In reviewing the numbers, one thing sticks out. There is a huge disparity between the film's domestic box office ($62 million) and its foreign box office ($172 million). I believe a large part of the discrepancy is attributable to a drop off in American young males going to watch movies at movie theatres.
The dirty little secret (which is scaring the hell out of Hollywood) is that it is now very easy to watch recently opened films on the internet without having to pay for them. And young males (risk takers that they are) are much more likely to watch movies this way than young females. As a result, action films that appeal to young males have been having a rough go of it in the past couple of years.
You may have also noticed that the action movies that are being put out often have a female as the lead or in a fighting role (e.g. The Thing, Hunger Games, Columbiana, Hanna). This is no accident. The studios are doing this because that is where the audience is right now.
And until Hollywood can figure out a way to end camcording of films (good luck with that) or begin to release films directly to the internet at reasonable prices, they can expect to continue to lose more and more of their audience to the internet.
You can watch first run movies on the net? I had no idea. Why would anyone go to the rotten theaters if there is another option.
That's how I watched it.
No, it was a poorly marketed film and a poorly chosen title.
I’m told that the movie is kinda good, if you can suspend a little belief.
I won’t go to any movie where the waif girl survives huge guys and guns. In real life one on one there’s no contest. I can’t suspend the disbelief enough to buy that crap.
Hollywood needs to get up with modern times and restructure their outdated business model. This is 2012. Americans have 60" HDTVs and Dolby surround sound in their homes. Theaters will always be a place for dates and for teenagers to get away from home for a few hours but many of us older film-watchers prefer to wait for the DVD. It's time to get rid of that lag time between the theatrical release and the DVD. Release the film in theaters on a Friday and the following Tuesday release the special-edition, director's cut blu-ray with all the bells and whistles and on pay-per-view for $10.99. Four weeks later, release the bare-bones theatrical edition to Redbox. That way everyone can see the film while there's buzz about it. This might also help prop up the lackluster Academy Awards. As it is, it's hard to get excited about nominated films when most of them haven't been released on DVD prior to the telecast and, as such, viewers haven't had the chance to watch them.
Bad title, book written a very long time ago. I read the series I was a kid. Thought they were great and so were the illustrations.
I can't imagine sitting in a normal theater again. I'd rather watch a new release on Blu-Ray at home with a few Guinnesses with the option to pause. But I will pay to go to the Drafthouse.
I think that one is mostly a case of a film that was overbudget and badly marketed. I saw it last Thursday and it was pretty good.
I spent too much on my home theater to watch some shitty cam-corded POS. But that’s just me.