Box Office Blues

Show business is a funny business. There are times when moviegoers show up in force to see really mediocre movies, while more acclaimed (and deserving) films are ignored. In fact, some of my favorite movies in recent years were box office flops.

Don't be fooled: This place can be brutal.

Looking back at these movies, I can't help but wonder: How hard did they fail at the box office and why? In this post, I'll explore a few of these films (in no particular order) and offer explanations for their box office fates.

Note: While movie studios are generally open about film production budgets, they are less forthcoming about other expenses (including market and distribution costs). This is why films may still fail to turn a profit even if their box office earnings comfortably eclipse their production budget. Generally, most films need to earn about 2.5-3x their production budget to turn a profit during their theatrical run, though this does vary.

Star Wars: Solo

Solo was sunk by fan discontent over The Last Jedi

The only Star Wars movie to lose money at the box office, Solo was actually one of my favorite Star Wars adventures, and one of only two of the Disney era (along with Rogue One) that I can fully embrace.

Released in May 2018, Solo opened to solid reviews (69% on Rotten Tomatoes) and earned a worldwide gross of $393 million, a sum which would have brought a tidy profit for many other productions. However, with a large production budget of $275 million, Solo ended up losing approximately $77 million in spite of this haul. So, what happened? The reasons are two-fold:

1. The production was highly troubled, with the original directors (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller) fired partway through filming. Director Ron Howard was hired to finish the film and ended up reshooting approximately 70% of the movie, causing costs to balloon.

2. Solo was released only 6 months after Star Wars: The Last Jedi. While the negative fan reaction to The Last Jedi is well-documented, what is less discussed is the fact that many Star Wars fans responded by boycotting Solo.

Alden Ehrenreich may not be Harrison Ford, but he did the character justice

Ultimately, the combination of costly reshoots and lingering fan resentment over The Last Jedi was just too much for Solo to overcome. That's a shame, as almost every Star Wars fan I know who actually saw Solo really enjoyed it (including me), and the real tragedy is that we're unlikely to see any further Han Solo adventures as a result.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

A solid swashbuckling adventure undone by the narrow appeal of its IP

I'll be honest, I've never been a D&D fan. However, I was intrigued enough by Honor Among Thieves to see it when it was released in March 2023. And man, what a treat.

Funny, fast-paced, and action-packed, Honor Among Thieves earned an impressive 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. However, the film managed to gross only $208 million against a production budget of $150 million (Paramount has never officially revealed how much Honor Among Thieves lost [likely in the tens of millions], stating only that it was a "disappointment").

Chris Pine channels his Captain Kirk energy in Honor Among Thieves

As for explaining the movie's underperformance, that likely comes down to the niche appeal of the Dungeons & Dragons IP. Moviegoer surveys indicated that the audience demographic skewed heavily towards millennial men, overlapping with the game's core fanbase. That is to say that if you weren't a fan of the game, you probably didn't go see the movie. A pity for sure, since even my parents (who are about are far removed from D&D fandom as you can get) enjoyed it.

Scott Pilgrim vs The World

A superb film that defied classification... and that was its downfall

Full disclosure: Even I passed on Scott Pilgrim vs the World when it was released in August 2010. A cartoony movie based on a cult graphic novel about a goofy gamer/garage musician guy trying to impress a girl with weird hair? Forgive me if I wasn't in line at the midnight premier. In fact, it wasn't until well after its theatrical release that I finally got around to watching it late one night when I has absolutely nothing else to do.

Oh, man. Only then did I discover what I was missing. Definitely one of the top 3 wittiest movies I've ever seen, Scott Pilgrim brought me laughs and feels in equal measure, and remains one of the few movies I watch on a regular basis.

Michael Cera and Mary Elizabeth Winstead may seem like an odd match, but they make it work

With a strong RT score of 82% and my personal seal of approval, it's disappointing to me that Scott Pilgrim brought in only a measly $49 million at the box office against a production budget of $85 million (like with many movies, the final gain/loss tally was never officially released by the studio [Universal]).

In my estimation, Scott Pilgrim failed at the box office for the same reason I didn't see it during its theatrical release: It wasn't marketed well. Was it a comic book movie? Comedy? Action? Was the target audience only young adults?

While it's common knowledge that genre-bending movies are tricky to market (see Cowboys & Aliens), it's still tough to swallow that one of my all-time favorite movies fell victim to this old problem. Maybe one day Hollywood will figure it out, but I'm not holding my breath.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning

Dead Reckoning couldn't compete with Barbenheimer

In the past, I've had a love/hate relationship with the Mission: Impossible film series. At best, I thought of them as solid action flicks good enough for a home movie night, while at worst, I considered them poor imitations of the Bond series. However, more recently I've been pleasantly surprised with how Tom Cruise and Director Christopher McQuarrie have revitalized this once-stagnant series.

Beginning with the 2015 surprise hit Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, the Cruise/McQuarrie combo hit on a formula (a mix of lighthearted approachability and breathtaking practical action sequences) that produced back-to-back blockbuster successes in the M:I series (with 2015's Rogue Nation and 2018's Fallout raking in $689 million and $791 million, respectively).

With the duo returning for Dead Reckoning (which earned a 96% RT rating), it seemed that box office run was sure to continue. Unfortunately, audiences had other plans. Against a whopping production budget of $291 million, Dead Reckoning brought in a total of $568 million for a loss of around $100 million.

Despite Dead Reckoning's box office struggles, Tom Cruise remains the king of stunts

I've gotta be honest: When the numbers came in for Dead Reckoning, I was pretty disappointed. I enjoyed Dead Reckoning as much as Rogue Nation and Fallout, and my hope was that third consecutive hit would guarantee the continuation of the series for years to come. So, why the decline on fortunes for what was supposed to be a sure-bet blockbuster? One word: Barbenheimer.

As it turns out, Dead Reckoning had the misfortune of releasing in July 2023 on the week before the biggest theatrical pop culture phenomenon of the year, which certainly diverted audience attention away from what would have otherwise been a box office hit.

Moral of the story? Don't go head-to-head with pink-clad blondes or nuclear bombs.

Star Trek Beyond

Tough competition held back Star Trek Beyond

When J.J. Abrams rebooted Star Trek in 2009 to both critical and commercial acclaim, I was as happy as a fat kid in a candy store. The new Star Trek series (or the Kelvin Timeline, as it would later be known) was everything the original wasn't: Fast, flashy and fun. It felt like the property had found a new lease on life, one where it could break out of the heavy-handed sci-fi niche it had always existed within and achieve broad appeal.

With a successful follow-up in 2013's Star Trek Into Darkness, it was thought that 2016's Star Trek Beyond, the third (and thus far, latest) entry in the Kelvin film series, would see similar success. Armed with a strong 86% RT score, why wouldn't it?

Well, as you can probably guess (since it's on this list), it didn't. Against a production budget of $185 million, Star Trek Beyond managed to generate only about $343 million at the box office, amounting to a loss of about $51 million.

Was Star Trek Beyond the last adventure for this cast?

Now, let me be clear about one thing: For me, Star Trek Beyond falls squarely into "Good, not great" territory. While I found it to be a perfectly acceptable entry in the series, it wasn't quite the smash that I was hoping for. That said, the film deserved to turn a profit, and its $50+ million loss basically assured that we would see no further Star Trek films made for the time being.

So, what happened? While analysts mainly pointed to stiff competition at the box office during its release window (and that quite possibly played a part), I think the biggest thing that hindered Star Trek Beyond was the departure of J.J. Abrams as director. 

At the time, Abrams was the hottest director in Hollywood, but when he was replaced with Justin Lin (so that Abrams could direct Star Wars: The Force Awakens), that put a damper on audience enthusiasm for the film. That, plus a substantial production budget of $185 million, meant that Star Trek would have to fight an uphill battle to turn a profit (one that it ultimately lost).

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. released 48 years after the TV show ended

Movies adapted from TV shows have a checkered record. For many, the challenge centers around getting modern audiences to connect with characters and stories that went off the air years or even decades ago.

Such was the struggle with The Man from U.N.C.L.E. While the film itself was a slick, funny, charming spy thriller (co-led by the Man of Steel himself, no less) that earned a 68% approval rating from Rotten Tomatoes, it had the misfortune of releasing at a time when the box office was already saturated with spy thrillers that were more relatable to modern audiences.

Even Henry Cavill's star power couldn't save The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

This disconnect was a full display at the box office, where The Man from U.N.C.L.E. managed to gross only $110 million against a production budget of $75 million for an approximate loss of a whopping $80 million.

Moral of the story? Don't wait almost half a century before giving a TV show its big screen debut.

Conclusion

While I know that not many moviegoers keep a close eye on box office receipts, I do because it's important to me that movies I enjoy experience success. Part of it is that I want those who do good work to be rewarded, but perhaps more selfishly, I want to see more good movies get made. After all, when good movies turn a profit, it's more likely that others will come down the pipe.

That said, the market isn't always fair. Sometimes good (or even great) movies simply have bad luck, whether it's a bad release window, competition, or simple audience ignorance. However, the important thing is that while good movies may not always experience the success that they deserve, the fact that they exist in the first place gives us the opportunity to enjoy them, nevertheless.