A Head-on Collision Becomes Funny Instead
A Bit of Hollywood Resuffling
A month or so back I was looking at a list of upcoming films. While I don’t often go into detail on all the films (and the trailers for them) that are upcoming anymore (it’s been since the start of COVID since I last felt like a “Trailer Frenzy” post was needed), I do still like to stay in the loop about what is expected so I can plan my own schedule of reviews. If I have to leave the house and drive 40 minutes to see a film, then drive back, I want to make sure there’s something I want to watch there first. And, really, leaving the house at this point is the hard part.
During my scroll of the list I saw something curious: both Predator: Badlands and The Running Man were in contention for the same weekend. This seemed like a terrible idea, something akin to that time Captain America: Civil War and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice were scheduled for the same weekend, although maybe not on the same order of juggernaut status for the films. Predator: Badlands and The Running Man would seem to tap into the same demographics that would be interested in the films (18-40-something, male, those interested in sci-fi) and putting them head-to-head would likely lead to one, or both, flopping. Very few films can come out the same weekend and become a “Barbenheimer” style movie event. You would expect someone at one of the studios to blink.
And seemingly now someone has. Predator: Badlands is now scheduled for November 7 while The Running Man will come a week later on November 14. While still a tight turnaround between the two films, you would expect anyone that wants to see both is more likely to see one the first weekend and then the second after. That’s not as big a stretch, although if Predator: Badlands proves to have legs (which, being a semi-sequel to Prey, it could) that could still spell trouble for The Running Man. Maybe just not as much.
What I find especially funny, though, is that by having The Running Man on the next weekend it now goes head-to-head with a different blockbuster sequel: Now You See Me: Now You Don’t. If you had asked me to place a bet on which film, Predator: Badlands or The Running Man, would win the weekend, I would have easily gone with the one featuring an ass-kicking alien with sci-fi weaponry. Now, though, in a battle against a Stephen King adaptation, and a years-late movie about magician-thieves that I don’t think anyone really cares that much about, I know where my money lies.
That’s not meant as a slight against either Predator: Badlands or The Running Man. It’s absolutely a slight against the Now You See Me franchise, though. I haven’t yet reviewed any of those films and that’s because they are spectacularly mediocre. They aren’t good, but they also aren’t so bad they’re fun to watch. They have this ability to be slickly produced and yet completely empty all at the same time, and both of the films also feature twist endings so improbable even M. Night Shyamalan wouldn’t have been tempted to put them in his films. I won’t spoil them, but trust me when I say they’re infuriating.
Of course, also infuriating (as many have pointed out) is that the first sequel to Now You See Me was titled Now You See Me 2 and not that obvious on every level Now You Don’t. Sure, that’s the subtitle for the third film, but doesn’t that already feel like too little, too late? You had a chance (goes to look) Lionsgate… Oh. That explains it. The company behind Borderlands and The Crow remake also fails to market their movie about magician-thieves in any proper way. I’m actually a lot less surprised now.
But yes, I don’t think that Now You See Me: Now You Don’t has a good chance at winning the weekend. Buzz for it has been practically nonexistent. The trailer for The Running Man has clocked 13 Mil views so far, and that’s for a film that doesn’t exactly have the best reach at this point. Does anyone in the key demo really care or remember the 1980s version of the film? I mean, sure, I do, but anyone that isn’t a geek running a movie review website? Probably not. Meanwhile, although the first trailer for Now You Three Me got 16 Mil views, which is respectable, the second trailer only garnered a little over 6 Mil. People saw what was in the first trailer and clearly weren’t excited about it, to the point they didn’t go back to get a second taste. That doesn’t speak well for the prospects of the film.
Put another way, I would expect there’s a solid chance Lionsgate moves their film if they want the gentlemen (and ladies) of the magician's society (they were the Four Horsemen but there’s, like, twelve of them now so that name clearly doesn’t apply) to have any chance at the Box Office. And meanwhile, I’m hopeful that Edgar Wright’s The Running Man had a good run in theaters. It looks like fun.
If you’re curious, here’s the trailers for all the films:
Predator: Badlands
For the first time one of the Predators is the protagonist of the story. Trapped on an isolated world packed full of deadly creatures, the hunter has to team up with the damaged remains of an android in his fight for survival
The Running Man
A remake that gets closer to the meat of Stephen King’s original book. A man is tapped to be the star of a survival game show. Last long enough and your family gets millions of dollars. The only catch is that everyone in the country is out to kill you and claim the bounty. Get running.
Now You See Me: Now You Don’t
The Four Horsemen are back, forced to team up with a new group of skilled young magician-theives to stop an even worse criminal from doing… something bad. We’re not really sure.