New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

Kim Hollis: Battle of the Year, the dance movie featuring Sawyer from Lost, earned $4.6 million this weekend. What do you think of this result?

David Mumpower: I think it is a great example that even relatively frugal productions still have downside if the movie looks derivative and, well, god-awful atrocious. The battle of the year should involve giant robots facing off against otherworldly lizards. And we already had that movie. If someone is dancing during the battle of the year, well, that distracts from the seminal importance of the moment. There is also the possibility that we as a people have stepped off, stomped yards and the like as much as they can/should and have decided to move on to new endeavors. Of course, now that I say that, TwerkWar: The Strip-pening probably gets a greenlight tomorrow. Seriously, have some pride, Hollywood.

Jason Barney: It is awful. Opening is fifth is bad enough. Earning a quarter of the budget is not a good sign. Based on the content, however, I doubt many people will want this to stay around for long.

Brett Ballard-Beach: I think it should be classified as highly disappointing, in that it represents a rare misfire for Sony/Screen Gems, who has been able to market and sell the hell out of a wide variety of low-budget genre pics over the last decade. Having had no desire to hear/read any more about this film than absolutely necessary, I can't speak to if the advertising failed to sell it or if Screen Gems realized early on that the audience wasn't going to be there and so only plugged it half-heartedly (the 2,000 screen count would suggest the latter). On top of everything, I am fairly certain this represents the worst opening for any movie playing in 3D and opening wide since the 3D resurgence in 2008-2009. The saddest irony is that the weekend multiplier came in at above 3.0, suggesting that what little word-of-mouth there was to be had was positive. (Sidenote: In reading a plot synopsis, I think I see the problem. This is apparently a sci-fi or s/f dance film, envisioning some future dystopia where there is an international dance competition that the US hasn't won in 15 years?! No wonder they cast an alumnus from Lost to headline this.)

Edwin Davies: I feel that "terrible film starring awful person does horribly" is a story we can all get behind, but as to why the film did so badly I think it's less to do with the quality of the film, though that didn't help, than the fact that the dance movie genre has been in decline for a while now. Other than the Step Up films, which have been doing less and less business as time has gone on, and Magic Mike, which had more going for it than its genre, there have been relatively few dance competition movies that have broken out, and this just continues that trend. Nothing in the ads made this look particularly special, and by most accounts it doesn't even do the dance scenes particularly well, which is pretty much the bare minimum requirement for a dance movie, so I can't see this one being bolstered by word of mouth.

Continued:       1       2       3