MovieChat Forums > American Reunion (2012) Discussion > Why so poor at the US box office?

Why so poor at the US box office?

posted 9 years ago by Return_of_the_STAR
3 replies | jump to latest

As I'm in the UK I didn't realise at all that this film performed so poorly in the US. What went wrong? It only made just over twice what the film made in the UK. Normally you are talking between 5 and ten times the amount for global branded films like this. So what went wrong. Many pie lovers rank this as the best in the series since the first film. Some even place this as the best. For me I was left thinking surely we will see a further film, there is room for maybe a stag/bachelor film or a film where they all meet up for a foreign holiday or something. But I can never see this happening now I know that the film made less than $60m in the US.

Worldwide gross still made this film profitable but it tanked in its home country.

[–] ipacac22 9 years ago

I think the marketing for it might have been poor plus it had nearly been 10 years since the last one. People probably didn't have much interest. Me personally, it's my favorite besides the original.

[–] Dan_Garten 9 years ago

American Reunion felt more a slightly tiresome nostalgia trip than a real sequel.

[–] TMC-4 (20181) 3 years ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/boxoffice/comments/iia2f9/comment/g39l0mz/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Overseas, American Pie and its spin off was an infamous set of movies. It had this weird popularity and it was recognizable.

Domestically, the first movie came out in 1999 and the last movie came out in 2012. The audience has grown up significantly and it was just hard to capture the feel of the first movie.

https://screenrant.com/american-pie-movie-series-bad-not-popular/

In retrospect, American Pie series' popularity largely burned out with American Wedding, a film that polarized critics and arguably lost the comedic energy of the first two films. While it wasn't critically well-received, the third movie - directed by Bob Dylan's son, Jesse - was anything but a commercial failure, as it outperformed the $55 million budget nearly five times over, and so did the fourth movie, American Reunion, released nine years later in 2012. The relevancy/legacy problem, it seems, stems from the creative approach taken by the American Pie spinoff series, which debuted in 2005 with Band Camp. To be clear, the franchise isn't devalued by the mere existence of a spinoff series, but rather by the direct-to-DVD message that was sent to loyal fans.

https://www.reddit.com/r/boxoffice/comments/ahm6d3/other_why_did_american_reunion_2012_do_so/

One theory is the damage the 'American Pie Presents' label did to the overall brand domestically. These straight-to-DVD sequels were critically maligned and were very frequent in the period where the main franchise lay dormant. It's very possible this diminished the quality of the brand as a whole and decreased urgency alongside diminishing a nostalgia-fueled effect to seek out 'American Reunion' theatrically. Furthermore, the previous 'Pie' films all released during the summer, whilst 'Reunion' had an April release date.