PenguinJoe

Mystery Men Ben Stiller said in an interview the studio rushed the release date on it and thought it bombed because of that. It wasn't terrible, not great but it was interesting.

The Sitter is another movie David Gordon Green wasn't happy with the release date.

My Other Self

I remember Last Action Hero coming out and distinctly recall terrible word-of-mouth. The release date may have had something to do with it but it wasn't a very good movie. Wasn't it Arnold's first movie since T2 at this point? I think people were expecting something along the same lines in terms of story and action and not the pile of crap that was produced (although I admit it's kind of a guilty pleasure of mine).

Observe and Report suffered from a bad release date, too. Too many people thought it was just another Paul Blart: Mall Cop. The only thing they share is the fact that they both star mall security officers but that's where the similarities end. It wasn't marketed very well, either, since I remember the trailers and had no idea what to think.

Personally, it's one of my favorite comedies from the past few years and has a killer soundtrack to boot.

Mattflix

Yeah the word of mouth sank that one. It quickly got a reputation as one of the best-known bad movies out there.


I think that's a movie they didn't know how to market either. The Paul Blart comparisons, Seth Rogen's being known for stoner comedies, and poster art that looks like another comedy. The movie is a comedy but it's so dark and bleak. It's actually one of my favorites from the past few years for that reason, but I don't think it ever had a chance. I hope it finds a cult following at some point.

PenguinJoe

I think there's a Rifftrax for Last Action Hero I'd be curious to hear it.

EddieMoney

The Lone Ranger.

Sorry, misread the title as "Movies That Bombed Due to Being Released"

dugan

It's been speculated (by Michael Bay, among others) that Pearl Harbor would have done better if it had been released after Sept 11, 2001.

majorjoe23

They haven't done that one. They tend to steer clear of comedies.

Ash Ketchum

Yeah, that occurred to me, too. That if they'd waited for the actual 60th anniversary, it would have been after 9/11 and the movie's patriotic tenor would have been much better appreciated.

Alan Smithee

Last Action Hero was expected to be huge- I remember reading some theater trade magazines saying stuff like "This'll be an interesting summer because usually we just have one really big movie, but this year we've got two" (the other being Jurassic Park.) It was one of the last 70mm releases too. I've always liked it, but always hated how its original poster was replaced on video covers by a generic picture of Arnold holding a gun. Traditionally video covers are redone when a movie has done badly in theaters, but the poster for Last Action Hero was pretty cool and the replacement was just boring and not in the spirit of the movie.

Rockmjd23

They should have known going in that Last Action Hero was going to get clobbered by Jurassic Park.

Jay G.

This is the problem with this thread: the hindsight. Sure, it looks obvious to us now, but it's never a guarantee that a film will be successful.

Jurassic Park was based on a successful novel, but lots of book adaptations fail. And the last two films Spielberg had directed were Always and Hook, both disappointments both commercially and critically.

And really, as others have mentioned, the true thing that took Last Action Hero out was poor reviews and word of mouth.

E Unit

No, I remember even back then the hype and buildup for Jurassic Park was way bigger than a new Schwarzenegger film. It was suicide to put it against the new Spielberg summer movie that had much bigger prospects than Always and Hook.

Jay G.

The hype may have been bigger, but that doesn't mean that it was a sure thing that it was going to be bigger. There have been upsets before where the supposed "sure thing" movie bombs and some overlooked movie busts out to be the top performer. Take 1977, when Fox's "sure thing" hit Damnation Alley bombed while a film they had low projections for, Star Wars, took off like a rocket.

RocShemp

Yeah, it was an awesome poster:



I never saw this one (or at least don't remember it):

Strevlac

The hype for Last Action Hero was HUGE. It was my most anticipated movie that year. I couldn't wait to see it...Arnold's first film post T2 and re-teaming with John McTiernan. I thought it was going to be an action classic that would top Die Hard. Jurrassic Park, on the other hand, I couldn't care less about. My feelings at the time were that Spielberg was washed up as he hadn't made a good movie since E.T. 11 years earlier. I've since grown to appreciate his '83-'92 period but at the time, for me he was done.

Then the films came out. Never saw it coming. Jurassic Park was fucking amazing, and along with Schindler's List Spielberg had one of the best comebacks I've ever witnessed. McTiernan....prison.

So you see, hindsight is hindsight.

majorjoe23

Didn't they paint The Last Action Hero logo on some rocket, then the flight was delayed for about a year, so when it finally went up it did so advertising a massive failure long out of theaters?

I liked it as a kid. I think I saw it twice in theaters.

Supermallet

Jurassic Park could have been a huge bomb if ILM hadn't pulled off the dinosaur effects (it helped that many of the dinosaur scenes actually have a lot of practical effects mixed with the digital).

Last Action Hero seemed like a lock. Shane Black script, Arnie still in the afterglow of T2, what could go wrong?

Mondo Kane

I was stuck in summer school when it came out and that's all a friend (Who got to see it right away) told me, "The dinosaurs look REAL!"
The previews & trailers (Anyone remember that odd "Amber" teaser-trailer?) didn't sell me and others at first, but word-of-mouth for that movie eventually became massive.

Alan Smithee

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/9H4LaM81u8I" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

"The big ticket for '93!"
This trailer was 10 times cooler in surround instead of the crappy mono presented here.

Crocker Jarmen

Maybe my memory is faulty, but I recall nothing but negativity and derision surrounding Last Action Hero in the weeks leading up to its release. Like Showgirls-level of contempt. There was all this talk about how much money is cost and what a bomb it was going to be. I remember it being a joke even before it was released, cause when I saw it I left the theater thinking, "Well that wasn't nearly as bad as everyone was saying."

Jay G.

Are you sure you saw the film the week of release? From what I can tell, the negative word of mouth only picked up after the release.

Some quotes from usenet back in the day:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!to...-l/LZ-hrEyW1PM
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!to...ws/5qjb-ZSWxaI
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!to...ey/LdwOLseUjzU
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!to...-l/68A84w5WtO4

The earliest indication that Last Action Hero may be a flop came only a week before release, when Entertainment Weekly reported that test screenings went poorly.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!to...es/rZCW6u9zUD8

RocShemp

Yeah, I recall the negative backlash towards the movie. I really enjoyed it back then (I cannot believe it's already been 20 years) and enjoyed it a great deal when I revisited it on BD. However, the one thing that always bothered me about the movie was the animated cat voiced by Danny DeVito.



That character did not fit in the particular universe established by the movie. I always had to rationalize that the cat likely appeared in some TV commercial that featured Jack Slater alongside the cat for whatever reason. That then made the cat a part of Slater's world even though it never appeared in any of the movies.

But at least that's eventually offset by an awesome cameo by Ian McKellen.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/yJyUXZAwxtI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Obi-Wanma

If that commerical was typical of the marketing, then I can see why it failed. It makes it out to be some huge action movie, and doesn't give any indication of the comedic movie within a movie plot (other than him talking to the camera, which if you don't know any better, can easily be dismissed as a teaser). Was there any marketing that showed what the movie was about, or did people feel misled when they actually saw it?

Personally I always liked it as a kid, but I haven't seen it in years.

Jay G.

If you're referring to the teaser Alan Smithee posted, note that it was released in 1992, a year before the film.

The actual trailers for the film did reveal what the film was about, and the tone:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McNLeKMSkzA

BrewCrew

Surviving Christmas with Ben Affleck and James Gandolfini was released in mid October. Sure it was a terrible movie but it should have been released maybe around Christmas instead of before Halloween.