The summer movie box office was down this year and one of the reasons can be blamed on franchise fatigue. This summer saw the releases of Alien: Covenant, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, and Transformers: The Last Knight. Unfortunately for the studios, audiences just really didn’t care to see them. It didn’t help that several movies in the franchise preceded them. Despite the box office appeal of Tom Cruise and Russell…
"Summer Loser: Franchise Fatigue"Tag: Alien: Covenant
There’s no denying the power that Rotten Tomatoes has on making or breaking a studio tentpole. This is something that we’ve been seeing at the box office since the summer movie season started. Studio tentpoles aren’t critic-proof no matter how many times these actors or filmmakers say that it wasn’t made for the critics. Critics are people, too. The first thing I ask myself when I start to write a screenplay is whether it’s a…
"Studio Tentpoles are hurting this summer"
Universal Pictures was hoping a reboot of The Mummy starring Tom Cruise would launch their Dark Universe franchise. Unfortunately for the studio, critics and audiences alike panned the film. Starring Tom Cruise, the Alex Kurtzman-directed film finished this weekend in second place with an estimated $32.2 million at the box office. In addition to Cruise, the film stars Annabelle Wallis, Sofia Boutella, Jake Johnson, Courtney B. Vance and Russell Crowe. Taking into account the four…
"Box Office: The Mummy tanks for Universal"
Memorial Day used to mark the kick-off of the summer movie box office season but that changed the minute that Sony dated Spider-Man for release at the start of May 2002. Many films released this past month have opened below studio expectations. Are audiences tired of these tentpoles or are movies thought to be critic-proof no longer critic-proof? Before I started writing reviews regularly, I would turn to the likes of Roger Ebert for my…
"Summer Box Office: Is Tentpole Fatigue in Play?"