Hollywood’s box office has found it really tough ever since COVID gave away a lot of the theatrical business to streaming services. As a result, 2022 had a lot of box office bombs as people chose to be entertained at home or neglect what Hollywood mostly had to offer.
Even the big-budgeted movies that featured top-draw actors and were deemed to be potential blockbusters failed big time as they couldn’t pull crowds to the theaters. According to Deadline’s recent report, there were 5 movies that proved to be terrible investments for the studios involved as they delivered massive losses.
While Disney may have found success with Avatar: The Way of Water and Doctor Strange 2, it also had 3 movies topping the list of the 5 biggest bombs in 2022. The following list shows how Disney lost over $400 million on 3 movies in the year, and then the likes of Sony and Paramount followed with more flop shows.
Biggest Box Office Flops of 2022
1. Strange World – $197.4 Million Loss
Right from the beginning, Disney never thought that this Jake Gyllenhaal starrer would do great. Most people weren’t even aware of it, and it was sent to the theaters to die. Surprisingly, this was one of the most expensive movies for Disney as its production cost ballooned up to $180 million.
Beyond that, Print and advertising expenses totaled up to $90 million for Disney. And other expenses including $8 million in residuals, $7 million for video charges, and $32.4 million for interest and overhead brought the total cost of the film up to $317.4 million.
Coming to its revenue, Strange World made just $73.5 million at the global box office and kept $35 million of that as theatrical revenue. Already, the global box office number is much lower than the production cost. So, the additional income could never have saved the film. Nevertheless, the film made $30 million from home entertainment and $55 million from television streaming.
So, Strange World generated $120 million in revenue overall. Hence, the $197.4 million net loss!
Also Read: Why Was Disney’s ‘Strange World’ a DISASTER at the Box Office?
2. Amsterdam – $108.4 Million Loss
Amsterdam packed a massive cast of actors including Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Rami Malek, Zoe Saldana, Anya Taylor-Joy, Michael Shannon, and Robert De Niro amongst others. But even an all-star cast would not ensure success if the story is boring.
Without a great script, the cast just raised the production budget for Amsterdam, which was $80 million. Disney/20th Century Studios put in an additional $70 million in print and advertising. Other costs included $5 million in residuals, $2 million in video costs, and $14.4 million in interest and overhead. Therefore, the Mouse House spent a total of $171.4 million on the film.
In terms of earnings, the film brought in $31.1 million at the worldwide box office and kept $13 million as theatrical revenue out of that. The other two sources of revenue were home entertainment ($15 million) and television/streaming ($35 million).
So, with only $63 million in total revenue, Disney suffered a net loss of $108.4 million.
3. Lightyear – $106 Million Loss
Chris Evans voiced Buzz Lightyear in a film that took place in the Toy Story universe but told a drastically different story than the fans expected. As a result, no hype was generated for the film, and it became one of Pixar’s worst movies of all time.
Lightyear already had a huge budget of $200 million and spent an additional $110 million on print and advertising. The remaining costs include $14 million in residuals, $13 million in video costs, and $36 million in interest and overhead, bringing the total investment to $373 million.
With such a massive expenditure, the film proved to be a losing wager as it suffered a loss of $106 million because it had only earned a revenue of $267 million. Revenue Breakdown – Disney made $112 million in theatrical revenue out of a worldwide box office total of $226.4 million. The remaining $60 million and $95 million came from home entertainment and streaming, respectively.
4. Devotion – $89.2 Million Loss
In 2022, Glen Powell appeared in two films featuring air warfare. One of them was Top Gun: Maverick, the second most successful movie of the year, and the other was Devotion, the fourth biggest flop of the year. Joining Powell in the latter was the Kang actor, Jonathan Majors.
Devotion was a colossal failure because it was produced on a budget of $90 million and Sony spent $40 million on Prints and Ads. The studio incurred additional costs including $3 million in residuals, $9 million in video costs, and $16.2 million in interest and overhead. So, the total expenses on Devotion came up to $158.2 million.
Compared to the cost, the film earned just $21.7 million at the worldwide box office. It kept $9 million out of that as revenue while other earnings came from Home Entertainment ($8 million) and Television/Streaming ($12 million). In total, Devotion only generated a revenue of $69 million, incurring a net loss of $89.2 million for the Spider-Man owners.
5. Babylon – $87.4 Million Loss
Here’s another film featuring an all-star cast involving Margot Robbie in the lead along with Brad Pitt. Other popular actors in the film were Tobey Maguire and Olivia Wilde. But again, big-name stars can’t do much if the narrative is totally uninteresting!
This period piece drama cost Paramount about $80 million to make. Furthermore, $60 million was spent on Prints and Ads. The rest of the expenditure involved $3 million in video costs, $5 million in residuals, and $14.4 million in interest and overhead, which brought the total cost of the film to a whopping $162.4 million.
As far as the earnings are concerned, Babylon just drew $63.3 million from the global box office. Out of that, Paramount got to keep $25 million as their theatrical revenue and made $15 million from Home Entertainment, and another $35 million from Television/Streaming.
So overall, the net revenue came up to $75 million, which is why Paramount suffered a net loss of $87.4 million.
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