Money Talks - Why No-One Is Seeing 'Kubo'
"Money makes the world go round."
Now, the educated among us will know that gravitational forces make the world go round, but the sentiment of the expression still stands. In fact, I'd say it was more true of the film industry than it is most of the world, as profit margins and budgets play a more pivotal role in the business side of the movie-making process than any other individual element. Today we're going to talk about Kubo And The Two Strings, and my sadness at its poor box office performance, because I'm going to keep banging on about this movie until everybody has gone and seen it. Twice.
Incidentally, if you're looking for a review of Kubo, then you're in the wrong place, but luckily you can find the right place just here.
First, some necessary information: Kubo was made with a budget of $60 million and has been in US cinemas since the 19th of August. The amount of money spent on marketing is - as usual - not public knowledge, but standard practice is to double the production budget in order to cover the total expenditure, so that brings us to $120 million all told.
As of the 3rd of October, Kubo has made $61,323,776 back from the box office, and while it's still in some theaters, it's highly unlikely that the number there is ever going to make it to much further than it has already gone. Essentially, Kubo has flopped at the box office.
Obviously there are more factors to a films success than just cinema money, but it is a big part of how investors look at properties. Still, there are DVD sales, Netflix deals, and a good enough reception for one to expect that Kubo may eventually go down in the history books as a success. After all, a fair few well remembered films were financial failures upon release but are now remembered as classics.
I'm not here to console everyone in this dark time in film history though, but rather to make an attempt at figuring out why Kubo And The Two Strings hasn't performed well, so that we can all learn something about the industry, and the industry can learn something from their mistakes. Because important people are definitely reading this right now, don't you question that good sir.
Release Date
Recently all the generally held ideas about release dates are being challenged by the big blockbusters. Once upon a time movies that wanted any spotlight at all had to release either at Christmas or in the middle of Summer, but now with films like Batman v Superman making a killing in March, and Suicide Squad raking in cash during August, release dates aren't quite so restrictive, so we can't say that it released in a time people weren't seeing movies. However, the aforementioned Suicide Squad does hold part of the answer. The two films released around the same time, and Suicide Squad had the benefit of being both controversial and a superhero movie, which is essentially a free $500 million at the box office, and it went on to make a lot more than that. So being released in the shadow of such a large hit definitely didn't count in favour of Kubo.
Originality
As much as I personally make a point of championing anything truly original that comes out, in this current age of nostalgia baiting, sequelizing, and adapting, it counts against a film to not have some way of connecting itself with an audience before they even see it. The new Pirates of the Caribbean: Another Generic Subtitle trailer garners attention because of it's connection to a 4 movie series even though only one of them is any good, and people keep seeing Transformers movies because they formed an attachment to the franchise as kids. Kubo has none of those benefits, and was actually breaking new ground for the company it came from. Whereas there previous (relative) successes with Coraline and Paranorman have had very Gothic styles, Kubo was a more colourful and fairy-tale-esque sort of movie, which may have counted against it.
Unique Selling Point
The final kick in the stomach for Kubo's financials is the marketing. How do you sell something as uniquely based on visuals as this film? To show a scene or shot that would sell someone on the movie, you'd need to see something which would ruin a big moment in the film. To understand the USP of Kubo, you need to see Kubo, yet without understanding the USP, few people will want to go see Kubo. It's quite the catch 22.
Wrapping Up...
So there you have it; the three main reasons Kubo hasn't been a hit at the box office. I've quite enjoyed doing this, so let us know if you want to see more articles doing similar things, or if you have a particular movie in mind. Until next time though, enjoy your life.