Five Reasons Why "Rock of Ages" Flopped at the Movies

The reviews were mixed going into opening weekend, but director Adam Skankman and his crew were positive that audiences would love "Rock of Ages." That optimism did nothing to help pull the film from behind, and sadly, the movie just filled the ranks of the most recent failures of the sort: the "Alien" movie series "Prometheus" and the kids film "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted." Pulling in about $25 million placed "Rock of Ages" in third place on a weekend, when it should have stolen the show. So, what went wrong? Many things did, actually. In spite of having Tom Cruise showcase a great set of pipes that no one ever knew he had, the film was a big, fat flop. There are five reasons why this probably happened.

Broadway Doesn't Always Translate Well to Film

Taking a Broadway play such as "Rock of Ages" to the big screen requires some adaptation skills that somehow got lost in this film. Like any other adaptation, you have to look at the audiences on both sides of the equation. Moviegoers expect characters with a little depth and a plot with some grit. Musical fans, however, fall all over the campy, exaggerated storylines between numbers. When moving from one medium to the other, you must consider the preferences of both types of audiences. While musical fans got their campy, over-the-top production, moviegoers were left wanting for more after two hours of a thin plot and transparent characters.

The Era Had More than Just Journey and Hair Bands

The 1980s were a great time for rock. There were several groundbreaking bands setting up for monumental careers and shaping the music that we hear today. However, there was more to the music than what "Rock of Ages" latched onto. Rock-'n'-roll in the 1980s had a gritty element that made the scene all the more appealing and realistic. The frosted version of the era presented in "Rock of Ages" was just not enough to convince a movie audience that this was a rock story. When the audience loses faith in the picture, it shows in the box-office numbers. The film also seemed to love Journey, which was unfortunate. The film's creators missed the opportunity to use some of the most influential music of the 1980s.

Too Much Exaggeration Can Be Painful

Campy is the word used most often when describing "Rock of Ages." It is a word that describes the spoof-like interpretation that seems to poke fun at itself, the subject and every other element in the film. The film was so over the top that it didn't take itself seriously. How then, could an audience be expected to do so? Maybe the exaggeration would have been more bearable if it included some of the harder themes that rock in that era was known for. Instead, "Rock of Ages" was hard to watch for people who weren't fans of the musical.

Karaoke Comes to the Big Screen

It must be said that the actors did a great job at belting out all of the tunes in the film. However, the effect on the screen was like a big screen karaoke festival. The effect could have been mitigated by a little more character depth and dialogue, but that was not the case. Even the command performance by Tom Cruise was extraordinary. He just needed some more good lines between numbers.

Two Whole Hours of This

Unless you plan to have a hook, mystery or something else to engage the audience in, taking a movie to the two-hour limit is a gamble. "Rock of Ages" lost that one big time. The movie was like a string of musical numbers held loosely together by thin dialogue that actors sped through to get to the next song. A few of the songs even felt stuffed into place. The "Sister Christian" number at the beginning of the movie was not enough to rope an audience in, and even the skin-baring, pitch perfect vocals of Tom Cruise could not save the film as that second hour rolled around.

"Rock of Ages" is a movie that should have been better adapted for a movie audience or marketed solely to the musical crowd. As it stands, there were too many instances where a little more of this or a little of that (for example, dialogue between numbers or true sex, drugs and rock) could have rescued the film. Without these elements and others, the film would never be more than a big screen performance of a Broadway play. The filmed sadly flopped because it took the musical categorization a bit too far.