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You non-Scott Pilgrim attending people are everything that's wrong with society

Kim Hollis: BOP fave Scott Pilgrim went up against the world this weekend and the world won, as the film managed only $10.6 million. Why do you think this $60 million Universal production failed to break out? What do you think of its long-term prospects?

Bruce Hall: Mmmm. Look at that crispy brown color. Smell that buttery aroma. Yes, you can put a fork in Scott Pilgrim because it’s pretty much done. This is an odd case of a film that everyone was talking about but nobody seemed to want to see. Not only that, but this is the sort of film most of the BOP gang would pay good money to see (and may well have). This is the sort of film that just about every male under the age of 18 would pay their parents’ good money to see. This is the sort of film that every male between 18 and 35 who still lives with his mother should want to see. At the very least, it was filled to the brim with attractive young people, snarky dialogue, and comic book inspired CGI stunts – seemingly the perfect last getaway for your kids before they head back out to school. So where were they? That’s what I don’t understand. Remember when Paramount used to release inferior Star Trek films off an assembly line, slapped together with $30 million in duct tape with a rapidly aging cast and one uninspiring plot after another? But they still made money thanks to front loaded theatrical runs where everyone who cared managed to see it the first weekend. The holdouts went second frame, and then it was straight to the video store with it.





This is what I’d expected from Scott Pilgrim, but I guess I was dead wrong. In fact, Kick Ass made almost twice as much its first weekend of release, and that was an R rated film – about half its target audience was going to have trouble getting in to see it! Maybe Scott Pilgrim was just a really quirky title that a lot of people outside the “geek” demographic just couldn’t relate to. I get the idea from talking to people today that that a lot of moviegoers felt that they’d seen all they needed to from the trailers. They weren’t familiar with the mythology, so they got the idea that they were looking at a one trick pony that they’d become bored with before the end of the first act. That isn’t fair of course, but this is a business after all, and business is never fair. I just don’t know that this type of material has as wide an appeal as it thinks it does. Perhaps they should have expanded the marketing campaign a bit to help sell it to a larger demographic?

Brett Beach: Being part of the BOP universe, I am tainted with "bias" as to how much people outside of this website wanted to see it. I don't mean that to sound harsh, just an observation that I am not actively swimming in the pools of buzz for Scott Pilgrim (where ever those waters might rest.) I am, however, just about to head off to see it today with my girlfriend, her brother and his wife (following my son's baptism this morning; congrats Finn!) and they were all aware of the graphic novel prior to this. My interest rests solely on liking the trailer and on the presence of one Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Like Kristen Bell, I am willing to check out any film that she stars in, on the faith that it will be worth my while. I had pegged this as "Kick Ass meets Nick and Norah ..." after seeing the early trailers and would have expected it to fall somewhere in between the opening weekend grosses for those two. I don't think its long-term prospects are good as it probably falls into the anti-critic proof category (meaning no matter how rave the reviews or positive the buzz, the people who have made up their minds that it's something they won't like, are not going to see it.) It will probably pick up a healthy fan base on DVD but to circle back to something Bruce mentioned, I find it funny that it didn't do at least a little better with something like The Expendables opening this weekend. Apparently, there were not a lot of teens attempting to sneak into that by buying Scott Pilgrim tickets.

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