"Fantastic Four" Flops With $26.2 Million 2nd Place Finish

[AJBopp]

It's a shame we'll never get to see Trank's full version of this movie.

I am not convinced that's a shame.

[Calighoula]

He was not willing to write off the “Fantastic Four” series yet, but stressed that the studio would be engaged in a rigorous post-mortem.[/I]

A "rigorous" post-mortem. LOL. Now why does that sound so damned funny?

[Doctor Know]

A "rigorous" post-mortem. LOL. Now why does that sound so damned funny?

Because it's spin and damage control on a film that is currently rubbing shoulders with Elektra and Catwoman in terms of awfulness.

You know you suck when GL and FF and FFROTSS are better than you.

[marvelprince]

The real question is: do you trust Fox to make a good Moon Knight movie? I sure as hell don't. Between Fox, Sony, Disney and WB, Fox is clearly the one that's embarrassed they're making "superhero" films.

Brrrr. I felt a cold chill over my soul just thinking about that. Fox doesn't need to get its hands on anymore superhero properties.

Just to be clear, I was in no way supporting a trade to Fox (I think giving away properties is what lead to this mess we're in right now), just saying that a MK movie could work (but no not if Fox did it).

[Calighoula]

Because it's spin and damage control on a film that is currently rubbing shoulders with Elektra and Catwoman in terms of awfulness.

You know you suck when GL and FF and FFROTSS are better than you.

Hahaha!! So true.

[America / Bucky / Russia]

It's a shame, because there are much worse superhero films that have made a much greater profit.

Hopefully Trank will be able to find a nice little indie film to move onto. Kate Mara has The Martian coming up; Michael B Jordan has Creed; Jamie Bell has been in films for over a decade so there will be no shortage of him; Miles Teller got quite a bit of praise for Whiplash. And I don't doubt the Fantastic Four has some sort of on-screen future, whether by Fox or Marvel Studios; and they will now be in more comics than ever, technically speaking, split between Guardians of the Galaxy, Uncanny Inhumans, and might be in a few other titles I don't care one bit about.

[Calighoula]

Fox doesn't need to get its hands on anymore superhero properties.

We can repeat that ad nauseum. It really stinks that they've got Doctor Doom AND Kang AND Galactus AND Silver Surfer padlocked in their file cabinet.

[kalorama]

Its a common tactic, but its only effective if you have an endgame. No one hoards rights just to have them. Of course we see the benefits to keeping the rights out of Marvel's hands but the previous times there was a plan/some sort of reasoning behind it. Its keep the rights from Marvel AND:

Lets try to generate our own franchise OR
Lets jumpstart our shared movie universe

Obviously neither of those are happening right now. If they really cared about just holding onto rights in perpetuity then they never would've let Ghost Rider and Daredevil revert. With the rights they kept they had some sort of plan in place, some sort of endgame. Their keeping the rights to make money, as they're a business and thats their main goal after all. Even for a major studio like Fox $120M is not a small amount of money to throw away just to spite the other guys when you could find ways to make money off it.

Although you are right and I wouldn't want to be the guy who makes the decision to sell the rights back and Marvel's FF opens to Avenger's level BO. What I would like though is the guy who negotiated a distribution deal that allows Fox to make money off any FF movie that Marvel makes without having to contribute anything to the actual making of the film. The film studios can find a way to work things out where everyone (but especially us fans who have clamouring for an FF movie done right) wins.

The studios don't care about the fans "winning." It's a business. All they care about is profit and beating the competition. And that's the endgame, right there.

Fox didn't just let the DD rights go because they were no longer interested in them or gave up on them. They were in active development of a new DD movie when the clock ran out on their lease. Marvel game them the option of extending the DD lease if Fox gave Marvel back the rights to Silver Surfer and Galactus (which would effectively undermine the value of the actual FF rights). Fox said no and let Marvel have DD. That right there tells us how much Fox has invested (not just in terms of money but expectation) in the FF license. They basically doubled down on their investment by choosing to let DD (and Kingpin and Elektra) go and go all in on FF (a franchise which fits in much better, thematically, with X-Men than DD did). They're not going to just wave the whit flag now. This is just one battle, not the entire war.

[kalorama]

I am not convinced that's a shame.

Same here. I didn't see anything in Chronicle to suggest that Trank is some kind of visionary.

[The Darknight Detective]

Jus' sayin'...

Normally I would agree with you, but I believe that upcoming film is about as bomb proof as can be.

[jlgarsh]

Am I the only one that enjoyed the 2006 film? Sure it was campy, without great acting, but it at least felt somewhat like I was seeing the fantastic four on screen. The new film wasn't as terrible as I thought it would be (took my niece and 2 nephews, who range from 5-15 years old...they all liked it), but it definitely didn't feel like a fantastic four movie. I know it's silly, but it was weird to me that the Thing had no clothes on.

[kalorama]

Why would they even try and make another FF film down the road when audiences have repeatedly shown they don't care all that much about their three previous attempts. Audiences may not be as forgiving as you think.

Audiences have repeatedly shown that they don't care about the Punisher either. And yet here he is about to make another appearance (albeit on the small screen). Audiences are very forgiving, as long as they get what they want. And as long as they do, they won't hold a grudge for all the times they didn't.

[XPac]

Am I the only one that enjoyed the 2006 film? Sure it was campy, without great acting, but it at least felt somewhat like I was seeing the fantastic four on screen. The new film wasn't as terrible as I thought it would be (took my niece and 2 nephews, who range from 5-15 years old...they all liked it), but it definitely didn't feel like a fantastic four movie. I know it's silly, but it was weird to me that the Thing had no clothes on.

I thought the 2006 film was fun enough. Not a great movie or even a great super hero movie (especially now that the bar has been raised quite a bit since then), but I enjoyed it. It looked and felt like a Fantastic Four film and overall it was fun ... it just needed a better script. IMO at least.

[marvelprince]

The studios don't give a rat's ass about the fans "winning." It's a business. All they care about is profit and beating the competition. And that's the endgame, right there.

Fox didn't just let the DD rights go because they were no longer interested in them or gave up on them. They were in active development of a new DD movie when the clock ran out on their lease. Marvel game them the option of extending the DD lease if Fox gave Marvel back the rights to Silver Surfer and Galactus (which would effectively undermine the value of the actually FF rights). Fox said no and let Marvel have DD. That right there tells us how much Fox has invested 9not just in terms of money but expectation) in the FF license. They basically doubled down on their investment by choosing to let DD (and Kingpin and Elektra) go and go all in on FF (a franchise which fits in much better, thematically, with X-Men than DD did). They're not going to just wave the whit flag now. This is just one battle, not the entire war.

Don't misinterpret, I said the studios are a business first and foremost. The fans winning would just be a bonus.

Regarding Daredevil, Fox had a director drop out, but they had another who was in the wings but they didn't lock him in fast enough. They definitely could've gotten something in play if the goal was just to keep the rights from Marvel as they just needed to sign the director and get the film in production but with the OK returns the first film made they weren't going to sink millions of dollars into a project just to keep it out of Marvel's hands. In that instance they just let it go.

With FF, obviously Marvel will not just be given the rights back wholesale but just Fox approached Marvel before to co-finance Daredevil they understand when its in their best interest to make deals. You don't just sit on rights just to sit on them.

[Colossus1980]

Trank was both severely behind schedule and over budget. I think they saw the writing on the wall when they realized that they were $20M over budget and still didn't have enough finished footage to get a teaser out for the Superbowl.

But you have to admit 120M seems awfully low for a movie like the FF. Even though the four actors were probably paid low, the studio should have allowed a bigger budget. Not entirely defending Trank, but hard to do a super hero movie without the big budget action scenes.