It’s official: Damien Chazelle‘s “Babylon” is a box office bomb, and one of the biggest bombs of 2022, to be precise. The film made only $5.3 million over the four-day holiday weekend off a budget of $80 million. So, safe to say this one won’t turn a profit for Paramount. Of course, there are myriad reasons audiences didn’t show up for “Babylon” beyond it being Christmas, like the polar vortex last weekend or the film’s bloated three-hour runtime. Or maybe there’s little fanfare for a debaucherous epic ode to silent Hollywood?
READ MORE: ‘Babylon’ Review: Damien Chazelle’s Latest Is An Overlong, Overstuffed, Derivative Mess
It’s probably a mixture of all of the above. Still, three hours is a long time in a movie theater (especially if another, more anticipated three-hour movie, “Avatar: The Way Of Water,” also hit theaters the weekend before “Babylon”). Interesting news, then, that Variety (via EW) reports that Chazelle says he made a shorter version of “Babylon” in his backyard to prep before the film’s official shoot. Chazelle’s prep version of the film, clocking in at only two hours, also stars just two of the film’s stars. Diego Calva plays his up-and-coming producer Manny Torres, while Chazelle’s wife, Olivia Hamilton, plays director Ruth Adler, as they do in the “Babylon” in theaters now.
“It’s a very tight, two-hour version of the entire movie, [filmed] on an iPhone in our backyard,” the director told EW. “We rehearsed the whole movie in his backyard,” Calva affirmed. “It was a very uncommon kind of situation.” For those who saw “Babylon,” it’s hard to imagine a shorter, tighter version of the film, as Chazelle aims for the film to be as large and loose an opus as possible. Set in 1920s Hollywood, the film follows an array of characters and their respective rise and falls in the industry as moviemaking transitions from silent film to sound. The film also stars Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Jovan Adepo, Jean Smart, Li Jun Li, Tobey Maguire, and more.
Maybe a two-hour version of “Babylon” would click better with critics and audiences, but the film would then lose so much of its identity. Chazelle’s latest is about excess, grandiosity, and the inherent monumentality of old Hollywood. Hence the 189-minute runtime, the film’s prolonged debauchery, and the film’s arguably overzealous staging. Critics remain divided about the film, and audiences apparently don’t want to screen it at all, but if “Babylon” were less bold, less vulgar, or less long, it wouldn’t be the same film.
But maybe audiences will come around to “Babylon” in 2023? Despite the critical division, the film still notched five Golden Globe nominations, including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. A win at the 80th rendition of that awards show on January 10 may persuade moviegoers to reconsider the film. Even then, “Babylon” isn’t for the faint of heart. Its fate may be a film too messy and delirious to win over the general audience.
