JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS MAY HAVE DONE BETTER AS REAL HOLOGRAMS – MAYBE.
Jem And The Holograms made history in theaters yesterday! Although, the studios seem to regret it. Universal Studios, who worked with Blumhouse Productions, Allspark Pictures, and Hasbro on the movie, has pulled the film right out of theaters after only two weeks.
Jem’s opening weekend only brought in $1.37 million while being available in 2,500 theaters. Normally, the opening weekend is best for any movie because people are curious to see what it’s about. Not so for Jem. The next weekend only brought in about $387,925. While that could probably pay off my house, that’s a far cry from the amount a movie typically draws in. Especially opening to 2,500 theaters.
The reported budget for Jem And The Holograms was only $5 M, so it can be looked at in a couple different ways: This budget is much smaller than most other movie budgets, meaning the risk was already understood to be a great one. So not making back even $5 million dollars may have been foreseeable. On the other hand, $5 million in theaters these days has not been difficult to surpass, making this movie an incredible failure even with a tiny budget.
The movie hasn’t been pulled entirely, however. Business Insider reports 50 theaters will continue showing Jem And The Holograms. It may have well been yanked entirely however, and Universal Studios has stopped reporting the numbers going forward. That’s apparently the first time a studio has ever done that.
When the Steve Jobs movie flopped, no one pulled it. When everyone hated Fox Studios’ Fantastic Four reboot, no one yanked it from theaters. They gripped their white flags and kept themselves from throwing it in the ring. Not so forUniversal over Jem.
Not only is this 2015’s worst major studio opening, but also the worst studio wide release opening. But while it’s made history for all the wrong reasons, Universal has had such a good year with their movies that this is just a slight embarrassment, and something for other studios to learn from.
Last night, I reported about a casting decision for the upcoming He-Man movie and one of my points was the relevancy of the character. Jem And The Holograms really hasn’t been relevant for several years and it seems obvious when you realize there really was no audience watching it. Another point I made was asking if nostalgia would keep He-Man afloat. Maybe it will for that movie, but there clearly was no nostalgic love for Jem. Here’s hoping He-Man somehow does well.
Giphy / GIPHY – via Iframely
Did you see Jem And The Holograms? What did you think?
