Amockbuster, also known asknockbuster, is a film created to exploit the publicity of another major motion picture with a similar title or subject. Mockbusters are often made with a low budget and quick production to maximize profits. "Mockbuster" is aportmanteau of the words "mock" and "blockbuster".
Unlike films produced to capitalize on the popularity of a recent release by adopting similar genre or storytelling elements, mockbusters are generally produced concurrently with upcoming films and releaseddirect-to-video around the time the film they are inspired by is released. A mockbuster may be similar enough in title or packaging that consumers confuse it with the actual film it mimics; however, their producers maintain that they are simply offering additional products for consumers who want to watch more films in the same subgenres.[1]
Mockbusters have a long history in Hollywood and elsewhere.[2][3][4][5] For example, the 1959 Vanwick filmThe Monster of Piedras Blancas was a clear derivative ofCreature from the Black Lagoon, complete with a creature suit by the same designer, Jack Kevan.Attack of the 50 Foot Woman spawnedVillage of the Giants, andThe Land That Time Forgot spawnedLegend of Dinosaurs & Monster Birds.
Such films fit theB movie model, being produced on a small budget and derivative of the target film and other similar projects. The lower costs of using modern video and computer graphics equipment and the tie-in to the mainstream film's advertising have allowed the mockbuster to become a profitable niche in the home video market.Blockbuster, once the largest DVD rental chain, implied support to the concept by buying 100,000 copies ofThe Asylum's version ofWar of the Worlds during the theatrical opening week ofSteven Spielberg'sfilm based on the same novel starringTom Cruise.[1]
Most mockbusters capitalize on the popularity of theatrically released films, but some are derivative of a TV series. The 1979 filmAngels Revenge bore many superficial similarities to the popular TV seriesCharlie's Angels; its promotional materials even resembledCharlie's Angels' graphic style. In reverse,Glen A. Larson was accused of producing mockbusters at the height of his career, with his television series plagiarizing popular films of the time (Battlestar Galactica, for example, capitalized on the popularity ofStar Wars, whileAlias Smith and Jones was a take onButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid).[6][7]
Inblaxploitation filmmaking, it was a common practice to title blaxploitation films after previously successful films starring predominantly white casts, and produce similarly titled films starring predominantly African American casts, as observed in the filmsBlack Shampoo (1976, afterShampoo),Black Lolita (1975, afterLolita) andThe Black Godfather (1974, afterThe Godfather). This would arguably also include blaxploitation renditions of classic horror stories, such asBlacula (1974) andDr. Black, Mr. Hyde (1976).[8]
GoodTimes Entertainment was notorious for distributing animated "mockbuster" counterparts to popular Disney films in the 1990s (such as those made byGolden Films);[9] because Disney was creating its films based onpublic domain folk tales and historical stories, GoodTimes' actions were legal and survived Disney's legal challenge against it.
The company would eventually become bankrupt and in September 2005, was absorbed into Galam (now known asGaia Inc.).
Similarly,Vídeo Brinquedo is a BrazilianCGI animation studio that, in 1998, began to produce low-budget direct-to-video films that are for the most part knockoffs of films fromPixar andDisney Their films includeA Car's Life (Pixar'sCars),Little & Big Monsters (Pixar'sUp),Toy Fable (Pixar’sToy Story),Kingdom Under the Sea (Pixar’sFinding Nemo),An Ant's Life (Pixar'sA Bug's Life),Braver (Pixar’sBrave),Tiny Robots (Pixar'sWALL-E),Ratatoing (Pixar’sRatatouille), andPetey the Plane (Pixar'sPlanes).[10] In every case, Vídeo Brinquedo's knockoff has been released close to the release date of the more professional, higher-budgeted film that inspired it.[11]
Dingo Pictures was a German animation company founded in 1992 by musician Ludwig Ickert (March 30, 1944–November 14, 2019) and book author Roswitha Haas (January 28, 1940–December 8, 2015), and based inFriedrichsdorf.[12] They created traditionally-animated films based on fairy tales and concepts similar to those used by Disney, Pixar,Don Bluth Productions, and DreamWorks. These cartoons are characterized by low-budget animation (produced withDeluxe Paint[13][14]), small voice casts, stock music, and character designs that are very similar to equivalent characters in more high-profile films.[15] All their films have been releaseddirect-to-video in Germany in their original languages, and were also dubbed into other languages, notablySwedish andItalian.[15] European game publishers Phoenix Games and Midas Games released some of them in the early 2000s on home video consolesPlayStation andPlayStation 2.[16][17] These releases were developed byThe Code Monkeys and included the film, as well as a small collection of minigames.[18] Phoenix Games declared bankruptcy on August 3, 2010. On March 27, 2012, the bankruptcy was suspended due to a lack of income.[19] Since 2012, the studio has gained popularity through reviews of their films onYouTube andInternet memes.[20][21]
Following the deaths of Haas on December 8, 2015 and Ickert on November 14, 2019, their relatives inherited the studio and its equipment. On May 26, 2021, the independent label Vier Sterne Deluxe Records announced that it was negotiating with the current owners of Dingo Pictures to release the films as radio plays; the new CEOs, Simon Bohnsack and Josef "Jimmy" Roederer, also had plans to make new films and a documentary behind the studio.[12] In August 2021, the first radio play,Wabuu der freche Waschbär (Wabuu the Cheeky Raccoon), was released.[22][23]
The 2011 filmAliens vs. Avatars was named to market it as acrossover toAlien andAvatar, even though the latter two films have no connection outside of directorJames Cameron.[24] The film follows the intergalactic battle between a quarrelsome alien race andshape-shifting extraterrestrials, while six college friends find themselves in the middle of the interstellar war.
A 1993science fictionhorror film titledCarnosaur, produced byRoger Corman and starringDiane Ladd as amad scientist who plans to recreate dinosaurs and destroy humanity, is loosely based on the 1984novel of the same name byJohn Brosnan, but the two have little in common. It was released byNew Horizons Picture Corp two weeks before the blockbusterJurassic Park.Carnosaur may be considered a mockbuster.[25] (Diane Ladd's daughterLaura Dern starred inJurassic Park)
In some cases, the knockoff film may bear little or no resemblance to the original. In 2012,Super K – The Movie, an Indian fantasy/science-fiction animated film about an artificially created boy named "Super Kloud" with superpowers, was releaseddirect-to-video in the United States asKiara the Brave. Its title and cover art focused on an incidental female character with red hair, in an attempt to evoke the design ofBrave's protagonistMerida,[26] despite the fact that Kiara was a minor character in the movie, because Super K is not a mockbuster.
In other cases, the knockoff film simply renames an already existing film into a name that is similar to a popular film.[27] For example, whenPhase 4 Films acquired the US distribution rights toThe Legend of Sarila, the company renamed the film toFrozen Land to cash in on Disney's 2013 film,Frozen, complete with a logo that was made to look similar to the official logo to the film.[28] In another case, a collection of animated shorts from the 1990s animated series,Britannica's Tales Around the World, was rereleased under the nameTiny Robots by Brightspark to cash in on Disney and Pixar's 2008 film,WALL-E.[29][30] Brightspark also rereleased the filmThe Adventures of Scamper the Penguin under the name "Tappy Feet: The Adventures of Scamper" to cash in onHappy Feet.
The Asylum CEO David Michael Latt responds to criticisms about loose plot lines by stating that "We don't have spies at the studios. We have a general sense of what the film is and we make our movie completely original, just based on that concept".[31]
Mockbusters are low budget, and their revenue is based entirely on the sales of their DVDs.[31] Low budgets also mean that directors need to think of creative yet cheap ways to achieve the endings that they desire. For example,Snakes on a Train capitalized on the Internet hype surroundingSnakes on a Plane. Consumers wanted what they saw. Latt said, "With only four days left of shooting my partner called and said everyone is really excited aboutSnakes on a Train, but they're more excited about the poster, which showed a snake swallowing a train. It was meant to be, you know, metaphorical. But the buyers wanted it, so I was given the mandate that the ending had to have the snake eat the train." At the same time, another representative of Asylum, David Rimawi, says that while a handful of their films do have "artistic elements", that's just not something they're concerned with. The Asylum does not claim to be an "artsy" production house.[32]
Released by The Asylum in 2015,Avengers Grimm is a mockbuster hybrid ofAvengers: Age of Ultron andOnce Upon a Time. Released in 2018,Tomb Invader is a mockbuster based on theTomb Raider series.
Mockbusters often use a title with a similar-sounding name to the mainstream feature it intends to piggy-back upon.[citation needed]Astor Pictures compiled a collection of earlyBing Crosby short films to createRoad to Hollywood, a mockbuster ofParamount Pictures'Road to... buddy comedies that featured Crosby withBob Hope.[citation needed]
The 2006 mockbusterSnakes on a Train, made by mockbuster studioThe Asylum, traded on the publicity surrounding the theatrically releasedSnakes on a Plane.[citation needed] The Asylum has also releasedThe Land That Time Forgot (2009),Transmorphers,AVH: Alien vs. Hunter,The Da Vinci Treasure,Battle of Los Angeles,Atlantic Rim, andParanormal Entity.[citation needed]
Mockbusters and ripoffs can be filmed and released outside of the original films' countries. Low-budget studios in foreign countries may produce illegitimate sequels to preexisting higher budgeted films series that began in other countries. These sequels are unofficial, and often even unknown to the creators and producers of the original films. These unofficial sequels are rarely, or never, released in the original country, usually due to licensing issues. In other cases, a film released in other countries is renamed as a sequel to another film in contrast to the original title.[33]
Two Italian directors directed unofficial sequels toGeorge A. Romero's 1978Dawn of the Dead:Lucio Fulci'sZombi 2 sold itself as the sequel to that film (which was calledZombi in Italy), and even used a line originally written forDawn of the Dead.[34] In a similar, more infamous Italian example, the 1990 goblin-themedTroll 2 was hastily marketed as a sequel toTroll.[35]
The Philippine film industry is also known for its unauthorised adaptations of popular Western films. The popularity of theBatman films, most especially the1966 TV series, has led to numerous unauthorised remakes and pastiches, such asJames Batman starring comedianDolphy,Batman Fights Dracula, andAlyas Batman en Robin.[36] Dolphy also played leading roles in other mockbusters, includingWanted: Perfect Father, a comedy-drama based on the 1993 filmMrs. Doubtfire,[37][38][39] andTataynic, a 1998 parody ofJames Cameron'sTitanic. Other Filipino knockoffs includeBobo Cop (a parody ofRoboCop)[40] andRocky Plus V (a spoof of theRocky series).[41]
Turkish cinema was known, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s, for knockoff films done at a cheap, amateur level.The Man who Saved the World became infamous for its theft of clips and songs fromStar Wars andRaiders of the Lost Ark, to the point that the film is popularly known in English-speaking realms as "Turkish Star Wars", where it typifies the concept ofso bad, it's good.[42]Three Giant Men involved a battle betweenMarvel Comics charactersSpider-Man andCaptain America, both unauthorized and dressed in cheap costumes, decades beforeCaptain America: Civil War covered the same concept to greater success.
Mockbusters based on popular animated films are known as a "drafting opportunity". For example,Kiara the Brave (a mockbuster ofPixar'sBrave) andPuss in Boots: A Furry Tale (a mockbuster ofPuss in Boots) use soundalike titling to "draft off" the marketing success ("slipstream") of popular films. "Can you trademark an actual noun? The idea of a battleship?", asks Boxoffice magazine editor Amy Nicholson.[32] The originalPuss in Boots was made byDreamWorks Animation by 300 people working for four years at the cost of $130 million. The mockbuster, with nearly exactly the same name was made by 12 people, in six months, for less than $1 million. For these large production houses, it wasn't just a question of free riding on the marketing success of these more popular films; mockbusters have become a source of bad publicity. Customers who had accidentally bought the mockbusterPuss in Boots: A Furry Tale but did not know that it was a mockbuster gave the original film negative reviews.[43] Mockbuster producers have had no legal troubles with drafting off as a result of Disney losing a case against GoodTimes Entertainment, which had used similar packaging for their own version ofAladdin.[44]
Mockbusters have also had legal complications with false advertising. They supposedly tweak the plot lines and the titles just enough to skirt legal trouble and yet ride on the publicity of major blockbusters. Until theHobbit case, mockbuster production houses have been able to achieve soundalike titling to such an extent that even actors in the films have been confused about which film they are starring in. Some actors starring in the original have gone on to become fans of the mockbuster model.Kel Mitchell was the star in the mockbusterBattle of Los Angeles, the mockbuster to the originalBattle: Los Angeles. His friend was in the original and they began promoting both films together. Kel has since then became a fan of the studio's formula: "I laugh out loud when I see that a film is coming out; I wonder what The Asylum is going to do with it. They're going to remix that name and put it out."[32]
In December 2013,The Walt Disney Company filed in California federal court to get an injunction against the continued distribution of the Canadian filmThe Legend of Sarila, retitledFrozen Land. In their suit, Disney alleges: "To enhance the commercial success of Sarila, the defendant redesigned the artwork, packaging, logo, and other promotional materials for its newly (and intentionally misleadingly) retitled film to mimic those used byDisney forFrozen and related merchandise." The suit was filed against distributorPhase 4 Films.[28] Phase 4 and Disney settled out of court with Phase 4 paying US$100.000, changing the name of the movie back toThe Legend of Sarila and also changing the logos and other promoting material that resembled Disney's.[45]
Because mockbusters are deliberately similar to more famous films, some film studios have sued mockbuster studios for allegedly tricking consumers into renting or purchasing the wrong film through intentionally deceptive marketing.
In one such lawsuit,Walt Disney Pictures andPixar sued the UK-based studio Brightspark, complaining that the studio was "misleading consumers with numerous releases that confuse and undermine the trust those consumers have in Pixar and Disney". Among Brightspark's films mentioned in the lawsuit wereBraver,Little & Big Monsters, Tiny Robots and Petey the Plane which resemble Disney and Pixar'sBrave,Up,WALL-E andPlanes, respectively.[46]
Warner Bros. similarly suedThe Asylum over their release ofAge of the Hobbits. The judge ruled in favor of Warner Bros., writing that "There is substantial likelihood that consumers will be confused by Age Of Hobbits and mistakenly purchase the film intending to purchaseThe Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey."[47]
Most mockbusters follow the trend of releasing their films close to the release dates of the original:[48]
The Asylum defend this practice, stating their intention is not to confuse customers. The Asylum cites reports from bothBlockbuster LLC andHollywood Video that show that less than 1% of customers who rent one of their films ask for a refund; the low return rate of their films has been used to argue that consumers are renting The Asylum's films deliberately.[49] "There's a segment of people who watch them because they know they're bad and they're funny, and they're fun to make fun of with their friends," says Kyle Ryan, the managing editor ofThe A.V. Club, a sister publication ofThe Onion.[31]
In 2012,Warner Bros. Pictures,New Line Cinema,Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer,WingNut Films, and TheSaul Zaentz Company (SZC) sued The Asylum for trademark infringement, false designation of origin, trademark dilution, false advertising, and unfair competition. Plaintiffs alleged that defendant's film titleAge of the Hobbits infringed the registered trademarks held by SZC in the designation "Hobbit". Unlike fairy tales, which are in the public domain, theJ. R. R. Tolkien novels have been exclusively licensed to Warner Bros. and SZC for production and film adaptation. The court described Global Asylum (the defendant in this case) as a low-budget company that makes "mockbusters" of popular films with similar titling. Warner Bros. and SZC submitted evidence to prove that consumers would be confused by the identical title and that they would lose not only ticket sales but also DVD revenue. The evidence included a survey showing that 48 percent of 400 surveyed respondents associated the term "Hobbit" with SZC, d/b/a "Tolkien Enterprises" and Tolkien properties. A separate survey conducted by Nielsen National Research Group showed that approximately 16 to 24 percent of survey respondents were confused about the source ofAge of the Hobbits.[50]
The Asylum claimed that they were justified in using the word "Hobbit" as a fair use of scientific terminology after some scientists borrowed the term from theHobbit stories a few years prior to describe ahuman species inIndonesia. The Asylum argued that it provided warnings stating that this was not the Tolkien creature.[51] The films also featured major plot differences: "In an ancient age, the small, peace-loving Hobbits are enslaved by theJava Men, a race of flesh-eating dragon-riders. The young Hobbit Goben must join forces with their neighbor giants, the humans, to free his people and vanquish their enemies."[52]
The Federal Court found that Warner Bros. had a valid trademark on the word "Hobbit". The court rejected The Asylum's scientific fair-use claims since there was no evidence to suggest that the film was about a prehistoric group of people who lived in Indonesia. The court rejected all of The Asylum's defenses: (i) that it was permitted to use "Hobbits" in the title of its film pursuant to the free speech test of the Second Circuit's decision inRogers v. Grimaldi, (ii) that its use of the mark constituted nominative fair use to indicate plaintiffs' films and (iii) that the "Hobbits" mark was a generic name. The court decided that The Asylum had failed to prove its defenses and on December 10, 2012, found in favor of the plaintiffs and entered a temporary restraining order. This restraining order prevented the use by Global Asylum of the titleAge of the Hobbits.[53] The Ninth Circuit court of appeals affirmed in 2013. The film was then released under the nameClash of the Empires.
The 2022 adaptation ofChip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers spoofed animated mockbusters with "bootlegged" titles likeFlying Bedroom Boy,Pooj the Fat Honey Bear andSpaghetti Dogs.[60][61]
The cult television showsMystery Science Theater 3000 and the German similar showSchleFaZ have featured mockbusters of other films (eg.Atlantic Rim,Pod People).[62][57]
Two ofVídeo Brinquedo's productions were parodied in an episode ofThe Amazing World of Gumball called "The Treasure", in which Gumball picks up a mockbuster DVD calledHow to Ratatwang Your Panda. The fictional production is a cross betweenThe Little Panda Fighter andRatatoing, mockbusters based onKung Fu Panda andRatatouille, respectively.[63]
DINGO PICTURES Friedrichsdorf (1997-2001), Trickfilmanimation (Amiga D-Paint IV), Synchronisation.
