What caused 'the summer of flops?'

[StrawberryBlond 14,899]

It has been well documented by now that many movies released in summer 2023 were inexplicably underperforming. This was odd as summer is usually a very profitable time for cinemas what with kids being away from school, people being on breaks and wanting to stay out later at night. What's worse is that many of these  involved starry casts, were part of profitable series with major budgets and marketing and promotional costs, so failure to sell tickets is an even bigger disaster. However, not everyone truly seems to understand what the final total should look like for a successful movie. It needs to do more than meet its budget. The budget doesn't factor in promotional budgets and the movies aiming to be major successes will have an eyewatering bill for that kinda stuff. Overall, industry experts claim that a movie needs to make 2x its budget in order to just begin to be considered a success but the aim is to make much more than that figure. So, here's a rundown of the biggest budget movies of the summer with their budget alongside them as well as whether they met their budget and how much of a success or failure they were. I've only included movies that cost $100 million or more to make to show how big of an issue this was. Here they are ranked from biggest flop to biggest hit:

Spoiler

13. Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny - Production budget: $295-300 million  Overall budget: $400 million+?  Amount needed for profit: $800 million+  Box office: $383.9 million Verdict: $416.1 million below expectations  Status: MAJOR FLOP

12. The Flash - Production budget: $200-220 million  Overall budget: $300 million+?  Amount needed for profit: $600 million+  Box office: $270.6 million  Verdict: $329.4 million below expectations  Status: MAJOR FLOP

11. The Little Mermaid - Production budget: $297 million  Overall budget: $437 million  Amount needed for profit: $874-900 million  Box office: $569.6 million  Verdict: $304.4 million below expectations  Status: MAJOR FLOP

10. Haunted Mansion - Production budget: $150-160 million  Overall budget: $180 million?  Amount needed for profit: $360 million  Box office: $117.3 million  Verdict: $242.7 million below expectations  Status: MAJOR FLOP

9. Blue Beetle - Production budget: $104 million  Overall budget: $154 million?  Amount needed for profit: $308 million+?  Box office: $129.3 million  Box office: $178.7 million below expectations  Status: MODERATE FLOP

8. Fast X - Production budget: $340 million  Overall budget: $400 million+?  Amount needed for profit: $800-850 million  Box office: $714.1 million  Verdict: $85.9 million+ below expectations  Status: MODERATE FLOP

7. Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One - Production budget: $291 million  Overall budget: $300 million+?  Amount needed for profit: $600 - 650 million  Box office: $567.5 million  Verdict: $32.5 million+ below expectations  Status: MODERATE FLOP

6. Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts - Production budget: $195-200 million  Overall budget: $230 million+  Amount needed for profit: $460 million+  Box office: $439 million  Verdict: $21 million below expectations Status: MODERATE FLOP

5. Elemental - Production budget: $200 million  Overall budget: $220 million+?  Amount needed for profit: $440 million+  Box office: $494.7 million  Verdict: $54.7 million+ above expectations  Verdict: MODERATE HIT

4. Meg 2: The Trench - $129-130 million  Overall budget: $150 million?  Amount needed for profit: $300 million+?  Box office: $395 million  Box office: $95 million above expectations  Status: MODERATE HIT

3. Spiderman: Across The Spider-Verse - Production budget: $100 million  Overall budget: 130 million+?  Amount needed for profit: $260-300 million  Box office: $690 million  Verdict: $430 million+ above expectations  Status: SUCCESSFUL HIT

2. Oppenheimer - Production budget: $100 million  Overall budget: $200 million  Amount needed for profit: $400 million  Box office: $947 million  Verdict: $547 million above expectations  Verdict: MAJOR HIT

1. Barbie - Production budget: $128-145 million  Overall budget: $295 million  Amount needed for profit: $590 million  Box office: 1.441 billion  Verdict: $851 million above expectations  Status: MAJOR HIT

As you can see, most movies this summer underperformed and even the ones on the borderline didn't do that great. It felt like Spiderman, Oppenheimer and Barbie were the only movies this year that everyone was talking about and everything else paled into insignificance. The fact the movies were aimed at 3 different demographics was surprising, though. And I've only included major productions. This doesn't even cover all the other smaller budget films released in the summer that also flopped. Now, I know some of you may think it was the audience supporting SAG-AFTRA by not going to the movies but most of these were released before the strike. Oppenheimer and Barbie were released when the strike was the most talked about and they were the 2 biggest hits of the summer. So, are people growing tired of the same formulaic outputs of successful franchises (you'll notice half of these entries are successful franchises aimed at males which have always done well until now)? Did people have less money to spend on pricey cinema tickets during the cost of living crisis? Did audiences not like casting of actors? Were the films not marketed well enough (personally I didn't even know there was going to be another Indiana Jones movie until about 2 weeks before release and I didn't see a single poster or tv spot)? Are people simply finding going to the cinema to be outdated and would rather wait until it's on streaming services? A mixture of all these things? Is there a reason I haven't listed? Share your thoughts.

[nATAH 50,078]

the flops are either remakes or sequels of franchises that have been milked to the bone

[Illuminati 15,936]

Maybe if they came up with something new it would have done better

[heygurlhi 3,200]

Spoiler

AND MAKE IT LAAAME!!!!

 

[4th Time Around 4,525]

Because people are tired of using the brand name of franchises to push mediocre productions that are a shame and an embarrassment to the legacy of greatness that made a franchise successful to begin with. 

[MessyTop 14,389]

The strike. They couldn’t do any promo or press for any movies. Period 

[Rat Boy 43,594]

Too many remakes. 

[Frey 65]

I think going to the movies for entertainment has been budgeted out of too many people’s lives… when I went with my sister, brother in law + their kids to see Barbie,  I paid just above or just below 200$ for all of our tickets, snacks, & food.. I didn’t drive there but transportation is another expense added to the cost when going to the movies…  Gone are the days of going to see something just because it looks interesting…  I think the opposite from everyone above and think ‘comfort’ franchises/brands/movies will increase both in the amount of them made + the attendance of them.. The push stemming from the people who normally wouldn’t be able to afford going to the theatre's trying to make it work somehow in order to see whatever it is bc they already love the franchise or brand, have nostalgia for it,  etc… 

[SimonBaetens 8,718]

8 hours ago, NATAH said:

the flops are either remakes or sequels of franchises that have been milked to the bone

This, plus economic crisis and the rise of streaming services.

[Mother of Puppies 36,460]

I think a lot of them lack a marketing strategy. The Barbie movie was everywhere- you couldn’t miss it. I’ve had ads for it in my bumble messages lol

[PunkTheFunk 124,496]

Speaking for myself, I no longer go to the movie theatre for movies that I'm not completely stoked about. I really wanted to see Barbie so I did. If there's a movie that I'm on the fence about, I'll just wait until it's on streaming. 10 or 15 years ago, I would have seen the latter in theatres too because I wasn't going to buy the DVD or wait until it played on TV.

[Karl 3,421]

Like others have said, I think the lack of many original ideas didn't help. And I think cinemas now are regarded as places to go for event films, the mid tier blockbusters most people will just stream. It's a real shame for the industry but it's their own fault really, I will say though independent cinemas that are showing indie and arthouse films are still thriving, so real film fans are probably opting for those kinds of films.

[StrawberryBlond 14,899]

7 hours ago, Mother of Puppies said:

I think a lot of them lack a marketing strategy. The Barbie movie was everywhere- you couldn’t miss it. I’ve had ads for it in my bumble messages lol

That's what it all comes down to. If people aren't going to the cinema like they used to, the industry needs to make us care and make us aware of these movies existence. It doesn't even need to be a good movie, you just have to sell it right. Advertising is nowhere near as hard-hitting as it was when I was a kid, it's like you have to seek out films you're interested in these days to know what's coming out because the rest of the media isn't going to tell you. I really don't get it. Barbie truly broke the mould that's been forming for a while by having a marketing budget that was through the roof, advertising everywhere, doing collab deals with major brands, spending more on the marketing than they did on the movie. The fact they had the most successful movie of the year despite not being able to have the actors do interviews due to the strike tells you how much general marketing is what really makes people want to see a movie. If more movies did a Barbenheimer move in future, we might get more big blockbusters (provided they're for 2 different demographics) if people feel they're part of a phenomenon. 

4 hours ago, PunkTheFunk said:

Speaking for myself, I no longer go to the movie theatre for movies that I'm not completely stoked about. I really wanted to see Barbie so I did. If there's a movie that I'm on the fence about, I'll just wait until it's on streaming. 10 or 15 years ago, I would have seen the latter in theatres too because I wasn't going to buy the DVD or wait until it played on TV.

Definitely agree. I only really want to see a movie nowadays if it's one that I've been ready for or it's my birthday. If I'm remotely unsure about it, it's not worth taking the risk, not at £11 a ticket, not even including fuel costs to get there and back and possibly popcorn too. I think also, with the ease of watching at home, we're more likely to immediately categorise a movie as "cinema viewing" or "at home viewing." Cosy dramas without action sequences do not need to be seen on the big screen and are more suited for watching on the sofa on a lazy Sunday. That tends to be why movies aimed at the elderly demographic earn peanuts in cinemas. It's not that old people don't want to watch a movie, they just don't see the point of going and would rather watch it from the comfort of their home when they're at an age where they don't want to move and are unsettled by full volume. 

[ThisGuyTony 30,970]

I expect Aquaman, Wish, and Marvels to be huge flops as well. 💀

Barbie and Oppenheimer built hype due online memes and lots of promo. They also use very minimal CGI. Most movies that use CGI nowadays look so cheap and are indistinguishable from each other. I think those movies look very different than some of the other movies we’ve seen this year. 

The others are sequels that people are getting tired of (Indiana Jones, Fast X, Mission Impossible, Transformers).

The Flash and Little Mermaid had their own controversies which I think steered some people away from them.

Elementals was a “flop” from release week but it held up well and looks like it still did decent overall due to online hype and not being pulled from theaters ASAP.

[Morphine Prince 106,305]

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this already but although I do think some of the reasons stated above have some truth to them, I think one of the biggest factors is COVID. Production budgets were increased during the pandemic and made the cost of making these movies skyrocket.

Even if a movie makes a decent amount of money, it can't break even or create a profit due to the high production budget and marketing costs.

These companies are just cutting some losses with these flops at this point.