Family-friendly 'Giant' falls to Earth
By Claudia Puig, USA TODAY
Washington is clamoring for positive
messages in entertainment, and parents
say they're starved for intelligent,
kid-friendly fare. But people haven't been
lining up at the multiplexes for family films.
The Iron Giant, an animated movie about
a boy befriending a robot from outer space at the height of the Cold War,
failed to make a box office dent. It has grossed $18.9 million since
opening Aug. 4.
Its underachievement has mystified some industry watchers and studio
executives.
"In light of what Washington's been saying, you would expect that people
would support a good family movie," says Robert Bucksbaum, president
of ReelSource, a box office tracking firm. "But it just doesn't work that
way."
The movie's backers are discouraged that audiences avoided exactly what
they claim to want: a critically acclaimed family film with an anti-violence
message.
"People always say to me, 'Why don't you make smarter movies?'" says
Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, Warner Bros.' president of production. "The
lesson is: Every time you do, you get slaughtered."
Much of Hollywood has spent the past few weeks trying to explain the
failure of a movie that, by most accounts, was one of the most anticipated
of the year.
"If you had talked to most analysts at the beginning of the year, Iron
Giant
was one of their picks for sleeper hit," says Bucksbaum. "But buzz is one
thing, and people liking it is another thing. But neither has anything
to do
with how well it will do at the box office. It had a great message, and
everybody who saw it loved the film. But we've noticed in the recent past
that family films, even if they're incredibly well received by audiences
and
critics, don't put people in the seats. It's just a weird phenomenon."
Bucksbaum says children and their parents seem to want fare that's hip
and aimed at older kids and adults.
"It has to be hip and high concept; kids are so technologically advanced,"
he says. "They're growing up on the Internet, and even television has
high-resolution animation and incredible stories. They want to see special
effects and films that adults and older teens are going to see. Iron Giant
seemed more like a Saturday morning cartoon, and there's no way they're
going to see it."
One teen who doesn't fall into that camp is Ben De Groot, 17. He liked
Iron Giant so much that he created a Web site
(irongiant.acmecity.com/meteor/175) and wrote a letter to the Box Office
Guru site (www.boxofficeguru.com) to help the movie's cause.
"Iron Giant is truly one of the best films of the year, and I want to help
support it," De Groot wrote. "After last week's horrible showing at the
box
office, I decided to make a Web site to try to help promote it."
Bucksbaum says his company offered people $5 to see the film and got
surprisingly few takers. Those who took the offer gave the money back,
he says, because they liked the film so much.
The box office thud of The Iron Giant, made for an estimated $50 million,
comes in the wake of two family films that also struggled for an audience
this year. The more modestly budgeted October Sky, a tale of a teen-ager
who aspires to build rockets, and Shiloh 2, about the bond between a boy
and his dog, had positive social messages and some critical support. But
October Sky grossed $30 million, and Shiloh 2 earned less than $2
million.
"When October Sky came out, I had a lot of e-mails from parents and
teachers," says Gitesh Pandya, Box Office Guru analyst. "One teacher said
he made a class field trip out of it. Some movies take time to really find
an
audience. In today's fast-paced box office, you don't really have a lot
of
time. There's a ton of competitors right behind you to grab screens,
advertising space and publicity."
Industry analysts say Disney has the stranglehold on the family film market
because its brand name dominates the arena, particularly when it comes
to
animated fare. (Indeed, summer offering Tarzan has grossed more than
$150 million.) Non-Disney animated films that have been box office
successes, such as Paramount Pictures' Rugrats and DreamWorks'
Prince of Egypt, were successful in part because audiences were familiar
with the characters or story.
Most analysts agree that The Iron Giant fell short for many reasons: an
unfamiliar story line, an ill-timed late-summer opening, the absence of
a
catchy soundtrack, a lack of widespread promotion and even a
questionable title.
"It lacked a lot of the things that would normally attract strong business,"
Pandya says. "It's not a familiar story. There's no tie-in to anything
that
kids know about right now - no TV show, comic book or anything like
that. If it were linked to Pokemon or Furbies or Rugrats, you could get
people. No one's ever heard of the Iron Giant. You're basically asking
people to fork up all this dough for something they don't know anything
about."
Says film critic and radio host Michael Medved: "They didn't use Jennifer
Aniston and Harry Connick Jr. (who did Iron Giant voices) in
promotions. If the two of them had been going around doing talk shows,
it
could have helped take away some of that sting of it being a movie for
little
kids."
Some say the name itself was off-putting. "It should have been called
Marty and the Iron Giant, which would be a more kid-friendly kind of
title," says Martin Grove, movie industry analyst for CNN. "Giants are
kind of scary to little kids. The idea of an iron giant dropping out of
the sky
wasn't enough of a turn-on for parents to want to sit through."
All the deconstruction aside, there is an upside for The Iron Giant: video.
Films rated G and PG are among the most successful in video sales and
rentals, and animated films especially are viewed as "evergreens."
"I think Iron Giant is going to find a much bigger audience on video,"
Pandya says. "It's so much more affordable to rent it for $3 and watch
it
with your whole family. So the door is still open for more profit and more
audience."
Others say The Iron Giant could draw substantial overseas audiences. "It
should also do very well internationally, particularly in England and Japan,"
Medved says. "It's a huge disappointment, but I don't think it will be
viewed as an appalling disaster."
The weakness of The Iron Giant probably won't lead Hollywood to give
up on family films. But industry officials such as Warner Bros.' Di
Bonaventura lament that the incentive to make them lessens when
audiences don't show up.
"It's a very competitive and difficult genre," Grove says. "It's the only
genre
dominated by one studio brand name, and yet people compete to get into
it because the upside is very good. These are films that don't get dated,
so
their library value is enhanced. They're valuable to have, but they're
expensive to make."
USA TODAY 8/30/99
