Biggest Flops & Most Profitable Hits from Summer 2013 (so far)

The summer season is winding down at the multiplex (yay!) so before we move into the fall let's look back at what studios took the biggest losses and had the biggest hits of the summer season.

Least-Profitable


The above films demonstrate how bloated budgets most often equal the biggest bombs. What a bunch of clunkers!

Most-Profitable


Look at how the small budget films (The Purge, The Conjuring) were able pay for themselves many times over. Of course they aren't going to bring in 1.2 billion like Iron Man III, but I think it's time for the studios to start investing in more mid-budget films and rely less on these huge, bloated, lifeless CGI turkeys.

So they don't want to see a lame supernatural buddy cop film but they did want to see a lame female buddy cop film......

Looking at this tells me I have no idea what people wanna watch...

I can't believe anyone even saw The Purge. Are there people who actually saw the plot synopsis and thought 'gee this really could happen IRL?'

Yes - bloodthirsty statists who think that the film is a documentary on any scaling down of big government.

Is After Earth a flop, or are the number reversed?

Orion Crystal Ice wrote:

So they don't want to see a lame supernatural buddy cop film but they did want to see a lame female buddy cop film......

Looking at this tells me I have no idea what people wanna watch...

Actually, The Heat was a good movie, far from lame. Very funny

GrandNational wrote:

Is After Earth a flop, or are the number reversed?

No.  The numbers aren't reversed.  The movie studios get roughly 50% of the money made at the box office, the other half goes to distributors and theaters.  Also the cost of prints and advertising is not included in the films budget, it is not uncommon for a studio to spend between 50 and 100 million on advertising.  

So a film basically has to earn 2.5x the negative cost to be considered profitable.  A film that costs $100 million to produce doesn't break even until it brings in $250 million at the box office.

thejokeriv wrote:

Orion Crystal Ice wrote:

So they don't want to see a lame supernatural buddy cop film but they did want to see a lame female buddy cop film......

Looking at this tells me I have no idea what people wanna watch...

Actually, The Heat was a good movie, far from lame. Very funny

Also worth noting that The Heat was the only summer hit that featured women in the main roles. The studios have forgotten a large potential audience by having 95% of the films they release in the summer months be testosterone fests aimed at men age 25 and younger.

I feel like it's somehow not fair that 'After Earth' is more or less getting what it deserves but people are flocking to 'Elysium'. I could barely even get through the trailer for that. It looks just as amazingly bland and predictable as 'After Earth', probably moreso because there seems to be absolutely no subtlety at all...

Orion Crystal Ice wrote:

I feel like it's somehow not fair that 'After Earth' is more or less getting what it deserves but people are flocking to 'Elysium'. I could barely even get through the trailer for that. It looks just as amazingly bland and predictable as 'After Earth', probably moreso because there seems to be absolutely no subtlety at all...

You really can't judge a movie solely based on the trailer (and most of the time the original filmmaker doesn't make the trailers), that's like doing an album review after hearing a 30 second clip of one song.

A lot of times, definitely true, but whether it makes me want to shell out my $$ is the X factor and as THE target audience for that film.... it didn't............but then, as I said before in another thread, 'Oblivion' was the impressive sci-fi film for me this year, 'Star Trek' didn't touch it either despite me being a massive Trekkie and that was hard to admit. 'Elysium' might be misrepresented and I might see it streaming or Redbox later on but the trailer seems to say, here's the entire plot, switch your brain off, this is another expression of class warfare but less poignant and relevant than 'District 9'... (which I liked)..

Did anyone here actually see 'The Lone Ranger'?

Aside from it being a cowboy movie, which noones seems to care about, was it that bad? I wasn't going to the theater to see it, but I'd certainly watch it when it comes out on dvd or OnDemand. I thought it looked kinda neat.

Other than that one and 'Iron Man 3', I have little interest in any of those others listed. I'll probably see 'Despicable Me 2' as well, but not by choice.

It seems like another 'John Carter' unfortunately, which was not a bad movie if a little overlong. I'd see it.

Elysium is a movie I'm only mildly interested in, but I'll eventually watch it once it become available for rental.

Most of my theater going these days is for independent films, one of the benefits of living in a large city.

corplhicks wrote:

I can't believe anyone even saw The Purge. Are there people who actually saw the plot synopsis and thought 'gee this really could happen IRL?'

Erm, probably not but the same could be said of The Avengers!  

I will see The Purge at some point although I don't expect much.

The Purge is most likely a terrible film, but it was an amazing business investment. It had a similar return as Insidious from a couple years back, that film cost $1.5 million to produce and brought in over $90 million at the box office.

S.D. wrote:

It had a similar return as Insidious from a couple years back, that film cost $1.5 million to produce and brought in over $90 million at the box office.

And has a sequel coming out this year, naturally.

007 wrote:

S.D. wrote:

It had a similar return as Insidious from a couple years back, that film cost $1.5 million to produce and brought in over $90 million at the box office.

And has a sequel coming out this year, naturally.

It has been a good year for director James Wan so far, The Conjuring's worldwide take is up to $169 million (from a $20 million budget) and I'm sure he's about to clean up with Insidious 2.

Boris2008 wrote:

corplhicks wrote:

I can't believe anyone even saw The Purge. Are there people who actually saw the plot synopsis and thought 'gee this really could happen IRL?'

Erm, probably not but the same could be said of The Avengers!  

I will see The Purge at some point although I don't expect much.

Comic book zaniness requires minimal suspension of disbelief because we know it to be utter fantasy. Gritty realism asking us to accept an utterly brainless idea such as a government-mandated crime spree that successfully eradicates nationwide socio-economic degradation? erm...

I talked to a friend who saw this. "Dude, it was awesome. Completely prophetic." erm...

Let's face it. Dawn of the Dead had a more realistic premise.

S.D. wrote:

007 wrote:

S.D. wrote:

It had a similar return as Insidious from a couple years back, that film cost $1.5 million to produce and brought in over $90 million at the box office.

And has a sequel coming out this year, naturally.

It has been a good year for director James Wan so far, The Conjuring's worldwide take is up to $169 million (from a $20 million budget) and I'm sure he's about to clean up with Insidious 2.  

I'm not sure that the figures for Blair witch Project will be beaten though (in terms of ratios) and that was a really crummy movie.  

Boris2008 wrote:

I'm not sure that the figures for Blair witch Project will be beaten though (in terms of ratios) and that was a really crummy movie.  

Don't forget John Carpenter's Halloween, made for $700,000 it cleared over $80 million in the theater when it was released in 1978 ($80 million was HUGE money in 1978).  Who knows how much money it has earned since in cable and home video.

I haven't set foot in a movie theatre since 2007 but usually every year there are several "summer" movies I look forward to checking out when they hit DVD. This summer just seems like a pretty weak crop all around... Aside from the usual comic book flicks that I feel honor bound to watch since I'm a retired comic nerd ("Man of Steel," "The Wolverine," "Iron Man 3"), there really haven't been many things that made me go "I gotta see that." Maybe "Pacific Rim" and "The Purge," but that's about all.

Fat Freddy wrote:

I haven't set foot in a movie theatre since 2007 but usually every year there are several "summer" movies I look forward to checking out when they hit DVD. This summer just seems like a pretty weak crop all around... Aside from the usual comic book flicks that I feel honor bound to watch since I'm a retired comic nerd ("Man of Steel," "The Wolverine," "Iron Man 3"), there really haven't been many things that made me go "I gotta see that." Maybe "Pacific Rim" and "The Purge," but that's about all.

It has been a fairly lackluster summer for the major studio releases. I would recommend checking out Oblivion and I think you'd really dig This Is The End. Plus I'm sure The Conjuring would satisfy your appreciation of retro horror.

Yea, "Oblivion" looks cool, as does "Elysium" from the "District 9" guy. The Conjuring looks good too.

Interesting article about the 2013 "summer of flops"

Summer of the Mega-Flop