While tentpoles like Top Gun: Maverick revived summer moviegoing, adult-skewing entertainment is struggling. Amsterdam, starring Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Rami Malek, Robert De Niro, Anya Taylor-Joy, Taylor Swift, and Michael Shannon, was expected to launch at $12 million-$15 million this weekend.
Not so: With a $6.5M debut at 3,005 theatres, helped by Imax and PLF ticket sales, it opened to $10M globally. Russell was aiming to duplicate the success of his 10-time Oscar-nominated American Hustle, which grossed $251.1M worldwide off a $40M production cost.
Amsterdam, completely financed by New Regency under its arrangement with Disney/20th Century Studios, was reported $80M, the film’s death nail. What should have been an award-season play for its inventiveness received 34% on Rotten Tomatoes? So much for critics praising big-screen originality.
This 1930s comedy was pricey even by pre-pandemic standards. Why? Based on a predicted worldwide gross of $35M and an anticipated $70M global P&A expense, which is the absolute minimum for a huge photo like this, Amsterdam after all home ancillaries will lose roughly $100M.
How did Amsterdam’s cost exceed its greenlight figure? We want more original movies like this on the large screen, not online. A streamer could pull this project, but it wouldn’t receive a global launch. Amsterdam’s opening weekend is similar to a Wes Anderson film’s broad opening.
The Grand Budapest Hotel’s fourth weekend at 977 theatres in March 2014 grossed $8.5M. The French Dispatch made $2.6M on its second weekend in 788 theatres.
What’re three times that theatre count? $7M. Amsterdam did well financially for a star-studded eccentric historical comedy. It cost more than Anderson’s greatest disaster, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, which earned less than $35M worldwide.
Amsterdam’s high cost was because of its move from Boston to Los Angeles and the pandemic in March 2020. The commencement date was moved to January 2021. Due to Covid, no one wanted to go to Boston, thus L.A. was better. The movie’s period setting and move from Boston to L.A. increased production costs from $50M to $80M. $2.5M California tax credit.
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During the epidemic, production prices skyrocketed by tens of millions. Once Amsterdam was up and running, there were no Covid shutdowns or positive tests despite 19,000 daily cases, and the 49-day shoot went well.
Despite the celebrity power, Amsterdam wasn’t too pricey, I’m informed. Some actors worked for scale to work with Russell. Bale and Russell planned this movie over five years of diner dinners. Bale reportedly made less than his usual $5M. Oscar-winner Malek made six figures. Above-the-line expenditures accounted for 20% of the budget. As the pool is in the red, no one gets bonuses.
Regency’s commitment to Amsterdam is commendable. The production finance studio has a history of bankrolling risky auteur projects, from 1997’s film noir L.A. Confidential to Leonardo DiCaprio’s gritty frontier Western The Revenant — both Best Picture Oscar nominees — to this year’s $70M-grossing Robert Eggers Viking epic The Northman, which I hear the Arnon Milchan-owned company won’t lose its shirt on. Regency’s $4M horror film Barbarian has made $38M worldwide.
Amsterdam wasn’t a distribution blunder, despite Disney’s multimillion-dollar cost. Given the vacancies, the business relocated the picture from the first weekend of November, before Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, to an early-October weekend where Amsterdam could breathe — moreover, the feature had access to Imax screens for all the Russell cinephiles.
Amsterdam had the highest average ticket price of the top three movies this weekend, at $12.62, because of its premium upcharge. There was an Imax preview day and celebs promoted it, but it was determined the movie wouldn’t travel to the Toronto Film Festival, which was a good thing because negative word would have spread sooner and impacted ticket sales.
Due to dismal reviews and audience diagnostics (3 stars and 72% on Comscore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak), Disney couldn’t market Amsterdam like an Anderson film. Disney spent more than competitors on U.S. TV advertising at $15.2M vs Sony with under $9M on Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile; Warners around $10M to date on Dwayne Johnson’s October 21 release Black Adam; and Universal’s $7.1M on Halloween Ends, which debuts this Friday. Regency paid for Disney’s marketing expenditures.
Amsterdam’s social universe size of 64M across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok is low for a drama/comedy, according to RelishMix. RelishMix stated fans were excited about the call sheet and David O. Russell’s filmography.
“Convo wondered how singer Taylor Swift would stand up on the big screen, thumbs-up for Margot Robbie’s dark hair, excitement for Robert Di Niro, Michael Shannon return, #wow for John David Washington, joy for Anya Taylor-Joy, glass-eye Batman Christian Bale’s transformation….skeptics sensed this could all be too good to be true and chewed through reviews and other news.”
Off a final worldwide $35M take for Amsterdam, that would trigger $15M in global theatrical rentals, net home ancillary revenues across home entertainment, a Hulu/HBO Max streaming run, free TV, and international TV of $52M. If Disney’s overseas TV production deals approve.
If Amsterdam doesn’t, the loss might be above $100M, with overseas TV deals in the teens. Amsterdam lost $97M after $67M in sales and $164M in theatre and home entertainment expenditures.
Does Amsterdam’s failure indicate upmarket adult films are doomed? As long as adults are slow to return to theatres, this question will continue. New Line made the high-brow, risky Olivia Wilde movie Don’t Worry Darling for $35M, and it’s just under $70M globally.
Focus Features and other distributors aren’t abandoning upmarket director-driven films. It released Tár, Todd Field’s first film in 16 years, and purchased Anderson’s Asteroid City for the Uni classic label. Whatever happens, risky auteur films will be created.
A critically criticized highbrow release built for streaming would disappear faster in Amsterdam.