'San Andreas': Why Hollywood went ahead with an original movie this summer
Conventional wisdom would dictate that a movie without brand name recognition would get lost in the noisy summer movie season. Here's why movie executives most likely went ahead with the disaster movie.
Conventional wisdom would dictate that a movie without brand name recognition would get lost in the noisy summer movie season. Here's why movie executives most likely went ahead with the disaster movie.
When moviegoers see the trailer for the upcoming movie 鈥淪an Andreas,鈥� which opens this Friday, they see toppling buildings, cracking earth, and other sequences that might remind them of such films as 鈥�2012鈥� and 鈥淭he Day After Tomorrow.鈥澛�
What they might not realize right away is that they鈥檙e also seeing an original story.
In a summer packed, as many others have been, with comic book adaptations and reboots, 鈥淪an Andreas鈥� is facing off with such currently successful movies as 鈥淎vengers: Age of Ultron鈥� (comic book movie, obviously), 鈥淭omorrowland鈥� (based off a Disney park, though the story is original), 鈥淢ad Max: Fury Road鈥� (the newest movie in a series), 鈥淧oltergeist鈥� (a remake), 鈥淔urious 7鈥� (the newest in a series), and such upcoming films as 鈥淛urassic World鈥� (ditto).聽
So what made Hollywood go ahead with a film that has no name recognition attached besides its star, Dwayne Johnson? Johnson told Variety he thinks the movie sets itself apart because of its emphasis on family. Johnson鈥檚 character is searching for his wife and daughter during the film. 鈥淲e wanted to redefine the disaster genre, and part of that was by introducing elements that weren鈥檛 in the other movies, like family and heart,鈥� he said.聽
And movie executives may be banking on Johnson himself as well. 鈥淚n terms of consumer appeal, he鈥檚 in the league there with Brad Pitt,鈥� Henry Schafer, a spokesman for Q Scores Co., which tracks celebrity appeal with the public, told the New York Times. (NYT writer Melena Ryzik noted Johnson鈥檚 name recognition isn鈥檛 as high as others in Hollywood yet but that the actor has international appeal.)聽
And the gamble could pay off, Variety writer Brent Lang noted. 鈥淚f 鈥楽an Andreas鈥� works, it would establish a lucrative new direction for tentpole productions based on original story ideas,鈥� Lang wrote. Forbes writer Scott Mendelson noted that 鈥淸director] Brad Peyton and company only spent $100 million on聽鈥楽an Andreas鈥櫬燼s well, which means the film doesn鈥檛 have to become an out-of-this-world blockbuster to turn a profit or at least break even.鈥� Hollywood is most likely betting that 鈥淪an Andreas鈥� can be at the very least an under-the-radar summer success.