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

Boris2008 wrote:

S.D. wrote:

Boris2008 wrote:

Eagerly awaiting the Howard the Duck reboot  

You seem to have missed the part where I said "profitable".   

They remade Judge Dredd and the Stallone version is right up there with HTD as far as big money losers go!  

The remake flopped spectacularly as well.

Budget: $50 million
Domestic Gross: $13 million
Foreign Gross: $22 million

S.D. wrote:

Budget: $50 million
Domestic Gross: $13 million
Foreign Gross: $22 million

Still, it's such a good movie. I never thought I'd see one that would do Dredd justice until it came along and it was so nice to go into a theater with very little expectations and being pleasantly surprised.

I'm sure WB is glad that they only invested $18 million on Getaway because it's become yet another 2013 action movie flop.  

It only managed 9th place with $5 million over the holiday weekend (putting it about neck in neck with Bullet To The Head which flopped similarly earlier this year).  It has a 21% Rotten Tomatoes score, 4.0 on IMDB and a C- Cinemascore from people that attended the film.  It should vanish from theaters within another week.

James Wan continues to be on a roll...

Insidious 2 (budget = $5 million) pulled in $20 million on Friday and is projected to hit $40 million by the end of the weekend. 1 night in the theater was enough to push the film into profitability. Not surprisingly the critics hated it but word of mouth among genre fans is very positive. Wan's earlier film this summer "The Conjuring" (budget = $20 million) has made almost $260 million worldwide. Further proof that these low budget paranormal flicks can be hugely successful when you have a talented director and a grade-A cast (Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne).

Wan has since been tapped to direct the next installment of the Fast & Furious cash-cow franchise.

Poor Sly & Arnold, they've got another minor flop on their hands with Escape Plan which only managed to bring in $9.5 million over opening weekend despite costing $70 million to produce. After The Last Stand and Bullet To The Head both flopped earlier this year we will probably be seeing less of these Geritol Action movies.

In other flop news, the wikileaks movie The Fifth Estate only brought in $1.5 million on opening weekend.

Gravity and Captain Phillips held onto the top slots and the Carrie remake did "okay" but came in a good bit lower than expectations.

S.D. wrote:

Poor Sly & Arnold, they've got another minor flop on their hands with Escape Plan which only managed to bring in $9.5 million over opening weekend despite costing $70 million to produce.  After The Last Stand and Bullet To The Head both flopped earlier this year we will probably be seeing less of these Geritol Action movies.  

In other flop news, the wikileaks movie The Fifth Estate only brought in $1.5 million on opening weekend.  

Gravity and Captain Phillips held onto the top slots and the Carrie remake did "okay" but came in a good bit lower than expectations.

If Expendables 3 is a failure, that will be end of Sly and Ah-nold's career.....

EDIT:

Or we'll see new Rocky, Rambo, Terminator flicks...... and Ah-nold's long await return to the Predator franchise.

Arnold/Sly's "Escape Plan" probably would've been a great idea... in 1988.

Personally, I'm happy to see "The Fifth Estate" fail. I'm also not too sad to see "Escape Plan" fail either.

I haven't seen Captain Phillips but everything I've read about it says it is great. I will definitely get it when it comes out on DVD.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Arnold/Sly's "Escape Plan" probably would've been a great idea... in 1988.

Cracked did a fake movie poster for Escape Plan and changed the title to "25 Years Too Late".

I think that Arnie could boost attendances at his movies with a 'One more flop and I'm going back into politics' threat  

Although 'My opponent is a girly man' is still my favorite campaign speech of all time!  

S.D. wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

Arnold/Sly's "Escape Plan" probably would've been a great idea... in 1988.

Cracked did a fake movie poster for Escape Plan and changed the title to "25 Years Too Late".  

That's Cracked for ya.

Here's an update of the biggest domestic box office successes of 2013.  If people wonder why remakes, reboots and sequels continue to come out in alarming numbers just look at how much money they make...

1 Iron Man 3 $409,013,994 - Sequel
2 Despicable Me 2 $363,858,260 - Sequel
3 Man of Steel  $291,045,518 - Reboot
4 Monsters University  $267,580,051 - Sequel
5 Fast & Furious 6 $238,679,850 - Sequel
6 Oz The Great and Powerful  $234,911,825 - Prequel
7 Star Trek Into Darkness  $228,778,661 - Sequel of a reboot
8 World War Z  $202,359,711 - Original adaptation
9 The Croods $187,168,425 - Original screenplay
10 Gravity $179,514,361 - Original screenplay
11 The Heat $159,429,828 - Original screenplay
12 We're the Millers  $147,979,233 - Original screenplay
13 The Great Gatsby $144,840,419 - Remake
14 The Conjuring $137,359,667 - Original screenplay
15 Identity Thief $134,506,920 - Original screenplay
16 Grown Ups 2 $133,123,820 - Sequel
17 The Wolverine $132,141,347 - Sequel
18 G.I. Joe: Retaliation $122,523,060 - Sequel
19 Now You See Me $117,723,989 - Original screenplay
20 Lee Daniels' The Butler $114,476,103 - Original adaptation

I'm kind of surprised at how successful Despicable Me has been. Mostly because I loved it (the first one, I haven't seen the sequel) and stuff that i love rarely has mass appeal!

Maybe kids just have better taste than their parents  

S.D. wrote:

Here's an update of the biggest domestic box office successes of 2013.  If people wonder why remakes, reboots and sequels continue to come out in alarming numbers just look at how much money they make...

1 Iron Man 3 $409,013,994 - Sequel
2 Despicable Me 2 $363,858,260 - Sequel
3 Man of Steel  $291,045,518 - Reboot
4 Monsters University  $267,580,051 - Sequel
5 Fast & Furious 6 $238,679,850 - Sequel
6 Oz The Great and Powerful  $234,911,825 - Prequel
7 Star Trek Into Darkness  $228,778,661 - Sequel of a reboot
8 World War Z  $202,359,711 - Original adaptation
9 The Croods $187,168,425 - Original screenplay
10 Gravity $179,514,361 - Original screenplay
11 The Heat $159,429,828 - Original screenplay
12 We're the Millers  $147,979,233 - Original screenplay
13 The Great Gatsby $144,840,419 - Remake
14 The Conjuring $137,359,667 - Original screenplay
15 Identity Thief $134,506,920 - Original screenplay
16 Grown Ups 2 $133,123,820 - Sequel
17 The Wolverine $132,141,347 - Sequel
18 G.I. Joe: Retaliation $122,523,060 - Sequel
19 Now You See Me $117,723,989 - Original screenplay
20 Lee Daniels' The Butler $114,476,103 - Original adaptation

Yep....... Only saw 7 of these on the list and I wouldn't rank them in order of box office gross..... Iron Man 3 was good, much better than 2, but not the top film of the year by far. DM2 was fun.... dragged a bit at first and felt like a made for TV flick in parts, but still enjoyable. The Croods was OK, not great. The kids liked it. MU was the best animated flick so far.

Man Of Steel was good, I was surprised at how much I liked it - BUT that flick won the "Theater Loudness War" for loudest flick of all time (ie - Death Magnetic has 70's vinyl Dynamic Range compared to this flick... Rick Rubin must have had final sound mastering approval on this one!)

Start Trek II - The Re-imaging Of Khan was good..... I guess technically it's a re-boot sequel re-imaging.

The one that surprised me was The Heat - laughed my a$$ off. Melissa McCarthy is damn funny in this one... Went to see it with the team at work - this flick does get quoted A LOT in the office now.

- I still need to see Gravity..... That is the only one on the list that is a must see in theater for me - just need to make the time to see it! Some of the others I will catch on Blu-Ray when Netflix gets them.

October had one clear winner (Gravity) and almost everything else underperformed.  

Gravity has gone on to become the highest grossing live action film released in the month of October.  It has passed $400 million worldwide and is predicted to bring in at least another $50 million during its run.  One of the few films to be both critically acclaimed and a box office smash this year will certainly help chances come Oscar time.  

These October releases weren't so lucky...

Carrie - Production Cost: $30 million.  US Box office: $32 million
Machete Kills - Production Cost: *unknown* US Box office: $7.5 million
Escape Plan - Production Cost: $70 million. US Box office: $21.5 million
The Fifth Estate - Production Cost: $28 million.  US Box office: $3 million
Runner Runner - Production cost: $30 million. US Box office: $19 million

There were some small surprise hits during the month of October:

Captain Phillips - Production cost: $55 million.  US box office: $82.5 million
Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa - Production cost: $15 million.  US Box office: $61.5 million

November is shaping up to be dominated by sequels Thor: The Dark World opening November 8th and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire on November 22nd.

Early November release Enders Game did okay business on opening weekend but the predictions are that it will only bring in about $75 million which won't offset the $110 million production cost. The hope was to start a new franchise but since 60% of people that went to see the film this weekend were over 25 they missed the target audience they were aiming for. Enders Game looks like it will suffer the same fate as other proposed YA film series that failed this year; The Host, Beautiful Creatures and The Mortal Instruments. The only one of those that will get a sequel is The Mortal Instruments and that's only due to the fact that the sequel was green lit at the same time as the debut feature.

The whole problem is they tried to turn Card's novel into a YA movie. If they would have been more thematic with it--most reviews are stating it skips town on all the cerebral elements of Card's narrative and plays it safe as a straight-up military sci fi--and aimed higher, I wonder if more fans of the book would have seen it. Either way, the book had poor promise for the big scene. I was scratching my head from the beginning.

corplhicks wrote:

The whole problem is they tried to turn Card's novel into a YA movie. If they would have been more thematic with it--most reviews are stating it skips town on all the cerebral elements of Card's narrative and plays it safe as a straight-up military sci fi--and aimed higher, I wonder if more fans of the book would have seen it. Either way, the book had poor promise for the big scene. I was scratching my head from the beginning.

Cerebral sci-fi doesn't do well at the multiplex, you basically need to do it independently and on a much smaller budget. Most of the reviews I've read from people that have read the book state there was too much to try and fit into a 2 hour movie, they all basically said it would need to be a mini-series to do it justice.

S.D. wrote:

corplhicks wrote:

The whole problem is they tried to turn Card's novel into a YA movie. If they would have been more thematic with it--most reviews are stating it skips town on all the cerebral elements of Card's narrative and plays it safe as a straight-up military sci fi--and aimed higher, I wonder if more fans of the book would have seen it. Either way, the book had poor promise for the big scene. I was scratching my head from the beginning.

Cerebral sci-fi doesn't do well at the multiplex, you basically need to do it independently and on a much smaller budget.  Most of the reviews I've read from people that have read the book state there was too much to try and fit into a 2 hour movie, they all basically said it would need to be a mini-series to do it justice.  

Sounds about right. A mini-series would have been tight, actually.

47 Ronin, not even through it's open weekend, written off as a loss:

http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/30236/universal-prepares-for-47-ronin-to-bomb

There's been some major bombs this year, and now Universal Pictures is closing out the year with potentially one of the biggest - "47 Ronin".

Despite the film not even finishing its first weekend yet, the studio has already written down a portion of its official $175 million budget (unofficially it's closer to $225 million) as a loss, though isn't specifying exactly how much.

A spokesperson says: "Universal Pictures regularly evaluates its film slate for potential adjustment. In the case of ’47 Ronin,’ we adjusted film costs in previous quarters and as a result our financial performance will not be negatively impacted this quarter by its theatrical performance."

The samurai fantasy epic is project to earn under $20 million through Sunday, the worst debut for a movie this year with a budget above $150 million.

International isn't a saving grace, the film taking just $10 million through Wednesday from 14 territories including ones where it was expected to be a major performer like Japan.

Though there's still chances of a turnaround, it looks like "47 Ronin" will join "The Lone Ranger," "R.I.P.D.," "After Earth," and "Jack The Giant Slayer" in regards to being seen as one of the year's biggest box-office duds. The studio isn't too fussed though, thanks to the success of "Fast and Furious 6" and "Despicable Me 2" giving them a stellar 2013 overall.

In other news yet another "old guy action movie" is flopping, the Sly Stallone/Robert DeNiro boxing vehicle Grudge Match is underperforming. This makes 3 major flops for Sly Stallone in 2013 alone (Bullet To The Head, The Escape Plan, Grudge Match). It appears the only way for these Geri-action stars to connect at the box office is when you put all of them together into a single film (The Expandables).

S.D. wrote:

In other news yet another "old guy action movie" is flopping, the Sly Stallone/Robert DeNiro boxing vehicle Grudge Match is underperforming.  This makes 3 major flops for Sly Stallone in 2013 alone (Bullet To The Head, The Escape Plan, Grudge Match).  It appears the only way for these Geri-action stars to connect at the box office is when you put all of them together into a single film (The Expandables).

Expendables 3 on tap for August..... And I am sure I wills ee it, they first two for lots of fun.

thejokeriv wrote:

Expendables 3 on tap for August..... And I am sure I wills ee it, they first two for lots of fun.

I'm sure it will do just fine at the box office.

S.D. wrote:

thejokeriv wrote:

Expendables 3 on tap for August..... And I am sure I wills ee it, they first two for lots of fun.

I'm sure it will do just fine at the box office.

Ya think? How much more blood can they squeeze out of those old stones? Are there any 80's action heros they haven't tapped yet? Steven Segal is too busy running for mayor now. What's Kurt Thomas been up to since 'Gymkata' wrapped?

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Ya think? How much more blood can they squeeze out of those old stones? Are there any 80's action heros they haven't tapped yet? Steven Segal is too busy running for mayor now. What's Kurt Thomas been up to since 'Gymkata' wrapped?

We'll just have to wait and see how Expendables 3 does. As long as the franchise makes money they will continue, but as soon as one of them flops the whole "Geri-Action" movement will cease to exist. It has been proven that solo films from these old farts don't sell (look at the numerous bombs from this year alone) so at this point the Expendables franchise is really all they have.

From what I understand, "Expendables 2" didn't do nearly as well as expected in the U.S., but it blew up bigtime overseas. Foreign markets are where it's at nowadays.