After a disappointing opening weekend, American Ultra screenwriter Max Landis took to Twitter to vent his frustration over Hollywood’s lack of creativity.
Despite opening at over 2,700 screens, and starring big names Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart, American Ultra grossed only $5.5 million (USD) this weekend.
Landis began his 14-tweet rant Saturday afternoon by reporting the movie’s poor performance to his 44,500 plus followers. “So here’s an interesting question: American Ultra finished dead last at the box office, behind even Mission Impossible and Man From Uncle…American Ultra was also beaten by the critically reviled Hitman Agent 47 and Sinister, despite being a better reviewed film than either,” he tweeted over the weekend.
The writer then slammed Hollywood’s uninspired love of the reboot, sequel and biopic for preventing the development of original scripts like American Ultra.
“Why?”; he continued. “American Ultra had good ads, big stars, a fun idea, and honestly, it’s a good movie…so I’m left with an odd thing here, which is that American Ultra lost to a sequel, a sequel reboot, a biopic, a sequel and a reboot.”
“It seems the reviews didn’t even matter, the MOVIE didn’t matter. The argument that can/will be made is: big level original ideas don’t [make money],”; Landis added. “Am I wrong? Is trying to make original movies in a big way just not a valid career path anymore for anyone but Tarantino and Nolan?” he asked as his rant began to conclude his rant.
The writer then did his part in lifting the ailing box office numbers by urging his followers to go see the stoner comedy.
Check out the final tweets of his rant below:
That's the question: Am I wrong? Are original ideas over? I wanted to pose this to the public, because I feel, put lightly, confused.
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) August 22, 2015
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
I feel like I learned a lesson, here, but have no idea what it is. I once joked “there's only so many times people will go see Thor 2.”
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) August 22, 2015
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Now, I'm not so sure.
Got to get back to work on my TV shows.
Which are both adaptations.
Go see American Ultra, it's really good.
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) August 22, 2015
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
