The new Men In Black film needed a better idea, concedes the head of Sony Pictures.
In a summer where many blockbusters have struggled to get much of a foothold, one of the more underwhelming turned out to be Sony’s Men In Black International. An intended reboot of the big screen franchise, the film attracted poor to middling reviews, and failed to live up to expectations at the box office.
In a new chat with Business Insider, the chairman of Sony Pictures – Tom Rothman – has given an interesting, candid view on just what went wrong.
He argued that it “wasn’t particularly a financial disappointment because at the end of the day it’s going to do $250 and $300 million worldwide”, but admitted that “it certainly wasn’t a restart in the way that we hoped it would be”.
Arguing that audiences both liked the film and the new cast, he said that “if we made any mistake, I think it probably was that there was not a strong enough idea in the story. Especially when you compare that to, say, Jumanji, which had a very, very strong idea”.
Sony mitigated its own exposure on the film by having a pair of financial partners on the project. And it’s not game over for the series either. “Men In Black remains a very important asset that the company owns, and I would be very surprised if that is the last movie”, he added.
The film is due on disc in the autumn.
