OMG, Final Fantasy: The Spirit Within is a flop in the box office. (1 Viewer)

[kevin_asai]

I am kinda loved Final Fantasy: The Spirit Within.
The budget for this movie is US$137m It only did US$32.131m in USA and US$62.328m worldwide.
I think the studio will not do any sequel of this visually-stunning movie anymore :frowning: I wonder how the studio going to "accept" the "reality" that the movie did not do well?

 

[Patrick Sun]

Its dismal box office had more to do with story content than the animation itself. Either that, or gamers would rather sit on their butts and play the game, rather than go see a film based on a Playstation game in a real theater.

 

[BrianShort]

It's safe to say that no sequels will be made for FF. SquarePictures closed up shop after the poor performance of the first one. Too bad too, I kind of liked the story. I guess it was a bit to wierd for some. I really wish we would get more adult oriented animation from US studios. I can't see that happening for a long time though.

Brian

 

[kevin_asai]

The graphic was visually-stunning. I mean it is one of the pulling point to the audiences. It was just like The Lost World. Lost World has a weaker-than-original-Jurassic-Park storyline but it did extremely well in box office. Well, we come back to Final Fantasy, the storyline is much better than the Lost World. Was the advertising campaign not "strong" enough?
Just my 2 cents

 

[Bruce Hedtke]

Was the advertising campaign not "strong" enough?

I doubt it. I thought they had a very good ad campaign for Final Fantasy. And they certainly had a hardcore fanbase. The problem was it got into the game too late. By the time FF hit the theaters, the animation they so highly touted was already a few films old. Toy Story, TS2, A Bugs Life...while I don't know if they were on the same animation level (close, though) as FF, the public had been exposed to it. I guess people will buy into a kids movie with animation but resist a more adult themed film. I thought the film was very good and the animation was top-notch. But, it just simply became one of a number of films already out there.

Bruce

 

[kevin_asai]

I assumed, it is kinda hard for Hollywood to make a full-length animation with teen/adult theme :frowning: Final Fantasy became a "victim".

 

[Bhagi Katbamna]

I assumed, it is kinda hard for Hollywood to make a full-length animation with teen/adult theme Final Fantasy became a "victim".

The only victims were the people exposed to the plot.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

FF didn't fail because people didn't like it, its because nobody saw it.

If the movie sucks, people will still go. If the movie is good, people will still not go. It depends on how people view the film. Final Fantasy is a well known videogame, and nobody is interested in seeing one, especially just after Tomb Raider.

The film wasn't bad. It was actually pretty good, best videogame movie so far.

 

[Danny Knapp]

A beautifully computer-animated movie with a dopey plot WORSE THAN A VIDEO GAME.
I can't even describe my dissatisfaction with this movie. I don't know what crack pipe Square was smoking or whose brilliant idea it was to have the most minimal cast in a supposedly epic battle for earth.
Ok, each person computer animated would have cost mucho money so I do see why it's limited...but come on! I was almost laughing in the theatre, "What the hell is this? No magic. No classes. No Final Fantasy-type battles AT ALL. Craptastic ending." It has no comparison to anything of Final Fantasy! Can you even imagine a game based on it?
"Find the plants and help gaia. But don't let the boogymen soul stealers get you."
What would have worked:
A live-action movie (with lots of CGI) based on either FF6, FF7, FF8 or FF9. A movie based on an video game "hit" would have done alot better. Cast in regular unknown actors with some well-known ones for lead parts and...BAM a #1 for at least 3 weeks!

 

[kevin_asai]

A live-action movie (with lots of CGI) based on either FF6, FF7, FF8 or FF9. A movie based on an video game "hit" would have done alot better. Cast in regular unknown actors with some well-known ones for lead parts and...BAM a #1 for at least 3 weeks!

I think the movie will be number for 3 weeks if it was based on FF8
I hope SquareSoft wanna open the "door" again to make a story based on it.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Danny-

You obviously don't know much about the game series.

Each game has a different story, a different environment, a different set of characters, etc. Why should the film be any different?

If it takes 60 hours to go through FF8, most of which is storyline stuff, why would they want to cram it all down to less than 2 hours? It also wouldn't be very original and people could just play the game and get a better experience.

The movie was very good. If you went into it expecting battles and summons and magic, then you are either ignorant or don't understand that it was a movie and not a videogame. Making it too much like the games would have meant that people would have to actually like the games in order to want to see the film.

And wouldn't it make more sense to make a film based on FF1 first?

If they were going to make a movie based on an FF game, 8 would be the best choice, but if you think the story of the film sucked, imagine what the rest of America would have thought about the story of 8.

 

[SteveGon]

I've never been into video games and knew nothing about Final Fantasy. I had strong reservations about the movie but rented it from Hollywood video since it was only .99. I was pleasantly surprised. The visuals were stunning, the plot was....different. Alien ghosts? Cool! It was convoluted, to be sure, and reminiscent of Aliens, but still interesting. I can see why Roger Ebert thought so highly of it.

 

[Duane_T]

I saw it, and was very, very bored by the end. I did love the visuals, but the story bored me to tears - maybe I was just in a bad mood that day. All I can really remember is a whole section of the story that was ripped out of 'Aliens'.

I don't know what it is with North America though, everyone seems to think that you can't have an adult animated feature.

One thing I've noticed is that Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings seem to be making fantasy more acceptable than it has in the past. I remember the early 80s and the 'D&D is evil' period. (I have actually heard people in the last week say that Harry Potter was evil, so they wouldn't be reading the books or seeing the movie).

Whoa, kinda got off topic there.

 

[Elbert Lee]

I agree that the story was terrible. Square: Good at 5 minute video game intros (but who isn't these days?), but BAD at making full length feature animated films

Elbert

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Square is used to making stories that can go on for dozens of hours for their games. Coming up with a story to fit into an hour and a half is kind of a challenge for them.

I thought the only problems with the film were maybe the dialogue and voice acting. The story was strange, but not like Aliens that much. The point of the movie (and the games) is to convey different themes by applying them to different situations to show how universal they are. Aliens was about a bunch of aliens eating people.

 

[Richard Kim]

best videogame movie so far.

That's not saying much. Historically, video games have translated poorly to the silver screen. And IMHO, Mortal Kombat is the best movie based on a video game.

 

[Keith_R]

I just saw FF:The spirits within on my HT setup a couple nights ago and I can understand why this movie failed. I really didn't like this movie I found the visuals amazing but the story I could do without. The movie was kind of boring, IMO a movie like this is meant to have a lot of great action scenes but there was hardly any in this movie. I was struggling to stay awake the whole time. Definently not a keeper for me.

 

[Micheal]

Square is used to making stories that can go on for dozens of hours for their games. Coming up with a story to fit into an hour and a half is kind of a challenge for them.

The stories in the Final Fantasy games are not that deep or complex.
Let's face it, the plot was terrible and that's what killed it.

 

[teapot2001]

I think that there just wasn't enough interest in the movie. In its opening weekend, it was behind 2 or 3 other movies. It could be the fact that it was an adult animated movie, which, like Bruce said, people seem to resist.

Saying that the movie didn't do well because it was bad isn't a good reason because lots of bad movies perform well at the box office.

Also, some seem to take into account the movie's budget, as if that should affect how much money the movie makes. Square did lose a lot of money. However, what if the movie cost $5 million, what would you say then?

As for Square, they have been involved in a Matrix project. I've heard that they've worked on a short or the special effects for the sequel.

~T

 

[Patrick Sun]

Let's face it, not enough gamers wanted to get out of their comfy living rooms with their PlayStation 2 setup, take a shower, get dressed, get in a car, and drive to the theater when FF was playing in the theaters.