# Now You See Me/After Earth (flops?) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 29, 2013, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-you-see-me-after-earth-flops/659631 "2013-05-29T15:33:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2013, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-you-see-me-after-earth-flops/659631/141 "2013-06-15T15:45:55Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > The Power of Jaden. Hahaaa! It’s funny because that Scientology stuff really talks like that, right? On the Internet no one knows you’re a Scientologist. Or a Scientologist’s dog. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2013, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-you-see-me-after-earth-flops/659631/142 "2013-06-15T15:50:16Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Boxofficemojo says that as of June 13th, After Earth has taken in $99 million total, foreign and domestic. Production budget was $130 million (not sure if that counts advertising and all that crap). > > So yeah, a pretty big loss so far. Bear in mind the studio only keeps (roughly) half of the box office, and the P&A was rumored to be close to 100M (that’s on top of the production budget). ---
**Author:** ![Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crowbar_of_Irony_3)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-you-see-me-after-earth-flops/659631/143 "2013-06-18T06:34:19Z")
Just caught _Now You See Me_ not long ago. Rotten Tomatoes has it at 48%, but I enjoyed the movie and the premise. The best part is at the beginning, though halfway there are vibes of “a wizard did it”. To be fair, on thinking back, the movie did explain how most of the heist should work with quite a lot of foreshadowing. One of the best moments of the show is when a trick works on the audience. If you like Leverage or White Collar, you would enjoy it, I think. ---
**Author:** ![DragonAsh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DragonAsh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DragonAsh)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-you-see-me-after-earth-flops/659631/144 "2013-06-18T12:19:21Z")
Apropos of nothing, the son’s character in AE is named ‘Kitai’, which can mean ‘expecations’ or ‘hope’ in Japanese. AE looks abysmal, but Karate Kid was OK, at least as far as remakes go. If I died and ended up in hell, I’d choose the room showing that on endless loop over either Karate Kid 3 or 4, FWIW. ---
**Author:** ![Indyellen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/indyellen/32/4176_2.png) [@Indyellen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indyellen)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-you-see-me-after-earth-flops/659631/145 "2013-06-18T16:50:30Z")
We saw _Now You See Me_ last Thursday. I enjoyed it thoroughly; my husband was a bit disappointed and felt it didn’t live up to his expectations. However, I don’t feel like I lost 2 hours of my life. Will I get addicted to it the way I did with _Ocean’s Eleven_? Probably not. Was it a decent heist film? Yes, it was. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2013, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-you-see-me-after-earth-flops/659631/146 "2013-07-16T01:57:09Z")
Bumping this thread to add: - NOW YOU SEE ME is now fourteen-million-and-change shy of the $200 million mark, which is just fine for a $75 million picture. - AFTER EARTH is now fourteen-million-and-change _ **past** _ the $200 million mark, which (a) ain’t great for a $130 million picture but (b) could be a lot worse. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2013, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-you-see-me-after-earth-flops/659631/147 "2013-07-16T02:32:28Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Bumping this thread to add: > > - NOW YOU SEE ME is now fourteen-million-and-change shy of the $200 million mark, which is just fine for a $75 million picture. > > - AFTER EARTH is now fourteen-million-and-change _ **past** _ the $200 million mark, which (a) ain’t great for a $130 million picture but (b) could be a lot worse. _After Earth_ has almost 3/4 of its total from foreign grosses. _Now You See Me_ is closer to 1/3. I’d need to see the rollout schedule for each to determine whether that’s meaningful - action pictures tend to do better internationally than tricky talk pieces - or whether it’s just an artifact of timing of releases worldwide. And if you’re comparing worldwide totals you have to add in worldwide marketing costs, which are often equal to the cost of the movie. If so then you’re comparing a $185 million return against $150 million in costs versus a $215 million return against $260 million in costs, which starts looking really bad again. I saw _Now You See Me_ and it was better for almost all the way than the reviews made it seem. Sure, the ending was silly - it meant that the mastermind acted some scenes solely to mislead the audience. Up until then, the tricks were nicely tricky if real life absurd, and the dialogue had loads of good wit and banter. No characterization, but how much character does a magic trick need to work? Yesterday I went to the mystery play/parody/farce _Accomplice_. At one point a character wants to kill another by placing poison in the whiskey he always drinks when he gets home. Except that day he decided he was going to cut down on his drinking. Hilarity ensues. Now think about a plot that depends for its execution on precise movements during a high-speed chase scene in stolen cars through New York City traffic. In Raymond Chandler’s immortal phrase, the writer had God sitting in his lap. Requiring the audience to turn off its minds during a movie that also requires them to think will always ultimately fail. _Now You See Me_ succeeds about as much as possible in this impossibility. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2013, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-you-see-me-after-earth-flops/659631/148 "2013-07-16T16:09:47Z")
Note that many times overseas distribution of films is sold off at a fixed amount, not a percentage. It’s entirely possible that Sony sold rights in a lot of markets and will make big bucks despite lower than expected ticket sales. And even if the studio is taking a cut of ticket sales, it’s far lower than domestic cuts. Overseas ticket sales are really tricky in making calculations in terms of profitability without direct access to the data. (And studios are really great at finagling the data to their advantage, even if you had access to it.) ---
**Author:** ![MadTheSwine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MadTheSwine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadTheSwine)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2014, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-you-see-me-after-earth-flops/659631/149 "2014-03-24T23:30:10Z")
Late to the party, but After Earth was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2014, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-you-see-me-after-earth-flops/659631/150 "2014-03-25T01:02:53Z")
Since the thread has been bumped, might as well put out the final figures from [BoxOfficeMojo.com](http://BoxOfficeMojo.com). Now You See Me: ```auto Domestic: $117,723,989 33.5% + Foreign: $234,000,000 66.5% = Worldwide: $351,723,989 ``` After Earth: ```auto Domestic: $60,522,097 24.8% + Foreign: $183,321,030 75.2% = Worldwide: $243,843,127 ``` Wow. ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2014, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-you-see-me-after-earth-flops/659631/151 "2014-03-25T01:12:15Z")
This is why Rotten Tomatoes is almost useless as a guide for films. _ **Now You See Me** _ ( a plot hole ridden turd) made $350 million is going to have a sequel. _ **After Earth** _, a film where the writers knew next to nothing about science or apparently Earth for that matter, didn’t do as well, but still earned enough to make certain that its star, WIll Smith is bankable. Frankly, people should carefully watch the previews and read about the films when they are in pre-production rather than trusting a web site to tell them what is good and what’s not. As it is, everything that RT usually likes, the box office (being the ultimate arbiter) does not. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-you-see-me-after-earth-flops/659631/152 "2014-03-26T21:14:35Z")
BtW, this week’s not-prescreened-for critics turkey is Arnold Schwarzenegger’s _Sabotage_. No reviews at RT and it’s late Wednesday. I’d be surprised if it broke $12M this weekend. Ignoring the _Expendables_ franchise (where he isn’t the main star), he’s been on a box office dud roll lately. _Escape Plan_ (with Stallone) and _The Last Stand_ came and went with hardly anyone noticing except to make jokes. Keep it up Ahnold. _T5_ is still a year away. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-you-see-me-after-earth-flops/659631.md?page=7)