• Welcome to the Muppet Central Forum!
    You are viewing our forum as a guest. Join our free community to post topics and start private conversations. Please contact us if you need help.
  • Christmas Music
    Our 24th annual Christmas Music Merrython is underway on Muppet Central Radio. Listen to the best Muppet Christmas music of all-time through December 25.
  • Macy's Thanksgiving Parade
    Let us know your thoughts on the Sesame Street appearance at the annual Macy's Parade.
  • Jim Henson Idea Man
    Remember the life. Honor the legacy. Inspire your soul. The new Jim Henson documentary "Idea Man" is now streaming exclusively on Disney+.
  • Back to the Rock Season 2
    Fraggle Rock Back to the Rock Season 2 has premiered on AppleTV+. Watch the anticipated new season and let us know your thoughts.
  • Bear arrives on Disney+
    The beloved series has been off the air for the past 15 years. Now all four seasons are finally available for a whole new generation.
  • Sam and Friends Book
    Read our review of the long-awaited book, "Sam and Friends - The Story of Jim Henson's First Television Show" by Muppet Historian Craig Shemin.

Muppets Most Wanted Box Office Numbers

Drtooth

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 16, 2002
Messages
31,717
Reaction score
6,710
If this film becomes a failure because kids don't care and the general public doesn't either, I'd be disappointed, but write it off. I mean, the general public didn't get Pacific Rim (one of the best movies of last year), but flocked to Grown Ups 2. That stuff happens.

What drives me absolutely insane, however, are these freaking hipsters and sticks in the mud that listen to the handful of negative reviews and predetermine that they're really going to hate it, sit back and watch the franchise die, then wonder why they seem out of touch when they talk about them. The Muppets is a VERY fragile franchise. Disney has a million other things besides the Muppets, and they'll give priority to all that instead. Then the same fans will whine about how big evil Disney screwed the franchise up even though the film failed on their stubbornness to bother to see a movie before complaining about it.

Here's the thing. Jim Henson's dead. So is Jerry Juhl. We'll never ever get close to that quality. So we throw in the towel and just watch old VHS? No. We hope that we'll get something as good, at least not mind numbingly terrible and appreciate it for what it is.

I have seen a LOT of turd kid movie remakes of my favorite things. They're all well below the quality of even the worst Muppet projects. I'm sick of seeing clumsy in name only adaptions being greenlit near the end of the license ownership. We have 2 movies made by people who actually are fans and actually wanted Disney to do something with them instead of making more High School Musical grade crap. We got two films that are better than the last several ones... MUCH better, and they're at least worth seeing once before whining about how "awful" the quality is.

So to reiterate, if the public doesn't want another Muppet movie fine. But I'll be frogged if the reason this film, and by extension the entire future of anything as much as a t-shirt is doomed because a bunch of Debbie Downers are too afraid of losing 10 bucks to disappointment (might as well put that in a frame and look at it forever). Especially when it's all in their heads.
 

Muppet Master

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 14, 2014
Messages
2,599
Reaction score
1,621
Oh my god, why are we worrying so much about MMW's box office numbers? John Carter had a $250 million budget, and guess what it only made $73 million at the domestic box office, and BARELY reached it's budget worldwide wise, which clearly wasn't enough to get some cold hard cash. Mars Need Moms was a MUCH MUCH worst case. Not only did it get beyond horrible reviews, but it had a $150 million budget and only made $21 million at the domestic box office and worldwide it made $38 million, which is even worst, because it lost $112 million dollars. The point I'm trying to make is that Disney has faced MUCH MUCH worst bombs than MMW which will probably reach its $50 million budget and if not at least 40 and make a butload of foriegn money. I mean I doubt Disney's going to be in tears, because of MMW, but I don't think we'll be seeing a muppet movie for a long time. Not as long a gap as MFS's but we'll probably have to wait probably the time gap between when MTM was made until MCC was made. So get ready for the next muppet film in 2022, I call it "The Muppets in Las Vegas".
 

goldenstate5

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 24, 2011
Messages
145
Reaction score
49
Just because they've had worse bombs doesn't make this not a flop. I know it's a hard fact to swallow, but Disney is a business. We have to look at this objectively.
 

Muppet Master

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 14, 2014
Messages
2,599
Reaction score
1,621
Just because they've had worse bombs doesn't make this not a flop. I know it's a hard fact to swallow, but Disney is a business. We have to look at this objectively.
We can't just assume this is a flop, because of 5 days, there have been many movies that have held strongly in their second weekend and even increased on their opening weekend total, and I think with Detergent cleared out of the way with horrible word-of-mouth (I've heard so many people at school saying how terrible it is and not to watch it.) and Noah not being a tween appealing film, I think MMW can succeed at holding very strongly next week. I've done my part, and shared on GooglePlus to ignore the bad reviews and watch it and stuff. Even if it is a flop, Kermit: Let's just start from the bottom and work our way back to the top.
 

minor muppetz

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2005
Messages
16,073
Reaction score
2,660
Well, I've read that Muppets Most Wanted has at least made more box office money than Muppets from Space did.
 

goldenstate5

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 24, 2011
Messages
145
Reaction score
49
We can't just assume this is a flop, because of 5 days, there have been many movies that have held strongly in their second weekend and even increased on their opening weekend total, and I think with Detergent cleared out of the way with horrible word-of-mouth (I've heard so many people at school saying how terrible it is and not to watch it.) and Noah not being a tween appealing film, I think MMW can succeed at holding very strongly next week. I've done my part, and shared on GooglePlus to ignore the bad reviews and watch it and stuff. Even if it is a flop, Kermit: Let's just start from the bottom and work our way back to the top.

Those are very rare cases, most likely due to strong word of mouth. MMW is not getting great word of mouth. Divergent is increasing exponentially while MMW stays modest at best. Every single box office analyst, who have been doing this for years have commented that this movie won't make back its budget in the states. And it has to do exponential business overseas so Disney doesn't merely get their money back for production (remember: there's money spent on marketing that they have to get too)... in America at least there is no miracle turnaround coming.
 

Muppet fan 123

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2011
Messages
3,656
Reaction score
1,488
Bringing some humor to the subject: Jimmy Fallon had a great line about Divergent in his monologue last night.

(quote)
"Divergent was the highest grossing film at the box-office this week with $53 million dollars! Divergent takes place in the bleak, dark future, where apparently no one's ever head of The Hunger Games before.
"This idea has been done before? Twice?"
 

Drtooth

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 16, 2002
Messages
31,717
Reaction score
6,710
Just because they've had worse bombs doesn't make this not a flop. I know it's a hard fact to swallow, but Disney is a business. We have to look at this objectively.
It's still a better investment than a huge movie with a big budget, no matter how much it loses. But it still looks less and less likely this will get anywhere unless it manages to kinda hang around a few box offices after the 3 week mark.

For the sake of sanity, I'm just going to say it's because the Muppets are inaccessible and kids drug their parents to Peabody and Sherman. Because, frankly, if this is the one time people actually listen to critics, it's maddening. And again, a small amount of critics who were slightly disappointed. Of stick in the mud fans who think they're doing themselves a favor by avoiding it.
 

beaker

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2002
Messages
7,761
Reaction score
858
My disappointment isn't so much in the box office floppage...but that I think a lot of people would like the film if they gave it a chance. I mean when you got the majority of cynics on here who aren't shy to sharply criticize Muppet projects, calling it a near perfect masterpiece...

At this point my theory is that I got to see a cut of the film somehow the critics didn't see. Because in the version I saw last weekend, it was leaps and bounders better on all technical levels than the last one. And the last one was a great comeback.

Does anyone though, have any theories on why audiences are staying away, whereas the last one felt more like a critical and box office success? Is it really because of critics?
Personally I think it's bordering on child abuse not to take a kid to see this movie. And I am so grateful that from an early age I was exposed to all things Jim Henson both in theater and tv.
 
Top