Posted on 10/21/2019 7:06:36 AM PDT by C19fan
Ang Lee's action thriller — starring Will Smith — was sidelined by bad reviews and the staying power of 'Joker.' Not even an Oscar-winning director and one of the world's most popular actors could save Gemini Man from getting bumped off at the box office.
Ang Lee's VFX-heavy film, starring Will Smith, faces losses of $75 million or more after opening to $20.5 million domestically over the Oct. 11-13 frame and finishing Sunday with an anemic worldwide total of $118.7 million, according to sources and box office analysts. Hopes were high that Gemini Man would make up ground and open to strong numbers in China. Instead, it launched to just $21 million over the weekend, coming in behind Maleficent: Mistress of Evil ($22.4 million) in a surprise upset.
(Excerpt) Read more at hollywoodreporter.com ...
Will Smith plays the same character in all his movies , YAWN
Opening weekend is the big one. Both in terms of revenue (movies tend to fall 1/3 every week, except for nerdy movies that drop closer to 2/3) and percentage that goes to the studio (80% on opening weekend dropping eventually to 20% on the fifth week, if it lives that long).
But the other big thing is time is finite. If you assume the Joker audience and Gemini audience have a strong overlap (which given that they put a Gemini trailer in front of Joker seems to be the assumption) most folks don’t tend to go to more than 1 movie in a weekend. Joker staying strong with Gemini flopping would seem to mean the shared audience stayed with Joker.
The John Carter story is funny. Originally it was titled John Carter of Mars, a more useful title by far. But then Mars Needs Moms bombed. And Disney for whatever reason decided the movie going public wasn’t into Mars, so they dropped that from John Carter’s title, and generified the trailer. And it bombed too.
His mediocrity caught up with him.
Or, Harvey Weinstein isn’t in a position reward Smith for “services rendered”.
Part of the issue as well, is that the general populous didn't know it was based on a highly popular series 'Princess of Mars' - so the name John Carter meant nothing to them. Not knowing what a movie is about on a title that is just a name, is going to cost you money at the box office.
He’s good looking guy from a movie star standpoint But his acting is kind of one note, sarcastic riffs on other people. I suppose it got old. I saw a couple of his movies and none in the last 10 years.
FWIW, I watched the “Tracy Lords” remake and to say it was a disaster would be an understatement.
They tried to be too literal. Because we now know that Mars would not support intelligent life as it currently exists, they decided to make it a planet we named “mars” that orbits a distant star, and inject technology into the story to get the guy there.
John Carter is a real sleeper. Awesome story. Great special effects, acting, cinemetography, etc. I really enjoyed it. And the “dog” is a hoot!
That can be a good thing. John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Arnold, etc, have made a career of being basically the same character in their movies.
If you're going to play the same character over and over, though, you have to find the right vehicles.
One thing that's also happened is there aren't a lot of new action heroes coming up. Most of the action movie guys are old enough to collect social security now, and they can't do their own stunts cause medicare won't cover it. The new Hollywood males are mostly betas.
Don’t forget Mars Needs Women.
I haven’t heard that name in a while.
I’ll watch the totally unrelated Gemini Man on YouTube for free.
Yeah. And the trailers did nothing to explain it. It’s funny the industry hires these surveys to see why people pick the movies they pick. Over and over again the results say that subject of the movie is the #1 thing that drives people to it. And over and over again that’s NOT in the trailer. The JC trailers just showed a guy jumping around and aliens. If you didn’t know they sure weren’t telling you. Then they wonder why it bombed.
I like Will Smith as an actor. I like most of his movies.
Now his WIFE, and can’t stand. And how they raised their children is just ridiculous.
The kids pretty much grew up with no boundaries and thinking the world revolves around them.
You’re joking, right?
Will Smith has made some excellent films.
I think she was trying to break into “real” acting. Frankly, she was better than I expected. But she needed a better vehicle.
First Wave didn’t help.
I was very mildly interested in seeing this movie. Then I saw a video of an action scene with a motorcycle in it, and it was so hilariously stupid, I just wrote it off. Maybe there is a book that would be more entertaining?
I personally know the marketing guys from the studio. Asked them one time, “Ok why is WM’s face on the poster? Nobody knows what it’s about..”
Someone told me (high up in the studio) that Will Smith WANTED his face on the poster. Not Ang Lee etc.
You don’t cast Will Smith to play a role, you cast a roll to play Will Smith.
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