Here’s a riddle for you. What do you get when cross Tom Hanks (one of the most celebrated actors and talents of our generation), a 3D animated film (one of the most financially lucrative of all film genres) and a $270 million dollar budget to make and market a film? The answer: The Polar Express. A total box office disaster that is going to cost a number of people their jobs.
By almost any definition, pulling in just over $23 million dollars on your opening weekend should be looked at as a positive thing. That is unless you lost your mind and spent $270 million dollars on the making and marketing of a movie that doesn’t have “Star Wars” or “Lord of the Rings” in the title. I’m sorry, but what the hell was Warner Brothers thinking?!?! $270 million!?!? I don’t care if your movie is the next coming of “It’s a Wonderful Fricking Life”, you don’t spend that much money on ANY movie. Period. Did they seriously expect this film ever had a hope of breaking even? I could have told them the answer to that months before they even started production. NO!
This film now stands to lose… are you ready for this… over $200 million dollars. Think about that. It would become the single greatest money losing film of all time. It will lose more money that it takes to make 95% of the films out there.
I haven’t even seen the film yet, but that doesn’t matter. The Studios sealed the financial fate of this film before a single frame of it was produced. It doesn’t matter if it’s the best film of the season (and the critics seem to agree it’s not), you just can’t make back that kind of money, and now heads are going to roll. And so they should. This level of ineptitude is just staggering. What should have been a reason to celebrate ($23 million opening weekend) is instead ushering in the corporate grim reaper. Just plain Dumb.
