Astro Boy opened in 6th place with 7 million dollars. Which is still probably more than it deserved. With only a 65 million dollar budget, it isn’t quite as high profile a failure as Speed Racer, but it’s still an obvious failure. Which brings us to the real question, who in their right mind decided that investing the budget of a small city into remaking mildly obscure cartoons from the 80’s was a good idea? Sure Scooby Doo paid off, but Scooby Doo is iconic and popular in a way that Underdog, Speed Racer and Astro Boy are not. And plus it’s fairly easy to sell audiences on a movie with a giant funny dog and a teen movie cast. If Speed Racer at least made some attempt to give audiences a reason to come, Astro Boy doesn’t bother, sticking to its bizarre j-plot. The movie has bits of Pinocchio and A.I., but mainly it’s a very expensive and depressing CG cartoon that is practically designed not to appeal to the only people who would go to see it, kids. You know when you’ve got a quote like this, “The sadness of the story,” Cage said, “is exactly what drew me to ‘Astro Boy.’ That you don’t have the product.