The X-Files: I Want to Believe opened to a disastrous $10.2 million over its opening weekend, begging the question of how a movie based on one of the most successful movies of all time could do so poorly at the box office, even against the likes of The Dark Knight. While some box office analysts have mused that it was simply too long of a wait since the end of the TV show and that audiences had moved on to bigger and better things, I don’t think that has anything to do with anything. However, I believe the following are a few reasons why The X-Files: I Want to Believe failed to deliver:
The marketing was disastrous. While Warner Brothers was out promoting The Dark Knight feverishly, hitting up websites, movie theaters, TV and every other medium with advertisements, previews, images, posters and more, Fox was… well, not doing much at all. I didn’t get a single email from them asking to promote the film; there weren’t a slew of character posters or compelling images; there wasn’t much sign that the movie was coming to theaters at all. Furthermore, the news hardly talked about it all; PR failed miserably.
The movie trailers were bad. I didn’t think they were terrible, but then again, I’m an “X-Files” fan who was just excited that the film was coming to theaters. The movie was supposed to appeal to fans and non-fans alike, but the trailers, which lacked any kind of excitement or power, offered nothing of value to bite on.
Chris Carter kept the story under wraps. It’s understandable that 20th Century Fox and Carter wanted to keep the plot secret, but whereas Cloverfield, Indiana Jones and even The Dark Knight used this to their advantage to build hype and excitement, Fox did nothing more than lead fans down a few false paths.
The title is horrible. I mean really, really horrible. What were they thinking? I Want to Believe? What a dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb title.
Fox decided to release this movie a week after The Dark Knight. Sure, they couldn’t have known that Batman was going to be that big, but ever since the first pictures of The Joker appeared online – and especially since Heath Ledger died – the buzz was obvious. Fox should have moved The X-Files: I Want to Believe to another weekend within seconds.
There were no marathons or promotion of the show. For the last year, Fox should have been released special DVD sets, running marathons on TV and launching clips online. X-Files should have been everywhere, and it was nowhere.
The movie isn’t very good. Ultimately, good reviews would have given this film a bit of a boost, and it just wasn’t good enough to get them. The movie is a bit dull, the story unimaginative. While the marketing group should have done a lot better, admittedly, they didn’t have much to work with. (read my X-Files 2 movie review here)
After complaining about the lack of a really good English-language movie trailer, the English-language version of the Russian X-Files: I Want to Believe movie trailer has popped online over at YouTube. Now that the trailer’s in English, we can actually get a few clues about the plot – but still, Carter and 20th Century Fox are keeping the plot well under wraps.
Here’s the new X-Files: I Want to Believe movie trailer (I expect a higher quality version to pop online sooner than later):
I’m starting to feel and sound like a bitter old man. Nothing seems to please me of late, other than driving around Green Lake in Seattle and admiring all of the beautiful female joggers that were out in storm today. So, maybe it’s just me, but does the new title for the new X-Files movie suck or what? And when I say “suck,” I mean really, really suck?
The new X-Files 2 title is The X-Files: I Want to Believe. I don’t care if it’s a theme in the show or what not, but I Want to Believe is just a stupid, stupid, stupid name for a movie. Maybe it could work for some kind of kid’s movie about a little girl and her pony who goes to Heaven, but as the title for a sci-fi horror-thriller? No, thank you.
Any movie title, especially one belonging to a sequel, that contains a colon in it should have the ability to be referred to by it’s subtitle. Are you going to say, “I’m going to go see The X-Files: I Want to Believe?” No. Are you going to say, “I’m going to go see I Want to Believe?” No, unless you’re mocking the title. What are you going to say? “I’m watching X-Files 2, biotch!” The thing is, movies with subtitles should be able to be referred to by said subtitle and not sound corny as Hell. The Phantom Menace? Revenge of the Sith? Attack of the Clones? OK, maybe that last one shouldn’t be used as an example.
My point is… I Want to Believe is just a really lame title. I love The X-Files, but Chris Carter has made a laughably bad marketing move here that could hurt the movie’s broad appeal.
And please don’t write back, “But 3:10 to Yuma has a colon in it!” You know what I mean.
A bootleg teaser trailer for The X-Files 2 from Wondercon has made its way online. It’s a little hard to tell exactly what the movie is about, but the shots of Mulder and Scully certainly draw great crowd reactions. Check out the movie trailer below, and hopefully an official version will arrive online soon enough.
The X-Files: I Want to Believe opened to a disastrous $10.2 million over its opening weekend, begging the question of how a movie based on one of the most successful movies of all time could do so poorly at the box office, even against the likes of The Dark Knight. While some box office analysts have mused that it was simply too long of a wait since the end of the TV show and that audiences had moved on to bigger and better things, I don’t think that has anything to do with anything. However, I believe the following are a few reasons why The X-Files: I Want to Believe failed to deliver:
