Monster Trucks, a $100 million film you probably didn't know existed, is already being viewed as a box-office flop…by the company that's releasing it. Allegedly!
Unnamed sources speaking to The Hollywood Reporter claim that the $115 million “programming impairment charge…related to the expected performance of an unreleased film” cited in Viacom's most recent earnings forecast (Viacom being the parent company of Paramount Pictures) is in fact a reference to the Chris Wedge-directed action film, which was originally pegged for release on May 29, 2015 but is now slated for January 13, 2017 — a release date that doesn't suggest the studio has a lot of confidence in the film's ability to compete.
Another unnamed source also told THR that while the film was intended as a “broad-audience title,” it ended up being “more of a kids movie,” which sounds terrible.
For the uninitiated, Monster Trucks is a “3D live-action/computer-animated action comedy” that was produced by Paramount Animation and stars Lucas Till, Jane Levy, Amy Ryan, Danny Glover and Rob Lowe. Here's the official synopsis, which I honestly cannot wrap my head around:
Looking for any way to get away from the life and town he was born into, Tripp (Lucas Till), a high school senior, builds a Monster Truck from bits and pieces of scrapped cars. After an accident at a nearby oil-drilling site displaces a strange and subterranean creature with a taste and a talent for speed, Tripp may have just found the key to getting out of town and a most unlikely friend.
And here's the trailer:
We've reached out to a representative at Paramount for comment and will update if we hear back.