Tomb Raider Game Blamed for Movie's Poor Ticket Sales

ff_cid writes "Reuters reports on the poor box office results of Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life and how Paramount executives are pointing the finger at the mediocre reception of Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness: "The Cradle of Life," the second film based on games heroine Lara Croft, opened in fourth place at the U.S. box office last weekend with sales of $21.7 million, well below the opening weekend of 2001's "Tomb Raider." "The only thing we can attribute that to is that the gamers were not happy with the latest version of the 'Tomb Raider' video game, which is our core audience," Paramount distribution president Wayne Lewellen said." It couldn't possibly be that because the first movie was such a stellar work of cinematography, no one raced out to see the sequel.

Comments

And this is a shock?

[DesScorp]

The game had nothing to do with the stinking ticket sales. Ticket sales sucked because the first movie was abominally BAD. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Looks like the public wasn't in a mood to be a fool.

The first Tomb Raider was the only movie I've ever gotten up and walked out of. I got my money back. It was THAT bad.

The only real surprise here is that the studios actually thought people would pay to see another one.

The sequel was indeed good.

[mnmn]

We went to see some movies in a local Cinema, and since they dont check customers leaving one cinema and entering another, we watched 4 movies in one day on the same ticket. To fill up the time till we saw T3, we had to watch Tomb Raider 2, but it was indeed a good movie. Enjoyed it more than T3.

Now the whole idea about Tomb Raider brings it down, a busty rich chick with a whole mansion and the MI6 at her disposal. Indiana Jones as an Archaeologist was a bit rediculous, but Lara Croft is pushing it with an ego. That itself discourages the action based audience (all adolescent guys or ones in their 20s). They need to improve the story lines and make it more believable both in the game and the movies in order to sell it. They should keep Angelina Jolie though.

Re:The sequel was indeed good.

[DrWho520]

That itself discourages the action based audience (all adolescent guys or ones in their 20s).

How would a busty, sexy woman swinging around like Indiana Jones be unappealing to the action/adventure crowd? We are not that chauvinistic. We wanna see an empowered, intelligent woman.
With a sexy British accent.
And nice knockers.
And legs that would snap you in two.

Be careful out there...

[fleafan]

Boys, becareful with dissing the first movie.

My girlfriend is a big Lara Croft fan. She talked me into going to see the first movie. And hey, why not? She was happy that I wanted to do something she liked for her sake, and I could (secretly) dribble over Angelina Jolie.
The movie was so awful that, when the credits rolled, I rose from my seat and proclaimed - forgetting who I was with - as loud as I could: "Jesus, that movie SUCKED!".

I didn't get any for three days.

Re:Be careful out there...

[leifm]

I have the opposite, my girlfriend hates Angelina Jolie and thus virtually everything she's in.

And if you think three days is bad....you must not live together.

Wasn't me!

[Acts of Attrition]

Behold the latest trend in licensing! if your licensed product does poorly, blame the people who created the license, not yourself who made the inferior product. First Activision sues Viacom cause Star Trek sucks and now this. Here's an idea, next time don't pick up a license to something you think sucks! The major factor however was that the first film wasn't any good. That's what turned away the mainstream audience from the picture, not the handful of gamers turned away by game reviews.

I'm still waiting for the Wachowski Brothers to sue themselves over Enter the Matrix, claiming it tarnished the franchise :)

This could have been remedied

[leifm]

Some of you may remember Swordfish, a massive pile of shit with John Travolta and a tan/buff/perfect hair 'hacker'. You probably also remember the Halle Barry topless scene in the middle that didn't really seem to serve any purpose, other than 'Damn we need some reason for people to sit through this shit'.

Repeat this brilliant move in TR3 Paramount. Suddenly 45 min into the film Laura feels an intense need to take a banana from a monkey (jungle scene) strip and creatively use that banana. It'll add a couple mil to the opening...

Games: the 21st century's scapegoat

[Winterblink]

First, games are to blame for violence in our schools (see this notable PA), and now they're to blame for crummy movie sales? What's next?

Re:Games: the 21st century's scapegoat

[Telastyn]

Don't forget that MS Flight simulator was to blame for the 9/11 terrorism too!

What's next is.... well it *won't* be video games blamed for teenage pregnancy... I think.

Same old story.

[mikedaisey]

This is hardly surprising--when a big film explodes in H'wood, everyone runs for cover and the blame gets thrown around. One of the advantages of using a game franchise is that when things meltdown you can point at that, rather than the truth that everyone, even the studios, knows: that the first movie blew apes, and the public wasn't buying the dog food a second time.

So don't be shocked--it's just Cover Your Ass time.

The major problem is..

[maunleon]

Noone ends up caring about Lara. She comes across as snobby and full of herself. In every good movie, viewers end up liking or identifying with the main character.

There is a major directorial and script writing issue with TR, but the character definition is the biggest problem. They have to make us CARE about Lara, and not see her as a priviledged, bratty girl.

Women get burned out because she's portraied in such a perfect light. Men get burned out because they see no vulerabilities. The movies have no climax since there are no low parts.

Someone needs to take Movie Making 101. If any movie needed a little formula infusion, this is it. The director should read what makes a hero(ine). The current Lara is not it. Throw something challenging at Lara... read the formula book.. fish out of water, reluctant heroine, whatever. Make us care.

Right now.. it's an MTV glam video.

It's Piracy

[angle_slam]

I thought that the reason the movie did badly is because of rampant Piracy? That's also the reason Pirates of the Caribbean is doing so well: of course pirates are going to see a Pirate movie.