Michel Gondry's 'Green Hornet' was another franchise flick that felt like it came out of left field - I thought in a good way, but most audiences disagreed.
They pulled Resurrection out of the theatres, so it was running in New York and I was nominated for the Oscar and there was no ad in the newspapers to say it was running. So it was literally killed.
A lot of dramas get a bad name commercially because they are unremittingly bleak.
I feel bad when my film flops.
You've gotta be careful. People don't want to be reminded of Vietnam and Korea. We lost thousands of fine young men and didn't win either of those wars. Nobody wants to hear about them. 'Apocalypse Now' and 'The Deerhunter' weren't box-office hits.There was too much violence and blood and gore.
Prior to 'Pirates of the Caribbean' - the first one in 2003 - I had been essentially known within the confines of Hollywood as box office poison, you know what I'm saying? You know, I basically had built a career on 20 years of failures.
It's not a happy time when a film drops dead on your doorstep.
The viewers have the brains to decide the merits of a film and there is no point in blaming them if it flops.
'The Golden Compass' became a bad experience because the studio didn't have faith in the strength of the ideas of the novel, which is ironic because it's one of the greatest fantasy novels ever written, if not the greatest, and they took the religion out of it and tried to turn it into a popcorn movie.
I stopped caring about industry rules after my 'Shoebite' did not release.
When I see good films not doing well, irrespective of my role being appreciated or not, I have a problem because then the producer who has made a loss will never believe in investing in good cinema.
The script's always important, but there are some things that have come out in the past year that, when we read them, everyone was like, "Oh my god, this is going to be the next best thing!" Then the movie falls completely flat on its face.
'Serial Mom' tested really well when we finally got with the right audience. But they would go to some shopping mall in a deep, deep suburban L.A. neighborhood where they knew people would hate, and they just wanted to spend money to prove that people wouldn't like it. The movie was not a success when it came out.
You know what I think happened? After 'Rocky,' I was almost set up in the eyes of the media to make a flop.
It's not fair to use movies that weren't creatively successful as a reason why something won't work.
When 'Fitoor' didn't work, it affected me a lot. It hurts when a film doesn't do well.
For me, utter failure is to make a film that people pay their money to go see and they don't like.
I have made a career of flop films. And yet, 90 percent of my films are celebrated.
I had a couple of releases including Dil Ka Rishta,' Koi Mere Dil Mein Hai,' Madhoshi,' and Julie,' but they were badly released and went unnoticed.
My mother was keen that I complete my graduation and never ever wanted me to be in the movies, as my father had made five films that lost money. One of the films he made was 'Agneepath,' which was hugely hyped but underwhelming at the box office, and I remember that my dad had to sell my grandmother's flat to pay off the loan.
The flop that hit me was 'Tevar.' It felt like someone knocked the wind out of me. When you do a home production, it always hurts more. I wasn't ready to accept that 'Tevar' didn't do well.
If your first film does badly, there's no guarantee of the second film.
'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' and 'Used Cars' were absolute failures at the box office. Complete disasters. I learned some sad news: it's not an automatic thing that, if you make a good movie, everyone wants to see it.
I was terrified to do 'G.I. Joe.' I had no idea how to do one of those movies. I was kind of scared. You know, if one of those doesn't work, it's a huge hit on your career. People are like, 'Well he couldn't make a $170 million movie work. I don't want him in my film.'
Nothing feels worse than knowing that people didn't see your movie. That they wanted to and the critics loved it but nobody knew where it was because it didn't do what it was supposed to do opening weekend. It used to be that independents were allowed to stay in the theaters, build word of mouth.
