John Scalzi - SNL Actors Plus SciFi Movies Equals Box Office Death
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Land of the Lost, arguing that it "has the potential to become this year's Speed Racer." Boy was I right: Its $18.8 million opening weekend almost exactly matches the $18.5 million Speed made last year, which means -- surprise! -- Ferrell's prehistoric comedy will probably go down as the summer's first big flop. My condolences to Will Ferrell, Sid and Marty Krofft, and to sleestak lovers everywhere.
That said, Ferrell's science fiction belly flop shouldn't come as a huge surprise: History has shown us that when you combine Saturday Night Live alumni with science fiction cinema, what you often -- indeed, usually -- get is a big fat flop. Truly, scifi and SNL are two great tastes that go absolutely horribly together. "Evidence!" you demand. I live to serve.
Eddie Murphy
Murphy actually has two science fictiony hits in The Nutty Professor and its sequel, both of which raked in about $125 million at the box office. But no amount of Buddy Love can ever mask the stench of The Adventures of Pluto Nash, which cost $100 million to make and grossed $4.4 million in the theaters, making it one of the biggest flops in the history of cinema. Really, it's a benchmark. And though you would like to, don't forget Meet Dave: $11 million box office for a $60 million flick -- not a benchmark, but still bad.
Bill Murray
Yes, Bill Murray has Ghostbusters. But I would argue that, unlicensed nuclear accelerators aside, Ghostbusters is a fantasy movie (your hint: They chase ghosts). And before you say it, Groundhog Day is fantasy, too. Murray's major foray into scifi was last year's City of Ember -- $7.8 million box office on a $55 million budget. The animated movie Osmosis Jones is vaguely science fictional as well, with Murray's cells and medicine fighting viruses, but audiences were allergic: It made just $13 million.
Dan Aykroyd
Aykroyd's major scifi fare is Coneheads (also starring SNL alum Jane Curtin), one of the spate of flicks that came out in the '90s capitalizing on Saturday Night sketches. And like most of those (save Wayne's World), it performed only modestly at the box office, raking in $21 million. Aykroyd had only a bit part in Evolution, but that potential summer hit underperformed as well, dragging in under $40 million.
Jon Lovitz
Remember Lovitz's immortal turn as Emperor Todd Spengo in Mom and Dad Save the World? No? Not surprising, since its box office was just a shade above $2 million -- that's right, even less than Pluto Nash! (Less expensive, though.) His roles in The Stepford Wives and Southland Tales don't tally to the "hit" side of his filmography either.
Chevy Chase
Saturday Night Live's first breakout star has only one science fiction flick to his name -- probably because it was a flop: Memoirs of an Invisible Man brought in only $14 million in box office, becoming a loser both for him and for director John Carpenter.
Rob Schneider
Rob Schneider landed himself the sidekick role in Sylvester Stallone's Judge Dredd and was probably kicking himself afterward: It made $34 million against a $90 million budget. But I'm sure it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Do any Saturday Night Live alums do well in science fiction? Well, there is one I can think of off the top of my head, but he's not generally remembered as being an SNL performer: Robert Downey Jr., who did his time on the show during its disastrous 1985 season. You may have heard of his little movie called Iron Man, which brought in $300 million or so. Adam Sandler might qualify, if you consider Click to be scifi, which I don't (it's a magic remote control, not a science fictional one). Likewise Billy Crystal, if you tip Monsters, Inc. more as scifi than fantasy -- it's a line straddler, to be sure. Some might contend the Austin Powers movies count, but I think they're clearly James Bond spoofs, so I'd disqualify Mike Myers.
No matter how you slice it, the tally of successful scifi movies movies starring SNL alums is dwarfed by the number that have fallen flat on their face. Part of this goes back to the simple issue that comedy and science fiction are a difficult squeeze together. Nevertheless, if I were a producer and someone said to me, "We've got a great science fiction movie with this SNL alum attached," I would have to pass, thanks all the same.
Am I missing any movies here that might change the equation?
Winner of the Hugo Award and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, John Scalzi is the author of The Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Movies and the novels Old Man's War and Zoe's Tale. He's also Creative Consultant for the upcoming Stargate: Universe television series. His column appears every Thursday.
Ok, I am going to suggest 2 that I liked although I don't know if they killed or were killed at the box office.
Martin Short in Innerspace.
Anthony MIchael Hall in Weird Science.
Weird Science might have come out before he was on SNL so I don't know if that counts (retroactive box office death?)
Both of these work on the rule that if you remove the science from the story, the plot fails, so they are science-fiction.
jasonfive:
Yeah, I wouldn't count Weird Science (which, you may recall, Robert Downey, Jr. was also in) precisely because it pre-date both AMH and RDjr's Saturday Night Live involvement.
Re: Innerspace: It made about $25 million back in 1987. Not a particularly notable amount.
Also, as a general note, I should say that what we're looking for here is SNL folks in lead or main supporting roles, not bit parts. So for example, "Men in Black" does not count as an SNL alum hit just because Siobhan Fallon played Edgar's wife.
A quick attack of pedantry. Someone, possibly a machine has added an a to the marvelous Jane Curtin's last name above.
All you mentioned were indeed abysmal. I can think of no others and just want to make a comment.
As soon as I heard about Ferrell in Land of The Lost, I knew it would tank. I just don't get Ferrell's appeal.
Land of The Lost, however cheesy both series were, at least took themselves serious. Turning it into a Will Ferrell comedy was a huge mistake.
So Land.. is scifi but Ghostbusters isn't?
Take away the very fictional scientific gizmos from GBs and you've not much of a film left (and ghosts can be sciency; latent energy, engram... things :) )
Land of the Lost is definitely sci-fi. It takes place in an alternate space-time reality thanks to a quantum gizmo/thingy Will Ferrel cooks up. Yeah, the science is particularly bad, sure, but it still counts as sci-fi. I thought it was an okay movie. Not all that funny except for the parts you already saw in the trailer, but okay.
I agree with Scalzi -- GBs is fantasy.
And I think I'm one of two people who actually enjoys Pluto Nash. I thought it was an outstanding movie. I loved the performances of Eddie Murphy, Luis Guzman, and Rosario Dawson (mmm, Rosario...). Now that I know how much money went into it, yeah, I guess that does make it a huge flop financially. But performance-wise, I was satisfied. And I read a ton of sci-fi, yet the film's story did not seem all that atrocious to me.
Weird. I just don't understand all the hate. But then again, I also thoroughly enjoyed The Chronicles of Riddick. So, what do I know?
How did My Stepmother is an Alien manage to do?
To be fair, the abysmal track record of SNL alums is not limited to Sci-fi. They've left a wide trail of shit-bombs, broken up by an infrequent hit here and there.
To be fair, the abysmal track record of SNL alums is not limited to Sci-fi. They've left a wide trail of shit-bombs across all genres, broken up by an infrequent hit here and there.
To be fair, the abysmal track record of SNL alums is not limited to Sci-fi. They've left a wide trail of shit-bombs across all genres, broken up by the occasional hit once in a while.
[Sorry for the repeats. Damn IE7.]
Randy Quaid was an SNL castmember, and was in Independence Day. But that may be the only other sci-fi movie that got missed..
I liked Maya Rudolph in Idiocracy, though I'm sure it didn't make much of a financial splash.
Chevy Chase was also in Modern Problems, a sci-fi comedy so toxically bad that entire neighborhoods in LA had to be firebombed in order to contain the giant clouds of suck.
Honorable mention to Steve Martin -- not exactly an alum, but he might as well have been. His The Man With Two Brains was particularly dreadful. Would Little Shop of Horrors count?
And btw: Eddie Murphy is working on The Incredible Shrinking Man remake and Ghostbusters III is in the works...
Didn't Harry Shearer play Raymond Burr's role in the 1998 remake of Godzilla?
Does Steve Martin count as an SNL alum? He's done The Man With Two Brains and, of course, Little Shop of Horrors. Alas, I don't think Rick Moranis' one appearance on SNL qualifies him for this.
John Goodman, OTOH, was on more eps than Robert Downey Jr... but, uh... Speed Racer. Yea.
But for my final answer, I'm going with Frank Oz. Yoda! Waka-waka-waka...
I am SO TIRED of people dumping on "Speed Racer"...if it was such a 'disappointment', why does WB have a few other live action anime movies in development?
Anyway, I saw LotL, and it was "Planet of the Apes" with poop jokes. Yeah.
And "Idiocracy" was sadly held back by Fox and put in limited release because the company thought mainstream America wouldn't like the look of the film. (Which is not the dumbest decision they've made.) However, I did see it in the theater, and I thought it was right on the money about how today's society had better smarten up and learn some manners or else it WILL happen.
Harry Shearer and Joan Cusack were in Chicken Little, but with a budget of $150M and an opening weekend of $40M I wouldn't call it an exception...
I've got one for you -- Dennis Miller was in The Net, which cost $22M to make and grossed $110M worldwide. (Why it made that much is anyone's guess...)
Edward Scissorhands: Fantasy, not science fiction, but worth a mention anyway as a successful genre flick. (Anthony Michael Hall, of course)
Julia Sweeney in Clockstoppers...
@Gringcorp -- Curtin typo has been fixed. Thanks for pointing out that our spell-checkers are not to be trusted! --AMC
I'd say that GhostBusters is sci fi because Egon and Ray study them scientifically, they capture them and contain them scientifically, and back off, man, I'm a scientist.
if they used magic and spells and religious symbols and such to manipulate the spirits, then I'd say its fantasy.
Put another way: "Constantine" is fantasy. "GhostBusters" is scifi.
(And I like both, actually. Never understood why Constantine did so poorly.)
Will Farrell is the crossroads of two phenomena: skiffy movies with SNL alums in them tank, and Will Farrell sucks no matter what he's in.
I can't stand to watch him even in the commercials. Bleah.
@Xopher: You didn't like Elf?
I actually liked "Stranger than Fiction". It had Will Ferrell as the main character but it wasn't his usual slapstick shtick. I'd say it was worth a matinee price.
Taledega Nights was horribly cheesy, but I watched with a bunch of guy friends while drinking beers, so it worked. The scene introducing the cougar was fricken hilarious. There were scenes that just sucked, and there were scenes where I spewed beer laughing.
And "Semi-Pro" was actually pretty funny, and not near as bad as I thought.
I'd give them both the rating of "worth the rental".
I'm thinking SCTV alumni have the better track record.
"Part of this goes back to the simple issue that comedy and science fiction are a difficult squeeze together."
I guess this is something that only the British can do well, as in /The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy/ (original radio and TV series) or /Red Dwarf/...
And say what you 'will' about Mr. Ferrell; I thought he was great in /Stranger Than Fiction/.
On an unrelated note... what's with the Scientology ads? Are SF aficionados supposed to be 'easy meat' for those bozos? I guess AMC will take /anybody's/ money.
Mark Maranta: Scientology originated from Dianetics which originated from SF author L. Ron Hubbard and was originally published in Astounding/Analog Science Fiction mag.
So there's a direct correlation.
An abiding mystery is why anyone thinks Will Farrell is funny.
It was a shame about City of Ember. It had a few plot holes, but I liked it.
All of your flops are as nothing, though, compared to Zyzzyx Road. Admittedly, it's neither in the genre nor by an SNL alum, but it only grossed $30. And I have a copy coming to me from Australia, courtesy of eBay. Can't wait.
City of Ember was a great lead in for those who played Fallout 3. But I can easily see how it failed to reach a general audience.
/Vault Dwellers Unite!
Another flop, Steve Martin - the man with 2 brains? But how about Rick Moranis - Honey I Shrunk the Kids?
@ Mark Maranta
The thing about British Comedy is even when it is kind of idiotic, it is "Smart" comedy. American audiences must like dumb comedy because that is what we seem to get the most of.
@Simon
The Man with two brains was just brilliant if you ask me. Steve Martin has always been a genius IMO.
Rob Schneider was Sylvester Stallone's pal in Demolition Man. which did make a buck or two more than it cost.
skelly:
Rob Schneider's role in that one is an uncredited cameo, which doesn't really accrue to his account, I'd say.
Simon:
Rick Moranis was SCTV, not SNL.
Interesting that Schneider was uncredited. I remember him quite clearly playing a major supporting role. Not as big as Sandra Bullock, but not some walk on either. He had quite a few lines, including the one about the three seashells.
Still it could be the uncredited nature which allowed it to make money.
Jeez. Demolition Man's fullcredits sure are something:
Jesse Ventura!
Adrienne Barbeau!
Jack Black!
Andre Gregory!
Even, Bog help us all, V4nna B0nta! (Old regulars of rec.arts.sf.fandom will understand why I munged that.)
Diverting slightly from SNL, one of the biggest sci-fi flops that I admittedly only witnessed a part of because I could not yawn any further was "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." This story is one of the few successful comedy/sci-fi ventures, and I was quite hopeful, as I loved the series by Douglas Adams, but, as usual, the British rival SNL characters for their lack of knack for producing wonderful sci-fi. Imagine, a british produced sci-fi with SNL cast... Peeyew!!
Diverting slightly from SNL, one of the biggest sci-fi flops that I admittedly only witnessed a part of because I could not yawn any further was "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." This story is one of the few successful comedy/sci-fi ventures, and I was quite hopeful, as I loved the series by Douglas Adams, but, as usual, the British rival SNL characters for their lack of knack for producing wonderful sci-fi. Imagine, a british produced sci-fi with SNL cast... Peeyew!!
Don't have too much to add to what Scalzi said. I realize what Scalzi's blog here was about: The financial cost vs. the earned box office. However, I do have a problem with his, and it seems almost everyone else's, negative adjectives regarding the movie Pluto Nash. I'm two of two people who like this movie. The story was done very well. The twist of the main antagonist being the clone of the main protagonist wasn't the most creative solution, I admit that, yet the film as a whole was great. I've seen and read MUCH worse and I read mostly science fiction. I'm fairly certain why this movie is so reviled but I'm not going into that, except to say that the dislike had/has nothing to do with the story or the film quality. This movie did something that has never been done is sci-fi films before and I loved it.
I've not watched Pluto Nash, as Eddie Murphy comedies tend to annoy me a lot. But now that I've read some of the comments here, I might try it.
but I HAVE to speak up for Mom and Dad Save the World. That's a huge favorite around our house. You have to really, really like Jon Lovitz to like the movie, but if you do, this movie is wonderful. It appeals to the same campy scifi sense that causes me to still like the Sam Jones' Flash Gordon movie. All Hail Todd!
oh, and I'm definitely of the view that Ghostbusters, at least the first one, is more SF than fantasy. When I read your comments, the first thing that popped into my mind was, as was mentioned by at least one other commenter, " Back off man, I'm a scientist." They at least try to set up the science behind their gear, which is better than a lot of movies that get classified as SF.
and if you look at what happens at the end, it's just as likely that Gozer is coming from an alternate dimension, which you allowed for Land of the Lost as being enough SF.