Amph Dredd 3D (and Judge Dredd: Mega-City One series)

The poor box office performance of this film is the most unfortunate note of this year in film. The hard R action film is such a dying breed.

 

This was probably by far the best use of 3D I've seen all year. If the damn premium price weren't so high people might be more willing to see 3D films. That, and there's just too many 3D films lately. It should be used much more sparingly.

 

I'm not saying this did poorly because of the 3D, but coupled with what you've said it was probably at least a minor factor. Going by Rotten Tomatoes, at least, it's gotten decidedly mixed reviews reviews, but with a tendency to lean toward "it was good". I wonder, is this considered more of a flop than John Carter, which also did poorly at the box office and had sub par advertising, but made a lot more?

 

The 3D was not the problem. The fact that it was released primarily in 3D with only minimal showings of the 2D print was the catalyst for its unpopularity. The lack of proper marketing certainly played a role, but for people who dislike/abhor 3D, living near a cinema that either had no prints in 2D or minimal times turned potential viewers elsewhere.

I find the banal idea that it was dismissed due to being a reboot of a ridiculous nineties film to be spurious at best. Once upon a time, the idea of rebooting in the wake of Joel Schumacher's Bat-films would have been maligned. But, much as with Nolan's approach to Batman, this Dredd bears little to no resemblance to its predecessor... because this go around it actually resembles the source material.

 

The 3D vs 2D screening option wasn't that big of a factor. 3D tends to make 40%-60% of box office grosses during the first few weekends for films like this. So, if you assume Dredd would have done 60% better if it had more 2D screens, then it still would have opened to under $10 million its first weekend, and still have grossed (to date, domestically) less than half of it's $50 million budget.

So the trouble is definitely something else for the film. Somehow the really positive advanced word of mouth didn't translate to wider audiences, so that suggests the advertising is at fault. I think the limited advertising campaign (you really didn't even see trailers for the film until about a month or so before the release), combined with the release date of early/mid September (really hard to be a big action hit in there unless you're Rush Hour and have a strong comedy component), is what hurt the film.

I mean- just look at how the majority of comments can be summed up as "this film was a lot better than I had expected". The advertising campaign gave people low expectations for the film. It looked less like a film in the vein of the Terminator and Robocop, and more in the vein of the awful Punisher War Zone, by way of The Raid.

Dredd/200AD's lack of traction in the American market might have been a factor (but then that hasn't stopped unknown superheros from making the jump to a hit movie, ala Blade), but that wouldn't explain its relatively slow overseas performance where it should be better known.

I don't think a comparison to John Carter is warranted- Dredd will probably end up losing $30-40 million (including marketing), but does have the word of mouth that will probably translate to some healthy DVD/BD/Streaming sales (but not the miraculous levels needed for a sequel to get greenlit). John Carter probably lost $100-$200 million (factoring in marketing and campaign reboots, etc) and lacks the word of mouth to generate high/long term video sales.

 

Yeah, it's definitely one of those gems that people are starting to discover through the strong word of mouth. Hopefully the momentum in sales and support will come to something.

Though they have said there will be a Dredd movieverse sequel comic coming out, so there's at least something to look forward to. Still, a full film (or even the short films they've mentioned) would be preferrable.

 

Karl says a sequel is still be explored.

"Karl Urban told Comic Con yesterday that DREDD exploded on home video, selling 650,000 units in the first week. He also stated that he had met with Alex Garland, the producing screenwriter for DREDD, and that they are actively exploring sequel possibilities, this according to AirlockAlpha, but that the hopes for a sequel are still hinged upon fans for the first DREDD to be as vocal as possible."

 

There's also a FB page accompanying the effort.

 

The sequel effort has been trying to organize a Dredd sequel "Day of Action" for today, the 18th, to coincide with the release of the sequel comic "Dredd: Underbelly" (which will be printed in Megazine, which will be available digitally worldwide and in print in the UK.

The Day of Action push is an effort to get Dredd DVD/BD/iTunes/Netflix sales/rentals to spike again by purchasing an extra copy of the movie (for oneself or, most likely, as a gift) to help further the apparent momentum a sequel possibility has gained.


EDIT- Damn, that pic is huge...

 

I get the feeling they can't afford Judge Death and so are going for the wastelands stuff instead, in the hopes that the momentum of the first film will result in a bigger return to then warrant a proper sequel.