Valerian and the City of a Thousand Flops

“Groundbreaking” source material rarely lands on screen

Evan Rindler
Jul 22, 2017 · 4 min read
John Carter did not live up to the sacred text it was founded on.

Based on the Friday numbers, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planet is projected to make a paltry $20m or less on its opening weekend. Not only is that a disappointment for Luc Besson, it’s a sad blow to the reputation of Valerian and Laureline, the source material.

Unfortunately, Valerian is just one of many hyped adaptations not the make the leap the big screen.

Take John Carter, an infamous financial disaster that did not (commercially) live up to the vaunted source material. It falls in line with The Shadow, The Phantom, and The Spirit as an examples of iconic pulp that flopped hard despite promising buzz.

The first wave of comic/pulp-to-screen adaptations sprung to life in the 90’s to capitalize on the gargantuan success of Tim Burton’s Batman. Suddenly the kinds of stories that had inspired original films in the 70’s and 80’s were now the hot ticket to make straight up. For some intellectual properties, the translation failed, no matter how surefire they seemed. Alec Baldwin couldn’t make The Shadow into a franchise. Dick Tracy arguably made its money back, but stands out as an example of blockbuster going off the rails.

Still, the trend continued.

The Spirit brought Will Eisner (a god amongst comic book artists) to the big screen by way of Frank Miller, an equally esteemed creator. Miller borrowed the unique visual palette that worked wonders for Robert Rodriguez’ adaptation of Sin City a few years earlier. The budget was a reasonable $60m, enough for Miller to make his childhood favorite comic with style and not break the bank.

Sadly, The Spirit earned a paltry $39m at the box office.

Bad reviews took their toll on the movie, for sure, but even well-reviewed adaptations can flop.

A few years later, Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson — the foremost blockbuster filmmakers in the world — took on The Adventures of Tintin. The Belgian graphic novels were a clear influence on Spielberg’s own Indiana Jones films and countless other adventure movies. Jackson brought to the table an extensive knowledge of motion capture technology to give the film an added edge.

Despite decent character recognition and solid reviews, the movie barely broke even with $374m worldwide. It did better overseas where the character is more well known, but that number is half of what Indiana Jones 4 made a few years earlier. I think most audiences would find Tintin to be the superior film, if they happened to see it.

Spielberg struck out again when with his much-anticipated take on The BFG. Well, I guess it wasn’t that anticipated. The combined brand of Spielberg, Dahl, and Disney only equalled $183m against the $140m budget. It is probably the single biggest financial failure in Spielberg’s career as a director.

To be fair in this discussion, other adaptations of Dahl have done well. Many, many films each year are adaptations. Obviously The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe have dominated the box office in the modern age. TV’s current champions are The Walking Dead (comic book source) and Game of Thrones (novel series). Nonetheless, with the possible exception of LOTR, most of these adaptations are of currently popular IPs.

Often times when Hollywood culls from older stuff like John Carter with the message that “This is important! This came first!” it just doesn’t stick.


The real hits of modern blockbuster filmmaking — Star Wars, Batman, and Indiana Jones, etc. — owe huge debts to these foundational works. It’s obvious why filmmakers would like to see their childhood favorite material onscreen. It doesn’t matter if you’re Spielberg and you already made E.T. into the premiere modern fairy tale; Roald Dahl is eternal.

In the case of lesser known material, no matter how influential, I don’t think moviegoers care. If they won’t recognize the source, perhaps they’d rather be pitched an original movie. It’s a little weird being told how ‘iconic’ a work is if you’ve never actually heard of it. Edgar Rice Burroughs? That sounds like a vice president. Sure the psychology behind that rejection process is embarrassing and fickle, but hit-making is a cruel business. Don’t tell us we should like something. Just show us the goods.

Which brings us back to Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. I’m not sure that the marketers did the film any favors by hyping the source material in the trailers. Yes, they also emphasized Luc Besson as an auteur and gave audiences some dope imagery. But they could have ignored the issue of the film’s origins altogether.

Or maybe the project was doomed by association from the very start. I don’t expect filmmakers to stop going after old classics. I also don’t expect many of them to work. We’ll check back in with Valerian on Monday to inspect the damage.

My Movie Life

Movie Musings

Evan Rindler

Written by

Former child, part-time adult.

My Movie Life

Movie Musings

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