It seems pretty clear that (a) the new FF movie is a horrifying bomb (rightly or wrongly), and (b) there will not be a sequel. It's not even certain that that characters will cross over into Fox's X-franchise as was suggested.
I would love to see Marvel get the rights back to the FF movies, and see them integrated into a larger Disney-base Marvel Cinematic Universe, as Sony has arranged with Spider-Man. That desire makes predicting such a thing to happen a bit dodgy. But this fiasco tells me that Fox won't be rebooting it for themselves any time soon, and they have the prospect of making more money by working some sort of deal with Disney.
‘Fantastic Four’ Bombs With $26.2 Million Weekend
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 9 (Variety.com) – Scathing reviews and an indiscreet tweet left “Fantastic Four” on the slab after the franchise reboot flopped at the weekend box office. Fox’s hopes of rejuvenating
Hopefully they do give it to Disney/Marvel but I doubt it.
I took four teenage girls — we liked it. I think they made a movie that would play well with the Hunger Games, Divergent crowds, or maybe a younger sci-fi crowd, but not hardcore comic nerds.
If I had the Infinity Gauntlet…
+Suzanne Stewart it actually does the comics justice if you think about it. They got like every character right and still retained the core essence of the comics which i think a lot of people overlooked
I only found out it was out this weekend just yesterday. My first thought, "Again? I thought they just made one".
They've had four tries (counting the one that was never released). Time to give up and turn the property over to people who know what they're doing.
+Michael Meloche like 10 years ago. This one is a lot better and well executed in nearly every single way. It is far superior to the originals
They won't ever, willingly, give the rights back… That would mean, not only admitting defeat and that Marvel is better at movies than Fox, but it would be giving a "new" franchise/characters to their #1 competitor.
In the contract that Fox signed when they acquired the rights they have to make a movie, at least, every 7 years and the movie can't be a "throw away" movie, or the rights automatically revert. Meaning the movie must make money… And too many people continue to pay to see this garbage, even though we KNOW that it sucks at this point and, even though it will come in at around 27m this weekend, it still may make a profit after global releases.
If people want the rights to go back, it's easy. Just don't go see this. Just stop. This one time the power is, literally, in our hands…
It will be interesting to see, over the next few years, if Marvel will try to bring a suit to say that Fox defaulted by putting out this bad of a movie and they try to get the rights back in court…
Does marvel get a profit from any movie made by Fox? Or did they litterly sell the rights for a upfront set $ amount.
Honesty fantastic four sucks. But I love Dr doom
+Rob Vazquez Marvel gets no profit from the movies. They were going bankrupt and sold the movie rights outright for $, so they could reinvest it and save Marvel… It worked.
Marvel still owns the merchandising rights though… Which is why you don't see any movie FF or X-men figures or toys. They have been giving up making those so as to not create any more fans or "buzz" about the Fox movies.
They would rather lose out on "possible" merchandise revenue in a hope to push Fox into giving the rights back… (which, I think, is a smart move!)
Here's the simplicity of casting for the Fantastic Four..
A) Get a guy who looks like a seasoned 8-ball headed scientist. A natural blue-eyed blonde who looks sexy as hell, blue-eyed blonde rogue who can pass for her younger brother and a hunk who looks like he could survive pro football and handle himself in a fight.
But no, they had to got mess with that and pass simplicity through Hollywood focus groups to produce a team with supposedly universal teen appeal.
B) A guy who looks like he just graduated from college but yet to loose his virginity. A blatant grunge, brunette trying to pass off her poorly dyed hair as a blonde. A brother from another mother claiming to be her "half" sibling and a guy who looks like he's still supposed to be delivering newspapers on a bicycle playing Ben Grimm.
..well at least he has blues eyes, I guess. Either way, when you can't get the basics right, don't expect the fans to reward you with blind devotion and a jaded sense of loyalty.
+Jason Hamilton The irony is that I'm sure they will claim to Marvel that they made money, while making sure that anyone who has a percentage of the net on the film never sees a dime. Hollywood accounting is more mysterious than the Negative Zone.
I'm going to see it. I don't care what critics say. I bet it's pretty good.
+Dave Hill I totally agree. My hope is that people stop giving them any more money. The movie cost 120m,not including any marketing. (which was substantial) It'll be interesting to see how the box office plays out and if Marvel goes after Fox.
+Ceejay Julien From what I've read (I've not seen the film, and probably won't until I watch it on an airplane trip somewhere), there was nothing necessarily wrong with the casting and setup (as inspired by the Ultimate FF, rather than the Classic FF), as much as what was done with it in terms of story.
I don't think you need a Lee-Kirby FF casting to make a good FF movie. It doesn't hurt, but the "good movie" part doesn't require it.
+Dave Hill Unfortunately they didn't even get that part right as the film fails from being the product of a rather inexperienced director running before he learned to walk. His $12 million budget handling on his first movie, Chronicle was admirable but throwing him into a multi million complex shoot like this and then being surprised that he's misjudging budgets, not communicating with the studio over production and being abusive when confronted with his progression is basically Fox's own fault. Josh Tank was woefully inexperienced for something this big and the fact his producers had to bail him out and help shoot the movie ending up with a lot of scenes being dropped that simply were never gonna keep the flick within budget.
Hope marvel gets the rights back
Thx +Jason Hamilton is see why Marvel is trying to get all rights back
This movie sucked
Marvel/Disney are laughing their asses off on how badly F4 reboot bombed.
Sell the film rights back to Marvel Fox
Wait….. F4 came out? I didn't know….
I could have told you that months ago.
Yep thought this would be a flop…really gotta stop remaking everything and come up with original stories..
+Deccky Ess I don't know that remaking things per se is the issue here. Remaking something for a reason other than maintaining rights to use the characters or trying to recapture lightning is probably a good goal. Waiting a respectable amount of time isn't a bad idea, either, though given the goldmine that Marvel/Disney have, I can understand other production houses wanting a piece of that action.
Doing something fresh with the tale would seem to be important, though. An FF reboot that dealt with the personal horror of what's happened to one's own body would be an interesting twist, and that's apparently dabbled with in this movie. The biggest issue here doesn't seem to have been that it was another FF reboot, but that it was executed so poorly.
I thought it was Fant 4 Stic
+Nathan Ellis this movie they actually got Doom and all other characters pretty right. It makes perfect sense to have Johnny be African if you think about it knowing his character. It doesn't really change the story of character/relationship in any way. besides if it were an exact copy and paste it would be boring and pointless to see. Like you people said, "try something original instead of just rehousing the same thing over and over" Well here they "Rebooted" something but brought something new to the able with it, combining both something new with something already existing that nonetheless still did justice to the property. I seriously do not know why people were so mad at the movie. It was actually pretty good and brought a lot of interesting new things to the table like their origin that was still loyal to the core essence of the source material
+Dave Hill It was actually executed quite well. Sure there were some faults but they got the points across pretty well without overdoing it, which is more than I can say for certain other properties that I love even more than F4 here. Like Jon Turtletaub once said "movies are too long, they need to be shorter". Its the littlest things that make a big difference, and its nice to not be repeating the same things we've seen over and over again within the movie itself or other similar movies
+Ceejay Julien If you ask me, the casting was pretty spot on. The hair, while not natural still looked passable enough and less fake compared to Jessica Alba in the Silver surfer movie. Miles Teller looks nerdy enough (more so than Andrew Garfield even), Micahel b jordan while a different ethnicity still has that rebel look about him and what is wrong with adoption anyway? Jaimie bell looks pretty much in shape and its not like Michael Chiklus was that strapping either (and stan lee who created the property said that Michael's performance as the Thing was his favourite out of ALL Marvel movie performances)
+Patrick J. McKenna The fact that they changed every character from how they are depicted in the source material pretty much means it was anything but "Spot on" and the absence of fans climbing over themselves to see the movie on opening weekend pretty much emphasizes that.
A "Flop" At The Box Office Does Not Make It A Bad Movie-In My Opinion It's Better Than The Previous F4-It's A Solid Start They Should Do A Second.
+Ceejay Julien How did they change every character? They got all of their personalities and mannerism right, especially compared to how cheesy they were portrayed in the earlier films?
+Patrick J. McKenna Pick up a comic and look at each one of them and you'll realize, Reed Richards isn't a twentysomething type, Sue isn't a brown eyed dirty blonde grunge type, Johnny Storm isn't Black and Ben Grimm isn't a little guy. None of that is what is known as "Spot on". Any idiot can ACT like a character but you have to cast carefully to get actors who are capable of LOOKING the part of the characters they are portraying from time honored visual concepts. When they can't be bothered to get the initial basics right, then you step off on the wrong foot like this movie did, and continue on the wrong path until the box office give you a rude awakening.
+Ceejay Julien Look at Ultimate FF and Reed is quite the young nerdly kind of a guy (well, he starts out that way, anyhow).
Johnny's skin color doesn't come into play for his character, and Sue's eye color is even more trivial. (Charlie Cox managed to play an excellent Daredevil, even if he isn't a redhead.)
Ben being a little guy who becomes a BIG GUY isn't canon, but in and of itself hardly seems to be a big deal. Heck, I wouldn't expect him and Reed to be WWII veterans, either, and that arguably is a more vital canonical element than the other.
The problem with the FF movie was not how they cast the characters as much as what they did with the characters they cast. Its failure is not that they chose to do something different with the characters but that they did so poorly.
+Dave Hill Whatever yours and their idea of what the Fantastic Four should be like obviously is miles apart form what the majority of fans expect to see as an adaptation. Like I said, start off on the wrong foot and continue into oblivion. Eventually Marvel will one day get the rights back and this focus-group experiment will cease to matter any more than it does right now.
+Ceejay Julien Don't get me wrong — I'd love to see some crunchy science / monster FF action a la Lee/Kirby. I was trying to decide if modern movie audiences would put up with the actual Mole Man, or with hypnotizing invading Skrulls into complacent cows. I appreciate efforts that try to tie very closely to the source material (thus my love for Watchmen), but that's not the most important thing.
FF is, first and foremost, about family, about four people tied together, journeying into the unknown, and, despite the changes resulting, sticking together for the greater good. It's about Reed and Sue, and Reed and Ben, and Sue and Johnny.
Secondarily, it's about Reed being distractedly smart, Johnny being a hot-head, Ben dealing with being a monster, and Sue … well that's a bit more nebulous.
Oh, and the powers are pretty iconic, too.
Within that context, you can do a hell of a lot that's not going to look like the FF in blue jumpsuits. But whether you hew to canon, are directly inspired by it, or do something experimental while still adhering to those broad parameters, you need to do it well. Do so, and you end up a winner, despite the nit-picking originalists. Don't do it, and it doesn't matter how closely you mapped the color tone of the unstable molecule jumpsuits.
From the final trailer trailer before its theatrical release, I was really getting a good vibe that though it might not be the F4 that fans were clamoring for, it could have been the better movie against better judgement (a la GoTG), something about sticking with your ideals despite the world and proving it wrong.
And for all intents and purposes, it did that..well, sorta. Just that it mostly fell apart in execution. Though not a smash at the box office, it had the potential of being a critical darling e.g Dredd, had it been done right.
Ironically, the fandom was prepared for its failure, its even more unfortunate that the production's failure was ultimately in its preparation.
The point of F4 was not to make money. Every so and so years Fox has to use the product in order to keep the rights. That's why they made this one, and it's why their making a sequel
+Jonathan Wagner But the only point to do that is to (a) make money (at least a reasonable amount) and (b) keep someone else (Marvel/Disney) from making money (not a bad thing in a strategic sense, but not quite as compelling for shareholders). Just like Sony decided to throw in the towel on exclusivity for Spider-Man, I think there's room here for Fox to open some discussions with Disney to see what both can benefit from it.
+Dave Hill Now, I know there was a serious budget cut from making the movie (that's one of the reasons why it wasn't that good) So they could have still got out of this with a few bucks.
But yes, I do think that the fact the movie flopped so hard dose help open the doors for discussions with Disney and Fox
i hope they do.
people have a question….Y NO MCU F4!!
+Dëv Råmãchåndrân mcu does not need FF. They already have so many characters now that to quote a friend of mine, "my head will explode if they add more"
So for those still looking to know what the FF movie is all about, here's a detailed, spoilery review to keep you from wasting a sawbuck: http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/08/fantastic-four-marvel-fox-review/400850/
+Patrick J. McKenna what about the ff in civil war.
they play quite a big role in the event
+Dëv Råmãchåndrân I doubt "Civil War" for the MCU is going to resemble the comic cross-over event.
That said … most of what I remember of the FF in that was Reed being kind of a dick in building a prison in the Negative Zone for metas who violate the Registration Act. Not something they really need the FF for.
+Dave Hill then i guess i know an alternate civil war, the one from ultimate alliance 2
+Dave Hill Shame on you! as far as I am concerned this was well worth my money! id actually like to go see it again! It gets better every viewing you experience
+Dëv Råmãchåndrân Civil war is basically avengers 3 with all the avengers plus more in one movie! Its getting pretty convoluted already and their roles can easily be given to another character. Remember what works in the comics doesn't necessarily work well on screen
+Patrick J. McKenna correct me if i'm wrong but isnt captani america 3 titled civil war and isnt avengers 3 title infinity war pt 1 and 2?
+Dëv Råmãchåndrân yes to put it LITERALLY that is true, but considering that EVERY SINGLE AVENGER (except for Thor, but I'd be more surprised if he wasn't added in) is in Civil War plus more (Ant man, Spiderman being added etc) the movie is basically, and might as well be titled: Avengers: Civil War. The advertising logo for the movie also puts more emphasis on Civil War over Captain America. Its also like how Dawn of Justice is basically The Justice League as next to every member is going to be in the movie, and it is about two members against each other, which is essentially what the Avengers movies were about in some aspects