While the summer movie season has been generally strong for the last couple of months, this past weekend was a bumpy ride so far as new releases were concerned. MGM’s “Blink Twice,” the feature directorial debut of Zoe Kravitz, did well enough for itself with a $7.3 million domestic start. Unfortunately for Lionsgate, the long-gestating “The Crow” remake didn’t fare nearly as well, to put it mildly. The new adaptation of James O’Barr’s graphic novel of the same name had nothing shy of a disastrous start to its box office run.
Director Rupert Sanders’ “The Crow” took in an estimated $4.6 million on its opening weekend, placing at number eight on the domestic charts. That was just barely above “Despicable Me 4” ($4.4 million), a movie that has been in theaters for going on two months. It also failed to gross more than the “Coraline” 15th anniversary re-release ($5 million), which is on its second weekend. Not only was this well below already low projections, it was less than half of what the original “Crow” made on its opening weekend in 1994, as that version opened to $11.7 million in its day.
What went wrong here? How did the producers miss the mark so badly? We’re going to go over the biggest reasons that “The Crow” failed to fly high at the box office. Let’s get into it.
The reasons are:
- The Crow failed to impress critics and audiences
- The Crow’s competition didn’t help matters
- The stench of development hell surrounding The Crow lingers
- The Crow franchise has been dead for years
- The Crow was another reboot nobody asked for
I loved the original. But there is no doubt that both the movie and the original graphic novel were thematically “of the 90s”.
Goth, dark lighting, tortured hero, etc…
Basically a Marilyn Manson video.
The remake bombed for the same reason a 1950s beach movie would bomb. It doesn’t fit in the current world of pop culture.
I think we may be nearing that culture peak again. This movie may have ironically released a bit too early.
I see jncos and goth kids with skateboards all over right now. They look identical to my peer group growing up squarely in the mid-90’s. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this era crow merch flooding hot topic next year.
Yeah, it’s wild to witness the embarrassments of my youth somehow coming back with a bang.
But it’s all subjective I suppose. I just hope we don’t do 80’s again
In time, maybe this movie will become some sort of cult classic.