Girls On Film: 'Whip It's Undeserved Box Office Bust
Filed under: Box Office, Fandom, Movie Marketing, Girls on Film
I picked a good year to start writing a column about women in film. More than ever before, women are gaining ground in Hollywood. We've got seasoned pros like Kathryn Bigelow finally getting mainstream clout. A number of high-profile projects are being made by women. And we're also seeing a distinct rise in the do-everything femmes like Felicia Day and Diablo Cody.
But it's not all roses. First Jennifer's Body went from long-term big-buzz to big-time flop, and now Whip It is sadly following suit. If you caught Eugene Novikov's Weekend Box Office, you might have noticed that while Zombieland kicks all sorts of living butt, and the 3-D Toy Story double feature grabbed spot #3, Drew Barrymore's kick-ass roller derby pic came in a supremely disappointing 7th Place.
One could argue that Body's questionable showing was at least partly due to the mixed reactions from critics and fans. Cody's horror pic couldn't even grab a half-and-half balance, nestling in at 42% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes. Some loved it, others hated it. But even with some really bad reviews, it still beat Drew. Whip It! earned almost double the critical love (82% fresh), but pulled in a whopping $2 million less than the Body in its opening weekend ($4.85 million). 2 mil might not mean as much when you're in the hundreds, but it sure as heck means a lot when you can't even bring in 5.
What went wrong, and how can we fix it before this excellent cinematic momentum is halted?
How does a femme-centric film get critical love from male and female critics alike, of all different ages, and not even make back a third of its modest budget during the opening weekend rush? Yes, one can note the divide between critics and fans, but we're not talking about a heavy drama or art-house piece that appeals to the biggest fans of cinema while repelling mainstream audiences. This is a light-hearted, easy-to-ingest comedy that balances laughs, hearts, and hardcore roller derby action. Anne Thompson quoted a studio marketing exec as saying: "Women aren't showing up. Girls don't get into roller derby." But that sentiment seems awfully reductionary. There are a lot of films with unfamiliar premises that get audience love, and I highly doubt that women are seeing the roller derby spin and thinking "Ew, I'm not into that!" It seems much more likely that female audiences were solidly directed towards Zombieland after it's excellently catchy trailers and slowly building marketing momentum. As Thompson states, Fox Searchlight seems to have dropped the ball.
If you're not going to play the game of slowly building anticipation, you've got to have one sleek marketing campaign lined up that will knock the socks off of any and all competitors -- especially when your main competition is a zombie flick grabbing a fan-base well before its release. Coming-of-age films with sweet stories can be a whole lot of fun (as movies like Whip It! prove), but a slowly building, feel-good trailer isn't going to be able to battle against a really funny one rife with one-liners and zombie cleverness.
In fact, it might just get a wholly unexpected crowd. The comments on Melissa Silverstein's post about the box office crash note an interesting phenomenon. Three separate commenters noted the age of the audience. One notes a theater full of people over 30, while two others also note a large number of senior citizens in the audience. Correct me if I have missed something, but gran and gramps aren't the usual audience for a roller derby film, so something was appealing to them. Either they are weekly filmgoers who ignore the trailers and chose retro roller skates over zombies, or this marketing campaign has sucked in an unintended and smaller crowd.The big problem is, whether I'm right about the marketing or not, it's just another wrench in the world of female filmmaking. Undoubtedly, some will see these numbers as an example of a woman's talent or worth without taking into consideration extenuating factors, and this could seriously hurt all of the great advancements made in the last year.
I can't help but wonder how the film would've fared if the marketing campaign had time to build, and either had a rock 'em, sock 'em trailer to battle against Zombieland, or maybe a release date back or ahead a week or two. What do you think?
We can only spread the word and hope that sparks a larger audience because even if you aren't a fan of Whip It! style cinema, what would you rather have: A collection of femme-centric fare that's spunky and full of flare, or yet more generic rom-coms that make our eyes bleed in agony?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
10-05-2009 @ 8:39PM
Reuben said...
I saw this over the weekend with my girlfriend and I had a fantastic time. I thought it was a great, fun, film, and I've been telling everyone I know to give it a shot.
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10-05-2009 @ 8:59PM
frothygirl said...
I was scratching my head over its performance this weekend. Likable cast, interesting sport, popular director, and good reviews. I really don't understand why people didn't come out in droves.
I hope that this is not a continuing trend. I really enjoyed the movie, and I think they should have marketed it to teenage girls. It has a good message about following your dreams.
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10-05-2009 @ 9:12PM
Booby Jones said...
Yes, extremely popular director... who had never directed a film before.
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10-07-2009 @ 8:22PM
CParis said...
I think this may be one of those films that will benefit from positive word-of-mouth, not people rushing in the opening weekend. It's not targeted to the teen crowd, so it may have a slower build. Hopefully people can help that happen.
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10-05-2009 @ 9:36PM
Jen said...
I don't think they've figured out *how* to market to teenage girls. I can't think if anything that's been targeted at them aside from "Twilight," and frankly that had nothing to do with the ad campaign that Summit ran and everything to do with the pre-existing fanbase.
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10-05-2009 @ 9:43PM
RTMS said...
Yes a popular director who never had directed before and has a image of a ditz both on screen and off. I think they needed to drop the whole promotion with Drew Barrymore and make a much more exciting trailer. Of course it would have been nice if I had actually seen any trailers on the TV. I honestly can't recall seeing any tv stuff for it. Other than the Toronto Intl Film fest this really was a bad marketing problem.Not to mention Ellen Page is getting stereotyped as the moody teen and can't shoulder a movie yet by herself.
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10-05-2009 @ 10:33PM
Hats said...
I don't think this is very hard to figure out. It's a roller derby movie. Roller derby was apparently somewhat popular during the 50s, but most people today have either never heard of it or had no idea it was still being played. It's not just niche, it's mega-niche. A sports movie doesn't have to be about baseball or football to be popular--there have been at least moderate hit movies about things like dodgeball (Dodgeball), ping-pong (Balls of Fury), and even bowling (Kingpin). The difference is that while people don't generally follow these as sports, everyone has played them at least once or twice. Roller derby, on the other hand, is something your grandmother watched between Bobby Darin records and chocolate malts at the drive-in. And that's assuming you've heard of it at all.
The other big problem is in the marketing. It's marketed as one of those 'grrl-power' movies, which is always box-office death (remember Tank Girl? me either). Worse than that, it comes off as some clueless elderly white marketing executive's idea of what young women supposedly were like circa...1994 or so. It's about as relevant to the young women of 2009 as a Vanilla Ice biopic.
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10-06-2009 @ 12:36AM
Jenni Miller said...
Actually, roller derby was revitalized by such people as Shauna Cross, who wrote the novel and screenplay, in 2000 or so, and it's really not that niche at all. It's a very popular sport with leagues across the country. I know derby girls, guys who are refs, and even a few "jeerleaders." Other than the more violent characterizations of the sport in the movie (a friend who is a derby girl pointed out that things like punching people in the face, fighting, etc are against the rules), I'd say it was a pretty damn accurate depiction of how fun it is just to watch a derby match. I'm sure it's even more fun to BE a derby girl. The people I know who are part of the scene love it and it's become a second family to them; it's accepting of all ages and sizes, as long as you can get out there and skate.
It's a mystery to me why it did so poorly.
10-06-2009 @ 4:03AM
Polly Projectionist said...
My town hasn't gotten this movie in yet (we've only had a theater here for 5 months, tho we've got 6 screens.) I can hardly wait to see it! The actress who grabbed me is Zoe Bell! The kids & I just LOVE her. We learned about her in "Deathproof" - she did all Uma's stunts in "Kill Bill" - I watch her get her head blown off in "Gamer" and I'm so very happy to see her in a more visible role as one of the Hurl Scouts. She's an incredible stunt woman and I'm glad to see her getting roles where we can see her face, for a change :-)
And as for "Tank Girl", my boys could watch that till the cows come home! They like the Stan Winston characters in that especially.
I will always enjoy Drew Barrymore. I consider her one of Hollywood's elite. .. and she's just darn CUTE.
"We're number two!!! We're number two!!!"
I hope it has a long run as word-of-mouth fills in for lack of advertising. (It was in my pile of trailers, and I popped it in front of "Fame" -- I'm working on the whole "target audience" thing.)
10-05-2009 @ 10:08PM
Matt said...
If i'm going to go see a sports movie, I'm going to make sure it's an interesting sport.
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10-05-2009 @ 11:50PM
mike deezy said...
No one cares about roller derby, that's why and not to mention the trailer wasn't very good. Zombieland just seemed like a much funner movie
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10-06-2009 @ 12:06AM
almostinfocus said...
Sadly, I think your overestimating the female momentum in Hollywood. Kathryn Bigelow's latest film, "The Hurt Locker", was critically praised but has yet to see a wide release. It has grossed 12 million dollars to date and had an estimated budget of 11 million dollars. I wouldn't exactly call that finally gaining mainstream clout. Blog-writer, screenwriter and stripper isn't the resume of a "do-everything femme", especially when stripper gets the most attention. And Felicia Day is cool and will get a huge ovation at comic-con, but most people have no idea who she is. Maybe the box-office failure of "Jennifer's Body" and "Whip It" aren't small set-backs, but part of the larger, continuing story of the difficulties of women being accepted and succeeding in Hollywood as something other than actresses.
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10-06-2009 @ 9:41AM
NP said...
Yeah I'm pretty sure Monika meant writer, producer, director and not "blog-writer, screenwriter, stripper." It seems you're part of the problem of giving Cody's stripper career too much attention.
10-06-2009 @ 1:24PM
almostinfocus said...
@NP
I don't know of anything Diablo Cody has directed, and executive producer isn't exactly a stretch for a writer. It's more of an honorary title given to a writer to show they have more influence and authority. It's usually the head writer for a tv show or a writer with creative control. She's a writer, and a oscar winning one at that. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, and in fact she deserves praise for it. But she's not a do everything woman. It was an exaggeration to call her that and belittles what her actual achievements are
As far as stripper, I didn't mean it derogatorily, but it will probably be something that Diablo Cody always has to address. She made a calculated move to become a stripper in order to write about it and it made her famous. But all media coverage of her now refers to her as the stripper-turned-writer. It's a choice she made and she may be fine with it, but it's naive to think that she's famous for any other reason. Yeah, she won an academy award, but ask people who know who she is if they can name another academy award winning screenwriter. I doubt many will come with any other names, and I'm sure only a few will name more than one or two. Screenwriters are not famous people. Attractive stripper screenwriters are. I don't think that proves that women are successful in Hollywood.
Just so I'm clear about my main point, I think women should have more power and success in Hollywood. But if the best examples of women who do are one who makes a great film but can't get it released, one who is more famous on the internet than in Hollywood, and one who is famous for being a stripper, then, sadly, women really haven't gained ground in Hollywood. I hope that changes soon.
10-06-2009 @ 12:39AM
Michael Fusco said...
I think people are forgetting that searchlight bumped this film up 2 weeks as to avoid competition with Couples Retreat's second week and the logjam on its original release date of Oct. 16th (Where the Wild Things are and Law Abiding Citizen seemingly have that staked out.) With 2 less weeks to build up the word of mouth and get ads out there they seemed to raise the white flag with the preview screenings. (I think very few of these actually do well after they preview) I've talked with a few friends and they went to the previews and didn't see the need to go back this weekend. That said, I haven't met one person who didn't like this movie. I just hope it holds up well next week so that this great film can at least attempt to break even!
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10-06-2009 @ 10:25AM
Stan Winsome said...
I dunno if it's really about women in film. Movies like Jennifer's Body and Whip It just look lame. If I were a woman I wouldn't be particularly psyched to make or see either of those movies. Now Hurt Locker happens to be a solid movie, but really no one wants to see movies about Iraq anymore. Make a good movie and people will come see it- it's really that simple...
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10-07-2009 @ 2:05PM
stephanie rosenfeld said...
Yeah, ladies, make good movies -- that's the problem. Like Transformers, like The Hangover, like Judd Apatow does.
Mr. Winsome, you perfectly exemplify a big -- if not the biggest -- part of "the problem."
10-06-2009 @ 10:29AM
greatone said...
I watch a lot of tv shows and have only saw WhipIt advertised on tv 1 time. In comparsion, I have seen many commericals of Zombieland. The studio did not advertised the movie well and if it wasn't for Cinematical I would have not known about the movie. Just this morning I have seen a trailer on the new Paranormal Activity. If I have seen the trailer for a low budget film the same amount of times I seen for WhipIt then you have a problem.
The trailer for this movie also wasn't that good. At this point in her career Ellen Page is not a box office star so you will need a strong movie with great buzz to pull the audience in to see her. Most movie goers do not read blogs, message board, and film website to learn about upcoming releases. Most people learn about new movies by seeing the trailers on tv or by word of mouth.
I have to agree with allmostinfocus about Felicia Day. I did not know who she was until a couple of month ago and did not see any her work until this weekend. Right now, Day is more popular on the internet than the film/tv industry.
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10-06-2009 @ 11:59AM
Rocket Raccoon said...
I actually heard from my friend (who is the president of the local Roller Girls league) who said that it was really disappointing and that it lacked realism to the actual game. So, not good. But I haven't seen it yet.
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10-06-2009 @ 2:01PM
russ said...
Perhaps WHIP IT bombed was because it's not a very good movie.
I saw it on Saturday and went in with an open mind.
I like all the actors, the premise seemed fun....But the movie is overall, pretty boring, and totally predictable.
The rollerderby scenes themselves aren't long enough.
You never get the feel that these matches last longer than 5 minutes. Plus you never really feel that Bliss has really done the work to become a part of the team.
It seems overnight she becomes a great rollerderby star.
There isn't enough character development. The whole sidestory of Bliss' new boyfriend was not needed..Barrymore should have focused on getting to know the other members of Bliss' team...They were mostly all caricatures.
The movie really needed a director who has more experience balancing so many characters. I really, really like Drew Barrymore and want her to succeed, but she should have taken on a smaller, simpler story to get her feet wet.
This movie didn't know whether it was a comedy or a drama.
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