The Real Cancun is a 2003 American reality film directed by Rick de Oliveira and written by Brian Caldirola. Inspired by the reality television genre, this film followed the lives of sixteen Americans from March 13–23, 2003 as they celebrated spring break in Cancún, Mexico and experienced romantic relationships, emotional strife, or just had a good time.[2][3]
The film received negative critical reviews and was a box office flop, earning a little over $5 million in the United States from a $7.5 million budget.[1] It was the film debut of Laura Ramsey.
The Real Cancun was released theatrically only a month after filming was completed,[2] and was released on DVD and home video only a couple of months after that.
Box office
The film earned $2,108,796 in its opening weekend from 2,261 venues, ranking tenth in the North American box office and fourth among the week's new releases.[4] It closed a month later, having grossed $3,825,421 domestically and $1,519,662 overseas for a worldwide total of $5,345,083, coming well short of its $7.5 million production cost.[1]
Critical response
The Real Cancun received generally negative reviews from critics (with Variety's Scott Foundas causing to remark in his review that The Real Cancun billed itself as "the first reality feature film" is "apparently ignoring last year's Jackass: The Movie").[5] On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 35% score based on 88 reviews, with an average rating of 4.2/10. The site's consensus states: "The footage is predictable and rather tame, and most of the people are uninteresting."[6]Metacritic reports a 34 out of 100 rating based on 24 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[7] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C−" on an A+ to F scale.[8]
Carol Siegel, a professor of English and American Studies at Washington State University Vancouver, interpreted The Real Cancun as about society's expectations of juveniles' sexual behaviors; despite visuals such as near nudity and simulations of the act, the characters try to present themselves as being abstinent and not "slut"-ty, and only two couples make love by the end.[11]: 188
Aftermath
A reality movie based upon the Girls Gone Wild video series that MGM bought the rights to was never put into production, while the Universal Pictures effort Drunken Jackasses: The Quest was delayed after the flop of Cancun[12] and ultimately went straight to video.[13][14]
