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Tomb Raider Game Blamed for Movie's Poor Ticket Sales

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the most-improbable-now-plausible dept.

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.

3 of 114 comments (clear)

  1. Be careful out there... by fleafan · · Score: 5, Funny
    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.

  2. Wasn't me! by Acts+of+Attrition · · Score: 5, Funny
    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 :)

  3. The major problem is.. by maunleon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.