Herethe new Robert Zemeckis with Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, got off to a very poor start at the domestic box office. And it will probably be another flop for the great director.
Robert Zemeckis is one of the greatest. The trilogy Back to the future, Who wants Roger Rabbit's skin?, Contact, Death suits you so well, Forrest Gump, In pursuit of the green diamond…Since the 1980s, he has chained cult films and successesto side with Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and a few others among major filmmakers in Hollywood.
But the tide seems to have turned at the dawn of the 2000s. Robert Zemeckis may well keep up the pace (ten films in twenty years), he accumulates failures. We have to go back to 2012 to find his last public success, with Denzel Washington in Flight. From, The Walk (2015), Allies (2016) et Welcome to Marwen (2018) crashed at the cinema. Holy witches (on HBO Max in 2020) and Pinocchio (on Disney+ in 2022) escaped the box office box, but were greeted by more or less murderous reviews.
This is why his new film, Herewas eagerly awaited. Adapted from the graphic novel Richard McGuire, this crazy story that spans years and lives from a place where the camera will not movealso marks his reunion with Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, the duo of Forrest Gump. Unfortunately, it's off to a very bad start for Here, well on its way to being another commercial failure for the director.
RIGHT HERE RIGHT BAD
Here started in fifth position at the domestic box office (United States and Canada), and it hurts. The film is content to 5 million for its release on more than 2,600 screens, landing behind Venom 3 (26,1 millions), The Wild Robot (7,5 millions), Smile 2 (6.8 million) and Conclave (5.3 million). Or films that are not new releases. It's even the sixth week for The Wild Robotparticularly solid since he did better than last weekend.
Here cost officially 45-50 million dollarsexcluding marketing. It is a budget similar to Welcome to Marwen (40-50 million) and The Walk (around 40-45 million), and much more modest than Pinocchio (150 million) and Allies (more than 100 million).
It's hard to see anything other than a cold shower in this start at the domestic box office. It is greater than The Walk (1.5 million) and Welcome to Marven ($2.3 million on more than 1,900 screens)… which were resounding failures. The Walk was up to 61 million, but Marwen was a colossal flop, with around 13 million in total.
Here starts less well thanAllies (12.7 million), supported by Brad Pitt, Marion Cotillard and a budget twice as high, and which ultimately reached 120 million at the box office.
Looking back over the last twenty years, the start of Here ranks behind almost all Robert Zemeckis films: The Pole Express (23 millions), Flight (24,9 millions), The Legend of Beowulf (27 millions), Alone in the world (28 millions), Appearances (29 million), and Scrooge's Christmas Carol (30 millions).
FORREST GUMP THE RETURN
On paper, Here was a perfect equation for Robert Zemeckis, with a great narrative and technical challenge. The graphic novel Ici de Richard McGuire tells a whole bunch of story from a fixed pointranging from 3,500,000,000 BC. JC until the year 22 175. From the appearance of life on Earth to the daily lives of different families who lived in the same house, it was a dizzying story.
The movie Here focuses particularly on la relation entre Richard (Tom Hanks) et Margaret (Robin Wright)and this was not the only reason to see it as a reunion of Forrest Gump since Robert Zemeckis found other great collaborators: the screenwriter Eric Roth (Forrest Gump), the composer Alan Silvestri (central throughout his career, and already on Forrest Gump), and his faithful cinematographer Dun Burgess (Forrest Gump, Contact, Alone in the world…).
Here also represented a technological challenge since it was necessary rejuvenate Tom Hanks and Robin Wrightin order to tell the youth of their characters. Nothing that scares the director of Who wants Roger Rabbit's skin?, Death suits you so well et The Express Poleaccustomed to technical feats of force. He declared to The Hollywood Reporter in January 2023:
“I have always been attracted to technology that helps me tell a story. With Here, the film simply couldn't have worked without our actors perfectly transforming into rejuvenated versions of themselves. Metaphysic's AI tools do just that, in a way that was previously impossible. »
The team worked with the company Metaphysic, which notably used AI to be able to create rejuvenated and photorealistic versions of actors and actresses. An idea that has already been explored in recent years, whether in The Irishman or Indiana Jones 5.
Here will be released in France on November 6. And we will go see it, even if there is no press screening, as Robert Zemeckis deserves.
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