Suppose another American company/director wants to try again

[zekend01]

[Dolomite]

[jellydonut25]

[Gojiraknight]

[The Giant Pacific Octopus]

[zekend01]

[jellydonut25]

[DannyBeane]

[zekend01]

[Gojiraknight]

[Destroysall]

[zekend01]

[Legion]

[jellydonut25]

[zekend01]

[Gojiraknight]

[jellydonut25]

[Gojiraknight]

[Benjamin Haines]

[zekend01]

[jellydonut25]

i think the only thing i think to add to that is a TOUCH of optimism...

it only takes one 'Dark Knight'-esque (in terms of popularity/monetary performance) to make people stand up, take notice and go after a genre with gusto - between Iron Man and Dark Knight, super hero movies may have ultimately been saved...(i guess it kinda depends where you classify Transformers and GI Joe, but there's very few superhero movies this year after the deluge over the last five and the upcoming 2011-2012 rush - seems to me [and i may be wrong] that people were no longer considering these movies viable and were planning to not make many more until iron man and dark knight became hits)

the problem is, getting a Kaiju film made with that type of quality - in terms of story, acting, fx, pacing, design, etc - the pieces would ALL have to be there and thus far, i'd say 1933's King Kong is probably the only kaiju movie to do so

it's FINE to hope, but i definitely wouldn't EXPECT anything...

[kpa]

GojiraKnight, going over your recent posts it seems to me that you're basing your ideas/questions on some odd connections.

Sure, Spielberg, Tarantino, Burton, and some other filmmakers have said they enjoyed Godzilla movies. But none of them have ever stepped up to produce, direct, or finance a Godzilla film... not the proposed 3-D movie in the 1980s, or the TriStar movie, or the IMAX project that's been looking for funding for the past 6 years, or some idea of their own.

When it was announced that Devlin and Emmerich were making GODZILLA, Spielberg told them it was a mistake because a big budget American Godzilla wouldn't work. Taratino made movies for Miramax, Miramax owns the US rights to BIOLLANTE, Miramax still hasn't released that film on DVD... I've never heard anything about Tarantino trying to use his clout to make even that happen; but even if he did, he wasn't successful.

If these filmmakers saw money to be made off Godzilla right now, I'd think at least one of them would be working towards getting that money. That they aren't doing so... and have never done so... should tell you how they really feel about Godzilla's profitability.

Regarding Tintin, it's not a known property in America but it has been hugely popular overseas for several decades... the books have sold over 200 million copies. Paramount and Sony know that a 3D animated Tintin movie with the names "Steven Spielberg" and "Peter Jackson" attached is about a close as you can get to a sure thing in foreign markets. How the film does in America is less certain, but good family audience films can generate enormous profits.

I also don't agree with the CLOVERFIELD/DARK KNIGHT comparison or the the view that CLOVERFIELD's "It's high opening and steep fall would indicate the audience likes the genre but not the movie."

A gimmick film like CLOVERFIELD is not going to appeal to everyone but the movie received generally positive reviews and word-of-mouth when it was released. Therefore, the box office dropping off quickly likely means that pretty much everyone who was interested in seeing it did so early on... and that doesn't speak well for the financial viability of the genre these days.

In fact, with the exception of the JURASSIC PARK films Peter Jackson's KING KONG, giant monster movies have not been a big theatrical draw in this country for decades. GODZILLA '98 fell far short of expectations. CLOVERFIELD was profitable because the production costs were low, but $80 million is not blockbuster numbers in the US these days. Even KONG didn't do what was hoped, so only the JP films have been hugely successful here.

Like I mentioned before, back in the 1980s no US studio would finance a proposed 3-D Godzilla movie. DRAGONSLAYER was a financial failure. TREMORS is a cult favorite, but it only made $17 million at a time when when other films were making 10 times as much at the US box office. Other wide releases like REIGN OF FIRE, RELIC, DRAGONHEART, MIGHTY JOE YOUNG '98, DRAGON WARS, and GODZILLA 2000 at best did "okay" in theaters. Now compare that that box office to what superhero movies, alien invasion films, CG animation, big action films, hit comedies, family films, and fantasy movies pull in on a regular basis.

I love monster movies and would love them be successful enough that more studios and filmmakers were producing them. I just don't see it, and I don't see examples of that being the case 5, 10, or 20 years ago either.

[zekend01]

Benjamin Haines, that was a great post. Very knowledgeable and well thought out. I wish I had had the patience to put it that way today.

GojiraKnight, there's your answer. I apologize for snapping at you in my last post. It was sh*tty and I feel bad for it now. I've had a really bad day and I took it out on you first thing when I got home.

Though you defiantly wear me out sometimes, I still appreciate your written expression and your enthusiasm. I promise I'll not jump the gun like that again... I'd be a little ticked if it were done to me. Sorry dude.

[zekend01]

[kpa]