Pre-Order Mouse Hunt (1997) (Blu-ray) Available for Preorder (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

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[Ronald Epstein]

One can never say Paramount isn't reaching deep enough into their vaults these days.

 

[Malcolm R]

Yay! Another that's never been on blu.

 

[Lord Dalek]

One can never say Paramount isn't reaching deep enough into their vaults these days.

Has to be a deep pull since it was Dreamworks' first really, really big flop.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Has to be a deep pull since it was Dreamworks' first really, really big flop.

Yeah, I never even heard of this film

 

[Douglas R]

Has to be a deep pull since it was Dreamworks' first really, really big flop.

I had no idea Mouse Hunt was a flop. I love the film.

 

[Malcolm R]

I had no idea Mouse Hunt was a flop. I love the film.

It was not, and so do I.

It made nearly $123 million worldwide vs. a budget of $38 million. Not a Marvel blockbuster, perhaps, but nowhere near a flop, either. It was Dreamworks only real success until Deep Impact the following year, and was a much bigger success than the Spielberg-directed Amistad released by Dreamworks a week later (total gross $44 million vs. budget of $36 million).

 

[DVBRD]

It flopped the same way that "1941" and "Hook" both "flopped." "MouseHunt" made money but because Spielberg had a hand in its production (again, it was made by DreamWorks), it was expected to make more. Instead, "MouseHunt" came out on the same day as "Titanic," which took away a lot of momentum from the former film.

 

[Rob W]

It made nearly $123 million worldwide vs. a budget of $38 million.

Yes, and about half of that total stayed with theatres as their share of the grosses. Add in the cost to Dreamworks for 35mm prints and worldwide marketing, and the picture might have broken even on theatrical release.

 

[Malcolm R]

Yes, I'm familiar with the rule-of-thumb 3X multiplier for theatrical grosses for profitability, which this film exceeded. Still far from any credible definition of a "really, really big flop."

 

[Rodney]

Back in the late 90's I worked in Corte Madera, near San Rafael. The Regency Cinema in San Rafael was used regularly to screen movies before release. Maybe it was because LucasFilm was right up the road, I'm not sure. Anyway my wife and I saw Mars Attacks! there and it didn't have all the effects finished yet. It was fun to go to screenings, because they never gave away what film it was until you got into the theater, and afterwards they would have you fill out cards with your thoughts of the film, and they would pull some people back in to talk to them about their thoughts.

I bring this up because one of the films we saw was Mouse Hunt, and I cannot recall laughing even once during the whole movie. And I wasn't the only one that reacted that way. The theater was pretty quiet, much more than a comedy showing should be. My memory of it is a poor remake of "Home Alone" with no heart.

@Robert Crawford has said many times before on this forum that comedy is very subjective thing. One man's trash is another man's treasure. Ain't that the truth.

 

[Chewbabka]

This disc looks and sounds fantastic. So much detail in the grimy house and factory, plus textiles/string. Amazing.

 

[Vern Dias]

Yes, and about half of that total stayed with theatres as their share of the grosses.

Not sure where you got that from, but:

Actually it's more like 10 or 20 % stayed with the theatre....

Back in the day, the terms for the exhibitor were more like 80/20 for the good pictures and 90/10 wasn't uncommon for the "hits".
Disney was probably the worst. I can remember my dad (a theatre manager at a first run theatre in Hawaii) tellling me that Disney took 90% of the box office for "That Darn Cat".
That's why the concession stand was so important as it often made the only profit the theatre owner would see once operating costs were taken into account.

A side note on this: Studios did sometimes alter the percentages based on how long the specific title ran in the theatre. For example, the initial cut might be 80/20 for the first 4 weeks and drop to 70/30 for the rest of the run.

 

[ahollis]

I was a film buyer for a large regional theatre circuit back when Mousehunt was released. 80% of the films we paid a sliding scale 70% first week, 60% second week, 40% third week and 35% the rest of the run. Of course big films like Star Wars, it would run 3 weeks at 70%, 3 weeks at 60% and so on. if the circuits film rental cost ran 48% on a yearly average, I did my job. And most of the time it was under that figure.

I can assure you that Mousehunt film rental was almost 50/50.

Disney was the worst. We passed on several titles, because the film rental didn’t make since.

 

[Chewbabka]

My memory of it is a poor remake of "Home Alone" with no heart.

I can understand that some don’t enjoy the largely physical humor, but that isn’t even close to the plot. Must be thinking of someone else...

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Yeah, I never even heard of this film

I remember it mainly because my Dad thought it was hilarious.

I can't recall if I saw it soon after he told me about it or I waited a while, but whenever it was - no later than mid-1998 on video - I felt the movie was... okay.

Not bad, but not something I figured deserved all the praise Dad gave to it.

That said, my Dad and I agreed on movies 50% of the time at most, so I shouldn't have been surprised I didn't like it as much as he did!

 

[Colin Jacobson]

It flopped the same way that "1941" and "Hook" both "flopped." "MouseHunt" made money but because Spielberg had a hand in its production (again, it was made by DreamWorks), it was expected to make more. Instead, "MouseHunt" came out on the same day as "Titanic," which took away a lot of momentum from the former film.

I don't recall there being enough hype around the movie for it to be a flop, honestly.

I hear your point, as there was a lot of hype about DreamWorks in general, and that might've been a factor.

But "Mouse Hunt" seemed like one of those movies that just kinda showed up in theaters without lots of pre-release attention.

FWIW, I always viewed "Hook" as a hit - not the super-duper-blockbuster expected, perhaps, but definitely a hit, and I don't recall a sense that it flopped, even in the relative sense.

"1941" definitely came across as a flop, though. If BoxOfficeMojo is correct, it came close to breaking even - $92 million WW on a $35m budget - but the combo of blah ticket sales (at best) and bad reviews made that a legit flop, IMO...

 

[B-ROLL]

I was a film buyer for a large regional theatre circuit back when Mousehunt was released. 80% of the films we paid a sliding scale 70% first week, 60% second week, 40% third week and 35% the rest of the run. Of course big films like Star Wars, it would run 3 weeks at 70%, 3 weeks at 60% and so on. if the circuits film rental cost ran 48% on a yearly average, I did my job. And most of the time it was under that figure.

I can assure you that Mousehunt film rental was almost 50/50.

Disney was the worst. We passed on several titles, because the film rental didn’t make since.

My roommate my Junior year of college 1980-81 was Chief of Staff for three and a half theaters (he only did the schedule for one were there was a conflict due to a relationship issues). He said his theater chain had decided nationally to boycott Buena Vista (the distribution arm of Dis-nee) - which he insisted on calling "BWANa Vista" - because they were asking for 100 % of the ticket gross and 50% of concessions - which is where the actual money is made.

He said for blockbuster films the expectation was 90% of the gross for ticket sales and no concession percentage for the first week. Typically the theater's cut of ticket sales would increase on a weekly basis until it reached 50/50. But none of the releasing companies would even consider touching concession sales - other than to help with the cost and provide art for promotional items such as cups for drinks and popcorn etc.

Back to Mouse Hunt - humor (or humour) is subjective- I think I recorded this over a premium channel free weekend and found the first 20 minutes to be a Home Alone clone without the humor or social commentary of Mr. Columbus' film version of "The Ransom of Red Chief"- a short story by O. Henry first published in the July 6, 1907 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. As such I felt no need to continue watching the film.

 

[Dick]

Generally I can't even stand the sight of Nathan Lane. For whatever reason, I found this film pretty entertaining. I'm a big fan of broad slapstick (i.e. THE MONEY TRAP, etc.)if done well, and I thought that aspect of MOUSE HUNT was good. It's really no less shallow in concept than that Looney Tunes cartoon in which a character (Elmer? Porky?) destroys his home trying to kill a housefly. I personally shattered the windshield of my Volkswagon beetle trying to do that very thing...while I was driving!

 

[Malcolm R]

Yeah, this plays more like a WB Roadrunner cartoon, or Elmer vs. Bugs, than Home Alone (a comparison I don't really understand).