Where the hell did the supposed $40 million in advertising costs go?? - The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure (2012) Discussion

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] shadaif 12 years ago

They advertised this film at the Ringling Bros. Circus. The ringmaster wanted everyone to get up and do the oogie cheer and everyone just looked at him like he was nuts.

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[–] shred-com 12 years ago

The film looks cheap and the costumes look even cheaper. It SHOCKS me 60 million dollars went into this nightmare.
To profit, they'd need to double it. 120 million bucks or so.
Are the studios insane? 0_0
Biggest WTF Hollywood of the year.
John Carter, Battleship, and Total Recall now have a new friend!

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[–] andrewlawton2008 12 years ago

I had never heard of it until I saw that it was the biggest flop of all time.

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[–] comicman117 12 years ago

It's a flop, but it's not THE biggest flop of all time.

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[–] JH_Kalashnikov 12 years ago

Where the hell did the supposed $40 million in advertising costs go??

Hookers and blow, man...hookers and blow.

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[–] Blue_Jedi 12 years ago

If this isn't the biggest flop of all time, what movie is?

Fat People Are Harder To Kidnap

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[–] misled 12 years ago

Cutthroat Island (1995): Cutthroat Island is the pirate movie that lost its treasure and walked the plank, sinking its backer (Carolco Pictures) along the way. Squandering a reported $115m in costs qualifies it as history's biggest box-office bomb. In this notorious picture from the set, stars Matthew Modine and Geena Davis are just preparing to cut their own throats. Net loss (adjusted for inflation): $147.2m (£92.7m) Figures taken from: filmsite.org

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[–] scorpion-52 12 years ago

At least those films were entertaining, I can't imagine any kids wanting to see this. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a Rifftrax of this film in a few years time.

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[–] Doom 12 years ago

Where the hell did the supposed $40 million in advertising costs go??

I actually came here to ask this exact question...

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Wait a minute... who am I here?

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[–] number1212 12 years ago

Maybe they played ads during preschool shows. I don't watch much TV (let alone preschool shows) so I wouldn't know.

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[–] Blue_Jedi 12 years ago

Thanks about the info on cutthroat Island or whatever it's called.

I rarely watch TV. Get all my movies from Netflix. Almost tv show I watch I get from netflix via DVD, so it's commercial free.

The few I watch on net work TV I fast forward through every ad. I don't watch preschool type shows, and to avoid the "gimmies" and "buy me buy me buy me" from the kids, they watch everything via DVD from netflix, to avoid the ads.

So no clue. Never heard about this movie until I saw an ad for it on Fox, rewound my DVR back to the ad thinking WTF did I just see-I can't be that high-and it was a 20 second TV ad for this movie the day before it opened.

Nearest movie theater to me (couple mines away, only one of 3 in entire county) isn't even showing this movie.

Fat People Are Harder To Kidnap

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[–] shred-com 12 years ago

It had the worst opening weekend of all time.

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[–] Blue_Jedi 12 years ago

I caught on the radio little about that this movie is projected to have a net loss of 98%, making it the biggest flopper of all time. Guy on radio said it's supposed to be confirmed in a few days.

Fat People Are Harder To Kidnap

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[–] robertmichel 12 years ago

- The ads show audiences interacting with the show (kids dancing etc.). Of course these people were taped at some other event, and the marketing people had to pay for the rights to use these clips.
- Production-related costs were booked as promotion-related expenses in order to expand their "international advertising" budget, so they could apply for export subsidies.
- They knew no-one was going to see this, and they already booked the foreseeable loss as a projected cost.
- The marketing people travelled personally to every country where this film was going to be shown, which was the only way they could write off their private jet.
- The marketing agency are friends with some studio execs, and they were able to charge extraordinary fees. In exchange for this favour, they took these execs on expensive holidays and wrote those off as gifts to business acquaintances.
- Drug money laundering.

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[–] Doom 12 years ago

Sweet.

Oogieloves meets The Wire.

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Wait a minute... who am I here?

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[–] EvilJerk 12 years ago

- Drug money laundering.

Funny thing. I had noticed the trailer for the movie on YouTube had a lot of views, but relatively very few like/dislikes, yet many users repeatedly posting positive comments about 1 month ago. When I check these user profiles, I notice they're newly created and list their country of origin as Bangladesh. Then just recently I read an article that claims "Bangladesh is emerging as a new conduit for trafficking drugs to the West.".
http://india.nydailynews.com/newsarticle/50478a51c3d4ca5670000000/bang ladesh-busts-dhl-heroin-racket

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[–] EvilJerk 12 years ago

Oh snap... I think Kenn Viselman had a brother, Lyle B. Viselman, who was arrested for drug trafficking, specifically heroin at the age of 53.
http://florida.arrests.org/Arrests/Lyle_Viselman_5748681/

Lyle B. Viselman died fairly recently, aged 54:
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sunsentinel/obituary.aspx?page=lifest ory&pid=158347545
It mentions brothers, Kenn Viselman and Jeffrey Viselman, parents, Barbara and Ronald Viselman.

To verify this is likely Kenn Viselman's brother:
http://www.mylife.com/c-2621832900
"Kenn A Viselman", aged 51 with matching brothers and parents and lives in Los Angeles, CA. Sounds like producer Kenn Arthur Viselman said to be 51 in this article:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-oogielo ves-big-balloon-adventure-20120903,0,7665861.story

Now Kenn Viselman can be quoted as saying:
"So when you talk about a television show, if it’s just a sweet, lovely television show for kids, who cares? Unless one of the stars is a heroin addict, or a recovering heroin addict, or an addict that’s on the fringe of being an addict again, who cares? No one’s going to write about it."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/02/magazine/with-oogieloves-a-plan-to-m ake-the-multiplex-more-toddler-friendly.html

I'm not too sure this is simply a funny coincidence anymore.

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[–] TheBeardedWonder 12 years ago

Just wanted to bump the crap out of this...hilarious...

"dude i dont care i just love this movie you guys have a realy taste in movies what wrong with you"

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[–] SquirrelBot3000 11 years ago

On your first tidbit about footage of kids interacting with the movie, that would be a free pre-screening, likely organized by recruiters out in front of theaters. You visit the screening organization's site, sign up for the screening (provided you meet the demographic requirements they're looking for: in this case, a parent with a child 4 years and under most likely), and show up at a designated theater or studio (the latter in the case of Los Angeles screenings).

Often freebies are handed out (such as popcorn or drink vouchers, posters or some other knick-knack), or the promise of meeting one of the stars of the film once the film is over.

In showing up for the pre-screening, audiences sign waivers to allow themselves to be filmed at any time during the showing for marketing purposes. No money at any time exchanges hands between the marketing team and the audience (99.9% of the time the allure of a free movie is enough for people to waive their rights for being filmed).

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[–] Diskothek 12 years ago

Sounds like real life Death to Smoochy type stuff.

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[–] SquirrelBot3000 11 years ago

The vast majority of the marketing was likely in malls with theaters. In some cases the malls were blanketed with promotional items littered about--window clings at every mall entrance, mall billboards, inside elevators, more clings stuck to the sides of escalators, promoters handing out postcards to new visitors.

The real winners here were shopping centers--they made a fortune. That, and Ringling Brothers as some other poster mentioned. The circus likely made out like a bandit with the tie-in promotion.

Odd tidbit: One of the theatrical posters for the film actually promoted the fact the movie was brought to audiences by the "marketing visionary who introduced us to the Teletubbies, Thomas the Tank Engine, and Eloise". They actually had the gall to use the individual who MARKETS children's shows as the biggest selling point to draw in audiences.

Don't believe me? Take a look:
http://images.moviepostershop.com/the-oogieloves-in-the-big-balloon-adventure-movie-poster-2012-1020752455.jpg

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