August 27th, 2009 -- Written by John Campea
When do you label a movie a “bomb”? it’s a tricky question because different people will attach different criteria to how one defines the term. For example, “Superman Returns” made over $50 million opening weekend and nearly $400 million world wide when all was said and done, and many people, because of expectations, budget, marketing etc. etc. call the film a “bomb”. On the other hand, “District 9″ made $37 million opening weekend and was hailed by many as a “huge hit”. It all depends what your criteria is… and that’s fair enough.
However… there are some films that just BOMB. Doesn’t matter how you define the term, what your criteria is or who you’re sleeping with, and to call them anything but is a crime against common sense.
The summer of 2009 and some legitimate box office smash hits. Films like “Transformers 2″ (almost $900 million WW), “Harry Potter”, “UP”, “The Hangover” and “Star Trek”. However… there were also some massive bombs.
So here is the simple criteria I’m using for establishing the bombs for the purposes of THIS post:
1) It has to have opened in at LEAST 1000 theaters. Sure, a smaller number could still be considered a “wide release”, but at 1000 theaters, that means ANYONE in north america could have gone out to see the movie if they wanted to see it.
2) I’m just looking at opening weekend numbers here. These are the biggest indicators. I’m not saying this is the RIGHT way to do it… I’m just saying that for the purposes of this post and discussion that is the criteria.
3) The budget of the film is irrelevant for the purposes of this post.
Now, before we look at the bombs and their opening weekend failures… let’s put it in context and look first at what some other films opened with shall we?
TRANSFORMERS 2 - $108 million opening weekend in 4234 theaters
THE HANGOVER - $45 million in 3269 theaters
STAR TREK - $75 million in 3849 theaters
THE UGLY TRUTH - $28 million in 2883 theaters
Ok, with that all out of the way… here are the 10 biggest bombs of the summer of 2009
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THE BATTLE FOR TERRA Opening Weekend - $1 Million Number of theaters - 1159 The annimated classic that… well let’s face it no one saw it except the family of the director so no one really knows what it was about. |
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MY LIFE IN RUINS Opening Weekend - $3.2 million Number of theaters - 1164 I guess she really was just a one hit wonder with “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”. Too bad, I really liked that movie. |
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IMAGINE THAT Opening Weekend - $5.5 million Number of theaters - 3008 What?!?! An Eddie Murphy family comedy that bombed? Say it ain’t so! |
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POST GRAD Opening Weekend - $2.6 million Number of theaters - 1959 Quietly came, quietly went. Marketing came far too late and was far too weak. |
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SHORTS Opening Weekend - $6.4 million Number of theaters - 3105 I guess no one wants to see the director of “Grindhouse” who screws his cast behind his wife’s back doing family kid films now. |
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THE GOODS: LIVE HARD SELL HARD Opening Weekend - $5.6 million Number of theaters - 1838 Lot of people thought this could be a sleeper hit a few months back. Turns out it was just a sleeper. |
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I LOVE YOU BETH COOPER Opening Weekend - $4.9 million Number of theaters - 1858 “Why pay to see the hot cheerleader in theaters when you can just see her on TV for free”? seems to have been the prevailing thought amongst movie goers. |
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BANDSLAM Opening Weekend - $2.2 million Number of theaters - 2121 QUESTION: Did anyone, anywhere or at anytime ever think for one solitary moment that this movie wasn’t going to completely tank? |
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THE COLLECTOR Opening Weekend - $3.5 million Number of theaters - 1325 A smaller budget film but surprising considering the marketing push it got and all the positive reviews |
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A PERFECT GETAWAY Opening Weekend - $5.9 million Number of theaters - 2159 A decent enough movie that no one had any desire to see for some reason. |
So there you have it. Now remember, just because a movie didn’t make a lot of money at the Box Office doesn’t mean it was a bad movie… just that no one wanted to see it.
Tomorrow I count down the best to worst films of the summer of 2009.
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I wanted to see A Perfect Getaway, but tight budgets means selective viewing, so between District 9 and Inglorious Basterds coming out the same month, this one sorta fell to the side line for a future Netflix rental for me.
I only ever saw but one trailer for The Collector before it was released. For me it sorta came out of nowhere and I never hear anything after.
The others in the list, well worthy of there spots from what I can tell, but then again I never did see them so I could very well be wrong.
I have only heard of two films on this list…Imagine That and Shorts!!! Wow, I wonder if marketing had anything to do with these bombs. I do watch a lot of TV (I hate to admit I’m lazy) and never saw any previews for any of those movies other than the ones mentioned!
I SAW I LOVE YOU BETH COOPER! I LIKED HAYDEN PANATTIERE BUT THE MOVIE WAS SHIT
how is it possible to like her, she isn’t even the hottest person on heroes and is by far the most annoying with her lack luster power. Kristen Bell is way hotter and probably a better actress.
Maybe he meant as a person…
Or maybe he likes her as an actress. Or he just thinks she is hot, maybe not the hottest, but still hot. You know it is possible to like somebody not for their looks? I mean look at all the people that like Meryl Streep, that can’t be for her looks.
Or can it?
all i know is she is super annoying on heroes. The writers are always trying to write big storylines for her but they just don’t work ever. I guess i just hate the writers of heroes, why can’t they make everyone sweet like SYLAR.
Well, at least she can still save the whales.
she looks way better than kristen bell.
I thought ‘a perfect getaway’ was pretty good for what it was. Wanted to see ‘the collector’ & ‘beth cooper’, but wrong time to be released.
But everyhing else looked like summer trash
BandSlam actually got some pretty good critical reception. It’s just that the marketing was horrid.
Robert Rodriquez making another crappy movie AND it happened to bomb? Cool…
Bandslam was a pretty amazing movie actually, a lot closer to School of Rock than to High School Musical, marketing completely killed the movie (Nikkia Finke had an interesting article about the movie on her site). The name of the movie was nothing special and they relied on Vanessa Hudgens to bring the teens but she’s not big enough to open a movie.
Summit tried to market BandSlam as another High School Musical which immediately drove off anyone over 12 years of age. Shame, because from what I hear, the film is definitely NOT Disney in the least.
It’s called ‘BANDSLAM’. You could of named ‘The Godfather’ something that bad and it would have bombed.
I heard they were originally going to name it Will (or something like that). But it sounded too indie. Just another example of how their Disney’approach failed.
I will say The Goods was very Funny, not good but very funny
agreed. but thats all it was going for, laughs.
I really liked the goods
ha
I saw both The Collector and A Perfect Getaway. I found both to be enjoyable but generic genre films. If they had released in February, I think they would have done a whole lot better.
February is the month where movies go to die!
Or is that January?
LAND OF THE LOST didn’t do too hot, did it?
It destroyed Universal’s summer .. .should be ranked amongst the biggest flops this summer.
LAND OF THE LOST just simply…. Lost
the clearest indicator superman returns was a bomb??
no sequel. if it had been even remotely close to being a money maker we would have had a sequel by now.
Superman Returns did in fact MAKE money… just barely. However… considering how much it cost to make and what the expectations were… and the negative response it got from most people… pretty much killed any thoughts of a sequel. However… a movie that makes $400 million is no bomb.
No, not a bomb money wise, but a sequel has now become less anticipated. This would make the odds of a proposed sequel making it’s money back very low. It’s pretty much what happened to the Batman franchise(not saying this is Batman and Robin bad)where people just lost interest until Nolan came along and rebooted. That’s what is going to have to happen with Superman to get people interested again - total reboot. Shame, too, I like Bryan Singer, but that superman kid was bad. Almost as bad as that kid playing Anakin Skywalker in the phantom menace. Just torched everything.
Every now and then there is talk or rumor of a ‘Gladiator’ prequel of some kind; we have yet to have one. Does that mean the first film didn’t make enough money? No, it simply means there was no additional story to tell.
Supey didn’t have a “sequel” yet for many reasons, including, but not limited to:
- where to take the story now that Supey Kid is in the mix;
- Bryan Singer wanting to do other projects (such as Valkyrie)
- The current rights battle
- WB/DC thinking and/or considering a reboot or retcon.
No ‘Land of the Lost’?
the collector might’ve cost 3mil or less…
personal shot at Robert Rodriguez snuck in there…
were one of those females your significant other?
if not, why even mention that?
haha…
Of them all, the only ones I even heard about was:
I Love You Beth Cooper (due to the novel tie-in, those behind the camera AND most importantly the talk about it on such fine sites as this one)
Collector (also due to various advertising on internet movie sites but it should be pointed out that this was a low budget horror and most likely will make its budget back )
Post Grad (seen ads in theatres, posters, standees etc. I thought it was coming out in September. Not that I’d rush to see it or anything…)
Perfect Getaway (it opened against GI Joe and had the recently married Milla Jovovich in sand n surf)
and
Imagine That (simply because it was the BIGGEST BOMB of the bunch, and it’s sad to think that Eddie Murphy was once a box office prince. Not just in the 80’s. The 90’s too. What the hell is going on with Eddie Murphy? It’s not that he lacks good material. But that was…ten years ago.
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But I must confess. Most of these (aside from Imagine That) are films that didn’t have big ad campaigns. Someone above mentioned “Land Of The Lost”. I would concur.
But no “Angels & Demons”?
“Dance Flick”?
“The Ugly Truth”?
Hmmm…..
I agree with you. The films listed were hardly 100 million dollar tentpoles. Did anyone expect most of these films to be massive hits? Most of the films listed here seem like studio dumpers.
Well, like John said above, he didn’t take budget in to consideration. Mainly just opening day totals for movies released in 1000+ theaters. I believe Land of the Lost, while I consider it one of the biggest flops this year, still had a decent opening and tanked from there.
the good, and perfect getaway were worth my time and money. served there purpose and didn’t disappoint me as much of 90% of popular releases this summer…
the collector was absolute TRASH!! NOBODY EVER WATCH THAT PIECE OF SHIT MOVIE with NO motivation or explanation for the 2 hours of GARBAGE i had to sit through.
Up is still the best movie of 2009.
I’ve never even heard of these movies (the flops). The Battle for Terra looks mildly interesting though.
So proud that I saw NONE of these!
Some are flops because they just were always meant to be but others are obviously so because of how overcrowded the release days are, specially summertime.
Why in the world would the budget for the movie be irrlevent? So if a movie (The Goods) cost only $10M to make and opening weekend it only makes $5M thats bad? That makes absolutely no sense to me.
Sahil,
It’s a bomb because regardless of how much the movie cost… NO ONE WAS INTERESTED IN SEEING IT and the crowds stayed totally away. No one wanting to see a movie=bomb
Agree 100%. Not only does the budget matter if it’s a bomb or not, but look at the number of screens here. Try to redo that list with films that have the same screens as the four films you first mentioned in your set up. THEN we can talk bombs. These are smaller films, with tinier budgets, and really, aside from film news readers, who CARES or even KNOWS about Robert Rodriguez and his personal life, in the case of Shorts. They didn’t even market it as the guy who made Grindhouse, it was Spy Kids, and that really doesn’t play in. Look at Christian Bales whole fiasco. THAT was a whole lot more publicized and his films are still making bank. I’m just saying, while these films aren’t blockbusters, in the case of all the films listed, minus Shorts and Imagine That, they were on less than 3000 screens, and made solid openings for the loaded summer. There is more to being a bomb than just a low opening week.
Hey Josh,
As I said before… once a film hits 1000+ screens, that means the film is available everywhere to everyone. Anyone in North America who wants to see it can see it.
1000 screens is no different than 3000 screens. The only time it makes a difference is when a film NEEDS more screen to accommodate demand. In the case of the films mentioned above… there was no demand at all. 1000 screen, 3000 screens or 10,000 screens. Makes no difference.
I just have a tough time justifying the placement of the label of Bomb on something that is doing modestly well in comparison to it’s budget. Sure, it may not make Transformers money, but then again, very few films do. Sure, the Collector may be at 1500 or so screens, but it spent a week at ONE of 5 theaters in my local area. I just have a hard time thinking that a film that is making back its money is a bomb.
True enough. This isn’t like around Oscar time when movies are slowly released in a few key markets and slowly trickled out for the masses. For instance, I couldn’t see Slumdog,Frost/Nixon, The Wrestler, or any of the other movies meant for the Oscars until about February. I live in Tampa Fl, which is a decently sized area, but not big enough. Now the interest was there for me and as soon as I could, I went out and saw those movies. The movies on this list however, were available to everyone right away and the interest was obviously now there. Otherwise, they would all do 50 million opening weekend. As far as the budget is concerned, this is about public interest and not profit. 100 million opening weekend is the same for a movie that cost 20 million or 200 million when you rate it according to people coming out to see it. Its not like they charge more to get into the movie just because it cost more to make.
i haven’t even heard of half those movies.
Hold on Hold on. I still maintain that Bandslam was an excellent film despite having been dragged in to see it by my daughter (kicking and screaming initially).
Such a shame more daughters around the world didn’t do the same thing!
Post Grad is gone already? was planning to see since I am exactly in the demographic th emovie is about. Looks like it will be a redbox 1$ viewing.
The ads came out late and on the standees it was simply “coming soon”, so I figured next month…not that I was really interested. But it did seem like the studio just gave up on the film, releasing it with little buzz.
D O A.
In 2-3 months: DVD and Blu-Ray. We’ll see what’s what then.
I saw the Perfect Getaway….it was stupid…and boring.
John, you forgot:
Dragonball Evolution
12 Rounds
Street Fighter The Legend of Chun Li
Oh, wait, nevermind, you said Summer movies…
Why The Collector and not Land of The Lost because The Collector is een independent movie that could still make more money and Land of the Lost will not.
I’ve only ever actually heard of one of these movies.
I think a big key with the movies on the list is that the majority of them were not big special effects movies, so why not wait to rent at home when DVD comes out? When money is tight, that’s how I make my movie going decisions.
There are a few in that list that I will see as Rentals. I wouldnt spend $8.00 on a movie ticket to go see Jeremy Piven thats for sure.
Depending on the star, some movies just scream home rental.
Bandslam was an enjoyable movie…and I agree with a previous poster…much more in the vein of School of Rock than a HSM movie.
I think the marketing was lame and it was simply overshadowed by other movies.
“Why pay to see the hot cheerleader in theaters when you can just see her on TV for free?”
I know John that you are very sure of this. That the main reason for a TV star not being able to jump to the big screen is because the audience is used to see them for free.
However, I think there is another reason much more important.
Consider Daniel Radcliff… he is afraid to be known as Harry Potter after 4-5 movies, or Daniel craig as Bond after 2 movies………
now to the tv series…. you already see my point?!
captain kirk, buffy, all of the friends…. the audience just has a hard time to accept the new character.
thats why not many tv-stars can manage the step up. thats why.
“Why pay to see the hot cheerleader in theaters when you can just see her on TV for free?”
nope, thats definitely not the point.
Land of the Lost is probably the biggest profile bomb of the summer. Number-wise it may not make sense to have it on this list. But, It was supposed to do much better than it did.
And how many people (including myself) thought G.I.Joe would make the list?
Has anyone mentioned Next Day Air?
Opening Weekend – $4.1 million
Number of theaters – 1139
Production budget bombs (not listed above)include:
Land of the Lost
Production budget - 100 million
Worldwide Gross - 62.4 million
Year One
Production budget - 60 million
Worldwide Gross - 53.8 million
THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1 2 3
Production budget - 100 million
Worldwide Gross - 101.1 million