Best: “Beauty and the Beast” actually overachieves
Everyone knew that the live action version of the Disney franchise was going to be a big hit, but even the most optimistic pundits would have guessed a $504 million U.S. and $1.2 billion worldwide gross. Besides “Furious 7” (a late April release) no film has ever grossed that much outside of the summer or Thanksgiving/Christmas timeframe. The Bill Condon directed musical set a new bar for Disney’s live-action releases, but we think Jon Favreau’s “The Lion King” might surpass it.
Best: Spidey has a comeback with “Spider-Man: Homecoming”
It still fell short of the Sam Raimi “Spider-Man” films (barely), but the Marvel Studios produced “Spider-Man: Homecoming” did pretty well considering it was the sixth Spidey film in 15 years and the third over the last five years alone. ‘Homecoming’ featured the third Web Slinger in Tom Holland (we’ve only had two James Bonds and two Batmans in that time span) and it goes without saying that the Marvel Studios brand helped with the core fanbase. The reboot earned $334.2 million domestic and $880 million global which was just behind “Spider-Man 3’s” $335.5 million domestic and $890.8 million which was considered disappointing back in 2007. More importantly, it was a nice jump from the underperforming Marc Webb films which topped out with “The Amazing Spider-Man’s” $757.9 million in 2012.
Best: “Logan” shows R-rated Superhero movies don’t have to be funny
20th Century Fox was nervous about greenlighting a Wolverine movie without the hero’s name in the title, a movie that portrayed him as an older man barely able to put up a fight and one that would be intentionally R-rated. In fact, the studio approved just a $97 million budget – significantly less than the $120 million and $150 million of its predecessors – to potentially cover any losses. The March release date was also a tricky calculation considering any movie with Wolverine in it previously had opened in the summer. Luckily, director James Mangold and star Hugh Jackman delivered a critically acclaimed action drama that ended up taking in $226 million in the U.S. and $390 million worldwide and had Kevin Feige once again having to answer questions if Marvel Studios would ever make an R-rated superhero film.
Worst: “Fate of the Furious,” “Pirates,” “Alien” and “Transformers” show franchise fatigue
Franchises are born and franchises die only to eventually be born again. In 2017, four particular franchises demonstrated they might need some major time off. The biggest disappointment was “Alien: Covenant” which took in just $240.7 million worldwide off a $97 million production budget. That means it got into the black, but thanks to high marketing only after ancillaries (VOD, digital downloads, TV rights, etc.) are factored in. “Transformers: The Last Night” earned just $605.4 million worldwide, but that’s misleading because $228 million of its gross was from China where studios only get a quarter of the receipts (the general split is 50/50 in the rest of the world). Considering its $217 million production budget and Michael Bay and Mark Wahlberg’s takes, no one believes Paramount made a considerable profit on the fifth film in the series. At first glance “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” looks like a hit with $172.5 million U.S. and $794.8 million global. And, truthfully, it barely recouped its costs with $172 million of its gross from China. More importantly, “Dead Men” was supposed to give the franchise new life after the critically maligned “On Stranger Tides” six years ago. Instead, it earned even less and no one is clamoring for a sixth installment. Last, but not least, “Fate of the Furious” took in a massive $1.2 billion worldwide, but $392 million of that was from China (again, do the math). Like “Pirates” it was still a moneymaker, but it’s U.S. gross of just $225 million was troublesome. That’s down $128 million from “Furious 7’s” $353 million (fueled by Paul Walker’s last appearance), but more notably $13 million less than 2013’s “The Fate of the Furious.” Clearly, the “Fate” movies are profitable and a powerful brand globally, but Universal has to be slightly concerned by the latest results.
Best: Universal keeps making money and no one is paying attention
It’s a good year when a studio releases 14 movies and only two of them don’t make money because, hey, at this point only Disney can go one calendar year without one bomb. With “Despicable Me 3,” “Get Out,” “Split,” “Girl’s Trip,” “Fifty Shades Darker,” “Happy Death Day,” “A Dog’s Purpose” (really) and eventually “Pitch Perfect 3” Universal had eight major home runs at the box office. The aforementioned “The Fate of the Furious” and the much-maligned “The Mummy” were also profitable thanks to global receipts. “American Made” at least broke even theatrically and, yes, it’s possible even “The Great Wall” will eventually do the same. The bombs were actually easy to swallow comparatively. “Thank You For Your Service” (a DreamWorks release with a $20 million production budget) and “The Snowman” ($35 million prod budget, but it shockingly has grossed $43 million worldwide). And next year? Just another “Fifty Shades” and “Jurassic World” for starters.
Best: “It” demonstrates broad horror resurgence
New Line and Warner Bros. had high hopes for the remake of Stephen King’s “It,” but they could never have dreamed it would earn a shocking $327.4 million and $698 million worldwide. That just doesn’t happen with movies that open on the second weekend of September no matter what the genre. Perhaps it was the stellar marketing campaign, the similar scenario to Netflix’s “Stranger Things” or maybe the world just wanted someone to scare them to forget everything going on outside their theater. Whatever the case, it proved that upscale horror along the lines of “The Conjuring” and “Insidious” franchises can not only gross $100 million but reach much, much higher.]