Disastrous $11M Opening Weekend for Ron Howard’s In the Heart of the Sea is no help to Legend of Tarzan

Legend of Tarzan (Movie)

The timing of Warner Brothers release of the Legend of Tarzan trailer was no coincidence — the internet release on Tuesday was part of the run up to the release in theaters on Friday, attached to the head of WBs Ron Howard film In the Heart of the Sea — based on the Nathaniel Philbrick book, billed as the true story that inspired Moby Dick. Unfortunately, In the Heart of the Sea never resonated with audiences — its YouTube teaser trailer never got past 3.7M views, and its final trailer is at about the same level – both indicators that the film had problems finding an audience.  never got above the mid 3M level.   WB’s decision to market it as “the true story that inspired Moby Dick” didn’ work, and even the Ron Howard brand and Chris Helmsworth in the lead were not enough to save it.

And so …. at $11M the weekend before Star Wars comes out, In the Heart of the Sea is about to get swallowed up more completely tthan Captain Ahab and the Pcquot ever did.

The next likely horse for Legend of Tarzan to ride is Point Break, out Christmas day — a movie that is tracking quite a bit better than Ron Howard’s film, but still doesn’t look like a huge hit.    It’s not limited to WB movies, but those are the ones that are most likely.

Oh well . . .

5 comments

  • We can hope the marketing dept is tracking ITHOTS with in eye towards noticing the lack of exposure fir LOT and that they decide to cast a wider net. Although, Howrd’s films have never had huge audience appeal,this one is under perfomfing expected projections of 15-17,000 significantly.

    I saw I saw ITHOTS yesterday in 3D and understand why it didn’t connect with audiences. It was an okay adventure film but lacked any significant intrapersonal character relationships or human drama. They centered all the drama around a storm at sea, the attack of the giant whale, and survival at sea for months. Nothing we haven’t seen before. It ‘t the human drama inherent in these situations that resonates with an audience and hoods them spellbound with facination but there was very little of that to be had, there was none shown in the trailers not due to Daly marketing but because it just wasn’t in the film to any appreciable degree.

    The LOT trailer looked great in 3D and on the big screen. It was even more impressive than on You Tube and it was pretty impressive there. I hope more people get to see it that way over the holidays and in March when a new series of action films are released as well as toward the the end tun leading up yo the premier in July. It really shows off best on the big screen, 3D or not.

    • Maggie … very glad to see that the trailer was there where you saw it. I saw In The Heart of the Sea just now — and the trailer wasn’t there. It was a pretty big disappointment. As for ITHOS … I was motiveated to see it for two reasons — one, to wee the Tarzan trailer , which was a bust, and to see life aboard a whaling vessel done in all the specificity that should be there in a movie by Ron Howard based on a non-fiction book by Nathaniel Philbrick ….. I wasn’t too disappointed in that second desire …although it left me feeling a little hungry for more context and detail. But dramatically it felt kind of pointless. More like a two part mini-series event on Nat Geo . . . . had I seen it there I would have felt pretty good about it.

  • Went to Heart of the Sea as I wanted to see it but there was no trailer for LOT so I was disappointed I guess not every where they are showing the trailer with it.

  • Yes,I enjoyed the scenes and details about whaling too and wish we’d gotten more of it and less endless days floating ion the ocean in whaling boats just drifting ,starving and burning under the hot sun. It would have been far more interesting and also woukd have served as an ideal way to establish the characters their different jobs and responsibilities,personalities and personal relationships.

    Too bad your theater didn’t have the LOT trailer. That surprises me. I just assumed every theater had the same trailers attached to a given film. I guess not. Maybe yours will be attached to Point Break instead. Did you see ITHOTS in 3D?

    • Yes, saw it in 3D. Strange. I was at Arclight, a premium theater in Los Angeles — you’d think that if they had it anywhere, they would have it there. Oh well . . . .

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