Monster Trucks - "The Monster is in the Truck!"

[:eek:]

“Monster Trucks” Gets A $115m Writedown

By
Garth Franklin -

Wednesday, September 21st 2016 3:08 pm
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Seemingly every year there’s famous examples of films of a major blockbuster failing at the box-office and taking a steep writedown at the studio that created it. The failures of films such as “Pan,” “John Carter,” “Blackhat,” “Seventh Son” and “The Huntsman: Winter’s War” were all written off at the cost to the studios of at least tens of millions, and sometimes pushing into the nine figure range.
Paramount’s “Monster Trucks” however has set something of a precedent. Talking about its current fiscal fourth quarter earnings, Viacom cited a “programming impairment charge of $115 million” related to the “expected performance of an unreleased film”. THR did digging and found it was referring to the film “Monster Trucks” which isn’t due out in cinemas for another four months.
“Monster Trucks” is a 3D live-action/computer-animated action comedy starring Lucas Till, Jane Levy, Amy Ryan, Rob Lowe, Danny Glover, Barry Pepper and Holt McCallany. Made on an estimated production budget of $100 million-plus, what was to be a broad-audience title ultimately became a kids movie. Originally slated for a May 2015 release, it has kept being pushed back with the current release date being January 13th 2017.
The writedown comes at a bad time for Paramount which is said to have lost in the range of around $500 million this year despite a favorable box office, home entertainment and licensing environment.

 

[Kyle]

Not surprising. It's a family film that seems to be missing a component that would make this sell to kids - actually featuring a kid.

 

[Doctor Jones]

Yeah, the kid is the key. It changes everything about the movie. A teenager?

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

Not surprised because the premise is awful and the trailer is an abomination.

 

[MadVillainy]

Nah man f*** that.

How the blazes do you make a movie like Monster Trucks and expect to lose 115. How much was the budget. How much is marketing.

When I first read this I had a longer rant planned, but Im too lazy to do it now

 

[Kyle]

Yeah, the kid is the key. It changes everything about the movie. A teenager?

A teenager is putting it lightly. Lucas Till looks like what he is, a 25 year old young man. It's like having Real Steel with focus only on Jackman and the kid doesn't exist. Kids or at the very least real teens help to elevate movies like this with marketing terms due to kids being able to relate. It wouldn't change the quality of the movie, but it would guaranteed make it an easier sell to more kids because they can more easily live through the character. What's surprising and obvious is they didn't see that this as clearly a kids movie to begin with somehow.

 

[Gabe99]

THR:
'Monster Trucks' Leads Viacom to Take $115M Write-Down
The company is taking the write-down months before the big-budget film opens in cinemas.

With an estimated production budget of $100 million-plus, one source said the film was intended to be a broad-audience title, but turned out to be more of a kids movie.

Given Paramount's slew of box-office misses this year, Jefferies analyst John Janedis wrote in a Wednesday report that the studio's "issues" were "ongoing." He added: "Viacom indicated there would be a write-down of $115 million related to a future film that will not likely perform to expectations."

And Drexel Hamilton analyst Tony Wible said that the loss "implies that Paramount will have lost about $500 million this year despite a favorable box office, home entertainment and licensing environment."

He added: "The studio is gradually losing its major franchises, and it may be difficult to launch new ones in the increasingly competitive film slate. We are lowering our future margin assumptions for the studio."

Variety:
Rob Moore Out at Paramount Pictures (EXCLUSIVE)

Moore, who didn’t respond to requests for comment, has been in his current job since 2008 (and with the studio since 2005), overseeing Paramount’s worldwide marketing, distribution, digital and television arms, and shepherded tentpoles like the “Transformers” and “Mission: Impossible” franchises, “Interstellar” and “The Wolf of Wall Street.” The studio does not expect to fill Moore’s position.

A source close to the situation said that the decision to ask for Moore’s resignation was made by the board of Viacom, Paramount’s corporate parent.

Moore’s exit comes as the studio is having a particularly turbulent year at the box office, with costly flops such as “Ben-Hur,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows” and “Zoolander 2″ piling up. This week, Viacom said in public filings that Paramount would take a $115 million write-off on the still unreleased “Monster Trucks,” which bows in 2017.

Following the exit of Dauman, Viacom’s leadership gave a vote of confidence to current Paramount chairman Brad Grey. Moore was the executive in charge of the day-to-day operations at the studio. He was also integral in maneuvering Paramount’s releases in China, frequently traveling to Asia.

Paramount Delays Rings & Friday the 13th Reboot
Paramount Pictures puts the brakes on two long in-development horror sequels, with both Rings and Friday the 13th delayed by several months.

 

[Rjones1325]

Believe it or not, I’ve been anticipating this movie for a loooong time. Whenever you have a movie that was slated for a release date only to get pushed back for years makes me want to see it more. I don’t care what it's about sometimes. I just want to see that specific movie to go with a sarcastic smile, “SO, this is the film the studio didn’t want anybody to see so they waited 20 years to release it? WELL AREN’T WE GOING TO HAVE SOME FUN TODAY!” Movies such as Hoodwink Too, World War Z, The Cabin in the Woods, that Bella Thorne Amityville movie that we were supposed to get a year and a half ago and we’re still waiting for today, and now after long wait, we finally have Monster Trucks. A film that was supposed to come out on the date Mission Impossible 5 was released and then got pushed back to that Christmas and then pushed back again to last March and then pushed back to this year in the beautiful month of January….

Monster Trucks would be the best Nickelodeon film ever made if it was released in 1997.

FULL REVIEW here: https://rendyreviews.com/movies//monster-trucks-review

 

[brandeezy89]

The test screening for this film was hilarious

They made the 1st design of trucks look like actual monsters and invited children and their families. As soon as they showed it, kids started crying, screaming and the majority of the audience left

 

[terry78]

Oh, to be a fly on the wall during that.

 

[Drizzle]

Monster Trucks would be the best Nickelodeon film ever made if it was released in 1997.

Better than Good Burger? Puh-LEASE!!!

 

[Rowsdower!]

This looks awful and that guy who played Havok looks like such a *****e with long hair.

 

[DaRkVeNgeanCe]

So I saw this the other night and actually kinda liked it. It was by no means some horrible pile of trash that everyone is making it out to be. I definitely had fun watching it. It had fun, charm, decent characters and it had heart amongst its mindless destruction and silliness. It also had a very well designed and adorable creature at the center. For a film targeted towards kids 6-12 years old, I found it to be fine.

People tend to ignore that Derek Connolly worked on the screenplay for this and he's the same guy that worked on Jurassic World, Kong: Skull Island, and is prepping to work on EpisodeIX.

 

[TheVileOne]

Well Jurassic World had a bunch of rewrites. But then I look at Kong: Skull Island, and it has like seven credited writers. IMHO that's usually not a good sign.

To be honest, I'm not expecting a ton of greatness out of a new King Kong movie either.

Then again it's not uncommon for writers or filmmakers to have some really weird credits on their resume. It happens.

 

[DaRkVeNgeanCe]

Well Jurassic World had a bunch of rewrites. But then I look at Kong: Skull Island, and it has like seven credited writers. IMHO that's usually not a good sign.

To be honest, I'm not expecting a ton of greatness out of a new King Kong movie either.

Then again it's not uncommon for writers or filmmakers to have some really weird credits on their resume. It happens.

Regardless of that, my point was that I quite enjoyed Monster Trucks for what it was. I'll never understand a bunch of grown adults getting joy out of bashing a film that's being made and marketed towards children. As the saying goes though, whatever floats your boat.

 

[BlueLanternKal]

Regardless of that, my point was that I quite enjoyed Monster Trucks for what it was. I'll never understand a bunch of grown adults getting joy out of bashing a film that's being made and marketed towards children. As the saying goes though, whatever floats your boat.

The amount of people here who mercilessly bash things out of a sense of faux superiority is astounding.

I mean, who dedicates months of their lives talking **** about a Power Ranger movie? Let the fandoms have their fun, and if they decide it was bad by all means complain -- afterwards.

 

[terry78]

Misery loves company.

 

[TheVileOne]

Regardless of that, my point was that I quite enjoyed Monster Trucks for what it was. I'll never understand a bunch of grown adults getting joy out of bashing a film that's being made and marketed towards children. As the saying goes though, whatever floats your boat.

There are plenty of better movies directed at children though. But honestly, haven't seen Monster Trucks. You might very well be right and it could be surprisingly good. I do like the actors in it especially Jane Levy.