2020 Box Office Busts

[Jim Kelly]

Depending how long the corona virus remains a threat in China this could affect the box office for any non-R, effects heavy, big budget extravaganza. Since their own movies are also delayed, China will want to give them priority first, when the theatres finally do open. And movies like SONIC could get shut out.

[DanMad1977]

I hope Sonic succeeds. It needs to send the message that listening to your core audience isn't a mistake.

Yes, I am with you. In this case I think the Sonic fans won't honor that, instead just see what the (Director,writer or whoever is responsible for this) did wrong in the first place. I believe that because I talked to a few guys who basically were saying: Now I won't go see it anymore, they fucked up.

Like you only have one chance to do it right and no chance to redeem yourself or the franchise.

I hope it succeeds, too, but I will never understand why movie makers change things so drastically. Its almost always bad to do that.

[Frontier]

I hope Sonic succeeds. It needs to send the message that listening to your core audience isn't a mistake.

And maybe start a turnaround for video game movies.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I hope Sonic succeeds. It needs to send the message that listening to your core audience isn't a mistake.

I agree with that wholeheartedly.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Birds of Prey won the weekend box office with $33.3 million, but was said to have had THE lowest opening ever for DC movie. Hey, SUPERE, would that qualify BoP as a bust, if only in a symbolic sense as the worldwide take for it's opening was $81 million on a budget of $84 million?

[ComicJunkie21]

Birds of Prey won the weekend box office with $33.3 million, but was said to have had THE lowest opening ever for DC movie. Hey, SUPERE, would that qualify BoP as a bust, if only in a symbolic sense as the worldwide take for it's opening was $81 million on a budget of $84 million?

Too early to call. For it to be a bust it needs to not make back its budget. Right now it needs to make roughly 170 million to do that. Also for the for a R rated film it's doing well but for a cbm its underperforming. My guess it'll hit around $300 million worldwide and have strong home video sales so unless it has some crazy awful weekend its unlikely to truly bust.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Birds of Prey won the weekend box office with $33.3 million, but was said to have had THE lowest opening ever for DC movie. Hey, SUPERE, would that qualify BoP as a bust, if only in a symbolic sense as the worldwide take for it's opening was $81 million on a budget of $84 million?

Too early to call. For it to be a bust it needs to not make back its budget. Right now it needs to make roughly 170 million to do that. Also for the for a R rated film it's doing well but for a cbm its underperforming. My guess it'll hit around $300 million worldwide and have strong home video sales so unless it has some crazy awful weekend its unlikely to truly bust.

As posted its too early to tell with it right now. We will have to give it some weeks and all. I don't think WB went into Birds of Prey expecting "Suicide Squad" box office. It was a female driven film ala Oceans 8 in a sense.

[Aahz]

As posted its too early to tell with it right now. We will have to give it some weeks and all. I don't think WB went into Birds of Prey expecting "Suicide Squad" box office. It was a female driven film ala Oceans 8 in a sense.

But I think they expected at least Shazam! level, and that movie made ~20 million more on it's opening week end, despite staring a less popular character.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

But I think they expected at least Shazam! level, and that movie made ~20 million more on it's opening week end, despite staring a less popular character.

As someone said the film was seemingly targeted to teen girls and yet they put an R Rating behind it. Unlike Shazam which had a PG-13 rating. Its like DC wanted to do a R Rated female driven film. It was really gonna be a weird sell.

[titanfan]

But I think they expected at least Shazam! level, and that movie made ~20 million more on it's opening week end, despite staring a less popular character.

It had a smaller budget than Shazam, and was rated R. The fact that WB put this in Febuary (typically a dead month for movies--look there's nothing big coming for several weeks) shows that they weren't expecting big numbers.

I'm not saying the numbers aren't a disappointment so far, but they tried to make this movie "bust proof" as much as possible.

[Scott Taylor]

As someone said the film was seemingly targeted to teen girls and yet they put an R Rating behind it. Unlike Shazam which had a PG-13 rating. Its like DC wanted to do a R Rated female driven film. It was really gonna be a weird sell.

This, exactly. I know a few teenage girls by association with my own teenage daughter, and none of them are interested in this. None. They were more excited about Dr. Doolittle (hey its got Tony Stark AND Spider-Man in it!) and now they are talking about other movies like Wonder Woman. Not sure who wanted this movie and why, or who they expected it to resound with? The trailers don't really tell you.

Saw my first article suggesting that all the people who don't like the movie are members of the he-man woman-haters club. Fun.

[Jim Kelly]

The promotion campaign was all over the place. It didn't give a clear picture of what the movie was about. If it was me, I would have filmed a separate piece for the trailer--possibly using animation--with Harley explaining what her movie was going to be about to the audience. I think that because no one had an idea what the movie was going to be, or who it was for, it left them nonplussed. Based on that campaign alone, I probably wouldn't have gone. I don't think it was aimed at teen girls anymore than it was aimed at middle-aged John Wick fans.

I think WB execs, who are notoriously obtuse about their own movies, didn't want to let people know what kind of movie it was, because they had no faith in the project--so they tried to hide the content behind generic advertising without ever revealing any specifics--right out of the John Carter playbook.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Its been a couple weeks and some more busts need to be posted. One I waited a few weeks on will be posted here...




Total Box Office : $26+ million (worldwide)

Total Production Budget : $29 million

Like a Boss arrived back in January quickly disappearing quick from theaters. This female comedy film was driven by Rose Byrne and Tiffany Haddish as 2 friends who have their beauty company stolen by Salma Hayek (who is still beautiful in her early 50's !). The film has only done $22 million domestically and been DOA a long time here. I waited til more markets carried it internationally. But the film only has 10-11 markets left and its doubtful it can do better.





Total Box office : $5.2+ million

Total Production Budget : ----

The 1st release of the newly named Searchlight Pictures (Disney removed Fox from the name) this is a remake of a Swedish film. The movie arrived with such a thud at the box office dometically , it finished 10th for the weekend. Its budget hasn't been released but the opening is even worse than Holmes & Watson by Ferrell. While Searchlight didn't expect a huge box office ; they surely expected better than this.

Also the international box office for Downhill won't be much as its only gonna be in 7-8 international markets as well.

[jetengine]

I'm not surprised about Like A Boss. There seems to be a glut of movies aimed at women about them either being in high positions of generic buisnesses or involved in the fashion industry, after a while it seems samey and kinda offensive. Its also a comedy which makes it dicier.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

I'm not surprised about Like A Boss. There seems to be a glut of movies aimed at women about them either being in high positions of generic buisnesses or involved in the fashion industry, after a while it seems samey and kinda offensive. Its also a comedy which makes it dicier.

The previews sunk it as they were trying to make the 2 women appear as funny as possible. But beyond the pepper spot , it wasn't that funny. But damn if Hayek didn't still look like a babe though.