For almost a year ago I started writing about how bad I was predicting Punisher: War Zone was going to be. From the project’s biggest cheerleader (Thomas Jane) walking away because even he thought the script was too awful, to the drama with the movie’s director Lexi Alexander, to the inexplicable way the movie was managed at Comic-Con this year right down to a poor trailer. I saw extremely little hope in the project. Then I saw it and had to eat my words a little bit because while there are a lot of things wrong with the movie, I had a really entertaining time watching it.
But one part of my prediction that I never changed was that this film was going to bomb. And my international friends… bomb it has. Punisher: War Zone came in at a measly $4 million opening weekend. That’s not a typo. $4 million. 2 weeks ago I never would have thought I’d say this… but it deserved better than that.
Maybe it was the R rating. Maybe it was the fact that it was using a TV star (Ray Stevenson) to play the lead role (he was awesome in it by the way). Maybe it was the poor marketing campaign. Maybe it was all the drama leading up to the release of the movie. Maybe it was the fact that Punisher just isn’t a popular enough character. Maybe it was a lot of things. Whatever the reason, I think it’s safe to say it’ll be a LONG time before we see any incarnation of The Punisher on the big screen again with a track record like this:
Dolph Lungren’s version: FAIL
Thomas Jane’s version (even though I sort of liked it): FAIL
Ray Stevenson’s version: FAIL
Maybe Billy Baldwin can do one next?
