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Variety: Summer Box Office Studio Report Card (spoiler: Paramount not top of class)

kswiston

Member
Variety posted an article ranking the summer box office success of each of the Big 6 studios.

summer-box-office-2017.jpg


http://variety.com/2017/film/news/box-office-summer-analysis-winners-losers-studios-1202528167/

This is sort of similar to the franchise report card they did a month or so ago. Cumulatively, the summer box office is down 12%, from the release of Guardians of the Galaxy 2 through to last weekend. So while some studios are doing better than others, not a banner year overall.

Here's a summary of what Variety thought. Read the article for full takeaways. I'm just going to include a sentence or two from each.

Because Variety didn't actually include much in the way of box office numbers, and because not everyone is going to know how these movies did, I have included the domestic gross, worldwide gross, and production budget of each film listed. Keep in mind that Variety is only looking at the Big 6. Plenty of other films were released by smaller distributors.


UNIVERSAL
Summer Offerings: ”The Mummy," ”Despicable Me 3," ”Girls Trip"
Grade: B
Takeaways: ”Girls Trip" must have come as a huge sigh of relief for Universal. After a number of R-rated comedies from competitors failed to connect, the bawdy farce quenched the market's parched, mirthless throat.

Code:
[B]TITLE				DOM GROSS	WW GROSS	PROD. BUDGET[/B]
Despicable Me 3			$248M		$922M		$80M
Girls Trip			$98M		$106M		$19M
The Mummy			$80M		$405M		$125M



WARNER BROS.
Summer Offerings: ”Dunkirk," ”Wonder Woman," ”King Arthur: Legend of the Sword," ”The House," ”Annabelle: Creation," ”Everything, Everything"
Grade: B+
Takeaways: If it left ”King Arthur" well enough alone, it might have graduated from summer with honors. Instead, it will have to settle for just missing the A grade.

Code:
[B]TITLE				DOM GROSS	WW GROSS	PROD. BUDGET[/B]
Wonder Woman			$402M		$798M		$149M
Dunkirk				$154M		$365M		$100M
King Arthur			$39M		$143M		$175M
Annabelle Creation*		$39M		$76M		$15M
Everything, Everything		$34M		$52M		$10M
The House			$25M		$33M		$40M



DISNEY
Summer Offerings: ”Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," ”Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," ”Cars 3"
Grade: A-
Takeaways: While Bob Iger's Magic Kingdom remains the gold standard in Hollywood film, there are signs that some of the studio's beloved franchises are reaching their expiration point. The latest entries in the ”Pirates" and ”Cars" universes slipped below their predecessors (OK, but still, they're the fifth and seventh-highest-grossing movies of the summer on the domestic charts).

Code:
[B]TITLE				DOM GROSS	WW GROSS	PROD. BUDGET[/B]
Guardians of the Galaxy 2	$389M		$862M		$200M
Pirates 5			$172M		$786M		$230M
Cars 3				$148M		$299M		$175M



SONY
Summer Offerings: ”Spider-Man: Homecoming," ”Rough Night," ”The Dark Tower," ”The Emoji Movie," ”Baby Driver"
Grade: B
Takeaways: Sony is showing signs of life after years in the box office graveyard.

Code:
[B]TITLE				DOM GROSS	WW GROSS	PROD. BUDGET[/B]
Spider-Man Homecoming		$307M		$703M		$175M
Baby Driver			$100M		$167M		$34M
The Emoji Movie			$64M		$98M		$50M
The Dark Tower*			$35M		$54M		$60M
Rough Night			$22M		$43M		$20M



FOX
Summer Offerings: ”Snatched," ”Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul," ”Alien: Covenant," ”Captain Underpants," ”War for the Planet of the Apes"
Grade: B-
Takeaways: Audiences didn't want to join Ridley Scott's latest ill-fated space expedition, with ”Alien: Covenant" a franchise killer

Code:
[B]TITLE				DOM GROSS	WW GROSS	PROD. BUDGET[/B]
War for the Planent of the Apes	$138M		$314M		$150M
Alien: Covenant			$74M		$233M		$97M
Captain Underpants		$73M		$94M		$38M
Snatched			$46M		$59M		$42M
Diary of a Wimpy Kid 4		$21M		$38M		$22M



PARAMOUNT
Summer Offerings: ”Baywatch," ”Transformers: The Last Knight"
Grade: C-
Takeaways: It would have been a failing grade for the beleaguered studio, but foreign audiences rescued the latest Transformers sequel from being a complete financial disaster.

Code:
[B]TITLE				DOM GROSS	WW GROSS	PROD. BUDGET[/B]
Transformers 5			$130M		$594M		$217M
Baywatch			$58M		$177M		$69M
 
They are like that professor in college that gives everyone passing grades. Paramount is a hard F, Sony is a D+, only because Marvel made Spiderman and it's technically a Sony movie. No one gets an A.
 

Toothless

Member
They are like that professor in college that gives everyone passing grades. Paramount is a hard F, Sony is a D+, only because Marvel made Spiderman and it's technically a Sony movie. No one gets an A.

On Sony, Baby Driver is arguably the summer's biggest surprise in finances positively, outside of Wonder Woman of course
 

Imbarkus

As Sartre noted in his contemplation on Hell in No Exit, the true horror is other members.
That's a tragedy about The House. I laughed my ass off.
 

Grizzlyjin

Supersonic, idiotic, disconnecting, not respecting, who would really ever wanna go and top that
Baywatch is a black eye, but you can file that under people just not responding. Been a bad year for R rated comedies that don't have Black Girl Magic. If I was Paramount, I'd be very worried about those domestic numbers for Transformers though. Foreign ones too now that I look at it. Really sharp downturn for the franchise.

Even though Universal is riding high on Fast & Furious hitting a billion consistently, I'd say they should be doing some introspection to guard against losing their domestic audience too. Especially if they're launching a spinoff series.
 
It's interesting to see the dramatic difference in domestic grosses between superhero films and other types of blockbusters (except Despicable Me). Like everything is struggling to hit $200 million and the superhero ones are $300+.
 

Skel1ingt0n

I can't *believe* these lazy developers keep making file sizes so damn large. Btw, how does technology work?
I know it was super early, but I feel like Furious 8 should be considered a "summer" movie.
 
Baby Driver's been enough of a success that Sony probably gets a C even without Homecoming, though that's mainly because they limited their budgets on all those other movies so it would be hard for them to outright tank the summer/studio.

Which makes it kinda funny that the primary reason Wright is doing Baby Driver now is because he left Ant-Man, so that's another Disney assist.
 

Previous

check out my new Swatch
I'm surprised Cars 3 underperformed as much as it did. Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe $300 million WW makes it Pixars worst performing movie.
 

Imbarkus

As Sartre noted in his contemplation on Hell in No Exit, the true horror is other members.
Holy Sheet @ King Arthur. Bombed domestically and WW. Can it even make its budget + advertising spending back?

Like Tarzan last year. No one today cares about these hoary old movie franchises, so fondly remembered by hoary old movie executives.

Ben. Hur.
 
Even if it doesn't make sense, I don't want WB to stop giving directors way too much money to go crazy on not so great movie ideas. Sure you get Jupiter Ascending, but you also get Mad Max Fury Road.
 

duckroll

Member
Transformers is a total disappointment at the box office. Half what TF4 made both domestic and foreign. Total crater. I feel bad for the Bayster. Hopefully he finds the Bad Boy within himself to move on.
 
Transformers is a total disappointment at the box office. Half what TF4 made both domestic and foreign. Total crater. I feel bad for the Bayster. Hopefully he finds the Bad Boy within himself to move on.
The new Bad Boy movie got removed from the schedule last week.
 
Even if it doesn't make sense, I don't want WB to stop giving directors way too much money to go crazy on not so great movie ideas. Sure you get Jupiter Ascending, but you also get Mad Max Fury Road.
Yup. It's why I'll always root for them over most studios. Hopefully Blade Runner works out for them.
 

kswiston

Member
I'm surprised Cars 3 underperformed as much as it did. Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe $300 million WW makes it Pixars worst performing movie.

Cars still has a few overseas territories to release in. But it is still going to be down over the first two films.
 
How you gonna give Disney an A- with Pirates and Cars, but Warner gets a B+ despite having the movie of the summer, Wonder Woman.
 

Miles X

Member
Disney and Warner will end the year A for sure. IT, Justice League and Blade Runner should do really well, Annabelle still has some dollar to make as well. Disney has Star Wars and Thor, enough said.

How you gonna give Disney an A- with Pirates and Cars, but Warner gets a B+ despite having the movie of the summer, Wonder Woman.

Look at how well Pirates and Cards did overseas.

For $100 more production budget, Disney films made $500m more profit.
 
Seems like if you have a hit or two then you get a good grade, but is that how these companies legitimately feel? Each one has at least one notable flop that I'm sure they're not very happy with even if the worldwide gross ultimately came through in a few cases. Like, sure, The Mummy ended up doing OK internationally but it definitely didn't do what it was supposed to when Universal was seeing those cinematic universe dollar signs in their eyes.
 

berzeli

Banned
I'm going to limit my comments to Paramount is going to Paramount.
They're so fucked for this year.

It is a bit weird that they give Universal just a B. Two definite hits and one mediocre film saved by ROW does not equate a B.
 

aBarreras

Member
Like Tarzan last year. No one today cares about these hoary old movie franchises, so fondly remembered by hoary old movie executives.

Ben. Hur.

i didnt watched tarzan, but im pretty sure it was profitable, no idea what the heck are you talking about
 

Miles X

Member
Upcoming

Disney:
Coco
Star Wars TLJ
Thor: Ragnarok

Universal:
Pitch Perfect 3
American Made

Warner Bros:
IT
Lego Ninjago
Justice League
Blade Runner 2049

Sony:

Flatliners
Jumanji

Paramount:

Mother!

Fox:

Kingsman Golden Circle
Murder on the Orient Express


With that ...

Disney > Warner > Fox/Universal >>>> Sony >>>>>>>>> Paramount
 

cw_sasuke

If all DLC came tied to $13 figurines, I'd consider all DLC to be free
Pirates 5 did quite well all things considered....didnt expect this.
I knew the Despicable Me franchise was popular but damn... That profit margin is insane.

Not even including the Minion merchandise money....they are gonna milk this cow for a while.
 

kswiston

Member
Upcoming

Disney:
Coco
Star Wars TLJ
Thor: Ragnarok

Universal:
Pitch Perfect 3
American Made

Warner Bros:
IT
Lego Ninjago
Justice League
Blade Runner 2049

Sony:

Flatliners
Jumanji

Paramount:

Mother!

Fox:

Kingsman Golden Circle
Murder on the Orient Express


With that ...

Disney > Warner > Fox/Universal >>>> Sony >>>>>>>>> Paramount

There should be more >>> between WB and the next two. WB is the only other studio that will make more than $500M domestic from the rest of their lineup.
 

Miles X

Member
There should be more >>> between WB and the next two. WB is the only other studio that will make more than $500M domestic from the rest of their lineup.

I was just highlighting order at first, felt wrong not to point out how shite Sony
(save for Spidey)
and Paramount are though lol.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
Like Tarzan last year. No one today cares about these hoary old movie franchises, so fondly remembered by hoary old movie executives.

Ben. Hur.

I think it has less to do with old movie franchises (although I don't think you can use the word "franchise" for straight up remakes of one-off films) and more that all those revivals have been terrible. The best thing about Ben-Hur was the 1000 gamerscore I got for beating the tie-in game in less than two hours. Everything else was paint-by-numbers derivative sequences from better films.
 

CloudWolf

Member
I'm so happy Baby Driver did well. Edgar Wright finally vindicated.

Also, I keep asking myself what the hell Girl Trip is. Did that even release overseas? We have this movie playing now that's called Girl's Night Out, but apparently that is Rough Night?

Takeaways: Audiences didn't want to join Ridley Scott's latest ill-fated space expedition, with ”Alien: Covenant" a franchise killer
See that WW box office? The Alien franchise (unfortunately) isn't dead yet.

Upcoming

Disney:
Coco
Star Wars TLJ
Thor: Ragnarok

Universal:
Pitch Perfect 3
American Made

Warner Bros:
IT
Lego Ninjago
Justice League
Blade Runner 2049

Sony:

Flatliners
Jumanji

Paramount:

Mother!

Fox:

Kingsman Golden Circle
Murder on the Orient Express


With that ...

Disney > Warner > Fox/Universal >>>> Sony >>>>>>>>> Paramount
Mother! is likely to be one of the best/most interesting films this year though. That alone beats out Universal and Sony's upcoming line-up for me (and Fox probably as well, considering a new Aronofsky is way more exciting to me than Kingsman 2, even though I loved the first one).
 

berzeli

Banned
Valerian will end its run above King Arthur.
I was thinking worldwide but totally forgot that Valerian hadn't opened in China. My bad.

So yeah, King Arthur might end up the bigger bomb, depending on how Valerian does in China (though it should clear the ~$30 million necessary).
Wait. It hasn't opened in Japan and South Korea either. It really, really should pass King Arthur. I'm too dumb to function sometimes.
 

kswiston

Member
I was thinking worldwide but totally forgot that Valerian hadn't opened in China. My bad.

So yeah, King Arthur might end up the bigger bomb, depending on how Valerian does in China (though it should clear the ~$30 million necessary).
Wait. It hasn't opened in Japan and South Korea either. It really, really should pass King Arthur. I'm too dumb to function sometimes.

Italy too. But you have to look online to know this stuff, so it's understandable to miss it.

I actually meant to note that the asterix entries in the OP were for films that were released in the past two weekends. Totals for those, and overseas totals for a few others, aren't close to final yet. Annabelle 2, for instance, should easily break $200M worldwide.
 
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