Some Reasons Scott Pilgrim is a Box Office Failure

[MiracleOfSound]

Reason 2: Michael Cera was in it.

The single reason I don't want to see it and won't be going.

He actually wasn't bad in this role. If it hadn't been for MovieBob's love of the movie, I wouldn't have watched it. He played Scott Pilgrim very well. He was an asshole and he moved faster than 5 miiles per hour in this movie.

I know it won't sway you to watch the movie, but Micheal Sera isn't playing his "Oh my shyness and charming nature will win you over in the end and you'll pick me over the hot jerk guy" type role.

It was a moment in Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist that forever sullied him for me...

Kat Denning (who I have a frighteningly big crush on and think is the sexiest woman in Hollywood, but anyway...) is moaning about how she looks and he says, in the squeakiest, most creepily girly voice:

'Don't say that... you're beautiful'.

It was so creepy and wrong that I do an imression of it any time I want to freak the girlfriend out

 

[MiracleOfSound]

If it's a failure why did so many people watch it?

If it's a failure how come it inspired some dude to make a game on S.P, being one of the most downloaded games of the moment?

If it's such a failure how come I watched it twice, one time for myself, and they other time with a lady friend.

Your missing the point.

He's saying it was a relative failure financially, compared to what the movie companies may have expected.

 

[Ironic Pirate]

I thought it was because of this.

Guess I was wrong. I hope it's still in theaters tomorrow cause that's when I'm going to see it with my friends.

Nice. The other guys is a good movie though.

 

[Aloran]

It's actually 2nd in the UK box office this week...So it's not so much a failure over here.

But I saw it and both me and my brother thought it was great, with good fight sequences and music and, for nowadays, above average acting.

 

[Casimir_Effect]

The main problem with it: targetting a niché audience and costing over $60 million (possibly up to $90 million according to wikipedia). This film can not be advertised in any way that would appeal to people over 30 or people under 30 who aren't slightly geeky. And they seemed to try with the advertising, in fact I heard that's where most of the budget went.

I saw it and thought it was excellent (preferred The Expendables though as cinema viewings go). But there is no way in all hell it should have cost that much to make. Why couldn't it have been done more on an indie budget?

 

[Z(ombie)fan]

I have a reason why it failed: It was, IN EVERY WAY. absolutely godawful, like, bad to ever single degree. I will buy the DVD just to smash it I HATE THIS MOVIE SO FUCKING MUCH.

*ahem* sorry.

but indeed, Im glad it failed.

 

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

The lunkheads in The Expendables don't play characters we are supposed to 'relate to'. Cera characters are sooooo 'try-hard'! They are so self conciously 'quiky' 'awkward' 'indie' 'geeky' because some ad man (probably in their 30s) decided that THAT is how guys 15-25 see themselves. It isn't.

He's been appointed as the face of 'brand geek' 'brand indie' 'brand quirky' People can see that for what it is and resent him for it imo.

Then shouldn't we be hating the ad man for that instead of Cera? Cera isn't a bad actor; he's really good actually, but the ad man tells him to be an angsty, quirky geek so that it attracts to that market. I say that Cera is a great, huggable, actor that's drawn a short straw.

 

[SimuLord]

They made a movie for hipsters, and there aren't enough hipsters who spend full price at a commercial movie theater.

Also, speaking as a Gen-Xer, that's how we do tend to see you Millennials.

 

[Shameless]

it wasn't that great IMO but good non the less it's way more enjoyable than the expendables, but the main reason why this movie flopped was the shitty marketing, seriously I never actually heard about it until I went to the theater and saw the poster on the day of it's release, usually I see advertisements on the streets for various movies or see the trailers on TV but I never saw anything related to it I would have watched it instead of the expendables.

Also not all the target audience are Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber lovers (okay the majority are but) there are enough people to make this movie successful.

 

[Marv21]

Me and a bunch of my friends thought it was the most awesome thing we have seen in a long time. I wouldnt say that we were gamer/geek type people. But just blown away by the fight scenes and some good, quite simply fun moments. Go vegan police!

Im gonna get flamed to hell for saying this... but I liked Michael Cera in the role too. And where I live its getting more well known. I have seen it twice. Once on release day where the cinema was empty and once two weeks later. The cinema was full.

Id agree that the wrong trailer was released. The one I originally saw was the 2 and a half min trailer that would obviously never go on tv. That captured the film. It was great.

I agree with you bro, but I didn't really like Cera after juno(however I liked him in it), hes trying a different genre, a part action film part romantic comedy, I think he deserves points for going outside the box that many actors really never do.

 

[bicepfetishist1]

The lunkheads in The Expendables don't play characters we are supposed to 'relate to'. Cera characters are sooooo 'try-hard'! They are so self conciously 'quiky' 'awkward' 'indie' 'geeky' because some ad man (probably in their 30s) decided that THAT is how guys 15-25 see themselves. It isn't.

He's been appointed as the face of 'brand geek' 'brand indie' 'brand quirky' People can see that for what it is and resent him for it imo.

Then shouldn't we be hating the ad man for that instead of Cera? Cera isn't a bad actor; he's really good actually, but the ad man tells him to be an angsty, quirky geek so that it attracts to that market. I say that Cera is a great, huggable, actor that's drawn a short straw.

Maybe we should. But we aren't. Cera is just a schmuck trying to make a buck like any other guy, it's not his fault personally. The people pushing Cera into these typecast roles are doing it because he was making them money. Scott Pilgrim's failure atleast in part has to do with people that ad men and execs assumed would just like Cera without question turning on the poor guy...He's over exposed and badly typecast at the mo.

If him or his 'people' have any smarts/faith in his talents they'll find him something TOTALLY DIFFERENT. That'll blow our minds.

Imagine the trailer for a dark thriller...On a stormy night...You hear a load of doctor's voices talking about this psychologically disturbed kid that butchered his parents. You see a handful of concerned docs walk down long hospital corridors. You see photos flash up of mutilated farm animals and hear about all this stuff this 'patient 66' has done...Then the docs arrive at the max security padded cell and there's...MICHEAL CERA on the other side in prison overalls. Face blank. Then he cracks a really slow creepy ass grin...?

Might be unintentially hillarious. Might be totally creepy and awesome?

No nerdy awkwardness no trying to score the hot girl no indie music in sight. Just Cera as a SERIAL KILLER. I think that'll blow people's minds. Wouldn't you send a link to that trailer to your friends and be like LOOK at CERA in this movie he's sooo creepy/lame/awwsome!!

If he pulls off a role against type like that he might put himself right back in mix as an actor. But a rent-a-awkward-indie-nerd that most actual shy awkward indie nerds hate with a passion is man soon to be out of a job either way lol.

 

[Adamc-mh]

I really enjoyed it saw it twice and with cera if some things not broken don't fix it.

If the actor's bearable, don't try and get a good one?

Sound reasoning.

no he is good at what he does playing people may disagree or agree and that logic is good

 

[Shilkanni]

(Disagree) Reason 1: It was advertised wrong.
I don't agree, and I can't imagine a better cut for the trailer. Michael Cera, Cute Girl, Band playing, two of the quickest jokes (Amazon Joke, Pee-Bar), spectacular over-the-top action.

The 'feel' of the trailer was definitely the 'feel' of the movie, it's going to be hard to convey the surrealism and fast pace in a trailer though because it is usually cut/cut/cut fast.

(Disagree) Reason 2: Michael Cera was in it.
Some people will not see it just because it has him in it. Some people will see it just because he is in it.

(Disagree) Reason 3: It's about 20 years too late.
Totally disagree.

( Agree ) Reason 4: It's target audience.
Agreed, the target audience seems kind of narrow, old enough to get older gaming and pop culture references, not into gaming or comic books and you wouldn't get most of it.

I loved the Movie but the sad part is I honestly don't know who I would recommend it to.
By comparison I loved Inception too and I would recommend it to everyone I know.

 

[emeraldrafael]

NOTE: I haven't seen Scott Pilgrim yet (I'm probably going to on Tuesday) but you don't need to be a genius to see why it failed. These are just a couple of theories of mine. If you have any, feel free to pipe in an say so!!

Reason 1: It was advertised wrong. Seriously, the guy who put these trailers together needs to be fired, from what I can understand, because it gave no incentive for anyone to see the movie. The trailers made it look like a dull, stupid cash-grab at the gamer market when, if you look at the graphic novels, it's SOO much more. But no, all we saw was stupid, arbitrary gamer references and pee-bars.

Reason 2: Michael Cera was in it. After this, expect to never see Cera in a lead role ever again. The world has spoken and we are tired of Michael Cera. He had some limited success because of Juno, but when he was cast in the same damn role playing the same damn range over and over again, we got tired of him. He can no longer draw audiences, if he isn't just driving them away/

Reason 3: It's about 20 years too late. Seriously, I have a feeling it would have been successful in the 90s. It has a lot of anachronistic references, like the Zelda music and all that fun stuff. It feels more like a movie that really should have been made in the 90s, but people just didn't want to put up with it.

Reason 4: It's target audience. First off, the target audience of Scott Pilgrim was never really found through the advertisements and trailers. But even if it had, I still have a feeling it wouldn't have done well in first-run theaters. First off, it's target audience is the "geek" market from 18-24...ish. People going to movies in first run theaters aren't this audience. They're either parents taking their squealing children to Toy Story and Despicable Me, or they're late 20-30 somethings going to see The Expendables.

So what's the future look like for Scott Pilgrim? Well, it's in second-run theaters where I am, so it might have some mild success there. I have a feeling it will find its audience and do well on DVD, like many have predicted.

What's your take? What do you believe will happen to Scott Pilgrim? Why do you think it failed in the box offices??

Two reasons.
1) The Expendables
2) Eat, Love, Pray

If those two movies werent out, it would have did better, but they sucked up the target audience.