After Valerian failure, the inquest started on why it failed are many reasons from lack of stars to being based on unknown 50-year-old French comic-book. But the main reason which has strangely happened far more often in recent years poor dating.
Valerian received mixed reviews some saying it was visually stunning as Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element 20 years ago while others called it a fun dumb summer movie but opening Valerian after Spider-Man: Homecoming and War for the Planet of the Apes and the same weekend as Dunkirk it was predictable Valerian would suffer. To quote the line from Spectre, Valerian was “like a kite dancing in a hurricane” opening against those other summer megamovies. With Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 and Transformers: The Last Knight it couldn’t open any earlier but opening August 4
To quote the line from Spectre Valerian was like a kite dancing in a hurricane opening against those other summer megamovies. With Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 and Transformers: The Last Knight it couldn’t open any earlier but opening August 4th as it is in UK and many European countries would have been a far better date for it to open in the US.
Of course, it would have put Valerian against The Dark Tower but as that had been delayed from February and with delays on its trailer buzz was very low.
With all the data studios have at their fingertips from companies like ComScore, Movio, MarketCast, NRG and many more why are studios making many more dating mistakes than even before.
Is it that they depend on the data far too much to have human interaction making them think that these dates are good for certain films so why not reason several similar films close by. All this does is cannibalize their box office a few months ago many blamed Rotten Tomatoes for the failure of Pirates of the Caribbean 5, King Arthur, Baywatch and Transformers: The Last Knight because they received low scores. In recent weeks Spider-Man: Homecoming,
War for the Planet of the Apes and Dunkirk all received high Rotten Tomatoes and the first two films suffered almost as big declines as Baywatch and Transformers: The Last Knight so Rotten Tomatoes was just an excuse. Last year Star Trek: Beyond, Jason Bourne and Suicide Squad opened over three weeks and similar happened Suicide Squad was the last to open received the worst reviews but took as much as the first two films together.
While Dunkirk won’t do that it will still likely take more than double War for the planet of the Apes and a similar box office to Spider-Man: Homecoming all of which will be a “surprise” but it’s all very predictable. As is a repeat of this year next year in the UK as thanks to the World Cup Han Solo, Deadpool 2 and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom open over three weeks. This will happen again in the US with Skyscraper, Alita: Battle Angel, Mission Impossible 6, The Predator, Meg and Scarface next July and August.
But it’s not just action films the same will happen this autumn with potential award contenders and the London Film Festival with the last three weeks of October having dozens of films opening many after screening in the film festival but then they also must deal with films for half term and in recent years either a James Bond film or a Marvel Cinematic Universe film this year being Thor: Ragnarok.
