NOW THAT England’s primary school reception classes have taken in their new recruits (starting later than Scotland), so the summer holidays are officially at an end and the cinema schedules have changed to reflect this.
Out goes the domination of family fun, light-hearted musicals, comedic nursery chrymes and mild morality tales for the under tens. In comes the sci-fi shockers and slasher horrors in the run-up to Hallow’s Eve. Action, suspense and thrillers bring the adults back as the dark nights draw in.
The undoubted successes of the summer have been Inside Out 2 and Despicable Me 4 – no surprises there, but what maybe is a surprise is the tanking suffered by Leonard DiCaprio’s propaganda animation Ozi – voice of the forest. It absolutely bombed.
While Inside Out 2 took in £58.7m over thirteen weeks (all figures for UK and Ireland audiences) and Despicable Me 4 made £45.7m over the nine weeks of the summer hols, Ozi struggled to gross over half-a-million. (I’ve written why in a previous piece, here.)
DiCaprio, through his Appian Way Productions, was behind the movie, providing much of the moolah for what was a blatantly one-sided affair. Blaming, as it did, Southeast Asian Palm Oil farmers for deforestation, it had to leave out the success of sustainable oil palm schemes that have halted deforestation and given hope for the flora and fauna across the subcontinent to flourish.
Anecdotally I knew it was doing badly, my wife took two of our school-age grandchildren to see it and the three of them were the only ones there. The kids, who love their Monsters inc, Finding Nemo and Pets were bored well before the end. These are kids, like most I guess, that when they like a movie no sooner has it finished, they want to stream it again, and again. Preaching is not entertainment and is best reserved for Sunday School.
A friend told me of a similar experience. There were about twenty kids and adults attending when he went, but when the credits rolled and he turned to leave he found his party of four were the only ones still there. Word-of-mouth travels well on the facebook Mums’ communities and such like, and when it comes to parting with family Reddies the competition from soft play centres, petting zoos and competing movies is fierce. DiCaprio’s Ozi turned out to be awful.
The numbers don’t lie. Released on Friday 16th August it took-in £100,793 in its first three days, after its second weekend it had reached only £357,289 but following its third weekend even that growth had tailed off to give a total of only £466,602.
Compare that with the re-released 2009 stop motion animation Coraline taking in £744,365 during the same first August weekend alone, adding to the £509,635 that the preceding launch day had earned and Ozi can be identified as a dud. After its fourth week Coraline had reached £3.3m, but Ozi was trailing well behind at just £524,168. In colourful contrast, another summer release for kids, Harold and the purple crayon, had reached £3m by its sixth week.
The moral of the story is drop the propaganda. Make a balanced movie that has likeable characters where even the dodgy ones can achieve redemption and forgiveness encouraged. By teaching how life is complex and conceding compromises must be found a real life lesson can be made.
Some 83% of Malaysian palm oil refining capacity now operates under a ‘No Deforestation, Peat and Exploitation’ commitment. Those sustainable Oil Palm farmers deserved their own loveable character who sought to live in harmony with Ozi, instead we were given stereotypical greedy corporations that are instantly forgotten as frustrated moviegoers traipse off to McDonalds or KFC while sucking the life out of their Coke or Pepsi Max.
Stick to acting Mr DiCaprio. Your gas-guzzling private jets and mega yacht lifestyle strips you of any moral authority. Leave the kids alone.
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Image of Ozi the Orangutan courtesy of Mikros Animation. Image of Leonardo CiCaprio courtesy of US Department of State, public domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51519860
