The big story this weekend is the spectacular flopping, tanking and bombing all in the same weekend of the Fantastic Four 2015 reboot movie! Its Thursday box office was terrible, its Friday receipts were horrible, with Saturday and Sunday box office closing out a weekend where a $120 film is expected to pull in $27 million in North America plus come in second to Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation pegged at $29 million in its second weekend. This has huge implications and fallout for Fox.
So, why did the Fantastic Four 2015 reboot film fail? Here are our Top 5 reasons for that.
5. Casting.
The actors selected for the film are great in their own right and their essentially respected no-names and unproven box office draws. Michael B. Jordan is the most recognizable in the group, and he seems to be the new “it” actor, but he’s still on his career assent. He’s not established as a draw. In the 2000’s Jessica Alba was the “it” actor and was believed to be a draw.
4. Too much origin.
About half of the 2015 Fantastic Four movie is a retelling of the Fantastic Four;s origin; while changed from the 2000s films, its not an origin that needs to take up so much film.
3. Too much Dr. Doom?
I get that Doctor Doom is THE big bad for the Fantastic Four, but couldn’t Fox find another villain or two with the same gravitas to be the films foils for the team? Dr. Doom vs the FF has been done on film before.
Due to a major chunk of the film featuring the FF’s origin and Doctor Doom, the film didn’t feel fresh, edgy or new despite the brand new costumes. Plus, why does Doom’s origin need to be tied to the Fantastic Four’s origin again? Answer: it doesn’t!
2. Where is the Fantastic part?
The Fantastic Four is not a dark and edgy franchise in comics. In fact its hopeful, update and speaks to the optimism of science and intelligence that can save humanity from itself. Its also a story about family, not disgruntled young’ins thrown together.
Plus, no post credit scene! That’s a staple of comic book super-hero movies now. Why not give fans what they expect and want?
1. Self-loathing creative team?
It seems like the producers, director and studio behind the film tried hard to make this movie look like it was a grand sci-fi adventure, yet it was marketed as a Fantastic Four movie with none of the visual cues to that in their posters. I’m not talking about Michael B. Jordan as the Human Torch, I’m talking about the black and gray costumes, no “4” on them that looks like a usual FF “4”, no underwear for The Thing, etc. The creative team didn’t embrace the super-hero-ness of the franchise; they ran away from it.
Fantastic Four In Name Only = #FFINO. There is nothing here that makes this feel like a Fantastic Four movie. The in-fighting by the director and the producers / studio didn’t help.
YOUR Say.
What reasons do you have for the film’s historic failure?
