So which of the big blockbusters did you catch this summer? Ghostbusters? Star Trek Beyond? The BFG? None of the above? If it’s the latter you’re not the only one. This would appear to have been a pretty poor summer for the Hollywood. Roughly a billion dollar loss-making summer in fact.
That’s what Bloomsberg has been reporting, using figures from the movie industry website The Numbers. Estimated losses this summer come in at $915.6m (the best part of £700bn in sterling), thanks to big losses on films like Star Trek Beyond, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows and outright winner in the losing stakes Ben-Hur, which is projected to be down $120m.
This is a deficit significantly up from last year’s which came in at $546.3m (£411m) and suggests something is wrong with the current Hollywood model of big budgets, sequelitis and rebooting pre-existing film, TV and comic book properties.
Schadenfreude, you might think. That’s what you get for giving the audience big-budget big-gamble “products” that sacrifice complexity, narrative coherence and, often, characterisation for empty spectacle and bland drama designed expressly not to offend rather than to genuinely engage.
That’s what you get for cultivating a fanboy audience who react like spoilt nasty brats when someone dares tamper with their childish tastes in a way they don’t approve of (see the frankly toxic racist and sexist online trolling that dogged the all-female Ghostbusters reboot). That’s what you get for beating a formula to death (superheroes, superheroes and more superheroes).
Time for a few caveats though. Firstly, some of these figures have been disputed by the studios themselves. Studio insiders have suggested that Ben-Hur’s losses will be closer to $75m (£56.4m). The final box office returns won’t be known until the film fully circles the globe (Ben-Hur has just opened in the UK after all). Estimates are, in the end, just estimates.
If the $75m deficit proves correct that means that Paramount, the film studio behind Ben-Hur, will be out around $13m (or less than £10m) because of the way studios spread the risk via multiple investors.
There have been notable successes too, most notably Finding Dory. Oh, and Captain America: Civil War (which suggests that there isn’t quite as much superhero fatigue as you might think). Even the much slated Suicide Squad has done well at the box office. Bad reviews are not necessarily a problem. (Somewhere in this building our own Alison Rowat is laughing hysterically at the very idea.)
On top of that there are some encouraging numbers in amongst the misery. The cliché is that the Hollywood model has only two gears: the blockbuster and the Oscar-baiting prestige picture. But there are still mid-level genre films punching above their weight. Specifically the American horror movie.
Dollar for dollar, horror movie Lights Out, made for a very modest $4.9m (£3.69m) has been the most successful film of the summer, while Don’t Breathe (costing less than $10m), which has just opened here, is top of the box office in the US at the moment.
It would be something if Hollywood took these successes as a reason for widening the film ecology, varying the level of investment and backing smaller, perhaps even more adventurous films. The reality, though, will be Lights Out II, coming to a cinema near you next summer.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here