Why did J-Bod fail?

JENNIFER’S BODY is a movie that, by all accounts, should have been a big success. It starred one of the hottest actresses in Hollywood, was written by an Oscar-winning writer and while it perhaps didn’t blow most major critics away, certainly found its supporters (our review from TIFF noted that the audience had an absolute blast). But the film opened in 5th place last weekend with a disappointing $6.5MM take. So what happened?

It’s disappointing when a horror film made by people who really seem to love and understand the genre winds up underperforming (see also: DRAG ME TO HELL) while movies like HALLOWEEN II inexplicably seem to make money. I’ve been sitting around trying to figure out why JENNIFER’S BODY didn’t seem to connect with audiences and what it means to the future of horror. I’m having a hard time coming up with a concrete answer, so I thought I’d turn to the JoBlo.com readers to see what they think.

Now you can spare us the snarky Megan Fox comments (though theories on her media oversaturation are certainly welcome), but let’s think more like the marketing campaign. Was it the R-rating? Was it because it was a female-driven film (like DM2H)? Should the ads have focused more on the more comedic elements of the film (like Sony is having some success with on ZOMBIELAND)? Or did you think the movie just wasn’t all that good?

It’d be a shame for movies like JENNIFER’S BODY or DRAG ME TO HELL to go by the wayside while we get more generic nonsense like SORORITY ROW or THE STEPFATHER. Like Arrow said in his review, at least JENNIFER’S BODY tried to be something unique and I’ll take that over lazy filmmaking any day of the week…