- Today's episode of Nerdist News
is sponsored by Watch Dogs Legion.
Why did Men in Black International crash at the box office?
It's been a summer of ups and downs at the box office.
The season kicked off way back in April
with the highest of highs in Avengers End Game,
and recently hit the lowest of lows
in X-Men Dark Phoenix,
And unfortunately we must now add another low to that list
with Men in Black International.
Well, for the most part audiences have reacted
generally positively to the film.
There not exactly breaking the doors down to see the movie.
For its opening weekend the film only brought in
30 million on its reported 110 million dollar budget
and that doesn't include
it's estimated 120 million marketing budget.
Add to that the fact that critics are trashing the film
and you have a recipe for disaster.
So, why did Men in Black International
fail so spectacularly.
Well, thanks to the cats over at the Hollywood Reporter
we're getting a break down on how the film broke down.
So, let's break it down.
First up, we gotta go all the way back
to the third Men in Black.
Similar to International,
MIB 3 failed to set the world on fire.
This left the studio in a pickle.
What to do with the franchise.?
Legitimate pitches that almost made it to the big screen
included, crossing over Men in Black with 21 Jumpstreet.
However, due to producers squabbles,
that pitch was eventually dropped.
The next idea was to bring back stars,
Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith
to reprise their roles as agents K and J
for another installment,
but the price tag on both actors would have ballooned
the films budget even further.
From there, Sony decided to re-boot the franchise
with new actors, which brings us to
Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson.
- Yeah it's called the Revengers.
- Revengers?
- The studio started to capitalize on
Hemsworth and Thompsons name recognition
and chemistry from their previous work
as Thor and Valkyrie in Thor Ragnarok.
And according to the Hollywood Reporter
the pair initially came on board
to MIB International because of
how good the first version of the script was.
But from there, things went down hill faster
than Edgar downing a glass of sugar water.
- [Edgar] More
(water splashing)
More.
(water splashing) (edgar grunting)
(water splashing)
- One of the main reason for the films
lackluster performance was due to fundamental
disagreements between director F. Gary Gray
and producer Walter F. Parkes.
Reportedly Gray and Parkes
clashed on the vision for the film.
With Parkes being one of the producers who launched
the Men in Black franchise,
and Gray attempting to bring a sense of timeliness
and modern references to MIB International.
This clash led to numerous re-writes,
Parkes stepping in on directorial duties a couple of times
and Gray almost leaving the project all together.
At one point the Hollywood Reporter also noted that
Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson
hired their own dialogue writers.
So needless to say,
things were going about as well as
agent J helping to deliver a baby squid.
- [Agent J] Hey!
- Your doing fine ace.
- If all that wasn't bad enough.
This tug of war continued
because reportedly the studio behind the film, Sony
was completely MIA for MIB.
According to inside sources
"The studio was an absentee landlord.
They were nowhere to be found."
However this had at least one benefit,
there were no reshoots
nor was there a complicated post production process.
THR's source sums it up by saying
"It wasn't a Dark Phoenix situation."
it's always good to remember,
things could definitely be worse.
In the end Sony showed two versions of the film
in its test screenings.
One was director F. Gary Grays cut,
and the other was producer Walter Parkes'.
And since Parkes had final say on
which would hit the big screen,
it's not hard to figure out why his version
is currently in theaters.
With all the behind the scenes drama on the table,
the only question left is,
is this the end of Men in Black?
Not even kinda.
Despite all the drama, MIB is still a marketable
and known franchise.
Whether it gets re-booted in three, five,
or even ten years remains to be seen.
Or as a Sony exec. said, "Men in Black will be revisited
again at one point, either as a series,
as streaming or as another movie."
If anything Men in Black will simply be put on ice
for another few years
until Sony figures out where to take it next.
- Cause, damn.
- But what do you folks think?
Did you see Men in Black International?
Do you have a favorite MIB movie?
And, which piece of Men in Black tech would you rather have,
the Cricket, or the Neuralyzer?
Let's discuss.
Thanks again to Watch Dogs Legion
for sponsoring today's episode.
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