Loser: Paramount (Wide Release)
Paramount is usually the major studio that releases the fewest pictures; thus their overall worldwide grosses tend to be much lower. But in 2016, they released 13 films to Warner Bros. 10 and were still dwarfed in a major way. With no “Mission: Impossible” franchise film to their name, the studio struggled this year with their brand I.P. Their highest-grossing title of the year was “Star Trek Beyond,” which collected $343.5 million — compare that to “Jason Bourne,” which debuted to the same figures in its opening weekend, but the action spy film bested it by nearly $72 million. Even worse? “Star Trek Beyond” was the lowest-grossing film in the new series thus far. The rest of their slate suffered either major downward trends or were flat-out bombs. “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back” fell 27% from the first film and couldn’t even crack $60M stateside.
The ‘TMNT’ franchise turned into their “G.I. Joe” series — an I.P. that crashed in its second installment. 2014’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” hoarded an impressive $493M and nearly $200M at home. In comparison, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows” took in half that figure with $250M worldwide. Domestically, the plunge was even worse off the first film (-57%). Additionally, both “Zoolander 2” and “Ben-Hur” were huge flops ($28.8M and $26.4M respectively). Even with Brad Pitt, Robert Zemeckis‘ “Allied” couldn’t track either and died off at $39M at home. Overall: $1,439.4 billion, the lowest figure of any major studio.
Winner: Paramount (Indie)
At least Paramount have a solid Oscar contender in “Fences.” In less than three weeks of release, the Denzel Washington-starring film has already cleared $32 million and for a small drama like this one, these are incredible numbers. “Arrival,” having nearly crossed $150 million worldwide, has done terrific business as well, especially for a cerebral arthouse sci-fi film. There’s an outside shot that Martin Scorsese‘s “Silence” could be a minor Oscar contender, too, but so far it hasn’t dazzled in limited release and it’s far too esoteric for mainstream audiences.
Loser: Would-Be Franchises & Sequels No One Wanted
So I.P. is everything until it’s not — there’s always an exception to the rule at the box-office, and 2016 proved this again. The takeaways here should be: Don’t overestimate nostalgia for sequels arriving way past their sell-by date. Audiences just didn’t care for “Independence Day: Resurgence” (arriving 20 years after the fact), “Zoolander 2” (15 years later) “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2” (14 year later), and “Bad Santa 2” (13 years later). Additionally, the aforementioned “Warcraft” (which was envisioned as a trilogy), “Alice Through The Looking Glass,” “The Huntsman: Winter’s War,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows” and “Ghostbusters,” all sequels and franchises of some sort, flopped at home.
Winner: Dwayne Johnson & Kevin Hart
The Rock in particular is cooking and already poised to become one of the world’s biggest stars — even when he’s in more modest, small-scale comedies. “Central Intelligence” with Kevin Hart was a huge hit ($216.9 million, tiny $50M budget). “Moana,” which will have long legs, is still climbing at $403M worldwide, and Hart scored with “Ride Along 2” ($124M off a $40M budget)
Mini-Major Studios
Winner: Lionsgate
The mini-major reported more than half a billion dollars ($583.6M, and their figures are still coming in), including two huge wins: Mel Gibson’s comeback film, “Hacksaw Ridge” (several Golden Globe nominations, plus an outstanding $136 million worldwide) and “La La Land” (which earned $176,221 in its opening weekend, the second-highest per-screen average of all time after “The Grand Budapest Hotel”). Considering Damien Chazelle’s lauded musical is the frontrunner to win Best Picture at the Oscars, and is just getting started at the box office, the studio is looking like the mini-major winner of the year. Fun stat: “La La Land” has already outgrossed “Batman v Superman” and “Suicide Squad” in South Korea. Then there’s the unexpected hit, the indie neo-Western “Hell Or High Water.” Quietly released in August (not a great month for movies traditionally), ‘High Water’ still aggregated $27 million domestically, and there’s still vocal support for it at the Oscars, including Best Picture.
Mixed: STX
The STX narrative isn’t a good one. They’d never had a hit until this year with “Bad Moms” ($174.9 million worldwide) and they always seem to have films that are non-starters in the U.S. However, in 2016, the company — who is apparently flush with investment money, so they should be afloat for a few years regardless of performance — collected $289.5 million globally thanks to its aforementioned hit. Not too shabby. To no one’s surprise, a “Bad Moms” sequel has already been announced. Maybe they’re one film away from announcing a Bad Moms Cinematic Universe.
Winner: Focus Features
Focus Features generally boast critically acclaimed films and prestige, but two of their titles, “A Monster Calls” and “Loving,” look like they may fall short as Best Picture nominees (the former is doing next-to-no business so far in limited release). But “Loving” has done $7.5 million (and two major acting Golden Globe nods which could translate for the Academy), and “Nocturnal Animals” has earned $10 million (and scored Golden Globe nods including Best Director); plus, they had two big hits with “London Has Fallen” ($205 million worldwide) and “Kubo And The Two Strings” ($70M). Overall: A very strong $408.1M.
Loser: Relativity.
Stick a fork in them. They are done (their new President just quit, too).
Loser: The Weinstein Company
It’s no secret TWC is in trouble and at this point, maybe we should just consider them an indie studio and not a mini-major any longer. Harvey Weinstein’s company struggled in 2016, releasing only four movies, with two additional titles (“The Founder” and “Gold”) pushed into the dumping-ground season of January 2017 (though they each received cursory awards-consideration runs for one week last month). The studio, which usually relies heavily on their Oscar game, only grossed $19.8 million this year (though we suppose not bad for four indie films). And they at least have “Lion,” a Best Picture contender which has accumulated $6.7 million so far. Still, it’s not very impressive, and their glory is fading.
Winner: A24
Hits included “Moonlight,” “The Lobster,” “Swiss Army Man” and “Green Room,” while “The Witch” accumulated insane money for an indie — $40 million worldwide — and the horror chiller is now A24’s second-highest-grossing film ever domestically. One of their black eyes, however, was the Kristen Stewart and Nicolas Hoult-starring “Equals”: a dismal 30K overall (though presumably it performed better on VOD).
Winner: Amazon Studios
“Manchester By The Sea” has earned an outstanding $30 million so far. Casey Affleck has a strong chance of winning the Oscar for Best Actor, and the Kenneth Lonergan-directed film is a hit no matter what happens. This is a huge vote of confidence for Lonergan, who is coming off the debacle which was his last film, “Margaret,” which was delayed over a series of lawsuits and was dumped into cinemas by Fox Searchlight with barely any promotion. Couple that with the fact that ‘Manchester’ is Lonergan’s first film in over 10 years (‘Margaret’ was shot in 2005, though finally released in 2011), it’s an even sweeter comeback. Roadside Attractions, who handles many of Amazon’s theatrical releases, had a great year, too, however; “The Neon Demon” kinda flopped in limited release, but at least hauled in $1.3 million overall and presumably most audiences saw it on Amazon’s streaming platform. Just as an aside, it’s interesting to watch Amazon become an Oscar player, while Netflix, who tried once and failed with “Beasts Of No Nation,” seems to have given up at that game already (though we suppose they do have “13th” in the documentary category).
Winner: Indie Oscar Contenders
A24‘s “Moonlight,” a likely multiple Oscar nominee, took in $12.7 million so far and the drama has never been on more than 650 screens at one time. Right now, it’s their fifth-highest-grossing release, but if the Academy takes to it, which is very possible, it could challenge their number one (“Ex Machina” sits at $25M). Lionsgate’s “La La Land” is at a whopping $37 million so far, $64.8 million worldwide, and it’s never been on more than 750 screens in the U.S. so far. The same applies for films we have already discussed like ‘Manchester,’ “Hell Or High Water,” “Arrival,” “Lion,” and “Hacksaw Ridge,” all of which have done tremendous business thanks to their Oscar-contending buzz.
More Indie Winners: “Eye In The Sky” (an impressive $18.7M, one of the highest grossing indies of the year and Bleecker Street’s highest-grossing film ever), “The Lobster” ($9M; A24) “Love & Friendship,” ($14 million, A24/Roadside); “Hello, My Name Is Doris” ($14M; Roadside Attraction); “Swiss Army Man” ($4 million; A24); “Café Society” ($11.1M; Amazon/Lionsgate); “Hunt For The Wilderpeople” ($5.2 million and The Orchard’s highest grossing film by a mile); “The Meddler” ($4.2M; SPC); “Don’t Think Twice” ($4.4 million and The Film Arcade‘s all-time grossing film by about 25x) and “Embrace Of The Serpent” ($1.3 million and the third-highest-grossing film for Oscilloscope ever), to name just a few.
Indie losers/underperformers
“Everybody Wants Some!!” (Paramount); “I Saw The Light” (SPC), “Wiener-Dog” (IFC); “ Goat” (The Film Arcade); “Queen Of Katwe” (Disney); “American Honey,” “Voyage Of Time” (IMAX/BroadGreen); “Christine” (The Orchard); “American Pastoral” (Lionsgate) “Miss Sloane” (EuropaCorp); “Live By Night” (WB); “Julieta”(SPC); and “Equals,” to name a few.
**Note: the overall worldwide figures of each studio could be off slightly. Box Office Mojo, the principal guide for these numbers, says not all studios have reported their final figures, so numbers could vary from case to case.