Well, according to Daily Variety, the Fantastic Four brought in $56-million this weekend, which makes it the third biggest debut of the year, behind Revenge of the Sith and War of the Worlds (Movies-Squared: War of the Worlds -vs- Independence Day). Variety quotes the head of Fox production Hutch Parker:
"When you have a weekend like this, you've got to question, what is the relevance of reviewers to viewers at large. I don't think reviewers are writing for the viewing audience anymore. I think they're writing for each other."
I'm not so sure. I think it is also possible that the answer is people remain hungry to have that movie-going experience and will support even bad movies if it's all that's available.
Who cares if it's good?
Parker, who's just doing his job promoting Fox, added:
"'Four' proves auds still crave the kind of summer blockbuster fare that some pundits had written off as passe. Summer movies were always unadulterated fun. More than anything else we've seen this summer, this has been a movie that promises and delivers on pure entertainment."
People wanted to like Fantastic Four. I know I sure did (Movies-Sqaured: Fantastic Four -vs- X-Men) but that didn't make it a better movie. It looked okay, there were moments in it, but it was all foreplay and no sex.
I went to see it, however, and so did at least two of my family members. My oldest son, who routinely reads Rotten Tomatoes to decide what to do, did not. I just wish they'd made it easier to enjoy it more.
Memo to Hutch Parker: Just because people will see anything, regardless of the reviews, doesn't mean the film was all-that-good. The box office was fantastic. But that was in spite of, not because of, the actual film. The reviewers were still right
