It's time to correct a growing myth in the world of the movie box office. The myth is thus: success at the box office means the movie is good. The latest to pass off this ludicrous myth is a terrific film critic and reporter Steven Rea who recently interviewed director M. Night Shyamalan.
Shyamalan may in fact be the true progenitor of this particular myth. His films have repeatedly been
trashed by critics and yet, as the article states, only his “Lady in the Water” can be considered a true box office failure. This propels Mr. Rea and Mr. Shyamalan toward the myth of box office equals quality film.
They are talking about Shyamalan's “The Last Airbender” which through this weekend has taken in more than 125 million dollars. Mr. Shyamalan uses this fact as a bludgeon against critics who have left his movie with an 8% positive rating on the review aggregator website Rottentomatoes (the relevance of Rotten Tomatoes is another debate for another time).
You see, by Mr. Shyamalan's logic, parroted by Mr. Rea, the relative box office success of “The Last Airbender” and each of Mr. Shyamalan's reviled epics “The Village” and the more modest financially successful “The Happening,” state clearly that critics are wrong about the quality of his films. The Audience loves them is what they extrapolate from the box office numbers.
Shyamalan and his defenders take the myth a step further stating that the reason critics don't like
Shyamalan is somehow personal. They resent his success and especially his ability to draw an audience over their repeated objections to his films. The fans keep coming back so clearly the movies are good.
This notion repeated often enough I am sure offers some comfort to Mr. Shyamalan but let's take the air out of this once and for all. Seeing a movie does not automatically mean liking a movie. Millions of Americans are headed to the theaters this weekend and millions will walk out having paid to see a movie that they did not enjoy.
In the age of the front loaded box office this myth can hide ever so easily behind massive opening weekend box office before word of mouth gets out and ruins everything. That is what happened with “The Last Airbender” which has already dropped out of the box office top 10. After raking in nearly 60 million dollars in its first 4 days ‘Airbender’ has limped to 125 million dollars thru this weekend.
By comparison, “Despicable Me,” a film that has received mostly positive reviews from critics, made 56 million dollars on its opening weekend and has done so in less time in theaters than “The Last Airbender.” “Despicable Me” has already gone over the 200 million dollar mark at the box office and will likely pass 250 to 260 million dollars before it's done.
Box office doesn't translate to film quality. Just seeing a movie doesn't mean people liked it. Many have seen “The Last Airbender” and many of them walked out disappointed. They told their friends who told their friends and many of those people decided not to see it.
Mr. Shyamalan says it’s personal between the critics and him. Critics have it out for him. Why? He’s too successful and he succeeds despite the critics. Success can be defined any number of ways Mr. Shyamalan. Studios I’m sure will agree that your films are successful. The return on investment is the bottom line.
But box office is box office and film quality is film quality. “The Last Airbender” is a terrible film in my opinion and in the opinions of many other critics and even among many of the people who turned it into a successful business enterprise. Crow if you like about the film’s box office success Mr. Shyamalan but you disappointed many who saw your film, not just the critics.
Many Americans paid hard earned dollars to take their kids to see “The Last Airbender” and many walked out feeling cheated that they had spent so much to see a movie they didn’t enjoy. Shyamalan points to their dollars and calls himself successful. That’s a fail on this end Mr. Shyamalan, no matter what the balance sheets say.
