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Kim Hollis: 47 Ronin, the $175 million-budgeted Keanu Reeves film, finished in 11th place with $5 million and has earned $32.7 million since opening on Christmas day. What went wrong here?

Felix Quinonez: Judging by the reviews 47 Ronin is apparently a terrible movie but that hasn't stopped movies from making a lot of money before. So I think the blame really should go to the marketing. When I saw the trailers I felt like they didn't even try to explain what the movie was about. The commercials felt like a bunch of random action pieces cut together. But even if the action looks cool people still need to know what's going on or why they should care; otherwise no one's going to want to see it.

I also really believe that they overestimated how well known the story was. I think that they might have assumed that audiences knew what the story was about but that clearly wasn't the case.

Edwin Davies: The marketing for 47 Ronin was awful. Truly dreadful. The ads only gave off the impression that it had samurais and demon things with no broader context, and the effects themselves looked pretty unimpressive. If you've got a terrible film that you've already delayed by over a year, the least you can do is make it look exciting or appealing, and the ads for 47 Ronin were neither.

Bruce Hall: I can't speak for anyone else, but the marketing for 47 Ronin certainly worked for me. Of course, this is because I am a child, and the minute I see Samurai swords and guys doing back flips in slow motion while fighting CGI dragons with bamboo poles, I'm sold. Unfortunately the rest of the world is far more mature than I am, and prefers that a movie trailer give you at least one good reason to fork over ten bucks and two hours of life.

The trailers were heavy on computer generated action and mystical imagery, which is a plus. But none of it was in any sort of context, making it feel less like a movie and more like a Playstation commercial. Also, it might have contained every trope from every action movie Hollywood has ever made about Japan crammed into 90 seconds.

Also, Keanu Reeves. I have nothing against the man but I am not sure most people were entirely buying him in whatever capacity they were trying to sell him here. Some of us have always wanted to see a mashup of The Last Samurai and The Matrix, and some of us haven't.

I also agree with Felix's point about the story. Typically only unusual people like me, who think every movie should have swords in it know the story of the 47 Ronin. Simply pitching this as a supernatural version of an already awesome story might have done wonders, but if the film is as underwhelming as I've heard (I haven't seen it yet), it wouldn't have mattered in the long run.

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