‘Speed Racer’ is a Box Office Bomb
Speed Racer, starring Emile Hirsch and Christina Ricci, has officially bombed at the box office! The film took in only $6.6 million on Friday.
It’s expected to only make around $23 million this weekend. In comparison, last week’s Iron Man made around $100 million on its opening weekend.
Warner Bros. spent almost $200 million making Speed Racer…ouch! Hopefully they make enough from merchandising and overseas sales in order to break even!
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I would have gone to see it, but they wanted $10 for the evening show and $8 for the matinee. I can remember maybe 5 years ago, I could see a film for $6.50 in the evening, and matinees for $4. This is not inflation, it’s greed. I will no longer tolerate their greed.
Thank God for small miracles. This is one of the few movies I was actually dreading this year…
I don’t think they will break even on the foreign market given the fact that Japan is the only country where the public can have a remote interest in the series…in Europe Speed Racer/Mach Go Go Go is an obscure 60s anime…
Wow – so I just went and saw it on a Mother’s Day Sunday afternoon. The theater wasn’t even full and there were screaming babies (yay.), but all in all it wasn’t a bad movie. Everybody’s been panning the shit out of it. I think Beowulf was a worse film in almost every dimension and it was based on ancient legend – not a 60’s Japanese cartoon. I think the wild, sky-is-falling reviews are going to hurt it’s chances more than a slow opening weekend. If word of mouth from people who saw it and feel as I do (that it didn’t outright suck) gets out there it could still do well.
I saw it this afternoon and really loved it. Sure, it’s simple, but it’s fun and bright and it’s really well made. I think a lot of people who would like it a lot are missing out.
It’s too bad, the adaptation was decent. John Goodman was born to play Pops Racer.
Box Office Mojo shows it doing 20 million. Ouch.
I actually enjoyed the movie. There was too much color but given that a younger audience is targeted, it is excused. Besides, the colors added to the effects and the effects were great! Definitely Wachowski! ^_^
I think maybe one of the reasons that people aren’t looking in on the movie is because they’d instead be saving it on other coming-soon movies like The Dark Knight and Prince Caspian. Some may also be resting after seeing Iron Man.
I went to see this on mothers day with my friends and it was definately worth seeing. the dialogue was a bit cheesy at times but i really enjoyed it. i think the people who went and saw it would tell you the same thing…it was a actually a pretty good movie. and it was better than beowulf
I just think this type of film has no market in the Western World. I love car and action films and the like but really can’t be even remotely bothered about this one. I dunno why, maybe it’s just do darn colourfull and the sort of thing kids would like ?
I also didn’t think it sucked as bad as the critics say. I mean, I did fear I was going to have an epileptic seizure during some scenes but it was a fun, visceral experience. It is sacchrine but I have no knowledge of the originial series (being born about two decades after the cartoon premiered) so maybe the cheese-factor is a part of the story. And besides, Emile Hirsch is hot.
The Wachowski bros certainly put a lot of effort into making Speed Racer… the movie overall looked and felt like a cross between anime, a kaleidoscope, that Flintstones movie, a video game and the Dukes of Hazard
[...] am I not surprised? Poor Speed [...]
Stupid!! What were these guys thinking. Speed racer appealed to kids that were 9, 10, 11 and 12 in the late 1960s. That means they would be in their late 40s today. NASCAR has never been a popular sport with most the American population. Only 8% of Americans are NASCAR fans. Why would you pay to see idiotic charerters like speed racer and sprital and Chim Chim when you can see Iron Man kill Taliban? I’m going to see Iron Man for the 3rd time again. I wait for speed when it’s on DVD for $1.00 at walmart.
Matt
i love it.. the movie is for kids.. that’s true.. but maybe the problem is Speed Racer is a japanese icon but Iron Man is form MARVEL and the movie is violent.. but Iron Man is so predictible,.. Speed’s too, but you see a very ingenious movie and the Wachowski style in every scene of the film…
i’m sad.. i hope the world box office saves speed racer
i love Emile Hirsch… nuff said!
Zack, don’t be a puss. There is no such thing as greed.
When assessing directors, I often think while watching a movie by, say Spielberg -Indiana jnes 4, how would Peter Jackson, or Ridley Scott, Rami, or Cameron, have done on the same project? When a producer bags a supposedly world class director, s/he can expect a umber of things, a coherent story, the money on the screen, delivery on the big action set pieces, a strong score, all round competence and contribution from all the production departments, and at the very least a product which secures back the original investment, if not a sound profit: major directors on projects with a strong inbuilt audience and cultural resonance should have a reliable success on their hands: This sort of thinking typified the launch of the Harry Potter franchise in the safe hands of Chris Columbus, before reaching out to more artistically gifted story tellers as the series progressed, the same for the two key relaunches of the Bond juggernaut – Bronson’s first outing in Goldeneye and, later Casino Royale with D.Craig – both installments directed by the reliable non-media star, Martin Cambpell.
The point being that some investments, particularly those with long running futures can be managed to a safe conclusion by competent directors who are willing to work with skilled Exces and strong producers; the Incredible Hulk and Iron Man are prime examples of directors working to execute a shared vision within sound parameters that reflect a commitment to the primacy of The Project: it’s clear that the Wachowski bros have brought into their own mythology and grandiosity and cannot at the moment be trusted to helm a project, particular by a producer who has consistently allowed his faith in the Bros abilities- and it is undeniably immense, to override his responsibilities to his funding partners and ensure that the W.Bros maintain the budgetary and creative discipline so well displayed during the original matrix masterpiece: A sound balance and loss sheet of the W.Bros covering Matrix 2 and 3, and now Speed Racer – a combined budget tally probably in the 300 million range- reveals a directing pair working with to die for resources who have consistently failed to deliver on expectations. Lets look at that figure again 300 million dollars. The Matrix 2 only made money because of expectations and its simultaneous world wide release forestalling any genuine critical assessment, which would have resulted in Matrix 2 being a box office disaster.
The simple, undeniable reality, in an industry where would be film makers dream of receiving budgets in the low millions is this: The brothers have now released 3 movies with over 6 hours of filmed material, with poorly drawn characters, weak exposition, questionable plot resolution, with highly stylized, fully imagined creative worlds that the mainstream audience either took great issue with or completely rejected. More, on all of these movies, the Bros refused to edit or amend their visions, showed misleading excerpts to backers, the end result being that their cuts, their judgment, within the market place, was proven to be artistically, and commercially wrong: I repeat, 3 movies, 3 huge budgets and 3 career wrecking duds! You think I’m over exaggerating, look at the career of Keanu Reeves post the Matrix debacles. He’s moved from being one of the most bankable stars in the business, someone who had attained the status of being a hip, cultural icon for an entire generation to the earth shattering Street Kings and a world wide box office gross of $55,833,436, rivaling the results of the mighty Made of Honour. And what was the point of Street Kings, other than to show that Reeves had a future beyond his Neo –superhero persona, and the obvious Wach Bros association.
When one hires a Scott, or Jackson, or Spielberg – and none of these talents have been free of the odd box office duds, that’s the nature of a long career, but the Wach Bros failures are not about mistakes or even hubris – though that elements is part of the ongoing disaster, their errors reflect fundamental weaknesses: An emotional immaturity that blights all their depictions of adult or teen sexual relationship, and a limited world view that I suspect come from living within a very limited lifestyle/social/knowledge bubble. This limited exposure to life exacerbating a pronounced tendency of the Bros and a whole generation of wunderkinds it seems to create drama primarily from previously viewed artificial sources of drama- 1)television, 2) Movies, 3) Comics, has also seriously undermined the work of another child of the cathode ray, the similarly deluded and limited M. Night Shyamalan, whose entire career seems founded upon making big budget episodes of the Twilight Zone. The Bros and Shyamalan have made the mistake of believing in the mistaken reports of their genius, when in fact they are merely gifted regurgitors of the ideas and creativity of genuinely gifted thinkers such as Grant Morrison, William Gibson, and Harlan Ellison.
I also ponder why is it the industry puts up with a pair of young, still developing professionals refusing to be interviewed and help to promote their own product, when the likes of Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts, Robert Redford, et all, actively sell these huge commercial investments, is beyond my intellect and reasoning. Silver is admirable in the fact that he backs his talent to the hilt, but the Bros owe him a disciplined performance that reflects their abilities and not their desire to humble all their so called directing rivals with the breadth and scale of their innovation. Take a look at Speed Racer and imagine it helmed by one of an older generation of occasionally maligned directors, who at the height of the Matrix fever, were supposedly blown away by the Wach bros, and you have a product that may well have succeeded; that is any film featuring endless scenes of men clinging onto their steering wheels, would produce the sky high numbers envisaged by Warner bros? I can’t think of a single movie about racing that has stormed the box office charts.
Finally, I hate it when marketing gets the blame for a movies failure, since the Directors and Producers sign off on the campaign. It’s a cowards way out. Witness Bryan Singers blaming of the recent Superman Returns failure on the marketing campaign, as if a superman movie depended on marketing to sell or make it. Superman Returns failed because of poor choices made by Singer who was in full Citizen Kane mode during the project. Which me back to the Silver/W. Bros failure: Silver believes in the so called genius of the Bros over logic and fiscal responsibility, just as the powers that be believed in the genius of Singer to deliver on the world’s favorite unmasked Krpytonian and Jackson to rev up what turned out to be a poorly conceived, woefully executed King Kong remake: Kong containing levels of violence which were far too extreme for its intended family audience, a mistake that Spielberg, a studio head aware of his responsibility to shareholders and investors, the man whose crown Jackson seeks to snatch, would never have made. And it is Spielberg The Producer who handed the Transformers script to Michael Bay, who could give Silver a few hints on selecting the right director for the right project. The biggest hint for Silver’s future being – Don’t keep poring investors money away on seeking to recreate the thrill, buzz and, your real Achilles heel, the critical acclaim you received with the Wach Bros on the Matrix, on all future projects. To wrap: The Wach Bros are presently, much like their current President, almost radioactively toxic. The Prez has a family and a farm to retreat to, where the Wach Bros go from here is anyone’s guess.