By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS)
Like the medal-laden Olympian Michael Phelps, Disney’s Finding Dory took the gold in this summer’s race to #1, accruing $478.5 million in the domestic box office. However, 2016’s summer (summer being defined as the first Friday in May through the Labor Day weekend), the surprise was that there weren’t many other “star” fish in the cinematic sea. Instead, as the season crawled on, the studios had to contend with wave upon wave of Titanic-sized belly flops.
Consider a few examples of the reactions to these last four months’ wide-release offerings: “Dismal,” “disappointing,” “glum,” “middling.” It appears that the negative adjectives had accumulated faster than any box office bucks.
That said, as any cinephile knows, the receipt reportage doesn’t limit itself to only one season of the year. While each week the top box office results are trumpeted far and wide, there’s a pesky little factoid that is often overlooked amid the competitive dollar details. Namely the fact that the monetary success of a movie is more than merely the gross: it’s the relationship between costs going out versus dollars coming in.
The loose rule of thumb that defines a lucrative hit is that a film may begin to find itself in the black once it reaches between three to four times its budget in the worldwide box office total. On the red flipside, if a film grosses merely twice its initial budget, there may be no profit whatsoever.
Still, the above definitions remain vague. The concept of a movie reporting a bona fide profit resides in the land of clouds and mist, smoke and mirrors, and is as hard to pin down as Ben-Hur’s chariot. Other than the initial production budget, film costs include distribution, distributor fees, movie chain fees, prints and advertising, sales agent fees, payouts to the initial investors, as well as the above-the-line talent that will often accept a lesser salary up front, banking on the fact that if the movie is successful, then said talent will receive far more compensation in backend profits and DVD sales.
Back to the domestic box office and the top-ranked Finding Dory: The Disney animated feature’s opening weekend came in at $135 million. As of the date of this article, the domestic gross of $478.5 million combined with the international gross of $437.5 million equals $916 million worldwide. Given the movie’s budget of $200 million, Finding Dory will do swimmingly.
Even better news for Disney & Co.: The Mouse Factory doubled down with Captain America: Civil War (initially released on the kickoff to summer, i.e., May 6). While its opening weekend came in at $179 million – surmounting Finding Dory — its domestic gross is currently $70,000 less than the fish girl’s. But with a combined domestic plus international gross, the film’s current worldwide figure flies high at $1.15 billion. With a budget of $250 million, it’s safe to say that Captain America: Civil War is a Disney super hero.
Other than Dory, only one other animated film made it to the top. Universal’s The Secret Life of Pets is currently ranked #3 (opening weekend = $104.3 million, domestic gross = $347.4 million, worldwide = $675 million). And its production budget was a mere $75 million.
Sometimes a movie’s reception is at odds with the box office. Consider the critically reviled Suicide Squad (Rotten Tomatoes’ score of 26%). Thumbs down or not, the movie had a built-in DCEU rabid fan club that was 100% committed to embracing the film. Surprising most naysayers, Suicide Squad opened big at $135 million, breaking August’s record. With a current worldwide gross of $577.5 million, against a production budget of $175 million, the Squad should ultimately kill. Or at least maim.
In contrast, Sausage Party was a critical favorite (Rotten Tomatoes’ score of 81%). Yet the movie’s grosses are far from stellar. The opening August 12 weekend came in at $34.2 million; as of today, the current domestic receipts total $67.3 million. With an additional foreign of $6.1 million, the caloric comedy’s current worldwide box office equals $73.5 million. However, to be, um, frank, Sausage Party’s possible rescue could be due to its teeny-weenie sized production budget of $19 million. Currently hot or not, this particular dog just might make a tasty profit after all.
Plummeting to the bottom of the heap, Paramount is in need of a defibrillator, stat. Per media analyst Michael Nathanson, the losses are expected to number $360 million this year, with a predicted $200 million in 2017. Between the tepid reaction to Star Trek Beyond, the “feh” sequel of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows and the free-falling Ben-Hur ($22.8 million box office worldwide versus $100 million budget), expect that Ben-Hur‘s bloody chariot races will look mild compared to the carnage visited upon the Paramount studio heads.
With blockbusters quickly turning into candidates for VOD, what strange force of nature turned the once-avid moviegoer away from the wide screen?
Well, think a smaller screen. Such as the home screen, where streaming TV became king, thanks to such popular cable series as Netflix’ Stranger Things. Or gaming. Or hours engaged on YouTube and Facebook. Or think an even smaller screen – that of the ubiquitous smartphone — that actually managed to reintroduce people to the great outdoors, as the fervor of Pokémon Go grew far more popular than any Star Trek. Or Ninja Turtle. Or one super-sized BFG.
The talk about movies losing a substantial audience, forcing the major studios to reduce their annual number of films, has been going on for years. But given this particular summer, with ticket sales coming in at 21% less than 2015, and with the ever-widening chasm between high production budgets and low box office, the talk may become more than idle chatter.
Before it’s too late: Anyone want to take in a movie this weekend?
About Kimberly Gadette
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