Movie Preview: 12 Rounds

The question some may be asking is if a pro-wrestler has the ability to become a movie star. That is definitely the question that the WWE are betting on. 12 Rounds will likely put that question to rest.

Now I must start off with the revelation that I don’t watch wrestling. I don’t get the obsession. While I don’t doubt the wrestlers are all in good shape (many helped in that regard by steroids) I don’t find them to be athletes, just pumped up entertainers. Yet their acting in the ring is not what I would call acting in the traditional sense. Which is a problem when making movies around these celebrities.

Given that 12 Rounds is not classic theater, and the John Cena would never perform for the Bard, can it provide the spark that makes a good action film?

I’ll start with Cena. He is a WWE star. I believe his character is a popular good guy wrestler. He is the first of the WWE wrestlers to be branched out into movies (I believe. Again I don’t watch wrestling so I’m not sure on this). And his first film was a flop.

Now matter how low the budget was for The Marine, for all the hype surrounding Cena a gross of $18 million over 3 months is pitiful. While it has done better in DVD, it still is a bad film. That’s just what the numbers say.

So I take this film as the trend starter or breaker. Either action films will be filled with WWE and other wrestlers for the next decade, most of the same quality and style of rappers in movies, or there won’t be more than 1 or 2 more tries. Which is a lot of pressure for Cena and the WWE.

This film decided to take the safest root possible for a new action star. It copies every successful action film before it. With huge helpings of Speed and Die Hard, the film hopes to draw an audience with a character that is popular (to fans of wrestling), in a situation that has already proven to be well-received. Of course there are your problems.

John Cena is very popular I’m sure, in the world of wrestling. To everyone else (and there are a lot more of us than not) he is just a big guy. So that does not help boost his appeal. But it doesn’t hurt him either. It does mean that he either needs to act well, or like most Schwarzenegger films he needs to say as little as possible.

Still the fact that we have seen all of this before does bode badly. In the trailer you will see the fire engine racing down the street, so much like the bus in Speed. And the elevator scene is such a reminder of Die Hard. Plus how many films have copied the format of both those films by now? In essence we have seen this before, so the thrill just doesn’t come thru in the trailers.

Maybe Cena will pull this off. But the film is so predictable that at the bottom of the post I will tell you what I think the ending is. Anyone who sees the film can tell me if I got it right. I won’t see this film till it hits cable (so that means by the end of the year) thus I will rely on Cena fans to explain how wrong I am about his acting, and right about the film I expect.



***SPOILER ALERT ***

I expect that after running around a city causing havoc and being framed as the cause of it all, towards the middle of the film it will be found that he is a ploy of the bad guy. Eventually he will come to the last problem, and somehow end up on a helicopter with the bad guy and his wife. Once there, as it flies off, he will beat the pulp out of the bad guy – who will then activate (if not before) a bomb to kill the wife and himself since he misses his dead girlfriend. Cena will grab his wife and jump into a hotel roof top pool (lucky to just be hovering over that) just before the bomb goes off and the bad guy dies.

UFC fighters make money, but not as much as you might think

I was reading some news of late about upcoming UFC matches when I ran across something that I thought was interesting. How much do the UFC fighters actually make in each bout?

Now it’s not as much as you might imagine. Though the UFC is 10 years old now, it only recently started to get television deals. With the surge in popularity has come increased revenues, but also an increase in fees.

Notably there is the split with the pay-per-view carriers, and/or broadcaster. That takes a hefty clip out right there. And there is now news that the states where the programs orignate from are looking to take a cut too.

“A little birdie says Ultimate Fighting Championship officials weren't pleased about the 10 percent tax on their show that drew 15,082 to Target Center on Saturday”

10% off the top and possibly as much as 50% to pay-per-view really cuts out the profits. I don’t even think boxing has such extreme cuts.

But the remaining amounts get a bit better. The final cut that is awarded to the fighters depends on if they win or lose, and if they have structured their contracts to be weighted more on their ability to win. So the final numbers work out to about 29% up to 50% of the net goes to the fighters. That is all the fighters as a group. Which is a very good payout and greater than any comparable sport.

Now the individual fighter may not make all that much. Like any other sport, especially the WWE, the more popular the fighter the bigger the payday. On the lowest rung fighters tend to make about $2,000. At the top the winning fighter can make as much as $175,000 a match.

Now that isn’t prize fights in boxing, nor even the base salary for a lineman in NFL football. Then again that is per match, and far more than working as a fast food cashier. But if the sport gains more attention as it seems to be doing then we can expect to see a lot of loyalty from the fighters and more than just a few hoping to join their ranks.

So if you were wondering how much they make and if it matches their fame, now you know.