We Need Another Movie

[Muppet Master]

Of course, apples and oranges on count of one being holiday related... but Muppets have never made that much money. TM's almost 90 Million opening was the second most successful Muppet movie after the first. .

Actually, muppet movies have made quite some money over the years. TMM made over $200 million adjusted and was one of the top ten highest grossing films of the year. GMC made about $90 million adjusted, and was the 21th highest grossing film of the year. After that nothing really was all that popular until TM'11, but my point is the muppets are not exactly strangers to getting big box office numbers.

 

[Drtooth]

No, but that was 2 movies. MTM, MCC, and MTI made more modest numbers, adjusted. FTB really didn't make too much, but it's been considered an important part of Sesame Street retroactively.

And look at Labyrinth. The biggest Henson money loser there is. Is it forgotten? Absolutely not. It's been referenced by Scooby-Doo, Secret Mountain Fortress Awesome, Family Guy, and Venture Bros. among others (almost by Gravity Falls). It has a thriving fanbase that found it on home video, and it's actually more relevant now with the prominence of Fan Fiction. Sarah almost seems like a brutal parody of certain kinds of fan fic writers in hindsight!

You never know what film gets saved by home video. A movie doesn't stop making movie when it's out of theaters.

 

[Pinkflower7783]

 

[muppetlover123]

Honestly a Electric Mayhem movie with Maroon 5 would be the best thing ever! Obviously have other bands but having Maroon 5 would be awesome

 

[Oscarfan]

No, but that was 2 movies. MTM, MCC, and MTI made more modest numbers, adjusted. FTB really didn't make too much, but it's been considered an important part of Sesame Street retroactively.

And look at Labyrinth. The biggest Henson money loser there is. Is it forgotten? Absolutely not. It's been referenced by Scooby-Doo, Secret Mountain Fortress Awesome, Family Guy, and Venture Bros. among others (almost by Gravity Falls). It has a thriving fanbase that found it on home video, and it's actually more relevant now with the prominence of Fan Fiction. Sarah almost seems like a brutal parody of certain kinds of fan fic writers in hindsight!

You never know what film gets saved by home video. A movie doesn't stop making movie when it's out of theaters.

You should've seen how many people on Tumblr/Instagram were showing they got MMW on DVD/Blu-ray. It was nutz.

 

[Pinkflower7783]

I should mention there were only three blurays left at my local Walmart yesterday.

 

[ConstantineFan]

We will probably get another movie, because Disney helps their own sales by buying copies of the Movie for every Muppet, every Disney employee, and every celebrity, who was in the movie.

 

[LouisTheOtter]

From where I sit, the question will ultimately come down to whether Disney feels that the concept of creating quality Muppet material and being known as the studio that kept the beloved Muppet franchise going trumps the sting of a less-than-stellar box office performance for MMW.

Think back on the past year's Muppet output. It would be one thing if all that we - and Disney - got out of this was a great Muppet movie. But the advertising tie-ins proved a couple of very important things:
(a) Major companies are still willing to join forces with the Muppets to sell their products (the Toyota ads ran in North America for a good two months after it was clear that MMW wasn't going to smash box-office records); and:
(b) Even within the limited framework of advertising campaigns, amazing things can happen with the Muppets. That "Animals in New York" Lipton Tea ad is a piece of genius and deserves its place among the Muppets' all-time best work.

We may not see a theatrical movie for awhile yet, but I'm cautiously optimistic that we will get one, possibly in 2019 or 2020. But I think that the Disney suits and the creative team alike are aware that a third movie mining the TMS vibe won't do. I dearly hope that the next Muppet movie project, be it theatrical or direct-to-video, restricts its focus to one or two specific characters (or a fixed group like the Electric Mayhem) instead of stuffing as much of the cast as possible into a 90-t0-120-minute format.

In the meantime, I recommend a regular stream of virals with the hopes of some sort of TV relaunch. Virals are relatively inexpensive to produce but make a huge impact in the social-media landscape. (Think of the Cookie Monster and Kermit ALS ice bucket challenge videos, how quickly they came together, and how much people love them.)

Just DON'T WASTE THE MUPPET MOMENTUM, Disney.

 

[Oscarfan]

We will probably get another movie, because Disney helps their own sales by buying copies of the Movie for every Muppet, every Disney employee, and every celebrity, who was in the movie.

They don't buy their own product.

 

[Mr Sweetums]

lots of great ideas, I think we can all agree that the Muppets should continue making more web videos. I think a clever move would be to begin making new TMS sketches available online. Pigs in Space, Bear on Patrol, Vets Hospital, Swedish Chef, Muppet Labs, Fozzie's Jokes plus new skits. A new online Muppet sketch each week which can then be used as Muppet Shorts to be aired on The Disney Channel between shows (I really liked that idea).

This way the Muppets can get back to what they do best putting on a show just leaving out all the backstage drama until they eventually get a new tv show which I am sure will happen someday. Now the thing is that this time when they become bigger and popular online like they did last time they can't forget about the internet and move on to cinema they need to remain on the internet all the time even if it's for 3-5 minutes on a weekly basis. If The Muppets announce that they'll have a new movie in two years then for those two years they need to continue making online videos. It's a shame they didn't continue with the viral videos perhaps MMW would have had a much bigger fan base.

At the same time the Muppets need to think out of the box and do something new online. What can they do? I have no idea but the Muppets have always been about taking something ordinary and making it something extraordinary so it's time to think out of the box.