Will the low box office for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo cost Fincher the franchise?

For those hoping to see a completed trilogy of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, the wait may be longer and/or without director David Fincher’s involvement at all.  In a call to investors, MGM CEO Gary Barber revealed that they ”were hoping we’d do 10% more than we did,” and that even with a $231 million worldwide take, the film was “below our expectations, and we booked a modest loss.”

Although both sequels, THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE and THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST are scheduled to move forward, it’s still “assuming we can achieve better economics,” according to Barber, and part of that could involve hiring someone other than Fincher, which would come with a $5 million price tag as Fincher has the option.  And that’s before anything is even in pre-production.

With the Video release of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO out this week, it’s likely that MGM will watch its performance in that market to better gauge how to move forward with the sequels.  Inevitably, the sequels will have to come in with a lower budget than TATTOO’s $90 million to get going.

I thought THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO was great, both in style and performance, mostly from Rooney Mara who simply killed it as Lisbeth Salander (and I’m also a fan of Noomi Repace’s version of the character).  I felt that the character of Lisbeth Salander is a unique archetype for female characters; strong, smart, vulnerable, yet dangerous, cunning and flawed.  These characteristics are missing so often from female roles today and it would be a shame to cut Salander’s journey short.  Yeah, we have the Swedish films, which are well-made and engaging, but this is one remake I can get behind, especially with Fincher and Mara involved.

I’m sure that not everyone will agree, but to lose Fincher or the franchise itself would be a shitty loss.  Some franchises are better left dead, but I don’t think that’s the case with this one.  Hopefully video and TV licensing will bring the profit margin up, otherwise THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO will prove, yet again, that we get what we pay for, which in this case would be more SMURFS movies and less of the Millenium series. 

Let’s hear what you guys think…

One of the best revenge scenes EVER.