Author Archives: Andrew Hales

With the release of Jupiter Ascending, the movie-going public was once again subjected to a big budget film that didn’t quite live up to expectations. While I haven’t had the opportunity to see it (though I intend to at some point soon), I began wondering what it is that causes these movies to flounder at the box office.

As it currently stands, Jupiter Ascending has made $171 million according to Box Office Mojo, which, while impressive, is still five million short of the production budget, which doesn’t even include any marketing costs—which can often run nearly as high as the production budget. That is a lot of money that the studio to be out. Two years ago a similar trend was making its way through the beloved summer blockbuster season. Movies like The Lone Ranger, featuring proven hit making creators or cast members, were bombing left and right. By the time July rolled around, movie and entertainment blogs were all declaring the death of the blockbuster. In hindsight, that was obviously a bit of an overstatement, but at the time it seemed like a perfectly logical conclusion. The summer of 2012 was almost a non-stop hit parade, but 2013 was painful to watch. What is it, then, that causes a movie to fail so miserably? Continue reading →