Box office failures - Green Lantern

Box office failures - Green Lantern

 

Cast

·         Ryan Reynolds

      ·         Blake Lively

      ·         Peter Sarsgaard

      ·         Mark Strong

      ·         Angela Bassett

      ·         Tim Robbins

 

In my opinion, the casting contributed to the failure of the film. The main characters are portrayed by actors we wouldn’t usually associate with superhero films, this means that the expectation the audience have will probably not be met. For example, the Avengers has a host of action stars that audiences will recognise as people who fit the genre, unlike the stars of Green Lantern.

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively are both stars, but they are not the right stars for the genre. It wasn’t necessarily the lack of a star that impacted on the film, but the lack of the right star.

Pre-existing characters and fanbase

The film was under pressure to succeed because the fanbase of DC and Green Lantern obviously had high expectations of the film. One review said it ‘relied on comic book mythology’ saying it was ‘Noisy, overproduced and thinly written’. This would suggest that the film flopped as it tried to make success out of the Green Lantern name alone, which didn’t happen.

Budget, plot and SFX

Warner Bros were concerned that the film would not be complete in time for its world premier, even after increasing its budget by 9 million. Desperate to get the film finished, the special effects were left incomplete or missing all together. As well as this, many scenes were not shot, so plotlines were left unfinished, such as the relationship between Hal Jordan and his nephew. Finally, many people believe some films fail due to lack of marketing, to ensure this didn’t happen, the film was given a $100 million marketing budget. The marketing didn’t have the desired effect, however, and after the film gained negative reviews, people decided against seeing it for themselves.

 

Director

Martin Campbell is most well known for his work on Casino Royal and The Legend of Zorro. He has been noted by several reviews as a ‘weak’ or ‘lousy’ director. Green Lantern was his first forage into the Comic Book genre, and it wasn’t a success. Of course, directors must always have a ‘first’ in a genre, but unlike David Fincher, director of X-Men, Campbell didn’t truly understand the genre enough to make a good film. His trademarks include high action sequences, particularly those at a height. This links in with a reason why the film failed; the plot suffered as the visuals were relied upon too heavily. Evidently, the visuals were actually not that good.

Fall out

As with most huge film studios, one film failing doesn’t impact hugely. Although Warner Bros did lose a huge amount of money on Green Lantern, I feel the embarrassment of the failure was the worst thing. However, this hasn’t impeded their production, with hugely successful films coming out after Green Lantern, such as Rock of Ages, Magic Mike, Dark Night Rises, and The Hobbit.

As for the impact on the stars, Ryan Reynolds has starred in 5 movies since Green Lantern, 3 of which will be released this year, as well as a cameo in ‘Ted’. Blake Lively has been in 2 films since, as well as reprising her role in the TV show Gossip Girl.

In my opinion, a huge film failure will only impact on a studio or a star if the studios/stars aren’t big. Their reputations and ability to repeatedly churn out successful films means that most failures are quickly forgotten.