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??