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BloodRayne opening declared "a debacle"

Variety reports exhibitors refusing to show director Uwe Boll's latest; film nets a paltry $1.2 million over opening weekend.

By most accounts, Uwe Boll's latest game-to-film adaptation, BloodRayne, is stinking up movie theaters across the country. Those that actually screened their prints for audiences, that is.

Variety is reporting today that the vampire-themed action-horror film, which independent distributor Romar had said would be shown on more than 1,900 screens across the country, only wound up on 985. The venerable entertainment magazine's Web site labeled the debut "a debacle" for Romar, reporting that hundreds of BloodRayne prints were sent to exhibitors who hadn't asked for them, and refused to show them.

Based on Majesco's BloodRayne series of games, the film wound up pulling in $1.2 million, a far cry from the $20.1 million brought in by new release and weekend-box-office champ Hostel. Another gamer-centric new release, Grandma's Boy, did slightly better than BloodRayne, with $2.9 million in ticket sales.

News of BloodRayne's woes must come as a shock to actor Billy Zane (Back to the Future, The Phantom), one of the movie's stars, as he insisted shortly before the film's release that Boll "has totally made his mark and put his naysayers and critics to rest with this film."

Zane might feel obligated to say that, however. After all, he is a partner in the upstart distributor Romar, which chose BloodRayne as its first film.

131 Comments

  • mwmartin00

    Posted Jan 22, 2006 7:02 pm GMT

    I don't know if anyone has posted this (sorry, cardinal sin - I didn't read all 13 pages) but even so, it's worth repeating: Here's a web site for a petition to STOP UWE BOLL. Who knows if it will have any effect, but it's easy to do, and maybe people will take notice and at the very least, stop selling their licenses to him: http://www.petitiononline.com/RRH53888/petition.html

  • madgamer2000

    Posted Jan 20, 2006 5:04 pm GMT

    lol. "listen to your pal billy zane"

  • 2bitSmOkEy

    Posted Jan 20, 2006 12:30 pm GMT

    lol he is trying 2 be the next ed wood...ibet half of u all havent even seen 1 of his films..they are horrible yes...but in a funny way, and that has been his intention all along. BUT, i still dont think they are "bad" (funny) enough for the price of admission, hopefully his next film starts getting some laughs.

  • neodarknight

    Posted Jan 17, 2006 12:16 am GMT

    Man, Boll is full of $#!t

  • King_Jeremy_77

    Posted Jan 15, 2006 10:02 pm GMT

    Bloodrayne canned....as expected.

  • mlbslugger86

    Posted Jan 13, 2006 8:00 am GMT

    what kind of idiot gave him the rights to bloodrayne?the game is bad i admit,but god,WHY DOES HE KEEP DESTROYING GAME MOVIES!!!!
    every movie he's made has sucked,this guy is giving all the germans a bad name,if i were german and the president,i would take away his citzenship or declare him a national disgrace

  • Chipnut

    Posted Jan 12, 2006 9:28 am GMT

    You Think this is bad, according to reports he plans on doing A Film Version Of Fry Cry and Postal, no lie see for your self; http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0093051/

  • Tavist

    Posted Jan 11, 2006 7:03 pm GMT

    I was really surprised when I read this article.

    I had no idea the movie was even released. I have seen no previews or ads on tv or newspaper. Whoever was in charge of marketing should take some of the blame for the dismal opening.

  • BloodPhantom

    Posted Jan 10, 2006 3:41 pm GMT

    Uwe Boll better run out of money or something soon, because someone will murder him if he makes 1 more crappy movie. I mean seriosly, blood raynes story was bad for a game, how in the helled he expect it to work as a movie?

  • Dark_Link87

    Posted Jan 10, 2006 12:15 pm GMT

    No he has a shceme to make gaming look bad and terrible, he is doing this to make gaming look pointless. Boll i know your plan you evil man!

  • firefruze

    Posted Jan 10, 2006 11:33 am GMT

    Hmmm lets see, complete lack of Advertising , bigger movies such as Hostel releasing and many other popular movies are still playing. And after the horible track record of Video game movies I think it was just overall written off. I think they should work towards a good DVD release, movies always make so much more through DVDs

  • psychoPat

    Posted Jan 10, 2006 11:00 am GMT

    No surprises here....

  • Unorthodox1978

    Posted Jan 10, 2006 10:59 am GMT

    Uwe Boll and Paul WS Anderson are gross film makers. There, I said it because someone had to. They're gross, like pickles and peanut butter gross. Dumb people love their movies like fat women love Oprah.

  • xAlphaZerox

    Posted Jan 10, 2006 10:13 am GMT

    On a more somber note.....Uwe Boll still has the rights to a film version of Sega's Shinobi series.
    And Paul WS Anderson is doing Resident Evil 3............and still working, even after Aliens VS. Predator...........

  • insane956dv

    Posted Jan 10, 2006 10:02 am GMT

    How much does this cat get paid to make movies? I might join the directing business.

  • jaefrmbk2k

    Posted Jan 10, 2006 9:59 am GMT

    i muss say the game iz garbage but i dunno....jus cuz everybody doesn't like the movie doesn't mean i wouldn't enjoy it. i gotta find out for mahself-i'm goin' to see it

  • SavoyPrime

    Posted Jan 10, 2006 9:45 am GMT

    $1.2 million! LMAO

  • doughnutboy

    Posted Jan 10, 2006 9:34 am GMT

    Maybe now he would know not to make any movies.

  • Paul_TheGreat

    Posted Jan 10, 2006 8:29 am GMT

    It's Uwe Boll for god's sake.

  • Seraphim_24

    Posted Jan 10, 2006 8:13 am GMT

    Some movies are so bad that they're funny! Bowe thankfully tends to fall into that category. If you grab a couple of robat friends and a lot of Mountain Dew (or beer for the non-religious types) you can have a blast playing MST3K! On the other hand the 2nd Tomb raider film (not a Bowe film I know but still a bad movie) was just flat out boring... I hope BloodRayne is at least so bad it's funny.

  • raz_nsgth

    Posted Jan 10, 2006 6:49 am GMT

    The trailers for this movie look like they were made for T.V. Uwe Boll needs to move back to Germany, get a grocery store job and never make movies again. His next video game movie adaptaion is for the Hitman franchise. Here we go again. He is going to cast Vin Deisl (spelling?) as Agent 47. Uwe Boll strikes again. Hopefully this will never get made, but in the unlikely event this does, it should star Jason Stathem from the Transporter movies. That fits the role much better.

    My two cents.

  • flamedude

    Posted Jan 10, 2006 4:38 am GMT

    Wow. A game-to-film that isnt any good. *shock*

    I cant think of one good game-to-film conversion that is any good. Why do film companies keep trying??!

  • azizrulez

    Posted Jan 10, 2006 3:52 am GMT

    it doesnt surpise me one bit that the movie turned out so bad

  • Igiss

    Posted Jan 10, 2006 3:34 am GMT

    Uwe Boll, please make a Postal movie and retire. Otherwise you will lose money. Lots of money.

  • niteowl74

    Posted Jan 9, 2006 10:43 pm GMT

    Does anyone know how well this guy's movies do overseas? It might explain how people keep giving him money. While im thinking of it did anyone else notice how his name was never mentioned once during any of the ads like they do with movies nowadays. They say at the end of alot of ads "directed by first time guy you've never heard of". He's filming dungeon seige right now. Hopefully after he's done studios will avoid him like the plague and dungeon seige will probably go dtv

  • nathanisthegod

    Posted Jan 9, 2006 10:28 pm GMT

    god...lemmie guess i havent seen it yet but i bet you the freakin movies got the second game's storyline as its own the second game sucked ass in control and quality of story they should have either made a COMPLETELY original one or they should have just took the EXACT story line from the first game start to end streached it out added some action scenes n been done with it (and mind you a more prettier bloodrayne would have been nice the girls ok but a "far cry" from what the games model appears like) either that or well, uwe boll just wasent the rigth guy hopefully they dont just dump it and they get steven speilburg or anyone (QUINTEN TARITINO or whatever dont get me wrong fanboys of his but he is good at his genre but not this one so anyone but uwe boll and him ) bloodrayne was and still is a good game for any console it should have been represented better than this

  • Link6746

    Posted Jan 9, 2006 10:10 pm GMT

    PLEASE DON'T LET HIM GET THE RIGHTS TO FABLE! LETS BRING A RIOT TO HIS DOOR! KILL UWE BOLL WITH RUSTY BUTCHER KNIVES BEFORE HE TRIES TO DESTROY US AGAIN!!!

  • wokisan

    Posted Jan 9, 2006 9:07 pm GMT

    Uwe Boll either needs to seriously 'step his game up' or just leave it alone.

  • tman978

    Posted Jan 9, 2006 8:08 pm GMT

    I've never even seen a Preview for this and it's out now!? WTF!

  • skakidinabox

    Posted Jan 9, 2006 7:54 pm GMT

    What's sad is that this movie could have had potential if it was placed in the hands of a director. *cough*

  • underkillerjmk

    Posted Jan 9, 2006 7:54 pm GMT

    i feel sorry for uwe boll..............eh not anymore

  • amycasey2

    Posted Jan 9, 2006 7:54 pm GMT

    I see this Boll guys the real deal. I think that little movie with Paris and a cheap camera actually got better reviews then this crap.

  • Unorthodox1978

    Posted Jan 9, 2006 7:32 pm GMT

    Kristiana Loken can kiss her career good bye. She's officially flushed it, and any hopes of marrying me, down the toilet. LOL. But seriously, she's screwed.

  • fphatman

    Posted Jan 9, 2006 7:25 pm GMT

    Metal Gear Solid is a game NOT a movie. Though, I've never played it.

  • LordDeArnise

    Posted Jan 9, 2006 7:01 pm GMT

    Big surprise, eh? Not! Maybe this debacle will put Uwe Boll out of business, and I think he's screwed up Kristanna Loken's career too. Look what happened to Halle Berry when Catwoman got bad reviews and small box office revenue.

    This makes the ppl that did the Mortal Kombat movies and those behind the Final Fantasy movie a godsend for us gamers.

  • dante_123456

    Posted Jan 9, 2006 6:59 pm GMT

    what do u expect, it's Uwe Boll

  • DixieNormS

    Posted Jan 9, 2006 6:46 pm GMT

    I'm a little late to this. But did manofmistery2 say not to destroy MGS because its one of the best games. Last time I checked MGS is a movie not a video game.

  • FFdawg

    Posted Jan 9, 2006 6:46 pm GMT

    Oh dude... Someone said if for some reason he directs an MGS movie... aaaaaaaaaaah.... never!

  • GoPhins123

    Posted Jan 9, 2006 6:43 pm GMT

    I knew this movie would really suck just by looking at the previews.

  • Mp5slipknot

    Posted Jan 9, 2006 6:34 pm GMT

    I knew that movie would suck the second I saw the preview so no suprise.

  • Cz-100

    Posted Jan 9, 2006 6:28 pm GMT

    He's not rethinking anything, He's getting rich releasing flops and the game companys are just happy to get some plublicity. He's a crook, read that link.

  • theproductions

    Posted Jan 9, 2006 6:27 pm GMT

    Well this is truly shocking. YEAH RIGHT!

  • Cz-100

    Posted Jan 9, 2006 6:26 pm GMT

    http://www.cinemablend.com/feature.php?id=209 That site should explain exactly what Boll is doing.

  • n2Deepeth

    Posted Jan 9, 2006 6:13 pm GMT

    The commercial made it seem really low budget. It seemed like a tv show because there weren't any suspenseful parts in the commercial. It left nothing for the audience to anticipate other than a generic "only one warrior has the power to save the world" scenario.

    Kristanna Loken doesn't even look hot at all as Bloodrayne. Furthermore, the CGI cutscenes make Bloodrayne look ugly - the only hot iteration of the character is the in-game, lower polygon count character model.

    It was obviously going to be a failure from the beginning - the Blade movies pretty much outdoes this movie in every way - including presentation.

    They should've shown something cool - like Sigmund and Simon talking trash with their German accents.

  • snoopy411

    Posted Jan 9, 2006 6:08 pm GMT

    First things first:
    Bloodrayne (the game) actually has a really cool mood to it that could have been expanded into a kick-ass movie. Uwe Boll is just too stupid/untalented to see that. Majesco NEVER should have sold the film rights to that HACK. Bloodrayne 2 sold well beyond expectations, so a “real” movie would have been a possibility.
    One more thing:
    Everybody STOP ASSOCIATING UWE BOLL WITH THE HALO MOVIE!!!!
    He’s never had ANYTHING to do with it and NEVER will! Just stupid Internet rumors!

  • gleniscool

    Posted Jan 9, 2006 5:42 pm GMT

    I thought Billy Zane had a brain. Guess not.

    BTW River City Ransom is going to be awesome.

  • tomservo51

    Posted Jan 9, 2006 5:36 pm GMT

    Im sure its still better than Doom3.

  • its_inevitable

    Posted Jan 9, 2006 5:24 pm GMT

    Yes! - hopefully studios will stop hiring him now (as if his track record wasn't reason enough).

  • andrewtyen

    Posted Jan 9, 2006 4:55 pm GMT

    i'm not going to see it

  • Ranma_X_basic

    Posted Jan 9, 2006 4:50 pm GMT

    Well I predicted it about two months ago when i saw the commercial on tv that the movie would suck. and i was right. it's only the 6th worst movie based on a game ever produced.

    Now all that needs to be done is to stop him from making the movie based on the pc game postal. hell in fact just stop the guy from making any friggin movies based on any game franchise.

    i'm just glad uwe boll ain't involved in the halo movie project (in which lord of the rings director peter jackson is excutive producer of so i know the halo movie is in GOOD hands)

    in fact on G4 tv he was talking about how he wants to be involved in the movie version of the hitman movie.

    but in short...UWE BOLL MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO MAKE ANY GAME MOVIES.

    the man's a complete moron.

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