Jack The Giant Failure

     Odds are you haven't seen Jack The Giant Slayer. Odds are you won't anytime soon. Only around 5 million people domestically have since its opening on March 1st. Oz captured at least 8 million people in its first 5 days alone. Jack is not what Warner Bros wanted or needed it to be. After the failures of Gangster Squad, Beautiful Creatures, Burt Wonderstone, Cloud Atlas, and Bullet to the Head, and the Justice League turmoil, Jack has just added to the dry spell in Warner checkbooks. On a plus side, WB had a very solid 2012 (minus Atlas) and Hobbit became the latest movie to cross $1 billion worldwide.

     Jack the Giant Slayer, directed by Bryan Singer and starring Nicholas Hoult, is no doubt this years John Carter. John Carter is even tracking ahead of Jack. So far, Jack has grossed $45.8 million domestic and $68.1 million worldwide and with a 68.3% drop in it's second weekend, Jack won't be at the box office party for long; his curfew is kicking in. John Carter has made $10 million more through the same point.

     Jack is obviously going to be a massive loss for Warner Bros, but Jack has been doomed for a long time. Originally set to come out in June 2012, Warner pushed Jack back to March 2013 for various reasons, one to make the movie "more kid-friendly". March has become a lucrative months for studios and is arguably the most sought after month outside of the summer and holiday months. The overall goal of the movie just never fell in play.

     Jack's delays have raised the budget, but there's really no reason for it to cost as much as it did. The same can be said for Oz, Battleship, really anything with a budget over $200 million. Oz debuted to $79.1 million last weekend and should be a decent hit for Disney, but "decent" is not what they wanted; but you have to ask yourself, did they really need to give Oz a $200 million budget and $100 million in marketing? Did Oz need the dazzling effects, A-list stars, flying baboons, and all the advertising? Would an $80 million Oz have done or been just as good? Those are very opinionated questions; many people still go to movies for stories over effects, which is a complaint from many critics about Oz, but in the end, the studio makes the call; its there money.

     Jack will be a shot in the feet (not foot) for WB, but their summer schedule shows promise. 2013 has been lethargic as a whole (see my earlier post) for various reasons, but it probably won't be completely understood why Jack failed. Jack may end with no more than $60 million domestic and worldwide isn't promising, but at least that's one more unneeded sequel that won't be released in 2014-2015.