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EXCLUSIVE: Fox is waving the white flag on what is supposed to be a worth-the-price-of-admission movie which in and of itself is a rarity these days. The studio was supposed to open its ‘romantic action comedy’ This Means War on Tuesday aka Valentine’s Day. But the studio hasn’t seen the pic’s poor tracking pick up at all in recent days, while Sony Pictures/Screen Gems’ The Vow is soaring in wannasee. So Fox has decided to get out of the way. In an unusual move this late in the game, the studio will sneak This Means War on Tuesday and then hope word of mouth spreads before its new release date of Friday, February 17th. I don’t get what the moviegoing public’s problem with this pic is: Chris Pine, Tom Hardy, and Reese Witherspoon are just as cool casting as Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams (though apparently not as box office) and the trailers have been engaging (though thrust into a lot of clutter) and the film didn’t look dumb (and that’s half the battle with this genre).
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I actually think this movie looks pretty good. But not sure why their outdoor campaign is making the title so confusing to understand. The tag line is much larger than the movie’s title itself — I bet the lack of title recognition is having some impact on its tracking. Big waste of an outdoor spend.
Exact same issue with the “Safe House” billboards and bus shelters out there right now. The title is in tiny writing — and the tag line, “No One Is Safe,” is enormous. I bet people think the title of the movie is: “No One Is Safe.”
The marketing doesn’t convey that this is a feature film.
I’ve seen a dozen billboards, and until this moment, I thought they were about some cable TV show.
You can’t have product awareness if the marketing doesn’t give an indication of what the product IS.
Also, there was so much digital rework on Reese, that I didn’t recognize her in the ads.
Marketing blew it on this one.
People just don’t like Reese Witherspoon. It shocks me that she keeps getting cast in these things and studios are surprised when there is no lead in buzz. CIA agents abusing their power to get a girl? Believable. Those same agents fighting over Witherspoon, not so believable.
+1 on not liking Reese Witherspoon. Has she had any box office hits besides Legally Blonde in the last decade?
Amen. She’s the reason I’ll be watching this on my next Southwest flight. I kid, I’d never fly Southwest. If they play down Witherspoon and play up the two terrific male leads then they stand a chance.
This advice is assbackward. They should be playing up the only star in the movie and burying the two nobodies. Then this movie would have a chance.
You’re kidding, right? Reese Witherspoon isn’t that huge of a star. Her biggest hit was Legally Blonde in 2001 and Sweet Home Alabama in 2002, while her last 10 films, with the exception of Monsters Vs. Aliens and Walk the Line, were rather lackluster.
Chelsea Handler has no appeal or talent either, and her inclusion in the film doesn’t help its chances. It’s odd that she’d be included in any major releases given how obnoxious she is. For example, she repeatedly says that she doesn’t like minorities or Eastern Europeans. That’s incredibly stupid, not to mention intolerant, when you’re depending on as many people as possible to support your projects and more importantly, make you money. I definitely won’t be seeing This Means War because of her bigotry.
Wait, Southwest now has in-flight movies?
Nice catch. Anyway, Southwest is awesome. But this movie is terribly marketed.
Agreed. And no points for the clip that shows Reese’s character criticizing Pine for have small feminine hands and Hardy for being British. What were they thinking? “Why don’t we piss off most of Pine fans and 9/10 of the British Isles?”
LOL@you. Pine has no fans.
Two hot guys fighting over a hot girl? See Vampire Diaries.
I like Reese Witherspoon, but this doesn’t make sense for her.
The Chelsea Handler-heavy ads over the weekend totally killed my interest in seeing this movie.
Absolutely!
Yes! This!
Me, too!!
I totally agree. Her & Reese Witherspoon just don’t inspire me to watch…what is this, a romantic comedy? Just a comedy? A dramedy? The marketing didn’t feel clear or pique my interest, All I got was that Reese/Chelsea are front & Center.When I see Chelsea all I think of is someone promoting drugs & Alcohol (something people close to me have died from), man-bashing, being foul mouthed, and hating people who aren’t like her. THAT’s what I’m supposed to go see for valentine’s day? uh, no thanks.
I’d be more likely to see the “The Vow” because I Like the 2 leads. I’d rather see “The Grey” because I loved Liam in “Taken” (yes, Im a girl), and I love good action movies. I’d rather go see “Red Tails” because I remember hearing about the Tuskegee Airmen and I love a passion project.
“the film didn’t look dumb”? Are you kidding me? Have you seen the trailer? The story line is almost unimaginably dumb.
I second every word in this post.
BTW, while Reese Witherspoon is not my cup of tea, I think it’s a bit unfair to blame her for her age; it’s just Witherspoon, Chris Pine and Tom Hardy don’t seem to have great comic timing and sense judging by the trailer and I am not going to waste my money to find out if it’s the contrary.
The funniest part of the trailer was when it ended, a girl sitting behind me said, “I hope it ends with the guys realizing they’re really in love with one another.”
And I’ve learned to lower expectations of any film directed by McG.
“I hope it ends with the guys realizing they’re really in love with one another.”
This.
Horrifically bad trailers. I’ve heard the film is quite clever and tested great but you’d never guess it from a LCD campaign that plays like Spy vs. Spy with a girl instead of a bomb.
Agreed.
Looks like a generic, terrible film.
Yeah, the film looks ridiculous. Really, two CIA agents fighting in public over a woman, shooting down drones, etc.? This means box office bomb.
P.S.
I love Reese Witherspoon and Tom Hardy. Chris Pine? Not so much.
The problem is it doesn’t look funny
Who cares about cool casting, they should try funny casting
And by the way, it does look dumb
The trailer had like three penis jokes in it
The trailer is abysmal. Those are the best gags you can come up with to get someone interesed? C’mon nothing original in the gags and no good solid comedy moments that say wow got to see this.
Combine all that with most of all you have two hip sexy leading men and then you have Reese Witherspoon – she is the girl next door and definitely not sexy. He has an okay body but her face is NOT sexy. They needed to cast someone maybe less known, but hot as shit so the audience would go along with the concept that these two hot guys will do anything to win over the sexy girl.
This trailer says studio greenlit this because of the cast. Reese Witherspoons characters is the most important and she is the most miscast.
Um, you have 1 “hip” sexy guy, one girl next door, and one next generation William Shatner. Fixed it 4 you.
Ahh — actually this film does look dumb — with Mr. and Mrs. Smith there was jeopardy and relevant humor — from the trailer this looks as if it has neither — all goofball — casting of this should have been Jack Black et al… then it might open…
It doesn’t help the movie that Reese Witherspoon has been saying in interviews that it’s “sort of like Mr. & Mrs. Smith”. All that does is make people want to see Brad Pitt and Angeline Jolie’s movie – which they can do for free several times a week because FX seems to have the movie on every other day – and twice on Saturdays.
It also doesn’t help that nobody buys the notion that two secret agents would do battle to win Reese Witherspoon. She’s about as sexy and enticing as a bowl of cold oatmeal. The trailers I’ve seen on TV also feature more Chelsea Handler than Chris Pine or Tom Hardy, which defeats the purpose of the movie. How can you have a love triangle with the “best friend” is more prominent in the trailers than the leading men? Aside from those things, the movie looks to be about as original and cutting edge as Jennifer Aniston movie – and we all know how unwatchable her movies are.
Silly as it may sound, I think a big part of the problem is the title. Some titles are just box office repellants (Mars needs moms) and they should be seriously reconsidered.
“Mars Needs Moms”, definitely. “John Carter”, yes. What’s so bad about “This Means War”?
Great point about movie titles today! In many cases they seem like insiders trying to be clever but in no way resonate with the the film-goer.
I agree with Richard. If you’re going to open a movie on Valentine’s for the couples and dates, “This Means War” is as far from romantic as it can get.
The problem isn’t with the casting, but the release date. Why not open this romantic action-comedy closer to summer or in September? It’s just off for Valentine’s.
Couples would rather see their love and relationship reflected in “The Vow” than test it with “This Means War”.
It does look dumb. She’s too old for Chris or Tom and doesn’t seem like the type that would juggle two men.
How is she too old for them? She’s 35 and Hardy is 34. Pine is 31. So try again.
The people here hating on Witherspoon for her age are disgusting.
The only thing cool about this movie will be the seats in the empty theaters. Boom!
Uh oh. This doesn’t sound good at all. Personally, I thought the poster and trailer looked solid. And, frankly, Tom Hardy and Chris Pine look delicious together. Was actually looking forward to this, but now. Yikes.
Begging to differ with our esteemed host, but I think the problem is exactly that this movie looks dumb.
The two battling spies show themselves to be fools, spoiling the entire premise of them being “top agents”. It looks like a film about two immature, entitled morons abusing government dollars to carry out a personal war… (and here’s the kicker) over Reese Witherspoon. What makes Reese so worth the fuss? What does Reese see in either of these men? When everyone is so dumb in the movie and the stakes are so low, it’s easy to believe it’s tracking poorly.
Agreed–if these guys are this immature, why should we care who ends up with whom…or why? As well, this looks like the kind of movie Ebert rightly rails against, in which everything could be resolved in ten minutes if the characters just talked to each other.
The trailers/spots forgot to feature a bad guy. That’s pretty much it.
THANK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU, Jack! I concur.
Chris Pine and Tom Hardy are not movie stars. Not even close. And this is NOT the type of movie that Reese Witherspoon’s fans want to see her in. She has been getting very poor career advice.
They should have cast an unknown as The Girl. Witherspoon is distracting and reduces the film to another annoying rom-com.
Then they’d all be unknown. They should have cast two real stars as the guys instead.
In addition to looking terrible, the marketing for this one has been atrocious. Dig up the original trailer and re-watch it. By the time it’s over you aren’t sure if the film is called “Spy vs Spy” or “This Means War”. The same can certainly be said of the big ass poster I saw in a number of theaters.
This Means War looks like a very fun movie while The Vow looks just awful. Guess the teen girls are going to be making a very sappy choice for V-Day this year. Hopefully word of mouth will spread and TMW will spark a flame so to speak. It looks like the smartest move Witherspoon has made lately.
No one wants to see Chelsea Handler. How did that happen?
It’s not that Tatum & McAdams are box office– it’s THE NOTEBOOK redux.
Yes, The Vow aspires to be the next The Notebook, but you have to give credit to the casting. Tatum and McAdams fit perfectly, and people want to see them together.
I don’t know anybody who wants to see Tatum. I do want to see the Vow however. Everyone will just have to do their best to ignore him.
Seriously? Tatum’s millions of social media followers would beg to differ.
it’s a tired idea. how many of these “spies amongst us” action comedies do we have to endure? how about an original idea? i’ll go see chronicle again before this garbage.
“the film doesn’t look dumb” – gee, that extended scene where Tom Hardy takes out a bunch of kids in a paintball game to impress Reese sure doesn’t look stupid at all…
It was directed by McG. That should say everything.
McG gets a bad rap, but I actually think he’s a good director. I hear that this movie is really funny. But that is not being effectively communicated in the marketing.
mcg is a video director who has repeatedly over and over not been able to tell a story…
I disagree – this movie looks all sorts of dumb. And Reese Witherspoon doesn’t play sexy well. And McG directing? Strike three.
Well, from their TV spots I’d never know that Reese Witherspoon is a lead in the movie. Sorry, but Chris Pine and Tom Hardy combined don’t have the recognition as she does. Make it a Reese Witherspoon starrer, not a looks-like-every-other-young-actor with small stunt casting – the marketing’s been way off.
Outside of miscasting Reese Witherspoon, I don’t get the poor tracking. Look at comments and reviews online from people who’ve been to screenings of This Means War. They all say they are surprised at how much they like it. If people expect to not like it, but come out liking it, it must be pretty good. Fox should look at their marketing of this movie.
Couldn’t agree more. I saw it at a screening and the audience laughed through the whole movie. I just don’t get the negativity about a movie people haven’t even seen.
One mistake Fox made was marketing it as an action film instead of playing up the comedy aspect. It is hilarious and Chris Pine and Tom Hardy have real chemistry together.
Go see it before you judge that it’s awful.
The same thing happened on Pine’s “Unstoppable”. Pine is the problem.
Could it be that Chris Pine and Tom Hardy play 10 years younger than Reese?
Or maybe that the film’s central conceit looks like it could be solved with one line of dialogue: “Let’s go talk to her together and see who she picks”?
Or that Reese doesn’t come off as a woman that two guys who seem to be best friends would kill each other over?
There’s three reasons…I’m sure others will add more. (and I agree with Eric B. — Chelsea Handler in a close up on a big screen…kinda scary.)
I thought it could be a fun movie.
I asked my wife if she wanted to go to see at a FREE screening. She saw the trailer and said “Pass!”.
Chris Pine and Tom Hardy just do not have the name recognition yet.
I’ll also say that putting so much of Chelsea Handler’s mug in the trailer didn’t help.