On Going Problems for Bad Movies Part 2

MickeyMoose15

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We had just finished talking about how a number of projects based on the movie Atlantis: The Lost Empire were canceled because of poor performance at the box office. Our story continues with the blockbuster Pearl Harbor that fell short of expectations of the Walt Disney Company.

Titanic back in 1997 was originally called the most expensive bomb by most of the critics but once the movie opened, the box office was changed forever. The movie had a small opening weekend of $28 million but was able to hold on for monthes at #1 and ended up grossing $600 million domestically and $1.8 billion world-wide. It broke all previous box office records and left all other movies at the starting gate. After the movie became big, the media waited for other movie companies to follow up on the concept. Disney ended up to be the first one to try it with their movie Tennessee also known today as Pearl Harbor. The plot was of a love triangle between two friends fighting over a nurse set against the famous attack against Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. Thought the film was fashioned more after Saving Private Ryan then Titanic, but the media saw the love story and called it, "Titanic in the War."

Everybody expected the movie to gross $90 million to $100 million in its opening weekend and to break The Lost World: Jurassic Park's opening weekend record. Unfortunately the movie fell short of the record making $75 million. Still good but not what evryone expected. The movie started to slip dramatically after that. $30 million the next week (barely beating Shrek) and then falling behind Shrek the next weekend. After that the movie started to drop two slots every weekend and ended up grossing $194 million as of the middle of August. This very short of the $200-250 million goal planned after many revisions by Disney executives.

The thing was the movie after its opening weekend needed a serious boast. But you could barely find a Pearl Harbor commercial on TV after the opening weekend plus all the critics except the Los Angles Times hated the movie and called it the Summer Bomb. The pre-show of the Backlot Tour at the Disney-MGM Studios was in early May to be rehab with a Pearl Harbor update but this was delayed till late June. Many Disney executives thought the Japanese tourists or the Japanese-Americans might find insulting. Weird huh?

Was there a stunt show or thrill ride planned based on the movie? Who really knows? The Disney Studios Paris has a stunt show based on the movie Armageddon which grossed $202 million. All we know is that because of the disappointment at the box-office and the fear of upsetting the Japanese-Americans, Disney has canceled any plans concerning Pearl Harbor.

This isn't the first time plans for other projects based on movies have been canceled due to poor performance at the box-office. Hopefully the Princess Diaries and Monsters Inc. will help the studio.
 

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