THE BOMB: Celebrity-Voiced "Delgo" Makes History With Horrible Opening Weekend

Despite a cast of big-name voices, the cartoon movie "Delgo" made the record books over the weekend by being a historic failure.

Never heard of it? You probably aren't alone. Despite playing on well over 2,100 screens (by comparison "Slumdog Millionaire" is on 169), it made less than any other movie before it that has done the same.

Box Office Mojo reports:

Delgo had by far the worst opening ever for a movie playing at over 2,000 theaters. The computer-animated fantasy scrounged up $511,920 at 2,160 sites, far less than the already record low $916,000 the movie's distributor estimated on Sunday.

It averaged $237 average per screen.

The movie features voices of Val Kilmer, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr., Chris Kattan, Eric Idle, Burt Reynolds and even the late Anne Bancroft.

Here's the trailer:

Comments

[Warrior7]

"A cast of big-name voices"-- uh-- They are celebrities. I give you that. BIG-NAME VOICES? Not quite so...maybe the terminology 'has been' would be more appropriate.

In the event that a guy spent 10 years making this animation on his own laptop and without anyone's assistance, he deserves praises (10 years, wow). Too bad it's not a success-- thanks to poor marketing! Great marketing helps bad films like 'The Da Vinci Code' cash in.

[thefooligan5]

As with everyone else, it doesn't bode well for your movie when you have a messageboard filled with quotes like, "I've never heard of this movie" even after it has been released in theatres. Good job studio, good job.

[peachesmahoney]

Val Kilmer? Freddie Prinze Jr? Jennifer Love Hewitt? Burt Reynolds? Chris Kattan? Blech.

Aside from the brilliant Bancroft, rest in peace, this cast reads like the worst afternoon programming on the Starz network. Guess we won't have to worry about there being a sequel though.

[lagirl7]

I saw a trailer for this movie and it looked TERRIBLE. The animation is third-rate, and the weakness of the story could be predicted from what they showed in those few minutes. I'm sorry these "outsiders" spent years making such a bomb, but I could have told them in five seconds it was going to be terrible. Sometimes, movie industry people actually know what they're talking about!

[WilliePilgrim]

I think I'll wait for the book to come out.

[LyssaBarnes]

The animation and story looks interesting. Where and how did they advertise this? I bet you if they had targeted the video gamers there would be talks of an RPG right now.

[MikeCanada]

I've never heard of it. Where is the advertising?

[BexSF]

It is probably doing poorly because I never heard of this movie until I read this article. Why hasn't it been advertised?

[Skeetshooter]

I make these films for a living. The animation is unexceptional but the overall quality looks pretty good. Problem seems to be a lack of advertising, especially for such a wide release. I'm always upset when animated films fail, and this one was probably doomed from the start, with no built in audience, no marketing, and no kick ass story to drive word of mouth. I admire their tenacity for getting it done, but these things are better left to the professionals.

[RedDogBear]

The way you describe the problems with this movie is indicative of what's wrong with your industry. "Poor advertising, no built in audience, no marketing" and then as an afterthought "no kick ass story to drive word of mouth". The problems with almost all the crap coming out of Hollywood these days are that the stories and dialog suck. Rather than thinking up interesting new stories most films are remakes of previous movies, or vapid TV shows, or comics.

[rebelzz]

I don't know. Who actually wants to watch Lizard people?

[Darsan54]

Republicans as they are naturally attracted to cold-blooded, two-dimensional characters with little or no intellectual foundations.

[MugMunster]

I Actually feel bad for this movie. Took the guy who made it about 10 years in post-production, and he did it completely independent of Hollywood.

[thefooligan5]

Ahhhh, that explains the animation which can only be compared to the video games my old IBM PS1.

[aka-ub]

I think the problem (aside from the fact that the movie apparently is not that good), is marketing or lack thereof, is the problem. Until I read this story, I never heard a thing about this movie.

[LiberalBuzz]

Well I went to see it today. I mentioned here yesterday that I would.

It was NOT that bad. Not at all.

Those who keep saying it sucked haven't seen it and got NO PLACE saying it does until they do.

The animation was NOT video game, it was just as good as any out there. The kids will like it a lot, the movie is really colorful as well.

I think it tanked because NO ONE heard of it. All those millions and none for ads.

I can recommend it easily to take the kids to with no hesitation. Got nothing to do on a weekend day? Seriously the kids will like it. Yeah some of the writing was pretty corny, but then again, this really is more aimed at the young ones and if they can watch the stuff on Disney and Nick, this will be a breeze.

[lucy0189]

Yeah, I have most definitely seen video games that were better animated than that. Maybe the story is okay, maybe not; but I would prolly just feel like I was watching someone else play a Play Station 1 game for an hour and a half if I went to see that.

[SoCalAmerican]

There are commercials playing on the big screen that are more entertaining than this trailer.

Point of a trailer serves a simple purpose: first point of sale. This is their best first shot?

I'd rather stare at a screen watching my friend play Halo.