Will Monsters vs. Aliens Be A Hit Movie?
DreamWorks Animation Film Stars Reese Witherspoon, Hugh Laurie
Mar 27, 2009
Will DreamWorks Animation's Monsters vs. Aliens be another Kung Fu Panda, or another Bee Movie?
There has been very little middle ground for DreamWorks Animation in recent years. While Shrek the Third and Kung Fu Panda have achieved blockbuster status, DWA's success has been tainted by the high-profile failures of films like Bee Movie and Flushed Away.
Those box office bombs have been particularly galling for Jeffrey Katzenberg's studio: 2007's Bee Movie failed to find an audience despite the presence of high-priced talent like Jerry Seinfeld, Matthew Broderick and Oprah Winfrey. Creative battles between DWA and Aardman Animation drove 2006's Flushed Away's studio costs through the roof, turning a $75 million movie into a $145 million movie.
A-list star power – Kate Winslet (The Reader), Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) and Ian McKellen (Lord of the Rings) – contributed to the flick's costs but failed to take Flushed Away over the top, forcing DWA to eventually apply for a $109 million tax write-down.
Monsters vs. Aliens: Phenomenon or Flop?
Monsters vs. Aliens is a big deal for DWA, which still trails Pixar as the #1 CGI animated film studio in Hollywood. It's the first animated movie made in what CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg calls "Tru 3-D," which he says will revolutionize the film industry. He believes that not only will 3-D movies lure viewers back into cineplexes, but it's also impossible for bootleggers to pirate since camcorders can't process the 3-D images. Katzenberg so believes in 3-D filmmaking that he's committed to making every DreamWorks Animation film in that format, from the ground up.
DWA is also banking on an all-star cast for this movie, which includes Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line), Hugh Laurie (House), Kiefer Sutherland (24), TV funnyman Stephen Colbert and Seth Rogen (Knocked Up).
While The Hollywood Reporter believes Monsters vs. Aliens will make around $50 million in its first weekend, bolstered by weak competition from horror flick The Haunting in Connecticut and John Cena actioner 12 Rounds.
But some people aren't so optimistic about the film's long-term chances.
"I found it overwhelmingly average," said Now film critic Norm Wilner.
"I didn't find the movie rich with humor, unless frenetic action is funny," wrote Roger Ebert in his review. "Monsters vs. Aliens is also lacking in wit. What is wit? . . . The dictionary defines it as 'analogies between dissimilar things, expressed in quick, sharp, spontaneous observations.' A weak point with the monsters, and way outside (villain) Gallaxhar's range."
"There weren't a lot of kids laughing in the theatre," Canada A.M.'s Richard Krause observed about a recent press screening he attended.
Many successful movies have been critic-proof (see Shrek the Third) but when the kids in the audience aren't laughing, that's a bigger concern.
DreamWorks Employees Not Happy With 3-D?
It doesn't help that the economic downturn hurt the number of films that are switching to 3-D; Katzenberg admitted that it costs something like $100,000 to convert a theatre to 3-D specifications. Currently less than 2,000 theatres are showing the flick in its full capacity. That not only hurts audiences' chances of seeing the film as it's meant to be seen, but also affects revenue: 3-D theatres typically charge $3 or $4 more for a ticket.
Even the film's crew weren't entirely sold on putting the film in 3-D.
“We were totally taken aback,” director Conrad Vernon told the New York Times, when Katzenberg informed him that Monsters vs. Aliens was going 3-D. “I didn’t sign up to do something garish.”
"I just remember thinking, ‘Oh, great, I’m going to have a headache for the next two and a half years,’” added producer Lisa Stewart.
It didn't help that, towards the end of production, Katzenberg reversed a promise he made that 3-D wouldn't be a "gimmick" when the CEO requested more 3-D "pow" in Monsters vs. Aliens, said Vernon.
Vernon ended up reversing a lot of those directives, but retained one significant sequence in the first scene, when a paddleball flies out at audiences.
“That was basically us telling the audience, ‘Look what we could do to you, but we’re going to control ourselves’ ” said Stewart.
So far, Monsters vs. Aliens has received mixed reviews, earning a 68% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
(Next up: What does DreamWorks Animation need to do if it wants to become the #1 animated film studio?)
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