Well, maybe this one will work.
Warner Bros. released a new advertisement for Excavator which attempts yet another approach to marketing Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s hard-to-sell film.
The online ad (below) shows a series of glowing quotes from critics in various countries and compares them to negative reviews from American critics. Type of involvement: the rest of the world love this movie – it’s just stupid Americans who don’t appreciate its genius.
At the start of the commercial, Tom Cruise as Digger Rockwell says, “America stood with the world in its darkest hours,” to which Riz Ahmed’s character responds, “Not anymore.” »
Next comes the succession of quotes from critics accompanied by a flag representing the critic’s country. The first comes from a Mexican YouTuber who called the film “epic, extraordinary and biting”, followed by a Playlist quote, accompanied by an American flag, which called the film “Grotesque, deliberately tacky.” Later there is a French critic who calls Excavator “A gem of intelligence”, followed by The New York Post calling it “An unintentionally bad film”. The commercial ends with Cruise’s character declaring, “You decide which one!” »
Excavator is expected to gross only about $8 million at the weekend’s domestic box office, which is still below the studio’s meager forecast of $12 million to $15 million, and certainly well below the film’s projected $125 million budget.
But is it really true that the international press likes Excavator more than the American press? Perhaps there is some truth in that. While Rotten Tomatoes rates the film 50% positive, French aggregation site AlloCiné currently gives the film an average rating of 3.2 out of 5 from 30 reviews. The two measures are not directly comparable, but the French score suggests a somewhat warmer critical reception. Several prominent critics in Britain and Australia were particularly warm towards the film, although both countries certainly had dissidents as well.
The film’s CinemaScore in the United States – surveyed among moviegoers coming out of the film on Friday – was a pretty brutal C+.
Cruise took to social media on Saturday to express his pride and support for the film, writing: “Excavator is officially in theaters and I am so honored to have had the opportunity to create this film alongside such talented artists. Thank you to all the cast and crew for your dedication, hard work and joy. The experience was truly unforgettable and I am very proud of what we created.
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