Two male-skewing Disney sci-fi animated films set on alien worlds and three early-mid 20th century period pieces make up the list of the five biggest box-office flops of 2022.
A new data analysis report over at Deadline has gone into the biggest box-office flops of 2022 after breaking down not just their box-office tallies but home entertainment revenue, foreign sales and streaming/TV deals.
The result? Disney’s animated pulp adventure tale “Strange Worlds” was the biggest bomb of 2022 – the film lost the Mouse House around $197.4 million. Coming in at a production budget of $180 million and making just $55 million at the box-office worldwide, the film is up there with “John Carter” and “The Lone Ranger” as two of Disney’s biggest flops.
Not far behind for Disney was Pixar’s “Lightyear” in third place. What was supposed to be a triumphant return to cinemas resulted in an estimated $106 million loss for the company. With a $200 million production budget and a costly marketing campaign of well over $100 million, the film only managed $226 million at the box-office worldwide.
In second was “Amsterdam,” David O. Russell’s WW1-era ensemble caper comedy starring Christian Bale, John David Washington and Margot Robbie. The result was a loss of $108 million for financier New Regency. With an $80 million budget and as much again in marketing, the film only managed a paltry $31 million at the global box-office – most of its money coming from TV/streaming rights ($35 million).
In fourth was the war drama “Devotion” starring Jonathan Majors and Glen Powell which lost $89 million despite good reviews. The Korean War fighter pilot story was a costly $90 million to make and had a fairly cost-effective marketing campaign, but it made only $20.5 million domestically and barely broke $1 million overseas.
Finally in fifth place was Damien Chazelle’s lavish period drama “Babylon”. The 189-minute epic about 1920s Hollywood resulted in a loss of $87.4 million for Paramount Pictures. With its $80 million production budget and almost as much again in marketing, the film made just $15 million domestically and a further $48 million overseas.
The next animated film from Disney will be Pixar’s “Elemental” opening June 16th. The next large ensemble piece is Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City” also that same day, although with its cost-effective $25-30 million budget and very well-received trailer, it’s expected to be a nice profit turner.
