Dredd (2012)

[radiator]

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.

Sadly, Harry Knowles' online crusade to get people to see Dredd didn't seem to help much. 

I'll certainly be keeping an eye on Kevin Smith's podcast output over the next few weeks, as I'm sure Dredd will be up for discussion - maybe that will give the Blu Ray sales a slight boost at least!

[Muon]

To be fair on Kevin Smith, he seems to make about fifty podcasts a week, he's busy writing "Clerks 3," and he also has a family and a load of dogs making demands on his time. Not that I'm stalking him or anything, but I'm a big fan of his "Smodcast" podcast and he talks about all those things on there all the time  He also talks a lot about how he doesn't really like going out of the house and pretty much never goes to the cinema. So I don't think he was ever going to go out and see the film. Glad he liked it, though - his podcasts crack me up on the way to work.

[IndigoPrime]

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.

The trailer was quite evocative, but looking at it now, it's like the people who okayed it were trying to distance themselves from what Dredd was: a ballsy, fairly intelligent, old-school action thriller. It should have ramped up the Carpenterness and ensured Anderson was still kicking bottom in there, and just run with it. Again, though, it's easy to say this in hindsight.

Sadly, Harry Knowles' online crusade to get people to see Dredd didn't seem to help much.

No, but imagine a few more people had gone nuts over the film. There'd have potentially been a knock-on effect. I'm not mad enough to think it would have made a big enough difference (such as Dredd sitting at #1 in the US for four weeks), but it could have been enough to raise the profile and perhaps even keep it longer in the top ten. (As people will recall, it did well mid-week and then kept dropping out of the top-ten—and therefore the general public's mind—at the last moment.)

[Tiplodocus]

Wasn't IRON MAN, even as a second tier Marvel character, still massively more well known than Dredd?

Sure District 9 did well (or did it?) but that doesn't automatically mean all similar films will do well.

Am I the only one who thought the trailer was ok, including the music? I didn't even realise it gave away a major plot point until I saw the film itself.

[JOE SOAP]

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.

Kevin Smith is responsible for a lot of things, Dredd's box-office however, was not his remit. I never went to see Red State or any of his other films so he can tweet what he wants, it won't bother me and I won't castigate his for telling his fans he liked the film.

[JOE SOAP]

Wasn't IRON MAN, even as a second tier Marvel character, still massively more well known than Dredd?

The fact that Robert Downey Jnr., John Favreau and Marvel were behind a well-known Marvel character would help attract a huge audience, I would think.

[sheldipez]

Sure District 9 did well (or did it?) but that doesn't automatically mean all similar films will do well.

District 9 is a poster child how to sell a low budget movie to the masses; it was a meagre sci-fi movie ($30 million budget) with an unknown director and an unknown cast and Sony sold it perfectly in advance with their "humans only" campaign and teaser trailers well before release



When it got closer to release they ramped up made it clear that Peter Jackson the director of Lord of the Rings was producer which made even more people take notice.

What resulted was a $210 million at the box office and incrediblly healthy home video sales. All this could of easily been applied to Dredd with Alex "28 Days Later" Garland, maybe some clever Megacity "end times" teasers, judgement is coming, get the british press behind their creations, play down the 3D, I don't even think this is a case of hindsight either, all of us was asking where the publicity and song was around release and even well prior. You don't need to have a big ad budget to sell a movie, you just have to be smart, use social media, use hype, chose an angle and push it.

[Richmond Clements]

Please let's not go over all this again...

[JOE SOAP]

They're practicing for the sequel.

[junox]

broken down record

[IndigoPrime]

I won't castigate his for telling his fans he liked the film.

Nor would I. It's just a *headdesk* when someone like Smith—directly involved in the industry—is yelling "why didn't more people see this?" and "why aren't they making more?", when he's raving about it three months after the shiny disc came out. I wonder if he saw Dark Knight and Avengers at the flicks or tweeted about them a few months after they showed up on rental.

[radiator]

Even if I'd never heard of Judge Dredd, the word of mouth on the film, the comparisons to John Carpenter/District 9, and the fact that DNA/Garland were involved would have been more than enough to convince me to go see it opening day.

It does seem odd to me that so many self-confessed comic book movie nerds are only just now discovering the film. Have they not had access to the internet for the last 6 months or something?

[IndigoPrime]

Quite. Many people have complained for years about the gradual dumbing down of action movies, and the way they're overtly sanitised, to make them palatable for kids. They've been screaming out for something smart, tight, edgy, action-packed and entertaining. Dredd comes along and they're not interested and go and see Looper and Resident Evil instead, largely ending up split on the former and inevitably disappointed in the latter. Both movies make a shed-load of cash, and Dredd bombs. Now they're all "man, I wish I'd gone to see it" and "why won't those idiots make a sequel?" Well, probably because the box office take was miserable and even with subsequent strong rental/home market sales, no-one in their right mind would risk a second theatrical effort. It also puts a spanner in the works for anyone considering any kind of similar movie.

I'll make exceptions for those who can't stomach 3D, note. I very nearly stayed away myself because of that. (Fortunately, I was OK with the 3D and Mrs G was only minimally woozy from it.) But for everyone else (and especially those who love the 3D on the Blu-ray): GAH.

[JOE SOAP]

It does seem odd to me that so many self-confessed comic book movie nerds are only just now discovering the film. Have they not had access to the internet for the last 6 months or something?

It doesn't come as a surprise that Dredd has generally been an ignored character by most of the world, even comic-nerds, in the wake of Marvel and DC's dominance at the cinema. The little interest that was paid to the idea of another film before the San Diego screening indicated that most people had either forgotten Dredd was still around or had never heard of it.

[radiator]

It doesn't come as a surprise that Dredd has generally been an ignored character by most of the world, even comic-nerds, in the wake of Marvel and DC's dominance at the cinema. The little interest that was paid to the idea of another film before the San Diego screening indicated that most people had either forgotten Dredd was still around or had never heard of it.

Yes, but my point was:

Even if I'd never heard of Judge Dredd, the word of mouth on the film, the comparisons to John Carpenter/District 9, and the fact that DNA/Garland were involved would have been more than enough to convince me to go see it opening day.