Bad News:
She Said, a solidly made look at the pair of crusading New York Times journalists who helped expose Harvey Weinstein’s decades of sexual harassment and assault, has bombed at the box-office this weekend.
The film earned strong reviews and awards buzz, but the Universal Pictures release tanked, opening to a dismal $2.2 million from 2,022 theaters. That ranks as one of the worst results for a major studio release in history.
Bleak Movies about Social Problems
Part of the problem, observers say, is that the movie’s searing look at an abuse of power may not have been what audiences were hoping to see at a time when the headlines are quite bleak. From Ukraine to the economy, there’s a lot to be upset about.
Escapism
“It’s a tough sell,” says Shawn Robbins, chief analyst with Boxoffice Pro. “People are looking for escapism right now. Even adult audiences are looking for something that takes them away from reality.”
She Said has a lot of company when it comes to well-reviewed movies that have collapsed due to audience indifference.
One by one, this year’s crop of Oscar contenders have flopped or, at best, under-performed.
Tár, a drama about sexual harassment in the world of classical music, starring multiple Oscar winner Cate Blanchett, has eked out only $4.9 million in seven weeks of release.
Armageddon Time, a coming-of-age film has only managed to generate $1.8 million after a month in theaters.
Triangle of Sadness, a satirical look at the one-percent that has crawled to a $3.8 million gross since opening in mid-October.
The Banshees of Inisherin and Till have done slightly better, earning $7.1 million and $8.5 million, respectively, but their results aren’t exactly igniting the box office; they both will likely struggle to turn a profit in their theatrical runs.
“Across the board, it’s a scary time for prestige films,” says Jeff Bock, an analyst with Exhibitor Relations. “We may be witnessing a sea change in cinema. Ultimately, audiences decide what gets made and right now audiences aren’t choosing to watch these films in theaters.”
Studio executives point to a number of culprits. They say this year’s awards films are too arty, too depressing, too lacking in A-list talent to convince crowds to show up.
They note that there have been success stories earlier in the year — notably Elvis, which was aimed at adults and earned an impressive $286 million globally.
Everything Everywhere All at Once, a multiverse head trip that has racked up $103 million worldwide while being perceived as artistically bold.
But those films didn’t have to compete with a glut of other prestige fare, which could be further fracturing already shrinking audience base, one that may be wary of hitting up cinemas during COVID.
“There’s a lot of films chasing an audience that may be a little reticent about returning to theaters,” says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. “It may be a little too much of a good thing.”
Age Matters
The Menu, a horror comedy set in the world of haute cuisine, did debut this weekend to a solid $9 million. But it benefited from being associated with a genre that is doing well at the box office (recent horror hits such as “Smile” and “Barbarian”), and had an audience that skewed younger.
The bulk of ticket buyers to The Menu were under 35 years old, while the majority of audience members for She Said were over 45 years old.
Several more films are about to brave this harsh environment for prestige fare. Among those hoping to defy the odds are “Bones and All,” a cannibal romance with Timothée Chalamet that opened in limited release; “The Fabelmans,” Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical exploration of his childhood; and “Babylon,” a sprawling examination of the silent era of Hollywood that boasts turns by Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie.
“The Fabelmans,” for instance, may prove to be just heart-warming enough to become a must-see for families over the holiday season, but even that movie, from one of the entertainment industry’s most-successful filmmakers, faces substantial headwinds.
Bones and All may be too idiosyncratic to draw crowds, while Babylon could suffer from the divisive reaction it had received in early screenings.
Movie studios have always been risk averse, but their appetite for taking big swings has diminished in recent years.
First, streaming services like Netflix and Amazon got into the game, providing homes for passion projects by the likes of Martin Scorsese and Alfonso Cuarón and conditioning consumers to watch these movies in their homes.
Then, a wave of corporate consolidation, some of it triggered by traditional media players’ urgent need to bulk up for the streaming wars, has resulted in fewer independent studios to produce theatrical releases. It’s also left their corporate parents with a lot of debt, making them more hesitant to greenlight the next historical drama or esoteric Bildungsroman at a time when they need to clean up their balance sheets.
All of this coincided with a pandemic that shuttered cinemas for nearly a year and still refuses to die off, as well as record inflation and a looming recession that have left people making tough choices about what to do with their dwindling discretionary resources.
So unless movies like “She Said” start performing better at the box office, a whole sector of the theatrical movie business may be imperiled.
