"Serenity" SE-DVD question

[Thornir Alekeg]

What about revenues from non-domestic movie theaters? I hope it would boost the film's potential profit margin the way the first D&D film did. Not that I'm putting D&D: The Movie and Serenity on the same platform. Just that the audience outside US tend to be much easier to entertain (case in point, Baywatch).

Overseas have generated about another $12 million so far, I believe. They have cancelled the theatrical release in many countries and will instead go direct to DVD.

As for a SE version of the movie, while Joss isn't big on it (as posted above) Universal has a pretty good track record of doing it. My feeling is that if the movie does well on DVD, enough to consider a sequel, in a couple of years Universal might try and tie an SE Serenity DVD to a sequel contract to hedge their bets a little, and Joss might be willing to suck up his dislike for SE versions in order to get a sequel.

 

[satori01]

Firefly "only" cost 30 million to make. So if it made 10 million opening weekend in the US, and lets say another 10 million overseas, DVD sales will push it profitable.

Lets face it every person that bought the Firefly DVDs will buy Serenity, and sales of both will increase, as some people that borrowered Firefly will buy both.

 

[Chain Lightning]

Why didn't Serenity do well? It's a hard show/concept to sell to someone not familiar with it in 15-30 seconds, that's why. And it wasn't exactly advertised all over the place. Sure, it got some but not nearly as much as, say, War of the Worlds or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Word of mouth is powerful, but not as powerful or detrimental as you have posted here.

I totally agree John. It is totally a hard concept to sell in a few seconds. As the movie came out, I had not seen a single Firefly episode. I didn't go see Serenity either. Let me tell you want happened with my group of friends and I. A story I'm sure will get a few tomatoes thrown at me from fellow board members.

I wasn't a big fan of Buffy or Angel. I tried, probably watch a good portion of episodes with friends. But I just didn't get into it that much. Didn't think it as bad...but again, I didnt' think it was good enough for me to take time to try and watch it. But there was always this 'Joss is god' thing going on around me with friends -- and others at the local comic book shop . So because of that, I always felt Joss Whedo was over-rated.

Now comes Firefly and through word of mouth , I hear its like a western in space. So my first thoughts was of Space 1889 (remember that game anyone) or something like that. But as I saw images of the show thru commercials and magazines it didn't look all that western. Sure, a few six-shooters and lever actions here and there (mostly only on Mal and Zoe) but other than that....not too much else was "western" feeling to me. Plus, because of the tv budget ....the show just looked cheap. So I didn't try and tune in and see it.

Later, I get advance tickets for a special Sci-fi movie screening. I go to it with a friend , who also has never seen Firefly....and we totally think it'll probably be "The Island" test screening. Lo and behold, it turns out to be Serenity. So we watch it and the same feeling comes up again .... man, this looks cheap .... I mean, doesn't have a bigger budget this time because its a feature? But.....story is good, fairly decent. There are some good moments. I gave it an average review with a few comments and went on my way.

I could definitely tell that I probably would've liked it more if I had watched the Firefly DVD box set first. Y'know...more investment in the cast. But I didn't......

Then the movie comes out wide release...and the trailers are out. I debate on going to see it again, this time paying for it. Y'know see what might've changed betweent the test screening and the final theatrical. But the trailers annoyed me, the whole "....Joss Whedon brings you his vision of the future ...." ....."blah blah says his vision is like nothing you've ever seen....blah blah" -- man that turned me off. I was like "whatever......his vision is thrift store cheap costumes and uninspired art direction "

Then just recently -- out of boredom I borrowed my friend's copy of the Firefly DVD box set. And I watch it ....


....and then I'm like, "hey...this is pretty good....looks like crap still, but the stories are well written".

In the end, ....for me ( I don't know about the rest of America) ..but for me, the thing the killed it was the "look" of the world. Everything looked cheap. I mean.. y'know sci-fi "Soldier", "Cyborg", "Nemesis", "Bablyon 5" , "Andromeda" cheap. And my friends thought the same. Except they're less forgiving. One friend caught me watching a few episodes as he walked pass my desk. He couldn't help but make fun of the Starship Trooper re-use costumes and the tin-foil covered whore house. I kept saying, "Yeah yeah...I thought so too, but you really gotta give the story a chance despite that". He was like, "Whatever dude...that looks bad".

So in the end, Joss is a good writer .....but his stuff always looks cheap and unimaginative. Its possible many others that the same maybe. I mean, you look at Doom or Resident Evil and go, "I bet you that sucks"....then you look at the trailer and go, "well...maybe not, it does look like they put some money into it......okay maybe I'll check it out" . Then it turns out that it does indeed suck. Then you got "Serenity" ... which is way better a movie, but from the get go, if you didn't know this, you DEFINITELY would think it was gonna suck based on the 'look of it'.

Joss really needs a higher budget or better art design team. Or both. Its true , we should'n't base things on looks....but with movies....especially sci-fi ones, personality only goes so far. A lot of the way a movie initially hooks viewers to buy tickets is based on that. For me it would be sweet to see Joss do another Serenity movie, but this time he just handles the writing and directing of actors part, and has other experts handle the decision making on the art direction and cinematography.

 

[Umbran]

In the end, ....for me ( I don't know about the rest of America) ..but for me, the thing the killed it was the "look" of the world. Everything looked cheap. I mean.. y'know sci-fi "Soldier", "Cyborg", "Nemesis", "Bablyon 5" , "Andromeda" cheap.

Interesting. Can you name a few shows you don't think look "cheap"?

For me it would be sweet to see Joss do another Serenity movie, but this time he just handles the writing and directing of actors part, and has other experts handle the decision making on the art direction and cinematography.

Do you have some sort of information that Joss didn't allow the people with the Design, Decoration, and Cinematography credits do their jobs? From whence do you get the idea that Joss made those decisions?

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

based on it's poor box office numbers I would think a sequel is unlikely

What kind of business did it do? I thought it had a good start, at least....

 

[farscapesg1]

As to the original question, I don't think there will be a SE version, at least not anytime soon.

As far as Firefly goes itself, let me say that my wife and I were both fans of the show and dissappointed when they cancelled it. We were also really big fans of Farscape before it also got cancelled. In all honesty, we've gotten to the point that if we like a show, we kind of have the expectation that it won't run through it's full story before some idiot decides to yank it Of course, that doesn't keep us from liking Lost, Invasion, Supernatural, Battlestar, and Stargate (both of them). As you can see, we are a pretty Sci-fi oriented couple

Firefly had some issues, and I am not afraid to admit it. And Serenity continued this thread.

The sets were not given the budget that they should have been. A lot of it did look really cheap.

The character development and interraction was pretty lacking. Why were they all together again? Why did Mal put up with Jane and not just kick him off at the next planet they landed on? Zoe, Wash, and the grease monkey (can't remember her name) were my favorite characters. The psycho girl, her brother, and Mal were pretty ho-hum in my opinion and I just found Jane to be annoying.

The story line was completely messed up thanks to Fox's decision to run the episodes out of order Those people should be taken out back and shot! Of course, this means that for the movie to work they had to try to flesh out some of that history to catch people up that haven't seen the series and in my opinion that made it a mess and left some stuff out. For example, what happened to the men with blue hands that were chasing the psycho girl?

The Reaver plot was WAY too obvious. My wife and I both picked up on it pretty much as soon as they mentioned going to a planet surrounded by Reavers :\

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

What kind of business did it do? I thought it had a good start, at least....

Film cost about $40 million to make. Last tally I heard was that worldwide theatrical ticket sales were at about $35 million.

Films have done worse and ended up with a sequel, but the expectations for Serenity after Firefly DVD sales were higher. I'm not so sure it has a third life unless it does something incredble in the DVD sales area.

 

[Ranger REG]

Films have done worse and ended up with a sequel, but the expectations for Serenity after Firefly DVD sales were higher. I'm not so sure it has a third life unless it does something incredble in the DVD sales area.

Then I better do my part and buy the DVD.

 

[Ranger REG]

As to the original question, I don't think there will be a SE version, at least not anytime soon.

Heh. Universal does have a habit of trying to repackage and re-promote some of their favorite fillms. Most recent I have seen is the Gladiator Deluxe DVD set that came out just this year ... FIVE years after the initial DVD release.

And they're not the only ones.

 

[farscapesg1]

Film cost about $40 million to make. Last tally I heard was that worldwide theatrical ticket sales were at about $35 million.

Films have done worse and ended up with a sequel, but the expectations for Serenity after Firefly DVD sales were higher. I'm not so sure it has a third life unless it does something incredble in the DVD sales area.

Not to mention the loss of one of the better characters in the show (but severely hamstringed by the movie) I can honestly say that I'm not gung-ho on seeing a sequal like I was to see this movie. I understand the need to lose characters in movies occasionally, but to do it needlessly and without a reason for it to advance the storyline is silly. Imagine if R2-D2 just up and burst into flames from bad wiring in the first Star Wars movie