To say Jon M. Chu had a bad weekend is an understatement. His lastest film, "Jem and the Holograms," opened over the weekend and box office results had been unremarkable. Well, that is if you're looking for good remarks to say.
Chu was due to deliver the Filmmaker Keynote at the Film Independent Forum held in Los Angeles last Saturday and he was more than forthcoming about his movie's paltry performance at the box office. Addressing the crowd, he said it's a bit awkward to be standing in front of everyone because he's supposed to be up there talking about how great it is to be part of the movie business. Chu pointed out that it is indeed awesome to be in the film industry, but he's not feeling too hot at the moment since box office numbers for "Jem and the Holograms" are not turning out nicely.
What a lot of people might not know is that Chu had been working on developing "Jem and the Holograms" with producer Jason Blum for the last 10 years. Even before the movie hit cinemas, it had a lot of opposition from fans of the original cartoon series from the 1980's. And this opposition had fans sending Chu hate mail, racist remarks and even death threats. He said reviewers had been harsh as well and that's putting it lightly.
To the director, Universal Pictures is one of the most successful marketing studios in the world, but that doesn't change the fact that "Jem and the Holograms" is projected to earn about $1.2 million on its opening weekend, which would be the worst opening ever recorded for a release by a major studio across at least 2,000 theaters.
"Yes, we only made the movie for [$5 million] but it doesn't get easy when you hear those numbers," Chu added.
Chu's past works include "Step Up 3D" and "G.I. Joe: Retaliation." "Now You See Me 2," his next feature, is schedule to hit the big screen in June 2016.
Photo: Ryan Quick | Flick
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