In cinema, familiarity doesn't breed contempt it breeds comfort and return business. The dominance of franchises and known quantities in mainstream cinema is hardly a new idea eight of the top 10 movies of last year came from already successful pop culture franchises (nine, if you consider the Pixar brand a franchise in itself), and the year before where franchises made a clean sweep of the top 10.

lack the brand awareness of their summertime brethren? Certainly, only Sucker Punch falls into the category of being truly an unknown quantity, but even the fairytale of Jack and The Beanstalk lacks the pop-culture punch of seeing that Marvel Comics logo appear on screen during the trailer, or knowing that you're paying money for the latest installment of a franchise you already like. Familiar Isn't Familiar EnoughĬould it be that Jack, John et al. Studios have been trying to expand the summer blockbuster season for some time - understandably, considering that the period is the most lucrative for them - but audiences, it seems, aren't quite buying into the idea. Go back to 2011 and you'll see the under-performing corpse of Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch, or head back a couple of years earlier to glimpse the grim specter of the same director's ambitious, flawed Watchmen adaptation. Jack and John aren't the only casualties of a March release. >'In cinema, familiarity doesn't breed contempt it breeds comfort and return business.' Could the problem be that this kind of thing isn't what audiences want to see this early in the year? It's worth noting that Jack was initially targeted at a summer 2012 release date, and was moved multiple times before ending in its current Marelease slot. In other words, exactly the kind of thing that tends to fill multiplexes every summer with far more success. Jack's performance is, in fact, even weaker than John Carter's much-derided $30.2 million opening weekend in 2012, leading to one obvious explanation for what went wrong: March Isn't Summer Yetīoth Jack and John were well-made, relatively enjoyable adventure movies starring recognizable faces in familiar stories and worlds filled with more than a handful of special effects.

Jack's box office performance in its opening weekend was worryingly low it took in only $27.2 million, with experts already suggesting that the movie actually needs to make almost 20 times that figure worldwide in order to recoup the studios' investment in its production and marketing. But what exactly is the lesson that Hollywood should learn from this latest big budget flop? This weekend's dismal performance of Bryan Singer's much-anticipated Jack the Giant Slayer may have seemed familiar to those who recall the sad fate of Disney's John Carter almost exactly a year ago.

Jack the giant killer budget