By Julien Garcia
The Box Office, as well as the overall movie industry as a whole, has been a mixed bag this year. Some movies will show well in the box office, whether they deserve it or not. Others will get a terrible box office review whether they deserve it or not.
People are talking about how theaters are dying and everyone is converting to streaming as the price for theaters is increasing. I partially agree with that sentiment, especially with the increase in prices and detestable films (such as Borderlands) coming out, but people are still going to theaters—as seen firstly with Inside Out 2.
Inside Out 2 (Box Office $1,698,030,965)
Inside Out 2 earned the crown for the movie with the biggest box office this year (so far) but it is unlikely that any other feature will be able to top the film as it is the current 8th highest grossing film ever.
Inside Out 2 is a PG film distributed by Pixar/Disney that follows Riley, a young, tween girl going through an eternal battle with her emotions as Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, and Fear has had their operations thrown in a bunch when a group of new emotions (mainly Anxiety) take over and bottle Riley’s emotions.
The movie had a budget of $200 million (before advertising) and made around 8 times its budget at the box office. Not only that, but it was critically acclaimed and widely received well.
Borderlands (Box Office $32,978,510)
The complete opposite of being a success with critics and the box office would be Borderlands. The anticipation for this film was non-existent, fans of the series didn’t want it, average joes didn’t want it, and even people with no taste didn’t want it. This film was made for no one–you could find more people excited for paint drying rather than this film.
Not only was the box office performance terrible, but I could train a baboon to write better—a primate neanderthal has more brain power than whatever corporate suit thought of this script. Borderlands had a budget of $120 million dollars and had an opening week of 8 million dollars, then immediately went to streaming.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Box Office $173,775,791)
A movie that deserved the world but was casted to the dunes of the desert to die by a less- than-stellar box office. This film is good but has a terrible box office performance due to it being released at the same time as Garfeild.
This film is a prequel to George Miller’s 2015’s Mad Max Fury Road, following Furisosa—a girl who is taken from her home and must live with her captor Demenuts. This film is an action packed revenge story that most will enjoy—a truly great film left to die of starvation at the box office. With a budget of $168 million and takings of $173 million at the box office, this film was an utter failure.
Horror Films
I love Horror Films, even though they are not my favorite genre(probably #2). The genre has crushed the box office. Horror films are often looked over and disregarded. This means they have, on average, a smaller budget. Hollywood lives under the practice of more is more or big budget means big film, but that is not the case with horrors. Most of the films that have flopped this year were Hollywood blockbusters.
The closest to a Hollywood big budget film would be Alien: Romulus, which raked in a well deserved $350 million at the box office. Another favorite of mine would be Longlegs, which did amazing at the box office. A film with a $10 million budget (give or take) made $126,098,802 million dollars at the box office. For any other film, a $126 million box office would be terrible, but Long Legs made 12 fold its budget. MaXXXine, the newest in a trilogy of movies. The film, which had a $1,000,000 budget and made $22,000,000, was the highest grossing in the series. Movies that have done well are A Quiet Place: Day One, which raked in $261,786,322 on a $67 million budget, Terrifier 3, which made $82,435,232 on a $2 million dollar budget, and The Substance, which gained $49,632,657. A big personal favorite movie of mine this year Smile 2 brought in $137.5 million on a $28 million budget; go watch Smile 2-it’s great.
.This was a big year for Horror films, even Night Swim (a movie about a creepy swimming pool) made a profit with $54,758,317 at the box office.
Overall This year is a mixed bag for movies. You have amazing films like Deadpool & Wolverine absolutely crushing the box office with $1,337,870,481, and then you have the mistake that is Borderlands being outsold by the re-release of the masterpiece that is Coraline for its 15th anniversary. It is sad to see great movies like Fall Guy fumbling at the box office when people are too busy watching the abomination that is Kung Fu Panda 4, but it does put a smile on my face seeing Madame Webb and The Exorcism financially drown. So, watch good movies like Dune 2, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, or Alien: Romulus. Just, please, don’t watch Borderlands unless you truly loathe your existence.
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