Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a 110-minute YouTube clip of classic 2D video game battles between our titular hero and the "Seven Evil Exes" of Ramona Flowers, the ubiquitous
manic pixie dream girl of our fanboy dreams. The movie is a mash-up of elements from video games, trippy neon light-shows, indie love stories, and cartoon violence -- the perfect potion for today's ADHD'd youth. Based on the Bryan Lee O'Malley comic book series,
Scott Pilgrim, the film translates the books' frenetically-paced storytelling to the screen.
That
Pilgrim flashes elements of multiple genres makes it a struggle to define its targeted demographic, which may be what director Edgar Wright intended. The video game motif and comic book source material will likely draw in males under 25, especially with
Inception entering its fourth week and
The Other Guys netting 55% of its receipts in the same demo. (
Box Office Mojo) With a modest Metascore of 6.2 from Metacritic users and a "B" grade from Yahoo! users, look for the PG-13
The Other Guys to shoulder a decline of roughly 45-50% from its opening weekend gross of $35.5 million to approximately $19 million (The PG-13
Grown Ups dropped 53% with a user score of 5.2 from Metascore and "B" grade from Yahoo! users). However, with
The Expendables injecting the testosterone of bull testicles into this week's theaters, it looks like there will be a battle between the jocks (
Expendables and the nerds (
Pilgrim) for the crown of "Who will steal the most viewers from the
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 server this weekend?" Fortunately, for both films, this may be a case of grown up table vs. kiddie table, with the 1980's action nostalgia steering the over-25 males clear of
Pilgrim for one weekend.
Will the females respond? Michael Cera may have a female cult following due to his socially-inept, goofy charm, his last widely-released film,
Year One, drew only 43% of its audience from females. His other recent films --
Youth in Revolt,
Paper Heart, and
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist -- have fared better with females under 25 but have disappointed overall. Nonetheless, the
Pilgrim comic books are targeted to both genders, and we should expect close to a 45-48% female turnout for the film.
Although almost invisible for much of the first half of 2010, marketing for
Pilgrim has really sprinted in the last stretch. Perhaps the marketing folks were waiting for
Iron Man 2 and the other star-driven vehicles to recede before making their last push. Clearly, the creative minds are branding
Pilgrim to those who cannot rent cars yet. At last month's Comic-Con in San Diego, a building-sized advertisement blanketed the side of a hotel neighboring Comic-Con. Fake movie posters of one of its main characters, Lucas Lee (played by Chris Evans), has gone viral. (
Hilarious fake movie posters of Lucas Lee, courtesy of Empire Online.) And only in today's YouTube-obsessed world can we get viral remixes of trailers of a movie that has not been released. (
Even more viral videos, from Filmifi.). Although trendy and fast-moving, viral marketing itself does not guarantee success, even among the coveted 18-30 demo (and as witnessed by the undershots of
Kick-Ass and
Snakes on a Plane.)
On
Flixter, the film's
tracking is slightly tilted towards males, while the under/over 25 split a little more even. More disconcerting is the fact that
Pilgrim's internet activity is pacing evenly with
Eat, Pray, Menopause and dipping below
Step Up 3-D's buzz. This isn't exactly the type of buzz you want from a film that has been marketed exclusively through viral channels.
Kick-Ass may forever be the cautionary tale for studios aiming to change the comic book movie recipe by hipster-izing the adaptations, and although it was rated R, it may provide the closest comparable to
Pilgrim. Moreover, when you consider the varying degrees of disappointment of
The Losers,
Jonah Hex, and
Kick-Ass, it's hard to get optimistic for
Pilgrim. With
The Expendables arm-wrestling
Pilgrim for male viewership and Cera's ineptitude as the male lead, a
box office pull of $24.5 million is a reasonable estimate, with anything less resulting in a "Game Over."
(Alan Man is a registered user of ComicBookMovie.com and a contributor to the fansite, The Box Office Watchmen, a site that analyzes the box office performance of comic book films. For questions, comments, or advertising information, please send feel free to e-mail us)