MovieChat Forums > Veronica Mars (2014) Discussion > Official worldwide final gross: 3.6 m. B...

Official worldwide final gross: 3.6 m. Budget: 6 million. Why VM tanked.

posted 10 years ago by tomasfigueroagaray
48 replies | jump to latest

Badly conceived and executed film based on a TV property that had already tanked on TV. Bad actors (come on, Bell comes from the Jessica Alba school of thespians) with no charisma (no matter how hard Hollywood tried to make Bell a film star in a string of bad romcoms, audiences never found her appealing), and a horrible script that nobody who wasn't a fan of the TV show could understand.
That's why VM tankes at the box office. Audiences completely ignored it, even though VM fans hoped for a breakout (that never happened).

[–] prilja 9 years ago

I can't speak for the rest of the world, only my perspective but thanks to YouTube I had a basic inkling of just what veronica mars was all about. I was intrigued and grew up with Nancy drew so would have loved it if I'd been able to watch it on TV with everyone else in the U.S. But even now with the time getting closer and closer between broadcasts I find shows I want to watch months behind and in one case not shown after season two. So even today, unless we want to catch up illegally, were still stuck in some countries. In 2004 it was SO much worse. As far as I know no channel even tried to show it.
So I watch parts over the last couple of years, hear about the kickstarter, admire the combined loyalty all the actors and crew have for this series, watch as fans fund their own brand.
Now correct me if I'm wrong but whatever they make on this is pure profit? Unlike the big movies, these investors aren't expecting their money back with interest? So it looks like a production of this calibre can be done on a minimal budget and timescale... Not good for all those ciphoning their cut off the top of epic budgets huh?
A future production doesn't depend on the profit this time, it depends on who happens to watch then goes all the way back to the beginning of the series to watch properly. I'm one of them because this morning this movie was finally shown on sky.
Its new age where people might start getting the movies they want to see instead of what 'generated income in the past so lets make an easy buck and bore the audience one flick at a time'. Let's get creative.

[–] Prismark10 9 years ago

Its amazing the film got made given its Kickstarter heritage. Its just a shame the film was not too good.

Its that man again!!

[–] johnjohnson68510 9 years ago

I think they hoped for more, but I think this made a profit. I'm looking at the DVD/BluRay Sales, and they are around $3.5 million -- do the production people get half of that maybe? I don't know. Add to that the video on demand at the time of the release, which I'm guessing were pretty good? And it was back I the theaters, at least around here, in August. I can't remember, but don't studios get around half of the box office ticket sales? so, say net $1.5 for tickets, $1.5 for DVD, $1 (?) for VOD, and the $5.7 Kickstarter. Marginally profitable, right? Depending on how much they spent on promotion, but I'm guessing they were pretty careful not to go in the red on this one. ??? If the Marshmallows want to pony up for another Kickstarter, this is profitable enough, isn't it?Still, I'm not seeing any buzz about a second sequel.

[–] Mirage4 9 years ago

Bad actors...with no charisma (no matter how hard Hollywood tried to make Bell a film star in a string of bad romcoms, audiences never found her appealing), and a horrible script that nobody who wasn't a fan of the TV show could understand.

While you are entitled to your opinion--no matter how jaundiced--this was a fan-based project. We (and I count myself as a ardent "Marshmallow") felt strongly enough about this project that approximately 92,000 of us pledged almost $6 million for this movie without a script or even an actual story pitch. The reason why VM "tanked" is because the core audience already had digital access to the film the day it opened at the box office; in addition, it was also available to the public as a PPV event the first day at the box office as well. So, any discussion about numbers must take into consideration digital downloads and PPV returns. The creators and fans did not hope for a "breakout" hit, we considered it a hit when we reached the $1 million mark in just over 4 hours. The film was personal, a vanity project to provide the fandom a chance to revisit these favorite characters (of whom we consider immensely charismatic and extremely appealing) and gain some sense of canonical closure. Watching this movie without background knowledge of the TV show is like coming in at the tail end of a good joke and expecting to get the punchline...you just had to be there.

[–] Anthoney999 9 years ago

I thought you might have something relevant to say but I was wrong.

[–] forksforrests 7 years ago

I mean, I don't think it was ever made for the money...it was just for the fans, to get a conclusion since s3's finale was not conclusive.

But I totally agree that the movie was poorly made. The tone was completely off, the dynamic was different, Bell didn't feel as spunky as she did in the original, and the script didn't have the comedic or the thrilling value to it. I didn't enjoy it.

A rose is just a rose.