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“The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Dawn Treader” hits theatres Friday, December 10th.
According to our friends at Screen Rant, a teaser trailer for “Transformers 3” will screen before “Dawn Treader.” Pretty amazing how well Hollywood’s managed to make the premiere of a new trailer an event all by itself.
All eyes will be on the box office to see if there’s a fourth film in what should ultimately be a seven film franchise:
When the first Narnia picture The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe came out in 2005, it earned $745 million in ticket sales and was the third biggest movie of the year, raising hopes at Disney that it could be the next Harry Potter.Like the hit Potter series, there are seven children’s books of source material to work with, and a certain level of familiarity with readers around the world.
But Prince Caspian, the second Narnia picture released in 2008, recorded global box office takings of $420 million.
That appeared to be enough to convince Disney to part company with Narnia producer Walden Media, three years after touting it as its next blockbuster film property. Fox, owned by News Corp, stepped in early in 2009.
Prince Caspian’s theatrical performance would normally be considered impressive, but with production costs estimated at over $200 million, a hefty marketing budget and unflattering comparisons to the first movie, it was deemed a failure.
Experts put its problems down to a May release rather than December and the fact that the public were more familiar with Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe than Prince Caspian.
Mark Johnson, a producer on all three Narnia films, told the Wall Street Journal that the new movie was made for a relatively modest $140 million.
He added that the marketing campaign had “really reached out to the faith-based community,” a reference to strong Christian symbolism in Lewis’ tales which could appeal to some audiences.
With no decision yet made on a fourth movie, much will be riding on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
More here.
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