Trivia / Jem and the Holograms (2015)

• Awesome, Dear Boy: The whole reason why Kesha appears as Pizzazz. Jem is Kesha's favorite cartoon, and when she heard it was being made into a movie, she told her manager, "Get me in there."
• Box Office Bomb:
  • On a $5 million production budget, its $1.38 million North American opening weekend was the worst opening ever for a major studio film playing in saturated release (2,000+ theaters).
  • And then it got worse: its second week gross was a paltry $387,925. After that, Universal pulled the film from wide release and actually stopped reporting the box office figures. Its unprecedented two-week theatrical run was one of the shortest ever for a major studio film.
  • It even managed to take the TV show down with it; Discovery Family unceremoniously dropped the reruns of the cartoon one week after Universal withdrew the film.
• The Cast Show Off: Unlike in the cartoon, where Jem's singing was dubbed, Aubrey Peeples does her own singing as the character.
• Casting Gag: Britta Phillips, who provided the singing voice for the cartoon, appears as a stage manager.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Many of the fans who appear in videos talking about how much they love Jem. That was part of a contest involving people talking about their love of the cartoon, and what a film would mean to them. Originally, the winners were to have walk-on parts in the film, but it was changed to the videos themselves being featured. Understandably, a lot of them were upset at being misrepresented this way.
  • Universal Studios apparently didn't think too highly of the film. In a rare first for a studio, they removed the movie from all the theaters it was playing at, and wouldn't report box office numbers.
  • YouTuber Rob Scallon also voiced disdain for cameoing in this film via his video.
• Creator's Oddball: One of the production companies involved with the film was Blumhouse Productions — a company that specialises in horror films. While they've worked on non-horror films both before and after (most notably Whiplash), this is one of their few outright family-targeted films.
• Dawson Casting: While Jerrica's age isn't stated, she's implied to be a teenager in this continuity. Aubrey Peeples was already 20. Aurora Perrineau likewise was 20 as Shanna, and Hayley Kiyoko was 24 as Aja. Stefanie Scott was the only actual teen in the cast, being 18.
• Deleted Role: Ariana Grande filmed a cameo with her manager Scooter Braun, greeting Erica as the girls arrive at Starlight. It was cut and included on the DVD.
• Direct to Video: Was released direct to DVD in Mexico, Latin America and Australia.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Stefanie Scott had to dye her hair orange to play Kimber, while Hayley Kiyoko dyed hers blue and shaved part of the side to play Aja. Aurora Perrineau and Aubrey Peeples just wore wigs.
• No Budget: The movie was made on a budget of $5,000,000.
• Real-Life Relative: The younger version of Shana (Aurora Perrineau) is played by Aurora's sister Wynter Perrineau.
• Reality Subtext: Possibly unintentional, and a truly sad example at that. Aunt Bailey's financial woes are eerily similar to Ringwald's fall from grace since her days as a member of the Brat Pack.
• Refitted for Sequel: Jetta is given a Race Lift here for her cameo in The Stinger. She had been envisioned as Black for the cartoon but changed to white out of fears of controversy at having a Black villain. Although here she's Latina.
• Screwed by the Network: With the Fans of the original cartoon, The film's producers opened an online contest encouraging fans to create short videos describing their love of the original Jem animated series and what a film version would mean to them. The winners of the contest were initially to be offered a small role in the film but the actual prize was having the videos themselves featured in the film. Fans were definitely not happy, to say the least.
• Star-Derailing Role: Aubrey Peeples's first leading role being an infamous bomb, along with the tepidly received Nicolas Cage movie Rage the same year, seem to have killed her chances in film. She fared better on television with her role in Nashville.
• Stillborn Franchise: A sequel was clearly envisioned judging by the post-credits scene. Presumably, it would have followed Erica using the Misfits as Jem's competition. As Jetta is already part of the Misfits here, Raya likely would have been introduced in the next film, too.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The Sony hack revealed that Hasbro was interested in Sony Pictures co-financing this movie (which was known under the code name "Pink Pony") as well as the film adaptation for My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Sony was more interested in the latter over the former, due to its larger fan base, so they dropped Jem. Unfortunately for Sony, the negotiations for My Little Pony: The Movie never held up, and the film was eventually released through Lionsgate on October 6, 2017.
  • Originally the movie was going to be much more faithful to the cartoon, but no company would buy it.
  • A movie based on the then still-running cartoon was in development. It got scrapped after the failures of Sunbow's The Transformers: The Movie and the 1986 My Little Pony film.
  • John M. Chu had visions of a crossover with the Transformers Film Series and G.I. Joe live-action films. This one's failure put a stop to that.

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