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'Atlas Shrugged,' so did audiences: Follow-up films likely canned
The universally-panned, self-financed attempt to adapt Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" into a film franchise is not going over so well. Scoring a 28 on Metacritic and a measly 9 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, "Atlas: Part 1" did manage to bring in $1.7 million opening weekend -- before dropping 47% in its second week, despite a wider release.
All of this has prompted producer and businessman John Aglialoro, who invested $20 million and 18 years on the project, to reevaluate his plans.
"Critics, you won," he tells the Los Angeles Times. "I'm having deep second thoughts on why I should do Part 2."
Originally intended as a three-part film, it now seems unlikely that more than the first third of Rand's book well ever get a cinematic treatment.
"Why should I put up all of that money if the critics are coming in like lemmings?" Aglialoro continues. "I'll make my money back and I'll make a profit, but do I wanna go and do two? Maybe I just wanna see my grandkids and go on strike."
We know there's an inside joke somewhere in that last quote, but we've never actually read the book.
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Photo/Video credit: Strike Productions
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Critics don't play that big of a role in a film's success. Just look at "Hop" with 24% critics liking it on Rotten Tomatoes and it made 100 Mill in about same release time as Atlas. Look at the second "Transformers" movie with 20% critics and 400Mil. Free market decided, as Rand-ites would say. Robert Redford's "The Conspirator" had some dialog that preached to the liberal choir and it has a 56% RT and has only made about 7mil. Sounds like sour grapes that their philosophy works.
anyway, if the movie warps Ayn Rand's views as badly as i've seen the conservative/tea party movement warp them, then no wonder it bombed.
Let this be a lesson: if you plan to spend more than one movie adapting a single novel, you need to go for broke and adapt the whole damn thing in one shot, otherwise this is going to happen and all the effort put into the first film will be wasted. Peter Jackson took the lesson Ralph Bakshi learned with Lord of the Rings and did it all at once rather than chance only having one film completed.
anyway, if the movie warps Ayn Rand's views as badly as i've seen the conservative/tea party movement warp them, then no wonder it bombed.
wait until the DVD release, then make your decision. I'm being serious. If the sales and OnD are good, perhaps a straight-to-dvd release is the better option.
@Yawn_whatever makes a good point. However, if there are really so many Rand fans out there, surely they'd have gone to see it. But the word is even Rand fans hate the film (putting paid to the "left-wing conspiracy" gripes about the bad reviews). There comes a point where it doesn't matter what a film says, if it doesn't say it well, then it fails.