Go ahead...you know in your mind your still kicking studios for certain release dates and theatre counts. What do you think are the top botched releases this year thus far? Be honest...not movies you thought didn't have support from viewers, but ones that did, and still couldn't turn out high numbers.

For me, there are two.

Walk on Water. Its months into its release (perhaps nearly a year...I don't know) and its still holding above 1,500/theatre every weekend. They should have pushed this into at least 500 theatres at one point. There's clearly interest. Instead I don't think it ever even broke 100, and is chugging its way to a few million when it could have been closer to 10.

Kung Fu Hustle. What where they thinking with that massive expansion??? Hold it in only 2 cities for two weekends stright and then explode into thousands of screens? They should have taken the second weekend to push it into 10 or 12 cities rather than leave it in only L.A. and N.Y, and then the following weekend they could have put 1200 screens up. Built from there. Judging by how much Hustle still managed to bring in, it probably could have made 8-10 million more if they'de been a bit smarter about it.

Your picks?

Both Cinderella Man and Kingdom of Heaven should have been released in July or possibly August, when the public was starting to get a bit worn out by FX and explosions and might be in the mood for something more thoughtful. Plus if CM really wanted to copy Seabiscuit's success, it should have had more of a multi week staggered opening like SB did

Walk on Water for sure. It's been out for 20 weeks and never more then 50 theaters.

I agree on Kung Fu Hustle, there was another one as well I just can't remember at the moment.

Mar 4–6 50 $60,465 - 10 - $6,046 $60,465 1
Mar 11–13 47 $68,123 +12.7% 13 +3 $5,240 $153,164 2
Mar 18–20 35 $142,020 +109% 29 +16 $4,897 $322,049 3
Mar 25–27 30 $140,328 -1.2% 28 -1 $5,011 $513,149 4
Apr 1–3 28 $142,715 +1.7% 41 +13 $3,480 $701,877 5
Apr 8–10 30 $127,790 -10.5% 46 +5 $2,778 $871,139 6
Apr 15–17 29 $128,171 +0.3% 45 -1 $2,848 $1,044,753 7
Apr 22–24 46 $60,444 -52.8% 37 -8 $1,633 $1,147,373 8
Apr 29–May 1 34 $139,804 +131% 47 +10 $2,974 $1,331,840 9
May 6–8 32 $105,798 -24.3% 45 -2 $2,351 $1,495,189 10
May 13–15 30 $102,452 -3.2% 43 -2 $2,382 $1,643,769 11
May 20–22 31 $91,034 -11.1% 42 -1 $2,167 $1,780,827 12
May 27–29 27 $95,191 +4.6% 45 +3 $2,115 $1,916,849 13
May 27–30 28 $123,613 +35.8% 45 +3 $2,746 $1,945,271 13
Jun 3–5 32 $52,118 -45.2% 35 -10 $1,489 $2,025,424 14
Jun 10–12 33 $63,059 +21.0% 42 +7 $1,501 $2,113,610 15
Jun 17–19 38 $56,228 -10.8% 38 -4 $1,479 $2,198,712 16
Jun 24–26 42 $61,124 +8.7% 36 -2 $1,697 $2,291,037 17
Jul 1–3 46 $48,503 -20.6% 31 -5 $1,564 $2,368,195 18
Jul 1–4 48 $60,459 -1.1% 31 -5 $1,950 $2,380,151 18
Jul 8–10 51 $48,140 -0.7% 29 -2 $1,660 $2,452,523 19
Jul 15–17 50 $36,194 -24.8% 25 -4 $1,447 $2,517,647 20


Look at that. An increase of near ten percent in late June, and still a pta of 1,500. This was a bad expansion move right? I remember Lecter pointing out something along this line to me for Bad Education last year, which is why I'm thinking of this one.

Its not even going to make 3 million now, when it could have made closer to 8 imo.

Archie, I don't think Cinderella Man was a botched release. I think there wasn't much interest in it (not making a value statement on quality, just trying to figure out sentiment). I think it would have held up even worse in the autumn when all the dramas and indies hit the theatres. If anything, it got a bit more attnetion as adult counter-programming in the summer against all the blockbusters.

The Best of Youth : It's been out for 18 weeks and never more than 5
theaters.; but it still grossed $274,024.



The Oscar-nominated Twin Sisters : It even got [Best Foreign Language
Film] nomination at 2004 Oscar. But Miramax still shelves this movie for
almost 2 years, then dumped it in one Seattle theater.

Batman Begins should've been released on a Friday.

I don't think Kingdom of Heaven could do much better with any other release date. It was sold as a big blockbuster and had the majority of May by itself. Agree with Cinderella Man because that was intended to be a heavy drama, which fits better in July.

I'd say Unleashed is definitely one. It's sad some of the best works for a person, such as Jet Li in Unleashed and possibly Michael Bay for The Island, are accompanied by some of the worst release or marketing decisions for the year.

In fact, Unleashed did very well.

Before releasing Unleashed, Rogue Pictures/Focus Features hoped that this movie could gross $18 million in US.

Now, this movie grossed about $25 million, and Rogue Pictures/Focus Features are going to make a lot of money on it.

But the film is six hours long, so there is the reason it didn't expand.

I think we are discussing how well it could've done, not whether a film makes a profit or not or it meets studio's expectation. Unleashed would've been a 40M gross movie easily in any other release date. It has one of the best WOMs for the year, but the WOM didn't get a chance to expand beyond Jet Li's fans to other demographics before it's immediately swallowed by Star Wars.

High Tension.

unleashed

As much as I adore HIGH TENSION, I don't think it would've made much more if it was released any other time of the year. Maybe if it was released in October it would have made $5-$10 million more though.

WOTW's should have been released on a friday, that way it would have got a bigger opening weekend!

It's not like that made it do less at the box office though.

For me its Cinderella Man, Kingdom of Heaven and Unleashed. They all got destroyed in the summer season and should of been releashed around winter time

I think Batman would have made more if it was released... say this weekend than before Fantastic Four. I just think the early part of the summer was a little too... dark.

The following films' release dates were botched by their respective studios:

1. Unleashed - If this had been given a March or earlier release date it would have easily matched the performance of Li's other films, perhaps even surpassing them because of it being a higher quality film.

2. Kicking and Screaming - This would have worked more in August where it could take full advantage of summer weekdays and wouldn't be swallowed up by the blockbusters released after it.

3. Mindhunters - The film was actually pretty decent so the lack of marketing or care shown by Dimension is astounding. Had it been given a better marketing campaign and a better release date, it could have made at least 30 million.

4. The Island - It lacked a comprehensible marketing angle and is assuredly going to suffer for it.

5. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - It would have perhaos worked better during early spring.

6. Fever Pitch - Instead of an early April opening it might have worked better being released, oh I don't know, DURING THE PENNANT RACE.

7. House of Wax - October would have reaped more rewards for WB.

8. XXX: State of the Union - Early August, a few weeks after Stealth would have worked better as it would have the summer weekdays to help it out.

9. Dark Water - Should have stayed in August where Touchstone had originally planned to release it.

House of Wax could have done so much better in the fall.
It came after Cursed, another teen-star horror driven film.
which wasn't well liked.
plus the thought of seeing Paris dead on Halloween
would have peaked my interest enough to cough up 10$.

I didn't imply that, but it would have made me feel better than weekend.

House of Wax should have been released in October, no doubt about it.

Although it's still managed $63,000,000 worldwide in summer.

Not bad at all.

Deep Blue

I expected a much better run. No 'Winged Migration' numbers, but at least a couple of millions.
I think 'March of the Penguins' hurt its box office chances.

DEEP BLUE was released before 'March of the Penguins'.

True, but only a couple of week earlier. It could have get a wider release... to spread word and interest. Now the Penguins are all the rage.

Elektra's january release was the death sentence.
If they had moved it to maybe August not only would it have made more; it probobly wouldn't have been so critically slaughtered; however id also say that Elektras third weekend was basically destroyed by a snowstorm in the east coast which increased ALL drops. Its circumstances werent good; and bad buzz killed it at the last minute.