Monday Morning Quarterback Part II
By BOP Staff
August 12, 2015
BoxOfficeProphets.com

Maybe if they're lucky, the Men in Black will volunteer to erase their memories.

Kim Hollis: Where does Fantastic Four rank on the list of failed Marvel projects?

Ben Gruchow: There are two categories of failed Marvel projects for me: grievous miscalculations of tone and talent (to which this movie belongs), and projects with the right attitude and ethic that, for various reasons, ended up being less than the sum of their parts. The latter includes the final "Blade" film and the following TV series, the 2003 Daredevil, the first two Fantastic Four movies, and Spider-Man 3. It's way more fun to just make a list from best to worst of the first category and slot Fantastic Four 2015 in where it belongs, so that's what I'm gonna do:

5. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
4. Fantastic Four 2015
3. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
2. Ghost Rider
1. Elektra

That's a shorter list than I thought it was going to be. Still, I'd rather watch the 2015 Fantastic Four again than any of the three below it, and I'd rather watch Origins again than any of the others. And there's still a bright side: As bad as these five movies are, they're all handily better than Catwoman.

Felix Quinonez: For me, Fantastic Four is probably the most disappointing. I genuinely liked this movie whereas most of the other failures I thought were bad movies. Now I'm not going to try to defend the last act, in which things all but fall apart. But for at least an hour, the movie was not only very good but actually different. It seemed to be taking inspirations from the sci-fi and horror genres, which fit the tone of the Ultimate Fantastic Four series this was based on. But also, I think the Josh Trank's career will most likely be really hurt.

Ryan Kyle: I will take this question from a business standpoint. For a brand with nearly 40 theatrical releases, Marvel has an awfully strong track record of success. While D.C. is hit-or-miss, Marvel really nails it consistently. Budget to box office wise, I'd call this their biggest flop by far. While Elektra, The Punisher 1-2, and Ghost Rider 2 didn't make much, their budgets ranged from an easier to swallow $35 million to $57 million. Fantastic Four 2015 costs more comparatively to the top tier Marvel movies than a B-list ones, making the sting worse. Also, it will be one of the very few Marvel movies that (we can assume) doesn't earn a sequel. The aforementioned flop films I mentioned were all sequels or spin-offs to an original.

Edwin Davies: I feel like it's wrong to describe it as a failure for Marvel, seeing as they were not the driving force behind the film. Sure, it's based on one of their properties, but the people who made the MCU one of the dominant forces in modern filmmaking were not behind this. That would be like describing the Carrie remake as a Stephen King failure.

This is a Fox failure that just happened to involve a Marvel property, and in that respect, I think it actually ranks lower than Elektra, even though it will almost certainly make more money than that debacle did, since it had more advantages. It has stronger name recognition and is coming out at a time when most superhero movies seem to do okay regardless of content, yet it still failed completely.

Kim Hollis: The Gift, a movie from upstart distributor STX that was directed and written by Joel Edgerton, earned $11.9 million this weekend. What do you think of this result?

Matthew Huntley: This is terrific start for a movie that reportedly cost just $5 million to produce (and probably another $20 million to market). With its stellar reviews (I'm about to submit a positive one myself) and strong word-of-mouth, I think it's well on its way to profitability. Hopefully this will allow writer-director Joel Edgerton, who proves to be a natural when it comes to filmmaking, to secure more projects in the future; so far, he shows he's got what it takes to make a good one.

Ben Gruchow: I'm just happy it outgrossed The Gallows, since it wasn't forecast to do so. I hope this encourages Blumhouse to use their estimable talent with shepherding small independent genre films to profitability (and to higher visibility for their directors) for projects more like this one. This was a movie made with considerable skill at the directing, writing, and acting levels, and it deserves a good run.

Felix Quinonez: I think this is a great opening relative to its budget. It will be a nice, small hit and help everyone involved.

Ryan Kyle: This is a fantastic opening for being a new distributor's first major theatrical release. Looking back at the first wide releases of recent young companies such as Summit, A24, and FilmDistrict, The Gift ranks among the top openings from all of them. It is also a nice change of pace for Blumhouse, fronting up money to make a quality thriller using their low-risk model as opposed to a crappy no-name slasher flick. The film skews older and played evenly throughout the weekend, so a nice pair of legs should be in order with a final upwards of $30 million and possibly verging on $40 million given the $7,300 per theater average (assuming STX pushes the theater count from 1648 in the upcoming weeks). I wouldn't be surprised if The Gift's tight trailers stole a few million from Ricki and the Flash, as it was similarly gunning for adult dollars.

Edwin Davies: This is great, not merely in terms of the budget and the fact it's from a new distributor, but also in terms of the genre. The psychological thriller is a type of film that has fallen by the wayside since the turn of the millennium, and The Gift could have fallen victim to that general trend. Instead, it managed to surpass expectations through its quality, and the fact that it offers something a little different for people who are tired of blockbusters and are looking to the more modest pleasures of awards season.

Michael Lynderey: I also thought it would have good legs, but I'm not so sure anymore. Blumhouse films typically drop big in their second weekend, even if they're good, and the Cinemascore The Gift received was only a "B" (I would have ranked it higher, of course). It's interesting that the movie started filming in January of this year, but it's out so soon, and with great critical notices, too. That's an enjoyably old school span between production and release times.