Analysis : Bad Movie reviews can't sink '47 Ronin' or Keanu Reeves

'47 Ronin' reviews won't kill it

Box Office predictions for '47 Ronin' starring Keanu Reeves have been dire. The film is destined to be a flop, and reviews have been dreadful, yet, can we really predict failure based on them?

We don't know what '47 Ronin' is going to do in box office sales as of yet. Predictions are on the low end, and after its disappointing opening in Japan, that seems like a reasonable, cautious assumption. However this year we've been proven wrong about film reviews and their impact on box office revenue. Don't believe me? Let's look at this example:

'47 Ronin' has been given a feeble 18% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. That's a terrible score quite frankly…but compared to this second film, it's a masterpiece. Heard of 'Grown Ups 2'? This movie was literally destroyed by critics with only a 7% favorable rating. It had absolutely no respect from film reviewers before it came out, but it certainly managed to earn a sizeable wad of cash at the box office.

'Grown Ups 2' opened with a $41 million weekend back in the summer and it went on to gross $246 million worldwide. That is an astounding figure for a film that was virtually assassinated by the press. Some may argue the fan base was built from the first movie, so the second was likely to succeed, but we also have to consider the Keanu Reeves fan base, ie the fans of the Matrix trilogy. This is similar territory...and it is hard to quantify the box office potential of this film, but reviews alone won't kill a movie.