A recent edition of Variety magazine featured a column written by deputy on-line editor Anne Thompson on why the film 'Speed Racer' ended up being a box office flop. The film, which opened in more than 3,500 theaters nationwide in the United States on May 9, only raked in 42 million dollars, which is less than the 80 million dollars spent on the film's promotion.
The magazine pointed out that the the target audience was way too limited for the 200 million-dollar movie to succeed. It also pointed out that the collaboration between Joel Silver and the Wachowski brothers didn't really work for the film, which mainly targeted a young audience.
Although the filmmakers originally targeted the parent generation who grew up watching the cartoon series 'Speed Racer' during the 1960s and 1970s, the film appealed instead to children who had never even heard of the cartoon series. The film's 120-minute running time was deemed too long for the children audience, who found the dynamic speed of the storyline and complex computer graphics a little exhausting to watch after a while.
The magazine article concluded by saying that Warner Bros. had perhaps tried too hard to compete with sequel films such as Harry Potter, Superman and Batman.
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