Maxance Vincent
It’s another weekend of duds at the theaters, both critically and commercially. Of course, all eyes were on Marc Webb‘s remake of Snow White, finally gracing our screens this weekend. And while initial projections weren’t amazingly high, predicting a $50 million domestic opening, the movie fell way below and only made $43 million out of a whopping $270 million budget. The global tally isn’t great, either, with its total gross currently standing at…$87 million. Damn.
While I certainly didn’t enjoy the movie very much (and you can read my review on this website here), there was some hope that families would be swayed to take their children to see the movie, but not even they showed up for it. Is it a rejection of the film itself or Disney remakes as a whole? Time will tell because Disney has another remake on its hands coming very soon in Dean Fleischer Camp‘s Lilo & Stitch (whose fanbase is vastly underestimated, by the way). A broader picture of the state of Disney’s live-action empire could be painted after this film releases, and we get a better sense of how the public feels about their current state.
Though Snow White didn’t perform very well, Disney could at least breathe a sigh of relief that they are not in the dire situation Warner Bros. Discovery is in with David Zaslav‘s long-cherished passion project, The Alto Knights, which was in development since the 1970s, bombed horrifically in its opening weekend. The film made a spectacularly terrible $3.1 million gross out of a $45 million budget, with its global tally at $5.1 million. OUCH.
The film did not receive the best reviews, but you would think that the star power of Robert De Niro and the directorial talent of Barry Levinson would be enough to draw audiences into watching a movie of this stature, which, if it was marketed properly, could be positioned as another once-in-a-lifetime event in the vein of Martin Scorsese‘s The Irishman. However, the film barely had any form of promotion, which is strange considering that this is, again, the CEO’s passion project. If Zaslav loved the movie so much, then I would’ve expected to see a massive promotional boost to raise awareness of the film’s existence, but it barely had a blip in the radar.
Sometimes, one factor is evident in a film’s underperformance. In the case of The Alto Knights, it’s easy to understand why people didn’t see it. Other times, it’s a mixture of elements that makes it hard to grasp who’s the number one culprit, as in Snow White. Some will blame the film’s multiple controversies about its stars, Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot. Others will point the finger at the Disney remake machine, which is exhausting audiences. There will also be people who will say it’s a mixture of both, and large budgets are making it increasingly difficult for movies to turn a profit.
Whatever it is, the moviegoing industry is going through an increasingly difficult patch. Jingling keys and making endless sequels and remakes will not fix this problem when audiences are shunning them. Making less expensive movies would certainly help, as it would bolster creativity in front of the camera, but it’s also not the solution. I cannot pretend to know everything, but there needs to be some internal discussions on the future of the moviegoing experience — and fast — if this industry is willing to be saved. Otherwise, when more theatres begin to shutter, it will be a rude awakening for many. By then, however, reversing the trend will be too late.
Here is the full list of the top ten films of the weekend:
- Snow White (Disney): $43M – 4,200 theatres
- Black Bag (Universal): $4.4M (-42%) – 2,713 theatres
- Captain America: Brave New World (Disney): $4.1M (-28%) – 2,900 theatres
- Mickey 17 (Warner Bros): $3.9M (-48%) – 2,584 theatres
- Novocaine (Paramount): $3.7M (-57%) – 3,369 theatres
- The Alto Knights (Warner Bros): $3.1M – 2,651 theatres
- The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie (Ketchup Entertainment): $1.8M (-42%) – 2,703 theatres
- The Monkey (NEON): $1.54M (-38%) – 1,452 theatres
- Dog Man (Universal): $1.5M (-41%) – 1,766 theatres
- The Last Supper (Emick): $1.3M (-52%) – 1,575 theatres
Source: Comscore
Damn, I feel bad for the two ladies of West Side Story. They’re both beautiful and talented but have had a rough go of it these last few years with a shocking number of bombs to their résumés.
Rachel Zegler has not only become the latest target of reactionary internet dorks and will be blamed for the failure of a movie that was destined to blow long before she was even cast in it, but has starred in exactly one box office success so far in her film acting career: The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. That’s it. And she’s not going to be in the next one.
Meanwhile, Ariana DeBose somehow got stuck with I.S.S., Wish, Argylle, Kraven the Hunter, and Love Hurts since winning a freakin’ Oscar.
They both seriously need to get new agents…