Muppets Most Wanted: What went wrong?

dwayne1115

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2003
Messages
7,998
Reaction score
3,317
So I'm watching MMW,and Just finished watching TM. I think I havve figured out what wennt went wrong,but I want to see what other people say first. Soo after a few posts I'll post whhat I think.
 

Drtooth

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 16, 2002
Messages
31,718
Reaction score
6,707
If there's anything wrong with the film itself, I can't find anything. If anyone's going to condemn the film based on Jim not being involved, you have quite a bit of Muppet projects to add to that. It's a far better project we've seen in years, and at least its not another "classic retelling."

The whole problem is an overall box office problem. Movies ain't cheap. And why bother paying to see the film in theaters when you can wait a year and see it on Netflix? The entire box office was down this year, and quite a few other family movies opened at 17 mil. And the ones that were more successful underperformed. It took Guardians of the Galaxy to even break 300 mil domestic (Iron Man 4 made 400 mil). None of the other Marvel based films managed to do that. Amazing Spider-Man 2 is deemed a failure even though it made back its budget before it even was released in the US.

And yes. Opening opposite a moronic, hormonal, tweenybopper piece of garbage like Divergent (also known as "I read the Hunger Games and wrote a crappy fan fic that got published") did kind of dent it... but opening after a slew of kid's movies didn't help. Heck, Peabody and Sherman didn't even make back its budget domestically and was considered a better hit. If only MMW had been the only movie in January, like that imbecilic thing about the squirrels.

Seriously. If there are two films that were inexplicably lucky this year it was The Nut Job and Rio 2. Both sucked, had horrible reviews yet managed to make undeserved amounts of money for being released at the right time.
 

Eyeball

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 13, 2014
Messages
423
Reaction score
165
What went wrong? Its plain and simple really, Disney cocked up in waiting too long to release a sequel, after the success of TM in 2011 (2012 in the UK) you would think they could see the muppets were in a red hot vein of popularity so what do you do? Start a sequel straight away? Nooo they Wait three years to release a sequel and evidently the casual viewers Muppet phase has gone, leaving only those that cared enough to pay to watch it, coupled with poor advertising plus the storyline was way less marketable than that of TM, and not too many international promos pretty much doomed this film from the off.
 

Muppet Master

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 14, 2014
Messages
2,742
Reaction score
1,560
What went wrong, basically nothing, the movie itself was great, my onlu complaint would be the lack of Gonzo, the scheduling though was terrible. March may be a good time for a Dreamworks movie, but it definetly is not the time for a muppet movie, I would say releasing it on Thanksgiving would have given it much more success. Also, the advertising should have advertised the wedding more, come on there are so many people who obsess over Kermit and Miss Piggy's marital status, it would have made people want to see it much more, Disney made a bad move there.
 

Drtooth

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 16, 2002
Messages
31,718
Reaction score
6,707
Start a sequel straight away? Nooo they Wait three years to release a sequel and evidently the casual viewers Muppet phase has gone, leaving only those that cared enough to pay to watch it, coupled with poor advertising plus the storyline was way less marketable than that of TM, and not too many international promos pretty much doomed this film from the off.
A 2 and a half year wait for a sequel is nothing. That's a standard. I don't see how rushing out a movie to get out a year after the first one would have done any good either. Something tells me that if Mr. Peabody and Sherman and MMW switched dates, MMW would have been the barely modest money maker and P&S would have flopped. It was bad timing, but March he past year for that dumb Wizard of Oz movie and The Croods, but it didn't translate this year either. But here's the thing...none of the movies in March were that successful domestically. Need for Speed made back its budget overseas and it frankly did worse than MMW and disappeared the second it hit its second week.

But more over, Muppet films do business on home video. And with the home video market dwindling no thanks to streaming, less people are buying DVD's, especially if they shove all the special features on Blu-Ray and still charge 20 bucks for a bare bones disk. Way to scare everyone down to Redbox.

But I do agree they screwed the heck up with the international. Planes 2 was a freaking flop in the US, but because it was released in more markets. it made back barely double its cheap budget, and if MMW was released in more areas, it probably would have made that as well. And guess what Disney still shoves in everyone's faces like they think the public at large actually likes it? Planes! And their unsellable, deep discount clearance merchandise.
 

sesamemuppetfan

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Messages
1,476
Reaction score
1,155
I think it was combination of things. For now I'll just say that had it not opened on the same weekend as Divergent, it probably would have done much better at the box office.
And it doesn't help that Captain America: The Winter Soldier was released 2 weeks later.
 

WalterLinz

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2014
Messages
474
Reaction score
446
I enjoyed the film very much and I don't think there's anything wrong with it as well. I think maybe the only problem with it is is what many others have stated before; maybe it would've been better if the movie were released on a holiday like the 2011 movie.:stick_out_tongue:
 

sesamemuppetfan

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Messages
1,476
Reaction score
1,155
I enjoyed the film very much and I don't think there's anything wrong with it as well. I think maybe the only problem with it is is what many others have stated before; maybe it would've been better if the movie were released on a holiday like the 2011 movie.:stick_out_tongue:
Considering that Frozen came out on the week of Thanksgiving...if Muppets Most Wanted came out at the same time, or even on Christmas, I'd imagine that more people would be going for the former instead. Come to think of it, has Disney ever released 2 different movies at the same time in theaters before?
 
Top