Summer 2012 Winners/Losers (cont.)
<< Continued from "Summer 2012 Winners/Losers"
Losers
Dark Shadows: Johnny Depp and Tim Burton's last collaboration, Alice in Wonderland, earned over $1 billion worldwide. While Dark Shadows was, as the title suggests, a bit darker, it's still inexcusable for these box office heavyweights to wind up with less than $240 million this time around.
Battleship: Turning a simple naval strategy board game in to a $200 million alien invasion movie a la Transformers never seemed like a good idea and, as expected, audiences completely rejected it at the U.S. box office. It earned a pathetic $65.2 million, which was even worse than star Taylor Kitsch's previous mega-budget sci-fi bomb John Carter ($73.1 million). Sure, it did fine business overseas ($237.6 million), but that wasn't enough to prevent a massive write-off for Universal.
Total Recall: Remaking Arnold Schwarzenegger movies is proving to be a really poor decision: Conan the Barbarian bombed last Summer with $21.3 million, and Total Recall didn't do much better with just $57 million this year. It's saving some face overseas, where it's earned over $100 million, but that's still chump change for an expensive sci-fi flick.
Rock of Ages, That's My Boy and The Watch: Tom Cruise and Adam Sandler are two of the biggest box office draws of the past two decades, and Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn are no slouches either. The fact that their three Summer 2012 movies earned less combined than Magic Mike indicates that star power really doesn't go that far if your movie looks terrible.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter: Genre mash-ups are a tricky business, and it was never clear who Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was for. History buffs? Vampire lovers? Wanted fans? Turns out it wasn't for anyone, really, and it wound up grossing a terrible $37.5 million.
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World: Steve Carell decided to leave The Office in 2011, but after Seeking a Friend for the End of the World was quickly disappeared from theaters with just $7.1 million, he might be reconsidering that move a bit.
Toss-Ups
The Amazing Spider-Man: Even with 3D ticket pricing, the Spider-Man reboot is the first in the franchise to wind up below $300 million at the domestic box office. Still, it's on pace to earn over $750 million worldwide, which is more than enough to justify the sequel that's currently scheduled for May 2014.
Brave: With over $232 million, Brave is Disney/Pixar's 10th movie to cross the $200 million mark. Unfortunately, it wasn't able to gain much traction overseas, and it will be the lowest-grossing Pixar movie there since 2006's Cars.
MIB 3: A decade of ticket price inflation and the addition of 3D still couldn't keep MIB 3 from being the lowest-grossing entry in the franchise at the domestic box office ($178.9 million). At the same time, it cleaned up overseas with $445 million, reaffirming what an international superstar Will Smith is.
Snow White and the Huntsman: The movie nearly cleared $400 million worldwide, making it one of the highest-grossing original movies of the Summer. It was pricey, though, and the odd rumblings surrounding the sequel (or Huntsman-only spin-off) suggest it probably isn't an unqualified success.
Prometheus: Following a series of insanely cool trailers and viral clips, expectations for Prometheus got a bit out of hand; for a dark R-rated sci-fi movie, $126.4 million at the domestic box office and $225 million (and counting) overseas is a solid haul.
The Bourne Legacy: The jury is still out on the Bourne spin-off/reboot; it has yet to hit $100 million through four weeks in theaters, and it's going to have a tough time matching The Bourne Identity's $121.7 million total. Still, it has a long way to go overseas, and could wind up slightly profitable. The prospects of another Bourne movie with Jeremy Renner will still be up in the air, though, if only because audience members mostly walked out going "What the hell?" instead of "Can't wait for the next one!"
The Expendables 2: Unlike its predecessor, The Expendables 2 is going to ultimately fall short of $100 million at the domestic box office. Toss in strong overseas numbers, though, and the movie will likely do well enough to get a pass.
Discuss this story with fellow Box Office Mojo fans on Facebook. On Twitter, follow us at @boxofficemojo, and follow author Ray Subers at @raysubers.
Related Stories:
• Awful August Ends Summer 2012
• Five $50 Million Debuts Propel June Business
• 'Avengers' Accounts for Over Half of May 2012 Grosses
• Summer 2012 Domestic Forecast
• Summer 2012 Foreign Forecast
Related Charts
• Summer Calendar Grosses
• 2012 Grosses (2012-only releases)
• Year-to-Date Comparison
Losers
Dark Shadows: Johnny Depp and Tim Burton's last collaboration, Alice in Wonderland, earned over $1 billion worldwide. While Dark Shadows was, as the title suggests, a bit darker, it's still inexcusable for these box office heavyweights to wind up with less than $240 million this time around.
Battleship: Turning a simple naval strategy board game in to a $200 million alien invasion movie a la Transformers never seemed like a good idea and, as expected, audiences completely rejected it at the U.S. box office. It earned a pathetic $65.2 million, which was even worse than star Taylor Kitsch's previous mega-budget sci-fi bomb John Carter ($73.1 million). Sure, it did fine business overseas ($237.6 million), but that wasn't enough to prevent a massive write-off for Universal.
Total Recall: Remaking Arnold Schwarzenegger movies is proving to be a really poor decision: Conan the Barbarian bombed last Summer with $21.3 million, and Total Recall didn't do much better with just $57 million this year. It's saving some face overseas, where it's earned over $100 million, but that's still chump change for an expensive sci-fi flick.
Rock of Ages, That's My Boy and The Watch: Tom Cruise and Adam Sandler are two of the biggest box office draws of the past two decades, and Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn are no slouches either. The fact that their three Summer 2012 movies earned less combined than Magic Mike indicates that star power really doesn't go that far if your movie looks terrible.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter: Genre mash-ups are a tricky business, and it was never clear who Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was for. History buffs? Vampire lovers? Wanted fans? Turns out it wasn't for anyone, really, and it wound up grossing a terrible $37.5 million.
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World: Steve Carell decided to leave The Office in 2011, but after Seeking a Friend for the End of the World was quickly disappeared from theaters with just $7.1 million, he might be reconsidering that move a bit.
Toss-Ups
The Amazing Spider-Man: Even with 3D ticket pricing, the Spider-Man reboot is the first in the franchise to wind up below $300 million at the domestic box office. Still, it's on pace to earn over $750 million worldwide, which is more than enough to justify the sequel that's currently scheduled for May 2014.
Brave: With over $232 million, Brave is Disney/Pixar's 10th movie to cross the $200 million mark. Unfortunately, it wasn't able to gain much traction overseas, and it will be the lowest-grossing Pixar movie there since 2006's Cars.
MIB 3: A decade of ticket price inflation and the addition of 3D still couldn't keep MIB 3 from being the lowest-grossing entry in the franchise at the domestic box office ($178.9 million). At the same time, it cleaned up overseas with $445 million, reaffirming what an international superstar Will Smith is.
Snow White and the Huntsman: The movie nearly cleared $400 million worldwide, making it one of the highest-grossing original movies of the Summer. It was pricey, though, and the odd rumblings surrounding the sequel (or Huntsman-only spin-off) suggest it probably isn't an unqualified success.
Prometheus: Following a series of insanely cool trailers and viral clips, expectations for Prometheus got a bit out of hand; for a dark R-rated sci-fi movie, $126.4 million at the domestic box office and $225 million (and counting) overseas is a solid haul.
The Bourne Legacy: The jury is still out on the Bourne spin-off/reboot; it has yet to hit $100 million through four weeks in theaters, and it's going to have a tough time matching The Bourne Identity's $121.7 million total. Still, it has a long way to go overseas, and could wind up slightly profitable. The prospects of another Bourne movie with Jeremy Renner will still be up in the air, though, if only because audience members mostly walked out going "What the hell?" instead of "Can't wait for the next one!"
The Expendables 2: Unlike its predecessor, The Expendables 2 is going to ultimately fall short of $100 million at the domestic box office. Toss in strong overseas numbers, though, and the movie will likely do well enough to get a pass.
Discuss this story with fellow Box Office Mojo fans on Facebook. On Twitter, follow us at @boxofficemojo, and follow author Ray Subers at @raysubers.
Related Stories:
• Awful August Ends Summer 2012
• Five $50 Million Debuts Propel June Business
• 'Avengers' Accounts for Over Half of May 2012 Grosses
• Summer 2012 Domestic Forecast
• Summer 2012 Foreign Forecast
Related Charts
• Summer Calendar Grosses
• 2012 Grosses (2012-only releases)
• Year-to-Date Comparison
