Surprising popular franchises and not so popular ones

[Draginon]

Are there any franchises or stand alones that have surprised you by being popular or any you thought was popular, or at least good, and were surprised wasn't?

Fast and the Furious is one in surprised is still around. I mean every single movie is practically the same! I'm going to Universal Hollywood at Christmas and I'm not looking forward to the end of the Studio Tour because of this series.

I'm surprised Transformers made it past one movie. It wasn't even a popcorn flick for me and is nothing but explosions.

I was surprised when I learned Rise of the Guardians wasn't considered a success. That movie was great, had fantastic characters and has more staying power than Boss Baby does.

Power Rangers (2017) is one I'm not as surprised isn't that popular because I was hesitant to see it before it came out and only went because I had $6 tickets from a couple Power Rangers DVD sets I bought. I loved the film and hoped it would do better.

With how popular the Universal Monsters are I'm surprised the Dark Universe isn't blowing people away. The only thing that was bad about The Mummy was Tom Cruise himself, even more so after hearing about the BTS stuff with him trying to write out the Mummy herself! I came to see a Mummy, not Ethan Hunt! I'm hoping Bride of Frankenstein does much better.

[Ammanas]

I am shocked by how popular the 50 shades of Grey franchinse is. Also surprised about Seinfeld and Twilight.

On the flip side I am surprised the Instrumentalities of the Night book series by Glen Cook did not sell well. It is really good, but the publishers will not allow a fifth book due to poor sales. I think it may be partly due to the first fify pages of the first book (which is difficult to get through). Also surprised by the lack of success of the author Paul Kearney (very good author of Monarchies of God and Macht trilogies)

I am also surprised by the lack of success of the John Carter of Mars film. I thought it was a fun movie.

Edited July 28, 2017 by Ammanas

[Draginon]

2 hours ago, Ammanas said:

I am shocked by how popular the 50 shades of Grey franchinse is. Also surprised about Seinfeld and Twilight.

I am also surprised by the lack of success of the John Carter of Mars film. I thought it was a fun movie.

I will never understand how anyone can think 50 Shades of Smut and Abuse is romantic. I've only seen the review of it from TheDom and the theory from MatPat and those were enough to get me the picture. Oh and the Cinemasins video as well.

The problem with John Carter is that the money put into it was way too much. In order to make any profit it would've needed to be bigger than Titanic, Lion King and Frozen combined! And outside of the fans of the books no one knows what the story is.

[Toaster Retribution]

I am not surprised at Fifty Shades popularity, even though I think it looks like a really bad frsnchise. Sadly, controversial porn based of on fanfiction sells well. And the movies are cheap to make, so they dont need to make all that much money in order to be a financial success. 

I am a bit surprised that Warcraft did so bad in the US, and with reviewers. I loved th movie (but I'm biased) so I dont think it is that bad. 

I am surprised that the DCEU is a confused mess. 

[Draginon]

2 hours ago, Toaster Retribution said:

I am surprised that the DCEU is a confused mess. 

I think it's because they don't really have a plan and are going by the seat of their pants. Zack Snyder even said he's never seen or read anything DC Comics and was proud of that. What kept me from watching these films, except for Wonder Woman because I love that hero, is the way it's presented. I can handle dark stories when it makes sense, like ASOIAF makes sense being dark, but DC is not a dark universe so having it be that serious puts me off. Also the religious overtones from the Batman v Superman trailers really killed it since Superman is supposed to be the all-American hero, not a messiah figure!

[maxal]

On 7/28/2017 at 10:43 AM, Ammanas said:

I am shocked by how popular the 50 shades of Grey franchinse is. Also surprised about Seinfeld and Twilight.

I am absolutely not surprised 50 Shades and Twilight were massive successes. Grown-up porn with the naive young girl winning over the bad boy and, oh surprise, changing him never gets hold. Same thing with the handsome vampire falling in love with the oh so special girl who is oh so different and them being a couple despite their differences.

Nope.

Not surprised at all.

Edited July 30, 2017 by maxal

[Toaster Retribution]

5 hours ago, Draginon said:

I think it's because they don't really have a plan and are going by the seat of their pants. Zack Snyder even said he's never seen or read anything DC Comics and was proud of that. What kept me from watching these films, except for Wonder Woman because I love that hero, is the way it's presented. I can handle dark stories when it makes sense, like ASOIAF makes sense being dark, but DC is not a dark universe so having it be that serious puts me off. Also the religious overtones from the Batman v Superman trailers really killed it since Superman is supposed to be the all-American hero, not a messiah figure!

I haven't read any DC comics either (they are not as big in Sweden as they are in the US) but I do know that there are very dark versions of DC, like the Arkham games or the Killing Joke storyline. So having the stories be darker kind of makes sense. I am personally fond of the religious tones of Superman (I liked both BvS and SS), so you and I are probably just wanting different thibgs out of these movies.

[Draginon]

7 hours ago, Toaster Retribution said:

I haven't read any DC comics either (they are not as big in Sweden as they are in the US) but I do know that there are very dark versions of DC, like the Arkham games or the Killing Joke storyline. So having the stories be darker kind of makes sense. I am personally fond of the religious tones of Superman (I liked both BvS and SS), so you and I are probably just wanting different thibgs out of these movies.

I kind of grew up more on the animated shows and haven't read any of the comics. The Arkham games make sense to be dark since the Asylum is where the most dangerous criminals go and the later games have these same villains taking over the city. Also isn't Killing Joke meant to be more of a horrifying story because of what it's about? 

Spoiler

Crippling someone like that isn't something you can make lighthearted so it makes sense to be dark

The films though it's feels like these guys are supposed to be heroes but there's no hope anywhere like there is in Marvel. Also the world building seems tacked on because isn't Superman considered the first Super in that world? If so then how is Batman an old hero and how is there already a prison for housing supers? Marvel is showing the world evolving and adapting to having supers everywhere but DC can't make up its mind if supers have been around very recently (as seen in Man of Steel) or for decades (as seen in BvS and SS). The historical films at least have excuses to have a super in the past and not have a contradiction (Wonder Woman going into retirement after seeing WWII without Ares to inspire mankind, Captain America being frozen and the serum never recreated until the 21st century, Ant Man working in secret) Heck Wonder Woman being about giving hope to a dark world was the one thing I liked about her movie.

[Sunbird]

I agree that the Transformers movies are little more than explosion eye-candy and the franchise needs to die already.
I am disgusted, but not really shocked, by the success of 50 Shades of Grey.

In my opinion, the John Carter movie should have been much more successful than it was because it's a quality film. I think its box office failure was a combination of sinking too much money into making the project and the marketing team fumbling the advertising/promotion campaign so that they didn't generate enough hype for it.

[Totally_Not_A_Worldhopper]

On 7/28/2017 at 11:50 AM, Draginon said:

I will never understand how anyone can think 50 Shades of Smut and Abuse is romantic. I've only seen the review of it from TheDom and the theory from MatPat and those were enough to get me the picture. Oh and the Cinemasins video as well.

Yay, Film Theory reference!!!!!!! 

Sorry I have no actual input...

[Draginon]

On 2/8/2018 at 8:24 PM, Totally_Not_A_Worldhopper said:

Yay, Film Theory reference!!!!!!! 

Sorry I have no actual input...

I love watching Game Theory, Film Theory and GTLive videos. Mat, Steph, Jason and Chris are hilarious!

[Dunkum]

On 7/29/2017 at 9:27 PM, Draginon said:

I think it's because they don't really have a plan and are going by the seat of their pants. Zack Snyder even said he's never seen or read anything DC Comics and was proud of that. What kept me from watching these films, except for Wonder Woman because I love that hero, is the way it's presented. I can handle dark stories when it makes sense, like ASOIAF makes sense being dark, but DC is not a dark universe so having it be that serious puts me off. Also the religious overtones from the Batman v Superman trailers really killed it since Superman is supposed to be the all-American hero, not a messiah figure!

Superman religous undertones don't necessarily bother me in themselves, though I doubt snyder did them well.  I considered watching Man of Steel, btu bad reviews and the price of movie tickets kept me away.  For BvS however, the constantly glowering face of superman in every ad just turned me off to it completely.  Wonder Woman looked good, and Justice league looked passable, but I didn't care enough about either to go see them.