Saturday 12 January 2013

The Good Dinosaur's Box Office Returns May Have Just Shrank


The future is going to be absolutely prehistoric! 2014 is set to be the year of the dinosaurs again.

In great news for Jurassic Park fans (well, unless they were particularly put off by 3) and presumably nerve-shredding news for Disney execs, Universal have officially given Jurassic Park 4 a release date: 13th June, 2014. That release date is just over a fortnight after that of Pixar's dino-film, The Good Dinosaur (due 30th May, 2014).

Is it an intentional move, like it seemed to be when Disney deciding to release Planes theatrically shortly after the trailer for DreamWorks' Turbo was released? Perhaps. Particularly with the announcement coming so soon after our first look at Pixar's 2014 Bob Peterson-directed release. Whether intentional or not though, this is surely going to take a Tyrannosaurus-sized bite out of Pixar's box office receipts for The Good Dinosaur. Being released in such close proximity to any such major blockbuster would be detrimental to a film's performance (hence why 2015's going to be a tough year for non-blockbusters - with Star Wars: Episode VII, The Avengers 2, Justice League and maybe even Avatar 2 all hitting cinemas), but going up against one with a similar basis, if not even a remotely similar plot, will surely be very dangerous.

A bespectacled battle of epic proportions.

The film's don't particularly have the same target audience, but I'm willing to bet a pretty large flock of people are going to go see Jurassic Park 4, and though, given Pixar's impeccable record, The Good Dinosaur (which is co-directed by Peter Sohn and produced by John Walker) will almost definitely open very strong, it'll be hard for it to sustain too strong a streak once Universal's mega-blockbuster roars into cinemas. We can only hope that the Up co-director's lead-directorial debut is as good as it looks and convinces audiences to go see it, even with JP4 out.

Jurassic Park 4 is being produced by Steven Spielberg (who directed the first two films; Joe Johnston directed the third) and Frank Marshall, with the script being written by Rise of the Planet of the Apes scribes, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver; no director has been named.

The Good Dinosaur is released in the UK on 18th July, 2014.

 Via The Hollywood Reporter.
Posted by William Jardine at 20:33
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4 comments:

  1. Kyle O12 January 2013 at 21:31

    Oddly enough, I had my dates mixed up. I forgot that "The Good Dinosaur" was the May 30th release and HTTYD 2 was the June 20th release.

    I think by the time "Jurassic Park 4" comes out, word of mouth will already be on "The Good Dinosaur"'s side. BTW, I think JP4 will open big and then collapse. Do you know anyone who is anticipating another Jurassic Park?

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    1. William Jardine12 January 2013 at 22:18

      Mm, valid point... I'm quite excited for it, but that may be because I haven't seen the third one, haha!

      I'm not sure, I imagine Universal will market it quite aggressively and I would've thought older fans would want to return to the franchise. It sure would be great to see TGD rake in lots though!

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    2. Unknown13 January 2013 at 03:04

      I don't know, The Good Dinosaur still has a pretty good chance to be successful. Personally I don't expect much of Jurassic Park 4 and I may not even see it. I like the first one (but is not a particular favorite and I think is one of Spielberg's weakest films), the second is forgettable and the third one is even worse. And Spielberg is not even directing it so that can turned away some viewers (myself included). Also being the fourth entry in a relatively old and not particularly well regarded franchise might not work in the film's favor. Personally I don't care too much about this film.

      The Good Dinosaur, on the other hand, has a fresh take on the dinosaur genre and being a Pixar film I'll be all over it and I plan to see it Day one :)

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  2. B.B. Richards14 January 2013 at 06:53

    Well considering Spielbergs Robopocalypse just got shelved he may step up and direct this new instalment. That would guarantee some serious money from it but then again it's unlikely he would film the fourth film of a franchise when he didn't do the third. I could also see JP flopping, we're too far away to make any real calls on its potential success.

    The Good Dinosaur on the other hand seems like it will be great, is going to be an all-ages film, will have 'from the people who brought you Up' attached to its trailers and posters and it's from Pixar. If the film is anywhere near as good as Up it won't struggle it making some serious money.

    I'll be seeing TGD over JP4.

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