Shazam Box Office Thread $

[Dr.]

Black Adam 2 Not Moving Forward Soon, Dwayne Johnson Says – The Hollywood Reporter

So it turns out the budget for this was 260M. This movie flat out flopped. They only recouped around 195M from theaters which still leaves 65M + marketing (let's say 100-150M). This movie ended up losing around 165 to 200+ million dollars.

I’m not sure why Deadline.com was so quick to argue for BA’s (modest) profitability. But according to their number crunchers, the movie’s total cost (including marketing) was ~$338M. And its total revenue (including streaming, DVD, merchandizing, etc.) will end up as ~$390M. Hence, a $52M net profit. However, this is based on a production budget of $195M. If the actual figure is $260M, then +$52M becomes <$13M>. Even if that’s an underestimate, the true loss is probably not quite as bad as <$165M>.

 

[Comicbookguy339]

I’m not sure why Deadline.com was so quick to argue for BA’s (modest) profitability. But according to their number crunchers, the movie’s total cost (including marketing) was ~$338M. And its total revenue (including streaming, DVD, merchandizing, etc.) will end up as ~$390M. Hence, a $52M net profit. However, this is based on a production budget of $195M. If the actual figure is $260M, then +$52M becomes <$13M>. Even if that’s an underestimate, the true loss is probably not quite as bad as <$165M>.

If you add in home video and other ancillaries then you're right, of course.

 

[Pfeiffer-Pfan]

Oh the books weren't cooked. They were BOILED within an inch of their life.

Zaslav must be really ticked off. They should have taken a tax write off on this and finished Batgirl instead.

 

[Chesterfield]

I’m not sure why Deadline.com was so quick to argue for BA’s (modest) profitability. But according to their number crunchers, the movie’s total cost (including marketing) was ~$338M. And its total revenue (including streaming, DVD, merchandizing, etc.) will end up as ~$390M. Hence, a $52M net profit. However, this is based on a production budget of $195M. If the actual figure is $260M, then +$52M becomes <$13M>. Even if that’s an underestimate, the true loss is probably not quite as bad as <$165M>.

But the basic rule of working out a movie's theatrical break even is:

Double the production budget + marketing budget.

If the production budget is $260M and the marketing budget is $100M, we're looking at a total budgeted cost of $620M which the film would need to make just to break even. As the film only made $391M, that means the film lost $229M

 

[TheVileOne]

I think The Rock just needs to accept that it's OK to lose sometimes and you can't always hit a homerun every time out.

When you look at the breadth and width of his career, what The Rock has done is incredible.

Audiences just didn't massively connect with his take on Black Adam. It doesn't mean he's a bad person or anything. That's just how the business is sometimes. You can't always predict and force what's going to be the next big thing or what people will respond to.

A big part of The Rock's image is how active he is on social media. So when you're in movie promotion mode you can't really show any sign of weakness, so I think that's part of why he comes off as so defensive. I imagine that can be a bit tiring at times as well.

 

[Mani-Man]

I can see him getting defensive when you consider that he worked for 15 years to make this Movie happening.
He threw in a lot of chips into this project and had big plans.
This movie in the end failing this hard, of course it must hurt.

No matter how positive etc you are, 15 years of work fizzling out...must hurt.

 

[Dr.]

But the basic rule of working out a movie's theatrical break even is:

Double the production budget + marketing budget.

If the production budget is $260M and the marketing budget is $100M, we're looking at a total budgeted cost of $620M which the film would need to make just to break even. As the film only made $391M, that means the film lost $229M

Without access to a studio’s detailed P&L statement, we can only read the tea leaves — make rough calculations and use the figures that are provided by (presumably) reliable entertainment journalists. For my own estimations, I usually figure that ancillary expenses (like marketing, etc.) more-or-less cancel out ancillary revenues (like streaming, DVD, etc.). Obviously, that’s not always the case. But I think it’s a serviceable assumption. And for us amateurs, that simplifies the profit/loss calculation to a comparison of (approx. 50%) gross box office to production costs. So in BA’s case, that means $195M revenue (50% of $391M) vs a $195M budget. I.e., breakeven according to my tea leaves (though, I think that’s a best-case scenario).

Deadline, however, came up with a different result. According to their industry gurus, ancillary revenues were approx. $60M more than ancillary costs. And that’s how they arrived at their $52M profit figure. (But, again, this was based on a $195M production cost. If the actual figure is $260M, then the alleged profit evaporates.)

I could be persuaded that BA’s deficit will end up in Justice League territory (reportedly <$60M>). Or — at a big stretch — in Amsterdam territory (a brutal <$97M>). But given the numbers we have, I’m very skeptical that losses could be as high as $150-230M.