To be clear, Thunderbolts hasn’t sunk to the depths of “The Marvels,” which remains the MCU’s lowest-grossing film at just $205M worldwide. But it’s still the second-worst performer in franchise history.
worldwide total of $355M. While these numbers might seem respectable at a glance, multiple reports hinted that the film’s break-even point was in the $500M range
There’s no way it actually cost $500m to make. If there’s a failure at all here, it’s expensive marketing. But when it comes to profit/loss for individual movies, Hollywood Accounting makes it all meaningless at that level.
“Did it entertain me for ~2 hours?” is the only question anybody outside a boardroom should be concerned with. All the rest is gossip and schadenfreude.
You’re right, there isn’t. The real, reported budget is $180 million.
The reason it needs to make $500 million to break even is because the studio doesn’t get the full box office gross - 50% of it goes to the theaters (because they don’t show movies for free).
So it needs to make double the budget, plus an additional hundred million or so, to cover the marketing costs, putting the real breakeven at around $450 million.
It seems to be within the “normal” realm of blockbuster movies. I don’t remember who said it exactly, but advertising is usually ~2-3x the budget of a movie. The reported budget of thunderbolts is 180 mil. That leaves at least 300m for advertising.
I think the biggest issue is that Marvel gave fans a perfect jumping-off point with Endgame…and then hit a slump, giving audiences very little reason to jump back on.
Problem is that people who saw the last couple of movies can’t be bothered to show up for Marcel movies anymore. Plus it has strong competition from other movies so casual stroll-ins into movie theatres might choose to watch something else
I started skipping a couple of marvel movies after endgame and now the trains kind of left me behind. Interconnected movies are awesome until you fall behind. Then you’ve got a bunch of movies you have to watch first. Or at least that’s what my brain feels like I have to do (even if it’s not true).
And not just prior movies, hours and hours of TV series content. The movies (marvels, brave new world specifically) starting to feel more like climatic crossover events of the shows, less like their own stories.
This behavior tracks closely with the comic books medium unfortunately, but I hoped they’d do better to keep the films insulated from “homework”.
Nope. I skipped the last few movies and absolutely saw this in a theater, and am prepared to see further MCU movies in theaters if and when I think they warrant it.
The MCU isn’t helping itself with their weird slowdown of how many movies they release per year. They want to pretend we have superhero movie fatigue. We do not. We have mediocre movie fatigue.
I’d see two movies a month in the theater if they were all at least as good as Thunderbolts.
My next theater movie is likely going to be Superman.
I’m up in the air about F4. Historically I don’t care about them or Galactus, but I’m willing to have my mind changed. We’ll see.
I’ve lost interest in seeing Marvel movies in theaters. Or really at all. I’ve heard this one was good, but all that made me think was “oh maybe we’ll watch that next year at some point.”
Honestly shocked? Everyone I know has seen it and has a good opinion of it. Just assumed it was doing well I guess
There’s no way it actually cost $500m to make. If there’s a failure at all here, it’s expensive marketing. But when it comes to profit/loss for individual movies, Hollywood Accounting makes it all meaningless at that level.
“Did it entertain me for ~2 hours?” is the only question anybody outside a boardroom should be concerned with. All the rest is gossip and schadenfreude.
You’re right, there isn’t. The real, reported budget is $180 million.
The reason it needs to make $500 million to break even is because the studio doesn’t get the full box office gross - 50% of it goes to the theaters (because they don’t show movies for free).
So it needs to make double the budget, plus an additional hundred million or so, to cover the marketing costs, putting the real breakeven at around $450 million.
They need to pay the theatre executives.
It seems to be within the “normal” realm of blockbuster movies. I don’t remember who said it exactly, but advertising is usually ~2-3x the budget of a movie. The reported budget of thunderbolts is 180 mil. That leaves at least 300m for advertising.
The film was heavily marketed as well, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s on the higher end.
Are Marvel relying on people going to see it multiple times? Because those days are over.
I think the biggest issue is that Marvel gave fans a perfect jumping-off point with Endgame…and then hit a slump, giving audiences very little reason to jump back on.
We could write a book about all the mistakes Marvel made after the Infinity Saga.
Problem is that people who saw the last couple of movies can’t be bothered to show up for Marcel movies anymore. Plus it has strong competition from other movies so casual stroll-ins into movie theatres might choose to watch something else
I started skipping a couple of marvel movies after endgame and now the trains kind of left me behind. Interconnected movies are awesome until you fall behind. Then you’ve got a bunch of movies you have to watch first. Or at least that’s what my brain feels like I have to do (even if it’s not true).
And not just prior movies, hours and hours of TV series content. The movies (marvels, brave new world specifically) starting to feel more like climatic crossover events of the shows, less like their own stories.
This behavior tracks closely with the comic books medium unfortunately, but I hoped they’d do better to keep the films insulated from “homework”.
That’s the problem with Phase 5, very few of the films were interconnected.
The next big thing is the Multiverse stuff, the films that touched on that you can pretty much count on one hand.
Antman and Wasp Quantumania
Multiverse of Madness
No Way Home
Deadpool + Wolverine
That’s it. The other 10 films in Phase 5 are individually unrelated. I loved Guardians 3, it has fuck all to do with the multiverse.
“Are there going to be any multiverse movies in this multiverse saga?” -Dr. Ian Malcolm
There was also Loki, but yeah they should have with Secret Invasion as saga instead of a crappy TV show.
Nope. I skipped the last few movies and absolutely saw this in a theater, and am prepared to see further MCU movies in theaters if and when I think they warrant it.
The MCU isn’t helping itself with their weird slowdown of how many movies they release per year. They want to pretend we have superhero movie fatigue. We do not. We have mediocre movie fatigue.
I’d see two movies a month in the theater if they were all at least as good as Thunderbolts.
My next theater movie is likely going to be Superman.
I’m up in the air about F4. Historically I don’t care about them or Galactus, but I’m willing to have my mind changed. We’ll see.
I’ve lost interest in seeing Marvel movies in theaters. Or really at all. I’ve heard this one was good, but all that made me think was “oh maybe we’ll watch that next year at some point.”