Spielberg's BFG Flops at Box Office

[Lieju]

Yeah, this book was never a part of my childhood, I only heard about it lately through the Internet (after being very confused for a bit)

Why not call it a 'Big Friendly Giant'? Might have gotten more families watching it... I saw some posters about a 'IKJ' movie which just looked confusing... That poster would likely make a parent go 'so, uh is this for kids or..?'

 

[Hawki]

Sorry, but when you say BFG all I'm thinking of is the Doom Gun. I actually wonder how many people were more confused rather than interested by that name.

If more people associate "BFG" with Doom that Roald Dahl, then that's a pretty sad sate of affairs in the cultural gestalt.

I guess Dahl's books just don't connect with a filmgoing audience? I mean, besides "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" 2005 and maybe "Matilda", what Dahl adaptations have been more successful than cult classic status?

James and the Giant Peach?

Also, I haven't seen many people discuss the 2005 version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with much fondness.

Looking at this thread I am shocked, SHOCKED that so few people had even heard of the BFG. Maybe it's because I was a massive bookworm as a kid. I loved Roald Dahl books, his stories were so much fun. Even enjoyed the movies, like Matilda, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches...

You're not the only one. I absolutely adored Dahl's works as a child, and I still have a high regard for them today. The film adaptations have been pretty good as well - James and the Giant Peach, Danny, the Champion of the World, the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Matilda, which, IMO, actually surpasses the book it's based on.

... Although if somebody could make a good adaptation of a Roald Dahl book, I would LOVE to see George's Marvelous Medicine on screen, that one's definitely my favorite.

Disagree there though - I can't see you getting much more than a short based on that. It's based more on humour than anything else - George shrinks his grandma, and she continues shrinking, story over.

Speaking personally, a Dahl work I'd love an adaptation of would be The Minpins. It's a work I don't see discussed nearly as much as the others, and I think it has great potential for a good adventure story, if one extends the story for the required running time.

 

[Flatfrog]

I would LOVE to see George's Marvelous Medicine on screen, that one's definitely my favorite.

Me too, but I think they'd have big problems getting it made because of the safety issues. Any kid ingests a whole bunch of household chemicals in the hope of getting fireworks coming out of their mouth, the film makes would have a big lawsuit on their hands. (Obviously the same is true of the book, but there's so much more money in films it would be a bigger risk)

There was rather a good 'Jackanory' series in which GMM was read out by Rik Mayall:

 

[elvor0]

Right; that's why they stopped making Planet of the Apes movies in 1998, right? And it's not like anyone makes movies about Narnia, or World War 2, or the Bible.

"Old" doesn't mean "nonexistent".

To be honest, I had never heard of this so called "beloved classic" before I saw a Regal Cinema FirstLook thing when i went to see Warcraft and Independence Day 2. Of course, the damn thing came out... what, over 30 years ago now?

In fairness to both of you, I'm not entirely sure how much relevance Dahls work has outside of the UK. His books were a staple of my early childhood and most of my friends have certainly heard of/read them. My non UK friends....not so much. It's entirely possible it just doesn't have the appeal outside of the states, as Charlie and Chocolate factory is the only one that's famous to any degree. Plus Finding Dory is out at the same time and children are more likely to want to see that in this moment in time.

 

[Xan Krieger]

I'm with the other people in the thread who hated the name because I also thought of the BFG 9000. That gun has been around since I believe 1994 and the only Dahl movie I'd heard of was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Only in this thread did I learn he was behind Matilda and James And the Giant Peach (capitalized the second And due to an and also separating the two movies).

 

[Hawki]

In fairness to both of you, I'm not entirely sure how much relevance Dahls work has outside of the UK. His books were a staple of my early childhood and most of my friends have certainly heard of/read them. My non UK friends....not so much. It's entirely possible it just doesn't have the appeal outside of the states, as Charlie and Chocolate factory is the only one that's famous to any degree. Plus Finding Dory is out at the same time and children are more likely to want to see that in this moment in time.

I can attest that Dahl is very big in Australia. In a place like Dymocks, if I look in the children's section (which doesn't happen that often admittedly), the shelves are full of Dahl books. And as someone who works in a library and processes a lot of children's books (shelving, loans, etc.), Dahl has always been present. There are more popular children's book series, true (Geronimo Stilton seems to be the most popular in that respective age range), but it wouldn't take me long to find a Dahl book on the shelves.

I suppose that maybe in the US Dahl isn't nearly as big, but is Doom really so big that a frickin' GUN that happens to be in a game is more popular/well known than a book that came out 11 years before Doom was released, and had a film adaptation 4 years prior as well? I suppose this being The Escapist, that would skew a lot to people who've at least heard of Doom, but, well, yeah. And I might as well admit that The BFG is probably my second favorite Dahl novel (Matilda would be the first), so I guess I have a vested interest in shouting my lamentations from the rooftops.

 

[K12]

I don't know if the BFG story is more of a british thing (especially since the Queen is a pivotal character in the story) but seriously how the hell do so many people think of DOOM first when hearing BFG? Perhaps "BFG: The Big Friendly Giant" would have been a better title but I'd hope that people would see a big friendly looking giant on the poster rather than demons and work this shit out for themselves.

Maybe the whinging by "concerned" parents about children playing video games instead of reading books has had some truth to it all along if people are finding it too difficult to understand what this film is about and stupidly linking it to something that is obviously irrelevant.

 

[shrekfan246]

In fairness to both of you, I'm not entirely sure how much relevance Dahls work has outside of the UK. His books were a staple of my early childhood and most of my friends have certainly heard of/read them. My non UK friends....not so much. It's entirely possible it just doesn't have the appeal outside of the states, as Charlie and Chocolate factory is the only one that's famous to any degree. Plus Finding Dory is out at the same time and children are more likely to want to see that in this moment in time.

I can attest that Dahl is very big in Australia. In a place like Dymocks, if I look in the children's section (which doesn't happen that often admittedly), the shelves are full of Dahl books. And as someone who works in a library and processes a lot of children's books (shelving, loans, etc.), Dahl has always been present. There are more popular children's book series, true (Geronimo Stilton seems to be the most popular in that respective age range), but it wouldn't take me long to find a Dahl book on the shelves.

I suppose that maybe in the US Dahl isn't nearly as big, but is Doom really so big that a frickin' GUN that happens to be in a game is more popular/well known than a book that came out 11 years before Doom was released, and had a film adaptation 4 years prior as well? I suppose this being The Escapist, that would skew a lot to people who've at least heard of Doom, but, well, yeah. And I might as well admit that The BFG is probably my second favorite Dahl novel (Matilda would be the first), so I guess I have a vested interest in shouting my lamentations from the rooftops.

Yeah, I don't think Dahl is nearly as big here in the US, especially if you don't pay attention to children's books. He's a common name, or at least he was when I was younger (probably far less so now), but the names of his actual works are far less enduring than his name itself. If I've ever heard of The BFG before, then it was probably something like fifteen-twenty years ago and I'd long since forgotten its existence because it's just not the sort of thing people talk about, around here at least.

 

[Buizel91]

Tbf, any kids film that comes out against Finding Dory is going to flop.

 

[Zydrate]

Owww...

Anyone besides me think even the name might not of helped? Sorry, but when you say BFG all I'm thinking of is the Doom Gun. I actually wonder how many people were more confused rather than interested by that name.

I still don't know what it's supposed to stand for. "Big Fucking Giant?"

 

[Xan Krieger]

Owww...

Anyone besides me think even the name might not of helped? Sorry, but when you say BFG all I'm thinking of is the Doom Gun. I actually wonder how many people were more confused rather than interested by that name.

I still don't know what it's supposed to stand for. "Big Fucking Giant?"

The Big Friendly Giant, yeah the movie title was bad and the writers should feel bad. I think whoever made it isn't very familiar with American culture.

 

[Zydrate]

Owww...

Anyone besides me think even the name might not of helped? Sorry, but when you say BFG all I'm thinking of is the Doom Gun. I actually wonder how many people were more confused rather than interested by that name.

I still don't know what it's supposed to stand for. "Big Fucking Giant?"

The Big Friendly Giant, yeah the movie title was bad and the writers should feel bad. I think whoever made it isn't very familiar with American culture.

I'd argue that they don't realize that gamer culture has become fairly mainstream.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

To be honest, I had never heard of this so called "beloved classic" before I saw a Regal Cinema FirstLook thing when i went to see Warcraft and Independence Day 2. Of course, the damn thing came out... what, over 30 years ago now?

Perhaps not so relevant to society in general anymore, is what I'm saying.

praisegrima

Right; that's why they stopped making Planet of the Apes movies in 1998, right? And it's not like anyone makes movies about Narnia, or World War 2, or the Bible.

"Old" doesn't mean "nonexistent".

No, but "Old" and not being well known basically does in the movie world of today.

Comparing BFG to other books like Narnia and Planet of the Apes is pretty uneven. The other books you mentioned have been very well known for decades. The BFG, not so much. There was also next to no promo for this movie. Most people just saw it and went "kid's movie". It also came out the same month as Finding Dory.

 

[Daymo]

Reading these comments makes it super clear we are on a gaming website. I watched the BFG animated movie as a child and wasn't a fan so never even considered going to watch this one. I'm kind of surprised no one has mentioned The Fantastic Mr Fox when talking about Roald Dahl adaptations, even though it was a Wes Anderson movie, it was very well received (nominated for the Golden globes and Oscars) with an all-star cast. But yeah an adaptation of an old British kids book vs Find Dory was always going to end one way.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Sorry, but when you say BFG all I'm thinking of is the Doom Gun. I actually wonder how many people were more confused rather than interested by that name.

If more people associate "BFG" with Doom that Roald Dahl, then that's a pretty sad sate of affairs in the cultural gestalt.

That's a rather rough assessment. The thing is, I don't think the book was known primarily as "BFG" the abbreviation, merely Big Friendly Giant. I knew it when I was a kid (granted, I live in Scandinavia, so it wasn't shortened to BFG here anyway), but I certainly never heard anyone refer to it as the BFG. The Doom abbreviation comes from a rather sensible place, because the abbreviation actually carries more information than the actual name, since none of the other gun names in Doom are abbreviations, and most of them could be described as "Big Fucking Guns" anyway.

And them choosing to use the abbreviation as the main title is rather puzzling. Why would they do it? It's not like there aren't movies with much longer names out right now (Alice through the Looking Glass, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, Now You See Me 2), compared to which "Big Friendly Giant" rolls off the tongue rather smoothly.

Ehh, no matter. A shame that people didn't get rewarded for their work, but I can't really feel sorry for the multiple Oscar-winning, swimming in money multimillionaire cultural legend for this failure.

 

[Zontar]

BFG being associated with "Big Fucking Gun" isn't just from DOOM, it's been military jargon for quite some time now. I'm fairly certain most under 35 would assassinate the abbreviation with weapons even if they aren't gamers or have ever played DOOM.

 

[KissingSunlight]

Owww...

Anyone besides me think even the name might not of helped? Sorry, but when you say BFG all I'm thinking of is the Doom Gun. I actually wonder how many people were more confused rather than interested by that name.

I still don't know what it's supposed to stand for. "Big Fucking Giant?"

Even though, I knew what the initials stand for. My first reaction to the name of the movie is "Big Fucking Giant". I think most people, not familiar with the book, would think the name is censoring the "F-Word".

Speaking personally, I was kind of curious about the movie. It starred Mark Rylance. I liked him in Bridge of Spies. So, I was rooting for this movie to be good. When I saw the trailer, my immediate reaction was "Nope!" It just looked cheesy. A very kiddy movie that won't have any appeal beyond little kids and fans of the book.

 

[Spider RedNight]

BFG being associated with "Big Fucking Gun" isn't just from DOOM, it's been military jargon for quite some time now. I'm fairly certain most under 35 would assassinate the abbreviation with weapons even if they aren't gamers or have ever played DOOM.

That's the boat I'm in - I've never played Doom before but my first thought was "big fuckin' gun? What a poorly-named movie in 2016"

But no, it's about a giant. And it's based on a book by Roald Dahl. And if I'm being fair to it, I'm sure there's nothing wrong with it but after 2005's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Fantastic Mr. Fox, Roald Dahl isn't really what I wanna see anymore. At least BFG didn't have George Clooney in it.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Sorry, but when you say BFG all I'm thinking of is the Doom Gun. I actually wonder how many people were more confused rather than interested by that name.

If more people associate "BFG" with Doom that Roald Dahl, then that's a pretty sad sate of affairs in the cultural gestalt.

That's a rather rough assessment. The thing is, I don't think the book was known primarily as "BFG" the abbreviation, merely Big Friendly Giant. I knew it when I was a kid (granted, I live in Scandinavia, so it wasn't shortened to BFG here anyway), but I certainly never heard anyone refer to it as the BFG. The Doom abbreviation comes from a rather sensible place, because the abbreviation actually carries more information than the actual name, since none of the other gun names in Doom are abbreviations, and most of them could be described as "Big Fucking Guns" anyway.

And them choosing to use the abbreviation as the main title is rather puzzling. Why would they do it? It's not like there aren't movies with much longer names out right now (Alice through the Looking Glass, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, Now You See Me 2), compared to which "Big Friendly Giant" rolls off the tongue rather smoothly.

Ehh, no matter. A shame that people didn't get rewarded for their work, but I can't really feel sorry for the multiple Oscar-winning, swimming in money multimillionaire cultural legend for this failure.

The book and old animations have always been "The BFG" here in the UK. It is how it has always been. With maybe a subtitle underneath. But maybe they thought not abbreviating it would be easier for translation. To me, it is very strange to see other people get miffed that the title is confusing and wrong to them. I would bet that a lot of other people over here would think the same. But the story itself isn't particularly impressive compared to Dahl's other work, so am not sure why this movie exists in the first place.

 

[Jeyl]

One thing that turned me off of BFG was it's resemblance to Jack the Giant Slayer. There's something about these CGI Giants that are just very off-putting.