I still want to believe

The X-Files: I Want to Believe movie apparently had a rather bad opening night. It's still a little early, but I saw at least one source reporting a $5 M Friday. That's not good, but is it really surprising? Hollywood seems to have sabotaged any chance it may have had. They released it one week after the juggernaut The Dark Knight, and the same people would watch both. It'd be different if it were a romance, comedy, or a kids movie, but it's a thriller catering to geeks. When you only have $10 in your pocket, you have to choose.

What's more is that they released it on the same weekend as Comic-Con! What's up with that? Who thought it would be a good idea to release it on the same weekend that your core audience is busy doing something else? It was only given a $30 M production budget, which is fine because that's all it needed as a non-epic standalone thriller, but you could tell Hollywood had low expectations for the film from the beginning.

I sense a conspiracy : )

What's really sad is that the movie is really good. Really good if you're a fan of the television show, and not that bad if you're just into the genre of suspenseful thrillers. It's obviously written for the fans, with all the easter-eggs they'd be looking for -- even the actress who played Mulder's kid sister in the television show, all grown up, has a cameo appearance in a different role. There's numerous guest stars from the television show who made an appearance in the film. But after all the nods to fans, it still feels like an X-Files episode without the fandom. After we get through all the gratuitous nods and explanatory devices, you have the actual plot, and you feel like you're just watching an episode of the series. That's what I was looking for, and it delivered on that. It was classic, gritty, X-Files, reminiscent of the early seasons.

There's some things I would have changed. I'm not a 'shipper (fans obsessed with Mulder and Scully's relationship). So, I would have downplayed that part of the story. But I understand that's what fans wanted.

Here's the thing: I still want to believe. I want them to make more! If I can't have the television show, I'd like to have an episodic movie once per year, or at least every other year. There's no reason why this film should have had low numbers. The audience base is still there. We still want these stories. The story itself I would give a B- to. The only thing keeping this from being a viable franchise is that you can't let Hollywood sabotage it like they did this time around. If it hadn't tried to be a summer blockbuster, and had opened maybe around Halloween when fans are not distracted by Batman and Comic-Con, I guarantee we would be looking at higher box-office numbers.

Is it too late to inspire more films? Will Hollywood realize their mistakes and see that there's financial incentive to make more, given the right circumstances? Will there be an X-Files 3?

I want to believe.

There's plenty of material to work with. In the television series, we were given December 22, 2012 as the date when the aliens would begin colonization (Mayan calendar reference, of course). That's not too far off. Hell, I could write the scripts.

You never know, Hollywood realized their mistakes with Hulk (2003), fixed them, revamped and did amazingly well with The Incredible Hulk (2008). With the X-Files, it's not the movie that's broken. It's just the release date and marketing.