According to THR, Bryan Singer’s Jack The Giant Slayer might be the new John Carter. Though it opened at number one when it arrived in theatres, Oz The Great and Powerful took its sport shortly after and since then, the film has been forgotten about. At this rate, even though it will likely bring in a cool $200 million, it will still result in a $125-$140 million loss for the studio.
The film had a production budget of close to $200 million and once you factor in the marketing costs and various delays it suffered, you can start to see where that loss comes from. Oddly enough, critics didn’t seem to hate the film, it just didn’t catch on with audiences and failed to make much of a splash.
Of course, Jack the Giant Slayer is now drawing comparisons to John Carter, a film that released last year and lost its studio (Disney) almost $200 million. Again, it wasn’t a terrible film, it just failed to connect with audiences.
The directors of both films (Andrew Stanton and Bryan Singer) have taken similar routes as well following their box office bombs. Stanton is returning to the familiar territory of animation with Finding Dory and Singer will helm the next film in the X-Men franchise, X-Men: Days of Future Past, which puts him on comfortable ground again seeing as he directed the first two films in the series.
Personally, I haven’t seen Singer’s failed tentpole but judging by the trailers and whatnot, nothing about it really appealed to me. From what I’ve heard it’s a somewhat enjoyable film but as for why it didn’t connect with audiences, I can’t really say. Perhaps it had something to do with casting a relative unknown (Nicholas Hoult) in the lead? Who knows?
What did you think of Jack the Giant Slayer? Did you get a chance to see it yet? Let us know in the comments section below.
