‘Monster Trucks’ Projected To Lose $115 Million For Paramount Pictures
All the major studios are having conference calls and meetings with their investors this week to talk about the upcoming fourth quarter of the fiscal year. Disneydownplayed the expectationsofRogue One: A Star Wars Storya bit; Netflix talked about eventually having 50% of their librarymade up of original programming, and now Paramount Pictures has delivered some troubling but unsurprising news about one of their upcoming projects.
The family friendly action adventure movieMonster Trucksis projected to lose Paramount Pictures around $115 million. The movie doesn’t even hit theaters untilJanuary 13, 2017and the studio is already expecting it to hit the box office below initial expectations. Find out Trucksbox office predictions after the jump.
The projected stumbling ofMonster Trucksshould come as no surprise since Paramount Pictures has delayed the film over a year already. The project was initially set for release on July 13, 2025; then it ended up getting pushed back to August 13, 2025. Then it was pushed back another year for release this coming January, a month that is usually a dumping ground for bad comedy and horror release and the movies Hollywood doesn’t know what to do with.
The concept behindMonster Trucksis an interesting one as it follows a couple of older teens (Lucas TillandJane Levy) who stumble upon some kind of alien creature with the ability to hide inside and control automobiles. More specifically, the creature ends up getting comfortable inside of some heavy duty trucks. Of course, the government (led byHolt McCallany) ends up in pursuit, as they always do, and the kids and the creature end up on the run, getting a little help fromDanny Gloveralong the way. The rest of the cast includesBarry Pepper, Amy Ryan, andRob Lowe.
That movie sounds like an idea that could have easily been used to create a blockbuster that hits with a variety of audiences, butThe Hollywood Reportersays the film ended up being more like a kids movie. Admittedly, there’s something fascinating about a high concept film like this being geared more specifically towards children, something that usually doesn’t happen nowadays, but Monster Trucks just doesn’t look appealing to me whatsoever.
Honestly, I’m not sure if the movie looks appealing to the kids who Paramount hopes will drag their parents to. I’ve seen this trailer several times in theaters, and in one instance, a child around the age of 10 whispered to his parents, “That looks dumb.” It sounds like Paramount has an uphill battle to get kids on board, and this might be one instance when the movie could have benefited from some kind of brand recognition with a toy from Hasbro or something like that.
