Autopsy Report On 'Glee 3D Concert Movie'

I suspectall non-Gleeks now can relax since Fox will never make another Glee 3D unless a few execs at 20th and 20th TV undergo lobotomies. The concert film opened in only 6th place Friday with $2.7M, then Saturday plunged -39% for just $1.6M which took the pic out of the Top 10 completely. Its $5.5M weekend from 2,040 theaters would not just be humiliating but downright disastrous if it hadn't been made for such a low budget -- around $9.5M to $9.7M, according to Ryan Murphy who emailed me: "That's compared to the Bieber film which was around $14 million I believe. So the risk [was] very very low. No matter what it will be a money maker for Fox. I am proud of it." Murphy, who produced but did not direct, was as befuddled as Fox TV and film execs why the pic didn't do better, especially because it was given an 'A+' CinemaScore from audiences under age 25. it was given an 'A+' CinemaScore from audiences under age 25. "The CinemaScores were excellent. They don't sync up with the results," one Fox TV exec emailed me. Fox thought the film would at least reach double-digits, crack the Top 5 for the weekend, and perform respectably like the other concert movies. But the studio wasn't really sure what to make of the soft tracking despite fan favorite castmembers like Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Chris Colfer, Chord Overstreet, and The Warblers. Murphy said that, by design, the movie wasn't just a big screen version of the TV show: instead it's about 3 young people who say that Glee helped them live better lives and overcome struggles with their personal stories cut against 20 positive message songs. When moviegoers didn't materialize Friday, the filmmakers still thought kids would come out Saturday and Sunday. But these concert films are frontloaded and it's all downhill from opening day. Immediately Fox TV execs turned against Fox film execs. "I think it was a shitty campaign that did not effectively communicate what the movie was or that the people who had seen it reviewed it positively," one suit told me. "I think the feature company took a very laid-back approach, feeling their only job was to alert the core fans and that's not enough to fill seats." I say these concert films are very unpredictable: remember, the Jonas brothers concert movie didn't do well (though not as bad as this) and they were really big at the time. But kids can watch the real Glee for free on Fox and faux Glee Project on Oxygen so why spend their milk money on a movie ticket. No one believes that limited-run 2-week-onlynonsense anymore. And maybe Glee is just over-exposed right now and not as cool as it was initially. Not even a Fox Television integration with the So You Think You Can Dance finale helped attendance. So maybe Sue Sylvester's email sent to the press as a publicity stunt was really prescient: "For two years, weve been mercilessly bombarded with the pubescent nonsense of carnival sideshow freaks calling themselves 'The Glee Club'. And now, theyre trying to shove a 3D concert movie down our throats. Its time to make a stand against these pimply-faced, hormone-ridden twits by joining the 'STOP BELIEVING' campaign. Say 'NO' to their insignificant cinematic experiment. I dont know about you, but I cant stand looking at their little satanic faces in 2D, much less 3D."