While no one could have foreseen the devastating effects of a pandemic lock-down, Fred Pierce, publisher of Valiant Comics, thinks Bloodshot suffered from the worst timing in the universe, the Valiant Comics Universe, anyway. The motion picture feature was planned as a movie theater invasion, but the force stormed empty theaters. The film starred Vin Diesel as an indestructible super soldier, but he was taken down on the first line of battle.
The action star believed Bloodshot would ignite a Valiant Comics cinematic universe, but the film was a complete box office flop. The movie came out just as news reports began detailing the COVID-19 pandemic. Social distancing was happening spontaneously. Bloodshot was released on-demand eleven days after it premiered in theaters. However, the film did outperform Birds of Prey when it streamed during the coronavirus pandemic.
Valiant Comics publisher Fred Pierce weighed in on the long arc of the Bloodshot film debut. "It's a long journey. And you're figuring, 'Alright, if I was going to pick a week in 1991 [when Bloodshot was created] when I would launch the movie that this character that we love was based on," Pierce said during an exclusive interview with Screen Rant. "It's sort of like being in a bad movie. 'Let's pick the worst week possible, on some level." Pierce is fully aware the studio was fighting an unnatural battle in the entertainment world and lauded them for their quick ingenuity. "To Sony's credit, they're getting it to video on demand. We actually sold - even as bad as the week was, we were the number one movie worldwide," Pierce said. "We sold, I think, in the neighborhood of $24 million worth of tickets. That's a testament to Sony's promotion and to the strength of our characters, and of course, to Vin Diesel. $25 million for a lot of movies is nothing to sneeze at. We clearly expected a lot more than that. And then the video on demand - I believe the video on demand will be successful."
Though he cannot discount the damage that was done. "When you can again, you will not walk into a comic book store today without feeling the presence of Valiant," Pierce told us. "We use that presence to help promote the movie, and because of that presence, the retailers and the fans were huge in helping us promote the movie. Unfortunately, we promoted the movie at probably the most challenging time to promote movies in anybody's memory."
There is a 79 percent recovery rate worldwide so far being reported for coronavirus victims. The publisher counts the reconstructed soldier among the survivors. "You know what? It was successful. It was the number one movie worldwide, and it was the number one launch for the week," he said. "I can't do more than that. I would have taken the whole family out to see it, but I couldn't."
The Valiant Cinematic Universe may be an isolated solar system at the moment, but Bloodshot isn't their only native superhero, and Sony isn't the only studio making superhero films. Last September, Paramount bought the rights for a Harbinger movie.
Source: Screen Rant