External Factors for a Dismal Performance

When a movie doesn’t do well at the box office, it doesn’t necessarily mean it did badly because it was a bad movie. Multiple factors can contribute to a less then stellar performance. The movie could have been released at the wrong time of the year. It could have either not been promoted enough or promoted in a way that misleads audiences as to what the actual tone of the movie is. Still another factor could be having to compete with another movie released at the same time.

A perfect example of a movie bombing at the box office because of outside reasons is the dark comedy Very Bad Things. It was released during the 98 holiday season and started Christian Slater, Jon Favreau, Cameron Diaz, Daniel Stern, Jeremy Piven, and Leland Orser. The movie follows timid Kyle (Favreau) as he prepares to marry his shrewish bride Laura (Diaz). Laura is an extremely demanding woman who seems to care more about having the perfect wedding then the guy she’s actually marrying. To escape from his demanding fiancé Kyle goes to Las Vegas for a bachelor party with his four closest friends. First there’s Moore (Orser), a quiet mechanic Kyle has known since grade school. Then there is Adam (Stern), a very uptight and moral individual, and his brother Michael (Piven), who’s less moral and not as tightly wound. Rounding out the circle of friends is Boyd (Slater), the unofficial leader and least moral member of the group. What follows is a drug filled romp that culminates with a stripper giving them a wild show. Unfortunately things take an ugly turn when Michael accidently kills her while they are having sex. Things go from bad to worse when a security guard finds the body and Boyd kills him to keep their secret. With no other option the group take the bodies into the desert to be buried and swear to keep what happened a secret. As they return to their lives paranoia sets in and the body count continues to grow. By the end of the movie the remaining characters have been scared for life, in more ways then one.

This hilarious movie is as dark as it is funny, with multiple moments that bring as many cringes as they do laughs. Probably the best example of this is when the group is burying the bodies in the desert. During the middle of it Adam says that according to Jewish law the bodies must be buried united or else the souls will not find peace. This proves to be problematic as they dismembered the bodies before they set off. What follows is a perverse jigsaw puzzle with everyone trying to match up body parts to the correct bodies.

While this movie is certainly not for everyone, I don’t believe it didn’t do well in theaters because it was bad. Rather it did badly because of external factors. For one thing it was released during the holiday season. Most movies released during this time are either family films, sentimental films, or epic adventures. A comedy about people trying to cover up a murder doesn’t really fall under any of the mentioned genres. A bigger problem then the release date was the promotion. The trailer and TV spots tried to make the movie to be much more lighthearted then it really was. This meant that people who would have wanted to see a sick comedy didn’t see it because they thought it lacked the bite it really had. The promotion also tried to play off of the notoriety of Cameron Diaz, who had just stared in There’s Something About Mary a few months before the release of Very Bad Things. In previews she seems to be more of a put upon wife to be, where in the movie she is a heartless bitch who cares only about herself. When her fiancé finally confesses what happened she tells him she doesn’t care and that the wedding is happening no matter what. Those who saw the movie thinking they’d see a bubbly light hearted Cameron Diaz were in for a rude awakening. It is my belief that these factors were the reason for the movie’s abysmal performance in theaters.

Luckily with the rise of home video, and now DVD, movies that did badly in theaters can find a new life with home viewing. And Very Bad Things is one of those movies. It has become a cult classic, with people loving the sickness of the plot. If not for home viewing, this movie would have always been thought of as terrible based on how it did in theaters. So before one writes off a movie because of its theatrical performance, see it first.