Winner: Fox Overall
Aside from “Deadpool,” Fox had few other runaway hits. The “Kung Fu Panda” series used to be a guaranteed money maker, and while version three performed well ($521.2M), its downward trends saw the installment as the lowest-grossing film of the series to the tune of more than $100 million. But another would-be franchise had an auspicious beginning, as “Trolls” totaled $329M worldwide — a healthy start for a new animated franchise, but relatively low compared to “Zootopia,” but that was a major outlier. But in the aggregate, they won. Overall: Fox earned $3.59 billion worldwide this year, the second-highest-overall earnings for a major studio behind Disney.
Winner: Warner Bros.
OK, yes, from a press and media narrative perspective, Warner Bros. had a tough year. The DC Extended Universe released two titles that were supposed to launch their response to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the titles performed very well, but both were extremely expensive and critically maligned. ‘Batman v Superman,’ which didn’t meet its expected benchmark at all (it reportedly had to make $800 million just to break even), was shamed by “Deadpool” domestically, and a film with the holy trinity of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman should’ve easily hit upwards of $1 billion. At $873.3M worldwide, ‘BVS’ (which cost north of $300 million minus marketing; don’t let anyone or “official” numbers tell you otherwise) fell far short from that mark and started out the series with a black eye. “Suicide Squad” was also critically torn apart (both films landed on many worst-of year end lists, including our own), but as a relatively unknown franchise starter, it eventually made “Deadpool” money: $745.6 million (though it cost three times as much). So critically and from an industry view, the DCEU stumbled out of the gate.
Elsewhere in the Ben Affleck WB universe, it looks like an expensive flop is on the way. His gangster period piece “Live By Night” has yet to open in wide release (two weeks from now), but so far it’s collected dismal money in limited release ($124K). Though on the flip, the actor’s “The Accountant” did pretty solid business, earning $149M worldwide on a modest budget of $44M) Lastly, let’s not forget Will Smith’s “Collateral Beauty,” which opened to a dismal $7 million its first weekend (Smith’s lowest-grossing opening ever). Another counterpoint: Clint Eastwood‘s “Sully,” a humanist drama with enough spectacle to earn $234.8M worldwide.
None of this looks or sounds good for Warner Bros., but overall financially, 2016 was another story for the studio. WB had three films in the worldwide top 10 (including the aforementioned ‘BVS’ and “Suicide Squad”) and those titles (including the impressive “Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them”) earned a total of $2.36 billion alone. Overall: WB scored $3.44 billion worldwide, a very sizable chunk of the overall 2016 box office.
Winner: “The Secret Life Of Pets”
The fifth-highest-grossing film of the year worldwide, “The Secret Life Of Pets” returned $875.4 million around the planet. A franchise is born and Universal, who didn’t have any other major titles in the top ten, will lean into this title hard in the future.
Mixed Winner/Loser: Universal Overall
With no “Fast And Furious” franchise, nor a “Minions” or “Despicable Me” title, Universal Studios couldn’t come close to matching last year’s record $6.89 billion worldwide total. The studio could only muster one title in the worldwide top ten (the aforementioned ‘Pets’). So Uni earned $1,213 billion domestically this year. But in 2015 they accrued $2.429 billion, which is basically double the 2016 figure.
It would be easy to call “Jason Bourne” a Universal loser — the actioner faced a sluggish start and is only the third-highest-grossing film in the franchise at home, but ‘Bourne’ had legs internationally and spawned $415.2 million worldwide (which lands it as the second-highest-grossing film in the franchise’s history around the globe). You can forget their ‘Snow White’ franchise though. “The Huntsman: Winter’s War” was a huge bomb despite the addition of Jessica Chastain and Emily Blunt, tumbling 69% from the first film at home. Guess audiences really want Snow White and Kristen Stewart, not a Huntsman solo tale.
There’s not a really good Universal story for 2016. They had relative successes like “Ride Along 2” ($90 million domestically) and “The Purge: Election Year” (one of the more profitable films of the year with a $10 million budget and a $79 million total), but also flops like the Judd Apatow-produced “Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping,” which made a $9.4 million pittance in its entire theatrical run (which lasted all of three weekends when the studio realized they had a huge turkey on their hands and cut their losses). Overall: Universal generated $3.26 billion worldwide — 50% less than they earned last year.
Mixed Loser: “Warcraft”
The costly “Warcraft” (upwards of $160 million without marketing), built on the uber-popular video-game series, was a certifiable flop at home ($47 million). Video-game movies in general couldn’t connect (see “Assassin’s Creed”). But overseas, and particularly in China, “Warcraft” was a tremendous smash ($433.5 million worldwide and the third highest grossing film in the country). Legendary Pictures, the producers of this one, are no dummies and, seeing the success of their titles in China, are shifting their pictures towards that increasingly important market (see “The Great Wall” with Matt Damon, which has only been released in China, but has netted $119.5 million so far). Expect Legendary to only double down on this Chinese play.
Loser: Sony and “Ghostbusters”
If any studio took it in the teeth this year, it was Sony Pictures. Their ladies-starring “Ghostbusters” reboot was supposed to kick off a new franchise and Ghostbusters cinematic universe, but the film arrived to mixed reviews and stalled at both domestic and worldwide box offices. Costing $144 million (not counting marketing), the film could only gross $229 worldwide (internationally, the Paul Feig-directed movie barely cracked $100 million, and failing to open in China hurt the picture badly). “Ghostbusters” ended up as a huge write-down for Sony financially, the sequel was presumably canceled and the Ghost Corps. Company basically has to go back to the drawing board (they swear more films are coming, but believe it when you see it). The unfortunate narrative here: After the overwhelmingly toxic and sexist backlash against the film from the Trump voters of the world that couldn’t imagine a world with female Ghostbusters, any new iteration is likely going to be male-focused.
“Inferno” tanked at home, too, making less than half its $75M production budget. The brand must be considered DOA now: It’s the lowest-grossing film in the franchise and worldwide, and it’s made a stunning -71% less than “The DaVinci Code,” the first film in the series. Interestingly, it earned $200M worldwide and the U.S. only made up for 15% of its total— nearly “Warcraft” levels of international and domestic split. Another big miss was TriStar‘s “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk” which was shot on cumbersome and expensive 3D/4k cameras (at 120fps) and couldn’t even reach $2 million at home (small silver lining: $30M ww). However, don’t count out “Passengers” yet. It opened to a dismal $15 million, but has grossed $123 million after 1.9 weeks in theaters, so there’s still life in the tank. Overall: So-so and the second lowest of all studios ($2.084 billion).
Sony Pictures Classics fared relatively better given their size ($20 million domestically overall), but the indie studio, which usually can muscle its way into the foreign and documentary Oscar categories, has only one contender this year with “Toni Erdmann.”