You’d think that if it were that bad they’d just kill it. But the signs are not good.
I do like that HULU is an option, though. Maybe they’re wrong and there’s something there. More options are always better.
Yeah, I guess the optimistic view is that the movie is OK, but the marketing teams determined that the box-office “take” wouldn’t be enough to justify a big marketing campaign, but that the intended audience will find the movie if it’s deployed to a popular streaming service.
But that sort of assumes that the streaming revenue would be enough to recoup what they put into the film. If you’re a second party (meaning not Netflix or Hulu themselves), I wonder if those numbers would work?
Let’s just say, if it’s on Hulu I might actually watch it. Otherwise…
That might not necessarily be the calculus. If the folks at FOX think the movie is terrible, they might just think that getting any money is better than none. I guess there are several options:
- Scrap the movie all together and recoup no costs at all, though I imagine there are some tax writeoff benefits.
- Release the movie theatrically, but that brings with it additional costs even if you don’t really do any marketing. They still have to make reels and posters and such. No idea what that costs, but it’s probably millions of dollars even for small releases.
- Release on a digital platform. This is basically “free” since the movie is already made. Any revenue they get from HULU is guaranteed and after that there’s no risk.
So really the question is just about which option brings in the most money. It’s possible, maybe even probable, that none of them will recoup their investment totally, so it’s just about which gets closest.
Sure, but then we’re back in the “the movie is terrible” camp. Going to Hulu is then the modern equivalent to “straight to video”.
I’m trying to imagine a situation where the studio thinks the movie is pretty good, but they figure that releasing on streaming will (a) be profitable and (b) more profitable than going to the box office, even in the Jan/Feb dumping season.
What a shame, with how good Legion has been as a weird TV series a horror take on a mutant franchise seemed quite promising.
Runaways is on Hulu, so maybe they think that’s where the audience is for marvel teenager stuff.
Apparently not dead yet. April 2020 release date seems to be sticking.
It’s alive!
I was watching it so I could comment on how bad it looked, but … that looked cool, honestly. Good different.
The fact that it’s not getting dumped in January seems extraordinary. I’m not clear on how much reshooting they did (versus re-editing), but clearly someone who matters thinks it has a snowball’s chance in hell now.
They never did get the reshoots done. AFAIK, anything changed from the original production would the result of editing and FX do-overs.
…and the lowering of expectations after Dark Phoenix!
The fact that it’s not getting dumped in January now seems extraordinary, but even moreso!
It seems like a “small” movie. Maybe the original fussing from Fox was because they wanted it to be bigger and more blockbustery and now that Marvel is in charge they liked it just the way it is?
Disney just announced that they are delaying and pushing back all of their announced movies. Except one.
That’s right. This movie will be sent to theaters to die a lonely death on August 28th.
There must be a contractual reason they’re not going digital first, like on HULU or something.
I think they figured they should get it out there before all the actors die of old age.
There are actually theaters open somewhere?
