Jack Reacher

[Octoberist]

Outside of the fanbase (I would image middle aged, middle America), the movie was poorly advertised. It felt like Tom Cruise: The move. That and the title of Jack Reacher was a bad move. In fact, the title should've been 'Tom Cruise'. Image that!!!

 

[Erzengel]

Don't think Cruise has bounced back (pun intended) after his antics a few years ago.

I think he's still hugely popular overseas and while MI:Ghost Protocol did well, feel it could have done better domestically.

 

[Jack Napier]

"Ghost Protocol" did better than any of the other Mission movies. Also, "Valkyrie" put up as good of numbers as a movie about Nazis planning to kill Hitler could do.

I think even the people who know Cruise may be a nutjob in real life know he never phones it in and has too many good movies under his belt to just stop watching them.

 

[Erzengel]

Well it was his antics that effed the 3rd MI movie. He's getting older and he's no longer Hollywood's Golden boy.

Not saying he's not a great actor either, or that he doesn't have fans or just people who enjoys his movies.

 

[flickchick85]

Ghost Protocol was Cruise's highest grossing movie ever. Even domestically, it was his 3rd-highest. I think people are over his craziness. It was simply the marketing for this movie that left people cold, imo. Stars don't bring in the big bucks on their names alone like they used to. Call me crazy, but it seems like more and more people are putting stock in the people behind the scenes. Names like Nolan, Tarantino, etc. seem to have a better time guaranteeing a certain level of success than most A-List stars.

Also, I don't even think I mentioned that I saw this a couple of weeks ago and really liked it. Nothing particularly special, but I like a good ol' fashioned thriller like this every now and then. Everyone played their parts really well, and it had a certain low-key wit about it that I enjoyed.

Before I saw this, I thought Jai Courtney was just gonna be Sam Worthington 2.0, but I already like him better than I ever liked Worthington. This movie compelled me to go watch some Spartacus, and while the show wasn't exactly good, I was quite impressed with how completely different he was in that vs. his character here. He seems to actually be a good actor. I'm now curious to see if he'll be able to maintain this goodwill even in that awful-looking thing masquerading as a Die Hard movie.

 

[Erzengel]

If people have gotten over the whole craziness shouldn't just his name attached to this would have made this movie more popular?

 

[Hunter Rider]

Will Smith's name was on Seven Pounds, it cost around the same to make as Reacher and made less of a profit. The fact is Reacher is a detective film, not an action blockbuster, it only cost $60M to make, if anyone thought it was gonna make blockbuster money they were the crazy ones. It's well on it's way to matching Collateral's numbers which is where it's expectation line should be.

Yeah thats good, the thing is, i like all the books, i think Tripwire would make a brilliant movie and so too would The Enemy (but that would have to a prequel as it takes place during the collapse of the Berlin wall). Echo burning isnt too bad either.

Tripwire sounds ideal reading the synopsis for it and given the way Reacher drifted off at the end of this movie. I also like the idea of 61 Hours but is it directly tied to the 15 novel? as that may make it a hard adaption. Bad Luck and Trouble also seems like it would be cool.

 

[flickchick85]

If people have gotten over the whole craziness shouldn't just his name attached to this would have made this movie more popular?

No, because as I said, a star's name being attached to a movie doesn't guarantee success anymore like it used to. Look at any other "A-Listers" at the moment: 2 of George Clooney's last 3 movies as an actor didn't even cross $100m worldwide. Descendants had major Oscar buzz on its side. Brad Pitt's last movie failed to even make back its very modest budget domestically. Johnny Depp's last 2 movies as a lead, one of which was an expensive "blockbuster," bombed. RDJ has success in his popular blockbusters, but right on the heels of his success with Iron Man and Tropic Thunder, The Soloist did nothing. "It Girl" of the moment Jennifer Lawrence headlined a massive hit in the Hunger Games, but The Silver Linings Playbook, for which she is getting all the buzz, remains lukewarm at the box office despite being hailed as a "crowd pleaser."

No actor guarantees box office success these days. Not even Tom Cruise. But the success that his own franchise vehicle has seen since his psychotic antics proves that those antics are not the problem with audiences. It's the movies themselves and the studios' inability to sell them that are the problems.

 

[samsnee]

Tom Cruise climbing the tallest building in the world is what sold Ghost Protocol.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

We never had a chance to see what Playbook would do wide so that's not a fair comparisons but House at the End of the Street would be a good one.

Reacher did as well as a movie with a crappy name and generic trailer could do. I don't know why the studio expected more.

 

[jacobed]

It did very well. The release date didn't do it any favors either.

 

[ThePhantasm]

It was released against the Hobbit and Les Miserables, and close to Christmastime. I think it did very well under the circumstances.

 

[Sava]

Tripwire sounds ideal reading the synopsis for it and given the way Reacher drifted off at the end of this movie. I also like the idea of 61 Hours but is it directly tied to the 15 novel? as that may make it a hard adaption. Bad Luck and Trouble also seems like it would be cool.

dont think it is, you could read it wihtout having read the one before it. Funny story, Reacher is mentioned in Stephen Kings' Under the dome. Echo burning is also a good choice.

 

[Erzengel]

No, because as I said, a star's name being attached to a movie doesn't guarantee success anymore like it used to. Look at any other "A-Listers" at the moment: 2 of George Clooney's last 3 movies as an actor didn't even cross $100m worldwide. Descendants had major Oscar buzz on its side. Brad Pitt's last movie failed to even make back its very modest budget domestically. Johnny Depp's last 2 movies as a lead, one of which was an expensive "blockbuster," bombed. RDJ has success in his popular blockbusters, but right on the heels of his success with Iron Man and Tropic Thunder, The Soloist did nothing. "It Girl" of the moment Jennifer Lawrence headlined a massive hit in the Hunger Games, but The Silver Linings Playbook, for which she is getting all the buzz, remains lukewarm at the box office despite being hailed as a "crowd pleaser."

No actor guarantees box office success these days. Not even Tom Cruise. But the success that his own franchise vehicle has seen since his psychotic antics proves that those antics are not the problem with audiences. It's the movies themselves and the studios' inability to sell them that are the problems.

Just not sold that it's the studios and not Cruise. The fact that Cruise has been parodied on film and in tv hasn't exactly helped his image. As well, as being divorced 3 times now. Again, has nothing to do with his acting ability or that's he's unpopular, just that he's not AS popular.

Just maybe he wasn't the best choice for this particular role. Especially since studios LOVE franchises. And putting a 50 year old in what has 17? books? Not that even a mid 20s guy would be able to do 17, but obviously more than Cruise.

 

[The Guard]

Maybe they can make a sequel with Chris Hemsworth.

The fact that Cruise has been parodied in film and TV hasn't hurt his image, either.

NO publicity is bad publicity. He may not be THE actor as he once was, but he's still quite popular. And he's somewhat quietly putting together a couple of really fun, entertaining films/roles the last few years, and in the next few.

 

[TheVileOne]

The movie wasn't super high budget, but when you have Tom Cruise as the marquee star you still expect bigger numbers.

 

[Erzengel]

Maybe they can make a sequel with Chris Hemsworth.

The fact that Cruise has been parodied in film and TV hasn't hurt his image, either.

NO publicity is bad publicity. He may not be THE actor as he once was, but he's still quite popular. And he's somewhat quietly putting together a couple of really fun, entertaining films/roles the last few years, and in the next few.

That's kinda my point. Although one could argue that his bad publicity did make MII 3 suffer. But, like I said previously, he's still popular internationally but he lost I believe a decent amount of following in the past few years.

 

[ThePhantasm]

I'm sure Erz is probably right, even though I don't understand the mentality behind the popularity loss all that much. I really don't care about an actor's personal life at all, just whether they are a good actor or not. I don't avoid movies because of something the actor does outside the movie. Its kinda hard for me to wrap my head around to be honest.

But ours is a tabloid culture.

 

[TheVileOne]

For a while Paramount was very angry with Cruise but ultimately they mended fences. Sumner Redstone went on a public tirade against Cruise after MI:3 and said he was committing career suicide.

After Les Grossman people started liking Cruise again.

But he's been hit or miss quite a bit as of late. Ghost Protocol was a big hit, Knight and Day and Rock of Ages not so much.

 

[jacobed]

Not too mention he went back on Oprah and apologized and he's kept everything toned down for a few years now. Everyone i have ever talked to loved him in Rock of Ages, maybe not the movie itself but certainly him

 

[3rdstone]

Stars don't bring in the big bucks on their names alone like they used to. Call me crazy, but it seems like more and more people are putting stock in the people behind the scenes. Names like Nolan, Tarantino, etc. seem to have a better time guaranteeing a certain level of success than most A-List stars.

Yeah, I've been feeling kinda the same lately about big Hollywood stars attraction when it comes to GA's possible interest in seeing movies nowadays.

I've noticed myself that I've been missing out on flicks with big names (as in actors/actresses) more recently than I'd do before. It COULD be me beeing more lazy today, but I hope not lol.

 

[Bruce Malone]

Apparently the studio's goal for a sequel to get made is $250m and right now it's quite unlikely to get near that. I think the issue might have been that the star of the film was so polarizing on the books fan base.

I don't think i've ever heard the kind of book fan base complaints about an actor cast than with this?

 

[TheVileOne]

Bruce, not necessarily. Sahara for Matthew McConaghey as Dirk Pitt.

 

[flickchick85]

Just not sold that it's the studios and not Cruise. The fact that Cruise has been parodied on film and in tv hasn't exactly helped his image. As well, as being divorced 3 times now. Again, has nothing to do with his acting ability or that's he's unpopular, just that he's not AS popular.

Just maybe he wasn't the best choice for this particular role. Especially since studios LOVE franchises. And putting a 50 year old in what has 17? books? Not that even a mid 20s guy would be able to do 17, but obviously more than Cruise.

I'm not arguing about whether or not he was right for this role. Maybe you're right about that. I haven't read the books so I don't know. I thought he was fine in the movie, though, for whatever that's worth.

No, the point I was trying to make is that Tom Cruise and his craziness doesn't keep audiences away from his movies, since he literally just had the biggest financial success of his entire career come out a year ago. BUT that doesn't mean his name guarantees success, either. So if you want to say that means he's not the star he once was, then I agree. His name used to guarantee success, now it doesn't. My point is that NO STAR today is the star that Tom Cruise once was. Not even the stars who used to have his kind of drawing power themselves. So it's not a phenomenon that's specific to Tom Cruise at all, leaving no evidence that points to his shenanigans as the cause.

Now you could certainly point to those shenanigans causing a drop in his popularity in the immediate aftermath, though. That much I'll agree with. MI3 remains the lowest-grosser of the series (though War of the Worlds did great, so maybe the problem was partially the movies themselves even then). But after the love he got for Tropic Thunder and M:I4's colossal success, audiences made it clear they were over it. The public has a short memory like that. That's not what diminished his drawing power in the long run. Audience trends are changing, and his drawing power along with that of all the other "big stars" have been affected pretty equally.

 

[Lord Blackbolt]

The movie is close to 80 million and will close at near 200 million when everything is said and done. This is not a mega hit but it's not a flop or bomb. I think Tom will be back to do a sequel. Kind of like how Morgan Freeman did only two Alex Cross movies before they rebooted them. Lets hope the next Jack Reacher isn't as horrible as Tyler Perry was as Cross.