The Secret of Serenity's Success

[nerd4hire]

Weird title, right? Because we don't think of Serenity as being successful based on the figures from the theatrical release. Apparently it was though. The DVD made it so. That's the secret. The thing they don't generally tell us. There's hope for a sequel if the new Special Edition DVD has similar success. Joss Whedon gets into it in a recent interview.

So after all is said and done, was Serenity profitable? Do you consider it a success?

Joss Whedon (JW): It's a success to the studio or else we wouldn't be doing a special edition DVD. They actually admitted as much on paper, which you know studios are loathe to do, and that was actually from the theatrical. Theatrical was a disappointment, as everyone knows, but it did go into the black. Then the DVD came and they took me aside and said "We can't keep these things on the shelf. We want to do a special edition." And I didn't want to hear that because I knew it would have to be a truly special edition to make me happy. There had to be a real reason, some real goodies.

So what will the special edition have for us?

JW: We took some stuff from the region two version; the making of "“ a really beautiful one that's a bit longer. It has the first read through for the movie with the cast, two years after the show ended. And it has the River Tam sessions, the stuff I did on the internet with Summer. We got to do another commentary too, Nathan, Summer, Ron and Adam "“ I made sure it didn't go the same direction as the first commentary. It feels like this version will be something more for the people who would tend to buy both.

And they expect to sell around a kajillion copies?

JW: I believe it's around eleventy kabillion...

So give me hope for a Serenity II

JW: Hope for it probably rests with this DVD.

Well I'll buy one.

JW: Actually I will too, people ask me why I would buy my own DVD and I tell them do you have any idea how awesome it is to buy your own movie?

So then you're saying we've got a chance?

JW: Well it's probably not being discussed in boardrooms right now, but the fact of the matter is if it makes enough money sooner or later they say "hey, this is money!" Also there are paradigms that are much cheaper, it doesn't have to be enormous. But on the other hand I'm happy to say all of my actors are working very hard. It's not the same situation where we all threw in for pennies because we had to finish telling that story. Now that situation might be harder to bring about.

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/news.php?id=6846

 

[goldenboy]

It wasn't promoted very well as a theatrical movie. The campaign was really pretty weak and confusing, I thought. Budget wasn't there I guess. Plus, kinda hard to explain in a ten second spot on TV.

Cool that it recouped on DVD. Culty stuff does well that way so often. Like how Family Guy was resurrected...

 

[Mortal]

from wiki:

The film was released in North America on September 30, 2005 by Universal Pictures. It received generally positive reviews and opened at number two, taking in $10.1 million its first weekend, spending two weeks in the top ten, and totaling a domestic box office gross of $25.5 million and a foreign box office gross of $13.3 million.[2] Serenity won film of the year awards from Film 2005[3] and FilmFocus.[4] It also won IGN Film's Best Sci-Fi, Best Story and Best Trailer awards and was runner up for the Overall Best Movie.[5] It also won the Nebula Award for Best Script for 2005, the 7th annual 'User Tomato Awards' for best Sci-Fi movie of 2005 at Rotten Tomatoes, the 2006 viewers choice Spacey Award for favorite movie, the 2006 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form[6] and the 2006 Prometheus Special Award.

and about the production:

Universal, while on board with the movie, was not willing to spend the typical $100 million for a story set in space. Whedon convinced them he could do it for less money, without filming in Canada, and do it in 50 days, instead of the usual 80.[12] On March 3, 2004 the movie was officially greenlighted to enter production and was revealed to have a budget of only $40 million.[13][14] Typically, production of a movie would try and save money by not filming in Los Angeles, but Whedon insisted on staying local, and hiring a local union crew.

So looks like it did okay financially (once the DVD's are factored in) and very well critically. Given the number of bullshit movies with terrible scripts that somehow get produced each year I'm amazed that Serenity doesn't have a sequel already.

Also, I'm surprised how well they did with a just two-fifths of the usual space film budget. The movie didn't look cheap or feel cheap to me.

 

[goldenboy]

Yeah, I thought they did amazingly well in terms of making it look good. All that TV experience of working on the cheap helped I bet. The spaceship stuff looked groundbreaking. Opening credits, brilliant. River's dream sequences, great, etc.

The only thing I recall that looked slightly cheesy was when they're trying to outrun that Reavers..flying over the dusty planes in the hovercraft thing. The way it moved, looked like it was being hauled around on a crane or something.

No huge star salaries, sure that helped.

 

[Hexaphim]

I'm doing my part! I've already ordered my copy of the DVD. 🙂

 

[Jone]

I love the movie Serenity and I really hope the new edition does as good (or better, keeping fingers crossed!) then the first batch of DVDs! I kind of wish they had released the DVDs on June 23 which I've heard is Serenity Day (and Joss's Birthday!). That would have been cool. But maybe this DVD will get a new Serenity Day! 🙂

I can't wait to get my hands on this!

 

[TeenageFBI]

I think my story is probably a pretty typical example of Serenity's small box office but large number of DVD sales.

I was a huge Buffy fan but somehow missed Firefly when it first aired. Once Serenity came out, I saw all the positive reviews and wanted to see it but I knew that it was based off of the TV series. I wasn't sure if I would understand everything that happened in the movie and I didn't feel like the trailers gave me a very good idea on what the movie was about, so I never saw it in theaters.

I bought Firefly a couple months ago but put off watching it. Last week I finally sat down and watched the whole thing and fell in love with it. Today I went out first thing and bought the Serenity Collector's Edition and watched it between classes. (And I loved it!)

I think this is the kind of movie that will continue to grow in terms of fans as people like myself continue to gradually pick up Firefly and in turn, Serenity.

 

[Blondie Bear]

The only thing I recall that looked slightly cheesy was when they're trying to outrun that Reavers..flying over the dusty planes in the hovercraft thing. The way it moved, looked like it was being hauled around on a crane or something.

That's because it was! :winking15