Two-thousand-twenty-four is popping into the Yr of the Flop.
Costly comedian e-book motion pictures, starry comedies, Christmas fare, Westerns and auteur-driven sci-fi epics all spectacularly imploded. Main titles performed to a few dudes who snuck in at 11 a.m. Egos have been obliterated.
And the downward pattern began instantly.
Virtually as quickly as we have been achieved saying “Happy New Year!,” in early February got here Apple’s sputtering spy spoof “Argylle,” starring Henry Cavill and Bryce Dallas Howard.
That tedious misfire value $200 million earlier than advertising and marketing bills, and grossed simply $96 million.
Poor Tim Cook dinner. A number of months later, the iPhone firm’s $100 million “Fly Me to the Moon” with Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson tanked too. Apple didn’t even hassle placing the George Clooney-and-Brad Pitt-led “Wolfs” in theaters this summer season.
One other tectonic shift continued apace: The superhero style, as soon as invincible, was embarrassingly ripped right down to earth by discerning audiences.
The “Joker” sequel, “Folie à Deux,” was one of the vital surprising releases of the yr. Warner Bros. and DC’s follow-up to the billion-dollar Greatest Image nominee starring Joaquin Phoenix was made right into a musical with Woman Gaga for some unfathomable motive, and price $200 million. With advertising and marketing and distribution, it may lose that a lot cash too.
Bear in mind “Madame Web”? I noticed it so that you don’t need to.
We additionally noticed simply how a lot mileage A-Listing names have. Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt have been flying excessive after “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer.” The following summer season, got here their fall. Or, slightly, their “Fall Guy” — a comedy a couple of stuntman who goes on an actual journey that misplaced Common a reported $60 million.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson — the most important star whose motion pictures rarely flip a revenue — is at the moment within the $250 million Christmas dreck “Red One.” Proper now “Red One” is all crimson ink.
No person had it worse than Francis Ford Coppola and Kevin Costner, although. As a result of Mssrs. Moneybags foolishly spent their very own money — No-no No. 1 — to make their respective $100-million automotive crashes, “Megalopolis” and “Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1.”
Costner’s Previous West image, starring himself, is the primary a part of a deliberate four-movie sequence. However Westerns are supposed to incorporate tumbleweeds, not play to them. I’ll be shocked if your entire quartet sees the sunshine of day.
And Coppola’s “Megalopolis” — a ridiculous fever dream a couple of futuristic architect performed by Adam Driver — helped popularize a time period that completely encapsulates most of 2024 on the motion pictures: MegaFLOPolis.
Certain there have been some oases of success (“Deadpool & Wolverine,” “Inside Out 2,” “Despicable Me 4,” plus modern horror and style flicks).
And Hollywood is hoping for a dose of inexperienced this week. That’d be the emerald-hued Depraved Witch of the West — one in every of Tinseltown’s final finest hopes for a uncommon huge hit in 2024.
There’s loads of California dreamin’ that Common’s adaptation of the Broadway musical “Wicked” and Paramount’s “Gladiator II,” each out Friday, will show big attracts. And so they in all probability will.
If that’s the case, cries of “Ding dong! The witch is alive!” can be heard from dejected LA boardrooms. As a result of in any other case 2024 is the yr they need they might click on their heels collectively and make go away.
