Not enough momentum between films. Trek pops up and goes away, every three or 4 years.
Why didn't Beyond do better at the Box Office?
- Thread starter The Overlord
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It's hard to sustain interest in sequels plus there have been a lot of blockbusters coming out one after the other to spread repeat viewings quite thin. Plus I've detected no big 50th celebration to market this. The Internet pokes me occasionally but the studios' level of effort has been weak. It might do OK on dvd sales too.
I saw Beyond for the third time yesterday. It's not a great film, but good popcorn entertainment. So I'm not sure why its doing as poorly as it is. Like Ricardocube suggested I agree that Paramount/CBS/Bad Robot or someone doesn't do enough between films to generate interest in this new take on Trek, for Trek fans and casual fans. I really do think they dropped the ball after Trek '09 when Trek was suddenly fresh and cool in a way it hadn't been since First Contact in 1996, but even to a greater extent than that.
There were Trek toys in Target even, and that's something I hadn't seen before. That Trek '09 movie opened a lot of doors that for some reason the powers that be didn't walk through. I have always felt that that Trek '09 movie should have been followed up by a cartoon to really hook kids into Trek. And further, they should've not canceled the Trek '09 universe novels to bring the older Trek fans perhaps more on board. There should have been a bigger mass media project to really engage fans and potential fans. I wish they had continued with the Trek young adult novels. At least they kept the comics going, but I don't know how widespread or popular those comics are. And I wish they would do more to increase the importance of those comics by adding little bits from them into the films, like they did once with the "Mudd Incident" in Into Darkness. Some of the comic characters like Kai or Yuki Sulu (a mention perhaps) would be nice in the films.
But there wasn't and then it took too long between Trek '09 and Into Darkness. And all the silliness surrounding hiding Khan. The main attempt to build that mass appeal outside the films was the Trek video game with the Gorn that was not well received, so that was a blow. However, I think that movie really let the wind out of the sails. Which still wasn't quite the kiss of death because Into Darkness did very well overseas. Yet after that, no mass media follow up. It was like Bad Robot ran off to lick their wounds, and of course Abrams got involved with Star Wars taking him out of the picture, and the change from Orci and Kurtzman, so there were the internal shakeups.
Now when it comes to Beyond, I think the celebration of Trek's 50th anniversary was bungled for the most part, as was the rollout for Beyond. I also think not having any original crew members in the film hurt them as well. If Shatner had returned for example it would have been a big thing the media would have ran with and it would've generated some interest among some disgruntled fans and perhaps casual fans as well. Beyond was a well made movie, however I don' t think the stakes were big enough for the 50th anniversary film and the callbacks to older Trek series weren't as plentiful as they should have been. Beyond should have been the second movie, and perhaps a better/reworked Into Darkness should have been the third, 50th anniversary film, paying homage to a classic story and villain, though let me repeat, much better than they did in Into Darkness.
There were Trek toys in Target even, and that's something I hadn't seen before. That Trek '09 movie opened a lot of doors that for some reason the powers that be didn't walk through. I have always felt that that Trek '09 movie should have been followed up by a cartoon to really hook kids into Trek. And further, they should've not canceled the Trek '09 universe novels to bring the older Trek fans perhaps more on board. There should have been a bigger mass media project to really engage fans and potential fans. I wish they had continued with the Trek young adult novels. At least they kept the comics going, but I don't know how widespread or popular those comics are. And I wish they would do more to increase the importance of those comics by adding little bits from them into the films, like they did once with the "Mudd Incident" in Into Darkness. Some of the comic characters like Kai or Yuki Sulu (a mention perhaps) would be nice in the films.
But there wasn't and then it took too long between Trek '09 and Into Darkness. And all the silliness surrounding hiding Khan. The main attempt to build that mass appeal outside the films was the Trek video game with the Gorn that was not well received, so that was a blow. However, I think that movie really let the wind out of the sails. Which still wasn't quite the kiss of death because Into Darkness did very well overseas. Yet after that, no mass media follow up. It was like Bad Robot ran off to lick their wounds, and of course Abrams got involved with Star Wars taking him out of the picture, and the change from Orci and Kurtzman, so there were the internal shakeups.
Now when it comes to Beyond, I think the celebration of Trek's 50th anniversary was bungled for the most part, as was the rollout for Beyond. I also think not having any original crew members in the film hurt them as well. If Shatner had returned for example it would have been a big thing the media would have ran with and it would've generated some interest among some disgruntled fans and perhaps casual fans as well. Beyond was a well made movie, however I don' t think the stakes were big enough for the 50th anniversary film and the callbacks to older Trek series weren't as plentiful as they should have been. Beyond should have been the second movie, and perhaps a better/reworked Into Darkness should have been the third, 50th anniversary film, paying homage to a classic story and villain, though let me repeat, much better than they did in Into Darkness.
I think the problem is similar to what faced xmen apocalypse earlier in the year. I'm a huge fan of first class, I'm of the opinion that it's one of the best superhero films ever made, and I loved days of Future Past too, but something just made me not bothered about seeing apocalypse at the cinema, and I still haven't seen it. I think the current xmen franchise is quite similar to the nutrek movies, they have something to say (racism, prejudice etc) which elevates them above most of the marvel offerings for the older cinemagoer, but I just got this feeling that apocalypse was going to be a load of cgi destruction and little else, I may be wrong, but I get the impression that's been largely the same problem with beyond at the box office.
They dropped the ball waiting 4 years between ST09 and Into Darkness. Beyond also had exceptionally poor marketing, the marketing has been fine in the week or two before release and right now, but before that it was non-existent. I'm now seeing celebrities on the Trek FB page talking about how much they love Trek - A WEEK AFTER RELEASE!
When some Trek dies it gets called franchise fatigue. When other Trek dies it gets blamed on lack of momentum.
The problem is that "normals" just aren't into Trek on the whole. You can get their interest every once in a while but they always get sick of it eventually. Fans will always come back, but the general public will always wander away. Which sucks, because Beyond was awesome.
The problem is that "normals" just aren't into Trek on the whole. You can get their interest every once in a while but they always get sick of it eventually. Fans will always come back, but the general public will always wander away. Which sucks, because Beyond was awesome.
This is Star Wars, and we've spent a shit ton of money making this movie.
Holy Shit, Batman! I think you've figured it out. Or you haven't. Most sequels make less money.
You're giving the fanbase too much credit here. The entire box office is down overall. This has not been a particular huge summer of tentpole after tentpole other than a couple of blips in the radar.
Highly doubtful. I'd wager the majority (and quite a strong one) of Into Darkness viewers at the cinema hadn't seen TWOK, let alone worried it was "plagiarism".
But they all groaned together when Spock yelled "Khaaaan!".
Again.. you're supposed to explain why you think they're wrong. You're supposed to argue for the other side.
That's how a discussion works.
I saw Star Trek Beyond for the second time yesterday. It was packed but again, it was filled with mostly older people. I could barely find anyone younger. The fanbase is getting old and I don't know if it's ever going to get younger again. If you compared Star Trek to sports, Star Trek is becoming the Major League Baseball of franchises.
A lot of the existing Star Trek fanbase has been bitter years.
Not at the three screenings I attended.
Unpopular opinion, but the popcorn-munching masses aren't exactly where I set my bar.
#1 sums me up perfectly. I had zero expectations for this movie. It didn't look all that interesting in the preview. It was following a movie that I felt was incredibly disappointing. I went to see Beyond solely because I'm a Star Trek fan, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered. As you say I was pleasantly and completely surprised that I enjoyed it. I may even go see it again if time allows, which is something I never do.
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