Why’d it Bomb? Get on Up (2014)
https://lebeauleblog.com/2018/08/21/whyd-it-bomb-get-on-up-2014/
Before Chadwick Boseman was Black Panther, he was known for three things: guest starring on tons of tv shows, being the go-to black guy for sports movies, and being the go-to black guy for biopics. One such biopic was Get on Up, a movie that, on paper, seems like it should have been a success.share
It was directed by Tate Taylor as his follow-up to The Help, a critically acclaimed box office hit that won one Oscar and was nominated for a few more. It even had two of the most acclaimed actors from that movie in it, as both Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer appeared in Get on Up. But most importantly, it was about James Brown, one of the most beloved musicians of all time. Plus critics liked the movie.
So it seems like it should have been the Straight Outta Compton of 2014. But that’s not what happened. The movie only grossed $33 million dollars, barely recovering its $30 million budget. When you take in marketing costs, yeah, the movie was a bomb. Then it was quickly forgotten and didn’t get one Oscar nomination. What happened?
I think the movie suffered from its release date. If it had been released around Oscar season, the movie might have had a better chance of doing better at the box office and its chances of being nominated for an Oscar might have been higher. But, because they decided to release it in August, it ended up not doing as well.
Now, you might be thinking, Straight Outta Compton was also released in August and that movie was a big hit so why couldn’t Get on Up make the same amount of money at that time?
Well, Straight Outta Compton had better marketing. For one thing, it spawned that “Straight Outta _____” meme that was fun. Plus the studio, crew, actors, and even the people it was based off of (or, in Brown’s case, people who knew the people it was based off of) did a better job of advertising Straight Outta Compton than they did Get on Up.
But what really hurt is that Get on Up had more competition than Straight Outta Compton. Straight Outta Compton only had to deal with Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, which was already in its 3rd week in theaters, and Fantastic Four 2015 and The Man from U.N.C.L.E., neither of which were strong competition.
Get on Up, on the other hand, had to deal with the surprise success of Guardians of the Galaxy. Yeah, a movie starring Black Panther ended up being overshadowed by an MCU movie, how’s that for irony! It also had to deal with Lucy, which also did well at the box office.
Therefore, the reason Get on Up came and went is because the marketing wasn’t that strong and it just had a lot of competition to face. But, hey, at least Boseman’s Black Panther now and that’s all that matters.