while other films have been marketed with similarly bad reviews, this is surely the
33:28first time someone did this with reviews that didn't actually exist.
33:31The quotes about Coppola's past work used in the Megalopolis trailer were fake.
33:35Pauline Kael of The New Yorker was quoted as saying that The Godfather was, quote, diminished
33:40by its artsiness when she actually adored the film, and the Roger Ebert quote supposedly
33:44dismissing Bram Stoker's Dracula as a triumph of style over substance actually came from
33:49his review of Tim Burton's Batman.
33:53Bad reviews do exist for all of Coppola's most celebrated films, but a now-fired marketing
33:58strategist reportedly decided to ask ChatGPT for negative quotes about them rather than
34:03taking the time to read the reviews.
34:06and the trailer got pulled, leaving Megalopolis with even less marketing visibility and more
34:11controversy.
34:12At this point, if someone is still interested in Megalopolis, they probably want the full
34:17crazy experience that audiences at Cannes and the Toronto International Film Festival
34:21got.
34:22At those festival screenings, a live actor pretending to be a reporter stood up facing
34:26the screen and asked a question, to which Caesar responded.
34:29This gimmick is already significantly scaled down from Coppola's original vision, in which
34:33Amazon Alexa technology would have allowed the audience to ask different questions and
34:37Caesar would give the most relevant response.
34:40This almost became a reality, but The Verge reports the people working on this concept
34:44were laid off in 2022.
34:46In most multiplex showings, even the scaled-down interactive theatrical element no longer exists,
34:51with Caesar just responding to a voiceover on the soundtrack.
34:55Only a few showings at select theaters, labeled The Ultimate Experience, have replicated the
34:59live moment that drove critics nuts at film festivals.
35:02For reference, Megalopolis averaged $2,157 per theater in its opening weekend, but at
35:08New York City's AMC Lincoln Square, which hosted multiple Ultimate Experience screenings,
35:13including a preview screening with Coppola in attendance, it made over $84,000.
35:19The first Joker movie blew away critics, scored big at the box office, and stunned DC fans
35:24everywhere.
35:25The sequel, uh, didn't.
35:26So what went wrong with Joker Foliadu?
35:30Joaquin Phoenix may be one of the most revered actors of his generation, or any generation
35:34for that matter.
35:35Phoenix has received four Academy Awards nominations and won one, for Joker, no less.
35:39As one critic noted for MovieWeb,
35:41"[Joaquin Phoenix isn't an actor defined by his films, but an actor who defines the films
35:45he is in.]
35:46That was certainly the case for Joker, which was about one of the most famous villains
35:49in cinema history, but ultimately owes its reputation and its huge box office takings
35:54to Phoenix's tour-de-force performance."
35:56Isn't it beautiful?"
35:58Unfortunately, Joker Foliadu earned just $40 million on opening weekend, less than half
36:03of what the first film made.
36:04It seems that, despite his accolades and accomplishments, Joaquin Phoenix just isn't much of a box office
36:09draw.
36:10Sure, he may be a household name, but those households aren't going to see Bo is Afraid
36:14or Inherent Vice.
36:15Phoenix's global total is $3.6 billion, which seems impressive, until you consider that
36:20nearly a third of that comes from the first Joker, a movie that made over $1 billion at
36:25the global box office.
36:26Before Joker, Phoenix's biggest blockbusters came decades ago with Gladiator and Signs,
36:31two movies in which he played supporting roles.
36:33Yet even for Phoenix's biggest box office triumph, it wasn't his name that put butts
36:37in seats.
36:38It was the Joker, one of only a few characters to be an opening weekend box office record
36:42holder twice.
36:44Of course, Joker Foliadu didn't need a big star in the title role, because the Clown
36:48Prince of Crime is one of the most bankable box office characters in cinema history.
36:52The film opened to a then-record $40 million in 1989, on its way to $411 million worldwide
36:58with Jack Nicholson dancing around in a purple suit and white grease paint.
37:02Nearly 20 years later, The Dark Knight broke the opening weekend record with $158 million,
37:08ending its run with just over $1 billion worldwide, largely driven by Heath Ledger's Academy Award-winning
37:13turn as the character.
37:14"...let's put a smile on that face."
37:18Even Jared Leto's much-maligned performance in Suicide Squad helped power that 2016 film
37:23to $745 million worldwide, despite a less-than-stellar response from fans.
37:28Sure, each of those Joker movies featured another key X Factor, namely this guy.
37:32But it's also a fact that the Caped Crusader's biggest hits tend to feature the Joker.
37:36But that's part of the problem.
37:38The Joker is overexposed.
37:39In the 19 years between Batman and The Dark Knight, he was only in one movie, 1993's Batman
37:45Mask of the Phantasm, a spinoff from Batman the Animated Series.
37:48Since The Dark Knight, however, the Joker has been in five.
37:51That's a lot of Joker, and it seems that the failure of Joker, folio due, has suggested
37:55that people might finally be tired of this iconic villain.
37:59Madonna was one of the most popular pop stars of her generation, but that star power didn't
38:03translate to the silver screen, with a per-film average of just $59 million.
38:07Why is this relevant to Joker?
38:09Because it's starting to appear that the musician many consider to be Madonna's successor, Lady
38:13Gaga, is also destined to bomb at the box office.
38:16"...come on, get happy, better chase all your cares away."
38:23Lady Gaga has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide, and became the first female artist
38:28to score three singles, selling 10 million copies worldwide.
38:31She's even more impressive on streaming, with more than 31 million followers and over 100
38:37million monthly listeners, making her one of Spotify's most-streamed artists of all
38:41time.
38:42Does Lady Gaga's Little Monsters show up to see her movies?
38:45Eh, not so much.
38:46Let's just say it's more of a bad romance.
38:48Lady Gaga's films have earned less than $870 million worldwide, with an average of just
38:53$110 million per film.
38:55Her only certifiable hit was A Star is Born in 2018, with $431 million.
39:01Next is 2021's House of Gucci, with $147 million.
39:05But given that movie had a budget of $75 million, the biopic needed a lot more to make bank.
39:10Even if Joker Foliado tops A Star is Born, which it probably won't, the movie's reported
39:15$200 million budget will likely make this the biggest bomb of Gaga's career.
39:20Here's an unhappy truth for you.
39:21Nobody asked for Joker Foliado.
39:23Sure, the first Joker no doubt made Warner Bros.
39:26XX very happy indeed, but it turns out the studio paying for the sequel wanted it more
39:30than the moviegoers themselves.
39:32Joker was a major risk at the time.
39:33It was an R-rated, one-off Ellsworlds tale that drastically reimagined the Joker and
39:38Batman mythos.
39:39Not only that, the subject matter was mostly a Trojan horse for what the movie really was
39:42— a character study of a lonely and isolated outcast on the fringe of an indifferent society
39:47who descends into madness and violence.
39:49More than a comic book movie, Joker was a tribute to Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver and
39:54King of Comedy.
39:55In fact, it didn't even try to disguise with the casting of Robert De Niro in a supporting
39:59role.
40:00Joker could have failed miserably, and the studio knew it, based on that conservative
40:03$55 million budget.
40:04Instead, the gamble paid off in box office numbers and awards season gold.
40:08Joker worked so well because it was fierce, fresh, and original.
40:11It felt like a movie that shouldn't exist, one that somehow snuck past the suits.
40:16Jokerfolia 2, however, feels like a cynical and greedy cash grab.
40:19Sure, fans often show up to franchise films that make no effort to disguise the fact that
40:23their main objective is to make money.
40:25But a wholly unnecessary sequel to Joker feels disingenuous and manipulative in a way moviegoers
40:30could sense, which is one of the reasons why they chose to stay at home.
40:34Joker became a billion-dollar smash because it crossed the Venn diagram between two very
40:38different moviegoing audiences, comic book movie fans, and prestige picture film buffs.
40:42In other words, it was a movie that was just as likely to attract your pretentious film
40:46professor as your buddies who show up opening night for every new Marvel movie.
40:50Jokerfolia 2 tried to replicate this recipe for success, and failed with both audiences.
40:54Sure, comic book movies tend to be critic-proof, as demonstrated by the so-so critical reviews
40:58for Joker.
40:59But the movie was bolstered by strong marks from fans, who loved it even if the critical
41:03establishment did not.
41:05Jokerfolia 2 is one of the rare occasions in modern movies where both the critics and
41:09fans absolutely loathe the movie.
41:11In fact, the fans may hate it even more.
41:13No doubt it's because Jokerfolia 2 is a confusing, ridiculous mess that moviegoers gave a rare
41:18cinema score of D, the lowest ever for a comic book movie.
41:21A film can do fine in theaters if critics like it and fans don't.
41:24A movie can make millions at the box office if fans like it but critics don't.
41:28But if critics and fans hate it, then you're in trouble.
41:31Whose idea was it to follow up an Academy Award-winning character study of a psychopathic
41:36serial murderer with a musical?
41:38Maybe they figured they wanted to make full use of Lady Gaga.
41:41But turning Jokerfolia 2 into a musical has to rank as one of the most misguided decisions
41:45in modern film history.
41:47When the rumors of Jokerfolia 2 being a musical first trickled in, we thought maybe it just
41:51featured a few musical numbers, which kind of made sense given it was a journey into
41:55the mind of two certifiable lunatics.
41:57Now we know for sure that, yes, in fact, Jokerfolia 2 is a full-blown musical.
42:01The choice is even more bizarre considering that movie musicals have been out of fashion
42:05for film since before most Joker fans were even born.
42:08You can spend however long you like debating the reason why many musicals flop, but the
42:12simple truth is that moviegoers aren't into them.
42:14Sure there are outliers, but movies like Wonka and Mean Girls hid the fact they were musicals,
42:19while other rare hits tend to come from musicals with a built-in audience from Broadway.
42:23And even that is no guarantee.
42:25That's what I say to you.
42:27Making Jokerfolia 2 wasn't a creative swing and a miss, but a critical, unforced error
42:31that inflicted tremendous damage on its financial prospects.
42:35Raise your hand if you had to look up the term folia-do.
42:38Per reference, the definition, according to Merriam-Webster, is the presence of the same
42:42or similar delusional ideas in two persons closely associated with one another.
42:46In other words, the Joker and Harley Quinn.
42:48Sure, you can admire the creativity here, as this title is more engaging than, say,
42:52Joker 2, but let's be honest.
42:54There's a reason movie studios usually just place numbers at the end of sequels.
42:58It works.
42:59Most moviegoers are busy, so if you're trying to break out from beyond the perpetually online,
43:02it helps to have a title that doesn't confuse people.
43:05A studio can take a risk by calling the sequel to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, because
43:0999 percent of moviegoers know that's Batman.
43:11But asking moviegoers to know French in psychological terminology to understand the title for Jokerfolia-do?
43:17That's the stretch.
43:18The title was just one piece of a larger puzzle, too.
43:20From the movie's name, to its underwhelming reiterative marketing, to that absolutely
43:24outrageous $200 million budget, everything about Jokerfolia-do reeked of hubris.
43:30In the end, this is a movie that truly took its audience for granted.
43:33Alas, said audience just didn't show up as a result, which is why Jokerfolia-do bombed
43:38at the box office.
43:40In a franchise full of hits, Transformers 1 only pulling in $25 million in its opening
43:44weekend was a clear disappointment.
43:47Let's roll out the reasons why it underperformed.
43:50When an Illumination or Pixar feature hits theaters, the expectation is that it's guaranteed
43:54to be a financial success.
43:56Unfortunately, not every animation studio is so lucky.
43:59Case in point, Transformers 1 distributor Paramount Pictures.
44:03The studio's homegrown animated movies over the years have had an erratic box office track
44:07record that includes a deeply worrying box office bomb.
44:11Sure, the company's responsible for lucrative features rooted in familiar IPs.
44:15The movie adaptations of famous kids' TV shows SpongeBob SquarePants and Paw Patrol
44:20were reliable money-makers.
44:22Then there's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mutant Mayhem, which was a late-summer 2023
44:27hit critically and a decent performer financially.
44:29This!
44:30Turtle, mutant, karate teens, I mean, this is a pretty good story.
44:35But Paramount has also released a bevy of animated flops under its belt.
44:39Sherlock Gnomes and Wonder Park were both costly misfires despite launching in prime
44:44mid-March release dates.
44:46In July 2022, Paws of Fury The Legend of Hank continued its troubles with animated features
44:51at the box office.
44:52Part of the problem has been that Paramount doesn't release new animated movies on a super-frequent
44:57basis, so the studio hasn't developed consistently successful marketing techniques to aid each
45:01new release.
45:02It's possible for a movie with Mutant Mayhem-level buzz to overcome Paramount's animated movie
45:07doldrums, but Transformers 1 didn't quite have enough of the touch.
45:12Back in 2011, a Transformers installment could easily exceed $350 million domestically.
45:18But those days are over.
45:19Since the series peaked with Age of Extinction, which made over $1 billion in 2014, there
45:24has been a decline.
45:25The Last Knight from 2017 grossed over $600 million worldwide, yet still lost over $100
45:32million for Paramount.
45:33But the studio kept trying, with three more movies, including Transformers 1.
45:37The 2023 feature Rise of the Beast was particularly worrying, making just under $450 million worldwide.
45:45Even with the clear downturn, Paramount's lack of other big franchises led the studio
45:49to continue placing all its chips on the bots.
45:52A crossover movie between G.I.
45:54Joe and Transformers, also potentially starring Chris Hemsworth, is being rushed into production.
45:59Yet, the terrible opening weekend of Transformers 1 demonstrates that this saga is not an eternal
46:05source of revenue.
46:06The Autobots have overcome many enemies over the years, but even they are powerless in
46:10the face of audience indifference.
46:11We're not spies.
46:13But he is incompetent.
46:14The failure of Pixar's Lightyear in 2022 came down to one worrisome statistic.
46:20Families comprised only 22 percent of its opening weekend audience.
46:23Summertime Pixar films need hordes of families to come to theaters to be profitable.
46:28If your PG-rated animated feature isn't resonating with families, something's gone horribly wrong.
46:33That phenomenon didn't just doom Lightyear.
46:36It also, unfortunately, plagued Transformers 1.
46:38Across its preview screenings held two days before its proper release, Transformers 1
46:42amassed an audience that was only 28 percent families.
46:46More often than not, people buy in Transformers 1 tickets were nostalgic adults.
46:50It'd be one thing if Transformers 1 opened to $100 million thanks to largely older viewers.
46:56But the already converted Transformers devotees' numbers aren't that big.
47:00General moviegoers, both young and old, gave the movie a shrug.
47:03Perhaps extra worrisome is that younger-skewing movies tend to hold much better after opening
47:07weekend.
47:08Titles like Lightyear drawing in mostly nostalgic adults on opening weekend typically drop like
47:12a stone after their debut weeks.
47:15Sometimes the qualities that make a movie great also doom it at the box office.
47:19In this case, not including human characters benefited this Josh Corley directorial effort
47:24tremendously.
47:25The more streamlined narrative allowed bots like Optimus Prime and Megatron to come alive
47:29as three-dimensional characters.
47:31Unfortunately, focusing entirely on animated robots probably alienated many audience members.
47:37Previous Transformers movies leaned on the human element to draw audiences in, and put
47:41some famous faces in front of the camera to help even more.
47:45Transformers 1 technically had famous people in its cast, but they were all off-screen
47:48voiceover performers.
47:50That's not the same as promising audiences a new Mark Wahlberg action movie that just
47:54happens to feature big robots.
47:55Ditching the humans was the smartest artistic move that Transformers 1 could have made,
48:00and it also likely sealed its box office doom.
48:06In June 2024, three months before Transformers 1 opened in theaters, Paramount Pictures screened
48:11a nearly finished copy of the feature at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
48:16This massive gathering of animation devotees and artists responded positively.
48:20A month later, the production was screened yet again, this time for select members of
48:24the press, where it was again greeted with highly positive marks.
48:28Eventually, Paramount let Transformers 1 reviews drop eight days before its domestic
48:32debut after relentlessly preview-screening the title.
48:35All these marketing pushes tried to signal to the public extreme confidence in this latest
48:39Transformers title.
48:40The confidence was spot-on.
48:42The marketing tactic?
48:43Not so much.
48:44Unfortunately, Paramount kind of forgot the core demographic of Transformers 1 — families.
48:49Parents aren't exactly swayed by months of pre-release hype when deciding what movie
48:53their kids want to watch.
48:54The various Despicable Me movies have secured exceedingly worse critical reception, but
48:58they're still huge box office successes.
49:01In trying to drum up Transformers 1 hype like it was a limited-release arthouse title, Paramount
49:05made a serious marketing miscalculation that cost Transformers 1 dearly, and further narrowed
49:10its appeal.
49:11Parents will pay up for any movie their kids beg them to see, and generating film festival
49:16buzz means nothing to kids.
49:182018's Bumblebee opened on a flashback to the final days of Autobots and Decepticons
49:23duking it out on Cybertron.
49:24This battle was something of a breath of fresh air after years of the ultra-realistic and
49:29cluttered style of the Michael Bay Transformers movies.
49:32For Bumblebee, director Travis Knight opted to realize his characters as their colorful
49:371980s G1 counterparts.
49:39And for longtime fans, it was a glorious sight to see accurate, vibrant versions of Soundwave
49:43and Arcee on the big screen.
49:45This sequence did provide a problem for Transformers 1, though.
49:48After all, this reboot also employed G1-style character designs for Optimus Prime and Megatron
49:53in a bid to get nostalgic fans to buy tickets to this temple.
49:56However, that demographic already had their nostalgia itch scratched with Bumblebee years
50:01ago, and the novelty of seeing Transformers that look like their 1980s incarnations has
50:06worn off a little.
50:07However, it's hard to properly exploit nostalgia when a title like Bumblebee has already stolen
50:11a lot of the thunder.
50:13A sequence like the Cybertron battle that drew extra eyeballs to Bumblebee in 2018 ended
50:17up helping capsize Transformers 1 six years later.
50:20If there's one subgenre families keep rejecting over the last 25 years, it's animated science
50:27fiction.
50:28A handful of hits exist in this space, like goofy comedy Monsters vs. Aliens or Pixar's
50:33quieter romantic drama, Wall-E.
50:35Otherwise, though, this domain is almost exclusively littered with deeply devastating financial
50:40misfires.
50:41The Iron Giant in 1999 was a crushing blow for Warner Bros. feature animation, while
50:46Titan A.E. was a big factor in the closure of Fox Animation Studios.
50:50Even Disney has succumbed to this problem with titles like Treasure Planet.
50:54It's hard to pinpoint one reason these projects are so likely to sink.
50:57It may just be that the emphasis on intense action may deter families.
51:01Historically, audiences prefer seeing kid-friendly animated titles heavy on laughs and musical
51:05numbers.
51:06Unsurprisingly, this historical trend came back to haunt Transformers 1.
51:10Even with a final trailer emphasizing the film's comedic elements, Transformers 1 looks
51:14like the kind of punch-heavy animated sci-fi material family audiences have always given
51:19the cold shoulder.
51:20Allow me.
51:22Transformers lore was never simple, but each new movie in the franchise makes everything
51:25even harder to follow.
51:27This trend peaked with Transformers The Last Knight, which introduced a secret society
51:31known as the Order of the Wit Wicked that worked with the Transformers through every
51:35era of history.
51:36Because of the massive implications of this twist, it's no surprise that subsequent Transformers
51:41installments have opted to ignore elements introduced in The Last Knight in favor of
51:45more accessible standalone storylines.
51:48That approach reached its peak with Transformers 1, which takes things as far away from Earth
51:52as physically possible.
51:53Forgoing the domain of Sam Witwicky and company in favor of the planet Cybertron helped Transformers
51:581 from an artistic standpoint, giving the movie a blank creative slate to work with.
52:03Unfortunately, this element also likely turned off some moviegoers.
52:06The fact that Transformers 1 is a prequel and a reboot meant it couldn't draw in every
52:10single diehard fan of the previous films.
52:13Certain audience members nostalgic for the late 2000s blockbuster cinema of their youth
52:17may have even turned up their noses at a Transformers movie fully divorced from the explosive stylings
52:22of Michael Bay.
52:23Even though the original Transformers director is a producer on Transformers 1, the drastic
52:28change in style meant that the movie couldn't please everyone.