Reasons for the disappointing numbers-Discussion

[Arkady Rossovich]

So..do you admit that FF2 is a failure?

 

[Mr. Socko]

It's already made it's money back I believe. Disappointment in the BO, yes, but not a complete failure.


But as a film...that's a different story.

 

[Tony Stark]

I don't see how the promotion itself was bad though. The trailers and commercials were well done...you had the cool Surfer statue in the theaters...I wasn't impressed with the posters, but that shouldn't be a deal breaker...

I was speaking more to the fact that ads were pulled when the movie was released. When you have the no. 1 movie in the country, you plug the hell out of it.

 

[Kelly]

So..do you admit that FF2 is a failure?

Failure? no not at all...

Major disappointmen at the BO....yes.....


But as I said in my review.....I "myself" enjoyed the hell out of this movie....and even loved the characterization and writing of this movie....there were other parts that took it down to a B for me....

I can't say that about the first movie....I think I had the longest negative review on the other board......so this was an enormous surprise for me.....


unfortunately we look at BO closely, not as closely as Fox...lol, but closely.....and yes it is very disappointing.....but no its not a failure.

 

[Spade]

I think it was a B-effort in comparison to the F-worthy first film. But B grades don't impress an audience and make them talk about this film way afterwards like everyone does with Transformers after seeing it. This movie needed the cheesy stuff cut out and an ending that gives the sort of excitement that the Great Wall fight brought. It lacked both, and now it's "the little movie that could have"...but didn't.

 

[Sardaukar]

I was speaking more to the fact that ads were pulled when the movie was released. When you have the no. 1 movie in the country, you plug the hell out of it.

I see. It only reinforces FOX's lack of respect for this franchise, imo...

 

[Mercurius]

Brutal failure.

As a franchise it should generate more and more interest in the development of the characters;

It should get increasing respect among the fan base;

Widen the success of the previous movie;

Nothing like that happened: we got the fantastic depiction of SS and some plain adventure with bad romantic comedy episodes poorly put together.

It's way too poor, considering the Fantastic Four basis of 40 years of great stories. And now the numbers show that people weren't fooled a second time.

 

[Casius--J]

Personally I think its all down to timing, this year was just way too crammed with anticipated movies and unfortunately for ROTSS it wasnt as high on everyones list.

Very good film though, one of my top comic book moves actually, shame it didnt make much at the BO. But hopefully it'll kill on DVD, Blu-ray etc.

 

[dark_b]

It's already made it's money back I believe. Disappointment in the BO, yes, but not a complete failure.


But as a film...that's a different story.

most fans on this board IMO are saying that only domestic is what counts. on boxoffice mojo they are saying that the movie made 127 milions and the budget was 130 milions.

i think hte movie will make a profit like SR made a profit.

 

[TheVileOne]

Superman Returns was still a disappointment whichever way you slice it. And it's sequel seems to be in extreme question/jeopardy right now.

Singer seems to already be moving on from it at the moment.

The first movie came out during a competitive and crowded summer movie season as well. I don't think that's a good argument.

This movie was relatively the same as the first one, and it followed the same trends as the first one, and the results were even less. The first weekends of both movies followed the same pattern. Except the following weekends and weekday holds were much worse.

 

[tviceman]

Singer seems to already be moving on from it at the moment.

The first movie came out during a competitive and crowded summer movie season as well. I don't think that's a good argument.

I agree. There are movies that have come out since FF2 that have exceeded, or at least performed to, expectations. Die Hard, Potter, Transformers, 1408, and Ratatouille have all done well or excellent.

I think the number 1 reason this film suffered a disappointing run at the box office is because the first one just flat out wasn't that good.

 

[TheVileOne]

That's a good point. The first one did well by the virtue of the fact that it was a new comic book/super hero franchise. It comes from source material with a fairly significant fanbase. It had some familiar faces and hot young IT types in it. Strong marketing blitz and all that.

But again, the results on that movie (dropped on FIRST Saturday and Sunday), and the huge dropoff in its second weekend, just kind of tells me that the repeat business and word of mouth was not there in the first movie. A good amount of people just saw it once and that was it.

For the second movie it was the same, but the first movie either kept them away from it, but it still had some people wanting to give it another chance after the first film. The movie didn't do a good job.

Just for the sake of comparison, in 2005, Batman Begins which opened up a little earlier. Was a huge deal at the time, but it did NOT open huge for a movie of that type. I think mainly because people were still weary and mindful of Batman and Robin, and that they were essentially confused if this movie was a remake, sequel, or whatever for the Batman franchise. But people saw the movie, it got good reviews, great word of mouth and by virtue of that it was able to climb past the $200 million mark in the US despite it's disappointing opening weekend.

Just saying, the huge dropoffs that FF and FF2 had, and the ones that Batman Begins didn't say a lot about how audiences generally felt about the movie.

 

[ServantofAllah]

the movie wansnt bad, it just wasnt memorable you know, i forgot about it the next.

 

[Paste Pot Pete]

It's problem was that it lacked the epic scope of what it should have been. It was "alright." But alright isn't good enough when dealing with one of comics' greatest properties.

It just doesn't stack up to the spectacle offered by competition like Transformers, Spider-Man, Pirates, even Die Hard. And before anyone says "Action and eye candy isn't all that matters," you're right. But the movie lacked a strong enough story and characters to fall back on when the action failed (something that the X-Men films succeeded in).

A night at the movies is expensive nowadays. You have to offer your audience something more. I got much more of my money's worth watching Transformers than FF2. One ended it's 2 and 1/2 hour running time with a giant robot melee; the other ended after 90 minutes with a couple of people standing in the streets of China while the Surfer flew up into a cloud.

 

[Kelly]

It's problem was that it lacked the epic scope of what it should have been. It was "alright." But alright isn't good enough when dealing with one of comics' greatest properties.

It just doesn't stack up to the spectacle offered by competition like Transformers, Spider-Man, Pirates, even Die Hard. And before anyone says "Action and eye candy isn't all that matters," you're right. But the movie lacked a strong enough story and characters to fall back on when the action failed (something that the X-Men films succeeded in).

A night at the movies is expensive nowadays. You have to offer your audience something more. I got much more of my money's worth watching Transformers than FF2. One ended it's 2 and 1/2 hour running time with a giant robot melee; the other ended after 90 minutes with a couple of people standing in the streets of China while the Surfer flew up into a cloud.

I have to agree, while I absolutely loved the character scenes, the chemistry of the actors, the family and comedic scenes as well as Sue and SS's scenes......it lacked in the action and scope....I can agree with that.

 

[Lightning Strykez!]

Fox's marketing of this film was terrible compared to the 2005 effort. That contributed a LOT to the box office failure.

I thought the Silver Surfer statuette in theatres was a sign of even greater things to come. But it wasn't. The posters and other artwork were disgusting too...does anyone remember the poster of Johnny without his left arm?

 

[Kelly]

Fox's marketing of this film was terrible compared to the 2005 effort. That contributed a LOT to the box office failure.

I thought the Silver Surfer statuette in theatres was a sign of even greater things to come. But it wasn't. The posters and other artwork were disgusting too...does anyone remember the poster of Johnny without his left arm?

I'm amazed at the lack of promotion AFTER the movie came out......it was the #1 movie at the B.O. it had some really good reviews this time around.....and yet......nothing. I honestly have not seen ONE tv spot since the opening.....not one.

 

[Paste Pot Pete]

I have to agree, while I absolutely loved the character scenes, the chemistry of the actors, the family and comedic scenes as well as Sue and SS's scenes......it lacked in the action and scope....I can agree with that.

It just doesn't live up to it's potential. It's like "This movie is about four superpowered heroes facing a world-devouring demigod." Really?

These stories are some of the most grand and epic in comics history; these films should be something on the scale of Star Wars. There just isn't enough ambition behind it; they just kinda coast along.

 

[Iron Maiden]

The short running time was definitely a hinderance IMO and they wrapped things up far too quickly with Doom, Surfer and Galactus. I get the impression that Fox tightened the reins on the budget and that led to the rushed ending. If they had gambled a bit more on a letting loose more than a glimpse of Galactus, they could have won over a lot more of the disenchanted fans from the first film.

 

[Tony Stark]

Industry problem plain and simple. People said they loved this movie when it came out dispite the tepid reviews, and now are nit picking the film since it didn't live up to our expectations.

Harry Potter taking a 60% drop the weekend book 7 is released???? INDUSTRY PROBLEM.

Go look at the box office from last year. the top film is more than 65 million higher than this years top film, and the no 10 film Fantastic Four is more than 30 million off from last years no 10 film.

Granted we still have 5 months to go and the no 10 film from 2006 "Persuit of Happyness" was a Christmas release, however even comparing summer films at a comparable point, FF is 5 million off MI3 from last year.

 

[Erzengel]

DMC last year made $423 domestically.

All other films were $250 and below.

This year you have 3 movies over $300. TF will definitely top $300 and Potter has the possibility to make $300.

DMC had the luxury of being a big fish in a relatively disappointing pond last year.

 

[Tony Stark]

DMC last year made $423 domestically.

All other films were $250 and below.

This year you have 3 movies over $300. TF will definitely top $300 and Potter has the possibility to make $300.

DMC had the luxury of being a big fish in a relatively disappointing pond last year.

And look how many of those movies had 60% drops in week 2. Nearly all, Transformers being the lone exception.

 

[Erzengel]

Because this is the nature of the industry today, popping out movie after movie.

Most Summer movies have at best 2 weeks at the top of the box office chart. It's congested.

Secondly, throw in the fact that most of these movies will be available 2-3 months after the movie's release on dvd. Some movies are still being show in theaters when the dvd is released.

In FF's case, it has nothing to do with the industry or current market. I'm sure Story did the best he could but it wasn't good enough. The premise of Galactus is iconic and it was reduced to the Surfer racing into a cloud. They were stuck with the same poor chosen actors from the 1st film. That's pretty much sums up why FF has disappointing numbers. Poor story telling. It really felt like a half hearted effort.

 

[Tony Stark]

Most people don't even know who Galactus is. Don't interject the fan view on the general viewing public.

 

[Erzengel]

Most people don't even know who Galactus is. Don't interject the fan view on the general viewing public.

It has to do with having faith in the story material.

You use the word "tepid" to describe the reviews when it should be closer to "panned".

You really want to blame the industry for FF's disappointing numbers and not the movie itself?