Why These Chris Hemsworth Movies Bombed At The Box Office
From MCU hits to action classics, Chris Hemsworth is as bankable as movie stars come — but that doesn't mean he hasn't starred in a bomb or two.
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00:00From MCU hits to action classics, Chris Hemsworth is as bankable as movie stars come, but that
00:06doesn't mean he hasn't starred in a bomb or two.
00:10The movie world was a very different place in August 2009.
00:13For proof, look no further than where Chris Hemsworth's career stood at the time.
00:17The Australian actor was still unknown to most American moviegoers, having only just
00:21been cast to star a few months earlier.
00:23So unknown was Hemsworth in fact that he wasn't even mentioned on posters for a perfect getaway.
00:29It's David Tui movie stars Steve Zahn and Mila Jovovich, with Hemsworth playing the
00:33role of Cale Garrity, an impetuous man who keeps crossing paths with the film's newlywed
00:38protagonists.
00:39Initially, he's supposed to be the big foe of the piece, but various twists and turns
00:43reveal a greater evil hiding in plain sight.
00:46A Perfect Getaway only earned $22.8 million worldwide, which meant it failed to double
00:52a meager $14 million budget.
00:54In box office terms, that represents a failure.
00:57So why did it flop?
00:59Apparently, because word got out that the twist ending wasn't worth the wait.
01:02As The Times wrote in its review,
01:04"[Tui seems to think the eventual revelation is clever enough to be worth the price of
01:08admission by itself.
01:09It isn't."
01:11Even diehard Chris Hemsworth fans might scratch their heads at the mention of Cash, which
01:15ironically made next to nothing at the box office.
01:18This 2010 crime thriller was one of the actor's final performances before his life changed
01:23forever with the release of Thor.
01:25Played by Stephen Milburn Anderson, Cash sees Hemsworth play a man named Sam, who stumbles
01:30onto a briefcase full of money while driving, and decides to keep it.
01:34This leads to Sam becoming the target of a dangerous psychopath play by Sean Bean, whose
01:38twin brother tossed the suitcase during a police chase.
01:41It's good, innit?
01:43Ha ha ha ha!
01:45That premise might sound like a standard setup for a crime thriller, but Cash had anything
01:50but a traditional box office run, even for a financial misfire.
01:54That's because the film didn't so much flop at the box office as it did outright flatline.
01:59On a $7 million budget, Cash grossed an almost unbelievably low $46,488.
02:06As it turned out, Roadside Attractions released the film in only 43 theaters.
02:11It ran for an average of less than two weeks in each.
02:13With no support from its distributor, and no real critical acclaim to speak of, Cash
02:18had no way of standing out to moviegoers.
02:20Its fate was sealed before the first screening began.
02:24A Red Dawn remake was always going to face an uphill battle at the box office.
02:28The original 1984 film was a hit, but its success was very much dependent on the Cold
02:33War paranoia of the time.
02:35Perhaps if it came out today, the remake might have done better given the global climate.
02:39But back in the early 2010s, it was a hard sell.
02:42Red Dawn was hampered even more by the financial difficulties of its financer.
02:47MGM's bankruptcy meant that the project spent years in limbo.
02:50The film was eventually acquired by Film District, and it hit cineplexes in 2012,
02:55which seems like a good move on paper.
02:57Hemsworth was a Marvel superhero at this point, and co-star Josh Hutchison's rep had also
03:02grown thanks to The Hunger Games.
03:03However, the presence of these rising stars wasn't enough to ensure success for the remake.
03:08Costing $65 million to make, Red Dawn grossed $48 million worldwide.
03:14It didn't help that the feature launched with lackluster marketing, which failed to communicate
03:18the necessity of a new Red Dawn movie.
03:20Competition from fellow November 2012 action movie Skyfall also took Red Dawn down a peg
03:26or two.
03:27"...always gotta make an entrance."
03:28Worse still, the critical reception was truly disappointing.
03:32To this day, Red Dawn remains Chris Hemsworth's lowest-rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes.
03:38Before Black Hat, director Michael Mann had a relatively solid box office track record
03:42to accompany his acclaim as an auteur.
03:45He's from collateral to public enemies, all ranking in north of $200 million worldwide.
03:51Then after a six-year absence, Mann returned for an attempt to continue that streak with
03:55the 2015 hacking dramedy Black Hat.
03:58Unfortunately, Hemsworth was still in the early days of his Marvel stint, and having
04:01Thor anchor, Black Hat couldn't save the film from financial disaster.
04:05Black Hat made just $19.6 million worldwide, including an abysmal $8 million domestically.
04:12On a $70 million budget, that box office haul was downright atrocious.
04:17Only two of Mann's previous directorial efforts, both made in the 80s, did worse in North America.
04:22An uninspired marketing campaign and the difficulties of making cybercrimes visually compelling
04:27to general moviegoers put Black Hat at a major disadvantage from the get-go.
04:32To complicate matters further, Mann's absence from the silver screen hadn't exactly left
04:37people praying for his comeback.
04:39Rather, it seemed that the movie world had left him behind.
04:42Just two years after working together on the critically acclaimed racing movie Rush, director
04:47Ron Howard and leading man Chris Hemsworth reunited for In the Heart of the Sea.
04:51This seafaring period beast went into theaters armed with a marketing campaign boasting that
04:56it was based on the true story that had inspired Moby Dick.
04:59Relying so heavily on love for the classic Herman Melville novel always seemed like a
05:03strange way to lure in modern moviegoers, and In the Heart of the Sea was also dealt
05:08a fatal release date delay.
05:10Originally scheduled for a March 2015 launch, it ultimately dropped on December 11th, 2015.
05:16This meant that it opened just seven days before a little movie called Star Wars The
05:19Force Awakens.
05:21You've probably heard of it.
05:22We're home.
05:23It doesn't take an expert box office analyst to work out that going up against the first
05:28Star Wars film in a decade had a negative impact on In the Heart of the Sea.
05:32That was especially true seeing as the picture was banking on IMAX 3D ticket prices to make
05:37a profit.
05:38Surprisingly, In the Heart of the Sea grossed a dismal $25 million domestically and $64
05:44million internationally on a $100 million budget.
05:47And when the first wave of poor reviews hit, In the Heart of the Sea sank like a stone.
05:53The 2012 feature Snow White and the Huntsman made a tidy sum at the worldwide box office,
05:58raking in over $400 million.
06:00That was enough for a sequel to be greenlit, but it took four years to get the follow-up
06:04into cineplexes.
06:05The Huntsman Winter's War came out in April 2016, but it was missing a key ingredient
06:10of its predecessor, Snow White.
06:13Kristen Stewart was MIA from this installment, which immediately made Winter's War seem pointless
06:18to moviegoers.
06:19The lengthy gap between movies didn't help things, either.
06:22Any Huntsman hype from 2012 had long cooled by 2016.
06:25Still, Universal gave a big marketing push to Winter's War, which included emphasizing
06:30in trailers and TV spots that this was the story that came before Snow White.
06:35This attempt to explain why Winter's War was missing its predecessor's protagonist
06:39was misleading, however.
06:40Only part of Winter's War is a prequel.
06:43This somewhat dishonest strategy only works if a film has a huge opening, but it only
06:47ended up making $90 million on its first weekend.
06:50Reviews and word of mouth meant people found out the film was all hype and no substance
06:54pretty quickly.
06:55In the end, Winter's War limped to a $48 million domestic haul.
07:00Overseas receipts were more favorable, but on a $115 million budget, the movie ended
07:04up losing money for Universal.
07:07Initially, the box office figures to Paul Feig's 2016 reboot of Ghostbusters looked
07:12downright terrifying.
07:13Grossing $229 million worldwide on a $144 million budget doesn't seem too disastrous
07:20on paper, but Sony spent a fortune promoting the movie.
07:24As The Hollywood Reporter wrote at the time,
07:26"...the studio has said break-even would be $300 million.
07:30Now they are preparing for steep losses, I think $70 million plus."
07:34In the years following the movie's release, however, important context emerged surrounding
07:39that global haul.
07:40Notably, the next two installments in the Ghostbusters franchise each made just a little
07:44over $200 million worldwide, despite featuring the original Ghostbusters cast members.
07:49This means that 2021's Ghostbusters Afterlife and the underwhelming 2024 sequel, Ghostbusters
07:55Frozen Empire, both made less than the 2016 reboot.
07:59"...Busted, makes me feel numb."
08:01"...Inmates, get out."
08:03Considering those financial outcomes, it's clear that modern Ghostbusters movies have
08:07a firm ceiling in terms of box office haul.
08:09There is a fan base for these movies, it's just not especially massive in franchise terms.
08:14Execs apparently weren't aware of this when they were putting 2016's Ghostbusters together,
08:18though.
08:19Allocating such a big budget to the reboot meant that its chances of succeeding financially
08:23were slim to none.
08:24Competition from other big films, such as Finding Dory and Star Trek Beyond, certainly
08:29didn't help either.
08:30Sadly, it seems that a hysterical Chris Hemsworth playing against type wasn't enough to save
08:35Ghostbusters from the box office hurdles it faced.
08:38It's doubtful that Drew Goddard's 2018 feature Bad Times at the El Royale would have been
08:43a massive success in any timeline, as dark and original R-rated noirs tend to be hard
08:48sells for modern moviegoers.
08:49"...We might need to work on your sales pitch, son."
08:52Maybe a few more star names added to the mix would have helped.
08:55Back when the cast was being assembled, the likes of Tom Holland, Russell Crowe, and Beyoncé
09:00were reportedly approached for lead roles.
09:02They all passed, and considering the film's box office haul, they're probably happy that
09:06they did.
09:07Bad Times at the El Royale was a financial flop, grossing only $31.9 million worldwide
09:13on a $32 million budget.
09:15Perhaps execs expected fans of Hemsworth and Goddard's precious collaboration, The Cabin
09:19in the Woods, to come out in full force.
09:21The 2011 horror-comedy was a big hit with the critics, scoring an impressive 92 percent
09:26on Rotten Tomatoes.
09:28Bad Times at the El Royale was also reviewed favorably, but too few people went to see
09:32it in cinemas.
09:33Why was this the case?
09:34Well, a murky and focused marketing campaign didn't help, on top of that notable lack of
09:39A-listers.
09:40It certainly didn't help that the movie went up against the likes of Venom, A Star is Born,
09:44and a remake of Halloween.
09:47In terms of domestic box office, the Men in Black franchise peaked with its first installment.
09:51Even back when Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones were starring in those movies, Men in Black
09:552 and Men in Black 3 failed to come close to the domestic box office haul of the original.
10:00The sequels still pull in a pretty penny, sure, but it was clear the franchise was on
10:04a downward trajectory in North America.
10:07To try and reverse those fortunes, execs shifted the focus onto new characters, played by Chris
10:12Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson, for 2019's Men in Black International.
10:16The pair reunited after working together on the box office hit Thor Ragnarok, which proved
10:20that they were capable of re-energizing a tired franchise.
10:23Sadly, new leads weren't enough to get the Men in Black franchise back on track.
10:27Men in Black International was the first installment to make less than $100 million domestically.
10:32Sure, the worldwide total gross was just over $254 million, but even that was less than
10:38half of what Men in Black 3 had amassed globally.
10:41Sony Motion Picture Group chairman Tom Rothman told Business Insider that the film ultimately
10:45bombed at the box office because the script lacked direction.
10:48He said,
10:49I think the truth of the matter is the audience really liked that film, and the cast was wonderful.
10:54Tessa and Chris were great and did a terrific job.
10:57But if we made any mistake, I think it probably was that there was not a strong enough idea
11:01in the story.
11:02The very same things that made Furiosa, a Mad Max saga, an artistic triumph also limited
11:10its box office potential.
11:12The sad truth is that a movie's greatest qualities don't always line up with what movie-going
11:16audiences actually want.
11:182015's Mad Max Fury Road ticked all the right boxes, but you can't say the same about its
11:23prequel.
11:24While the aesthetics match up, Furiosa is radically different to Fury Road in several
11:28ways, not least the fact that it's capped by an intimate finale that emphasizes a lengthy
11:33dialogue exchange instead of a pulse-racing set piece.
11:36Those qualities, plus other factors, including Hemsworth's performance, led to glowing reviews
11:40for Furiosa.
11:41But these same qualities alienated some of moviegoers, who just wanted a rip-roaring
11:46good time.
11:47As a result, the movie bombed at the box office, posting the worst Memorial Day opening in
11:5130 years and finally bringing in just shy of $173 million worldwide.