Artemis Fowl, Disney’s big-budget fantasy movie based on a popular young adult fantasy series of books, is an unmitigated disaster. It’s also the lowest-rated movie to premiere on Disney Plus.
Ahead of its official release on Friday, critics were able to screen the film and let’s just say it’s earning its straight-to-video badge. The problem is that unlike most movies who skip theaters, they don’t carry a hefty price tag. Artemis Fowl reportedly cost $125 million to make and had a prime summer release date.
But COVID-19 nixed that plan along with every other blockbuster slated to hit theaters. Disney must not have been too confident in the film’s prospects if they were willing to skip a theatrical release. You’ll notice they haven’t made the same decision for other films like Mulan or even The New Mutants which seems like a perfect candidate for Disney Plus. And Disney CEO Bob Iger has already said that they plan to release more big budget movies straight to streaming.
Of the movies that have premiered on the streaming platform, the critical rating based off of Rotten Tomatoes is by far the lowest. The five movies to premiere before it were Lady and the Tramp, Noelle, Togo, Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made, and Stargirl.
Togo and Timmy Failure received glowing reviews with 91% and 88% respectively. Of the three remaining, only the Anna Kendrick / Bill Hader Christmas movie, Noelle, had a rotten score at 53%.
Every year, you can kind of predict which movies are going to bomb and Artemis Fowl felt like a prime suspect. YA adaptations aren’t exactly big anymore and the fantasy genre in general has not fared well in the last few years. Another big Mouse House release, Tomorrowland, is a good comparison. Released five years ago in late May, the movie cost nearly $200 million to make and barely made a dent. And that had Brad Bird behind the camera and George Clooney in front of it.
Any notion that this would be Disney’s next money-making franchise is over before it really begins. Despite a talented director and a fresh cast, Artemis Fowl will probably be remembered as an expensive flop that faded into obscurity on a streaming service. Perhaps they should have made it a show from the very beginning like they’re doing with Percy Jackson.
from We Got This Covered https://ift.tt/2UELSiI
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