Say what you want, but this is even WORSE than Serenity, another TV show that in spite of tanking in the Nielsens, still managed to have a big-screen movie made, which also flopped with audiences. Fans keep saying that this Kickstarter thing was a success, but how can it be called that when the film itself flopped and won't even gross its budget back?
shareOf course it's going to flop. You can't see the damn movie. I searched online for a theatre that was going to show it, and there wasn't one in my state. Now, it turns out that my local theatre has it this week... but I won't be able to go see it until Friday. And Thursday is the last day they're showing it. So, I won't be seeing it, not because I don't want to... but because no one will show it, or advertise it...
So it shouldn't be a surprise that the thing will flop. I guess I'll have to wait for Netflix. I don't know anything at all about Hollywood... but it looks like this was marketed by a bunch of idiots. But, I could be totally wrong.
As someone already asked: why do you care?
I'm a huge fan of Firefly and I liked Serenity. I've never watched Veronica Mars (the TV series) but I liked this movie. Kickstarter projects are really starting to change how entertainment works. And it's only going to go further as people realize they can get things made without the middlemen.
So why do you care? Are you saying you prefer your movies to be made on the sole discretion of Hollywood execs?
I actually wasn't a HUGE fan of the movie, but it was nice to see all the characters again being a big fan of the show.. so yes, it was worse than Serenity coming from Firefly, but I also LOVED Serenity.. also, I don't think this really was a bomb at all.. All the people that paid to get this movie made, I am pretty much 99% sure all them saw it, plus even more new fans as we see here in the thread, also, my theater I was in when I saw it had barely any empty seats. It also had a VERY limited engagement, so not much time to make nearly as much as most films would make in the theater within 2 weeks.. sooo.. I have to say you are wrong here about it being a flop. Thats ok though.
shareSerenity ended up making ~$64MM ($25MM USA + $39MM worldwide) in the theaters. Then you have to add in the other revenue streams.
Now it wasn't a huge success, but it also wasn't a flop. Especially considering its relatively small fanbase.
Exactly and the DVDs and Blurays sold pretty well too.
shareActually, Serenity grossed a grand total of 39 million WORLDWIDE. That doesn't even cover its 40 million dollar budget. I have no idea where you got that 64 million number, but it's a lie; the facts are here:
http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=serenity.htm
What budget? The movie was made from "free money", due to its Kickstarter funding. Every backer gave money just so this movie would be made. That's it. Even if the movie would have made no money whatsoever, the fans would still be winners. For the fans, this was never about more than having this movie made. Sure, an additional huge financial success even beyond the Kickstarter campaign would have been nice in raising the chances for follow up movies, but this is nonetheless a triumph for proving that even niche audiences can get the material made they want to see. Also don't dismiss that the DVD sales for the series were picking up quite a bit, when the successful Kickstarter campaign made the news. Pretty sure that this was still a win for Warner Brothers, even if it might not have turned out to be a gold mine (which no one seriously expected it to be).
shareTom that's a ridiculous argument. Based on the kickstarter premiums, I'm not sure they intended to release the film as widely as they did in theaters. What's more, I saw this in a theater that wasn't an AMC theater. It was fairly empty, but it was also about a month after it hit VOD.
Nobody expected this movie to gross 6 million in theaters. It's widest release was less than 350 screens and I bet they were generally smaller screens.
I don't think this was good enough to make a franchise, but it'll make money (if it VOD didn't already put it over the top). Was the marketing for the film very much? I don't watch enough TV to know if they had many ads, but my gut says most of the promotion came via social media, which is almost free.
The reason why the studio didn't want the movie to be made all these years was, that everyone knew that it won't be a box-office success. And that is the reason why it needed kickstarter to be made. So calling it a flop is ridiculous.
sharePeople seem to forget that this was shown in a couple hundred theaters. There were SO many places that didn't even get the movie in the theaters in their areas. It was only in the AMC chain of theaters that most of the northwest doesn't even have. No theaters showed it in my entire STATE. So, for the amount of places it was actually shown, it did alright.
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