Paulie Bleaker, Lead Action Hero?: Box Office Analysis of Universal Pictures' Genre Mash-Up Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Paulie Bleaker, Lead Action Hero?: Box Office Analysis of Universal Pictures' Genre Mash-Up Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Michael Cera trades in his yellow short shorts and sweat bands for superpowers and a Fender in Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. In a summer nearly bereft of comic book films, how will Pilgrim hold up versus box office sales?

Review Opinion
By TheBoxOfficeWatchmen - Aug 09, 2010 09:08 PM EST
Source: The Box Office Watchmen



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)
NYCC: New SCOTT PILGRIM TAKES OFF Trailer Brings The Action....And A Surprise Mortal Kombat Homage!
Related:

NYCC: New SCOTT PILGRIM TAKES OFF Trailer Brings The Action....And A Surprise Mortal Kombat Homage!

SCOTT PILGRIM TAKES OFF Anime Will Differ From The Graphic Novel Cautions Series Creator
Recommended For You:

SCOTT PILGRIM TAKES OFF Anime Will Differ From The Graphic Novel Cautions Series Creator

DISCLAIMER: As a user generated site and platform, ComicBookMovie.com is protected under the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) and "Safe Harbor" provisions.

This post was submitted by a user who has agreed to our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. ComicBookMovie.com will disable users who knowingly commit plagiarism, piracy, trademark or copyright infringement. Please CONTACT US for expeditious removal of copyrighted/trademarked content. CLICK HERE to learn more about our copyright and trademark policies.

Note that ComicBookMovie.com, and/or the user who contributed this post, may earn commissions or revenue through clicks or purchases made through any third-party links contained within the content above.

Creature
Creature - 8/10/2010, 1:07 AM
Front page stuff, man.
llinformerll
llinformerll - 8/10/2010, 6:02 PM
:(
TheGambitFreak
TheGambitFreak - 8/11/2010, 9:17 AM
Hold on, first off, sorry but I'm not reading all this, Why is this in reviews?,this belongs in news or something, sorry.
TheBoxOfficeWatchmen
TheBoxOfficeWatchmen - 8/11/2010, 10:40 AM
@Gambit, I put it in the news section and it got moved to reviews.
TheGambitFreak
TheGambitFreak - 8/11/2010, 2:26 PM
How the hell did it get moved to reviews? God D*mn it!!!!! I'm sick of these D*mn Editors on this website deleting and moving articles, I posted A article on my thoughts on Captain america, it got removed because the guy wouldn't read pass the title which was why is no one complaing about captain america? Seriously, it had nothing to do with what I wrote in the article. Sorry, ignore last comment then. Didn't know the "Editors" deleted it.
View Recorder