Entry posted by Jean Valjean
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It looks kind of dumb, but you know what sells me? Passion. If you see any of the "making of" segments, it's clear that Luc Besson is passionate about it. He'l right to advertise it as "a vision a lifetime in the making." That sort of passion sells more than any special effect. Also, he's freaking Luc Besson we're talking about here, director of The Fifth Element. If he does anything that's even in the same genre as that film, I'm in.
It makes me feel pretty bad, then, that it will flop hard. Let's do the math: Spider-Man: Homecoming came out this weekend (which I am writing a review for), War for the Planet of the Apes is next weekend, and a Christopher Nolan film is coming out after that, which happens to be the same weekend as Valerian. People will either be watching the Nolan movie or coming in late to see the blockbusters from the two previous weekends. Most people are not going to pay to see four movies in one month. In fact, most people watch only five movies in a year. And a lot of people need to see this, because it's the largest budget of any French film in history. The previous high was $113 million, but this one is $223 million! Not even most Marvel movies have that budget. An observer unfamiliar with movies might think that this movie only needs to earn as much as TMNT 2 ($245 million internationally) and it will have broke even. But that's not the way that box office successes work. The production company will only get about 50% of its money back from theatres in North America. They usually get even less back from worldwide returns (except in France, I'm guessing, since this is a French film). So in order to break even with its budget, Valerian needs to gross at least as much as Lucy ($460 million internationally). This budget also doesn't include the costs of advertising. For a film like this, the marketing could range anywhere in-between $50 and 150 million, so if I were to take the conservative end of that, this movie cost EuropaCorp $273 million, and makes it so that this has to be more successful than X-Men: Apocalypse ($544 million internationally). In order for this to be considered an actual success at the box office, it would have to make as much money as the first Guardians of the Galaxy.
Also, that music from "Gangster's Paradise" is pretty epic. Best trailer music I've heard since "Hooked on a Feeling".
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