Franchise Fails: The Planned Sequels We'll Likely Never See at Salon explains why my computer guy will probably never see ice bears on the big screen again. It was pretty much what I'd heard. Though The Golden Compass movie made a bundle, it didn't make a bundle here in the U.S., and evidently that makes the difference. Talk about the tail wagging the dog. You'd think someone would make the next movie and just forget about the U.S. audience. Or you'd think a foreign film studio would make it in French or Chinese or something and, again, forget about US. Computer Guy would watch it on DVD with subtitles so long as the ice bears came back.
Take a look at the material on the City of Ember movie, another potential franchise, in the Salon article. You don't suppose that movie tanking had anything to do with the big fat spoiler in the first couple of minutes of screen time, do you? I wasn't a big fan of the book, it being dystopian and all, but the number one interesting bit was...Well, I don't spoil. I will just say that as far as I was concerned, after the first few moments of the movie, you could get up and leave the theater.
2 comments:
or, in a single word, the reason the pullman franchise failed in the US: merchandising, or lack thereof. conversely, harry potter was openly accessible to merchandising OUTSIDE of the movie francises -- wands and notebooks and even halloween costumes -- appeared before the HP movies ever came out, the films only intensified the marketability and licensing that the studios controlled. it wasn't like ice bears could become mascots for coke. hollywood has become so dependent on its ancillary markets that if they can't make back double their expenses on opening weekend AND make a killing on merchandising, then it's just one big FAIL.
I have never heard that theory, but it's an excellent point. I do not recall seeing any Golden Compass lunchboxes or His Dark Materials toys in happy meals.
But ice bears would have been fantastic mascots for Coke! Wasn't there a polar bear cola commercial during some sporting event once? Um...um...that sporting event that has all the commercials?
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