The Sorcerer's Apprentice

I was browsing MSNBC a couple of weeks ago and came upon an article (can't find it right now, sorry) in which it was revealed that Disney's The Sorcerer's Apprentice was a box office flop. Apparently Disney execs were very excited about this movie and had high hopes for it and couldn't figure out what had gone wrong.

To be honest, I hadn't watched the movie yet. And it took me three more weeks to go see it. Part of the hesitation was due to the fact that I had to pay nearly ten dollars to see this guy:

http://www.canmag.com/images/front/people2/jaybaruchel.jpg

Nothing personal. Really. I think Jay is a very talented actor. However, he does look like the guy-next-door-who-you-wouldn't-look-at-twice... Why would I pay almost ten dollars to go see the guy you avoid looking at in real life? 

I don't care what all of you will say: this is the truth. If you are thinking about going to the movies and wonder which film you'll see, you take into consideration the people starring in it. More often than not, you go watch the movies with more eye candy (ever heard of Taylor Lautner, Leo de Caprio, Ashton Kutcher, and Johnny Depp, among others?). 

Now that I've actually watched the movie I have a few things to say to Disney execs. Pay attention:

1. There are two stars of this movie: the wizard Balthazar and his apprentice Dave. I understand that Dave is supposed to be a nerdy guy, and Jay Baruchel does an awesome job. However, like I've said before: we are shallow. We will choose to watch Inception with Leonardo di Caprio over The Sorcerer's Apprentice with Jay Baruchel. Shia Le Beof is a cute, nerdy guy. So is Justin Long. Couldn't they find a guy like them? I'm just saying.

2. Who's the target audience? I never really understood this. If it was children, they completely missed the mark with this movie. Dave as a kid was cute, endearing and engaging. You wanted to see more of him. It would have been fun to watch Jake Cherry as young Dave running around New York City with Nicholas Cage. Kids would have loved that because they'd be able to picture themselves doing the same things. But Dave as the apprentice is twenty years old. He's hardly relatable to kids. And to make things worse, a big part of the movie is devoted to Dave's attempts to woo this beautiful girl who, normally, would be out of his league. Do children really care about that?

If the target audience was tweens and teens, then they missed the mark again: Jay is not attractive and although Nicolas Cage is very handsome he is also very old for this demographic. Now... if the audience intended was tween and teen boys... well... between Monica Belluci's curves and the blond girl they'll be pleased. But what teenage boy would be caught watching a Disney movie that is not Pirates of the Caribbean?!

Obviously, the target audience were adults... nah! It wasn't.

The sad thing is that this movie is worth watching. Its not the best fantasy movie out there but its good. It's funny, the chemistry between Jay and Nick is fun and fresh and having all this action in NYC is just icing on the cake. But when it comes to movies marketing is everything. Without a clear target audience and a lackluster leading "apprentice", this movie was destined to belly flop at the box office. 

It really is a shame.

M.