The image above is from the film “Sea of Trees” which opened in a few theaters last weekend, and completely disappeared by Friday. Starring Matthew McConaughey, Ken Watanabe and Naomi Watts, and directed by Gus Van Sant, and interestingly co-produced by F. Gary Gray, the film deals with two guys who travel to a forest near Mt Fiji in Japan known as the “Suicide Forest” to basically ends their lives. However they decide that it’s maybe not such a good idea after all, and try to find their way out.
When the film premiered at last year’s Cannes Film Festival (2015) in competition for the grand prize, it was met with jeers from the audience – a Cannes audience known for enduring almost anything. Some how the film eventually found distribution over a year later.
The reason I brought it up is because, the film arguably holds the title of the biggest summer bomb of 2016. Made for a reported $25 million, it grossed a pitiful $3000.
But when one looks at this summer films, there’s actually good news and bad news. The good news is that, in total, studios had an excellent season. Box office totals domestically hit $4.5 billion, which is the second highest box office total since 2014’s $4.8 billion. And total attendance reached 518 million, which is down 3% from last year, but way up from 2014.
The bad news is that there were a whole lot of major box office flops and, according the Hollywood Reporter, studios execs are very, very worried since they know that the bubble is going to burst at any minute; way too many remakes, reboots and sequels that just tanked; and convincing audiences to see original films is getting harder, especially now that cable and on demand TV have upped their game, attracting more and more viewers with original material, such as the wildly popular Netflix show “Stranger Things” which is a conscious throwback to the Steven Spielberg/Joe Dante films of the 1980’s, and HBO’s highly acclaimed “The Night Of.”
According the WGN Radio’s film critic and box office analyst Erik Childress, the biggest winners and losers this summer when comparing production costs with box office returns were:
WINNERS
1. The Secret Life of Pets (Universal – $75 million budget – $761.5 million worldwide)
2. Captain America: Civil War (Disney – $250 million budget – $1.15 billion worldwide)
3. Finding Dory (Disney – $200 million budget – $943.2 million worldwide)
4. The Conjuring 2 (WB – $40 million budget – $319.4 million worldwide)
5. Me Before You (WB – $20 million budget – $197.3 million worldwide)
6. Suicide Squad (WB – $175 million budget – $651.1 million worldwide)
7. The Angry Birds Movie (Sony – $73 million budget – $347 million worldwide)
8. Bad Moms (STX – $20 million budget – $140.1 million worldwide)
9. Lights Out (WB – $4.9 million budget – $126.1 million worldwide)
10. The Purge: Election Year (Universal – $10 million budget – $105.6 million worldwide)
THE LOSERS
1. Star Trek Beyond (Paramount – $185 million budget – $285.3 million)
2. The BFG (Disney – $140 million budget – $160.6 million worldwide)
3. Ben-Hur (Paramount – $100 million budget – $53.4 million)
4. Alice Through the Looking Glass (Disney – $170 million budget – $295.1 million)
5. Ghostbusters (Sony – $144 million budget – $218.9 million)
6. The Legend of Tarzan (WB – $180 million budget – $354.6 million)
7. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (Paramount – $135 million budget – $242.8 million)
8. Kubo and the Two Strings (Focus – $60 million budget – $39.7 million)
9. Free State of Jones (STX – $50 million budget – $20.8 million)
10. The Infiltrator (Broad Green – $47.5 million budget – $15.2 million)
To the list of winners, I would add the horror film “Don’t Breathe” (again No 1 this weekend), made for just under $10 million, but earning huge bucks; and the comedy “Sausage Party,” made for under $20 million, and posting some big numbers as well.
But how will the summer of 2017 fare, better or worse? So far it looks like more of the same ol’ same ol’. Remakes, reboots, sequels and of course comic book movies. There’s going to be a point when filmgoers tire of all that, and stay home en masse, watching Netflix instead. That was clearly evident this summer to a degree, and it’s only going to get worse. What will studios do then? God forbid they will go back to making original movies again! Oh no not that! Anything but that!
As for this weekend, as I just mentioned, “Don’t Breathe” was again no 1 at the box office with a small second weekend drop-off, making some $15.1 million, while “Suicide Squad” is still hanging in there in second place. But tell me this, what’s the deal? I thought everyone hated it; it’s still doing gangbusters business. Is it that people really do like it, or could it be that audiences these days can’t tell a good film from a bad one?
The other major releases this weekend completely died on arrival. “The Light Between Oceans” doing a paltry $5 million despite a starry cast and critically acclaimed director; and the horror film “Morgan”, directed by Ridley Scott’s son Luke, did even worse, grossing just under $2 million on over 2000 screens. The fact that studios withheld both films until the traditional worst weekend of the year to release a film, the Labor Day weekend, was a major sign that they had no confidence in either film.
As for “Southside with You,” though it opened on another 84 screens, the film fell 52%, landing in 19th place with about $1.4 million for a box office total so far of just over $5.1 million. The film is struggling because of the mixed word of mouth it’s been getting from filmgoers.
Though there are certainly those who love it, the main complaint among those who aren’t so high on it seems to be that it plays more like a modest TV movie than a feature film made for theatrical release. Audeinces were expecting something more apparently, and the fact that it deals with the early lives of the Obamas simply wasn’t enough. What do you say?
This weekend top 12 follow below:
1) Don’t Breathe SGem $15,700,000 Total: $51,123,952
2) Suicide Squad WB $10,005,000 Total: $297,422,209
3) Pete’s Dragon (2016) BV $6,471,000 Total: $64,222,939
4) Kubo and the Two Strings Focus $6,467,000 Total: $34,328,436
5) Sausage Party Sony $5,300,000 Total: $88,446,124
6) The Light Between Oceans BV $4,984,000
7) Bad Moms STX $4,740,000 Total:$102,527,194
8) War Dogs WB $4,705,000 Total: $35,217,809
9) Hell or High Water LGF $4,500,000 Total: $14,651,633
10) Mechanic: Resurrection LG/S $4,276,000 Total: $14,418,786
11) Jason Bourne Uni. $3,991,520 Total: $155,162,175
12) No Manches Frida LGF $3,650,000