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*Cake earworm*

Kim Hollis: Going the Distance, the romantic comedy starring real-life couple Drew Barrymore and Justin Long, earned $3.8 million and has a running total of $14 million after ten days. What went wrong with this Warner Bros. release?

Josh Spiegel: I can't blame the marketing here; the movie got enough ad time over the last month or so, and unlike the ads for The American, these weren't that deceptive: you're seeing a romantic comedy with Drew Barrymore and Justin Long in the ads, and that's what it was. I'm not the biggest fan of either Barrymore or Long, and maybe that's part of the issue: while both are well-known, neither are popular enough to set the box office afire. Also, from some of the reviews, it seems like the movie's raunchier than the ads let on, so maybe making the ads focused on the R-rated nature of the comedy could have helped.

Tim Briody: I disagree about Drew Barrymore's box office presence. She's certainly opened some films decently over the last few years. What didn't help Going the Distance was a crappy release date, the fact that it looked like Generic Romantic Comedy #921 and Warren Cheswick.





Matthew Huntley: Going the Distance is a victim three bad things (there's probably more, but let's say three for now) - a lame title; a poor release date; a very unfunny trailer. The first two are self-explanatory, but for those who saw the trailer, did it make you laugh at all? It made the movie look stupid and conventional (the scene that sticks out to me is when Justin Long goes and gets a tan). Granted, I haven't seen the movie, but I doubt the real product is funny. The purpose of a romantic comedy is to be comedic, but this one didn't convince me it was anything but a time-filler. Apparently I wasn't alone.

Reagen Sulewski: "Generic Romantic Comedy Plot #457". The problem here was that there was no real conflict. Ooh, they live apart. I bet we'll see some real crazy hijinks as a result of that... wait, no we won't because they can't interact. Without a high-concept premise (and I guess this technically counts, but not really), your romantic comedy is pretty much doomed (although with it, it's likely a much more terrible film. It's the Witherspoonian Paradox). Throw in a magic ring, or something.

David Mumpower: I have to admit that when I saw the trailer for this, I thought it was going to be a hit. That bit where they start having sex on the kitchen table before Jim Gaffigan can get out of the way cracks me up huge. Still, I think Reagen makes a great point that if the worst conflict in your script is that the relationship has to become long distance for a while, there isn't enough conflict. In the social media era, the target audience shakes their head in disgust, thinks "That's what FaceTime phone sex is for" and discards the overall premise as archaic.

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