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For anyone on the Jack Ryan-bashing bandwagon... (BoM link, RT, a few box office and other comments)

Posted by: KalElFan (a.k.a del_TOM_KalElFan) on Jan 19, 12:00

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/franchises/chart/?id=jackryan.htm

That link shows the five movies and they've never been humongous money-makers. Considering it's been 12 years since the last one, and it'll probably have a $20.5M OW if we give it MLK and the 4 days, and it only cost $60M so it'll make its money back when all revenues are factored in, it's no bomb.

Critically, it's 61% Fresh on RT so not bad there either. The B on CinemaScore is below the B+ level that's touted as positive, but very close to that so again not bad. My sister saw it and agreed with the B. She liked Chris Pine, Kevin Costner and the cast, but it was a bit slower-moving than she prefers. Having read the Wiki synopsis, I'm guessing there being a bit of an Origin Story and setup of sorts for this reboot might contribute to that.

For Pine, this is exactly the kind of role he needed to help break the Kirk stereotype. So I think he wins even if they never make another one. Again, the other movies just didn't do humongous business and he's the fourth actor to play the role. Only one of them (Harrison Ford) made a second one.

From a franchise viewpoint, I think part of the challenge is that "CIA Agent Jack Ryan" is so strongly associated with Russian adversaries, the Cold War etc. going back to The Hunt for Red October. James Bond broke out, at one time Moonraker being its highest-grossing movie I believe. With the Bourne franchise, he's more a rogue on his own.

So if they were to make another one of these and hope for longer-term upside, I think they'd have to aim bigger and higher-concept perhaps. Another Russian villain won't work. A terrorist nuclear threat was Sum of All Fears IIRC, but as you see at the BoM link above it opened biggest of the series. Some very high tech world threat, even with a bit of an SF flavor (as Moonraker had at the time) might play into Pine's base. I'm not convinced they couldn't transition this into a sustainable series and it might be worth one more try. Decent overseas and then Blu-Ray etc. down the road might make it viable.

Anyway, it's not worthy of the dissing, ridicule, etc. (box office or otherwise) in a few places.

For anyone on the Jack Ryan-bashing bandwagon... (BoM link, RT, a few box office and other comments) KalElFan Jan 19, 12:00

I really like CPINE. I just want Jack Ryan to have a low OW so I can make a few bucks. After that... it can do well if it can. jakemongoose Jan 19, 12:25

It's all halted now of course. Looks to me like the main stock will be a slight long, the OW and Call shorts, Put long. {nm} KalElFan Jan 19, 13:24

That would work ;p {nm} jakemongoose Jan 19, 13:44

According to BOM estimates, it looks to be -4.48 {nm} PVL Admin Jan 19, 15:30

There is no one pushing for a sequel at Paramount but it looks like international is doing well {nm} notfabio Jan 19, 12:58

This was actually an unrelated spec script Moscow that was rewritten into a Jack Ryan film. Die Hard 3 and 4 similarly were based on specs {nm} notfabio Jan 19, 13:02

I recall that original Moscow title now that you mention it. Boxofficemojo also has the early $22.2M Foreign up on the summary pg now. {nm} KalElFan Jan 19, 13:10

I read that both Die Hards 1 and 2 were both not originally designed to be Die Hard films as well. Jay_Beezy Jan 19, 14:49

Here's the link to the current 3,313 IMDb votes, 27.3% 7/10 and 18.7% 6/10, 17.5% 8/10, 13.2% 10/10, 3.4% 1/10 {nm} KalElFan Jan 19, 13:44

I've seen it. Don't need to cite critic reviews to me. It's awful. It's completely worthy of all the scorn it gets. thatpj Jan 19, 13:01