Cinema Sleuth: Fox and the Case of the Outraged Fans

Posted by Dr. Cole Abaius (cole.abaius@filmschoolrejects.com) on January 22, 2009

Is the Crappiness of Jumper Enough to Justify Hating Fox?

There are some questions in life that one puzzles over furiously. Who built Atlantis? Who framed Roger Rabbit? Who was the twenty-eighth President of the United States? They are mysterious that WILL NEVER BE ANSWERED. Today, we examine a tricky one by asking: are movie fans justified in hating Fox?

The question of course stems from the recent outrage at Fox’s legal bravado that (never really) could have stopped Watchmen from seeing the light of day. There’s a lot of ire floating to the surface that’s lain dormant since the last time Fox did something ridiculous or ruined a fanboy franchise.

In investigating this particular conundrum, I realized that instead of theories to develop, it would be much easier for you to give you pieces of evidence. So, like a private dick presenting you with photos of your girlfriend cheating on you, I give you Exhibits A through P and will let you decide.

27 DressesExhibit A: 27 Dresses
Budget: Unknown
Domestic Gross: $76.8 million
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 41% (Rotten)

Exhibit B: Meet the Spartans
Budget: $30 million
Domestic Gross: $38.2 million
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 2% (Rotten)

Exhibit C: Jumper
Budget: $85 million
Domestic Gross: $80.1 million
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 16% (Rotten)

Exhibit D: Nim’s Island
Budget: $37 million
Domestic Gross: $48 million
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 49% (Rotten)

Exhibit E: What Happens in Vegas
Budget: $35 million
Domestic Gross: $80.2 million
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 27% (Rotten)

Exhibit F: Deception
Budget: $25 million
Domestic Gross: $4.5 million
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 12% (Rotten)

The HappeningExhibit G: The Happening
Budget: $60 million
Domestic Gross: $64.5 million
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 19% (Rotten)

Exhibit H: Meet Dave
Budget: $60 million
Domestic Gross: $11.8 million
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 19% (Rotten)

Exhibit I: Space Chimps
Budget: $37 million
Domestic Gross: $30.1 million
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 38% (Rotten)

Exhibit J: The X-Files: I Want to Believe
Budget: $30 million
Domestic Gross: $20.9 million
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 32% (Rotten)

Exhibit K: Babylon A.D.
Budget: $60 million
Domestic Gross: $22.5 million
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 7% (Rotten)

Exhibit L: City of Ember
Budget: $38 million
Domestic Gross: $7.8 million
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 51% (Rotten)

Max PayneExhibit M: Max Payne
Budget: Unknown
Domestic Gross: $40.6 million
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 18% (Rotten)

Exhibit N: Australia
Budget: $130 million
Domestic Gross: $47.7 million
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 54% (Rotten)

Exhibit O: The Day the Earth Stood Still
Budget: $80 million
Domestic Gross: $77.3 million
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 20% (Rotten)

Exhibit P: Marley and Me
Budget: Unknown
Domestic Gross: $123.7 million
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 60% (Finally Fresh!)

My exhibits are, obviously, the 2008 Fox Release Slate in its entirety. These are the films that Fox set loose upon the public last year.

There’s a lot going on here to investigate. On one hand, they made quite a bit of money – at least enough here and there to deal with the massive bombs they had until cleaning up with Marley and Me. On the other hand, they didn’t really make too much on domestic sales alone, and there’s only one movie in the whole damned slate that got a Fresh RT Rating (and a lukewarm 60% at that.

Their output received an abysmal average of 29% when it came to RT Ratings, so it’s clear that the critics were not in Fox’s corner.

Perhaps the biggest crime committed against fanboys was the destruction of two beloved franchises: the unnecessary remake (that failed to break even) of The Day the Earth Stood Still and the unnecessary reboot sequel X-Files: I Want to Believe. It’s clear that these transgressions got fanboys ready for a fight against Fox. And Fox was willing to give them even more cannon-fodder with their 11th hour lawsuit against Warners for Watchmen rights.

I leave it up to you to play judge and jury in this mystery. Sure Fox is hitting below the average as far as critics are concerned, but is the anger and aggression felt toward the studio really warranted?


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  • Brian Rodden
    It smells in here...
  • joshi38
    I can't really be angry at a studio who keeps doling out dud films, it's well known that Fox go above and beyond to interfere as much as possible with whatever projects they've got going to make sure it's as "financially viable" as possible, with the obvious result being what you've shown us here, a whole bunch of films that have just made more than their budget back along with more films that didn't.

    So in other words, I'm not angry at Fox for being bad at what they do, no matter how many decent film-makers and actors get struck down in their wake, if anything, I just pity them.

    But in all honestly, their track record for canceling TV shows before even giving them a decent chance, and the whole Watchman thing (not the lawsuit against WB. but just the fact that they sat on it for 20 years, and likely would have messed it royally up if they ever got round to making it anyway) doesn't exactly sit them in my good books.

    My question though, does anyone actually pay attention to the studio? I watch out for upcoming films, but pay very little attention to the actual studio. When I go see a movie, I don't see the Fox logo and immediately think "Oh great, here comes a piece of crap, I should have seen that film showing next door made by Disney.", it literally almost never registers with me that "This studio kind of has a habit of not doing very good movies" when I'm sitting down to a movie.
  • we all wish "Arrested Development" would've continued. trust me.

    but i have to slightly disagree with you on your last paragraph through my own personal opinion. Usually, when i see a title card telling me it's a Pixar film i just assume it will be good. but i would say about 80% of my attitude toward seeing a movie would go toward the actual trailer.

    i'm still not going to see "Wolverine" though.
  • joshi38
    Pixar can't really be used in this argument because it's such an anomaly. I don't know any other movie studio whose movies people anticipate coming out simply because it comes from said studio and not based on anything else. Usually when people anticipate a movie months or years in advanced it's because it's based on an existing property (comic book, novel, sequel, etc). But ten years ago, had Paramount announced that they were going to make a film about a robot who develops a personality and saves the world, people wouldn't care, it's an original script, not based off of anything, why should we care about it when it's not even in production yet? Pixar says this and we're all anticipating Oscars before the film had even come out.

    We know Pixar delivers quality, but we don't know of any studio that has that level of consistency with their quality (yes, even Cars, it may not have hit the same level of Pixarness, but it was a good film). Even Fox has done some amazing films in their time, they're not consistently bad (yes, 2008 was a bad year for them), so again, I can't say many people judge a movie based on the studio.
  • very good points. this is a weak argument to begin with. i guess i was just attempting a semi-devil's advocate deal.

    it's not like the other studios didn't have misfires this year either. it just seems like Fox decided to pile them on.
  • joshi38
    Someone had to play devils advocate.

    And with luck, since Fox piled them on last year, it might mean they've got some good ones coming out next year... I don't really have my hopes up on that though.
  • Die Hard. Star Wars. Fox earned some leeway.
  • Agree Robert. Whenever I heard the or saw the 20th Century Fox logo come up it always make me thing Star Wars was coming on I had seen it that many times. To this day I can hear the drums start up and it makes me think of those original movies.
  • Meat-Popsicle
    I can hat Fox for releasing abysmal movies in 2008, I can be slightly disgruntled by the lawsuit (but face it they had the right, and were right in suing over watchmen...but I digress) but Fox has released some amazing movies over the years: Die Hard, Alien, Predator, Star Wars, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Revenge of the Nerds...well maybe they arent all amazing but they are pretty damn good still.
  • They get some slack for those films but you can only ride on your rep for so long before it starts to sound like a bad Fonzie impersonation.......
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