Paramount+ has set this coming Tuesday February 21st as the premiere date for Damien Chazelle’s latest film “Babylon” on the streaming service – two months after its domestic release.
The streaming premiere follows in the wake of the film’s wildly varied critical reception and rather disastrous box-office run. Armed with a $78-80 million budget, the Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie-led film opened in late December in the United States.
Early projections of a $12-15 million domestic opening weekend were quickly shattered when the numbers came in with the film taking just $3.6 million in its opening three-day weekend and debuting in fourth place. It never recovered, earning just $15.4 million domestically in total.
The hope then was a global release in mid-January would ‘save’ the film, and whilst it did fare solidly in places like the UK and Australia, its overseas tally stands at just $41 million. The result is a worldwide total of $56.3 million.
Back in December it was indicated by Deadline that the film’s marketing and promotional budget matched the production budget which would mean the whole thing cost around $160 million to release theatrically.
The outlet also estimated the movie would need to reach at least $250 million worldwide to break even at the box-office. Assuming that assessment is correct, it’s shy by around $194 million – a loss that would put it up there with some of the biggest bombs of the past fifteen years.
The biggest box-office bombs on record and adjusted for inflation (via Wikipedia) include the likes of “John Carter” (up to $236m), “The Lone Ranger” (up to $221m), “Mortal Engines” ($187m), “Battleship” ($177m), “Mars Needs Moms” (up to $173m), “Tomorrowland” & “Pan” (up to $171m), “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword” (up to $169m), “Jungle Cruise” ($151m), “Strange World” ($147m) “The Matrix Resurrections” ($139m), and “Moonfall” ($139m).
What’s not clear however is ancillary revenue as that will mitigate some of the loss. The film scored a PVOD release in January in the U.S. and is expected to be a solid performer on disc and rental/purchases where the film’s subject matter and longer runtime are likely to be more palatable to audiences. Numbers from those revenue sources however aren’t presently available.
Paramount had hoped the film would be a major awards season contender and while it did land three Oscar nominations, it was in categories like score, production design and costuming as opposed to the studio’s hopes for film, direction, performances or script noms.
