A “Monster” Box-Office Meltdown!

This past weekend saw the release of the big-budget action film “Monster Trucks” – and it bombed, barely grossing $10-million dollars in nationwide release.

The problem was well known. Before Paramount even released this movie, their parent company Viacom wrote off $115-million, meaning they knew it wouldn’t make any money, so they took the loss on their 2016 taxes!

This is not an indictment of the film – as with every movie that fails, the intent was to create an entertaining piece of fiction for audiences to enjoy in theaters, but it’s is SO tough to know – two years in advance, when a film goes into production – what audiences will respond to, and they clearly DIDN’T respond to this. “Monster Trucks” is only the latest example of some wildly unsuccessful films being released!

2016’s $812-Million Writedown!

I posted a story showing how a handful of films in 2016 grossed $812-million LESS than they cost to make!

This disastrous remake of “Ben Hur” was one of many big $$$ debacles in 2016.

Click here to see the entire list of box-office bombs:

https://johnrieber.com/2016/09/02/how-to-lose-812-million-in-the-movie-business-2016s-tough-tough-year/

There are films that were legendary flops, like “The Adventures of Pluto Nash” with Eddie Murphy, and “Cutthroat Island” with Geena Davis – these films wrote off $100 million or more – huge amounts of money spent to make the films, with little in return. Even some of Hollywood’s legends took a big fall in 2016:

This article says “Beatty Is Back!” but Warren Beatty’s film “Rules Don’t Apply” was virtually ignored when it was released on Thanksgiving weekend – one of the worst opening weekends for a wide film release in history…here is the whole story:

https://johnrieber.com/2016/12/09/the-death-of-classic-hollywood-ladies-men-streaming-stars-and-warren-beattys-rules-dont-apply/

The business is certainly changing, and for the last decade, movie stars who were traditionally “box office gold” suddenly weren’t:

Arnold Schwarzenegger used to be the biggest star in the world, but after several post-Governor films tanked, he ended up hosting “The Celebrity Apprentice”…here is a look at stars like Arnold, Sylvester Stallone and their declining box office:

https://johnrieber.com/2013/02/05/the-action-80s-are-over-sly-and-arnolds-action-disasters-stallone-and-schwarzenegger-bomb/

Again, the nature of the movie business has changed, and movie stars are no longer guaranteed to generate big $$$. I wish the best for anyone releasing a movie these days: the business has changed so much that many big stars are now debuting their movies on demand!

Keanu Reeves made a great action movies called “Man Of Tai Chi”, which premiered on demand…and he’s not alone: James Franco, Brian DePalma, John Travolta and many more are doing the same – see more here:

https://johnrieber.com/2013/10/07/james-franco-keanu-reeves-ondemand-the-new-future-of-film/

There is now a financial opportunity to release movies directly into the home, saving millions in marketing costs.

In many cases, these are really good films, and this new trend could actually help filmmakers get their movies in front of an audience.

As I’ve said, the business is changing so much: isn’t an indictment of “Monster Trucks” or the filmmakers at all – everyone WANTS to make a successful film, but the marketplace is so difficult to judge, and who knows? The film could be a huge hit overseas…time will tell.

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