Did NEMESIS get bad promotion?

[Captain Jean-Luc Picard 1]

Ya know, I was thinking... GENERATIONS and FIRST CONTACT did well at theaters while INSURRECTION didn't do quite so well, probably becuase of the different pacing, slower story, and so forth. All 3 of these movies also had awesome promotion, along with the oval with the Trek arrow inside it. However, NEMESIS was an awesome action movie, yet it bombed in theaters. The previews for this movie are crap compared to the previews for the previous 3 movies, and they also give away too much.

 

What do you guys think, could the NEMESIS previews have hurt it's box office?

[Shuttle 0]

I thought Nemsis was way over-promoted in the UK at least, which may have led to a lack of interest afer a time. I mean, they really shoved it down our throats in some ways. It was realeased at a bad time too (in the UK at least) what with other films such as Harry Potter 2 and LOTR-TTT in the cinema's at the same time.

Edited January 19, 2004 by Shuttle

[Captain Jean-Luc Picard 1]

I completely agree - I think Nemsis was way over-promoted, which may have led to a lack of interest afer a time. I mean, they really shoved it down our throats in some ways. It was realeased at a bad time too (in the UK at least) what with other films such as Harry Potter 2 and LOTR-TTT in the cinema's at the same time.

That's funny, here in the U.S, I didn't think it got promoted enough! The previews they did have just gave this dark and depressing feel, not a "wow, another Star Trek movie!" feel, know what I mean? I agree, Paramount, for whatever reason, released this movie at a very bad time. They should'a released it in November or January.

 

EDIT: Oh, and get this! Peter Pan, a movie I very much enjoyed, had almost no promotion and was released arroung the same time as LOTR:ROTK. The movie bombed in theates. Hmm, I wonder... :)

Edited January 19, 2004 by Captain Jean-Luc Picard

[trekzone 0]

They released it on the best day in the year.

 

here in aus there was NO promos........but then again - Paramount is god, we must follow Paramount, they dont like Australia, we dont like Australia....lets move to the US if we want to watch ENT.

 

 

(note: WE=Australians)

[Ace 0]

I don't think the promotion killed it. Almost all the blame goes on the release date, imo; too many people were planning to wait and go to the theatres the next week for LoTR. I did think it was a little over-promoted here, and the trailers were definitely dark, so that may have had some impact. Another factor is that it didn't go into as wide a release as the rest of the ST films. As I've said in another topic, I had to drive an hour just to see it, when I could see the last few in my hometown. :)

[Shuttle 0]

Yeah - I didn't think Nemsis was half bad personally - but so many people were, at the time, harking on about LOTR or Harry Potter that Nemsis really didn't get a look-in

[Tina 0]

I thought Nemesis got bad promotion because many people think the Sci-Fi genre is dying..The Fantasy genre(LOTR/Potter) is bringing in the dough

[Stelfan 0]

Here in Sweden we had no promotion at all about the movie, and it was in theater about two weeks.. I actually almost missed it, it premiered the same week as LOTR.. I can very much understand why it bombed in theaters.

[Guest Ktrek]

There were several factors to why Nemesis did not do well and not just any single factor. These factors combined figured into it's low box office numbers. Here are my thoughts.

 

1. As mentioned above within a 30 day time frame Nemesis had several big box office competitors. LOTR, Harry Potter, James Bond etc. Very few movies released during this time frame were successful outside of those I mentioned.

 

2. Oversaturation of the Star Trek market. Even though it had been three years since "Insurrection" there had been quite a few years of Star Trek on TV and the movies by this time. Only the most rabid of fans have stuck with Star Trek not many of the casual fans. They have left for other shows.

 

3. Poor script and too low quality of production. When audiences have been mesmerized by sci-fi movies like "The Matrix" then Star Trek looks like a "B" movie flick instead of the "A" movie the studios have promoted it to be. Nemesis had the "potential" to be so much more than it proved to be. I'm not saying that I personally did not like it, because I did, but that it wasn't much better than a two part TV episode done on the big screen.

 

4. DVD - Many people now have stopped attending movies, unless it is on the scale of LOTR, simply because the price for two people to go "to" a movie is about the same as it costs to actually own your very own copy of the same movie on DVD. With the superior quality DVD has these days and with all the bonus features many people, like my wife and I, choose to wait. I admit we did not wait for Nemesis but I think most "casual" fans will wait. One reason I believe this to be true is because Nemesis has sold more DVD's than any other Star Trek movie. It has had tremendous sales worldwide. So don't feel sorry for Paramount they have more than made up their losses at the theater in DVDs.

 

5. Nemesis does not hold up well to repeated viewings. Many fans, like my wife and I, in the past would see the Star Trek movies more than once in the theater. After seeing Nemesis we did not really care to go again but waited for the DVD. The main reason is because we both felt the story lacked creativity so we were content to wait. I don't think we were alone in this. Many fans I know personally only saw it once where other Trek movies had been seen at least twice in the theaters. This should have spoken volumes to Paramount. Where are the true Star Trek fans?

 

 

As fans we can only hope that Paramount can do a better job on the next film. They need better writers and a new production staff to breath new life into the Star Trek saga. Something drastic must be done to win back the loyalty of all the fans out there. After seeing Star Trek: New Voyages this week perhaps recasting the characters of TOS isn't such a bad idea. They could start right after "The Undiscovered Country". The characters themselves live beyond those who played the roles originally. After all look how many people have played James Bond and no matter who plays him we still believe he is James Bond. If the movie is well done production wise with a good story it will be a winner and if not then goodbye Star Trek!

 

Ktrek

[He Who Shall Not Be Named 2]

Hey! Lay off Nemesis! He is cool!

 

Oh, I thought we were talking about the message poster Nemesis. :(

Edited January 20, 2004 by lt_van_roy

[Guest Ktrek]

I might also add to this that many fans and casual fans did not like the movie enough to recommend it to their friends and family members. This also contributed to a poor box office turn out.

 

CJLP mentioned promotion as a factor yet I recall seeing many adds here locally on TV and in print for the movie. In the past when I have attended ST films they are usually 3/4 full to full audiences. Nemesis, viewed on opening day at peak time was less than half filled.

 

Ktrek

[Captain Jean-Luc Picard 1]

Aside from a few goofs like Deck 29 or a bald Cadet Picard, I thought the movie was specactular. The only thing that irritated me was that it was too Picard/Data centric with too little focus on the rest of the cast. Movies 7-9 featured the ensemble cast with Picard & Data as the leads, but #10 just felt like the Picard/Data show. For me, that's what hurt the film.

 

As for Trek's future, I think what need's to be done is take a 2-5 year rest after ENT concludes, while doing mixed or new cast movies in the movie theater. I don't think the movies need a break, we allready got one between 9 & 10. I think a short break on TV is really all we need, followed by a 23rd century series that would end with the launch of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701.

[samdrake 0]

I don't think that the film got bad promotion in terms of to little or to much air time. However, I thought that the trailers felt a little wanting in information. When doing a promotion you want to present the best scenes (without giving away too much of the plot). Whoever put together the trailers seemed to pick the slowest and most boring scenes available.

 

However, the real reason for the lack luster response to Nemesis is not due to the promotion of the film it has to do with the presentation of the film. Now don't get me wrong over all I enjoyed the movie, but I believe that it could have been much better. What follows is what I believe was wrong with the film and what could have been done to fix those problems.

 

First, of all the alternate ending should have been kept in. The one in which we see the new first officer coming aboard. It showed Riker passing the baton and that the Enterprise will continue even with several of the crew gone.

 

Second, There was a lack of family feel in comparison to the other films. The wedding scene should have allowed brief moments for character's we haven't seen in a while to shine as they offer their congratulations. They went to the trouble to get Goldberg to reprise her role as Guinan and she's only on for maybe 10 seconds. That is a waste. There should have been moment for goodbyes between Picard and Crusher. Something that spoke of lost chances or gave hope for a possible future between them. And they should have done a parting shot of the Enterprise and the Titan leaving orbit like they did for the Enterprise and the excelsior in Star Trek 6.

 

Third, the plot was hard to digest. First of all were supposed to believe that a slave race and a human clone can not only build in absolute secrecy the bigest baddest warship in the history of Star Trek, but these slaves would also gather enough of that ultra deadly radiation to create weapons of mass destruction. And would also just happen to find an early prototype of Data to be used in Shinzon's plan of revenge. And then the Romulan military would actually ally themselves with these slaves in an attempt to over through the government especially since this slave race was telepathic and could due among other things mentally rape Deanna Troi. If the Romulans knew of their telepathic threat most likely they would have killed them all to prevent them from using their telepathy on them. After all if they can do things like mind rape then it is not that far of a jump to conclude that they could use it for mental control over the Romulans.

 

Now in the grand scheme of things all of these things are minor in detail, but when you add up all of the small things it ends up creating one big problem for the story. Movies rely on word of mouth as much as promotion. And there were very few people talking up Nemesis. And I think that some of the things I mentioned above were at the very least contributing factors to the general disappointment over the movie.