Editorial: Hollywood and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Year

With the summer movie slate slowly beginning to finish with Suicide Squad (although the likes of Pete's Dragon, Ben-Hur and Sausage Party are on the way, they aren't expected to make a big impact), it's at this time that one can look back over what's graced the big screen since summer headliner Captain America: Civil War graced the screens... and suffice to say, it's been a pretty mixed bag critically and financially. In a year in which the reviews have been more important than ever - almost every superhero effort has been slammed in some way for its critical responses - and the audience has made or broken any studio's dreams for a brand new franchise, the current receipts for their efforts suggest that they're mostly in vain for even trying. Certainly, some have obviously succeeded, and in some cases managed to prove naysayers wrong and make a mighty profit, but the majority have suffered.

Let's start off with perhaps the easiest discussion point - the ever-expansive superhero movie. Whilst Doctor Strange is still many months away, the year has already had the likes of 20th Century Fox (Deadpool and X-Men: Apocalypse), Warner Brothers (Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad) and Marvel Studios (Captain America: Civil War), which is doing much to the general public's perceived "fatigue" for the genre - not helped by the factor that only Civil War and Deadpool have been christened as "great" by the majority; a 40% success rate - and has lead to plenty of online discussions and conspiracy theories. I've already touched upon the whole deal with the DC fan crowd who believe in bribed critics, but the wider audience was mostly in agreement over BvS; whilst the jury is still out on Suicide Squad being any good, the film is already doing big business - which is the big thing about the genre. All of these films are likely to end up in the top ten of the year worldwide by the time they all finish their runs no matter how people see them. But despite that, the studios that are flailing behind are making changes that are supposedly for the better: Deadpool was such a surprise hit for Fox that they're taking those ideas for their future X-Men spin-off titles; Warner Bros. was in such shock over BvS's response that they made changes to how they run the DC brand and re-edited their next film, which in turn has lead to its own problems.

In an equally positive response comes the animated movie, as most of the box office records domestically have been because of the excitement for the likes of Finding Dory and The Secret Life of Pets. Whilst at this stage it's natural to see Pixar as this big deal brand - only The Good Dinosaur is considered a flop out of their filmography - no one expected Dory to gross more domestically than Civil War, whilst it's likely going to surpass BvS and maybe The Jungle Book (another surprise hit). The Secret Life of Pets, on the other hand, not only managed to claw its way to a $100m+ opening weekend in America (the biggest for an original film, beating last year's Inside Out), but is sitting at $500m and may likely stick in the top ten worldwide once the year is out. Even outside of those two, though, Kung Fu Panda 3 managed to show that Dreamworks Animation does still have a chance in the field. The Angry Birds Movie did smaller but impressive business, thus proving that video game movies can be successful. Zootropolis grossed $1bn worldwide. Even Ice Age: Collision Course is doing well worldwide, as is the norm for that particular franchise. And with Kubo and the Two Strings, Sausage Party, Storks, and Moana still set for release, most will likely be remarked on achieving something well against the countless films this year that can barely gross $100m domestically.

Which brings us to the franchise crowd; the likes of nostalgic properties or just new films based on those that made enough money. Despite the big buzz, plenty of sequels and reboots have been squandered in their attempts of earning big bucks. Independence Day: Resurgence? Barely made its budget back. Now You See Me 2? Benefiting mostly with Asian audiences. Alice Through the Looking Glass? Couldn't even make $100m domestically. Ghostbusters, despite all the free publicity created by angry fans, is facing a $70m write-off. Hell, the most recent entry to the ever-terrible Divergent franchise grossed so little that the big finale has been transformed into either a TV movie and series. Even the better-reviewed entries, such as Star Trek Beyond and 10 Cloverfield Lane, are/have been falling behind expectations. and both of them had interesting marketing campaigns. One would assume that this would be a sign that people are tired of sequels and reboots, and the reported predictions for Ben-Hur would be a key future example of that, except that's not truly the case.

Whilst they are based on existing properties, and in some cases have already had the movie treatment, many new films have failed to make much of an impact. Warcraft was so poorly received that the only reason it's earned $430m worldwide is because of China (America's impact to its gross? 11%). The Legend of Tarzan may look fine on the outset, but it still hasn't made its budget back. The BFG is doing great in the UK now, but it's barely grossed $100m worldwide. And then you have truly original work such as The Nice Guys and Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping - the latter hasn't even grossed $10m stateside. Whilst something cheaper like Me Before You and Central Intelligence has managed to cement a bigger profit.

Of course, the year isn't out. The summer isn't yet over, and we still have new Marvel, Star Wars, and Harry Potter entries on the way that'll likely bring faith back in the industry, but it's still intriguing to look back at the year thus far and finding so little success and few things pointing towards a proper answer as to why that is. Perhaps if films were made on a smaller budget like Deadpool or were given the proper respect like Finding Dory, than perhaps we'd be hearing a lot more about success tales than worrisome studio executives come every Monday morning.