The crowded theatrical release calendar of 2020 was bound to produce box office disappointments.
Some are massive, star-packed tentpole films that audiences weren't interested in.
Others are smaller films with bad word-of-mouth.
However they got here, these are the biggest flops of 2020 so far.
Sometimes a film just doesn't land, even when it has its defenders.
That was the case with Underwater, the Kristen Stewart-led sci-fi horror film that was presented
as a kind of creature feature throwback movie in the vein of films like Alien and The Abyss.
The film arrived at a slow time for films anyway, in early January, and while it certainly
had its fair share of critical fans early on, it garnered mixed reviews.
Then, audiences just didn't seem to want to show up, and a C CinemaScore on opening weekend
didn't help with that.
"We drilled to the bottom of the ocean… and we don't know what came out."
Underwater picked up just $7 million in the U.S. on its opening weekend, on its way to
a domestic total of $17.2 million.
The film did better internationally, grossing $23.5 million in various territories around
the world.
The eventual total, as of mid-March, is just over $40 million.
A lot of modestly priced horror films would love to have a worldwide total like that,
but Underwater wasn't modestly priced.
Its reported budget was closer to $60 million thanks to its effects-heavy production, and
that meant the box office was significantly underwhelming.
Dolittle, an adaptation of Hugh Lofting's Doctor Dolittle stories, was Robert Downey
Jr.'s first major project since his exit from the ultra-profitable Marvel Cinematic Universe
he reigned over for more than a decade.
It was a longtime passion project of Downey's, a film packed with stars in its voice cast,
and an attempt for the MCU godfather to use his clout to deliver some magical family fun
at the box office.
Unfortunately, Dolittle was a troubled production, as various rewrites and reshoots led to the
budget swelling to a massive $175 million.
That made it tough to recoup costs in the first place, but then audiences just didn't
seem to want to show up for the film, and critics savaged it.
Downey's first major post-Marvel tentpole deflated rapidly, and while there was some
hope that it could gain some ground in China, the coronavirus outbreak there led to its
release getting cancelled.
Dolittle bottomed out at about $223.3 million worldwide, which was likely not enough to
earn back the cost of promoting and producing the film.
Horror films are often protected from box office disaster in a way that others films
aren't.
For one thing, there are a lot of people who just like to see whatever the latest horror
film is, regardless of what critics might say about it.
For another, horror films are usually at least relatively cheap to make.
Put out a film that cost $10 million, earn $40 million worldwide, turn a profit, and
move on.
Then there are those films that just can't quite overcome lackluster marketing and poor
word-of-mouth response, like The Turning.
"Geez, your friends must love it here."
"I have no friends."
"You have no friends?"
"Yup."
"Well, you have one now."
"Hah hah…
Maybe."
This modern-day retelling of Henry James' Turn of the Screw was perhaps fighting an
uphill battle to begin with thanks to its January release date and pushbacks on the
release calendar.
Then came the early response.
Critics didn't like the film, and audiences didn't respond to it either.
The Turning, in part because of its disappointing ending, earned a rare "F" CinemaScore grade
on its opening weekend, and everyone pretty much stayed away after that.
On a budget of $14 million, the film has earned just $18.4 million worldwide.
The Rhythm Section, a Blake Lively-led revenge thriller in the vein of films like Taken,
seemed to have potential to be a new badass female-driven action hit.
The keyword there is "seemed," because the reality of the film's release ultimately spelled
one of the worst box office duds ever recorded, with a number of contributing factors.
The film opened at the end of January and grossed just $2.7 million domestically in
its first weekend.
That's the lowest box office haul for a film opening in more than 3,000 theaters ever,
and one of the lowest openings of all time for a major studio release.
So, what went wrong?
According to Deadline, it began with lackluster test screenings that basically convinced executives
at Paramount that the film wasn't worth pouring a ton of marketing money into.
Add in a lackluster critical response and an opening weekend CinemaScore of C+, and
it was a film that had no real buzz and no word of mouth to speak of.
The film's lukewarm domestic performance meant that it barely got an international release
at all, and the box office total came to just $5.9 million, losing upwards of $30 million.
While it may seem like they rule the box office every year thanks to everything from superhero
tentpoles to live-action remakes of animated classics, even Disney produces a bomb now
and then.
Their latest major box office disappointment, which the studio inherited in their purchase
of Fox, came in the form of The Call of the Wild, the Harrison Ford-led adaptation of
Jack London's novel that became known rather quickly as "that movie where Harrison Ford
hangs out with a CGI dog."
"That's mine!
Hey, thanks."
The film's decision to use a motion-captured, CGI dog to play Ford's canine companion rather
than a real, trained animal helped to swell the film's budget to a hefty $135 million.
That's a steep box office hill to climb, and audiences didn't seem ready to help the film
reach the summit.
The Call of the Wild pulled in less than $25 million domestically in its opening weekend,
for a worldwide total of $107.5 million as of mid-March.
In March 2020, box office experts estimated the film could end up losing as much as $50
million.
Even under normal circumstances, some films just don't do well at the box office.
By the middle of March 2020, though, it became clear that movies this year would be dealing
with anything but normal circumstances.
As the coronavirus pandemic swept across the world, movie studios and theater chains had
to make some difficult decisions.
Releases were delayed indefinitely, while theaters began closing to limit the spread
of the virus.
While several upcoming blockbusters had their release dates postponed to wait for a more
opportune time, a few films already in theaters had their box office runs severely shortened.
Onward, Pixar's latest major release, had a solid week or so on screens, pulling in
$102.7 million worldwide, not bad for a start, but still well short of the total the studio
may have hoped for.
Meanwhile, Sony's superhero adventure Bloodshot managed $24.2 million after a March 13 opening,
at a time when many people were already avoiding crowded theaters.
Then there's The Hunt, a film that had already been delayed once, which pulled in just $6.3
million after its own March 13 opening, well below its budget.
It's possible that future theatrical time or home releases can help studios gain some
ground on these films, but again, it's just a case of bad timing.
We may never know how high any of these films might have actually climbed.
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