2019 Box Office Busts

[AJBopp]

Tens of millions of people saw this trailer in theaters in front of two record-setting box office smashes, and knew perfectly well this was an X-Men film.

[Theleviathan]

Have you seen the movie yet?

You are dodging my other point.

Nope, we're talking about public perception and awareness. Tens of millions of people, many of whom would watch another movie if interested, saw the trailer and said "meh". The viewing audience had something between indifference and disdain for this film. All of your many posts trying to blame poor marketing just don't add up.

As for the movie - the guy who wrote, produced, and directed was out in front of the movie many times saying it was his "second chance". The visuals in the trailers looked eerily similar to X3. Go on whatever stump you want about how the movie is not a re-do, your arguments are irrelevant in terms of public perception prior to release.

[Theleviathan]

Also you are making the assumption that Dark Phoenix previews played in every screening of Endgame.

I saw it twice in two different theaters and weeks apart and saw it both times. I also saw it before Captain Marvel.

I'm going to go with my assumption being pretty damn likely.

[Divine Spark]

Tens of millions of people saw this trailer in theaters in front of two record-setting box office smashes, and knew perfectly well this was an X-Men film.

Yes. But how much of that audience who saw those previews were fans of the film series?

[Theleviathan]

Yes. But how much of that audience who saw those previews were fans of the film series?

That's entirely the point! The **** quality of the last ten years of X-films probably made that relatively few. Which is why some magical marketing campaign wasn't going to do squat about that perception.

[AJBopp]

Yes. But how much of that audience who saw those previews were fans of the film series?

I can't help but wonder what films the much higher quality A Team marketers would have put this trailer in front of....

[Divine Spark]

I saw it twice in two different theaters and weeks apart and saw it both times. I also saw it before Captain Marvel.

I'm going to go with my assumption being pretty damn likely.

Except there are people that have said they didn’t see the trailer in their showings. So...

Nope, we're talking about public perception and awareness. Tens of millions of people, many of whom would watch another movie if interested, saw the trailer and said "meh". The viewing audience had something between indifference and disdain for this film. All of your many posts trying to blame poor marketing just don't add up.

As for the movie - the guy who wrote, produced, and directed was out in front of the movie many times saying it was his "second chance". The visuals in the trailers looked eerily similar to X3. Go on whatever stump you want about how the movie is not a re-do, your arguments are irrelevant in terms of public perception prior to release.

You are indeed dodging my point about the film not being newcomer friendly.

[Theleviathan]

Except there are people that have said they didn’t see the trailer in their showings. So...

You are indeed dodging my point about the film not being newcomer friendly.

It's hard to square the argument that people were both not aware of the movie and also turned off because it wasn't newcomer friendly.

Yes, I'm sure not everyone who saw Endgame saw the trailer. Just most of those tens of millions. Which is still....tens of millions.

[AJBopp]

Except there are people that have said they didn’t see the trailer in their showings. So...




You are indeed dodging my point about the film not being newcomer friendly.

Apparently it wasn't a very fan-favorite friendly or old-timer friendly film either. Who exactly was this supposed to appeal to again?

[Divine Spark]

@Theleviathan I’ll get to your point later.

Apparently it wasn't a very fan-favorite friendly or old-timer friendly film either. Who exactly was this supposed to appeal to again?

Funny that you ask that because recently in the Dark Phoenix thread I said that the problem with the story is that it only resonates if you are a familiar with previous story arcs.

https://community.cbr.com/showthread...=1#post4423260

[Divine Spark]

@Theleviathan I’ll get to your point later.



Funny that you ask that because recently in the Dark Phoenix thread I said that the problem with the story is that it only resonates if you are a familiar with previous story arcs.

https://community.cbr.com/showthread...=1#post4423260

For context:

https://www.reddit.com/r/MarvelatFox..._from_days_of/

[AJBopp]

@Theleviathan I’ll get to your point later.



Funny that you ask that because recently in the Dark Phoenix thread I said that the problem with the story is that it only resonates if you are a familiar with previous story arcs.

https://community.cbr.com/showthread...=1#post4423260

Sales figures would tend to...disagree with this. Or is the suggestion there were so few people familiar with the previous story arcs? Or is it rather that people who resonated most closely with the previous story arcs were thrown off by lack of "X-Men" on the final poster even though they saw the trailer in movie theaters with "X-Men Dark Phoenix" plastered across the screen and should been looking forward to it eagerly for months?

I'm sorry, I seem to have lost track of the argument I'm addressing.

[Username taken]

Godzilla at least got the standard theatrical lifespan. X-Men being pulled in its third week is pathetic.

Dark Phoenix was a massive flop in its opening weekend. It was already playing far below capacity (I,e it’s theatre and screen count) and was poised to collapse from there. I’m not surprised it’s getting a truncated theatrical release.

That being said, there were a lot of things going against the movie from production issues to delays to ridiculous management decisions (primarily having Simon Kinberg write and direct a massive movie like this when he pretty much fluffed it before). This situation wasn’t helped by the somewhat poor to average reception of X-men: Apocalypse (I honestly don’t feel this movie is as bad as some make it out to be) and the general apathy towards the main X-men franchise (First Class made significantly less than X3 and DoFP was as big as it was because it was an event movie that re-united the entire cast past and present).

All this being said, there are a number of troubled productions that end up successful but that usually happens when the movie in question ends up being good (like World War Z, Titanic, etc). Dark Phoenix got a pretty terrible reaction from audiences and critics alike, thus it was pretty much dead on arrival.

If there was ever a movie that should have been sold to a streaming service to cut the loss, it was Dark Phoenix.

[Divine Spark]

Sales figures would tend to...disagree with this. Or is the suggestion there were so few people familiar with the previous story arcs? Or is it rather that people who resonated most closely with the previous story arcs were thrown off by lack of "X-Men" on the final poster even though they saw the trailer in movie theaters with "X-Men Dark Phoenix" plastered across the screen and should been looking forward to it eagerly for months?

I'm sorry, I seem to have lost track of the argument I'm addressing.

Sorry, my mind is a mess today. I’ve collected thoughts and I’ll address your points in an orderly fashion.

This discussion is about it being pulled from theaters in North America. In North America it was simply called “Dark Phoenix”. It was only called X-Men: Dark Phoenix in foreign markets.

As for its trailer playing in front of Captain Marvel and Endgame: that doesn’t seem to be the marketer’s job. From what I understand, the studio sends out a list of what must get attached and should a theater feel like they can afford more time in between showings based on their scheduling and therefore have more slots, they fill it in as they like. Months ago @XMenFilms reported that Fox requested the 2nd trailer to play in front Captain Marvel and it was only for select showings.

https://mobile.twitter.com/XMenFilms...32725447168000

I dunno about Endgame but that was probably select showings what the National Group Research reported.

And to answer your question about who was this suppose to appeal to: according to Simon Kinberg this was suppose to be a grounded somber character-driven film in the vain of Logan(a film that only truly works if you are familiar with the title character). The MCU films are anything but somber and Kevin Feige has even voiced against going down that direction.

primarily having Simon Kinberg write and direct a massive movie like this when he pretty much fluffed it before

To be fair to Kinberg, he was only a co-writer on the film and it’s a known fact that it was the studio that didn’t want to tell the Phoenix storyline.

[Colossus1980]

DP came from a waning X-Men franchise. It was bound to burst eventually but on a size like this is unforgivable. Kinberg should never be allowed to direct again. https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottme.../#55e1e49ef8e9