I mean damn! Can a movie come out first before we start killin' it? Terry George's historical drama, The Promise, which stars Oscar Isaac, Christian Bale, and Charlotte Le Bon, is already being projected to lose $100M. The damn thing is barely warm in theaters and already it's in the hole.
The projection comes from an analyst at THR, who says the film may only earn about $4M this weekend, huge for the $100M production by Survival Pictures. And that has become a sad reality for these large-scale, but mature skewing dramas. They used to be a fixture of the Hollywood studio system, but as budgets soared and receipts fell, they have largely disappeared. Another such movie out this weekend, James Gray's The Lost City of Z, likely would have met a similar fate if it landed anywhere but Amazon Studios who can pad any theatrical box office with a streaming component. Streaming services like Amazon and Netflix have become de facto homes for movies that may not be viable theatrically, but have the elements to attract an at-home audience.
Producers at Survival have tried to sugar coat the news, saying the only thing that matters is for the money earned to reach non-profit and charity organizations around the world. That's great, but something tells me they'd rather be giving them $100M than watching it evaporate.
