Is Mortal Engines a failure as a film?

Quite frankly, I have never, ever heard of this movie called Mortal Engines before, but there is just something about this film that has earnestly intrigued me.

For starters, It's based on a 5 book series by an author named Philip Reeve where the first book was published quite a short time ago, back in 2012, but it was already competing and won awards as far back as 2002.

I am not familiar with this author. I tend to stick with reading indie titles, a huge part of the reason because they are more likely to be on Kindle Unlimited and thus making it more likely that I could actually afford to read them. Philip seems to have written quite a lot of books. A quick search on his Amazon Author Central page states he's written probably somewhere around 30 books, and it looks like he's exclusively Trad published.

Some things have indeed intrigued me about his book. The first novel only has around 280 reviews on Amazon. Now, don't get me wrong, while it's a really amazing feat for any author to get even 100 reviews for a book, much less almost thrice as many, I just find it to be bizarre that this unknown book managed not only to sign a Hollywod script deal, but it was a member of the lucky 10% of books with a signing deal that actually ended up being turned into a film.

Meanwhile, books with more than 500 ratings don't have film or tv deals despite strong fan followings and attractive plots that would have chances of selling tickets in cinemas. Just look up any moderately successful LitRPG title and chances are they have over 400 reviews and chances are they could sell tickets, at least for the majority male audiences.

One thing that also stroke me a bit odd was the fact that this book is not just a YA title (well, I have not read it, I'm only basing myself on the Amazon category... maybe it's middle grade), it's also from a genre that has very few films: Steampunk.

Yes, Mad Max Fury Road did well in the movies (that doesn't mean I find the movie to be enjoyable to watch), but there are very few Steampunk films, and even less directed to younger audiences.

Risky? Indeed, but it's a nice breath a fresh air that at least a few Hollywood producers are willing to risk a flop by giving new ideas. The fact that they are delving into making movies from genres that aren't comic book superhero flicks is also welcoming.

Now, I have not read the book, and have not seen the film either. Therefore, I can't judge how good it is.

However! Sometimes Yahoo! articles are quick to blame a failing movie sales due to being a bad film. Pacific Rim did very poorly in the US (apparently Americans simply didn't find the movie to be appealing in some way), but Mexicans and Chinese audiences loved it, and not just because it was directed by Guillermo Del Toro and taken place in Hong Kong instead of NYC. I never get tired of seeing that movie on tv, and it's mostly because of the character interactions. I haven't seen the sequel though. Heard that it sucked.

Many people forget that films are not released on the same day worldwide. Some movies with high risk of being mercilessly bootlegged are released pretty much everywhere, but it's not a rule of thumb.

This movie has not premiered in Mexico, and according to the Cinemex movie franchise website, there is no date of release yet. Mmmm... Oh wait! It will premiere Jan 1st (darn, I work that day >_>), but it's only available at Cinepolis cinemas. It's like the movie is doomed from several angles at the same time. Not released worldwide at sufficiently similar dates, and due to licensing problems, in at least Mexico, it will run in only 50% of the country's major cinemas.

I am indeed curious to see the film, just for the sake of supporting more lesser known books to be turned into movies, and if there is a producer lurking around here, feel free to read An Ominous Book, it's available at Amazon and caters to the Young Adult audience. ^_^