Why Did AUSTRALIA Bomb?
Some sad news, at least to me. Australia, I flick that I really enjoyed, tanked HARD in its opening, squeaking out $14.8 million dollars, while the annual garbage holiday movie, this year in the form of Four Christmases, made over $31 million dollars. Australia couldn’t even open on top in the country it was named for, as it was trumped by Quantum of Solace! This is made even more horrible for the studio since the film had a rumored budget upwards of $140 million dollars! I’m curious as to why this happened. I’ve seen a multitude of excuses being thrown around, none of which seem particularly viable on their own:
1) This “Kidman curse” that states that Nicole can’t open a film. Statistically speaking, she is the most overpaid actor in Hollywood today, but a lot of people who are considered box office poison have that one movie that snaps them back on track. If the movie looks cool enough, people will turn out, regardless of whether “box office poison” is in it. Look no further than Depp and the Pirates franchise for proof of this. Like we’re talking about over in the Australia thread, it’s unfair to put this squarely on her. Especially since…
2) Hugh Jackman can’t open a film, either. Other than the X-Men franchise, his films come and go like the breeze at the box office. Not absolute high-profile disasters, but no big returns on any of his films that do not have an X in the title. He, like Kidman, has a weird relationship with the filmgoing public. On one hand, the guy is Wolverine. Guys like him. Women adore this guy. Women were bursting into applause at the mere sight of him at my Australia screening. That being said, he’s not particularly bankable. He’s well-known enough to be People’s Sexiest Man Alive (a title that means nothing and is bought by whatever studio has a big film coming up at the time), but people don’t go to his movies. But like Nicole, it’s unfair to put this solely on one person, so…
3) Perhaps the film wasn’t marketed well enough. I know a lot of people who didn’t even know that the movie was already out. The commercials showed off a lot of glamour shots but told very little about plot. You can’t catch a fish without a hook, and the advertising for this flick lacked that hook. And those who knew it was coming out may have chosen to skip it solely due to…
4) The runtime. This thing is an epic film, and with people traveling for the holiday and whatnot, perhaps they just didn’t have the time to watch it. But people found time for long-ass movies like Titanic, LOTR, and even King Kong 2005 during the holiday season, so that isn’t a solid excuse on its own.
I think that this film suffers from a bit of all of these things. Australia was poorly marketed. The stars don’t appeal to audiences, and the mammoth runtime was an audience deterrent, while reducing the amount of times the film could be run. I like all parties involved, so I was hoping for decent returns for their sakes. Oh well. So, I’ll leave it to you guys to answer this: why did Australia tank? Better yet, why didn’t YOU see it? Bad reviews? Lack of good marketing? Dislike of the stars?
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10 Responses to “Why Did AUSTRALIA Bomb?”
There’s another factor you’re forgetting… The “Gazz / Kristina Support Club” element.
It seems outside of WALL-E and THE DARK KNIGHT, any film me or you gives massive props to in order to get some good word of mouth going or to champion the flick, it ends up tanking:
I’ll only speak for myself here but, from the UK end, there’s 0THE MIST, BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOUR DEAD, OUT OF THE BLUE, ZACK & MIRI MAKE A PORNO, THE FOOT FIST WAY… all films I’ve championed the living hell out of and are genuinely brilliant films – all of them flopped or under-performed here in Blighty!
So, maybe the thing to do here Kris is to go back into your review, savage it, change the rating to a “two-zer” and AUSTRALIA will add $110 million on to its take-home within 36 hours!
Seriously!*
*There is no basis in fact to this whatsoever!
Seems like I’m one of a few who dug the hell out of this movie. Every other review is tearing it up for being too long with too many plot threads going on. Bad reviews couldn’t have helped.
well…jackman was the main actor in the prestige…and that movie to me was a 5 popcorner…and nichole kidman was in that ghost movie! i love that movie! and the one when she was one of the 3 women that are in 3 different time zones or whatever…and one of the other ones is julinne moore…well she got a ****ing oscar in that movie! (i thought moore should have gotten it..WHATEEEVEEER)
so thats proof to count off reason #s 1 and 2
#3…the film wasnt marketed..AT ALL. i saw no previews and no comercials…nothing. not even a poster…
#4 i love long movies
and i didnt see it, alot of people didnt…maybe it was for bad reviews or lack of good marketing…but to dislike nichole kidman and the jackman is retarded
i was too busy watching the transporter 3 (what a pice of SHIT!!!) and i loved the first 2 but…my GOSH was that a bad movie (the watchmen trailer was the best and only good part…)
That ghost movie is The Others. That 3-way movie is The Hours.
people around the world simply dont care that much about australia the country to go see a movie with australia as the title baz lurhman was deluded to think otherwise
Supposedly it’s picked up quite a bit of “traction” over its opening weekend and since then too – while other movies trailed off over the Thanksgiving Weekend (bar FOUR CHRISTMASES or whatever you call it!) AUSTRALIA started badly but slowly picked up.
Good word-of-mouth I suppose? Coz every “critic” I’ve spoken to hates this ****ing thing with a passion, but every average “Joe The Plumber” type that I’ve asked says it is ****ing brilliant!
I am NOT Joe The Plumber. Just want that on the record.
Didn’t you know? ‘Joe The Plumber’ is the new ‘Joe Public’ Lol
first of all the article is right about the stars not being earners. compare kidmans earnings to tom cruises for instance on box officemojo. toms numbers double kidmans. she is overrated.
it isn’t picking up either. 1 week in with 80 more theaters its doing half as well as opening weekend. its dying in other words. unless you have a ridiculously good film it needs a good opening to survive.
and well theres just nothing compelling about what they are selling. it doesn’t help that they seem to think this is some kind of tourism advert. countries shouldn’t be funding films like this. what were they thinking.
I knew from the very first day this movie was going to be a big time bomb. You make a movie and market it under the tourism Australia and with a name Australia, an epic.. No matter how good the plot is who cares when people aren’t dragged into the theatre?
I believe and thats strongly, this movie should have been made quitely and should have been advertised heavily closer to the date.. and most of all should not have been named Australia as the movie name..
may be some day i may download and watch it..
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