Bruckheimer not losing sleep after summer flops
Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Jul 24, 2010 by Jeff Vice Deseret News
Don’t feel too bad for Jerry Bruckheimer. He’ll bounce back sooner than later.
The film and television uber-producer, whose hits include both the “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “National Treasure” franchises, has been involved in his share of costly flops lately.
Take, for example, the live-action fantasy adventure films “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” and “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” Both movies got mixed reviews and have fared poorly at the box office.
“Prince of Persia” won’t recoup its reported $200 million production budget, at least in its U.S. theatrical release.
And at this point, it’s looking extremely unlikely that “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” will even come close to the $100 million threshold. (That film cost $150 million to make.)
You can blame poor planning and scheduling in part for that.
In a summer populated with animated hits (“Despicable Me,” “Shrek Forever After” and “Toy Story 3″), blockbuster sequels (“Iron Man 2″ and “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse”) and successful remakes (“The Karate Kid”), these two really didn’t stand a chance.
Also, the marketing and promotion for both movies was generic and unexciting — if not misleading.
Trailers for “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” pushed the action elements and not the more appealing comic ones.
You never know, these movies might find audiences in their inevitable home-video releases. They might even reach the break- even point eventually.
And Bruckheimer already has one guaranteed hit in production, “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” which is set for release on May 20, 2011. He’s also producer for television’s “Amazing Race” and the “CSI” series.
He’s not losing any sleep over two underachieving projects.
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