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I’ll admit that I find it strangely baffling as to why this one didn’t succeed as expected. I mean, it looks gorgeous, it’s loud and it has a great cast (Steve Buscemi is the best thing in it). It’s not like The Island is a bad film. Reviews were poor to mixed, but the films listed above as a comparison reviewed far worse. Also, it was only after Spielberg viewed and enjoyed The Island that he recommended Bay to direct Transformers. So what happened here? At the time, many cited the marketing.

Bay was just as confused about the low box office takings, and cited a number of factors. “It could be the subject matter, the lack of stars,” he said, though he also complained that the marketing campaign confused audiences as to what the film was truly about. It’s a strangely out there, but not at all far fetched, concept - one that was probably difficult to portray on a poster. The eventual US one sheet went with the tagline “Plan Your Escape.” One might get the impression that the film follows two people trying to escape from an island they’re on. Bay also complained that the poster made Johansson look like “a porn star.” Given that his target audience is teenage boys, I don’t see how that’s necessarily a bad thing. Also the title of the film is somewhat misleading, since there is no island in The Island.

The trailers did a good job in selling a mix of sci-fi action and a hint of moral drama, as well as putting across almost the whole the story. The theatrical trailer does give away the ending, with its split-second grandiose shot of all the clones having escaped. Though to be fair, once you’ve got the premise, it’s not that hard to work out that a big organization secretly harvesting clones is obviously going to come crashing down.

Husband and wife producers of the film Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald also deduced that “for some reason the idea of the movie as presented in marketing did not appeal.” MacDonald also said of actress Scarlett Johansson that she’s “not owned by this sort of young generation at all. Even lesser television actresses, quite honestly, would have more connection to that audience.” Johansson later retaliated, saying, “This is a clear-cut example of the producers passing the buck and not taking responsibility for their part in making calculated mistakes throughout the film's marketing.”

Bay had previously directed the critically derided Bad Boys II, and before that, Pearl Harbor. Although they had huge openings, maybe it was after the likes of these two films that audiences had learnef their lesson, and simply had enough of that Michael Bay style of orange skies, shaky camera action, fast cuts and big bangs. Pearl Harbor grossed $198 million domestic, while Bad Boys II took $138 million. The dwindling returns would suggest that maybe Bay’s name wasn’t as strong a pull anymore, and the box office returns for The Island confirmed it. It would take a Hasbro brand to bring people back.

There’s also the lack of action and small bit of thinking required in the film. “We want to make people think,” said Bay, “but primarily we want folks to have a damn good time.” The Island is certainly the more intelligent of his films, and there’s actually quite a slow build up. “I was able to hold off for 30 minutes,” said Bay, as if proud that his film doesn’t open with any explosions. Though once that talk with Buscemi is over (“Everyone wants to live forever. It’s the new American dream.”), it descends to action. Thankfully, most of it is good, though the final act is disappointing.

I viewed The Island on its opening day and had no problems in realizing what was being sold to me. I found the film to be merely okay. It was more talky (not really a bad thing) and has the least amount of explosions of any Michael Bay film. The other factors probably played their part, but I’m thinking the subject matter is largely responsible for the failure. This was a mainstream action blockbuster where the issue of cloning is integral to the story. For whatever reason, it’s something that most audiences just don’t seem to warm to. Previously there was The 6th Day, released back in 2000, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as a character trying to find out why he’s been cloned. It opened to $13 million and finished with a domestic gross of $34.6 million. Since The Island, the only thing remotely similar has been Surrogates in 2009, another action blockbuster, with Bruce Willis, where people instead interact via surrogate robots. Results were again very similar; a $14.9 million opening weekend and $38.5 million finish. While I’m sure cloning will remain a consistent subject in sci-fi drama, I don’t think we’ll be seeing it tackled in a big budget action movie again.

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