Something pretty concerning is going on at the box office right now — all the movies starring A-list actors are bombing. Think about it. First, there was The Smashing Machine, which was headlined by one of the biggest stars of our time, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (and Emily Blunt). It had Oscar buzz, good reviews, and was produced by a hip studio — A24. The result? $11 million at the box office in its entire run, on a budget that was at least $50 million (not including promotion).
Then there was Roofman, starring Channing Tatum. Again, great reviews, another A-lister as his co-star (Kirsten Dunst), and this time it was seemingly commercial. It’s going to top out at around $20 million.
The list goes on and on. There’s After the Hunt, starring Julia Roberts, which has only made just over $2 million domestically; Good Fortune, which starred both Keanu Reeves and Seth Rogen, but has only squeezed out $11 million so far; and then there’s the disaster of Tron: Ares, which will no doubt go down as the biggest money loser of the fall movie season. Things were compounded this weekend when Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, which most assumed was fairly commercial, stumbled out of the gate with a $9.1 million opening.
So what’s going on here? It seems — to me anyway — to be a mix of elements. For one thing, the movies Hollywood thinks are “commercial” may not be. The Smashing Machine could have appealed to UFC fans, but Mark Kerr comes from another era. The Rock should have brought people in, but it’s not an action movie. The best bet would have been for A24 to give it a slow platform release rather than a wide break. Roofman should have done better, and the same goes for Good Fortune and Deliver Me From Nowhere, but those seem to be the kinds of movies people are waiting to see on streaming. They will find an audience there — but it makes the kinds of movies opening in theaters rather uniform, as the only dependable genres seem to be horror and large-scale blockbusters. Yes, Tron flopped, but did anyone really think it would be a hit?
But aren’t movie stars important? I don’t know that they are. To me, there are precious few still out there, with perhaps Leonardo DiCaprio being on the list. Sure, some may point to the fact that One Battle After Another will likely lose money for WB, but it’s also — by far — the most successful would-be Oscar contender currently playing in theaters, and it’s the one with the strongest CinemaScore rating (A), meaning audiences are actually liking it.
So, where do we go from here? Will adult fare — from here on — be consigned only to streaming? I want to hear from you. Why do you think these movies tanked? Let us know in the comments.