What Happened To American Pie? Why It’s Not Popular Anymore
What happened to the quality of the American Pie franchise? We break down the success of the original films and the failures of the spinoff series.
You Are Reading :What Happened To American Pie Why Its Not Popular Anymore
Why did the American Pie movie franchise get so bad? The original 1999 film remains a coming-of-age sex comedy classic, and the subsequent sequels featuring the main cast all made good money at the box office. And now, in 2020, American Pie Presents: Girls’ Rules has just released on Netflix during the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving locked-down streamers to wonder if the ninth series installment is merely a cash grab or a genuine attempt to change the franchise’s reputation.
Directed by Paul Weitz, the first American Pie flick provides a genuinely hilarious commentary about late ’90s culture in the United States. Back then, general audiences could easily relate to the internet-themed humor, while the sex comedy was perfectly suited for the 18 to 40 demographic, as the jokes are at once accessible and thematically call back to numerous teen-oriented ’80s films. American Pie introduced audiences to several potential stars-in-the-making, and the soundtrack played a role in its popularity, too. Most importantly, perhaps, American Pie is full of iconic movie moments, whether it’s the webcam sequence or dialogue that instantaneously established “MILF” as a popular phrase in pop culture. From 1999 to 2003, high schoolers and college students grew up with the American Pie cast through the original film, the 2001 sequel American Pie 2, and the third installment, American Wedding (2003).
In retrospect, American Pie series’ popularity largely burned out with American Wedding, a film that polarized critics and arguably lost the comedic energy of the first two films. While it wasn’t critically well-received, the third movie – directed by Bob Dylan’s son, Jesse – was anything but a commercial failure, as it outperformed the $55 million budget nearly five times over, and so did the fourth movie, American Reunion, released nine years later in 2012. The relevancy/legacy problem, it seems, stems from the creative approach taken by the American Pie spinoff series, which debuted in 2005 with Band Camp. T0 be clear, the franchise isn’t devalued by the mere existence of a spinoff series, but rather by the direct-to-DVD message that was sent to loyal fans.
As Netflix’s Adam Sandler films prove, weak comedies can become hits if the formula is right. However, Band Camp did little to earn the goodwill of curious audiences. Producers cast Sean William Scott look-a-like Tad Hilgenbrink to star as Steve Stifler’s brother, Matt, and actually made a good move by pairing him alongside rising star Arielle Kebbel, who subsequently headlined The Grudge 2. Despite a $15 million budget ($4 million more than American Pie), though, Band Camp squandered its potential with an uninspired creative approach, and by giving audiences the impression that future installments would merely be cash grabs featuring recycled comedy using (and exploiting) the American Pie brand popularity.
So, what did American Pie Presents do next? The team made The Naked Mile, one of those unique films to achieve the rare 0% Rotten Tomatoes score. Critical reviews don’t ALWAYS matter, of course, but harsh negative reviews across the board can indeed a kill a franchise. Rather than accepting defeat and giving franchise fans a proper American Pie 4, producers pushed forward with Beta House and The Book of Love. All of the aforementioned spinoff films feature relatively unknown performers and include Eugene Levy in a character reprisal role as a convenient marketing hook. Should the films be entirely dismissed? No. But they collectively devalue the franchise as a whole by setting a low bar.
In 2020, American Pie Presents once again capitalized on the franchise name with Girls’ Rules, yet another direct-to-video release starring a notable actress in Madison Pettis. The spinoff movie has since debuted on Netflix and was recently described as “faux-feminist” by The Hollywood Reporter. Perhaps the filmmaking and overall themes of Girls’ Rules will resonate with Netflix streamers, but the spinoff series has once again made a telling statement by enlisting director Mike Elliott, who is known for pumping out direct-to-video movies. Maybe it’s time for all of us to demand more from the American Pie franchise.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/american-pie-movie-series-bad-not-popular/