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Originally Posted by davem
Whatever - one assumes that if Warner decides to go ahead with sequels the sensibilities of US audiences will play a smaller part in their calculations than they did for New line - it will probably be the same story for the sequels as for the original - poor performance in the US & big box office everywhere else.
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Presumably the opposite is true. Since the point of the article is that Warner would be precluded from reaping much in the way of foreign B.O. because of the sequel distribution deals New Line already made, I'd venture to say that if they did decide to forge ahead with sequels, they'd try to make them more appealing to U.S. audiences, since that would be where the money is for them. How they'd do that, I don't know.
As for the reasons for the film not doing well -- I think Bb might be on to something with the gender gap. Interesting side note -- wasn't it the head of production at Warners who was widely reported last fall as proclaiming that WB was going to stop making pictures with female leads? That wouldn't bode well for sequels either.
Anyway, I think there might've been a bit of a demographic gap, too -- "girl and her bear" maybe didn't really appeal to older audiences, especially those coveted 18-25 year old males, but the trailers didn't say "family movie" either.
I don't put any stock in the whole atheism factor. Religious protests usually serve to give a picture free publicity, and if anything only increase its box office prospects -- see
Harry Potter. From where I stand, the protests seemed pretty half-hearted over here anyway.