Dredd (2012)

[Danbo]

Pardons if you lot have seen this....

Prototype Dredd helmet pics and chance to win it!

http://www.therpf.com/f71/rpf-dredd-helmet-contest-win-original-helmet-176687/

[Goaty]

Heh!

Kevin Smith tweets three more;

The ever-helmeted Dredd just head-butted Avon Barksdale. This movie rules. Like Marcy & me, Judge Anderson says "Sir..." a lot. #CursedEarth

DREDD was phenomenal! To say it's better than the Stallone movie version doesn't do it justice: it's better than most movies in general.

Comic Book True: DREDD keeps his helmet on THE WHOLE TIME! Cursed earth! How are they not making another? I want a sequel with Judge Death!

[shaolin_monkey]

Wow! Tweet back to him, and ask if he can get someone to finance a sequel.  You never know!!!

[Beadle68]

Just tweeted him to start a campain for a sequel, you never know.Seems the love for this movie is growing fast shame it wasnt promoted better at time of release.

[COMMANDO FORCES]

But you all know a sequel will NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER happen!

[Beadle68]

Dont shatter my dreams John ,its all I have left.Reality sucks 

[junox]

We can DREAM  C.F.   and DREAMS can come true

[Mabs]

We can DREAM  C.F.   and DREAMS can come true

^This. CF. Hell yeah!

[COMMANDO FORCES]

Yes we can dream and low and behold

[The Sherman Kid]

Heh!

Kevin Smith (of Clerks / comic fan) just tweet this;

Holy shit, DREDD rocks! I am in love with Judge Anderson! How the fuck didn't this movie do more business? It's like RoboCop good. #MegaCity

Aaaaargh -**** me this is frustrating.So many people loving this film POST cinema release.

The marketing people deserve the Titan trip.

[Beadle68]

Out of interest has any other film that tanked at the box office gained as much interest from non fans for a sequel as Dredd , I can't think of one.And yeah it is frustrating beyond belief that people are loving this post cinema release. BASTARDS ALL OF EM, robbing me of my beloved sequel 

[Tiplodocus]

A Titan trip for the marketing people?

That's harsh. After all, they could only work with what they got and what they got was a pretty niche product.  i.e. science fiction, no marquee name stars, no marquee name director/producer, violent and gory, 18 rated, no real traction from comic (except in UK), baggage from previous film, no face to put on posters, dark humour, grim setting, no splashy visuals...

Some of those were things that could not be altered but I'm pretty sure it wasn't marketing that made all of the decisions and each one could have had an effect on Box Office.

[radiator]

science fiction, no marquee name stars, no marquee name director/producer, violent and gory, 18 rated, no real traction from comic (except in UK), baggage from previous film, no face to put on posters, dark humour, grim setting, no splashy visuals...

You know, you could almost be talking about the smash hit District 9. And Dredd had some great visuals that were poorly showcased in the trailers.

Did Iron Man have 'traction' from the comic with the mainstream public? I would argue not.

Perhaps a Dredd film, no matter how great the final product turned out, was never going to fly. But the fact remains that the film was to a certain extent marketed atrociously. Things like selling the film exclusively as a gimmicky, cheap B movie (adding '3D' to the title, severely limiting 2D screenings) were bitter mistakes. They also neglected to mention that the film was from the makers of 28 Days Later - a big hit in the US.

They evidently didn't do nearly enough to distance the film from the Stallone version, and there was also a general cheapness to some of the marketing materials - the theatrical poster was strong, but where were the posters hyping up the rest of the cast? All things considered, the trailer was pretty weak and should have been so much better given the footage and audio they had to work with.

[IndigoPrime]

It's easy in hindsight to see where everything went wrong, though. Looking back, the trailer was messed up. The later ones from Japan (more emphasis on action and less on the underlying story) were the way to go; also, overly focussing on a certain demographic (like the wrestling thing) perhaps didn't help. Hyping Anderson more would have helped too, given the hugely positive response the film got from women (who ended up being a very low percentage of the audience).

Ultimately, though, the stink of Stallone stuck around, and there simply weren't the marketing dollars to counter that. Iron Man didn't have traction, but it's more well known in the US and didn't have a terrible prior film lurking in recent memory.

The Smith thing really annoys me though. He's a comics geek, and so it'd be interesting to know why he didn't see the film when it opened. With his two million followers, those tweets at the time could have been enough to get more word of mouth, and even nudge Dredd up a chart position or two. Now, though, he just comes across as yet another of the screaming mob who should have gotten off their arses to see the film during its cinema run.

[radiator]

It's easy in hindsight to see where everything went wrong, though. Looking back, the trailer was messed up.

I think that the general consensus on the trailer at the time! I distinctly remember being a little underwhelmed by it, and dumbstruck at how inappropriate the choice of music was. The Japanese and Blu Ray trailers were indeed far superior.

Now, though, he just comes across as yet another of the screaming mob who should have gotten off their arses to see the film during its cinema run.

Yep, same old, same old.

"How did this movie not do more business at the cinema?" he asks.

My tweeted reply "Because no one - yourself included - went to see it!"