Speed Racer = FLOP!!!

[ZZYFRX]

Nobody is disputing distributor Paramount's figures that Marvel's summer blockbuster Iron Man made a platinum $15 million on Friday from 4,111 venues, and $21.6 million on Saturday, giving it an estimated FSS total of $50.5 million, or more than double the domestic box office gross of its nearest weekend competitor, to stay No. 1 again. Its new cume is a monster $177.1M. But Warner Bros' Speed Racer, whether its weekend total is $19.7 million or $20.2 million from 3,606 plays, made only half what the studio hoped, even with lowered expectations because of bad buzz and poor tracking. Not only is the anime actioner this summer's first summer bomb, but it's also doing dismally in key areas of its 30+ day and date opening foreign territories. The pic has gone bust in many international markets, with some disastrous openings in Europe in particular. Besides a too-long running time and a too-small audience of younger boys, the Wachowski siblings spent at least $160M making the pic, whereas Fox's What Happens in Vegas cost only $35 million.

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.c...t-warner-bros-hoped-overseas-take-dismal-too/

It's official, Speed Racer is the first major FLOP!!! of the summer season. Not surprising considering the Wachowski's (can they be considered "brothers" anymore?) track record of three pieces of shit in a row. The film looked horrible based on the trailer alone and didn't seem to know who they were marketing the film towards.

Hopefully this is a good lesson to the moronic studio execs to stop throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at shit "blockbuster" movies and start making more budget conscious films.

 

[Trekker4747]

Dude, stop with the "Flop!" thing it's old and cliche.

But, on topic, this is no surprise.

 

[Professor Zoom]

Dude, stop with the "Flop!" thing it's old and cliche.

But, on topic, this is no surprise.

At least he hasn't done it in a while...it's almost nostalgic.

But, yeah. No surprise. Nor particularly controversial. I don't think there will be anyone who argues that it's NOT a flop.

And it won't stop studios from spending big money to make even MORE money...look at Iron Man.

What it MIGHT do is make Studios pause and consider who helms projects.

 

[Captain Craig]

Yeah, its official. SR is a dud.

I don't mind when he does a thread like this and it has legitimacy. Its not like he posted an "IRON MAN is a FLOP" thread.

Maybe he is learning and has tempered his zeal...somewhat.

 

[Scout101]

yep, seems like a "duh" thread. Movie looks like shit, to be honest...

 

[Leroy]

Could the poor performance be due to the fact that it's based off an Anime?

 

[Captain Craig]

Could the poor performance be due to the fact that it's based off an Anime?

I think its that they tried to make it actually look full on anime. Transformers didn't try to look like a cartoon. It translated itself into an actual real world environment. The design of attempting to make the anime the real world is part of SR's problem.

 

[SpeedRacer]

I think that it has more to do with the target audience (kids) not being familiar with the Speed Racer show, the long-ass running time for a kid's movie, and adult fans wishing for something a little higher than a PG rating.

 

[Kegek]

Could the poor performance be due to the fact that it's based off an Anime?

I think its that they tried to make it actually look full on anime. Transformers didn't try to look like a cartoon. It translated itself into an actual real world environment. The design of attempting to make the anime the real world is part of SR's problem.

That didn't seem to effect Sin City and 300. Maybe it's this specific colour-saturated psychadelic imagery?

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Dude, stop with the "Flop!" thing it's old and cliche.

But at least he's right this time.

I'm not surprised by this news. The movie looks awful.

 

[MIB]

Not surprising considering the Wachowski's (can they be considered "brothers" anymore?) track record of three pieces of shit in a row.

Three? Were there three DOA movies after V For Vendetta (their last film before Speed Racer as far as I know) that I'm not aware of?

 

[ancient]

After seeing part of the movie on YT, I think this movie most reminds me of that Mike Meyers live-action Cat-in-the-Hat movie. Except even more glaring and drug-induced. I saw parts of the CitH movie on TV. That was another cartoon in live-action. It's kinda distrurbing, really.

I'm not really suprised. It's an older cartoon, a bit too long, and too weird looking to be a major money-maker.

 

[Captain Craig]

Not surprising considering the Wachowski's (can they be considered "brothers" anymore?) track record of three pieces of shit in a row.

Three? Were there three DOA movies after V For Vendetta (their last film before Speed Racer as far as I know) that I'm not aware of?

V for Vendetta is NOT a FLOP nor was it DOA. Its budget $54m. Its US total $70 and WW total of $132. Its fine for those who didn't like it to not like it, just end the mischaracterization of it as a failure. Also they only wrote it. It was produced and directed by others. So V for Vendettas modest success is not solely attributed to them.

 

[CompCarp]

FLOP = LE$$ Just becase a studio didn't make the money they'd hoped for, does'nt mean they didn't make a great movie. It just means that for economic, competition, or other reasons the audience either didn't know about, or chose not to see it.
And in my book - not seeing a movie is not the same as saying it's a bad movie.

FLOP = SHEEP Are you suggesting that declaring a movie a 'flop' means I shouldn't bother watching it? I'll be honest, there are many popular and critically acclaimed movies that leave me cold - and several 'failures' that are my favorites.

FLOP = VISION "Miracle on 34th Street", "It's a Wonderful Life" come to mind as failures when they came out - but later became classics. They are remembered DECADES after the cookie-cutter popular movies that trounced them in the box office.
Directors/producers/writers that tell a unique story, or in a unique way risk having the audience 'not get it' until years later. Calling those movies a 'flop' would fit - but how meaningful is that really?

FLOP = TROLL Nuff said...

 

[tomalak301]

Not surprising considering the Wachowski's (can they be considered "brothers" anymore?) track record of three pieces of shit in a row.

Three? Were there three DOA movies after V For Vendetta (their last film before Speed Racer as far as I know) that I'm not aware of?

V for Vendetta is NOT a FLOP nor was it DOA. Its budget $54m. Its US total $70 and WW total of $132. Its fine for those who didn't like it to not like it, just end the mischaracterization of it as a failure. Also they only wrote it. It was produced and directed by others. So V for Vendettas modest success is not solely attributed to them.

Thanks for the clarification. I've been seeing a lot of stuff here and in the media that now it's appearently cool to bash V for Vendetta. I thought it was considered a great movie with a respectable Box Office number.

 

[CompCarp]

After seeing part of the movie on YT, I think this movie most reminds me of that Mike Meyers live-action Cat-in-the-Hat movie. Except even more glaring and drug-induced. I saw parts of the CitH movie on TV. That was another cartoon in live-action. It's kinda distrurbing, really.

I'm not really suprised. It's an older cartoon, a bit too long, and too weird looking to be a major money-maker.

I understand the comparison - but where CAT was horrible in my opinion, Speed Racer follows through on all it's potential and it a GREAT MOVIE!

I recommend seeing it!!!!! 10/10 **********

 

[Dan_Crout]

I'll second that. My children (boys, 3 and 5) loved it. The 3-year-old fell asleep due to the running time, but this movie is geared to 5 - 10 year old boys and their parents. If it had been marketed that way, I think it would have had a larger turnout. It wouldn't have been a blockbuster, but this is one of those movies, like the Spy Kids films or Curious George that are quality family entertainment and will make their money back.

If Speed Racer can bully through the bad press of box office "disappointment" and stay in theaters long enough for the word-of-mouth among families with young boys to permeate, it'll end up successful in theaters. If not, it'll end up successful on DVD.

The box-office in this case doesn't reflect the quality of the film, but a failure to market to it's target and "tent-pole" expectations for a niche concept.

Dan

 

[CaptJimboJones]

I saw it, and I agree that the biggest problem was the marketing - it was very much a children's movie, geared to the 4 to 8 year old crowd. It reminded me far more of the "Spy Kids" movies than the Matrix. There's absolutely no adult audience for this thing. Personally, I found it incredibly boring and its visual style got really annoying after about 15 minutes.

If they can rebrand the thing for DVD as a kids movie, they might see some success. But it had a huge budget, unlike most kids movies (the Spy Kids movies, for example, were notoriously effecient with their budgeting.) So its doubtful it will ever become a real money maker.

The SR franchise is pretty much DOA.

 

[TedShatner10]

V for Vendetta[/URL] is NOT a FLOP nor was it DOA. Its budget $54m. Its US total $70 and WW total of $132. Its fine for those who didn't like it to not like it, just end the mischaracterization of it as a failure. Also they only wrote it. It was produced and directed by others. So V for Vendettas modest success is not solely attributed to them.

Thanks for the clarification. I've been seeing a lot of stuff here and in the media that now it's appearently cool to bash V for Vendetta. I thought it was considered a great movie with a respectable Box Office number.

Pay no heed to professional whinger, Alan Moore, or his syncophants, I thought the movie of V for Vendetta was good as well and surprisingly faithful to it's source material inspite of the studio meddling (even if the movie sucked to some pompous purists, at least it generated mostly positive exposure for the original graphic novel). Although I hope Watchmen is a better adaption again and is Moore's best work in my opinion (he's a very talented guy, but he appears in RL to be a morbid oddball with a chip on his shoulder).

Anyway I thought Speed Racer looked like pants in the trailer as well, with the high point being that nasty racing manager played by the same UK actor who played Norsefire firebrand, Prothero.

 

[Captain Craig]

SPEED RACER grossly overestimated as predicted by other studios.
3RD place finish...beaten by What Happens in Vegas.

$18.5M...sorry Warners...July's Dark Knight can't get here quick enough for them.