In the current era of filmmaking, a movie is only as good as its marketing strategy. No other film proved this better than Scarlett Johansson’s sci-fi action thriller The Island, which opened in 2005 to lackluster box office collections. However, the film later gained a cult following, with many appreciating the film’s ethical themes.
Johansson herself blamed the bad publicity and promotions that the studio did for the original sci-fi movie. Directed by Michael Bay before his Transformers days and co-written by Star Trek’s Alex Kurtzman and Robert Orci, the film only earned $162 million against a $126 million budget.
Scarlett Johansson Blamed Studio For The Failure Of The Sci-Fi Movie The Island
Actress Scarlett Johansson has a wide variety of genres in her filmography. Apart from her appearance as Natasha Romanoff a.k.a Black Widow in the MCU, she has also been a part of Christopher Nolan’s period thriller The Prestige, Woody Allen’s Match Point, and Sofia Coppola’s drama Lost in Translation.
While her alien horror film Under the Skin remains one of her most underrated films, the actress chose Michael Bay’s 2005 sci-fi action film The Island as the only sci-fi movie worth making at the time. The movie also starred Ewan McGregor who finds out that his world is inhabited by clones who are bred to harvest organs for people of importance.
Johansson mentioned that the film’s failure was the result of a lackluster marketing campaign by the studio. The film only earned $162 million against a $126 million (via Box Office Mojo) and was a box office failure. She said to Girl.com,
That was the only science fiction film I’d ever read that I felt was worth doing. I think it bombed because it was just very bad marketing, domestically, because it did really well internationally.
The actress had also mentioned in another interview that the filming process for the sci-fi movie was grueling and she used to get extremely tired after a day of running.
Michael Bay Knew That The Island Would Not Be A ‘Smash Hit’
While Michael Bay’s sci-fi action movie, The Island, was an international hit, it largely went unnoticed in the domestic market. Scarlett Johansson blamed the lackluster marketing campaign from the studio, which reportedly only released a teaser trailer and positioned it as an action film when it was so much more (via Slate).
Bay reportedly mentioned that he had many people come up to him and appreciate the movie but he always knew that it would not be a blockbuster. He said to Collider,
You know, I liked The Island and – the thing is the reaction to The Island, it worked really well overseas. I knew it would never be a smash, because it’s not that type of movie, and I continually have so many people that come up to me and say, ‘God that movie is so good.’ But no one knew about it in America.
The Bad Boys filmmaker mentioned that he asked many people before the film came out and they said that they were unaware of it coming out. According to Slate, the marketing material did not focus on the action in the movie instead of the ethical and sci-fi elements, worked against the film.
The Island is available to stream on Paramount+.
