Drag Me to Hell is a movie that appeared to have everything going for it at the box office. Read the full post.
Jun 7
2009
05:24 PM ET
'Drag Me to Hell': Why didn't it do better?
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The only other film I can compare it to is Micheal Mann’s (coincidentally enough) film “Manhunter” (with William Petersen and Brian Cox) which was the movie “Red Dragon” but with a differnt title, it got rave reviews and is a REALLY good movie and got some nice pub but it still bombed, even though today it has a 95% rating on rotten tomatoes so their may be hope for Drag Me to Hell on DVD and self-critic sites
I really think the PG-13 did hurt the film. There is a scene where a lot of blood shows up in the film, but the reaction from everyone else is so lukewarm that I almost wondered if the character was sprayed with lemonade. Also, the humor in the movie sometimes robbed the tension the movie needed.
The timing of this movie’s release was odd; horror movies almost never come out in the summer. And Owen, you have to know that critics don’t influence the horror fans. I think you’re right; good reviews might have scared the audience off. No pun intended…
the movie looked terrible, that’s why it did bad
the movie looked terrible, no one knows sam rammi
I thought the film was ok. The two mentioned ‘reasons’ for it’s relative failure are certainly applicable. The PG-13 rating, sadly, has become a scarlet letter this generation (much like the G rating used to – PG films got a way with a LOT more back in the day). And, having critics actually LIKE the film hurt it with the horror crowd – if it’s ‘good for you’, it must suck! Dumb thinking, but it happens.
And, to all the folks who keep harping on the “timing”. Crikey, that’s the oldest excuse in Hollywood! Every time a film fails, they always blame the timing. If a film is properly promoted, gets good word of mouth and delivers the goods to the target audience, they will find it.
To Mike Hunt:
First of all, nice name. Second of all, how can you say nobody knows Sam Raimi? He directed all three Spider Man movies, which are some of the highest grossing films of all time. And he directed the Evil Dead movies, an enormous cult favorite. So no, he’s not unknown.
I don’t know why it didn’t do well. It got excellent reviews, and it’s really good. I guess more people wanted to see Up (a great movie as well).
I think it was just released the wrong time of year. Spring or fall would have been a better choice for something like this. We’ve seen horror schlock rack up huge opening weekend grosses for no other reason than there’s nothing out there competing with it for business. Think of a well-reviewed Raimi horror film could have done with no competition.
My two cents? Small as it sounds, it was the old gypsy’s cheesy makeup in the ads that did the movie in. Compared to all other horror films recently, it looked cartoonish.
First of all I went to this movie especially because Sam Raimi made it. Second, it sucked, because corn-ball horror doesn’t have much of an audience–just like Disco.
I think a lot of factors mentioned went into it underperforming, but don’t think the rating was one of them. There have certainly been fantastic horror movies with a mild rating and some of them very successful.
I think the film being released among the summer tentpoles was a big mistake. I also think the lead actress just had no drawing power, especially among the crowd you’re hoping to capitalize on with the milder rating. There’s no brand recognition and no one in the 13-16 year old range cares who directed a movie. If you’re going to open up a movie to the younger crowd, you have to give them a reason to want to go instead of to the multitude of other non-”R” films.
I also think that comedy-horror is a hard sell. “Slither” was also well-reviewed and underperformed. “Tremors” was one of the last comedy-horror movies that performed well, but they had a great creature and a poster that showed it off well.
I would agree also with the ending, which was too abrupt and unsatisfying.
Actually TREMORS is another example of a slightly underperforming title (compared to the reviews and how well it’s thought of even now). According to Box Office Mojo it made $16M which is pretty good (inflation adjusted), but hardly great.
As to be released in the summer, it’s always bad timing until a film overperforms and then everybody leaps in and calls it “brilliant counter-programming”.
DRAG ME TO HELL simply didn’t appeal to enough folks to sample the film, and, or, didn’t hit the sweet spot to those that did.
I still want to see this movie. It wasn’t released at the theater where I live, but I will see it on DVD. People are upset because its PG 13 because there aren’t boobs or derogatory rape scenes that are so prevalent in R rated horror flicks that attract the masses.I’m sorry, but Drag Me To Hell is not a remake of a remake, immersed in a remake, part IV.
That’s BS. I’m a horror fan, and the idea that we’re a bunch of meathead jerks that want nothing more than sadistic pleasures is insulting. No, I agree that the lack of an R did hurt ‘Hell,’ but not because we are dopes who get stiffies watching people getting cut up, but because when as a cult following we wanted to have Raimi back in full blown artistic force, free of all the restrictions that working on the Spider-Man films put on his madcap style. So when we find out that hsi long awaited return to us is marked by a rating that matches the family films we were hoping he’d get away from, with trailers cut to match tripe like The Grudge (a comparison a fellow horror lover made when we were discussing this) it breaks our hearts and makes us think twice before subjecting ourselves to an hour and a half of being let down by someone many of us consider a hero.
Owen, I have no problems with your opinions or your reviews, but you clearly don’t understand the audience your describing.