Time-twisted tales, classic cartoons, and comic book heroes. What could possibly go wrong? Turns out, a lot.
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00:00 Time-twisted tales, classic cartoons, and comic book heroes.
00:05 What could possibly go wrong?
00:07 Turns out, a lot.
00:09 Even the most die-hard Terminator fans would probably argue that the franchise is inconsistent.
00:14 The first two films in the series are almost universally beloved.
00:18 After that, things got convoluted.
00:20 When your series sets the date for the end of the world in 1997, any Terminator movies
00:25 made after that point tend to tie themselves in knots to explain why we're all still kicking.
00:30 Enter Terminator Dark Fate, a 2019 sequel that was supposed to right the shift.
00:35 James Cameron, who directed the first two movies and returned to produce this sequel,
00:39 told Deadline that he had such confidence in the film that he felt it could launch a
00:43 whole new trilogy, saying, "When we got a handle on something, we looked at it as a
00:47 three-film arc.
00:48 So there is a greater story there to be told.
00:51 If we get fortunate enough to make some money with Dark Fate, we know exactly where we can
00:55 go with the subsequent films."
00:57 The film also saw the return of Linda Hamilton as the iconic Sarah Connor, after almost 30
01:02 years away from the franchise.
01:04 Fans, understandably, were excited.
01:07 But despite decent reviews, Dark Fate was not successful enough to reignite the series.
01:12 According to Deadline, the film's opening weekend box office fell short of expectations,
01:17 drawing only $29 million.
01:21 Additional audiences weren't much more responsive, and despite earning $261 million worldwide,
01:27 the movie would have had to reach $450 million just to break even, according to Variety.
01:33 Sci-fi fans had a lot of reasons to look forward to Luc Besson's Valerian and the City of a
01:38 Thousand Planets.
01:39 After all, Besson is responsible for the cult classic sci-fi film The Fifth Element, and
01:44 Valerian represented his return to the genre, an adaptation of the long-running Franco-Belgian
01:49 comic Valerian and Laureline.
01:51 The film was teased at San Diego Comic-Con more than a year before its 2017 release.
01:57 It also marked Rihanna's return to the big screen, playing a shape-shifting alien named
02:01 Bubble.
02:02 Unfortunately, not even the power of Rihanna could make Valerian a hit.
02:07 Marred by middling reviews, many of which pointed to Cara Delevingne as a particular
02:11 weakness, the film flopped at the box office, leaving audiences thinking one thing.
02:16 "Look, that was really cool, but not exactly what I'm looking for right now."
02:21 However, the stars were forced to continue on the film's press tour, already knowing
02:25 the film had bombed.
02:27 Against a $180 million budget, Newsweek noted that the sci-fi epic had to make $400 million
02:33 to be profitable.
02:35 It debuted with a mere $23 million worldwide gross, eventually topping out at only $226
02:42 million.
02:43 Disney has had some luck turning their theme park attractions into films.
02:47 The Pirates of the Caribbean series is one of the highest-grossing movie franchises of
02:51 all time.
02:52 Other times, they weren't so lucky.
02:55 It makes sense that Disney was excited about 2015's Tomorrowland, a film that attempted
02:59 to create a mythology for the section of the parks that goes by the same name.
03:04 Directed by Brad Bird, who helmed The Incredibles and The Iron Giant, and starring George Clooney,
03:09 it seemed like a fun recipe for success.
03:11 "Please tell me you can do better than fun."
03:14 The film received an aggressive marketing push from the Mouse House, extensively advertising
03:18 Tomorrowland with a six-minute extended peek at the film, which premiered in IMAX screenings
03:23 of Avengers Age of Ultron.
03:26 Audiences reacted positively… at first.
03:29 Despite the hype, mainstream audiences simply didn't show up for Tomorrowland in theaters.
03:34 Reviews were lukewarm, and the film failed to capture the same buzz as Pirates of the
03:38 Caribbean.
03:39 According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film cost $190 million to produce, not counting
03:44 advertising costs, but by several months after its release, it had barely crawled past $200
03:50 million globally.
03:51 All told, the movie lost Disney somewhere north of $150 million.
03:56 The blockbuster of Tomorrow?
03:58 It wasn't.
03:59 The announcement that Ava DuVernay would be adapting Madeline L'Engle's beloved children's
04:04 book A Wrinkle in Time brought much attention to the project.
04:08 According to Vanity Fair, DuVernay's selection was historic.
04:11 No black woman had ever directed a film with a budget over $100 million, so DuVernay would
04:16 be the first.
04:18 In building the film, DuVernay insisted on a diverse cast that included Reese Witherspoon
04:22 and Oprah Winfrey, a move that sent anticipation levels skyrocketing.
04:27 A cover story in Time praised the film's diversity.
04:30 Even the American Library Association got in on the hype, reporting,
04:34 "Librarians haven't seen this kind of advanced attention for a kid-lit adaptation since the
04:38 last Harry Potter movie."
04:40 No pressure or anything.
04:42 The movie was finally released in 2018, and it bombed.
04:46 Despite everything the movie had going for it, audiences simply didn't turn up.
04:50 Perhaps scared off by less-than-stellar reviews, Deadline called it one of the biggest box
04:55 office bombs of 2018, noting that the film represented a loss of more than $130 million
05:01 for Disney.
05:02 No further films in the series had been planned.
05:05 Advertising for 2018's Cities on Wheels epic, Mortal Engines, pushed hard on the fact that
05:11 Peter Jackson was involved.
05:12 And like Jackson's previous Lord of the Rings work, Mortal Engines is a big-screen adaptation
05:17 of a beloved book series.
05:19 Nearly a year before the movie's release, book publisher Scholastic got the promotional
05:23 engines rolling.
05:25 Publishers Weekly reported that the company was planning new covers for the series, as
05:29 well as a new volume of short stories set in the film's post-apocalyptic landscape.
05:33 The film was even given a prime release date in December 2018, suggesting that this was
05:38 an event film not to be missed.
05:41 People missed it.
05:42 The book series may have had its fans, but the film version of Mortal Engines didn't
05:46 come close to matching Jackson's earlier box office dominance.
05:49 Deadline reported the production budget at $110 million, and further advertising spent
05:54 more than $120 million.
05:57 According to Vanity Fair, it made a mere $7.5 million in its opening weekend.
06:02 Worldwide, it reached just under $84 million.
06:06 When Solo, a Star Wars story, was announced, sci-fi fans were excited to see a prequel
06:11 centered on wisecracking ruffian Han Solo.
06:14 The trades and various film sites breathlessly followed casting announcements to see who
06:18 would play the younger version of the character made famous by Harrison Ford.
06:22 Ultimately, the lead role went to Hail Caesar breakout Alton Ehrenreich.
06:27 The hype for the movie began to falter when creative difficulties on set were made public.
06:32 Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller were fired and replaced by Ron Howard, according
06:36 to Variety, who noted that there were just weeks left of shooting when Howard stepped
06:40 in to finish the film.
06:42 When Solo finally hit theaters in 2018, reviews were decent.
06:46 The movie sits at 69% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
06:50 However, six months after The Last Jedi evoked vocal backlash from some Star Wars fans, audiences
06:56 just didn't seem to care anymore.
06:58 Box office Mojo estimated that the film's budget had ballooned to $275 million, but
07:04 Solo only crawled to $213 million domestically, before hitting $393 million internationally.
07:11 Still, it was far from the haul that would have been necessary to turn a profit.
07:16 After the Wachowskis changed the action movie game with 1999's The Matrix, all of Hollywood
07:21 wanted to know what they'd do next.
07:24 Initially, the answer was two more Matrix movies, successively less well-received than
07:28 the first.
07:30 After that, they announced that they were turning their attention to a live-action adaptation
07:34 of the iconic cartoon Speed Racer, about a guy who wants to become the world's best race
07:38 car driver, and some other stuff.
07:40 More than a year before the movie's 2008 release, producer Joel Silver got the hype train rolling
07:54 - and told Empire magazine that the film would be unlike anything in the history of cinema.
07:59 The film was set to star John Goodman, Susan Sarandon, Christina Ricci, and Emile Hirsch.
08:04 Sarandon went into more detail about just what was so revolutionary about the Wachowskis'
08:08 approach, telling Collider that they had developed a new technique for keeping both the foreground
08:13 and background in focus, teasing,
08:15 "Everything is very, very saturated with some new kind of film.
08:19 So it's every color that wasn't in The Matrix is seriously in this film."
08:23 The movie received a 41% fresh rating by critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and audiences weren't
08:29 too interested either.
08:30 According to Bomb Report, the movie made under $44 million domestically, against a budget
08:36 of $120 million, and at $94 million internationally, the movie didn't even break even with its
08:42 production budget.
08:44 In 2012, the Wachowskis teamed with German director Tom Tichwer to adapt David Mitchell's
08:49 critically acclaimed, time-spanning novel Cloud Atlas.
08:53 To craft the uncategorizable film, the directors assembled an all-star cast that included Tom
08:58 Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, Duna Bay, Ben Whishaw, and more, enlisting their actors
09:04 to take on multiple roles across each story.
09:07 Before the movie's release, Warner Bros. president of domestic distribution Dan Fellman hyped
09:12 the film up while speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, saying,
09:15 "Audiences who have seen an early screening of Cloud Atlas have been elated by its powerful
09:20 and inspiring story, as well as its breathtaking visuals."
09:23 The corresponding article even noted that the film might be an awards player.
09:28 Entertainment sites rushed to help viewers decode the film's multiple and mesh storylines
09:32 and repeat cast members, positioning the movie as an event.
09:35 Then, Cloud Atlas was actually released, and it failed to connect.
09:39 E! News reports that the sci-fi epic cost $100 million to make, but in its opening weekend,
09:45 it only managed to scrounge up $9.6 million.
09:49 According to Box Office Mojo, the movie topped out at $27 million domestically, eventually
09:54 reaching $130 million worldwide.
09:58 Titan AE is about a far-future scenario, where Earth is destroyed by aliens and humanity's
10:03 remnants live aboard a spaceship.
10:05 It took several years to actually reach theaters once production began.
10:09 Along the way, it underwent numerous changes, including a title change from its original
10:14 name, Planet Ice.
10:16 Production was also taken over by beloved animator Don Bluth, fresh from the success
10:20 of Anastasia.
10:22 Audiences were excited about the director's leap into sci-fi and CGI.
10:26 However, ahead of the film's release, co-director Gary Goldman seemed to already be hedging
10:31 expectations.
10:32 In an interview with Animation World News, he stated,
10:35 "We had only 19 months to complete the whole thing.
10:38 People who have seen the picture, even the color-timer at Disney, have said that they
10:42 can't believe that it was done in such a short time."
10:44 When it was finally released, Titan AE lost the studio a ton of money.
10:49 According to Box Office Mojo, the space epic made a disappointing $9.4 million in its opening
10:54 weekend, against a production budget of $75 million.
10:58 Ultimately, it only made about $37 million worldwide.
11:02 That's such a loss that it led to the closure of Fox's entire animation studio in 2000,
11:07 according to Variety.
11:08 Perhaps underselling it a bit, president of Fox Animation Chris Meledandri told the
11:13 outlet,
11:14 "It clearly is a tough marketplace."
11:17 In the years after Fantastic Four, Rise of the Silver Surfer, the Marvel Cinematic Universe
11:22 launched and dominated the box office.
11:25 By the time 20th Century Fox rebooted the property in 2015, fans were eager for a new
11:30 take on the characters.
11:31 The film was directed by Chronicle helmer Josh Trank, who cast Michael B. Jordan, Miles
11:36 Keller, Kate Mora, and Jamie Bell as the super-powered team.
11:40 In addition to tapping Toby Kevill to play the villainous Dr. Doom, the hype was high.
11:46 News of extensive reshoots killed some of the momentum.
11:49 Years later, Trank would describe the studio-mandated process to Polygon as akin to being "castrated."
11:54 Recalling,
11:55 "You're standing there, and you're basically watching producers blocking out scenes, five
12:00 minutes ahead of when you get there, having editors hired by the studio deciding the sequence
12:04 of shots that are going to construct whatever is going on."
12:08 He decided to kneecap his own film, tweeting and deleting the night before release,
12:12 "A year ago I had a fantastic version of this, and it would have received great reviews.
12:17 You'll probably never see it."
12:19 Predictably, the film failed to find its audience.
12:22 Critics weren't kind, either.
12:23 Unlike the hypothetical version of the film Trank claimed to have delivered, the actual
12:27 movie currently sits at a disappointing 9% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
12:33 According to The Hollywood Reporter, the movie lost upwards of $100 million.
12:37 "It's fantastic."
12:43 The sequel to a cult classic 1980s film where Jeff Bridges gets stuck inside a video game,
12:49 Tron Legacy promised updated visuals that would reflect the staggering advancements
12:53 that had been made in the field of CGI.
12:55 Though the film wouldn't hit theaters for 16 months, Disney brought Flynn's Arcade to
12:59 life at San Diego Comic-Con 2009, ensuring that anticipation for the new film would have
13:05 plenty of time to build among the target audience.
13:08 Star Olivia Wilde began her press tour that same summer, more than a year in advance,
13:13 telling Wired,
13:14 "This is a revolution in filmmaking, and I have to be a part of it."
13:18 Computer graphics world even hyped it up as the successor to the previous year's Avatar,
13:23 but despite everything Tron Legacy had going for it, the film failed to turn a profit.
13:28 All that digital de-aging technology used to make Bridges young again didn't come cheap.
13:34 According to the numbers, the movie cost $200 million to make, and only took in $44 million
13:40 in its opening weekend.
13:41 Plans for a sequel were put on hold, but in 2023, Disney finally announced that a third
13:46 film called Tron Ares was in development.
13:50 In 1982, Ridley Scott's Blade Runner failed to light up the box office, thanks in part
13:55 to Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial still dominating theaters.
14:00 The film, which starred Harrison Ford, was a gritty neo-noir about a bounty hunter chasing
14:05 after synthetic humans, but the story simply didn't resonate in the era where charming
14:10 aliens had appetites for Reese's Pieces.
14:13 However, the movie became a bit of a home video marvel, rescuing the film from obscurity.
14:18 The 2017 installment, titled Blade Runner 2049, would pair returning star Ford with
14:24 a young upstart in the form of a cautiously optimistic Ryan Gosling, who told GQ,
14:29 "I've never done something so shrouded in secrecy, or where there's so much anticipation."
14:34 Early reviews were rapturous, sending anticipation into overdrive.
14:39 Blade Runner 2049 won the weekend box office when it finally hit theaters, but the movie
14:44 didn't come close to expectations.
14:47 According to Entertainment Weekly, the film had been forecast to make as much as $55 million
14:52 in opening, but it pulled in $31.5 million instead.
14:55 The film's box office haul was so disappointing that it led to layoffs at Alcon Entertainment,
15:01 according to The Hollywood Reporter.
15:03 [music]