Sometimes, movies don’t do so well at the box office. Actually, films underperform in their opening weeks all the time - projections have them nabbing somewhere around $30 million, and they end up getting closer to $20 million. It’s not good news, but the thing about movies nowadays is that you can usually make your budget back, if not at the box office, then in DVD sales.
A couple of indie filmmakers will undoubtedly find that small comfort, after their monster flick, “Creature,” finished with $331,000 in receipts in its opening week. Now, before you say, well, it’s an indie film, what do you expect, keep this in mind: The movie opened in 1,507 theaters. That’s an average of $220 per theater. As The Wrap puts it (via Yahoo! Movies), “$220 is about what one row of moviegoers spent on popcorn for the last ‘Harry Potter’ movie.” It's also a record for worst debut for a film opening in more than 1500 or more theaters. (The film’s budget is apparently undisclosed, although it’s apparently a “microbudget.” To throw in a really low blow, apparently “microaudiences” go for that kind of film.)
Based on the trailer, which is featured via the link below, I can’t really figure out why this didn’t do so well. It could be the fact that the trailer features basically no footage that lasts more than a couple of seconds and is punctuated by a bunch of seemingly random quick cuts. Or that it features one more or less incomprehensible line of dialogue (about 1:31 in the trailer). Or that the creature appears to be descended from the bad guys in “Alien” (about 1:52). Or the film’s prominent tagline: “Terror...has...teeth!” What does it usually have?
Apparently, the filmmakers were unsure that people would remember the title, so they tossed it into the trailer four times. I'd say that was too much. Although it would be easy to make the argument, based on the box office numbers, that it wasn’t enough.
Link: http://movies.yahoo.com/news/creature-feature-s-opening-one-of-the-worst-ever-at-the-box-office.html
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