The “Superman” budget shows that Hollywood hasn’t learned its lesson
The 2016 Ghostbusters reboot cost Sony $70 million, disrupting the franchise in the process.
The film grossed $128 million in the United States and another $100 million overseas. So why all this red ink? The film cost a lot, and the box office couldn’t split the difference.
The 2021 remake, “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” earned about the same amount domestically but spawned the upcoming “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.”
Why? The latter film’s budget proved to be much more economical ($75 million versus the 2016 film’s $144 million).
You don’t need a cloak to spot Hollywood’s problem. Spend less on blockbusters, and you’re likely to make more money. Or lose less of your shirt.
Horror films have been successfully crossing this cycle for some time now, and genre films usually make huge profits. Even “Lisa Frankenstein,” an early 2024 flop ($9 million), won’t crush its studio thanks to its $13 million budget.
Tell that to the team behind “Superman.”
Director James Gunn’s ambitious Man of Steel reboot will cost the studio $363 million.
The film, which stars David Corensweet as the Man from Krypton, hopes to reboot the DCEU after the underperformance of “Black Adam,” “Blue Beetle,” “The Flash” and “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.”
No pressure, Mr. Gunn.
Except Gunn’s creative team made a huge mistake in starting production on an exorbitant budget. Gunn himself almost denied it, but the numbers seem legitimate.
Movies featuring Superman aren’t guaranteed to make the kind of money Warner Bros. needs. To overcome this huge budget.
2016’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” grossed $867 million globally, but the Chinese box office no longer generates the kind of money that bolsters the studio’s coffers. (China added nearly $100 million to this amount)
2017’s “Justice League,” an adventure film featuring Superman, grossed $661 million.
Can Superman defeat the high budgets?
Superhero fatigue is real, and we’re no longer seeing huge box office results from movies featuring colorfully costumed heroes.
In short, “Superman” begins at a distinct disadvantage. Can’t Warner Bros. Reminding us that a man can fly for less?
Recent films like “The Creator” ($80 million) and “Godzilla Minus One” ($15 million) have proven that blockbusters don’t need to spend huge amounts of money to look amazing.
All of this comes at a time when other high-budget films are struggling to turn a profit despite extensive franchise ties. Think “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” “Fast X,” “The Flash,” and “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Vol. 1.”
They all underwhelmed at the box office, making it difficult for their studios to make a profit.
The problem is real, and it won’t go away. This is especially true given the fickle nature of today’s theatrical audience.
Gunn, a skilled storyteller and industry expert, should have known better than to move forward with such an eye-popping price. Will it take more box office failures before industry executives start trimming those massive budgets?
If the “Superman” movie goes down, it could be a late wake-up call for the industry.
Photo by JB Valery on Unsplash
