jvcarroll
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2012
- Messages
- 1,660
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After Earth failed because it wasn't a very good movie and had some laughably awful previews. It was also a vanity piece filled with religious propaganda, but the previews are what killed it.After Earth failed because it was an ego piece. Will Smith turned down Django Unchained because the role wasn't big enough to do a film where his son and him were essentially the only people in the film. Throw in the pretty obvious Scientology themes, and you pretty much made a film that could damage your career. Ender's will get some sort of passive aggressive audience of "victims," but I doubt many film goers are going to pass up Thor to see that one. Especially since large portion of the Iron Man 3 audience flocked to see how Tony Stark was going to cope with the aftermath of The Avengers. I'm sure they'll do the same for Thor... or more likely, Loki.
I wouldn't call the Lone Ranger a fresh idea. It was a very expensive remake that audiences didn't really want. John Carter suffered from an ambitious animation director that couldn't transition into live action. It was also a victim of poor marketing. It's a good film. It just doesn't have enough of a gripping or cohesive story. Frankenweenie was boilerplate Burton. He offered very few new ideas to warrant his own remake. The black and white probably scared some kids off, but it was sluggish pace that caused the bad word of mouth from audiences.That's exactly why I felt that The Lone Ranger's box office failure is bad for us.
With the failure of John Carter and The Lone Ranger, as well as a poor result for Frankenweenie will make Disney look the other way on brand-new original ideas, and keeping sticking talking vehicles with googly-eyes in front of us.
Disney is very tight with money. Like most movie companies, they'll usually only make something when there is a large guarantee in money. Disney might decide that brand-new fresh ideas are bad risks, since they have a guarantee that they'll make more money when people go see Toy Story 4.
I understand the need for expensive tentpole films. They need to be wisely selected. We're getting too many pictures based on the same formulas and audiences have grown tired of them. That's what gives the Muppets such a unique opportunity. These are efficiently budgeted special effects films (the Muppets being the special effect) with built-in marketing elements. If the movies catch on, Disney can build one heck of a Muppets marketing arm of soundtracks, clothing, toys and home videos for years to come at a discount! Disney needs more Muppets-level films. $40 million pictures that aren't boasting about being the next big thing. They just want to entertain us and offer products that people want. Just my thoughts.