The Serenity DVD cover is the worst DVD cover ever

So you walk into a video store with $20. You see this DVD cover.



When you see that, the first thing you think is 'cheap b-movie'.

Don't think this is 'important', eh? Hmm? You think I'm wasting your time? Heres some info:

Serenity is going to take around $40m at the worldwide box office in total. That's half the $80m needed for a sequel.

Meaning it needs to make a fair part of the remaining $40 million through DVD sales. This thing needs to sell a LOT of DVDs. About 10 or so times as many as Firefly did. Which means 95% of the sales need to come from non-fans.

Honestly...if the random person walked into a shop and saw Kickboxer and Serenity, they just wouldn't know which was the 9/10 movie and which was the 2/10 one.

I don't think a DVD cover with a zombie army which looks like a really cheap Sci-Fi piece of crap is going to sell millions of DVDs to random people. The issue is NOT a case of "We want Jayne on the cover~@!@~". It's a case of 'Oh my god. What the hell?'.

Blood is going to be spilled over this. Joss Whedon's comment on the DVD cover was a simple "Guess what else I don't have any say in.". I'm annoyed: Stanley Kubrick had power over the way his films were marketed, right down to the taglines on the movie. Why the hell is Joss not allowed to voice his major concerns?


And most importantly, WHAT FUCKING IDIOT THINKS THAT DVD COVER IS GOING TO SELL ANY MORE THAN 20 COPIES? I'm a huge Serenity fan and I'd be embarrased to have that monstrosity on my shelf.

Here's the petition, but frankly I or no-one else has a a clue whether it'll make any difference. Please please please sign it anyway.

http://www.petitiononline.com/SerenDVD/petition.html



[Edited on Nov 05, 2005 by Pauline]

Bajoomba! I can't believe that's what they came up with

As much as I like Joss' stuff, I don't think comparing him to Kubrick is an apt comparison

does it really matter, firefly and serenity thrive on their fanbase and word of mouth really.
and when you really come down to it, the synopsis of the movie really does sound like cheap B-movie tripe.

-evil empire check
-special person with amazing powers check
-fiendish race of hideous cruel creatures check
-gang of rugged heroes check
-rickety spaceship check


that said after months of hyping it up in my mind i actually saw the movie yesterday and i was kinda disappointed.
it had a great opening and the final act of the movie was great to but for the most part it couldn't even really hold my attention.

most of the movie didn't even retain much of the atmosphere or even color palette of the series if you ask me.
it was allright but i don't need to see it a second time, i'd rather just watch the episodes of the show again.

and i am aware that i'm pretty much alone in this which suprises me even more.

Online petitions are not the way to go. In any cause, at all.

Write letters to the studio. They might still be ignored, but an online petition will be laughed at.

Is it bad that I kind of like the cover?

I don't think it's bad, but what should the cover look like to make it good? I mean the cover of the TV box was just a group shot. I will admit it looks a little busy, but I think they are trying to cram as much as they can on the cover to give it a "flood of action" feel. They could have come up with better but it could have been worse too.

I will admit it isn't any good. It seems like the kind of cover you'd see on one of the better straight-to-DVD films.

Yep, it's pretty bad. In fact, it communicates to me that I have no desire to see this film.

Your loss, baby.

calm down, fan girl!

$40mil is pretty respectable considering that it grew from a little known scifi series. Given the commercial success of Whedon's other projects I'm sure he'll continue to get work...including more Firefly movies if they continue to do well enough. not sure where the $80mil figure for sequels comes from. I'm sure they've made sequels on less.

I'd personally like to see the series take off again.
as for the movie. I'm renting it first...though I may also go see it in the theaters since it's still there.

looks like good sci fi fun to me.

$40 million would be pretty respectable if the film hadn't cost $40 million to make.

Yep, looks like the cover to a video game with movie-ambitions. Which is a shame, as I thought the movie poster was good- actually better than the movie, which I think is something you have to really like Whedon to appreciate.

I thought the poster art, while not that great either, would have made a just fine DVD cover.

i don't think it's nearly as bad as this abysmal cut and paste collage job:



but at the end of the day, a covers a cover - good or crap, and people don't buy movies because they like the cover, they buy it because they liked the movie and want to see it again.

but yes, it deserves a better cover than that, admittedly. clearly the people out there designing these covers are a pretty shoddy bunch of designers.

I like Firefly/Serenity. I used to be staff on an online RPG based on the theme.

But I hate Firefly/Serenity fans.

The cover does suck. It is possibly the worst DVD cover I've ever seen. But it's finalized by this point. They paid someone to design it, they're not going to take their money back. And paying someone else to do another one would cost the studio more money.

The fans also started a petition to change a huge plot point in the movie after it was all shot, cut together, and being screened. These people need a reality check.

Which one? Was it the

Yeah. There was a huge online petition for that, as well. Fans said they'd never watch it or the tv show again, cursed Joss Whedon, and swore to make it their mission to convince as many people as possible not to see it.

If you're so emotionally invested in characters that you take it as a personal affront when something bad happens to them (despite how much better the story is because of it), you give other fans a bad name. Which is why I no longer identify myself as one of them.

The people who say that the DVD cover is not the 'be all and end all'...the problem is, it's of crucial importance. Serenity needs to sell MASSIVELY on DVD. Having that monstrosity on the box is not going to help the cause.

The average person may have been told by a close friend to buy Serenity because it's ace, but when they see that cover they're going to think 'rofl'.

The people who say that the DVD cover is not the 'be all and end all'...the problem is, it's of crucial importance. Serenity needs to sell MASSIVELY on DVD. Having that monstrosity on the box is not going to help the cause.

The average person may have been told by a close friend to buy Serenity because it's ace, but when they see that cover they're going to think 'rofl'.

Now I love the story as much as the next fan, but baby, it didnt do well. It sucks but there it is. No one else was into as much as the original fan base was. I knew there wasn't ever going to be a series again when the aforementioned plot-point occurred. There is just no way they can bring it back now.

Boy, that sure captures the spirit of Firefly/Serenity. That looks like the cover of fucking Starship Troopers.