Basically on the first (or second, if I’m lazy) of every month, I take a look back three months at the films that have basically already made their lasting impact on the box office. These films have typically already fallen out of theatres, so I can already pass judgment on them. I generally only do wide releases, because limited releases just aren’t really fair.
If you’re just joining us, I’ll judge a film as either a Mega-Hit, a Hit, Even, a Disappointment, or a Flop. Five levels.
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2
It surpassed the gross of the original both domestically and worldwide. It’s currently the 28th highest grossing film of all time, domestically, and 54th worldwide. With 387.9M domestic and 860M worldwide, this is one of the easiest calls I’ll be doing.
STATUS: Mega-Hit
King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword
Guy Ritchie’s misguided adaptation reportedly cost 175M to make. Wow. It made 39M domestically, and a total of 143M worldwide. Even with the worldwide totals factored in, this film failed to prove itself a hit… anywhere. More and more recently, we see a film that bombs in America, but is saved by an overseas redirection. That didn’t happen with King Arthur. This was supposed to launch a franchise. It won’t.
STATUS: Flop
Snatched
Amy Schumer’s big screen follow-up to Trainwreck had Mother’s Day working in its favor. Still, people stayed away. Even the return of Goldie Hawn couldn’t excite people. Luckily, the budget wasn’t too bad, at only 42M. So, with a worldwide gross of 59M (before home video), we’re not looking as bad as King Arthur. It’s nothing to celebrate, but it’s not nearly as big of a failure.
STATUS: Disappointment
Alien Covenant
So, we have no idea what the status is of the Alien franchise. Will there be more sequels? Who knows. On one hand, Alien Covenant failed to even break 100M domestically, finishing with 74M. It did manage some coin overseas, and has a worldwide gross of 232M off a 97M budget. However, before we go calling it a hit, let’s look at Prometheus, which had a 126M domestic, and a 403M worldwide gross. So even though Alien Covenant did OK, it didn’t come near Prometheus.
STATUS: Even
Diary Of A Wimpy Kid 4: The Long Haul
I’m going to guess there will be no more Wimpy Kid movies. Previously, the film declined with each entry, but it REALLY declined here when it abandoned the original cast. The third entry made 49M domestically while the 4th entry left with 20M domestic. THe opening weekend of the 4th was also half what the third was. These films don’t do much overseas, but Wimpy Kid 4 did add some money and finished with 37M worldwide. That’s below the 3rd, which had 72M worldwide. With a production budget of 22M though, it didn’t lose a lot of money for the studio. So, it avoids being called an outright flop.
STATUS: Disappointment
Everything Everything
Right out of the gate, Everything Everything has an advantage. It only cost 10M to make, which means the bar is REALLY low. With a domestic take of 34M and a worldwide of 51M, it actually did OK for its initial investment. Sure, it wasn’t this years The Fault In Our Stars or Me Before You, but the initial investment was really low. I’m not going to say it was a hit, but I don’t think the studio is mad at anyone related to this film.
STATUS: Even
Pirates Of The Caribbean 5: Dead Men Tell No Tales
What you need to know going in is that the second and fourth entries in this series made over a billion dollars each worldwide. Also, the fifth entry made more money worldwide than the first entry did. However, domestically, it is the lowest grossing of the series, and the first to fail to make even 200M. It also had the lowest opening weekend since the first film. So, it didn’t do too hot domestically, but with a worldwide gross of 776M, it’s hard to ignore that this film did make bank at the box office. In fact, it ranks 72nd on the All-Time Worldwide grosses. It might be the final Pirates film, and not fondly remembered, but it didn’t flop. In fact, it actually did quite well.
STATUS: Hit
Baywatch
And my most controversial pick is last. Of course it is. So here’s the thing. I fully acknowledge that Baywatch opened to only 18M and made 58M domestically. However, what I’ll counter with is that this film was budgeted well at only 69M, and was a semi-hit overseas finishing with a worldwide take of 173M, more than 100M over its budget. So while you may want to shit on Baywatch, Dwayne Johnson is still a bankable star in foreign territories, where comedies usually don’t sell. Fun fact: Baywatch made more money in foreign territories than Central Intelligence did. And that was actually a hit domestically. The combination of the Baywatch brand (recognizable overseas) with Johnson caused a rare comedic hit overseas.
STATUS: Even
