ONTD Original: Is the new Power Rangers movie going to flop?

Guess what, ONTD? I have my eyes set on a new movie after Floptastic Flop: Mighty Floppin' Power Rangers. So the question is will the new Power Rangers movie flop or will it actually make enough bank for Tommy to appear in the next movie?

1. Pushed back release dates...


Did you know that the Power Rangers movie was originally supposed to be released July 22, 2016? Did you know it was pushed back to January 13, 2017? But isn't the release date is March 24, 2017? Yes, that means it got pushed back twice. Same thing happened to Fantastic Four. Pushed back release date don't look very good because they show the movie experienced delays or some kind of trouble. The only good sign in this case for Power rangers is that the release date was pushed back before filming even began so any troubles would be script, casting, or budget related...


2. They released the TEASER trailer less than 6 months before the release date...


The title was originally: "It's less than 6 months before the release date and there is no trailer", but I guess Lionsgate found out about this they released the teaser trailer two day ago. Based on what I've seen (here) and after talking to my friends, everyone is loving the trailer. This seems familiar to me though because Fantastic Four had a similar situation. Its teaser trailer was released in January 2015 (which was 7-8 months within its release date aka the only real difference), was positively reviewed, then the actual trailer, which showed some sort of actual plot, came out in April 2015 (less than 4 months of its release date), and the movie flopped. So how long do we wait before Lionsgate releases the actual Power Rangers trailer? Will it be in December, which would be less than 4 months away from its release date? Will they keep us wondering that long in an attempt to hype interest to make us want to see this movie? Probably an X-Men: Apocalypse type of situation with the CGI not being completely ready, which was another flop of a movie.

3. It strays from the source material/Who is the target audience?


Who is this movie appealing to? For example, the only reason Pixar continues to make Cars movies is because the toy sales make up a killing for its lower box office returns. There are going to be toys from this movie+ dat ass. The target audience for the TV show on Nickelodeon is 6-11 year old boys. So how serious is this movie going to be? Will parents take their children to see a scantily clad Rita Repulsa with real shaped boob armor dressed like that or what could potentially show violence on a level that we haven't seen on the TV show?

Is this being marketed to the people who grew up watching Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers? That's debatable as this looks nothing like the TV show and won't compare to the very first Power Rangers movie. Lionsgate scrapped the script for the version that would have been an actual modern update of the original show so they don't care about your nostalgia 25-35 year olds. The only similarities are quite frankly the names and bare bones personality but then we get ALL THAT ANGST. Plus as far as we know, unless they signed non-disclosure agreements, none of the original cast were asked to cameo so the old fans looking for some real nostalgia are currently shit out of luck and I mean next point shows they had the money to get the original 4 to appear for like 2 minutes or something. Lord knows how Zordon, Alpha 5*, and Goldar will look. *I'm going to call Alpha 5 looking like C3-PO now.

There's no way this movie is going to be over PG-13 (obviously) so the question on how it handles its serious tone compared to other PG-13 movies (Fantastic Four, Batman Begins, etc) remains to be seen. And what we will see is the movie love child of Spider-man, Iron Man, The Breakfast Club, and Chronicle with Fantastic Four sprinkled on it.

4. Will it break even?


Wikipedia says the budget for the movie is $150 million but the source article says its $120 million. Advertising dollars is not mentioned so we'll stick with a range of $120-150 million budget. It will not be released in China so there's absolutely no way this movie will make $240-300 million to break even on box office returns alone. Fantastic Four was released in twice as many countries, according to IMDB, and it only made 39.9% more than its budget.

Plus this movie has some competition:
● Logan is being released on March 3. That's 3 weeks before Power Rangers. If Logan is good and has legs like Deadpool, that will take some of the 17+ crowd away from Power Rangers.
● Kong: Skull Island is being released on March 10. That's 2 weeks before Power Rangers. I'm going to say King Kong is more well known than Power Rangers based on it still being a thing after 83 years. This could have some legs.
● Beauty and the Beast is being released on March 17. That's just 1 week before Power Rangers. This movie is obviously targeted towards Families and girls. Cinderella made $201.2 million in America. This movie could do similar numbers. This movie won't take away the male demographic like the previous two movies can and probably will but ask yourself this: After watching the teaser trailer for Power Rangers do you think it appeals to girls? I don't think really think so and according to Cartoon Network execs, girls don't buy toys so they cancelled Young Justice and I doubt they will seriously try to appeal to girls to get them to watch this movie. Unlike the TV show, this movie is not bound to Sentai footage.
● King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is being released the same day. That's some competition for the male demographic.
● Ghost in the Shell is being released 1 week after. Will curious minds see the movie to see how badly it's handled? Could it steal some audience away?

The biggest factor of all is word of mouth and reviews. This is what killed Fantastic Four. This could ultimately kill the Power Rangers movie. We'll see how the screenings/premiere plays out.

So Good Luck, Lionsgate, I hope you get a cut of the toy sales wish you the best of luck. But I really don't...

5. It looks like a rip off of Chronicle (+ other movies)...

@Uptomyknees i know this is bold here. but new power rangers trailer looks like chronicle. lionsgate stole some story.

— Parris Watkins (@superparris28) October 9, 2016

Yeah, it appears they hired the writer of Chronicle and he wrote a Power Rangers movie, so they fired him and made Chronicle instead. https://t.co/F8lVEJqoU5

— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) October 9, 2016

Did anyone think this didn't look like Chronicle? I mean they go to some rocky place and discover some alien objects that gives them actual super powers? Their suits look like something from Iron Man and their morph should remind you of Venom. Not to mention the Red Ranger's mirror stare down looked exactly like Spider-man 1. Why stop there? Breakfast Club misfits come together and become friends. Screw Zordon telling Alpha to find some teenagers with attitudes even though these kids totally have them. Fantastic Four was compared to Chronicle a LOT because of the director and it didn't live up to those comparisons at all. That is not something this movie should be doing. It's not a good look, Lionsgate, especially since you originally had a Chronicle writer who called you out on it. He was going to give us the nostalgic Power Rangers movie we deserved.

Honorable Mention


1. They could done better with the casting. The Red and Pink Rangers are pretty basic (and Red Ranger looks like Zac Efron). Ludi should have been the Red Ranger after watching the teaser, IMO because he is gorgeous. Obligatory, they changed Rita from an Asian person to a white one.
2. The last Power Rangers movie (Turbo) did very badly in theaters but no one is or was checking for it anyway.
3. You shouldn't be giving Saban any of your money to be honest. Why? See Power Rangers Super Megaforce: Legendary Battle. They completely over invited Rangers to participate and turned many away who wanted to return. Then they offered little money for a trip across the world for what was less than 5 minutes of screen time. That episode was terrible and was such an F You because it should have been better and they admitted it but GREED. Plus we aren't getting this. My nostalgia dollars are going to remain in my pocket because this movie doesn't cut it.


Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

ONTD, remember when you said Fantastic Four wasn't going to flop? What excuse will you make when Power Rangers flops? Will it be the same excuse?