So what went wrong here? Above and beyond our analysis last weekend, we dug further:
1) Exorbitant Cost In Relation To Niche IP: In regard to Ghost‘s $100M-plus production cost, one slate financier shouts, ”This is the amount of money you spend on a sequel, not an obscure piece of IP that only a few fanboys know about! Maybe you spend $35M or $40M on this and make a stylized art house film."
Another factor driving up Ghost‘s budget: Waiting for Johansson. Though she commited to play lead cyborg Major in January 2015, the Ghost production had to wait until November 2015 to start. Johansson almost dropped out (her reported payday is $10M-$12M) due to scheduling conflicts, but the studios were willing to wait. Whenever a film is delayed, costs incur.
2) Corporate Collateral Damage: Sources tell Deadline that Ghost lacked a hands-on executive like ex-co-chairman Rob Moore to see its fate through, and that the suits on the Melrose Lot were too preoccupied by the recent executive changeovers ”and scared to make a move on anything,"
3) Flawed Marketing: DreamWorks disagreed with the campaign that Paramount was executing, but at the end of the day it was the latter who was responsible for P&A oversight...
...In the face of the whitewash controversy over Johansson's casting, it's been argued that Paramount wasn't doing enough to quell it, despite a global trailer drop in Tokyo back in November. One social meme that Paramount plowed ahead with to DreamWorks' dismay was the #IAmMajor, where moviegoers could share a graphic about what makes them unique. The meme blew up in the studios' face with social media users using it as a form of protest (see below)...
...They attempted to sell a heroic story in that Major's life was stolen from her and she's battling against the powers that be before they harm others. ”Not exactly the elevator pitch that Lucy had," says one studio marketing guru, who points to that film's ”What happens when you use the other 90% of your brain."
4) China & Japan Aren't Bail-Outs: While there are reports audiences aren't offended by Johansson's reverse casting because they're used to watching western actors, foreign B.O. pundits put a total projection of $45M in China. Japan is a wild-card. Fate Of The Furious rolls out April 12, and that's when Ghost‘s legs will truly be sawed off.
5) Reverse Casting Controversy: While Ghost has been bombarded by protests since the first day of Johansson's attachment, many distribution executives still believe the whitewash controversy never impacted moviegoers' ticket-buying decisions...
...Ironically, Screen Engine/ComScore's PostTrak audience polls show that Asian Americans bought tickets to watch Ghost and even enjoyed the film. They repped 13% of Ghost‘s audience, on par with the demo's turnout for Arrival (14%, $24M), Passengers (12%, $14.9M opening) and xXx: The Return Of Xander Cage (14%, $20.1M FSS), the latter which featured several Asian stars including Donnie Yen and Wu Yifan. Zero percent gave Ghost a poor rating. Of the Asian Americans who watched Ghost, 93% gave it a good, very good or excellent rating, which isn't that far from Caucasians, Hispanics (both 97%) and African Americans (94%).
6) Challenges With Anime & Manga Adaptations: As Warner Bros. looks to bring a live action version of the 1988 anime toon Akira to the big screen, is it worth the headache? Perhaps these complex futuristic properties which require big budgets aren't worth the cost? Paramount reports that Ghost was a tough sell, minting more tickets in cities versus flyover states and with a $100M-plus film, you need every theater to overindex...
...An alternative could have been building Ghost with an Asian actress suitable to the original IP, and even if she was a fresh face, Paramount and DreamWorks could have built a bigger supporting cast with stars around her. Multi-cultural, fresh face ensemble casts have proven to click at the B.O., (i.e. Furious 7, Hunger Games, Star Wars: Force Awakens and Rogue One), but these are films where the brands are significantly bigger than the stars, and Ghost certainly wasn't that.
7) Of Course, Poor Reviews: (This is self-explanitory, but you can read the article if you want more info on the reviews and tracking)
