Monday Morning Quarterback Part II
By BOP Staff
August 21, 2013
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Jason Barney: I was a little surprised when the first Kick Ass did so well, but its run was successful, no doubt about it. That one was produced for $30 million and brought in $96 million, so everyone involved was happy. This sequel is not likely to lose money, but I can’t imagine a formula where it outperforms the original, especially with this opening. There are no real heavyweights at the box office right now, considering the last film to open north of $50 million was Wolverine, but it is just saturated with a lot of new entries. Kick Ass 2 was one of those new entries and it still only opened in fourth. Next week there are three new openers, so this one is going to get lost in the shuffle pretty quickly. It won’t cost anyone anything, but will be gone pretty quick.
Brett Ballard-Beach: It didn't do better because nobody was really asking for it. I will admit I fell victim to the "buzz" and "chatter" that suggested this might open at or slightly above Kick-Ass, but as with the first one, the b/atter (or chuzz) was all being made by the people who went to see it on opening night (or in this case at 10 p.m. on Thursday). As with Jobs, this isn't terrible because the budget was relatively low ($28 million) and it should make that back domestically. For my part, I haven't seen either, but seeing the trailer for KA2 suggests the larger issue problem: tonewise, this is all over the place. Maybe the Coens could make a dark comedy around this material and straddle the tonal issue, but the tone here seemed to be, "We're still mocking superhero cliches, but we are also giving you all those cliches as well. We have ridiculously violent action, but now that the 13-year-old girl is a 16-year-old girl, you can't get quite the same jollies watching her swear and kill people." At least, that was my takeaway.
Max Braden: I think the series just struggles from pushing the boundaries of both types of potential audiences. I know some people were bothered by the violence of the first movie and I would say that the issue of violence determined the public reaction to the movie. I remember hearing about that but I also remember not being bothered by the violence, though it earned the movie a very strongly deserved R-rating. In the hands of producers for high-school movies like Superbad or American Pie, it might have been less violent, funnier, and more appealing to older high school and college kids. Had it been a more serious revenge fantasy about bullying, something indie in the vein of Election, the violence would have suited the message. And in the hands of Disney producers it might have been a wacky Spy Kids-esque adventure. But where sex and violence typically go hand in hand, there wasn't much to appeal to older kids, and it was way too violent for kids younger than high school. The movie finished filming before Moretz turned 12-years-old. So I think the reaction to the first movie averaged out to be "Okay, that happened..." but nobody was asking for a sequel. In Kick-Ass 2, Moretz at 15/16 oddly seems too old for the role now. The tone seems to have softened the violence but still resulted in an R rating, which means it's still no more appealing to older kids or accessible to the Spy Kids audience. I'd say the only reason this movie managed to break $10 million was because of the curiosity factor in seeing if Jim Carrey's post-production complaints were valid.
Edwin Davies: This reminds me of what happens when a band puts out a debut album that people really love, that tries something different and gets a big response, then puts out a second album where they do the same thing and everyone loses interest. The key to the success of the first Kick-Ass, a film which I really didn't like because I can't stand Mark Millar, was that it had a transgressive quality to it; it pushed buttons and made audiences uncomfortable, and it set out its stall as a response to the wave of superhero films that we're still being carried along by.
It was a neat trick, but it's one that loses all of its potency if you try to repeat it without significantly raising the stakes. Based on the ads, it was hard to see just what made this one so different from the first one, and when the largely negative reviews came out it probably cemented the idea that it wasn't worth bothering with if you had seen the original. It might also be the case that people have become so saturated by comic book movies that they don't feel like it's worth spending money to watch people make fun of them.
Kim Hollis: I have seen a lot of people echoing Edwin's sentiments about Mark Millar, and although I don't think that factors in for a lot of the movie-going public, I do think it's a problem when you're talking about the prime demographic for Kick Ass 2. This is not a movie that appeals to people outside the comic book world, so if it wasn't holding onto audience from the first film, it was naturally going to see some attrition. It is absolutely correct that a large number of people were put off by the hyper violence of Kick Ass, and Jim Carrey wasn't an appealing enough casting stunt to regain their interest.
David Mumpower: I am in that small minority that thought Kick-Ass 2 claimed better advertising than the original. The key is exactly what Max mentioned above. I was not disgusted by the idea of a teen girl being a functional assassin in the same manner that the 13-year-old version of the same character horrified me. In a way, Mark Millar is the most successful troll in the comic book/movie industry. His works are imbued with the sort of directed loathing toward humanity that is ordinarily reserved for people preparing to take firearms up clock towers. To his credit, he has redirected that hatred in a (relatively) constructive manner, instead writing about acts of extreme violence against people who have in no way wronged him. That's undeniably healthier than the approach used at a screening of The Dark Knight Rises. His writing isn't for me...or anyone who doesn't despise their fellow man, but his niche audience is a passionate one. I believe that what was lost in translation with Kick-Ass 2 is that the fence sitters who were willing to give the original movie a chance settled upon the philosophy of "fool me once..." for the sequel. Even so, we are universal in our acknowledgement that Kick Ass 2 is an acceptable result given its frugal budget that potentially extends the life of the franchise. Three years from now, Hit Girl Goes to College could even be a concept that works.