Animated Delgo Has Worst Wide Release Ever

[Crim122]

From Yahoo

Don't feel too left out if you missed seeing the animated adventure movie "Delgo" this past weekend. No one did. In fact, the movie broke a record for having the worst opening ever for a film in wide release. "Delgo" earned a measly $511,920 this weekend on 2,160 screens, not even breaking the top ten. That's an average of $237 per screen for the three days. If you figure there were five screenings a day, and assume ticket prices are about $8, that comes out to two people in the theater per showing. By comparison, the Golden Globe-nominated drama "Doubt" earned roughly the same amount of money, but it was only in 15 theaters.

This is all too bad because the story of the making of "Delgo" has the makings of a great Hollywood underdog story. 36-year-old entrepreneur Marc Adler decided he wanted to direct and produce a $40 million computer animated kids' flick completely independent of Tinseltown behemoths like Disney and Dreamworks.

Starting in 2001, Adler and his small Atlanta-based animation company Fathom Studios toiled for years on a tight budget. They lined up an impressive, if eclectic, cast of voice actors including Freddie Prinze Jr., Jennifer Love Hewitt, Val Kilmer, Malcolm McDowell, Kelly Ripa, and Anne Bancroft in her final role (she died in 2005). And when Adler couldn't get a Hollywood studio interested in his movie, he raised eyebrows by releasing it himself through distributor-for-hire Freestyle Releasing. It was a huge risk; one that ultimately didn't pay off. There wasn't the sort of marketing budget needed to make a film stand out in the already crowded holiday movie season.

Another problem was the quality of the movie. Or lack thereof. The story -- star-crossed lovers squaring off against an evil queen on a fanciful world divided between a reptilian people who can move rocks with their minds and a sprite-like folk who like dragons -- borrows liberally from "Star Wars," "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Dark Crystal," just without the charm and intelligence. The script required the efforts of six, count 'em, six screenwriters, including Adler. The critics trashed it, giving it a dreadful D average on Yahoo!, which proved to be lethal.

"Delgo" is not the only major wide release bomb of the year. Three of the ten worst openings for films in over 2000 locations came out this year. The raunchy teen sex comedy "College" and the thriller "Deception," starring Hugh Jackson and Ewan MacGregor, both tanked, garnering the sixth and ninth worst openings ever respectively. In both of those cases, the studios dumped the movies with little fanfare rather than spend millions on marketing a stinker.

[dadkins]

Never heard anything about it.
Trailer looked ok, I guess...

[Crim122]

Only time I saw anything about it is when I saw it had a 00% on RT, never saw a trailer or anything .

Guess this will be the biggest flop of all time, I might have to see it for laughs.

[Blu Titan]

Kinda feel bad for the creator, as this is his life's work. I had never read anything about this movie until now. It is very difficult to get a mvie released and promoted when there is no affiliation with a major studio.

[aramis109]

We had seen some reviews- my daughter had some mild interest in it due to it being animated. There was no way we were going to see it though- the animation looked terrible, the story looked lacking, and overall it had no feel of anything but a cash grab to me.

Turns out I was wrong on the last apparently, but yeesh- this thing looked like a turd.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Crim122

Only time I saw anything about it is when I saw it had a 00% on RT, never saw a trailer or anything .

Oh, they showed us trailers--
Not in theaters, of course, because they couldn't afford to, but they way they were banner-advertising it on the Net, you'd think it really WAS supposed to be a movie made by real studios...
Think it'd been pushed back for years, so I can't remember ever not seeing a trailer for it over the recent past.

As to how in green heaven it ever got 2000 theaters--the same as fellow wishful-thinker "Space Chimps", but considerably more than "Fly Me to the Moon"'s 700--think the mom-and-pop producers got a little too overconfident when it looked like there'd be an empty space for kids' films this December, and the "coast was clear".
(TOLD ya they should've kept Harry Potter for November.)

[P@t_Mtl]

I never heard of this movie, was there any kind of publicity for it at all?

[Red Hood]

Got a lot of big name voices in it. Never heard of it.

[FrenzyBanana]

the trailer looks horrible
and the characters is not appealing

[dvd_mazter]

I saw a review of it and it got trashed but I'm not surprised considering I didn't hear anything about it.

[Crim122]

Originally Posted by FrenzyBanana

the trailer looks horrible
and the characters is not appealing

Looks like a late 90's computer game.

[Teabaggins]

that style of cgi is not appealing to me

[PA_Kid]

Saw adds here in the DFW area - it looked so unappealing that I wouldn't have tuned in for even the first episode if it were a weekly cartoon series on CN.

Sometimes different isn't always better. I think the fact that it seemed to assume you knew/didn't need the whole backstory of these different creatures/races even in the trailers was a little off-putting.

[atomik kinder]

Originally Posted by EricJ

Oh, they showed us trailers--
Not in theaters, of course, because they couldn't afford to, but they way they were banner-advertising it on the Net, you'd think it really WAS supposed to be a movie made by real studios...

I saw a trailer for it when I took the kids to see BOLT. Yes, they actually did have a trailer in the theaters. I was surprised when I saw it because I vaguely remember seeing a trailer for it a couple years ago. Then they have been showing commercials on Cartoon Network and Sci Fi. Every time the kids see the commercial, they say that looks bad...

[CptGreedle]

i actually feel bad for this guy. An animation of this quality takes a LOT of work, and from what you said, it sounds like he spent YEARS of his life dedicated to it. And it even has the final role of an actress in it.
It didn't have good enough graphics and (more importantly) animation to make it look like it was good. It looks like it should be a direct to DVD release.

Amazing to think we have the worst opening ever this year, and the 2nd best opening ever with TDK as well. Crazy year!

[P@t_Mtl]

Anyone think this might become one of those cult following sleepers once it's on DVD?

[DetroitSportsFan]

It had no promotion, of course it did poorly. I never heard of it until I saw this story yesterday.

[QwikSand]

Here is Box Office Mojo's list of the ten biggest wide release bombs:

Rank / Title / Opening Theaters / Per Screen Average /Release Date
1 Delgo $511,9202,160 $237 12/12/08
2 P2 $2,083,3982,131 $977 11/9/07
3 Major League: Back to the Minors $2,087,0112,322 $899 4/17/98
4 The Real Cancun $2,108,7962,261 $932 4/25/03
5 College $2,153,1092,123 $1,014 8/29/08
6 The Adventures of Pluto Nash $2,182,9002,320 $940 8/16/02
7 All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 $2,256,1182,037 $1,107 3/29/96
8 Deception $2,312,1462,001 $1,155 4/25/08
9 I Dreamed of Africa $2,411,4452,112 $1,141 5/5/00
10 Teacher's Pet $2,461,2522,027$1,214 1/16/04
See the full chart >>

[HAMP]

Originally Posted by DetroitSportsFan

It had no promotion, of course it did poorly. I never heard of it until I saw this story yesterday.

+1


I actually want to see it myself.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by P@t_Mtl

Anyone think this might become one of those cult following sleepers once it's on DVD?

Here's the trailer--
I believe the operative question is "...What do YOU think? "