The Wachowskis' Jupiter Ascending (2015) (1 Viewer)

[TravisR]

^ Good or bad, this movie seems completely unmarketable to a mainstream audience. It could be a masterpiece and it's going to tank. I'm stunned that the Wachowskis keep getting mega budgets but I'm glad that someone gives a ton of money to people with a vision (even if it's a vision that I rarely like).

 

[dpippel]

I'm mystified that they keep getting the huge budgets too. They're quickly entering M. Night Shyamalan territory.

 

[MaxMorrow]

While the move to February doesn't usually bode well, the 2015 movie calendar is already rather jam-packed with potential blockbusters from April onward...and as we've recently seen with THE LEGO MOVIE, releasing a movie in February doesn't necessarily guarantee poor box office or low quality.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Cloud Atlas was close to a masterpiece, but I agree the Wachowskis skirt the line between greatness and terribleness. They just typically end up on the great side for me.

Bummer for this summer. If the directors think the movie is a mess, I'll be sad. If the studio doesn't have confidence, that bothers me less. I don't give a **** how the studio feels. I don't believe the FX story at all. If they are moving it, it is because they don't have confidence in it with that release date.

 

[SFMike]

It might be the best thing to move it to a less crowded release period. You can make money in the spring if you have a picture people want to see and maybe the gross won't fall off 65% after the first week because another blockbuster opens.

 

[joshEH]

Troubling, but on the other hand, at least it won't be stuck competing against GotG.

 

[Bobby Henderson]

I'm not sure what to think about Warner Bros. choosing to push Jupiter Ascending back to a February 2015 release date.

I think the story about a lot of visual effects sequences not being finished yet being plausible. These things don't get rendered in real time. A whole lot more goes into those sequences than what you see rendered out of the average Playstation gaming console. 3D modeling and animation is a real time consuming pain. Add to that the need of compositing that stuff and live action footage together. Also they're expecting to show this movie in 3D, so there's probably a good bit of post-conversion 2D to 3D nonsense taking place. The visuals in this movie are pretty ambitious. But if that's put against a tight production schedule something will have to give. You either push back the release date or you live with not so great looking visuals.

Titanic was originally given a Summer 1997 release date. Paramount pushed back the release date six months so James Cameron could have more time in post production. Lots of people thought it was a really bad sign for the movie's release date to be delayed. But they were proven wrong by Titanic raking in a record setting box office haul and winning a bunch of Oscars.

This delay could also be a sign the Summer movie season release model could be deteriorating. Studios need to get a little more creative in how they market and release movies. Cramming all the best titles into the May-July period doesn't work so well. With the way movie ticket and concessions prices have escalated in recent years, especially when you include the really high premiums for 3D and HDTV resolution 3D blown up on big screens, customers have to pick only a couple or so movies to see. If you're bringing a family to the movies going to more than a couple shows per month can get pretty expensive very fast. Just at regular ticket pricing I can still drop $40 or $50 just for me and my girlfriend to see a movie.

Warner Bros. made a good bit of money with the Lego Movie this past February. Some other winter releases have done well. Silence of the Lambs was a pretty big hit and it was released on Valentine's Day.

The contemporary Summer movie release model was pioneered by Jaws and Star Wars -nearly 40 years ago when movies were a whole lot more affordable to watch. When I was a little kid I remember our family going to drive-in theaters for just $2 per car load.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I agree that studios need to get out of the summer movie mindset. With the February success of The Lego Movie, it seemed Warner was on to something... so it was surprising that they scheduled the sequel for Memorial Day weekend a few years from now. I think part of the reason it did so well was because it was the only family-oriented movie out at the time, so people who might normally have gravitated towards a Disney movie or a Dreamworks movie gave this one a shot. People saw it and liked it, word of mouth grew, and bonafide hit.

The worst thing about the summer movie season is that it eliminates word of mouth almost completely. These movies have one weekend, maybe two, to make their money, and they're gone. If they don't open giant, they don't linger for weeks or months, they're out almost immediately. I have no idea if "Jupiter Ascending" wasn't finished yet, or if it was finished and just not very good, but I'm reasonably sure it'll do better when it doesn't have to compete in that crazy cycle.

Bobby mentioned "Titanic" as an example of a movie that was delayed, and then opened to both critical and commercial success. "Titanic" made it's money back slowly - it was the number one movie in America every week for something insane like December 97 through April 98. I don't think it opened above $30 million, it made that money because it was good, because people wanted to see it, and then because people talked about how good it was and made other people want to see it, which in turn encouraged people to see it for a second or third time. I'd love to be wrong, but I don't think we'll ever see anything like that again. But I think the movie business would be healthier longterm if there wasn't such do-or-die pressure on making all of your money in a single weekend. If "Jupiter Ascending" can have a little bit of that pressure removed so it can be allowed to succeed or fail on its merits, and not just its marketing, that sounds like a good thing to me.

 

[Simon Massey]

Probably one of the few summer films I was really looking forward to after X-Men so I'm disappointed but would definitely prefer them to get it right. I also loved Cloud Atlas (hated Speed Racer) but this certainly looks interesting from the trailers and I had high expectations.

 

[Vic Pardo]

Anne Thompson on why they pushed back the release date:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/why-jupiter-ascending-really-got-pushed

 

[Tim Glover]

Never saw Cloud Atlas Need to give it a go.

 

[Patrick Sun]

"Cloud Atlas" was one of the films from 2012 that actually stayed in my consciousness long after I saw the film. Really enjoyed the themes that played out in that film.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I highly recommend reading the book (Cloud Atlas) first. The movie complements it nicely, but is very difficult to follow without already knowing what's going on. Mainly because the movie jumps around chronologically between stories, unlike the book. Reading the book, the main idea kind of slowly dawns on you. The people I watched the movie with (who hadn't read the book first) were mostly scratching their heads afterward.

While considering seeing the movie, I saw a review that began with something like "this movie would be a great advertisement for the book, if you hadn't just spoiled it by watching the movie." So I took that advice, and I'm glad I did.

 

[TravisR]

I'm guessing the total lack of talk here about this movie doesn't bode well for its box office prospects.

 

[Patrick Sun]

OMG, the reviews I've read about this movie, and yet, I'll still go see it...

 

[joshEH]

Oh, we're definitely going to see it in IMAX tomorrow -- still very much looking forward to it, no question.


In an age of endless, "safe" big-studio remakes and sequels, I won't complain one bit about the Wachowski siblings getting some decent Warner Bros. money for their movies. I'll consider it a tax on all of the crap that gets made with bigger budgets and smaller ideas.

 

[Neil Middlemiss]

I highly recommend reading the book (Cloud Atlas) first. The movie complements it nicely, but is very difficult to follow without already knowing what's going on. Mainly because the movie jumps around chronologically between stories, unlike the book. Reading the book, the main idea kind of slowly dawns on you. The people I watched the movie with (who hadn't read the book first) were mostly scratching their heads afterward.


While considering seeing the movie, I saw a review that began with something like "this movie would be a great advertisement for the book, if you hadn't just spoiled it by watching the movie." So I took that advice, and I'm glad I did.

I didn't read the book prior to seeing the film, but I am always looking (and hoping) for deeper meaning and implicit connections when watching movies, science-fiction in particular, that I didn't need to read the book to 'get it,' (I hope that doesn't sound smug,) but I've put the book on my 'need to read' list to feel out how the page does it differently from the visual medium.

 

[Richard V]

My girlfriend wants to see it, so I guess I'm going. Otherwise I wouldn't have bothered. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 37%.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I'd like to see it, but the IMAX 3D showtimes aren't convenient for my schedule this weekend (it's sharing the screen with "Seventh Son" but "Jupiter" is getting all of the earlier-in-the-day showings while I'm at work)... but I'm hoping to see it before it disappears.


I liked, but didn't love, "Cloud Atlas" - it was one of those movies where I didn't go out of my way to see it, the showtime matched my schedule, and I caught it on a whim and mostly enjoyed it. I have a feeling my reaction here will be similar, so while I want to see it, I'm not going to go crazy to do so.

 

[TravisR]

OMG, the reviews I've read about this movie, and yet, I'll still go see it...

I don't usually read reviews anymore but I think that people that are sci-fi fans will enjoy it. I'm not a big fan of straight science fiction and even I enjoyed it somewhat. At a minimum, it looks great and I was just happy to show some support for a big movie that isn't based on a comic book.


Also, the 3-D had levels of depth that I don't usually see in conversions.