MovieChat Forums > Green Lantern (2011) Discussion > Why did this flop?

Why did this flop?

posted 11 years ago by npiazza91
33 replies | jump to latest

I understand that not many like this film, but I'm curious as to why not many people saw it. I mean even Captain America 1 and Thor 1 made more, and they were being introduced around the same time. Was it bad word of mouth that hurt it that badly? Was it because it wasn't part of the MCU, which was (and still is) hot at the time? Or did people not like Ryan Reynolds, or didn't know who Green Lantern was? I honestly have no idea. I could understand 300-400 million, but barely over 200 million seems impossible for superhero film in 2011.

[–] atg_commish 10 years ago

Bad reviews, bad word of mouth. Captain America and Thor were (relatively) well received. And it's too bad -- Ryan Reynolds was fine as Green Lantern.

[–] Rockhound6165 10 years ago

While none of the reasons given are wrong, the main reason why the movie flopped is because of the script. In order to grab a new audience, you need to knock their socks off. Nolan's Batman series did this because of the story. The Marvel movies(Thor, Capt. America, Ironman, Avengers) did so because of the action. This movie had a chance to be epic but it chose to be sublime and boring. While seeing Paralax as the villain entity was somewhat of a head scratcher this early in the GL storyline, it had the chance of being good but instead of the antagonist being Sinestro, they chose it to be Hector Hammond which was a bad move. They could have started the movie with something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO_xmueZaXw(this is from DC Universe Online) then start the way they did with Abin Sur giving the ring to Hal Jordan. A battle between Fear and Will could have been epic but the producers decided to crap the bed with this bad story.

[–] ninthcentury 10 years ago

Ryan Reynolds was fine as Green Lantern.

Glad you think so, too. I became an instant fan of his when I saw this movie.

Always feel free to attack someone as a substitute for thinking.

[–] Kruleworld 10 years ago

Given how good the Animated GL series was, this movie was a big disappointment, and GL fans were the ones who didn't go see it (i waited till on TV).

"He's dusted, busted and disgusted, but he's ok"

[–] motter25420-153-699254 10 years ago

I thought it was pretty good. I can't speak for how it appears to long time fans, I mean I've always known who Green Lantern was but I was never much of a fan - ironically till I saw this movie - now I've watched lot's of the animated series and the animated films and I really like GL.

I thought Reynolds was a good choice, just maybe he was a little too comical at times, Tim Robbins and his son I felt were completely unnecessary, so all in all, it had room for improvement, but I would like to see more.

[–] Prismark10 8 years ago

It just started off too slowly.

It's that man again!!

[–] Fusion72 8 years ago

Many reasons:

CGI Suit
Too many unfamiliar aliens
Shading/Colour scheme
Ryan Reynolds

[–] giggityalright85 8 years ago

I think it was cause there was no excitement for the movie. There was a lot of bad buzz before the film came out that hurt it: production problems, the fact a plot detailed trailer for the movie wasn't released until three months before it came out (when it was WB's BIG summer move that year other than the final Harry Potter film) is never a good sign. Remember 2016's Ghostbusters' trailer didn't even drop until March and it was released in July.

Plus the fact the super suit was animated. Why they went that route is beyond me.

[–] Pencho15 8 years ago

It got so terrible reviews, that as a fan of the comic I avoided it when it got to theaters.

I saw it today and I regret it, it has its flaws, but it is far better than all the terrible movies DC Comics has released, including their umpromising new cinematic universe that gor such a bad start.

Probably many did not see it like me due to the reviews.

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[–] TMC-4 (20490) 8 years ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/6h1co1/discussion_how_much_did_the_green_lantern_movies/div0pp1/

It's a movie about space cops that takes place almost entirely on Earth. That's where it went wrong, the source material is fine, it's fun. They hoped it would kick-off a Star Wars sort of aspect for their DCEU, but forgot that space exists. Let Superman defend the Earth, and/or the Justice League, Green Lantern is like a galaxy-tier threat killer.