Support NeoGAF

[kswiston]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ne...ould-lose-80m-serving-a-higher-purpose-996632

The late Kirk Kerkorian's parting gift to Hollywood was The Promise, a big-budget epic about the Armenian genocide.

Starring Christian Bale and Oscar Isaac, the movie opened to a mere $4.1 million at the North American box office over the weekend. At that rate, the film stands to lose $80 million or more unless it overperforms overseas and in ancillary markets, according to box-office experts.

The Promise cost $90 million to $100 million to make before marketing costs and a distribution fee paid to Open Road Films in North America. Kerkorian, who died in 2015 and was of Armenian descent, fully financed the movie via Survival Pictures, which was created to make the movie and to educate the public about genocide in the 20th and 21st centuries.

The film's producers say the movie is a victory, its box office notwithstanding, since the intent was never to make a profit. Instead, The Promise was intended to shine a light on the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire. And any proceeds from the film will be donated to charity, including to the new The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA School of Law, which was unveiled last week with a $20 million gift.

<snip>

Box-office analyst Jeff Bock is of a different opinion.

"I honestly don't know who spends $90 million on a historical drama these days without a major distributor in place. This is just failed filmmaking from start to finish," Bock says. "There's always a way to tell a story without breaking the bank to do so."

The rest of the article is at the link. This is likely the biggest bomb of the year to date. It is competing with Monster Trucks, which had all of the monster CGI redone after disastrous test screenings to avoid giving children nightmares.

I guess there is a debate to be had on whether dumping a ton of money into a film with no clear distribution strategy is the best way to go about raising awareness for the Armenian Genocide. Its weekend audience was something like 500k viewers in the US, and the film will no doubt disappear from theatres swiftly in the next 2 weeks. Maybe interest will be higher in some European markets, but I doubt Asia or the rest of the Americas will care.

It probably didn't help that the film had a mixed critical reception at best. 47% on RT with a 5.7 average: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_promise_2017


I guess the film also was an example of the ugly side of user rating sandbagging last year:

By the end of October 2016, before its official release and after only three pre-release screenings in September 2016 at the Toronto International Film Festival to small audiences, IMDb had registered over 86,000 ratings for the film. 55,126 of which were one-star and 30,639 of which were 10-star, with very few ratings falling anywhere in between. The majority of these votes had been cast by males outside of the US. By mid-November the total was over 91,000 votes, with over 57,000 one-star votes. Commentators assessed that these were mostly votes by people who had never seen the film, and that the one star voting was part of an orchestrated campaign by Armenian Genocide deniers to downrate the movie, which had then initiated an Armenian response to highly rate the movie.[18][19][20][21] Currently, the film has a rating of 5.9/10 from 141,335 votes.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

Aside from the ugly user review bullshit, it's starting to feel like the place for these kinds of projects is on streaming services. Similar to Scorcese's Silence. A Christian Bale movie launching on Netflix, for example, would have been a much bigger deal and potentially raised its profile, as opposed to it sort of just getting lost in a theatre release schedule full of tentpole franchise flicks.

 

[cirrhosis]

The only other time I heard of this movie other than this thread was in the background of an interview with Alexis Ohanian talking about his grandpa.

 

[Slayven]

Aside from the ugly user review bullshit, it's starting to feel like the place for these kinds of projects is on streaming services. Similar to Scorcese's Silence. A Christian Bale movie launching on Netflix, for example, would have been a much bigger deal and potentially raised its profile, as opposed to it sort of just getting lost in a theatre release schedule full of tentpole franchise flicks.

Yeah, and the marketing didn't do it any favors. It looked like a generic period love story

 

[Z3M0G]

It is competing with Monster Trucks, which had all of the monster CGI redone after disastrous test screenings to avoid giving children nightmares.

Um... any pics of this?

 

[VAD]

It is a damn shame a movie dealing with the Armenian genocide bombs like that. I hope it will do decently in Europe.

 

[FyreWulff]

Shame but it was fully funded as a pet project, so those viewing it as a marketing/blockbuster terms are missing the point.

 

[tearsintherain]

The (late) Kirk Kerkorian was a billionaire so I doubt it had any lasting financial impact on anyone, maybe his grandkids got a little less money.

I mean... most people go to movies to escape reality, not to get more depressed about how shitty people can be. Why is it people are shocked when sad movies don't do well in theaters? "Wanna go see a movie about the Armenian genocide?" is not something you'll hear at Starbucks between couples discussing date night.

I think Bill Burr mentioned watching this movie on his podcast recently.

 

[jetjevons]

Um... any pics of this?

That is a movie I'd watch! Wow.

 

[JonnyDBrit]

I didn't even realise the film was coming out this week, completely slipped my mind.

Shame if it doesn't do well enough at least to become an educational stock film.

 

[soundscream]

While I'm sure they wanted more people to go see it, I also dont think creating a hit was their main focus. The film represents a giant middle finger to those who try and question the existence of the genocide.

 

[Atom Heart Mother]

I've known about this movie since 2016, thought it came out already. I want to see it, the Armenian Genocide is a very important topic.

 

[kswiston]

The (late) Kirk Kerkorian was a billionaire so I doubt it had any lasting financial impact on anyone, maybe his grandkids got a little less money.

I mean... most people go to movies to escape reality, not to get more depressed about how shitty people can be. Why is it people are shocked when sad movies don't do well in theaters? "Wanna go see a movie about the Armenian genocide?" is not something you'll hear at Starbucks between couples discussing date night.

I think Bill Burr mentioned watching this movie on his podcast recently.

Maybe they thought it would get buzz like Schindler's List, the Pianist, or Hotel Rwanda. It's not like depressing movies haven't made more than $10M domestic in the past.

EDIT: I do agree with Ninja Scooter that, if the goal was to get eyeballs on this film, Netflix would have been the better route to take.

Um... any pics of this?

I don't know if pics exist on the internet, or if Paramount will ever release them. I'm not sure the story was confirmed either, but Monster Trucks was delayed by over a year, so it wouldn't be too surprising.

 

[Ninjimbo]

Yeah, who gives a shit about how much money it made? The fact that anything was made regarding one of the most troubling periods in human history is probably a miracle in an of itself. If the film's producers don't care about the revenue, why should I?

 

[badcrumble]

Armenian friends have told me that there are people mass-buying tickets to early screenings and then cancelling them for refunds at the last minute in order to intentionally damage the film.

 

[Magnus]

I'm interested in the Monster Trucks fiasco the OP references. Any good info on that?

 

[Anton Sugar]

The (late) Kirk Kerkorian was a billionaire so I doubt it had any lasting financial impact on anyone, maybe his grandkids got a little less money.

I mean... most people go to movies to escape reality, not to get more depressed about how shitty people can be. Why is it people are shocked when sad movies don't do well in theaters? "Wanna go see a movie about the Armenian genocide?" is not something you'll hear at Starbucks between couples discussing date night.

I think Bill Burr mentioned watching this movie on his podcast recently.

Plenty of "depressing" historical movies have made plenty of money. The failure here is all in the marketing and distribution strategy.

 

[GuyKazama]

Yeah, who gives a shit about how much money it made? The fact that anything was made regarding one of the most troubling periods in human history is probably a miracle in an of itself. If the film's producers don't care about the revenue, why should I?

Because it will discourage others from making similar movies.

 

[SwiftDeath]

It was a nice idea/concept but I don't know if it was a good use of $90M if your goal was to better educate people about the Armenian genocide

User rating stuff is gross

 

[ahoyhoy]

Seems like the film is mediocre at best. Couple that with terrible marketing and controversial subject matter, and you've got yourself a bomb stew gooin

 

[PinkyMonkey]

According to IMDB, this movie is about a love triangle....

 

[kswiston]

Because it will discourage others from making similar movies.

Making no money also correlates to not finding an audience/viewership, which was the entire point.

Plus, why spend $90M on this? It's difficult to believe that they couldn't have had the same impact with a $30-50M film. Have Survival Pictures, the production company created to make the film, use the balance to fund projects by other Armenian filmmakers, or something similar.

 

[MikeHattsu]

I'm interested in the Monster Trucks fiasco the OP references. Any good info on that?

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1334535

 

[twentytwo22]

Oh wow, I actually watched this in Japan on Netflix a couple of months ago (my father in law picked it). Had never heard of it, had no idea it was that recent and that it bombed/will bomb that bad.

I enjoyed the film a lot.

 

[jviggy43]

It is a damn shame a movie dealing with the Armenian genocide bombs like that. I hope it will do decently in Europe.

Agreed. Its crazy that were still vying for recognition. I feel like I owe it to go check it out.

 

[SeanC]

Making no money also correlates to not finding an audience/viewership, which was the entire point.

Plus, why spend $90M on this? It's difficult to believe that they couldn't have had the same impact with a $30-50M film. Have Survival Pictures, the production company created to make the film, use the balance to fund projects by other Armenian filmmakers, or something similar.

Foreign investors want to put up the money for a major star and to back a major writer/director. Between Bale and Terry George that's probably 20 mil right there. They want to make a statement and willing to put up as much as needed to do it.

Had a similar experience myself with a Chinese backer(s) - they'll pay whatever they can to get a name star and director. Money is literally no object.

 

[Machina]

I'd hate to put the man through the mental agony again, but I'd love to see what Spielberg could do with the Armenian Genocide. Obviously it wouldn't be as personal as Schindler's List, but that man was born to remind humanity of its worst moments.

 

[dakun]

is the film any good though?

If it's a bad film they might as well have spend money on making an actual documentary.

The subject matter alone doesn't warrant an audience if the content is not there.

They might have actually done a disservice to any potential future film on this subject.. because now it's not only a controversial topic (in terms of the deniers) but movie execs have an example of a movie that bombed horribly