An interesting CNN slideshow: http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/08/entertainment/gallery/movie-bombs-2015/?iid=ob_article_entertainment_pool&iref=obnetwork
I’ve wanted to see Steve Jobs, Shaun the Sheep and The Walk, but haven’t quite gotten around to them yet. Looks like I’m not alone.
First, see Steve Jobs. I can’t remember the last time I walked out of a movie on such a high. It’s everything great about Aaron Sorkin packed into two hours.
The fourth and fifth of the five worst all-time large (over 2000 theaters) openings occurred last weekend. Number six was in August. That’s not an indicator of merely a bad set of movies. That says that the practice of large openings for weak movies has hit its limits and the studios have to rethink release patterns. Well, they probably need to rethink almost everything about the way studios make movies, but they can change release patterns quickest.
The flip side is that almost certainly there are too many screens to show movies. Steve Jobs was playing at six theaters locally. It should have been at two, maybe three. Theater chains are about to embark on a lot of closings.
I feel sorry for the theatre owners who gave in to the pressure to get 3-D projectors.
I liked Steve Jobs quite a bit. I thought it captured the man’s character very well (at least, what I know about his character). The movie is has a lot of well-written rapid-fire dialogue. It gives the audience credit for intelligence - it assumes we know things, so it doesn’t waste time with a lot of exposition (and the exposition that’s there is subtle enough that I didn’t feel like I was being hit over the head with it). It’s unfortunate that the movie isn’t doing better - it really is good.
Wonder is Shaun the Sheep will do well in the rental market.
I really like Aardman animation, but am not likely to go to the theatre to see it.
Plus, the estimated budget was $25,000,000. So not a hit, but proportionally not that bad (and $83,000,000 worldwide is nothing to sneeze at)
Brian
Really? That is the only thing that draws me into first run movies.
I can’t remember the last movie that I was so eager to see that a trip to the cinema was worth the expense.
I am not sure if that’s because of the kind of movies that are being made or if it’s just that I’ve gotten so stingy with my time and money. I’m just not the demographic they seem to be aimed at anymore, it seems to me.
I liked Network, but the Jobs movie just has no interest to me. I’m not sure why.
I’ve never even heard of “We Are Your Friends” and “Seventh Son”.
Ignoring international box office to declare a film a “bomb” is ridiculous. As noted above, Shaun the Sheep made plenty of money in international markets, where it was released a good six months before it hit the US; the US was effectively just an add-on market with very little advertising and some upside money.
The story of Steve Jobs won’t be fully written until awards season.
I think this is what is always going to happen when a studio finds itself with a dog on its hands. Wide releases have the best opportunity to get out ahead of word-of-mouth discussion; platform type releases, where you start slow to build up word-of-mouth, would absolutely kill these movies. Just look at the Bradley Cooper and Sandra Bullock releases that came out this weekend…those are dying as well.
And if people like it, it’ll play endlessly on cable TV (which is basically bonus money for film producers). The Social Network is not the kind of movie that gets played endlessly on cable, yet you can find it somewhere in the guide every weekend. Steve Jobs will probably end up the same.
That’s where the real money for dramas are nowadays. A theatrical release is just to get people talking about it.
Was A Million Ways to Die in the West this year, or last? I’ll check the list.
This was the worst weekend of the year for total grosses. That BoxOfficeMojo article talks a bit about possible new release patterns being thwarted by theater owners. Skyfall is doing record business in some countries, so next weekend will be typical blockbuster territory.
Rock the Kasbah averaged $176 in its second weekend and Jem and the Holograms did $120. That’s an average per theater for three days. A dozen people in three days, probably less than the number of screenings. And that’s an average. Why even go through the bother of theatrical release in such cases? This has to stop.
Spectre. 
Some of it may be minimum screen requirements put on the distributors. But yes, that’s pretty heinous.
“Jem and the Holograms did $120”
More than I expected.
Shaun the Sheep was – like all Aardman – one of the best animated films of the year. It was onlydue to the bfact that Pixar’s ** Inside Out** broke their streak of mediocrity.
Popularity<> quality
May 2014.
I am surprised to learn some of the films on the list were 2015, though… I would’ve sworn Hot Tub Time Machine 2, for example, came out before this year.
Looking over that list, I saw four of them…
”Steve Jobs” - Saw it last week. Thought it was very good.
”Jem & the Holograms” - Looked horrible so I wouldn’t waste my time. (though ironically, I worked at Hasbro in the 80’s and was there when the toy was created. Still don’t want to see the movie though)
”Rock the Kasbah” - Big Bill Murray fan but the trailers looked like crap. Also, I hadn’t heard anything about this movie until they started the TV campaign. Never a good sign.
”The Last Witch Hunter” - A Vin Diesel movie?? No thanks.
”Pan” - This one looked like a dog from the first preview I saw. Gave it a pass.
”Crimson Peak” - Horror films bore me. So I didn’t bother with this.
”Shaun the Sheep” - Sorry I missed this one. It came and went pretty quick.
”The Walk” - I saw this on IMAX. WOW!! The only way to see this IMO, is on IMAX. If you’re scared of height, you’ll be scared to death! If you see this on TV, it’ll have no impact.
”Hot Tub Time Machine 2” - Thought the first one was pretty mediocre, so I didn’t bother seeing the sequel.
”We Are Your Friends” - Wait, they want me to pay to see a Zak Efron film? No thanks.
”Fantastic Four” - If they’d ACTUALLY made a movie about the Actual Fantastic Four I’d have been there opening day. But they didn’t.
”Entourage” - Thought the TV series was a waste of time, so, pay $10 to see it in the theater? Nope.
”Aloha” - Looked like a good cast but heard so many bad things about it, I passed.
”Jupiter Ascending” - Unfortunately, I saw this piece of crap. I’ve seen 46 films so far in the theater this year. This one was the WORST.
”Mordecai” _ See this? Uh, no thanks.
”Unfinished Business” - I like to laugh at comedies. If Vince Vaughn is in a film, it’s never funny. Especially when it’s supposed to be a comedy. Didn’t see it.
”Strange Magic” - Had no interest in this one.
”Blackhat” - I would have seen this one, but the poor reviews kept me away.
”Seventh Son” - Another film that looked uninteresting.
”Chappie” - I saw this one. Very forgettable with some REALLY bad performances.
Question: If you’re not an Apple fanboy/fangirl, is there any reason to go see this film?
I wonder if budgets will start being affected more. Some of the movies had reasonable budgets, but Pan’s was $150 million, Jupiter Ascending was $175 million, and Seventh Son was $95 million. With budgets that big, the movie needs to not just be a success, but a huge, blockbuster success. Even Mortdecai was $60 million, which isn’t a lot compared to the big fantasy movies, but is a somewhat big budget for what I believe was just a silly comedy. I don’t know what the big budget would have gone towards other than Johnny Depp and the other actors.
While Jem and the Holograms is another newsworthy flop, it’s budget was only $5 million. It won’t break even at US theaters, but it will with international theaters, or at least with home viewing. It’s the same way for all the other movies made by Blumhouse, there was an article recently about Blumhouse and it’s founder Jason Blum. As more big budget flops happen, I’m guessing other companies start following Blumhouse’s lead.
I’m the same way. I like Danny Boyle, I like Michael Fassbender and a lot of the other actors in the movie, I like Aaron Sorkin well enough, and I know the reviews are really great, but I just can’t get that interested. I guess it’s that I know Steve Jobs was an impressive guy, but I’m kinda tired of hearing about him. I think if this movie was made in another 10 years or so, the audience would be bigger.
Also, Shaun the Sheep is a British movie, based of a British TV show. Apparently it was a really good movie and should have done better with kids in the US, but it’s not exactly terrible that it didn’t do well here, since it did so well everywhere else.