The 2006 graphic novel on which Cowboys & Aliens was based might have registered with Comic-Con attendees, but general audiences didn’t know it from Scott Pilgrim, Kick-Ass, or Jonah Hex, three other little-known comics that were adapted into money-losing movies last year. Outside of the major superhero franchises, recent comic-to-screen adaptations have been hit-or-(mostly)-miss. was originally cast as the lead cowpoke (he bailed to cross-dress in Sherlock Holmes 2), and his strong box-office track record - not to mention his winking, welcome persona - would almost definitely have been able to lift even a leaden film like this one above the white-capped heads of those devil-worshipping Smurfs.
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The guy hasn’t had a legitimate, non-Indy action hit since Air Force One, a movie that would have celebrated its bar mitzvah last year.) Robert Downey Jr. (Ford’s résumé in particular deserves a harsher reexamination. “But the name is horrible.”ĭaniel Craig and Harrison Ford may seem like box-office draws but let’s be honest: Audiences have not been kind to any of their recent ventures outside of their martini-sipping and fedora-wearing comfort zones. “It’s not quite Shawshank Redemption bad - my top pick for the best movie to be killed by its title,” says a movie producer we spoke to. Heading into opening weekend, tracking polls showed strong interest in C&A - but people may have been anticipating the wrong movie. Virtuoso scowling from Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford proved no match for the absurdity of the concept and the juvenilia of the name C&A’s first trailer incited giggling before screenings of Harry Potter last fall (which put Universal’s marketing chief in the awkward position of having to insist to the New York Times that his movie was actually way less fun than it seemed).
And yet, for some head-scratching reason, the picture was conceived as a deadly serious actioner in the vein of Unforgiven and Alien - call it another example of Creeping Nolanism. What Went Wrong? Ten Reasons Cowboys & Aliens Tanked:Ĭowboys & Aliens sounds like a good time - the title implies a delightfully overstuffed romp that mashes together the clichés of two beloved genres with the same cheerful élan of a school-skipping teenager mixing Junior Mints in with his popcorn. We asked an agent, a producer, and a publicist for insight on why C&A bombed so badly - and what the fallout might be for its makers and Hollywood at large. As Harrison Ford scrambles into the nearest refrigerator, we at Grantland are left to wonder just what happened. Despite a premise that fused two once-reliable genres and a cast featuring both Indiana Jones and James Bond, Jon Favreau’s $163 million Cowboys & Aliens got smurfing smurfed at the box office over the weekend, opening to a measly $36.2 million - well below even the modest $45 million its makers had predicted.
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