2
Credit: DisneyDisney has been dealing with a series of disappointing performances at the box office this year.
While the live-action Little Mermaid (2023) exceeded most fans’ expectations, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) became Marvel’s worst-performing installment yet, and Elemental (2023), which received little in the way of promotion or marketing from Pixar, hasn’t been able to seat Sony’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023).
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) premiered last week, and has been doing well, but as Warner Bros.’ Barbie (2023) and Universal’s Oppenheimer (2023) are set to release next week, it’s unclear if Indiana Jones will be able to maintain its current level. It seems as a though since the 2020 pandemic, movies are consistently trying to be bigger and better than the others.
Each movie is trying to be a major blockbuster, and it’s starting to give audiences some exhaustion and fatigue. A TikTok video from @flakncoke discusses this, saying that movies have started to have inflated budgets, meaning that they’re spending more money to make these movies, and therefore have to recoup it with higher ticket sales at the box office. So if movies underperform in theaters, or in the box office, it’s a major loss for the studios and the production.
@flackncoke #stitch with @MaceAhWindu #indianajones #disney #warnerbros #theflash #hollywood #boxoffice #filmmaking #filmtok
Back in the day, the first Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) was created using strictly practical effects and had a budget of $20 million, or the equivalent of $70 million today. The latest Indiana Jones movie still features some practical effects, but also features a CGI de-aged Harrison Ford and other effects added in post-production, costing the studio $295 million before marketing.
So it’s $60 million opening weekend box-office numbers are pretty disappointing, especially as it prepares to go against two highly anticipated summer films. We’ve discussed the concept of Marvel and superhero fatigue quite a lot here on Inside the Magic. We’ve also discussed Disney fatigue as the studio continues to focus on live-action remakes of already successful movies rather than original ideas or fails to promote those original ideas which leads to their disappointing performances.
However, it could be that through a period of budget inflation and a feeling of needing each movie to be a blockbuster hit, audiences will face an overall movie fatigue as each one becomes a bigger and bigger production.
Movies have started to cost too much, forcing people to pay too much to see them in theaters or to get a disappointing release to a streaming platform, and the quality of recent movies doesn’t always match what it cost to make. If Hollywood doesn’t take a step back from expensive and wanna-be blockbusters, audiences may give up on it altogether.
What do you think about the current state of Hollywood? Share your thoughts in the comments below!