Scott Pilgrim vs the $10,000,000 question

Posted on August 19th, 2010 - 09:24 AM by

Pardon me for invoking Leonard Maltin, but I have to get this off my chest.

<Leonard Maltinism>

Scott Pilgrim is in for a world of hurt in box office coinage, though making for a K.O. of a movie.

</Leonard Maltinism>

But seriously folks.  This movie was awesome.  It was faithful (enough) to the books, and with Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead; Spaced) taking the helm, it really nailed the visual gags and was just an all around great time.  It was watchable to me TWICE.

Apparently my multiple theater visits over the weekend, though, weren’t a good gauge of how the sales were going to go, the film only making $10 million over the whole weekend (and it was made for 6 times that at least).

The movie was advertised like crazy.  Facebook posts, tons of posters, lots of publicity stunts from the cast, a game, a comic book (wait…that came first).  What went wrong?

Here are a few of the conjectures we can….conject….

1). Either Michael Cera doesn’t sell or you have to show your star’s face in the posters. There is something about Michael Cera that is calming and sweet, but he’s still not big enough of a star to sell.  But the main posters that were being shown everywhere were the one’s of him rocking out, hiding his face.  Now if they really wanted to play on the star power of the cast, they should have shown the evil ex-boyfriend poster.  It was more eye catching anyway.

2.) August isn’t a good month to show movies. Summer is so hot in the city.  Worst of all, school is out in the summer, and people have hot children (I MEAN TEMPERATURE!!!).  So where do they go to cool off when all the pools are full and they need to distract the kids for a few hours?  The cinema.  On the hottest days here in NYC, I saw the Joan Rivers documentary sell out just because of the heat.  This August hasn’t been too warm so far, though.  Not only that but the kids have spent all their summer money AND are going back to school, so that cuts out a major percentage of that demographic.

3.) Do not underestimate the power of stupid action films. Expendables had advertised like crazy.  Facebook posts, tons of posters, lots of publicity stunts from the cast, a game, a comic book (wait…this sounds familiar…).  But they flexed their star power muscles a bit better.  Perhaps the execs over at Universal forgot how powerful the testosterone drive could be.

In all actuality, though, the DVD sales for Scott Pilgrim will probably help it break even and help set its place as a cult classic with long legs…the movie, that is, not Michael Cera.  This movie is far from turning into dust….for the cleaning lady on Monday.


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