Stitch on 12/10/2005 at 19:44

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Yeah, that's what I've heard. Every gushing fan seems to have a non-fan friend who loved the movie, but I most non-fans I've talked to don't really back that up. Strictly for the initiated.

Which is probably why it's flopping miserably.

Pyrian on 12/10/2005 at 19:52

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Because you have an ounce of humanity? Oh, wait, no...

Stitch on 12/10/2005 at 19:57

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I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade (I really have nothing invested in Firefly either way) but those threads are akin to fans arguing that Sisquo's recent album actually performed quite well.

$18 million in domestic sales on a $40 million movie is terrible. This film is probably going to drop off the top ten next weekend and wind up with only slightly more than half its budget.

Stitch on 12/10/2005 at 20:17

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There's no doubt Serenity will pick up some extra money globally and eventually through DVD sales, but that's irrelevant to studios contemplating whether or not greenlighting a sequel makes financial sense. Movies have to make money at the box office to justify another round.

With the kind of numbers Serenity is pulling Whenon will be lucky to be offered a direct-to-video sequel at half the budget.

Which is kind of sad, really, especially when you look at the utter crap that's outselling Serenity.

Agent Monkeysee on 12/10/2005 at 20:21

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Well Universal Studios apparently expected it to do about half its budget on domestic box office. They recoup slightly on international sales but the real win is in DVD sales. There was some quote from some Universal exec after opening weekend that said something to the effect of "Serenity performed the way we expected and we are very pleased with the outcome". Sure to some extent that's probably what she would have said regardless but the impression I've had was Universal knew they were banking a niche movie and expected it to perform to a niche audience.

Which is a larger shift in Hollywood thinking in general. I've found that more and more studios are relying less on the box office take and more on the post-theatre earnings. Over the last year I've seen multiple studios say something to the effect of "we don't really care how well <movie> does in the box office because we're sure it's gonna kill on DVD" and from what I've read that's exactly the position Universal took on Serenity.

And frankly I think that's pretty cool as it potentially opens up studios to accepting more outlandish and interesting projects because they expect it to find an audience in home theatre sales. The box office is just a way to get the news out.

As for Serenity itself, I'm slightly biased because I've seen 3 episodes of Firefly, which I suppose is akin to seeing a prequel movie's worth of storyline and character development. However all my friends that have seen it that haven't seen the series thought it was really cool so I dunno. It certainly wouldn't hurt to be exposed to the series before seeing the movie but I don't think you have to be a "rabid fan" or anything.

Also some of you (David) seem to be focusing too much on the particulars of the story. The themes in the movie were pretty clearly about the nature of belief, causes, and what motivates and drives people. Mal and the Operative were set as opposites to each other, where Mal found a belief and motivating cause in the end by directing himself inwardly and the Operative finding his belief in his commanding authority and faith in his cause being completely pulled out from under him because he was utterly reliant on external forces to provide him with meaning. Individualism vs. collectivism. In addition the Alliance was setup as the "Benevolent Government guarding horrible secrets to maintain its supposed benevolence" which is a fairly common storyline. It even had a bit of road to hell paved with good intentions blah blah.

I'm no film analyst or anything but the movie wasn't really *about* the creation of the Reavers or the death of Miranda anymore than, say, Blade Runner was *about* detective work in 2019 Los Angeles.



Heh, okay I posted mine before this but I wasn't really arguing from the perspective that they would make a sequel. Simply that Universal expected this going in and it really isn't that "terrible". I find it unlikely we'll see a Serenity sequel and frankly I don't think we need one. Firefly would have worked better as a TV series anyway, and this movie was an excellent sendoff for the series. I simply don't see it working as a film franchise.

Is anyone involved even all that interested in continuing the franchise? The only things I've heard about sequels or renewed tv shows is masturbatory nerd-rumor.