Jack the Giant Slayer: A Review

Jack the Giant Slayer, a movie based on the fairy tale story of Jack and the Beanstalk, bombed at the box office over the weekend. This has been a harsh lesson to Warner Brothers when it comes to marketing, subject, release date, among others. The movie actually raked in 29 millions dollars, which is good for a movie to make it to number one. However, this does not really make it a success since the film cost a lot of money to make.

Along with a financing partner, Warner Brothers shelled out 190 million dollars to make the movie. In addition to the costs of the movie, they also spent approximately 80 million dollars for marketing within the United States and foreign countries. But the executive vice president of Warner Brothers defended the box office performance of Jack the Giant Slayer, stating that the box office results were good in Canada as well as other international countries. He contends that the movie just needs some time to make it big in the box office.





One major problem that the movie has encountered is the presence of another film, Oz the Great and Powerful by Disney. This movie has almost the same audience, and will be released on the coming weekend. This movie has managed to capture the interest of audiences, which makes it even more difficult for Jack the Giant Slayer to get the attention of moviegoers.

In several Asian countries, Jack the Giant Slayer managed to rake in 13.7 millions dollars. Warner Brothers is very much pleased with the results. As a matter of fact, it also has high hopes that the movie would be able to get 225 millions dollars with its international audiences. This would be sufficient to get a break even for the expenses incurred in the making of the film. Take note that half of the international sales of movie tickets go to the theater owners themselves.

However, Jack the Giant Slayer is still considered as a box office problem for the studio. While it has managed to snag the Best Picture award at the recent Academy Awards for the movie Argo, it still has a string of losses with its last few movies. These movies include the Gangster Squad, Beautiful Creatures, as well as Bullet to the Head.

There have been mixed reviews for the movie, based from the exit surveys among moviegoers themselves. This movie was actually touted to be a solid film, especially with its director who is popularly known for his work with the X-Men movies. So where did Jack the Giant Slayer go wrong? Analysts say that it is generally difficult to follow up on the success of similar movies, such as Alice. Imitation usually happens when a movie hits it big, and other studios will now follow suit. But the results are usually not that good, and this is certainly what happened with the movie. The executives at Warner Brothers still remain to be optimistic, stating that it truly is a challenge if a movie aims for a wide audience.