- The 2022 box office saw a vast improvement over last year.
- But some movies haven’t given the theatrical industry much of a boost.
- Some have been outright flops, like “Moonfall,” and others underwhelmed, like “Lightyear.”
The box office is on the road to recovery after the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc on the theatrical industry.
Comscore is projecting the US box office to end the year with $7.2 billion — a vast improvement from last year’s $4.5 billion, but still far below the $11 billion total in 2019.
There were surprise successes this year, like the low-budget horror movie “Smile,” which made $216 million off of a $17 million budget.
But there have also been outright flops, some of which suggest audiences haven’t been turning out in droves for adult-oriented dramas and action movies. Those include the recent journalism drama “She Said” and Roland Emmerich’s “Moonfall.”
Other movies weren’t total disasters but underwhelmed, leaving the future of their respective franchises in question.
The latest “Fantastic Beasts” movie, “The Secrets of Dumbledore,” was the lowest-grossing “Harry Potter”-related movie in the franchise yet, and cost a hefty $200 million to product.
Disney and Pixar’s “Lightyear” cost $200 million to make, but made just $226 million worldwide — a disappointing figure for the “Toy Story” spinoff.
Some of these flops and disappointments were torn apart by critics. But others, like the Viking epic “The Northman” and the romantic comedy “Bros,” received favorable reviews.
Both were original, mid-budget, star-driven, adult-focused, movies that couldn’t drum up substantial interest in theaters. And that appears to be a theme throughout the industry that could be here to stay.
Another common theme: movies are being made available online much sooner than before the pandemic, whether on a steaming service or video-on-demand platform — especially if they flop in theaters.
Below are the year’s most notable box-office flops and disappointments, in release-date order (numbers are based on data from IMDb Pro):
Source link: https://www.businessinsider.com/biggest-box-office-flops-of-the-year-2022-5
